The Risk Taker

by Cathryn Fox

  “It’s nice to see you again too, Jonah.” I glance down. “Do you guys all remember, Chase?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Jonah says. “He’s getting big.”

  Cole drops to one knee, meeting Chase on eye level. “I hear you like to go swimming.”

  Chase jumps up and down. “I do. I do. I do. Mommy, I want to go swimming.”

  “Well if it’s okay with your mom, while she’s getting unpacked, maybe I can take you down to the water. Brandon, Daisy, and Scotty are all playing and swimming.”

  “Mommy, can I? Can I?” Chase asks.

  I feel a measure of unease. Cole is a good father and good man, but Chase doesn’t know him and since he lost his dad, I’ve been a little overprotective.

  Jamie casts me a quick glance. He angles his head, assesses me, and says, “I know I could use a swim.”

  I smile at him. “Thanks Jamie,” I say on purpose, and every muscle in his body stiffens. I nibble my bottom lip and he goes perfectly still for a moment, and I get the sense he’s figured out that I’m messing with him.

  “Yeah, okay,” he says through gritted teeth and scrubs his face. “Where are the water wings?”

  “I’ll get them.” I open the back of the SUV and hand over sunscreen and water wings.

  “Thanks, Fallon,” he says, his eyes latched on my mouth as I lick my parched lips.

  “Swim. Swim. Swim,” Chase screams, and Jamie scoops him up.

  “The door is open. Just head on in,” Cole says.

  “I will,” I say and pull my phone from my back pocket. I take a picture of the ocean, and post it on Instagram. I haven’t used my account in a long time, but being here has inspired me to get back amongst the living.

  The guys turn to go, and I nearly burst out laughing when I hear Jamie ask, “Have you guys ever heard of the alligator song?”

  Moans and groans from the guys reach my ears and I laugh some more as I pull groceries, suitcases and beach bags from the SUV and start carrying them into the house. Laughter from the kids playing follows me and fills me with joy. For a while there I never thought I’d laugh again, and I must say, I think this trip is just what Chase needs.

  I walk through the place, take in the beach decor, furnishings and enjoy the warm breeze blowing in through the open windows. I go upstairs and check out the bedrooms and bathrooms—yes there are more than one bathroom in this beachside cottage, aka mansion—and walk into the master suite which looks out over the water. I pull the curtain back and smile when I see Jamie and Chase in the distance. Chase is jumping up and down, having a hard time getting into the water. It’s not pool temperature like he’s used to.

  “Hello,” someone calls out from downstairs.

  “I’m up here,” I say. “Be right down.”

  I make my way back downstairs to find Katee and Nina, along with two other women I’ve never met. Dressed in a bathing suit with a knitted cover up thrown over it, Katee pulls me in for a hug. Then Nina, who is also dressed in her suit, takes a turn.

  “This is Sam, Zander’s wife,” Katee says, introducing me to the other women. “And this is Quinn. Zander’s sister and Jonah’s wife.”

  Quinn holds up a bottle of wine. “And this is Pinot Noir,” she says, and we all laugh.

  “Let’s go find some glasses,” I say and lead them into the kitchen.

  “I know where they are.” Nina opens the cupboard to pull out the stemware, as Katee pulls a cork screw from the drawer.

  “You guys know your way around this place,” I say.

  “We should. We decorated it for Rider,” Katee says.

  Nina grins. “That’s right. If it wasn’t for us, you’d be sitting on a lawn chair.”

  “I did note the place has a woman’s soft touch. It was so nice of Rider to lend it to us.”

  “He’s off with his latest, on vacation in Belize,” Nina says and rolls her eyes.

  “You don’t like her?” I ask, confused.

  “We don’t know her,” Nina explains. “He doesn’t keep a woman around long enough.”

  “We need to get the Wing Man married,” Katee says with a sad shake of her head.

  “I always liked him,” I say.

  Katee smiles at me. “So, you and Jamie,” she says, almost like we’re an item. I’m about to correct her but she adds, “I’m so glad you could make it. We haven’t been able to get Jamie out here.” In a softer voice she says, “The guys worry about him. We do too.”

