Crown's Chance at Love (9 page)

I hand him a cold water bottle and our fingers barely skimming the eachothers, yet I feel an electrically jolt. His are warm to my cold and all I can do is look at him and smile.

***

Mike

She hands me water and our fingers touch. Her hands are cool and soothing, while I feel like I am burning up.

“Sorry about how they were… I guess I over estimated the idea that they knew how to behave in front of people, ”she says light heartedly; her face brightening when she smiles.

I wasn’t sure what I was doing. I had promised myself that after I let her go that day at Starbucks, meeting her face to face, I would just walk away, and just keep an eye on her from far away.

But for some weird reason that same night I met her I couldn’t resist and I called her. Then I couldn’t resist calling her again the next morning and asking if she wanted to meet up for lunch, and much to my surprise she had agreed. We had met up every day since except for yesterday, when she’d had to work.  Then this morning I had called to see if I could take her to dinner. My plan had been easy. Go to dinner and act like a jerk, make her want to stop talking to me, since it was obvious I couldn’t do it on my own. But every step I took she seemed to surprise me, catching me off guard.

This morning, when she had laid her cards on the table, I knew I was in trouble. She was like a breath of fresh air. The women I was use to dating all played mind games, always trying to stay a step ahead of you so that they could keep the upper hand. Even at the end, Holly had been this way as well. I hadn’t even realized it till I met Sabrina. It was like some unspoken mind game like Chess, but there were no written rules.  Not Sabrina though, and damn me if there isn’t something about her that made it impossible for me to stay away..

“Don’t worry about it. They’re cute.” I say taking a big gulp of the water.

“So I guess I should try to sell you a little on the mud run idea?” she asks raising an eyebrow, a sneaky smile gracing her lips. Something about her was so damn adorable.

“Honestly?”

“Yeah… I do prefer honesty….let me guess? Your board has decided to stick with Spark?” She is still grinning not one ounce of surprise on her face.

“Actually they have, but you expected that?” I ask tilting my head, finding myself a little surprised at her intuition.

“Yeah, and honestly I am a little thankful. The 5K is in the middle of the busiest time of the year for us.” She says with a soft laugh.

“Then why bid?” I ask. Damn if she isn’t intriguing to me.

“Because I didn’t lose anything by trying.  Putting Ritz Events name on your board’s radar is smart, especially if…

“If Spark doesn’t deliver?” She is a genius.
Damn it! I shouldn’t like her as much as I do
, I think to myself.

“Exactly, but I honestly am interested in the Breast Cancer Gala in October. I think it’s a great event, even greater cause.” I nod, because she is right.

“It’s one of my favorites.” I chime in.

“You probably have to go to a lot of them throughout the year.” She says as she starts taking out ingredients from the fridge.

“Yeah it’s usually just the same people different cause. They get pretty boring.”

“So why is the Breast Cancer one your favorite?”she asks her head in the fridge.

“My grandmother started that Gala and then later she was diagnosed,” I say, trying not to remember the day she broke the news to me.

“Oh I’m sorry… were you two close?”

“Yeah, my mom wasn’t your typical mom waiting at home for you with homemade chocolate chip cookies and milk, but it was okay because I had my grandma. She was always there for me. She actually started the Gala because her friend was diagnosed and at that time it was a death warrant when you were diagnosed with Breast Cancer. People didn’t like to talk about it. Then a couple years later she was diagnosed… stage four, it had already spread,” I say and she looks at me, her eyes looking even bigger.

“I am really sorry. I am glad that you got to share so many good memories together though.”

“Yeah, she was a wonderful lady, a real spitfire. She was never afraid of speaking her mind. She was hilarious,” I say and she smiles brightly.

“That’s great… so you and your siblings were close to both your grandparents or were you just close to your grandma?”

“Both actually, they were a very solid couple. I uh… have one half brother, but we are twelve years apart, and we weren’t raised together so we aren’t really close,” I say quickly.

