by Stone, Nora
I scrunched up my face.“Ew.”
“Boys are gross,” she said, scooping up the now happy and half naked Al and walking out into the den.
“Have you heard from Isobel?” I asked. Char stopped and hesitated, before turning to me. Her lips were turned down into a heartbroken face and Al immediately fell silent, looking up at her.
“No,” she said softly. Damn, I shouldn’t have asked.
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t really know what else to say. This seemed to be hurting her worse than it was hurting me, though she’d been hiding it pretty well until I opened my big mouth.
“It’s okay. I’ve tried to talk to her, but unless it’s work-related, she isn’t interested,” Char said with a sigh. “I tried to invite her this weekend, but when I called she didn’t answer. I left her a message, and texted her but she never responded.”
“I’ve been trying to call her for weeks,” I said as we began walking again. Char gently placed Alton inside of his play pen and turned to face me.
“I think this might be it, Jacinta. I think this is us growing apart, and it makes me so sad. I don’t want to be without her,” Char said, her eyes starting to water.
“Yeah, me either.”
The door to the patio opened and Joey came inside to grab another beer, while Patrick began applying the seasoning rub to the steaks out on the countertops outside.
“Whoa, what’s wrong with you two?” he said, walking over and pulling us both close. We must have looked sadder than I thought we did.
“We were talking about Izzy,” I said.
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” Char responded.
“It will work out, ladies. I know that right now it doesn’t seem like it will, but I know that it will.”
“How? How do you know?” I asked.
“Because you three are the most loyal and true friends that I’ve ever met,” he said. “You might have your ups and downs, your disagreements, but you all love each other like sisters. You’ve been through college together, jerks who treated you badly, getting jobs, getting apartments, a murder! There is no way that this will break this bond that you three have. Just give her some time, she’ll come back around.” He hugged us both. There was nothing inappropriate about it, simply one friend comforting two others. The fact that one of the friends happened to be his wife was simply a coincidence
“You’ve got the best husband ever,” I said, looking at Charlotte across Joey’s chest. She grinned.
“Yours isn’t so bad either, you know.”
“We aren’t married yet.”
“Yeah, what’s up with that? I want to go to another engagement party, one where I’m not making sure that things aren’t falling apart and paying for everything,” Joey said. I laughed.
“I don’t know, we haven’t really talked about it yet.”
“You two aren’t getting cold feet, are you?” Char asked.
“No, of course not. I mean, I’m not,” I said.
“Patrick isn’t either, trust me. He’s just not in a rush. With the season going on and everything with Isobel, us getting over the injuries from the plane crash… He thought you guys needed a cooling off period before diving right back into something else,” Joey said.
“Why do you know this and I don’t?” I asked.
“He talks to me for advice about how to keep you happy. And if you tell him that I told you anything I’ve said in the past two minutes, I’ll deny it and you will lose a valuable ally,” Joey said with a wink. I grinned.
“You haven’t told me a thing.”
“Good girl. Now come on, grab that beautiful boy of mine and come outside, it is beautiful out there.” He squeezed us both so tightly that we squealed before turning and resuming his route to get another beer.
“My husband is pretty awesome, isn’t he?” Char said, looking after him. I could see it there in her eyes, the love and happiness that she had. I’d always thought Char was happy alone, and she was for a time. But the happiness that she had with Joey and Alton in her life was like another level. I wanted that with Patrick. I had that with Patrick, minus the ring and the baby.
I smiled, pulling a grinning Alton out of the playpen and holding him close as he wrapped his chubby little arm around what he could of my shoulder.
“I think I’m in love with Alton,” I said, making a face at him, which he promptly imitated.
“What? I have competition? That’s not fair, how can I complete with Al? Hell, sometimes I swear that I’m in love with him too!” Patrick said, coming through the door.
“He’s a captivating kid,” Joey said.
“Not as captivating as his Daddy,” Char said, wrapping her arms around Joey’s waist.
“Come on now, Char. Don’t get me started, we have company,” he said, leaning down to kiss her as she giggled. I grinned and shook my head, following Patrick back out onto the patio with Char and Joey close behind me.
Yeah, that was exactly what I wanted.
Chapter 27
Life had stayed the way we wanted it in the months that had passed since the cookout at Char and Joey’s. We kept our spontaneous date nights, and always found something interesting to do. The last date, for example, had been a fencing class. Those fencing foils can cause injury; whoever tells you otherwise is a dirty liar. We both came out of that one with scrapes and bandages, but we laughed as we bled, and made an appointment to go back soon.
