Dean clicked his tongue. “Well, maybe we really should meet in person. I’ll be at the Riverside at eight. Meet me there.” He hung up.
Great. The Riverside Café was clear across town. How long Dean decided to keep me would determine whether or not I got home in time to meet Jayden. I considered making a phone call to cancel, just because I had no idea how long I would be. But just the thought of not seeing her that night disappointed me more than I expected. I decided to put off making the decision until I knew for sure, so I worked as efficiently as I could to finish my day.
When I told Lou I had a date with the girl of my dreams, he was happy and wanted to hear more. As I cleaned up my workspace, I told him what I knew about her.
“She sounds great,” he said. “It’s about time you found someone worth a second date.”
It felt really good to talk about Jayden with Lou, and it was nice to hear his support. But my happiness was put on hold when I was sitting face to face with Dean Conlon at eight o’clock.
“Hey, Ty,” he half smiled, half sneered. “It’s nice to see you. It’s been a while.”
“So what did my dad do this time?” I asked.
“Let’s just get to the point, right?” he scoffed. “Actually your dad hasn’t done anything stupid for a while—at least not that I know of. You’re here because I have a little favor I wanted to ask of you. Do you remember Pete Guthrie?”
I barely nodded my head. “Yeah, what about him?”
“He’s in town again. Wants to take on Kenny one more time. Now personally I think it’s a pretty dumbass thing to do, being that Kenny nearly ripped him in half last time, but the money is there, you know? The problem is who Pete’s fighting for these days—Yule.”
I raised my eyebrows. Yule used to work for Kristof Olevsky. He and Kenny were once friends until Yule sold out to the highest bidder. After a pretty brutal match between the two—Yule barely survived—Yule disappeared from the scene for a while. The thing was…the fight was fixed.
“And?” I asked.
“And Yule’s fixing the fight to go the other way this time. Petey’s supposed to come out on top. Kenny doesn’t really know this yet, and you know how he is about fixed fights…”
Kenny didn’t mind illegal underground fighting—and he could even handle losing if that’s what it came down to—but he didn’t like losing because the money was doing the talking. He would rather lose and be close to death than to lose because someone told him to.
“I’m not going to place your bets against Kenny,” I told him flat out. “Find someone else.”
He eyed me cautiously. “You don’t have to place the bets, Ty. I’ve already got my placer. What I need is for you to convince Bobby that the fight is fixed the other way.”
I watched him carefully to let what he was saying sink in. Bobby was sometimes used to “squeal” on things going on behind the scenes. Other betters thought they were getting an inside scoop from a brainless crack addict, when in fact he was feeding them exactly what his bosses wanted him to. There were others like Bobby—but a little more mentally sound—and they only fed certain information to certain people, so the trail of evidence becomes unclear along the way. In the end, nobody had a clue where they got their information.
“Why do I need to convince Bobby? Don’t you guys have that covered?”
Dean shrugged. “You just need to let Bobby know that the fight is fixed, and it’s gonna go to Kenny. You don’t need to ask questions, Ty.”
“Then I’m not going to be involved in this. Look, there’s hardly anything left of Bobby. Why can’t you guys just leave him alone? You’ve got him so whacked out on whatever you’ve got to offer him that he doesn’t even know what planet he’s on.”
Dean was amused. “You and Bobby good friends, Ty? He like a little brother to you?”
“No, I just think you’re setting him up for failure. One of these days he’s going to say the wrong thing to the wrong person and—”
“That’s not your business, Ty.”
“Now that’s a little ironic, because you just asked me to make it my business.”
He glowered at me. “I can make your life a living hell if you want me to, Ty. Just say the word and dear old dad will be my pawn again in no time.”
I sighed. “He’s about as bad off as Bobby.”
“Oh, then maybe I’ll use his drunk ass to close this deal for me. Cliff probably is a better choice, being that he’s faced a few more prominent people than Bobby has.” He tapped his head, pretending to think. “You know, that might not be a bad idea. The fight is in three days. With your dad’s help, word can move up the chain in no time. Thanks for the idea, Ty.”