  I give her a warm smile. I love how they all take care of each other, and this last year, Jamie really needed his friends. “Coming here was actually his idea,” I say and accept the glass of wine from Quinn. As I look at her I can see the resemblance to her brother Zander. “I wasn’t sure I could make it at first. We had a lot to do to get my place on the market.”

  “Jamie’s been helping with things?” Katee asks, and toys with her wine cup.

  “I’d be lost without him,” I say, and Nina gives me a smile. “And he’s a good role model for Chase.”

  “I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time,” Nina says. “You’re clearly good for him.” Her gaze skims over me and she nods. “You look good, too, Fallon.”

  “Thanks,” I say, trying not to think about the way Jamie worshipped my body, gave me back a measure of my confidence.

  “I’d say Jamie’s been good for you too,” Katee says and for some unknown reason my cheeks heat. Okay, well, maybe the reason really isn’t that unknown. Maybe it’s because I can’t stop thinking about our beautiful night together, and how much I want it to happen again. The truth is, we’re both single consenting adults and if we want to take pleasure in each other’s bodies, and keep our emotions out of it, why not?

  “Oh, it’s like that is it?” Katee says laughing. “Well done, Fallon. Jamie is quite the catch, and you two look good together. You always were close.”

  “No, no, no,” I say and take a drink of wine to cover my embarrassment. “We’re just…” What am I supposed to say, oh we’ve only had sex once but I plan on changing that tonight?

  “Girlfriend, your secret is in the vault,” Nina says and lifts her glass in salute and everyone takes a drink, everyone except Katee. “Unless you want to give me fodder for my next hot hockey romance novel.”

  “Hell no,” I say quickly, and everyone laughs.

  “It was worth a shot,” she says with a shrug. “Okay, let’s all go join the guys for a swim.”

  I set my glass down, loving how accepting these women are, and how they’re not jumping to judge me for sleeping with Jamie. “I need to get changed.”

  “We’ll wait,” Quinn says.

  I hurry upstairs, dig into my bag for my suit and tug it on. I glance at my curves in the mirror and remember how much Jamie loved seeing me in this suit. I grab a towel, but before I head back downstairs, my cell phone rings.

  I grab it and check the caller ID, but it says private number and it takes me back to the day I got the call in my kitchen, when no one was on the other end. I slide my finger across the screen.

  “Hello.”

  A long pause and then, “Fallon?”

  My heart jumps into my throat. “Sara. Ohmigod is that you?” I ask and sink down onto the soft mattress.

  “I…uh, heard you were back in Seattle,” she says, sounding a bit breathless.

  “I am. Where are you?” I ask.

  “How is Jamie?” she asks instead of answering me.

  “He’s…about as good as can be expected,” I say. Truthfully, he’s doing a lot better than the first night I came home. As my mind reels, everything inside me urges me to ask her about her relationship with Ethan, but I can’t formulate the words as my heart crashes against my too tight chest.

  “Are you with him?” she asks.

  Had she seen my Instagram post?

  “I…well, we’re at Rider’s cottage on the ocean.”

  A long pause and then, “I loved him, you know.” I’m about to ask who she loved, Ethan or Jamie,
when a crash comes from downstairs. I jump from the bed, phone still in hand. But the line is now dead.

  “Sara?” I stare at the phone as laughter reaches my ears. I take a couple deep breaths and drop my phone onto the bedding, my heart and mind still racing. Why would Sara reach out to me now? Is she upset that I’m here with Jamie? I mean, she’s the one who left him, and who exactly did she mean when she said she loved him? With those thoughts bouncing around inside my rattled brain, I head back downstairs and find Katee cleaning up a broken wine glass.

  “Nina’s a lightweight,” she says. “She’s cut off.”

  Nina shakes her head. “It was an accident.” But then her eyes narrow. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Oh, I’m fine,” I say quickly. “I just didn’t know what happened.”

