Delay of Game

by Amber Lynn

  Jason reached over and put his hand on Hope’s thigh. It was a little difficult to keep it there for long because he had to shift gears, but he wanted to feel the skin-on-skin contact. What he really wanted to do was slide his hand up her thigh and see what was going on under the dress, but the mystery of it was almost as much fun as knowing would be.

  “And you’re positive we’ll still be together in four months when this wedding you’re planning is supposed to take place?”

  There wasn’t exactly doubt in Hope’s voice, but it was clear she wasn’t sold. Again, Jason couldn’t blame her. Things felt really good between them, but things happen. They’d happened to Jason before.

  “Would you agree right this second that if we are still together in four months, we’ll get married?”

  Hope looked over at him with a neutral face. The first few flakes of snow had started to fall, so Jason needed to pay attention to the road, mainly the drivers all around him who peed their pants when they saw snow hitting the ground. Snow and ice weren’t something the people of Nashville seemed to have a lot of experience with, and it showed when traffic started slowing.

  Jason could see her head movement out of the corner of his eye and saw that she was trying to read what she could of his face. It was unfair that he was busy silently wishing that everyone who didn’t have winter weather driving experience just stayed at home when the weather said it was coming for them.

  “You just asked me to marry you.”

  It was hard to tell if it was surprise or something else behind Hope’s words. Jason hadn’t gotten a ring yet, but eventually he’d get one and propose properly. Depending on her answer, the need for one could be rather immediate.

  “I did. If you want to wait to answer the question until I can jazz it up a bit and get you a sparkling diamond to go with it, I’d understand. You already pointed out that we aren’t exactly normal, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise my proposal is a little unusual.”

  They were just pulling up to the cute yellow bungalow Hope had grown up in. Jason parked in front of it instead of in the driveway. He didn’t want to have to wait for someone to let him out if they needed to make a quick getaway.

  The house seemed a little small on the outside, but Hope assured him it was a four-bedroom house. He’d lived in a three-bedroom one growing up, which was probably the same size, but the house he’d shared with Kate had also been four bedrooms and at least two of the bungalows could’ve fit in it.

  Looking back on it, it seemed like a lot of wasted space. If Hope and he were going to get married, they were going to need to start discussing their living situations. They couldn’t live in either of their apartments forever. Jason thought something cute and homey would suit them both as he looked at the welcoming front walk of her parents’ place.

  “I think I’ll wait to see if we both make it out of this dinner alive before I give you any kind of answer.”

  It was a smart move on her part. Jason was prepared to do everything he could to win her parents over, so he didn’t have any worries that the ordeal would do nothing more than solidify their strength as a couple.

  “That works for me. I’m not seeing any other cars, so I think that gives us the option of either going in or staying out here and fooling around for a few minutes.”

  With the car in park and turned off, Jason didn’t have to worry about shifting, so after he unbuckled his seat belt, he traced his fingers along Hope’s inner thigh just above the hem of her dress. She smacked his fingers, but didn’t attempt to remove his hand. He knew the move was playing with fire, but his intentions were to get her to relax a little.

  She’d been tense about the meeting with the folks since the moment she brought the topic up. Jason had no problem observing her family unit. If his parents weren’t hundreds of miles away, he’d be planning a shindig with them too.

  “You had your chance to be late when you picked me up. Since you didn’t push me in my apartment to see how fast you could undo all my hard work, you’re just going to have to wait until after we go home.”

  Home to both of them seemed to mean Jason’s apartment. Hope’s clothes hadn’t found their way there, but Hope wasn’t sleeping at her place anymore, so it was only a matter of time before they did.

  “I was too scared I’d mess up your lipstick to even kiss you. There was no way I’d mess up your work of art before you got a chance to show it off. Not to mention we both know where kissing tends to lead. I do have to know one thing before we go in, though.”

  Hope had been studying his hand, watching to make sure it didn’t do anything without her approval. At his words, she looked up to meet his eyes. It didn’t help matters that he could see hints of desire even in the dark car.

  “What’s that?”

  Jason smiled and leaned forward to whisper the question in her ear. “Are you wearing underwear?”

  Laughter was the only initial response as Hope unbuckled and let herself out of the car. He hurried to follow her and took her hand as they made it up the walk together.

  “That’s just going to be another thing you have to wait to find out until we get home.”

  Even if things went fabulous with her parents, there was no question in Jason’s mind it was going to be a long night. The big question was whether he could keep her family from realizing he was on edge.

  Chapter Twenty

  “I can’t believe you brought him to a family dinner.”

  Shockingly it was awe and not scolding laced in Grace’s voice. They’d made it through dinner with no battles over Hope’s boyfriend. The women at the table seemed to be enthralled just staring at him. Even Marie, who had actually blushed when they shook hands at the door and he’d kissed the top of her hand. Clearly, the major issue she had was the long hair, because everything seemed peachy between them.