“Older?”

“Younger actually… one of those family secret type things. My dad cheated with his secretary, she got pregnant… you know like a bad country song,” I try to joke around, not really sure why I am divulging so much information to her. I have never been as much of an open book like I am right now with her.

“I’m sorry. That must have been difficult to understand as a twelve year old,” she says and I keep being surprised by her. She didn’t make it a big deal, she didn’t press me on anything.

“Do you have any siblings?” I ask trying to get the focus on her and away from me.

“Yeah a brother and a sister. My brother Jake lives in London and my sister, Cara and her husband live in Newport.”

“Are you guys close?”

“My sister and I are. Her husband Jerry and her are saints! They help me out a ton with the kids, they actually took the kids to Disneyland yesterday after Mark’s game.”

“What about with your brother?” I ask curiously. I knew about her sister and her sister’s husband; they had come up on the file my PI had given me. They were extremely close to Sabrina and the kids, and were expecting a baby soon, but I didn’t know anything about her brother which surprised me.

“It’s… complicated. He lives in London, so with the time difference and other things, its tough to keep in touch,” she says, but I feel like she is holding back a little but I don’t push it. “My parents live like fifteen minutes away and my best friend Emmi is literally walking distance from here, so the kids have tons of family around them. Plus, my best guy friend Nick fly’s in frequently from Denver,” she shares.

I watch her as she moves flawlessly around her kitchen gathering all sorts of things from the fridge and pantry. Nick Riley was another one of the people the PI had noted was always around. Even though he lived in Denver, he frequently visited Sabrina, usually staying there with them. I had thought that maybe there had been something going on between them, but maybe they were just friends?

“That must be helpful with the kids,” I chime in.

“It is,” she says as she places a heavy looking cast iron pan on the stove and starts to preheat it.

“Can I help with anything?” I ask and she looks at me mischievously.

“If you want… I mean meatballs can be messy,” she says smiling and I can’t seem to help myself around her. I go over to wash my hands and once I’m done I go stand by her. She looks up at me and damn if it isn’t sexy how she looks looking up at me with her big brown eyes. She seems tiny standing next to me, and all I want to do is shield and protect her, something I have never really felt around a woman.

“Do you think I don’t know my way around a kitchen?” I ask smiling. “You insinuating I don’t know how to cook?”

“Hey you said it, not me…” she says laughing and I bump her with my hip.

“Okay Rachel Ray what do you want me to do?”

“She doesn’t like Rachel Ray… Mom would be more of a Giada or younger version of Paula Deen,” Penny says as she walks in, her ponytail swinging back and forth. Her hair is the same shade of Sabrina’s maple brown hair, only in wild curls.

***

Sabrina

“Penny…” I start to say.

“It’s true. Mom can make you any Italian or Southern food with her eyes closed,” Penny says smiling. I’m not really sure what she is up to, but she’s being cute and sweet so I let her stay.

“Is that true?” Mike asks his eyes filled with amusement.

“When I have time I guess you could say that,” I say shrugging off Penny’s compliments. “Here why don’t you mix all this together?” I tell him and he smiles and nods at me.

I watch his big strong hands go into the bowl, and even though he is only mixing ground beef with a couple of ingredients, he is incredibly sexy.

“Mom can we go get frozen yogurt later?” Penny asks as a lightbulb turns on. I figured out why my girl was being sweet and throwing the compliments right and left.

“We’ll see okay babe.”

“Do you like FroYo Mr. Crown?” she asks politely, and suddenly I think she is up to more than just scoring icre cream after dinner.

“Call me Mike, and yes I like FroYo,” he says as he works mixing up the meatball mixture.

“Mom, Mike should go with us. I mean if you want to go. The place we go to, you get to add all your own toppings and stuff. It’s really good.”

“I’d like that,” he says quickly and I look at him a little surprised. “It’s ready, should I start rolling?” he asks me.

