Blue Lines (Five for Fighting #2)

by Amber Lynn

  “He’s protected me since we were kids playing in a sandbox, so I highly doubt there’s anything interesting you’re going to find out about him from spending time with me.” Annie was halfway through her soup by the time she spoke. They’d fallen into a silence, not really a tense one. It seemed that it was time for them both to think about what had been said.

  Doug seemed to be fine diving right into his massive pile of cow. The way the red juices ran out of it as he sliced his knife through it made Annie think it was practically still mooing.

  “I wouldn’t say that. I’ve already learned some interesting things.”

  Again, Annie wasn’t sure he was being serious, and trying to read his expressions wasn’t as easy as she thought it’d be. “Care to elaborate on what you think you’ve learned?”

  “You mean other than the fact that whatever is going on between you and Nels has you making up fake boyfriends? I think that alone tells me there might be a little bit more to your best friends story.”

  Annie almost spit out the water she’d stupidly decided to drink while she waited for him to finish his answer. Instead, she gulped it down, causing her to start coughing. After banging on her chest a few times, the coughing stopped. She felt a hand rubbing her back before she realized Doug had gotten up to help her out.

  “There’s nothing more than friendship between me and Nels,” Annie said softly. The look Doug gave her on his way back to his seat told her he didn’t believe her. “I’m serious. We’ve been friends since we were five, and there’s just nothing between us as far as romance goes.”

  Doug shook his head. “Nelson’s an idiot.”

  “We can agree on that. So, you’re still up for taking me out once a week or so? I’ll pay, since it was my idea.”

  “Not when you’re having soup and I’m eating mountains of food. If you want a real dating experience, I’m going to pay for everything. Do you have a preference what day these dates are? I know it’s the off-season, but things are going to get busy when training camp starts up.”

  Annie knew that at the level they played at, there wasn’t a time when they really stopped training. Nelson met with a skating coach at least once a week and visited the rink a few times a week.

  “I have a normal nine-to-five job, so nights and weekends work best for me, but I’ll leave whatever the dates consist of and timing up to you. Since you have my number now, you can just call me when it’s convenient.”

  She was already imposing on him enough. Demanding he reschedule his life wasn’t what she wanted.

  “Okay, I can work with that. Is there any chance you’re going to tell me why you needed to tell Nelson you were seeing someone?”

  “That’s a little personal, and probably not something to talk about on our first date.” Annie smiled, probably her first genuine one of the night. “See, your idea of this not being a date was wrong.”

  “So it was. Since you don’t want to answer that, can I ask whether you’d be interested in a real date if Nelson wasn’t involved?”

  Annie didn’t think about her answer before giving it. “If Nelson wasn’t involved, I think you’d be a catch.”

  She meant what she said, and nodded to try to reinforce it. The fact remained that Nelson was involved, and probably always would be, so the question was a little rhetorical.

  Chapter Seven

  It had been five days since Nelson had spoken to Annie. He’d seen her during that time, without her knowing he was watching her. He made sure to keep an eye on the parking lot around the time she left for work and came home. A part of him hoped he’d get a peek of the boyfriend, but she didn’t seem to invite him back to her place.

  That was a good thing, based on the way Nelson felt. His actions were already borderline stalking, and he knew he wasn’t going to be cordial whenever he found out who had caught Annie’s eyes. He was usually able to scare guys off before they got a chance to get close, which is why he always thought Annie had secret boyfriends she didn’t tell him about.

  As he stared at his television, not caring what channel he’d stopped on, he thought about what had happened in the five days of silence. When they’d met for their brainstorming session, Casey had told him to let Annie come to him. Nelson had argued that was stupid, but Casey and Dylan teamed up against him and convinced him it was best to give her a little time. They contended that absence would make the heart grow fonder.

  He’d made it through the first day relatively okay, especially when he got the text from Annie telling him when the doctor’s appointment was. Sadly, the text had come when he was with Casey and Dylan, and Casey had snatched the phone from him before he could reply. Evidently, it wasn’t the gesture Casey was referring to when she’d told him to wait for Annie to come to him.

  She’d texted back a thank you and told Annie he’d be there. Other than the ban on contact, Nelson didn’t think there had been anything productive brought up during the meeting of the minds. Casey claimed she’d spoken with Annie, so she had a little insider information. Of course when Nels asked what she knew, Casey wouldn’t tell him.

  In fact, it had only made him wonder if she was actually working against him. He didn’t dare broach that topic out loud, but it was on his mind when all she’d suggested was the wait-and-see approach.

  The start of training camp had occupied his attention, but he didn’t have any practices to get to on Saturday, so he was stuck trying to figure out how to run into Annie. Sunday was an exhibition game, but after working his butt off during the week, he was taking a day off.

  Nelson turned the television off and left the couch. Unlike Annie’s aesthetically pleasing furniture, his beat-up green lump of a couch looked like it belonged in a dorm room, which was exactly where it came from. It was about eight years old, and he was waiting for a spring to poke through before he bought something new. How Annie had slept on it for a month was beyond his comprehension.

