Breakaway (12 page)

“Don’t worry,” she assured each of them in turn. “I’ve only
seen him a few times, it’s not serious.”

And then came the calls from Emily, Sarah and Delise. They
arranged to all get together for pizza at Remi’s place on Saturday night. “I’ll
tell you all about it then,” she said with a sigh.

* * * * *

Jason’s cell phone rang with the Sexy Chick ring tone
that—dammit—he’d forgotten again to change. Brianne. Shit. He tossed down the
clothes he was packing for the road trip.

He debated ignoring it, but then flipped open the phone to
talk.

“Who’s the girl, Jase?” Brianne demanded immediately.

“What girl?”

“Didn’t you see the paper today?”

“Uh…no.”

“Nice picture of you two. Didn’t take you long to find
someone else. I guess it
was
me, huh?” She reminded him of his lame line
when he’d broken up with her, telling her it wasn’t her, it was him.

There must be a picture of him and Remi taken last night. “Brianne.”
He closed his eyes. He so did not want to have this conversation. “I told you
the truth. I met her after we broke up and it’s…it’s nothing serious. We’re
just going out, having fun.”

“Right. You bastard.” And she hung up on him.

Shit. He tipped his head back and gazed up at the ceiling of
his apartment.

Then he called Remi. “Hi, Remi.”

“Now what?”

He frowned at the exasperated greeting.

“I gather you saw the paper today?”

“Oh, hell yeah.”

Her tone told him that nothing about that made her happy.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” she replied and he heard a sigh. “You
are who you are.”

“Is it at least a good picture?” He smiled hopefully.

“Actually it is. But I’m not used to having my picture all
over the newspaper. Thank god they don’t know my name.”

“That won’t take them long.”

He heard her groan. “I think I heard from everyone I know in
Chicago about the picture. And some people not even in Chicago.”

“Ah. I’m sorry if it put you in a bad spot. But it’s really
no big deal.”

“Again, not to you.” She sighed.

“I gotta go,” he said regretfully. “I have to finish packing
and get to the airport. I’ll talk to you next week, okay?”

“Okay.”

* * * * *

“Oh Remi, he’s so hot!” Emily said, looking at the newspaper
photo.

“He is,” Sarah said, looking over Emily’s shoulder. “Very
hot. Very…big.”

“And don’t tell me he’s just being nice to you because of
the reading program,” Delise said in a dry tone. “With that look on his face,
he’s not just being nice to you.”

To her surprise, Delise seemed rather intrigued by the
paparazzi story. “Like, how many paparazzi were there?” she asked.

“I don’t know how many there were. It felt like a hundred.”

“Really. Wow.”

“I thought you didn’t want me to go out with him,” Remi
grumbled.

“She’s just jealous,” Sarah said with a mischievous look at
Delise.

“No I’m not!” Delise paused with a piece of pizza halfway to
her mouth. “I guess I didn’t realize how famous he is. But I still don’t think
pro athletes are really upstanding guys.”

“How can you say that!” Remi shook her head, thinking of the
work Jason had done with the kids at school. Oh hell. She was defending him.

“Well, a lot of them don’t exactly have good track records.
Wives beating them with golf clubs for cheating on them. Getting accused of
rape. Taking performance enhancing drugs. Or other illicit drugs.”

Remi sank her teeth into her bottom lip. “Yeah. Uh…well,
that’s true. But they can’t all be like that. Anyway, it wasn’t cool. It was
scary.” She thought back. It really had frightened her. She couldn’t imagine
that happening if she’d been out alone. Not that it would, since she was
nobody, but at least with Jason there she’d felt somewhat protected. “It felt
like a…a violation.”

“Oh.” Delise regarded her with sympathy. “That’s not good.”

“No.” She shook her head. “So I don’t think I’ll be seeing
him again.”

“That’s good.” Delise nodded approvingly. “So what should we
do? Hit a club tonight?”

Remembering the last time she’d done that and had met Jason
didn’t make Remi feel much like hitting a club, but she went along with her
friends, mostly to keep busy and to keep from thinking about Jason.

* * * * *

After the five day, three game, road trip, Jason wanted to
go home and crash. But he had business stuff to attend to, laundry to do and
oh, yeah, call Remi.