We still hadn’t set a date for anything, and while people asked, no one was pressuring us. And more importantly, we weren’t pressuring ourselves. Patrick was under enough stress, and he and Joey had been having a lot of boy’s nights. Coach had changed around all of those team bits that had made Patrick nervous at the start of the season, while Joey took more of a let’s see where this goes stance on it all. The problem was that it hadn’t gone anywhere good. The season had been on the bottom end of marginal, and fans were calling for a coaching change during the off-season. What he’d done, the press conferences that he’d held asking fans to trust him, none of it had worked. The record of the season was all that the fans saw, and they wanted him out.
Patrick and Joey hadn’t really started to get concerned until rumors that the owner of the team felt the same way surfaced. They’d gone and asked Nick, but he’d stated that he couldn’t speak about that until he was given official permission. They guys were getting nervous, and had been planning something, though Char said that she wasn’t sure what and neither was I. She did say that it wasn’t to jump ship, because she didn’t think that either of them would do that without talking to her and I first. I held on to her certainty about that, my mind going back to the conversations at the beginning of the season that Patrick and I had. I hoped that she was right on that one.
Isobel still wouldn’t take my calls. They weren’t even ringing now, they simply dumped into voicemail, which made me think that she’d added me to her ignore list, like I was a bill collector. The though made my chest hurt. I’d asked Charlotte again, and she said nothing had changed for her either. They sat two desks away from each other, and while Izzy seemed to be relatively okay, she wasn’t interested in talking to Char. She’d even asked a photographer friend of hers at Pinks to go talk to Izzy for her, but he’d said that as soon as he mentioned Char’s name, Izzy shut him down. We were both starting to think that maybe Joey was wrong on this one. Maybe this really was the end of “us”.
Patrick had invited his parents to come down to visit, saying that he wanted me to meet them and vice versa. I’d started out excited about it all, until he began talking about his parents. The general gist of the conversation was that they meant well most of the time, but that they were old money and had a rather snooty attitude. It was simply how they’d both been raised, and they were too late in life to change now, but he could see our personalities clashing while they were in town. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous.
“Don’t be nervous. This is just a formality,” Patrick said. I glanced acro
ss the counter at him, questioningly.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not like if they hate you, it’s going to change anything.”
I felt my heart rate sky rocket and squeaked. “Hate me?” I repeated. Patrick instantly stopped.
“Okay, bad choice of words. They will love you, just like I do, don’t be nervous. But understand that what they think does not change what I think or who I love. Either way, it’s you and I,” he said. I couldn’t even think straight. Patrick got up and came around the kitchen island to me, pulling me into a tight hug.
“I am completely terrified,” I whispered against him.
“That’s rather flattering, actually.”
I looked up, confused again. “Why?”
“Because nothing really scares you, but if you care what my parents think about you, you must seriously love me. And I love that.” He said.
I wrapped myself up in the scent of the man that I loved and smiled. “Or I’m insane.”
“That’s possible too. You do make me wonder sometimes,” he said, causing me to laugh.
Chapter 28
Patrick’s parents were Anna and Antonio, although he went by Tony. Anna was the Irish bit of Patrick’s genetic make-up. She was a petite woman, with short, curly hair that was such a light red that at first glance she almost looked like a blonde. She was very pale, and according to Patrick had to be careful in the sun because she burned very easily.
Tony didn’t have that problem. He was the same warm, olive that Patrick was, and topped with thick, wavy and midnight dark hair that hung to his shoulders. He was just as tall as Patrick was, dwarfing his wife beside him, but she didn’t seem to mind that they were opposites physically. I figured she must have simply been used to it by now.
I, on the other hand, was just getting around to being used to the differences that people were so quick to point out between Patrick and me. He was significantly taller, and much broader through the shoulders. There was the racial difference, that was most simplified by saying that he was Caucasian and I was African American. Not really one hundred percent true, since he considered himself Irish and Italian, but people didn’t really care what he thought when they were talking about him. We got a lot of stares, though I was never really sure whether it was due to our physical differences or because he was a celebrity, and I had become a small time celebrity since the media decided to splash my face across the front of everything they could find during the murder investigation.
Patrick said not to let it bother me. We’d taken to waving at people who stared too much. It was a lot of fun to embarrass them, and they always were once they realized that we saw them.
Patrick and I stood by the baggage conveyor belt, watching the large rotating glass doors. The sudden flood of people let us know that the passengers on one of the newly arriving planes had disembarked, and Patrick put his arm around me, knowing that I was still rather nervous. A man, who seemed to tower over the rest of the crowd came through the door and lifted his head with a warm smile. It was Patrick’s smile, and it shocked me for a second to see the smile of the man that I loved on the face of another.
“That has got to be your father,” I said softly. Patrick chuckled.