  Hope didn’t believe for a second her mom was through worrying about the relationship, but Jason was able to soothe the beast for at least one night. It helped that Hope’s dad and brother took to him like glue. They talked sports all night, laughing and yelling about the differences between football, hockey and soccer. Hope didn’t understand the conversation at all, other than the hockey portions since she’d done some research.

  It wasn’t until Grace and she were sent to the kitchen to do the dishes that the surprise of him being there was brought up. Jason had explained to everyone how they met and told a cute story about him being worried Hope would say no when he asked her out. The story rang a little true, but he left out the parts that would make others cringe.

  “I didn’t have much of a choice. Mom found out about us and thought asking him to dinner would scare him off.”

  “Really? It sure didn’t seem like she was trying to run anyone off.”

  Grace handed Hope one of their mother’s white with gold etchings plate. Marie had been trying to impress, because those plates didn’t ever see the light of day. They were wedding presents for Hope’s parents that were sealed in a china cabinet that Hope had always been told didn’t have a key.

  Hope dried the plate and put it carefully down on the pile of dishes to go back in the cabinet. The night was going so good that she didn’t want to let a cracked plate or cup ruin things.

  “I don’t know what’s going on with her. She actually gave me a handful of condoms the other day to make sure I was having safe sex,” Hope whispered.

  The gesture still didn’t ring funny to Hope, but Grace scoffed and tried to hold back her laughter. It didn’t work.

  “Are you serious? Did you use them?”

  Grace stopped washing the bowl in her hand as she waited for an answer to the question. Her sister was the only person who for sure knew her virginity status before meeting Jason, so there was a deeper question under the surface.

  “Of course we’ve used them. The man’s already asked me to marry him. Obviously, it makes sense that he tried out the goods before making that kind of commitment.”

  “What?” Gra
ce asked as she let the bowl in her hand slip into the rinse water.

  Hope held her breath, afraid the velocity of the drop was going to be too much for the fragile china. When no loud thud sounded, she let out a sigh of relief.

  “You’re serious? That piece of man flesh out there asked you to marry him?”

  It wasn’t something Hope had thought about sharing with anyone in her family until after she said yes, but it’d been on her mind all night, which made it easy to slip out. She bit her lip and nodded her head. Grace had turned to face her, so the response wasn’t missed.

  “Oh my god. You’re going to marry Jason Miller?”

  “Shh,” Hope hissed, trying to keep Grace from hyperventilating. “There’s not even a ring yet, and there are still a lot of details to work out. I haven’t said yes yet, so please don’t tell anyone else.”

  “You haven’t said yes? That man asked you to marry him and you, what, shrugged and said I’ll think about it.”

  Hope didn’t say anything because that was pretty much how it’d gone down. She’d still been caught up in the minor transformation that happened when he cut his hair. Talk about hyperventilating. She wasn’t sure how her knees hadn’t buckled when she opened the door.

  If just seeing him with his cheekbones more defined and his eyes somehow a shade darker and almost brooding wasn’t enough, those eyes of his worked their way down her body like he wasn’t seeing her clothes. If he was, it was clear he was trying to think of how to unwrap his present. He’d made that perfectly clear when he let her feel his body against hers.

  Grace went back to washing the dishes when Hope wasn’t forthcoming with more details. Thankfully, they were almost done and Hope and Jason would be free to escape into the night. The spell her mom was under had to lift at some point, and Hope didn’t want to be anywhere around if the barbs were going to start back up.

  “Is there something wrong with him?” Grace said under her breath.

  The words almost went unheard because of how low she’d transformed her voice. The question should’ve been offensive, but Hope understood where it came from. She’d tried to explain to Jason there was a big difference between the soft five she came in at on the looks scale and the ten-plus he registered. Even with all her makeup on and her little black dress, she paled in comparison to his ex-wife, someone he would always be associated with.

  “I’ve wondered about his eyesight, but I’ve seen him track a puck coming eighty miles an hour at him and his reaction time to slap the puck towards the net without even blinking.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” Grace said, handing over the last cup.

  They were instructed to wash and dry, but the duty of putting the dishes back was on their mother’s shoulders. Hope put the last piece down and turned to lean her back against the counter.

  “You’re going to have to explain what you mean then.”

  Hope had a good idea, but she didn’t want to say anything that would reveal too much. As she waited for Grace to come up with the right words to ask, she looked around the small kitchen that had always been one of her favorite rooms in the house. As a child it’d seemed huge when the kids would gather around the center island and decorate cookies or help roll them out.

  It hadn’t changed a bit over the years. The butcher block top of the center island still had all the little knife cuts Hope had left in it when she helped dice vegetables as a teenager. The doorway leading into the kitchen even had the marks to track their heights up until her brother turned sixteen. By that time, he’d grown taller than Marie, and she didn’t want to pull out a chair to mark it for him, so the tradition had stopped.

  “You know,” Grace said nudging Hope’s arm as she moved to stand next to her. “Is he really small or crooked or something.”

  Hope lifted her hand to her mouth to try to keep a snort from escaping. She didn’t think her sister was bold enough to come right out and ask that kind of question.