I silently groaned to myself. Dean knew that Bobby would trust anything that I said, and creating this type of bet was sure to cause mayhem for some major players. They would bet according to their closest source, and Dean knew the exact channels to send which information to whom. With my dad it was a sure thing to get the information straight to the right people, but it was also riskier because of who he knew. The same information would get there through Bobby as well; it would take a little more time, but it was a lot safer.
“Fine,” I replied. “I’ll talk to Bobby.”
Dean chuckled. “I don’t know, Ty. I think I’m liking the idea of working with your dad again…”
I looked at my watch and stood up. “I gotta go. I’ll talk to Bobby.”
He folded his arms against his chest and smiled as I walked away.
Traffic was slow, and I just barely got to my house at ten to nine. I would hardly have time to shower, but I was on my way down the hall when there was a knock at the door.
Jayden was early.
“I’m really sorry,” I said, opening the door. “I just got home.”
“Oh, that’s fine,” she smiled.
Smiling was such a simple act, but when she smiled, it took my breath away. She looked amazing. I hadn’t seen her since Sunday evening, and even though her face never left my memory, it was still a rush to see her again. My heart was pounding like crazy.
“Uh, come in,” I said, glancing around. I hoped she didn’t see anything she shouldn’t. “My roommates aren’t exactly tidy, so I hope you’re not appalled. I haven’t been home all day.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she waved it off.
“You look beautiful,” I told her. I couldn’t remember a girl that I had ever been so attracted to.
She smiled and said, “Thank you. You look like you’ve been underneath a car.”
I looked down at my appearance and laughed. “Yeah, sorry. I guess it’s not exactly appealing.”
“I didn’t say that,” she replied, eyeing me carefully.
Her shy smile made my pulse race. I wondered if she even knew what she did to me.
“Well, uh, let me go take care of it, anyhow. Uh… I’ll just be a few minutes, okay? Make yourself at home, I guess.”
She only nodded.
I quickly showered and threw on a pair of jeans. She was wearing jeans as well, along with a pair of heels and a nice top, so I felt I was dressed okay. I looked at my hands to make sure most of the grease was off of them. They looked all right, but I took another turn at scrubbing an extra time, just for good measure.
She was sitting in a chair in the front room, and when she saw me she smiled. “Wow, you clean up nice.”
I hoped that meant I looked good, so I said, “Thank you.”
“I’m not used to seeing you without a hat on,” she informed me.
“Oh,” I replied, running a hand through my damp hair. “Should I put one on?”
She laughed. “No, it was just… Sorry, I wasn’t implying anything, it was just an observation.” She stood up. “Are you ready?”
“Uh…” I looked around, knowing I was forgetting something, and patted my back pocket. “Hang on.” I headed back to my room, grabbed my wallet, keys and phone, and returned to her. “Ready.” On the way out the door I
asked, “Did you want me to drive?”
My house was closer to where we were headed, which is why she decided to meet me there. We were already short on time since I worked late.
She smiled at me and shrugged. “That’s fine. Why, do you think that dent in my car was my fault?” The look she gave me was a playful challenge.
I lightly laughed as I looked over the rear quarter panel of her car. “No, I thought no such thing. But I can fix that for you if you’d like.”
“Really?”
I knelt next to it to take a closer look. “Yeah, it shouldn’t be too hard.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I’ve meant to get it fixed but… I don’t know. I always put off the things I don’t want to take care of,” she smiled.
“Don’t even consider taking it to someone else,” I warned her. “I would be offended.”
She lightly laughed.
“What happened, anyway?”
With a shrug she replied, “I have no idea. I came out of a concert a few weeks ago and found it like that. Someone must have hit it and just took off.”
“That sucks. But honestly, let me have it for a day and I can take care of it for you.”