He wasn’t sure if he was angry or disappointed about what
had happened last week after those damn photographers had descended on them.
Sure he was disappointed, because he and Remi had been on their way up to his
apartment for what he was sure was going to be some really hot sex. But he was
angry too, angry at the paps for screwing up his night, but also annoyed at
Remi for letting it get to her. It really wasn’t that big a deal, especially if
you compared him to big movie stars. Half the time they’d followed him, he’d
been pretty sure they were more interested in pictures of Brianne than of him.

Which reminded him—she’d left another message on his voice
mail. Why, when she knew he was seeing someone else, he had no goddamn clue. He
really needed to call her and have a little chat.

He sat on his couch and held his cell phone in his hand.
Jesus. He had to call two women and there was nothing good about either of
those calls. He hated having to tell Brianne to get lost, but really, she
needed to get over it and get on with her life. And he was afraid to call Remi
because he had a rock-like feeling in his gut that she was going to tell him to
get lost.

Which kinda didn’t make sense, given the reason he’d broken
up with Brianne was because she was getting way too serious. And here he was
all freaked out because Remi didn’t want anything to do with him.

Get it over with, dude.

So he called Brianne first. Amazingly, he got through to
her. He’d thought maybe she’d be on a photo shoot or something.

“Jase!” she answered breathlessly. “Hi!”

She sounded so damn happy to hear from him. He closed his
eyes.

“Hey,” he said. “How are you?”

“I’m okay. I’m so glad you called!”

“Uh, yeah. Listen. You gotta stop calling me, Brianne.”

Silence.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“I miss you so much.” Shit. She sounded like she was going
to cry. “Please, Jase. Can’t we just sit down and talk?”

“We did that already,” he reminded her. And hadn’t that been
fun. “I’m sorry, Brianne.”

“I don’t understand! How could you find someone else
already? You were seeing her before you broke up with me, weren’t you?”

“No! Christ, no.” But it
was
true that it hadn’t
taken him long to meet someone. He’d never intended for that to happen, he’d
been looking forward to being single and free, and he still wasn’t sure why he
was so interested in Remi.

“Never mind,” she snapped. “Damn you, Jase.”

And she hung up.

He slowly closed up his phone. Yeah, that had gone well.

On to the next call. Of course Remi was at school. He
glanced at his watch. It should be her lunch time, so he might catch her. And
he did.

“Hi,” she said, not sounding nearly as enthused to hear from
him as Brianne had. Dammit.

They made the usual small talk and then he said, “Can I see
you tonight?”

She sighed. “I don’t think so, Jason. This isn’t really
going to work.”

Well, he’d seen that coming. He leaned back into his couch.
He wasn’t going to be like Brianne, all heartbroken and chasing after her. He
had some pride. With his insides burning, eyes closed, he said, “I figured you’d
say that. Okay.” He paused, not sure what else to day. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.
At school.”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Bye, Remi.”

And again he closed up his phone. Then he threw it, hard,
across the room.

* * * * *

It wasn’t that easy. Despite her conviction that they were
from different worlds and her resolve that they shouldn’t see each other again,
when he showed up at school on Wednesday, looking all big and handsome and—dammit—a
little sad, she went all soft and warm and shaky inside. She couldn’t take her
eyes off him as he worked with the kids, and more than once their glances
collided, then skittered away.

When most of the kids had left and Ryan as usual hung back
to talk about hockey, Jason quietly said, “Here.” And he slipped Ryan an
envelope. Remi frowned.

Ryan opened it and peered inside, then looked up at Jason
open-mouthed. “Are these tickets to one of your games?”

“Yeah. There’s three. For your mom and your brother too.”

A huge smile broke out on Ryan’s face. “Holy…I mean, wow.
Thank you! I can’t believe this! I’ve never been to a real, live hockey game!”

Jason grinned and Ryan dashed out, no doubt excited to get
home and share the news.

Remi’s heart tilted and warmth curled inside her. She smiled,
but shook her head as their eyes met, alone now in the classroom. “All the
other kids are going to be upset that they didn’t get tickets.”

His eyebrows drew down. “Damn. I didn’t think of that. I
just thought…he’s been doing so well and when he said they couldn’t afford to
go to a game…” He shook his head. “Shit. Sometimes I don’t think things
through.”

