“Easy, tiger, don’t want to break something.” Taylor cringed as the bottles inside rattled.
I really wanted to leave, but I couldn’t come up with a justifiable reason to give—well, not one I could say to Jamie’s face anyway. Walking to the sink, I looked through the kitchen window that overlooked a huge, neatly manicured lawn. A large table with chairs on the patio looked inviting. “Wanna sit outside for a bit?” I asked.
Taylor didn’t hesitate with her answer, so I opened the back door and we quietly slipped outside, away from the party. Away from Jamie.
“What are we doing here, Lo?” She cocked her head to me as we took a seat on the chairs.
“I’m trying to figure that out too,” I sighed, sagging into the chair. Setting my purse into my lap, I dug through it for my cell. Pressing the button to illuminate the screen, I looked at the time and sighed some more. We’d only been here 30 minutes. Realizing that we were going to just have to stick it out until it was an acceptable time to leave without being totally rude, I filled Taylor in on my plans for Texas.
Deep in discussion about the mechanics of getting my stuff over there, Marc came walking down the steps into the garden. “There you are. Thought you’d gone home.”
Taylor immediately brightened before letting out an awkward laugh at his comment. He looked at her, puzzled, then took a seat next to her at the table.
“We just wanted some air,” I said, before smiling warmly at him. At least he actually cared about us.
Not wasting any moment to pry for information, Taylor got straight to it. “So how do you two know each other?” She waggled her finger between us both, intrigued.
I was surprised by now she hadn’t already worked that one out. Marc furrowed his brows, equally confused that she didn’t guess, and then his head snapped to mine where he waited for me to explain it to her.
“Don’t tell me this is another one from work,” she said, drooping her shoulders and letting her head fall back slightly in annoyance that she hadn’t figured it out sooner.
“Yeah.” I let out a small laugh, while a smile crossed her lips, and she shook her head playfully. She didn’t have a clue meeting Leon earlier that he completed the quartet of the fighters from the club. I thought to keep that to myself a little while longer.
My thoughts of Leon soon vanished when I caught Taylor’s expression as she looked over at Marc. The same look on her face had returned from when their eyes first met at the door earlier tonight. I could tell she liked him. A lot. Usually, she was confident and outgoing toward guys, but this… this was calm for her. When she first met Cam and Jamie at MusicFest, she almost couldn’t contain her excitement, but things were different with Marc. I sniffed a potential romance in the cards. They both liked each other; that was clear. I just hoped they behaved themselves. I didn’t want any trouble from Kal. Or Jake—who she clearly wasn’t thinking of at this moment in time.
Marc struck up a conversation with her about the places we go out drinking, and I got the feeling he was trying his luck with her, so I left him to it. I would hate to see his face when she told him she had a boyfriend, so I made my excuses and decided to go find the bathroom.
Walking back into the kitchen, Jamie stood facing the window, talking very closely to a petite redheaded girl who was resting her back against the sink. I couldn’t quite catch what they were saying because they were talking so quietly. Again, he didn’t acknowledge me as I walked past, so I didn’t bother asking him where the bathroom was.
I walked up the stairs to find four rooms off a long, narrow hallway, two to my left and two to my right. All of the doors were closed, with no indication which one was the bathroom. I tried the first door to my left, which was a small bedroom. It housed a single bed, a dresser, and a bookshelf. Who did he live with? I then cautiously tried the door next to it. Bingo! I used the bathroom, and on my way out, I got curious which room was Jamie’s. It had to be one of the other two rooms.
Part of me wanted to find out which one it was, but I was too scared he would catch me. Instead, I made my way back downstairs, helping myself to two more of our beers from the refrigerator. He was still talking to the redhead and a pang of jealously hit me. I wished he would take the time to talk to me. He was still acting like I wasn’t here, and it was doing my head in.