“Yeah, it is. Mom is next to him, but she’s kind of little,” he replied as the crowds around them parted to reveal the beautiful, delicate red headed Anna.
“Patty,” she said, coming forward with her arms open. Instinct made me step back from under his arm to allow him the room to greet his parents.
“Hey Ma.” He hugged her tightly. She seemed to disappear in his arms and it made me smile.
“How are things, son?” Tony said, he and his son sharing a hard clap on the back and a rather manly short hug.
“They’re good, Dad,” he said with a grin.
“Excellent, I am so glad to hear that. Now, please tell me that this beautiful young woman beside you is Miss Jacinta.” His father turned to me. I felt my face flush and internally berated myself to pull it together and handle myself better.
“Yes sir, it’s wonderful to meet you,” I said, holding out my hand. Tony took it gently and kissed my hand across the tops of my knuckles.
“The pleasure is all mine, my dear.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Patrick said, taking my hand from his father and pulling me close.
“Don’t mind Tony, sometimes he likes to remind himself that he still has that Italian charm thing going for him,” Anna said, swatting at her husband’s shoulder with a smack. Tony laughed.
“I am sure that Miss Jacinta has no interest in an old man like me,” he said, winking at me.
“Not at all, sir. The only man that I am interested in is Patrick,” I said, almost like my brain just shoved it out of my lips before I was able to stop it.
“Well, that is good news,” Anna said, though something about her tone sounded a bit offended. Was I supposed to want her husband? What woman wants their son’s fiancé to try for her husband?
“Enough,” Patrick said, his tone curt. I looked up at him, initially wondering if he was really going to be mad at me for that, but noting that he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring straight at his mother and father. I chose to do something that I rarely did on my own, and shut my mouth.
“Fine. We didn’t check any bags, Patrick. We’re ready to go,” Anna said, her tone suddenly devoid of warmth, like she was talking to a servant. Patrick’s eyes clouded over, like they did when he was upset about something but didn’t want to talk about it. It was an expression that I hadn’t seen in a long time, because we’d promised each other that we wouldn’t shut our relationship down like that anymore. It bothered me to see it now, honestly. But I had no intention of saying that with the very people who brought it back out of retirement standing in front of us.
“We set up the guest room at the house for you two to stay in,” Patrick said, turning and beginning to walk toward the entrance with me in tow, whether I wanted to be or not.
“Did you hire us a car?” I heard his father ask. I looked up at Patrick, my mouth almost hanging open.
“No, Dad. I have a car, I drove it.”
“Oh. I thought that with as much as you make, you’d hire a driver. At least for today, since we were coming into town,” Tony replied. Patrick sighed, but didn’t respond. Instead, I slipped my hand farther into his and squeezed. He looked down at me, and I grinned. And just like that, his face was okay again.
“Why don’t you go bring the car around?” Anna said, the smile suddenly back in her voice.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Patrick said, my hand still clasped tightly in his as he began walking.
“Ah, leave Jacinta here. I’d like to talk to her,” I felt like I was about to have a heart attack. The last thing I wanted in the whole, wide world in that moment was to be left alone with Patrick’s parents. Not yet, at least. I didn’t have any idea what to expect, and they seemed to run so hot and cold without warning that all I was going to do was screw something up, I was sure of it.
“What?” Patrick said, stopping. I looked up at him, my eyes wide and tried to plead with him, to push the ‘no’ out through his lips.
“Jacinta can wait here with us, can’t she?” Tony asked.
“I guess so,” Patrick said, looking down at me. I narrowed my eyes at him for not catching what I was trying to send him through osmosis and turned, walking back to where his parents stood with a smile branded onto my lips. If I hadn’t learned anything from having two friends in the media, it was how to fake smile with the best of them. My press ready smile was earning its keep in that moment.
“Sure I can. The car isn’t far, we shouldn’t have to wait long,” I said.
“Excellent,” Anna said. Patrick hesitated, but turned and started jogging towards the parking lot entrance.
“So. Tell me, dear, how did you and Patrick meet?” Tony asked. The question caught me a bit off guard. I was expecting to be attacked as soon as Patrick was out of e
ar shot, but that was just a normal question. I had to take a moment to get myself together again.
“Um, my best friend is Joey Parker’s wife,” I said.
“Oh, that lovely girl. Charlotte, that’s her name, right?” Anna asked. I nodded and smiled.
“Yes ma’am.”
“And she introduced you all?” Anna replied.
“We met at their engagement party.”
“That is a wonderful way to meet, through mutual friends,” Tony said.
“Yes sir.”
“Tony is a huge Bullets fan. Yes, because our only son plays for the team, but also just as a sports fan,” Anna said, patting Tony on the arm gently.