Her throat got a little tight.

“Remi.”

He walked toward her, then stood there, gazing at her.

“The paparazzi are really not that big a deal,” he said.

“It scared me,” she said. Although now that she’d had some
time to digest it and put in perspective, it actually didn’t seem so bad.

He went to a crouch in front of her where she sat, frowning,
and took her hands. “Scared you?”

“Yes.” She swallowed. “I’m just not used to that.”

“They wouldn’t hurt you.”

“Remember Princess Diana?”

His eyebrows flew up. “Jesus. I’m hardly in the same class
as Princess Diana. They don’t chase me around like that.”

She blew out a breath. “I know.” She paused. “Once again, Jason,
that just showed that I’m not the right kind of girl for you. I don’t live in
that kind of world.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” He stared at her. “That
doesn’t matter. You’re smart and beautiful. I’m the one scared spitless of you.
Your brains and education.”

Her heart tightened painfully. “What?” Was that true? She
gazed back at him searchingly.

He dropped his gaze and shook his head. “Never mind.”

She touched her hand to his cheek, rough with beard stubble.
“Oh, Jason.”

He looked at her hopefully. “So can we go out again?”

She surrendered to it. To the feelings swelling inside her,
big and soft and warm. To him and his boyish charm.

“Saturday. We’ll go do something fun.” His mouth curved
appealingly. “Just fun. Right?”

She sighed. “Okay.”

* * * * *

“Dress warm.” Jason had just arrived at her place Saturday
afternoon for their date.

“Where are we going?”

“Navy Pier.”

“Navy Pier! I haven’t been there in years!”

“I’ve only been there once. It was fun.”

“Okay. Sounds crazy, but okay.”

“You should know by now, I am crazy. It’s all about fun,
baby, right?”

She laughed. “Right. Let me go put on another sweater.”

She returned to her bedroom and exchanged the long-sleeved
baby doll top she wore for a black turtleneck sweater. She eyed Jason when she
returned to the living room. Instead of his usual leather jacket, he wore a ski
jacket with a fleece lining, so she chose her black puffer jacket and looped a
long black and gray scarf around her neck. She pushed aside her black
high-heeled boots and pulled out her sheepskin-lined Ugg boots. Then she peered
into her purse to make sure she had gloves.

“It’s going to be freezing there,” she warned him as she
locked the door behind them.

“Bah. It’s April.”

“It’s fifty-seven degrees!”

“That’s balmy! Wait ‘til you come to Winnipeg in January.”

Like that was going to happen. Her heart beat a little
faster. Intense curiosity to see where Jason had grown up flickered inside her.

They wandered around Navy Pier, surprisingly busy. It was a relatively
mild April day. Probably lots of tourists were out. Jason bought her popcorn
and they looked in the little shops at jewelry and souvenirs. Then he spotted
the shop where you could build your own bear. “Hey,” he said, dragging her
inside. “I want to build a bear for you.”

Okay, he was crazy. Laughing, Remi followed him into the
store, full of little girls and their mothers. All eyes landed on Jason, big,
tall, gorgeous and decidedly out of place. Warmth seeped through Remi and
heated her cheeks, but she had to smile.

She selected a furry brown bear, then they had to record a
message.

“Remi is ‘beary’ beautiful,” Jason said into the small
device, looking at her. She laughed again. The recording was tucked inside.
They stuffed the bear, fluffed the bear and then had to dress the bear.

“Oh, no question,” Jason said, surveying the choices. He
reached for a tiny Chicago Wolves uniform. “Has to be this.”

Smiling, touched and charmed, Remi nodded. “Of course.” And
her bear was dressed in the hockey uniform including a tiny stick.

She hugged the bear to her as Jason paid for it and they
wandered back outside.

“I know,” Jason said. “We have to ride the Ferris wheel.”

It was late afternoon by this point.

Remi eyed the huge structure with its gazillion spokes and
lights. “I don’t know…”

“Come on, Remi.” Once again he gripped her hand and tugged
her along. She had to almost run to keep up with his long strides toward the
Ferris wheel.

They had a gondola all to themselves. Remi gripped the side
tightly, closing her eyes as they began to ascend, Navy Pier dropping away
beneath them.