Walking back outside, I handed Taylor her beer, but she was still deep in conversation with Marc discussing college, and by the looks of it, hadn’t even finished the beer she already had. “Last one and we’re off,” I said, placing our beers down on the table. I didn’t even bother to hide my annoyance. I slumped back in my chair and folded my arms, sighing.
“What’s up with you?” Marc asked, amused.
I really wasn’t in the mood to talk about it, especially with him. Taylor looked at me, waiting for me to divulge, and I looked at her long enough for her to realize not to go there.
Switching my gaze from her, I looked around the nice, neat garden, and before too long, my focus stopped at the kitchen window, where I could see Jamie still talking to the redhead. Not wanting to spend the rest of the night looking at them, I moved to the opposite side of the table next to Marc, so my back was to them. Marc watched me as I settled into my chair, and then he glanced up to his friend before returning his gaze back to me. I hoped I hadn’t been too obvious why I moved.
Marc made idle chitchat, but I didn’t engage in the conversation much. I just nodded at the right times and was too busy peeling the paper label off my bottle to care. I couldn’t stop wondering what Jamie was talking to the girl about for so long. Did he like her? Was he going to hook up with her? It was starting to frustrate me that I liked him more than I really wanted or needed to.
Marc went inside for another drink, and I turned watching, as Jamie spoke with him when he entered the kitchen. Sure, he’ll talk to him! He was definitely ignoring me—that was all the proof I needed. Now I was pissed.
Taylor finished her drink, so I gulped mine down in record time.
“C’mon, let’s go,” she said, pushing her chair out and standing up.
I followed behind her, and as we walked back through the kitchen, we passed Jamie. Taylor directed a glance at him, but didn’t bother saying goodbye, so neither did I. We didn’t say bye to anyone, Marc included. I felt a little bad about that because he had actually made the effort to make us feel the teeniest bit welcome.
Closing the front door behind me, it suddenly pulled back open again. And I turned to see Jamie standing there.
“You leaving?” he said, almost irritated, scratching the back of his head—something I noticed he did when he got annoyed or frustrated. He actually had the damn nerve to look mad that we were leaving.
“Yeah,” I threw over my shoulder, while I carried on walking. I wasn’t about to fake that everything was okay.
“Hold up,” he shouted after us.
I stopped and turned on my heel to face him as he skipped down the steps to where we were.
“Do you mind?” He looked at Taylor, hinting that he wanted to talk with me alone, but the tone of his voice was rude and patronizing. She narrowed her eyes and shot a deathly glare at him before looking to me for confirmation that I was okay to talk with him alone.
Curious about what the hell he wanted to say to me all of a sudden, I nodded, and she slowly walked to the road to flag down a cab, but not before giving him an icy once-over again.
“Are you pissed?” He folded his arms across his chest.
Any moment, I felt like steam was about to erupt from my ears. “Well, wouldn’t you be if I invited you to a party and I didn’t bother to speak to you all night?”
He narrowed his eyes at my words and nodded. “So, you’re pissed I didn’t talk to you?”
I felt my jaw clench. Why was he being so arrogant? “Night, Jamie,” I breathed.
I didn’t want to get into a fight with him, so I turned and began to walk away. He grabbed my hand and pulled me back in front of him. His eyes sear
ched my face.
“Are you really pissed at me for not talking to you?” he asked again like he couldn’t comprehend my reason for leaving.
“Like I said, Jamie, don’t invite me to a party then act like I’m not there. Cam, Leon, and Marc were the only ones decent enough to speak to us,” I said, pointing back toward his house.
“I did speak to you.”
I raised my eyebrows, surprised at his comment. Did he really think the crude and rude way he spoke to me in the kitchen was enough to call a conversation? Not in my books, it wasn’t.
There was silence as we stood facing each other. He didn’t know what to say, and it was written all over his face. He suddenly stepped closer to me, and I tried not to react to his closeness.
“You want my attention? Now you have it,” he said softly, looking deep into my eyes.