  In preparation for what he’d planned for the day, he’d already taken care of showering and making himself presentable, so he might as well go see if he could catch Annie before she decided she had somewhere she needed to be. It was after nine, and he hoped she wouldn’t answer the door in her pajamas again.

  Rather than waiting on the elevator, which seemed to be busy at all hours of the day, he made his way to the stairwell. He’d just gotten the door open when he ran right into Annie. He had to catch her before she bounced off him and landed on the floor.

  “Are you okay?” he asked as his hand instantly went to her stomach to make sure, well, he wasn’t really sure what he was making sure of, but he was worried about the baby along with its mother. When he was on the ice, other players usually ended up with bruises after running into him.

  His big hand enveloped her belly, and in sense, he got to feel his baby for the first time. He quickly looked into Annie’s eyes before letting his eyes gravitate down to where his hand settled. He saw that she was wearing his missing shirt, which dwarfed her body. He assumed she had pants of some sort on, but he couldn’t see them around what was essentially a dress.

  “You’ve got a hard body, Nels, but I don’t think colliding with it broke anything. Are you going up or down?” Annie’s cheeks were flushed, and Nelson wasn’t sure if that was because of the almost tumble, or that she’d run into him and she hadn’t meant to.

  “Up. Were you looking for me, or have you made another friend on this floor?”

  “I could ask you the same thing. I take it you’re just as tired of the Casey-imposed break as I am.”

  The color in her cheeks hadn’t lessened, so Nelson reluctantly removed his hand and stepped back to give her a little room. She hadn’t asked him to, but there was a bit of awkwardness standing there with his hand on her belly in the stairwell.

  “What do you mean the ‘Casey-imposed’ break?” He was aware he was on a break, but no one had said anything about Annie also being on break, or that she was aware he was told to stay away.

  “Sh
e said she was going to tell you to give me some space, and that I should give you time to consider taking back what you said.” Hearing her admit Casey had been behind Annie’s not seeking him out made him feel better that she hadn’t tried to make contact.

  “You mean the fact that I want us to get married. It’s going to take a little longer than five days to get me to change my mind about that. Has anything changed on your side of things?”

  It wasn’t a conversation to have in the stairwell, but neither one of them made a move to take it elsewhere. With the foot or two of space added between them, Nelson could see that she was wearing a pair of jeans, and hadn’t taken to just wearing his shirt as a dress.

  She shook her head in response to his question. “I’m still not available for a wedding. How’s training camp going? I hear the new assistant coach is running you ragged.”

  For a second Nelson wondered how she knew that, still used to her getting all her information about his playing from him. Dylan sat in the stands for all the drills, so Annie must have heard it through the grapevine.

  “I imagine the person passing that information on to you has something to do with that. He probably thinks that if I’m too tired at the end of the day, I won’t go looking for you.”

  Annie looked confused for a split second, before nodding her head. “Yeah, I imagine Casey and Dylan aren’t helping you out too much on that front. So, first exhibition game tomorrow. Are you ready?”

  “I’ve been ready since the season ended. I know most players like a little break, but I’m too afraid of rink rust to spend time on the golf course. Look, do you want to go back to my place and grab some breakfast? I don’t have a wide variety of food in the cupboards, but I can make us some eggs or something.”

  “Sorry, I was actually on my way out, but I wanted to stop by to call an end to the silence. It’s just a few days until we find out what we’re having, and I didn’t want the doctor’s office to be the first time we see each other again.”

  Annie’s eyes drifted down to the ground as she spoke. She looked a little uncomfortable, which wasn’t something he’d picked up from her before. Up until the chaos that led to them expecting a child, there had never been a moment when she couldn’t tell him anything.

  “Well, I appreciate you coming down to break the ice. Do I want to know where you’re off to? I thought your weekends were for catching up on sleep.”

  “They are, but sometimes having to schedule around work gets in the way of that. Plus, I’m happy to report that I only woke up once last night. I think my body is finally ready to admit defeat and grow with the baby.”

  Nelson noticed she didn’t answer his question, which led him to believe she was off to meet her boyfriend. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what they were planning to do. The fact that she was wearing his shirt to wherever she was going bothered him enough.

  He didn’t like the idea of someone else seeing her in it. It had been months since the last time he’d worn the shirt, so it wouldn’t still smell like him. His cologne could’ve been enough to scare the boyfriend off, at least that’s what Nelson wanted to hope. It made him wish he’d put a little more on that morning.

  “That’s great news. Have you felt any movement yet? I read you were getting close to the time when that would start happening.”

  He had access to the library that is the Internet, but Casey had also sent him home from their meeting on Monday with a few of her favorite parenting books. Nelson didn’t want to mention it, but chances were good that he knew about as much as Annie did as far as what was going on with her body.

  “Not really. Every once in a while there’s something that could be movement, but it could also be gas, so I haven’t marked down a milestone. I remember you said you wanted to hear the heartbeat, and Casey let me borrow her Doppler, so maybe after tomorrow’s game you could come up and we could try it out.”

  Annie flashed one of her smiles, but there was something a little off about it. Looking at her face closer, there was something different. He’d seen her with a little makeup on before, which she used sparingly, so that wasn’t it.