  “What did I miss?” Jason’s voice asked from the doorway Hope had been reminiscing about.

  Her eyes flew up to meet his and she couldn’t keep her laughter inside as she shook her head. If she told him the truth, he was liable to answer the question, and Grace needed to be left with a little mystery.

  “I’ll tell you later.” Hope compromised, whether the time would ever come to let him in on the joke was still up for determination.

  “I’m going to hold you to that.” Jason winked at Hope and she knew eventually he’d get it out of her. “Your mom says we are released from our family duties since the roads outside are starting to get bad.”

  “Family duties, huh?” Grace replied, causing Hope to stomp on her foot.

  Grace’s toes weren’t used to stomping, so Hope got the reaction she wanted when her sister cursed. Jason looked over at the two of them sternly and held up a finger he started wagging in the air.

  “Now, now. There are kids out in the other room who shouldn’t hear that kind of language.”

  “She started it,” Grace said, jutting out her lower lip to pout.

  “Lucky for you two, I deal with referees all the time and I know when to put a stop to something. I’m going to have to send both of you to the box for two-minute penalties.”

  Hope laughed and walked towards the man chastising them. “What’s the call, ref? You know I’m going to fight whatever you think it is. I learned that from watching you play.”

  It never failed, whether it was Jason or another guy called for a penalty. They always acted like they were the injured party. Sometimes they were, but sometimes the penalty was so flagrant that it was funny to watch them complain about it.

  “You are skating on thin ice, my lovely girlfriend.”

  Jason stepped forward to grab her when she was still a few feet away from him. She tried to fight the hold, playing along with him, but he easily overpowered her so he could pull her up and throw her over his shoulder. Hope wasn’t expecting the move, so she beat on his back with about half her strength.

  “Let me go, you big brute.”

  A swat to her butt was what she got in reply. Grace thought the exchange was funny and had started clapping to egg Jason on.

  “It was nice meeting you, Grace. I’ve already extended tickets to the rest of the family, but it’s probably a good idea if I mention them to you too.”

  “It was nice meeting you too, Jason. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other soon enough.”

  Hope didn’t get a chance to glare at her sister until Jason turned around and headed towards the living room. The look she caught in Grace’s eyes for a split second looked like jealousy, but it quickly changed to laughter as Hope held out her arms across the doorsill to try to keep Jason from carrying her off.

  The move lasted for the split second it took Jason to make another step. The man had way too many muscles in his thighs for her to get her way. It wasn’t that she minded him lugging her around. It was just weird to have it done in front of her family.

  “Hope stomped on Grace’s foot, so she’s got to go home for a timeout.”

  There wasn’t one person in the room who didn’t laugh at Jason’s explanation for his actions. Even Grace’s kids thought it was hilarious, and one of them could barely walk.

  “Well, drive careful. I know you said you’ve got experience on snow, but the rest of us around here don’t.” It was Hope’s dad’s deep voice that offered the advice.

  “Thankfully, we only have a few blocks to go. I’ll make sure to get her there in one piece.”

  “Great,” Marie piped in. “And you let us know when you’re ready to start looking at houses. There’s one down the street I noticed just went on the market that I don’t expect to last long.”

  Hope had missed a big part of a conversation and lifted her head up as well as she could by pushing her hands on Jason’s back. There was a touch of scheming in her mother’s eyes that scared her, and the cute little wave goodbye she did as she wiggled her fingers in their direction was
just as frightening.

  “You’ll be our first call when we line up a realtor to show us around, Marie. Again, it was great meeting everyone.”

  Giving up trying to figure out what Hope had missed from just looking at the people in the room, she went back to pounding on Jason’s back in hope he’d let her down. He had already opened the door and the cool air hitting Hope’s legs instantly caused a shiver to snake up her back.

  It wasn’t until the door closed behind them that Jason tried to explain his reason for carrying her.

  “Quit fidgeting back there. The sidewalk is icy and you didn’t wear shoes meant for walking in snow.”

  Hope calmed down a little because the reason was actually a good one. She could see there was about three inches of white fluffy powder on the ground below them. It would have easily seeped into her shoes and made the drive home all about warming her frozen feet.

  “Plus, you’ve been teasing me with the underwear question all night and I can finally say for certain you are not wearing any.”

  The comment got a knee sort of kicked into his stomach. Jason could be a bit of a pervert and she knew the underwear deal was probably the real reason she found herself carried to the car, even if he had a good excuse otherwise.

  “Who needs to spend some time in the penalty box now?” Hope asked as she was jostled so he could open the door and then put her in the car so her feet never touched the snow.

  “I’m pretty sure you’ve wrapped up a game misconduct for the night, so it’s off to the showers and straight home for you.”

  Jason kissed her forehead before closing the door and walking around the car to get in his seat. It gave Hope a chance to see how bad the roads really were and what she saw was worrisome. She’d never driven in snow, but she’d seen plenty of crashes from people who thought they could.

  There was one storm she remembered as a kid that pretty much lined the road in front of the bakery with cars either crumpled from running into each other or the light poles lining the street.