The way he was gazing at me, it was hard not to give in and forgive him. But it was a little too late. He watched me expectantly, but I wasn’t a pushover. “Too late. Night, Jamie.” He let my hand slip through his grasp and I walked away from him, meeting Taylor at the cab she’d managed to get for us.
“What an ass,” Taylor fumed as we climbed in.
“I know,” I sighed, leaning my head back against the headrest.
“What did he say?”
“He asked why I was pissed, so I told him.” I shrugged. I still didn’t understand why he thought it was okay to act the way he had.
“Keep your distance from him. I don’t like him.” She scowled.
Tonight, he’d truly shown what an ass he could be. The only problem was he wasn’t always one. I’d seen how nice he could be. That boy had more colors than a kaleidoscope, that was for sure.
We sat in silence on the drive home, both silently fuming about the waste of a night. We arrived at my house, and I apologized to her for the crappy party.
“It’s okay. You didn’t know it was going to be like that,” she said sympathetically.
“Marc seemed to take a liking to you,” I teased.
She shrugged and tried to wave it off with her hand. “He wishes.”
I swear if it weren’t for the dark, I’d think she blushed again. “Would you?” I asked her curiously.
She tried her best to stifle the smile that tried to spread across her face, and I knew her well enough to realize that her answer was yes. “Oh, God.” I rolled my eyes playfully.
“Hey, I have a boyfriend,” she defended.
I shot her a knowing glance and she shook her head at me.
“Night, you,” she quipped.
“Are you trying to get rid of me?” I laughed.
“Yes, now get out of the cab.” She chuckled.
I gave her some cash and got out of the car, waving as it drove off. Somehow, I was going to have to keep those two apart.
CHAPTER NINE
The guys at work were buzzing about Jamie’s upcoming fight this Saturday. The coaches were in, so we had the yelling and the growling and chants of, ‘What do winners never do?’ Every time they shouted it, I wanted to reply “Quit!” along with whichever guy they were yelling it to.
At one point, Jamie had wobbled over on shaky legs to the desk and slumped over the top of it, breathless and red, his veins bulging. His body glistened and his clothes were soaked through with perspiration. Even though I was angry at him from how he treated us at the party, I felt sorry for him and asked him if he was all right. All he could manage was a nod. I fixed him some water, and he collapsed onto one of the leather couches catching his breath.
His training the last few weeks had been intense and nonstop. He went home to nap and rest for a few hours in the middle of the day before he had to come back and train all over again. He had been banned from any form of life outside the gym. But little did Kal know he had his little get-together that weekend. I wondered if that was why it hadn’t been a big party. I thought back to what Cam said when I first started, that most of them didn’t drink before he threw a playful, accusatory look towards Jamie. It surprised me that Jamie was willing to take that risk. Kal and the other trainers would come down on him pretty hard if they ever found out. But he didn’t appear to care.
Kal calling my name grabbed my attention. I looked over to where he was stocking up the shake bar and smiled at him.
“Are you coming to the fight with us on Saturday?”
My smile disappeared and I absolutely recoiled inside. Jamie was competing in his weight division at the Michigan state championships. It was an important fight for them, because if he won and was crowned champion, it would set him on the path to bigger things, and I knew he was desperate to reach UFC. I didn’t have a burning desire to watch him fight. The thought of seeing that kind of violence made me feel uneasy, and if I saw him get hurt, it would probably be too much for me. On TV, I could turn the channel. A live fight, there was nothing I could do about it. “I don’t know, Kal….” I sighed.
He put the rest of the things away and walked over to where I was sitting at the computer. “Look, you need to come down and experience the greatness of it. Put all your reservations to the side and just come,” he pleaded.
I couldn’t resist the look on his face. He loved fighting and he loved his job, and he seemingly wanted me to get the same out of it as he did. Taking a breath, I said, “Okay.” I hoped I wasn’t going to regret this one.