  “Did you cut your hair?” It didn’t look like there was a lot missing, but Nelson was pretty sure there was at least three inches gone from what usually made its way down to her hips.

  Annie reached up and started twirling a strand of hair around her fingers. “Yeah, I just trimmed a little from the bottom. I thought about going shorter, but decided to hold off until closer to when the baby is born. With as long as it is now, I’m afraid the baby is going to get its hands caught up in it.”

  If she was worried about her thin hair, his thick curls were going to be a minefield for the baby. It sounded like he’d found something to do while she was out playing with her boyfriend.

  “It looks good, but then I’ve always loved your hair.” Annie looked doubtful, so he added an explanation. “When you have hair that looks like you spend your free time sticking your finger into a light socket, straight hair is something you envy.”

  “And when you can’t get your hair to curl even if you stick your finger in a light socket, you kind of envy anyone with naturally curly hair.”

  “I suppose that’s why we make a great pair. You didn’t answer my question earlier about where you’re heading. Isn’t it kind of early for date night?”

  He’d let the lack of a response slide, but his inquisitive side where Annie was concerned wasn’t going to let it slide for long. Just asking it caused her to look back down at the floor.

  “I’m not actually sure. He’s been busy with work lately, so he planned a full day of something, but he wouldn’t tell me what.”

  A full day wasn’t what Nelson wanted to hear. Having dinner now and then wasn’t necessarily serious, but if they were spending over five hours together, the relationship sounded a little bit more troublesome than he’d thought.

  “Is he coming to pick you up? Maybe it’s time for him to meet your best friend.” Nelson tried to stop his voice from turning gritty, but he couldn’t help the fact that he already hated the guy.

  “I know I didn’t ask you to promise to stay away from him, but I’d really like things to play out naturally here. And I think we both know that the second you meet him will probably be the last time I see him.”

  Her statement made Nelson wonder what kind of guy she was dating. He knew he could be intimidating, but Annie was worth fighting for, and if it only took a simple meeting to scare the guy away, he didn’t deserve her.

  “Have you told him about the baby yet? For most guys, that would probably scare him away faster than I could.”

  She took a couple steps back and sat down on the steps. They were carpeted, and vacuumed daily, but there were enough coffee stains that Nelson didn’t think they were extremely clean.

  “I was waiting a little longer before I shared the news with him. We’re getting along fine, but I’m afraid that would be a relationship killer.”

  “I hate to tell you this, but going out on a date wearing another guy’s shirt can be a bit of a killer of sorts too. I didn’t think I’d ever see that shirt again.”

  Annie glanced down, and then looked back up at Nelson. As big as the shirt was on her, she was able to tuck her legs underneath it, so it looked like all she wore was the shirt.

  “I was planning on doing laundry today, because I’m running low on clothes, but he called this morning and changed those plans. Hopefully I’ll get a little time later today to at least get a load done.”

  “I didn’t hear you offer to give me back the shirt. I’m pretty sure I told you at least once that it was my favorite.”

  Nelson used to wear the shirt weekly, but he’d had to work a replacement into the rotation since it had gone missing. Dylan used to tease him about how often he wore it, and had actually noticed when he’d stopped. It was just a blue shirt, but it was more about the person who gave him the shirt than the shirt itself.

  “I figured that was just to butter
me up since I bought it for you for your birthday. If you really want it back, I’ll wash it and deliver it back to your closet.”

  “Nah, you go ahead and keep it. It looks good on you, probably better than it ever did on me, and now that you’ve moved here, I don’t need the friendly reminder of what I’m missing back home. So, how soon before you have to go downstairs and meet your friend?”

  Since she’d taken a seat, it lead him to believe she wasn’t in a big hurry, but at the same time, she hadn’t agreed to go back to his apartment. Annie reached into her pants pocket and pulled out her phone.

  “I’m supposed to meet him at his place at ten, so I should probably get going. Maybe I should go change my shirt, though, since you pointed out it probably isn’t smart to wear it.”

  She grabbed the railing above her and pulled herself up. She ended up a step above him, so she was almost his height, or at least closer to it. He was so used to having to look down at her, that he got a crazy idea in his head.

  Not really thinking it through, Nelson quickly closed the distance between them and kissed the side of her lips. The original thought in his head was to give her a proper kiss, but he decided at the last minute that was probably too much.

  Annie’s eyes opened wide in surprise as soon as she realized how close he was to her. They remained that size when he took a step back to gauge her reaction. He didn’t feel her hand smacking against his cheek, which was a good sign.

  “Why in the world did you do that?” She sounded more bewildered than mad.

  The bad thing about the question she ended up asking was that he didn’t have an answer for her. If anything, he wanted to give her something to think about before she took off for her day of fun, but he couldn’t really give that as an answer.

  “I don’t know. You know as well as I do that I don’t always think things through or have a reason for my actions.”

  “Well, since you were kind enough to make a suggestion about my date attire, I’ll give you a little advice. If you don’t know why you’re kissing a woman, keep your lips to yourself. I’m going to head out, but if you’re feeling up for it tomorrow night, I’m still planning to check to see if I can hear the heartbeat at home.”