  That explanation seems to satisfy her as she hands Katee the dustpan. Once the mess is cleaned up, we all go outside and make our way down the beach. As I walk toward Jamie, his gaze falls over me, taking me in from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes. The women I’m with are slim and beautiful, and I can’t help but feel a little thrill when Jamie only seems to have his eyes on me. My heart does a little flip and I quickly remind myself to keep this about sex. I walk up to him, and his gaze narrows as it moves over my face.

  “You okay?” he asks, and I stare at him for a second. I have no idea whether to tell him Sara called or not. Will he be happy that I heard from her, or will it bring back too many memories and ruin this vacation for him. “Fallon?”

  “Fine,” I say. “I just had a glass of wine with the girls and with this heat, I think it went to my head.”

  “This will sober you up,” he says and picks me up. “And cool you down.”

  “Put me down,” I yell, and Chase and the kids start laughing.

  “Nope.”

  I pound on his chest, but can’t seem to stop laughing. “Jamie, I mean it.”

  Cole grabs Nina and she starts yelping. “Don’t even think about it, Cole,” Nina yells, but she’s laughing too. Soon enough all the guys have their wives in their arms and the kids are jumping up and down and yelling and laughing. It warms my soul, and for the first time in a long time, has me believing I can once again find my normal.

  I just want it with Jamie.

  Oh boy!

  Jamie carries me out into the cold water. When the waves reach his stomach, he goes to his knees, taking me down with him. “It’s freezing,” I scream and try to climb onto his shoulders. “You’re going to pay for this.”

  “You looked like you needed to cool off.” His grin is playful. “You should be thanking me, don’t you think,” he says, with an arch of his brow. Oh yeah, he’s totally on to me, and from the look on his face, I’m guessing he isn’t opposed to the idea of sleeping together again. I’m not sure what changed his mind—maybe it was the incredible tension between us this last week—I only know I’m glad he’s on board. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me right now?” he grumbles low into my ear.

  “Meaning?”

  “This bathing suit. Fuck, Fallon. I needed to get in the water to cover my hard-on before everyone sees it.”

  “So that’s what this was all about?” I say and slide my hand down, beneath the water where no one can see, to cup his erection.

  “Mommy,” Chase says, and I push off Jamie. He ducks under and swims out as I wade back in and plunk myself down on the sand next to my son. The women all swim back in as the guys follow Jamie out.

  Breathing hard, Nina drops down next to me and her son Brandon runs circles around us. She gives me a nudge with her shoulder. “So, you and Jamie,” she says with a huge smile.

  “We’re just friends,” I inform her.

  “Friends with benefits.” She winks at me. “Like Katee and Luke were, and look how that turned out.”

  “Wait, what?”

  8

  Jamie

  I’ve been walking around with the worst fucking hard-on since seeing Fallon in her bathing suit this afternoon. Okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. The boner started when we were in the car and she thanked me. At first I thought she was just being her sincere self, but when I caught her nibbling on her bottom lip, it occurred to me that she was fucking with me. Oh, yeah, she knows what those two words do to me, and she said them on purpose.

  Motherfucker.

  I should stay away tonight. I should get back in the SUV and drive straight to my place, lock the door and never come out again. But am I going to do that? Fuck no. Seeing the smile on Fallon’s face, watching her come alive again, especially under my touch last week, is not something I can bring myself to run from, even though it’s exactly what I should be doing. But I want her happy, and if having sex again with me makes her happy, then who am I to deny her? Just as long as we’re both clear it’s just sex, and can never be anything more.

  As we sit around the bonfire, day bleeding into night, Fallon sips wine and chats with the women as they all help the kids roast marshmallows. I take a sip of beer from my bottle and let it dangle from my fingers. Beside me, Cole gives me a nudge.

  “Fallon fits right in,” he says.

  “Yeah,” I mumble, unable to take my eyes off the way her shirt clings to her breasts and her frayed shorts show off her beautiful legs, legs I plan to have wrapped around my head tonight.

  “How long have you been sleeping with her?”

  My gaze jerks to Cole so fast my neck nearly snaps. I catch the smirk playing on his face and shake my head. “Fuck man, are you looking to be laid out with another concussion?”