His face lit up like a Christmas tree, and he excitedly patted my shoulder a bit too hard. “You’ll love it.”
Somehow, I didn’t think I would. When he walked away from the desk, obviously pleased with the fact he’d convinced me, I decided to do some research on the guys. On the computer, I pulled up information about their profiles, which Kal updated regularly on the club website. The website was one thing Kal never let me touch, yet.
I learned that all of them were welterweights, and their profiles stated their weights and ages. Jamie was the eldest at twenty-two. Cam, Marc, and Leon were all twenty-one. That surprised me. For some reason, I had always thought Cam was the eldest, probably because he seemed more mature than the rest of them, and I was definitely surprised that Marc wasn’t younger than twenty-one. He acted like it a lot of the time.
All their match scores were listed. Jamie had won most of his fights, which made me realize why Cam made the comment about him being the ‘golden boy’, and possibly why Kal had a big problem with him training me; he wanted to protect his best fighter. According to their fight statistics, they were all good fighters, and I could understand why Kal kept them on a strict regime and under tight control.
“What you looking at?” Jamie’s voice made me jump out of my skin. I whipped my head around to see him standing behind me looking over my shoulder.
Facing him was still a bit awkward. He hadn’t said anything to me after the party on Saturday, so I tried my best to carry on like nothing had happened. “Nothing.” I quickly minimized the screen so he couldn’t see what I was looking at.
His chest came against my back as he leaned over my chair, putting his hand on top of mine, which was holding the mouse. I froze in shock that he was touching me. It was hard keeping calm having him in such close proximity. He clicked the profiles back up then released his hand from the mouse and leaned on his left arm along the back of my chair as he bent to view the screen. The profile he clicked on was his own. I turned my head to him, and he was biting his lip, eyes focused intently on the screen as he silently read the page. His eyes drifted to mine before looking back at the computer again.
“Can you get Google up?” he asked. I did what he asked, and he typed Laurence Montgomery into the search engine.
“Who’s he?” I asked when the links appeared.
Reaching across again, he moved the mouse to click on one of the links. A guy around the same age as him appeared on the screen. “My next opponent.”
“Oh.”
He narrowed the two screens and looked between the two profiles.
“Are you nervous?”
&nbs
p; He returned his gaze back to me. “I always get a little nervous before a fight, but once I throw my first punch, it goes away.”
I couldn’t even imagine how much nervousness I would have standing up there ready to fight in front of all those people.
“I think I’m more nervous that you’re talking to me now.” He let out a quiet laugh.
I raised my eyebrows, surprised he mentioned what happened at his party. I didn’t know what to say to him, and I felt a bit awkward about it, so I just shrugged and turned back to the computer, hoping he would drop it.
“Am I forgiven then?” he asked.
I spun back to him, nodded once, and then waited for him to expand on his sort-of apology. But he didn’t, I just got a gorgeous grin instead. Captivated by him, I accepted that as his apology, but I couldn’t help shaking my head at his stubbornness for not actually saying the word “sorry.”
“What?” He smiled as he stood up straight.
“Nothing.” I turned back to the computer, unable to hide my humor.
He walked back around to the front of the desk then gave me a toe-curling, lingering look as he walked away. Throbs emanated down below. What was he doing to me? He was back to being Jamie, the flirt, and he was making me crazy for him. His head was supposed to be in training.
Ten minutes later, I was needed at the shake bar. While I was tending to some customers, Jamie caught my eye as he walked out of the kitchen with a bucket of water and headed outside. A thrill of excitement shot through me at the thought of seeing him shirtless again. The sudden urge to get back to my desk had me flying through the customers’ orders and fixing their requests at record speed. Finishing the last order, I practically rushed to my seat and sat down at the desk, in full view of the hotness that was Jamie O’Shea. I quickly looked around to see where Kal was, in case he was watching me, but I couldn’t see him anywhere, so I had free reign to drool.
Reckless Retribution (West Warriors Book 1) Page 9