After much persistence she finally agreed, but only if I let her pay for it.
I refused.
“But I will let you make it up to me,” I told her.
She eyed me carefully. “Meaning what?”
“Meaning you’ll just have to trust me,” I smiled.
After a moment of consideration, her skepticism seemed to soften. “Okay, I’ll trust you. But I know people,” she warned with her finger.
I laughed as we both got in my truck, but this time she actually let me open the door for her.
I walked around to the driver’s side and when I sat down she asked, “So you don’t mind that I’m delaying our second date?”
I shook my head and started the ignition. “Not at all.”
“Okay good, because I really wanted you to come with us tonight, but I didn’t want it to count as our date that’s supposed to be ‘very much me.’ ”
She looked at me with a smile and it made my heart skip a beat.
“Well, if it gives me an extra date from you, I’m all for it,” I told her. “I would be an idiot not to.”
She chuckled, but I think she was actually agreeing with me.
We had both been pretty busy during the week. She worked all day and then taught music lessons on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings. I had classes until one on most days, and practice was every weekday from three to five-thirty if we didn’t have games. Most of our games were on Saturdays and Sundays, and they were generally double-headers because of the distance we sometimes traveled, or other teams had to travel.
I’d spoken to Jayden on the phone everyday that week. We knew each other’s schedules (I had to write hers down since I could barely keep track of my own), so we’d try to call each other at the best possible times. I loved talking to her on the phone, but being with her in person was even better.
We pulled into the movie theatre at nine-forty. We would be meeting several of Jayden’s friends there, and I had to admit I was a little apprehensive. She assured me that they were all nice. She had described them to me, and none of them seemed to worry me, but Jayden had implied that Chris held a disliking to me already. I assumed that there could be some sort of romantic history between the two of them, but I wasn’t sure. I knew that they practically grew up together, but I was too embarrassed to pry into that part of her life just yet.
“So you guys do this once a month?” I asked as we made our way into the theatre.
“Yeah, at the very least. But it’s not always a movie. We do other things, too.”
I wanted to hold Jayden’s hand that night, no matter what, but I didn’t want the awkwardness of making my move in the theatre—especially with people that might be watching. So as we were walking, I just reached for her hand. She smiled at me just as Cali came bouncing to us, putting her arms around Jayden and giving her a hug. It caused her to release my hand so she could hug her back.
“You look great,” Cali told her. “Nice shoes. Where’d you get ‘em?” Without waiting for a response she looked at me and held out her hand. “I’m Cali and you must be Ty.”
“I am. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too.” She returned her attention back to Jayden. “Guess who’s here?” she asked.
“Wade?”
“Yes! How’d you guess?”
“Because you said you were going to invite him.”
“Oh, did I? He’s kind of sitting all the way down by Matt, which totally defeats the purpose of inviting him, but oh well. Anyways, you know where to find us!” She turned and disappeared into the theatre.
Jayden faced me with a smile and said, “She gets really excited, really easily.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” I lightly laughed. “She seems pretty friendly, though.”
“She is. She’s the best. Come on, let’s go,” she motioned with her head.
With another smile she slid her hand back into mine, and we walked into the theatre together. I just followed her lead and walked with her as she headed up the stairs to the center of the very top row next to Cali.
And Chris.
Jayden introduced me to the five other people that were there and they were all very nice, except for Chris. He barely offered me a nod. We sat down next to Cali and she immediately began chatting with Jayden. I was ready to just sit patiently until I received Jayden’s attention again, but I was actually surprised when Chris leaned back to talk to me behind the two girls.
“So how’s your season going?” he asked somewhat coolly.
“Oh, pretty decent. But we’re about to get into the tougher teams, so hopefully we can hold our standing.”
He nodded slowly a few times, like he was thinking of a response, but all he finally said was, “Well, good luck with that.” He didn’t seem comfortable saying anything further and left it at that, but maybe it was because Jayden brought her attention back to me.