  Cole laughs. “Come on, Jamie. The tension between you two is explosive. Did you think we weren’t going to notice?”

  “I was hoping.” I swing my bottle in my fingers before I take another sip. “She’s my sister-in-law,” I say.

  “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “She was my brother’s wife,” I say.

  “Only because he claimed her first.”

  “What the fuck, man?” Jesus, am I that transparent to Cole, to the others…to my parents? Does everyone know that I’ve always wanted Fallon as more than a friend? But now, after the accident, even though we’re both single, there can’t be more between us. I don’t want to let her down, hurt her more than she’s been hurt.

  Cole relaxes in his lawn chair, kicks his legs out and crosses his feet at the ankles. Once he’s comfortable, he says, “Just calling it as I see it.”

  “I was engaged to another woman, remember?”

  “And now you’re not.”

  “No, I’m not.” I wanted to do right by Sara when she got pregnant, and I liked her a lot. But did I love her? Would I ever be able to love a woman the way I love Fallon?

  Fuck me.

  Chase shrieks when his marshmallow catches on fire, and I can’t take my eyes from Fallon’s mouth when she blows it out. I shift, uncomfortable in my shorts and Cole, bastard that he is, chuckles beside me.

  “You two are good together,” he says.

  “We’re not having this conversation.” I finish the beer and reach into the cooler and grab two more. I twist the caps off and hand one to Cole.

  “I’m just saying. She can’t keep her eyes off you. You can’t keep your eyes off her. You guys have been pretty good friends over the years.”

  “That’s all we are, Cole. Friends. We can’t be anything more than that. I’m not the guy for her.”

  “Okay, then. Maybe I’ll give Kane a call. She’s definitely his type.”

  Once again, my head snaps around and I glare at Cole. He laughs and shakes his head. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

  “Kane’s not the guy for her. Besides she’s not ready for more. She made that perfectly clear.”

  “Maybe not.” He goes quiet and I think he’s going to let the subject drop until he leans into me again and say, “Remember the playoffs, our seventh game with Detroit?”

  “How could I forget? We won the cup
that night.”

  He nods and smile. “Yeah we did, thanks to you.”

  “Team effort,” I say.

  “It was your goal in overtime that sealed the deal.”

  I shrug.

  “Jesus, that was a risky move you took that night, could have gone bad but in the end, it paid off.”

  “I know what you’re doing, Cole,” I say and take a long pull from the bottle. “But my risk-taking days are behind me.”

  “Too bad, because Fallon is an amazing woman. I know you think so too. You talked about her enough over the years.” His gaze narrows in on me. “And I wouldn’t want you to miss your shot with her because you blame yourself for what happened. It wasn’t your fault, Jamie.”

  My grip on my bottle tightens. “There are things you don’t know.”

  “Maybe there are things you don’t know too,” he says and as I glare at him, my stomach squeezing.

  “What are you talking about?” I ask my mind going back to a conversation I had with Fallon, and how I thought she was keeping things from me.

  “I’m not saying anything.” He takes a big drink. “Too much beer,” he says, but I’m not so sure I believe him. “All I know is sometimes we need to take risks, and you deserve happiness.”

  As I stare at him I can’t help but wonder if he knows something I don’t? If he does, why would he keep secrets from me? We’re buddies, teammates. Ending the conversation, Cole stands and goes and sits by Nina.

  “Daddy, Daddy,” Brandon says, as he shoves another marshmallow onto the stick.

  Daisy runs up to Zander. “Daddy, do you want one?”

  “You bet,” Zander says as Scotty starts running in circles from the sugar high.

  “Come here, kiddo,” Jonah says. “No more sugar for you.”

  “More, Daddy more,” he says and that’s when I note the way Chase is looking around, his tired eyes wide as he watches the men interact with their children. My heart squeezes, and while I’m not his father, not about to even pretend I am—I’m the fucking reason he doesn’t have one— I climb from my seat and sit in front of the fire with him. I cross my legs, and get comfortable on the ground.