“Umm.. Yeah sure, want help?” I ask as he catches me off guard. Not sure what I was most surprised about, him wanting to help roll and cook meatballs or him wanting to go with us to get frozen yogurt. I decided not to think too much about it and go with the flow.

“Sure… Penny want to roll meatballs with me?” he asks and she beams nodding as she goes to wash her hands. I feel like I have no idea who this little girl is in my kitchen, especially because Penny hates helping in the kitchen. I walk over to grab a pot for the pasta.

“Mom! Mark keeps changing the NFL Network and they are having a special on the Harbough brothers!” Chris yells from the living room.

“Mark, come on bud, Chris was watching first,” I shout back, slightly cringing at myself for yelling in front of Mike. I turn to look at Penny and Mike roll and start to cook up the meatballs on the cast iron pan.

“Yeah but the Giants are playing mom!” Mark yells back and I take a deep breath.

“Giants?” Mike whispers, “What kind of kids are you raising? Traitors?” Penny and I laugh.

“We used to live up north in Berkeley before dad died, everyone’s a Giants fan there,” Penny says and I completely freeze as I am filling a pot of water to boil the pasta. I look over to Mike. He looks a little surprised but doesn’t say anything.

“Well I guess that explains the Giants fascination, but you guys live here now… on the better part of California! We have the Dodgers and the Angels… even the Padres are better than the Giants,” he says teasingly.

“Don’t let Mark hear you say that.” Penny jokes with him and I just stare at the interaction between them.

“Mom! He won’t change it back.” Chris comes into the kitchen heading to the fridge, grabbing an apple he sits at the breakfast bar watching Mike and Penny make meatballs.

“Chris it’s okay. How many times have you seen the Harbough brother’s special?”

“That’s not the point Mom, I was watching first. Then his big head comes and changes it.” Chris pouts.

“Baby watch your words.”

“Big head isn’t a bad word.”

“Chris! We have company please be nice,” I say as he starts to try my patience, but it really wasn’t what Chris was doing that was irritating me. I had irritated myself by not having been upfront with Mike about Sean.

“Mike what would you rather watch? A special on one of the most interesting set of coaching brothers in the NFL, future football coaching legends OR watch the stupid Giants play?”

He chuckles. “Bud I agree with you but I’m making meatballs. Want to help us?” he asks and I look over at Chris and he nods. Again I can’t seem to hold my smile back as I watch Chris wash his hands and head over to the mixture and start rolling meatballs.

“This is what brains must look like,” he says and we all laugh.

“That’s so gross Chris,” Penny chimes in.

We cook and once the meatballs, sauce and pasta are all done, the kids go back to the living room to watch a movie.

“Would you like something to drink?” I ask Mike, nervously since we have been left alone in the kitchen.

“I’ll take another bottle of water.” I nod and grab us two bottles out of the fridge, and hand it over to him, “Want to go out back?”

“Sure,” he says and he follows me, my heart’s beating hard. I know I have to explain about Sean and I am not sure how.

We sit at the porch swing, his thigh touching mine and I look at him and smile.

“So I should explain,” I say looking at him in the eye.

“About?” he asks raising an eyebrow.

“About the kid’s dad… my husband,” I say softly.

He takes a deep breath, “Okay.”

“Sean, that’s his name… was… anyhow umm… he died three and a half years ago,” I say nervously, staring out to the tree house. “He was a paramedic, and his rig was hit by a drunk driver head on.” I feel his hand cover mine and lightly squeeze it, almost as if giving me strength to keep talking, “He was a really good man. You would have liked him, I mean everyone loved Sean. He was really laid back and funny. Anyhow, when you and I met and you asked me about him, I don’t know why I just didn’t tell you the truth from the start. I hated not telling you or insinuating that he wasn’t in the picture by choice. I just… I guess I didn’t want to see what I saw in everyone else’s eyes when I tell them I’m a widow.”