“We can move into the middle if you want. I just automatically sit on the end of our group. That way I don’t have to climb over anyone if I have to go to the bathroom.”
“No, I’m perfectly fine. I like the end. And you are more than welcome to climb over me to get out.”
She laughed. “Good because I’m going to right now. I’ll be back in a few.” She put her hand on my shoulder and stepped by me, but before she was completely past, she softly touched my neck with her fingers. My heart raced, especially when she smiled at me, and then I watched her head down the stairs. I stared at her until Cali’s voice brought me back to reality.
“She’s awesome, huh,” she said to me.
I was still smiling, but I hoped she couldn’t hear my heart pounding. “She is,” I replied.
“Well, Ty, she’s pretty much told me everything she knows about you, so tell me something I don’t know.”
She eagerly leaned over the armrest to talk to me. Chris was also listening to our conversation, and I felt like I was being put on the spot. I was afraid her friends wouldn’t like me, and that they’d pass their opinions on to Jayden.
“What do you want to know?” I asked tentatively.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Are you gonna kiss her tonight?”
It took me completely by surprise, and I barely mumbled, “Uh, wow, that’s…”
“Invasive,” Chris offered sourly.
Cali laughed. “I’m only giving him the idea.”
“I’m sure he’s got his own ideas,” he said under his breath.
“Don’t be such a jerk,” she told him.
“You’re the one asking stupid questions.”
“Whatever,” she said, turning back to me. “What do you like most about Jay?”
Every night I thought about all the things I liked about her. It was a long list. “Uh, I wouldn’t know where to start. Uh… Probably that sh
e’s very…authentic.” That seemed like the right word. “She’s very sincere. And she’s a lot of fun. She’s also funny and really smart—”
“And it doesn’t hurt that she’s pretty hot, right?” Chris cut in, sounding a little irritated.
He was treating me like I only had one thing on my mind, and it was insulting. However, I smiled and replied, “She’s beautiful. Inside and out.”
Chris was going to say something more, but I saw his sister elbow him and he shook his head at her with a scowl. I could tell that his original plan to stay neutral, or maybe a promise he’d made to be nice, was getting too hard to stick with any longer.
Cali leaned closer to me and whispered, “If you can get used to Chris, then you’ll be prepared to meet Jayden’s dad. Now that’s a challenge.”
She turned away when someone down the row called her name.
I thought about what Cali had said about Jayden’s dad. So far we had kind of stuck to keeping family talk out of our conversations. He’d come up a few times, but she never said too much about him. I did realize he was pretty hard-nosed, though, and I was beginning to wonder if Jayden would intentionally keep me from meeting him. But I brushed it off, being that we had only known each other for barely a week now. It was hardly necessary to meet each other’s parents.
When Jayden returned, there were two other people with her. The girl was petite, with long black hair, dark eyes, and olive skin. She was dressed fashionably, with lots of jewelry and manicured nails. The guy had sandy colored hair and was dressed more casually in jeans, a sweatshirt, and a pair of skate shoes. He was around six-two and almost a foot taller than the girl he was holding hands with.
“Look who I found wandering the halls,” Jayden said.
“Hey, you guys!” Cali waved.
Jayden introduced me to Silvia and Josh. The two said their hellos as they squeezed by to sit in the two empty seats in the middle by Matt and Stacie, and then Jayden stepped past me and sat back down just as the previews began. I was very glad when she took my hand back right away.
Ten minutes into the movie she looped her arm through mine and leaned against me. “Cali won’t talk to me the whole time if I’m clear over here,” she whispered. Her smile was completely beguiling and I would have kissed her right then if we had been alone. I began thinking about it and probably missed the next twenty minutes of the movie. Cali’s mention of kissing Jayden was nothing new; I had been dreaming about it all week. And I really had planned on doing it that night if it felt right. Now I was trying hard not to think about it, and it was impossible.
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