Days of You and Me (12 page)

To Make You Feel My Love
by Billy Joel

“I
’m pretty sure I just ate my weight in fried chicken.” I pushed back a little from the dining room table and exhaled. “It was so delicious, Ellie. Everything was. Thanks so much.”

Ellie Iverson beamed at me from the other side of the table. “Good. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Now maybe you’ll come over more often.”

Next to his wife, Corey laughed and brought her hand up to his lips, turning it to press a kiss to the palm. “Nothing fires up my woman more than the thought of a single man living alone and going hungry. If she had her way, she’d feed all the bachelors on the team every night.”

“Hey.” She swatted at him playfully. “That’s not true. I just like to cook, and I love to see people enjoy what I’ve made.”

“Nothing wrong with that.” I crumpled up my napkin. “I’m more than happy to enjoy it. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get over here. Moving down here and getting settled has taken me some time.”

“Well, now you know your way here. Don’t be a stranger.” She stood up and reached for my plate. “How do you feel about cherry pie?”

I grinned. “I’m not a man to say no to any type of pie.” I rose, too, and pulled the plate away from her. “But I’m also not a man to come to someone’s house, have them make me a wonderful meal, and then let them clean up, too. My mom would beat me if she ever heard about me doing that.”

Ellie laughed. “Your mom and mine would get along. Corey’s mom, too. Okay, then. You two gentlemen handle the dishes, and I’ll make coffee and dish up some pie. Does that sound fair?”

“More than.” I shot my teammate, who was still seated, a pointed look. “Are you a scraper or a dryer, Iverson? I can handle either job.”

He groaned. “Fine. Fine! You know, if you’d left well enough alone, you and I could’ve sat here and let El serve us dessert. If you’d stayed long enough, she’d have had the dishes done, and I would’ve gotten off clean-up duty for once. But no. No, you have to go and be all polite, which now means I’m stuck.” He mock-glared at his wife, and she stuck out her tongue at him.

“Sorry, dude. But you know us bachelors. We have to make sure you married men keep up with your game.”

He flipped me off good-naturedly. “You rinse. I’ll load the dishwasher. El’s particular about how it’s done, and I know what she likes.”

Ellie waggled her eyebrows. “You sure do, babe.”

I winced. “And this is why the single guys don’t hang out with the marrieds more often. There are some things you just can’t un-hear.”

Corey hooted with laughter as I followed him into their kitchen. I set up shop in front of the sink and began rinsing off the plates, depositing the silverware in a bowl and filling it with hot water.

“Look at you. I can tell you have experience with dishes.” Ellie carried over a few pots and pans. “If you’re up to it, these get hand washed.”

I shot her a look of incredulous pity. “If I’m
up to it
? Please. We didn’t get a dishwasher in my house until I was eleven. And since I’m the youngest of three boys, I always got the shit job of washing, while Simon and Danny did the fun stuff, like drying and putting things away. I can wash circles around these dishes.”

She backed up, holding up her hands. “Calm down there, buddy! I’m not doubting your ability. Not one bit.” As she passed by Corey, she patted his ass and mock-whispered, “Watch out for the psycho rookie! Don’t let him wash any knives.”

Corey cracked up, and then we fell into a companionable silence, Corey and I working together and Ellie over at the coffee maker, adding water and scooping in the grounds.

Our conversation at dinner had centered mostly around the team, our season—which was winding down—and our slim chance for a wildcard spot in the playoffs. We’d had a fairly decent year, but there was no doubt our team was still in its building stage, and other teams had performed better. Corey had pointed out that two years ago, we would have clinched a spot by this far into the season, but this year, the good teams were just playing better.

We hadn’t gotten into anything remotely personal, but now as Ellie hummed quietly to herself and began taking out small round plates for pie, I could almost feel the curiosity coming off her in waves.

“So, Leo.” She was playing it cool, trying to act as though this was nothing more than an innocent question. “How in the world did a hot piece of man meat like you get this far without some lucky woman snatching you up?”

“El, seriously?” Next to me, Corey shook his head and cast me a half-apologetic, half-speculative glance. “Man meat?”

“Babe, it’s what all the girls say. And believe me when I say that they use that exact phrase and worse when they’re talking about Leo the Lion here.”

I sighed. “Not the Lion. Please. Anything but that. It’s been following me around since high school, and I’m tired of it.”

“Sorry.” Ellie wrinkled her nose. “I get it. My sisters used to call me Ellyphant when we were growing up. They still do it to be mean now and then. I hate it.”

“Who knew I had a veritable zoo right here?” Corey snickered. “Now me, I never had any nicknames. Just plain old Corey Iverson.”

His wife ignored him. “So no more Lion, but still. Answer the question. Why are you still single, sweetie? I’d assume it was just that you enjoy the playing the field—and I’m not talking about the big G Game here, but I noticed that you haven’t been a party boy so far this year.”

“Yeah, I’m not much into parties and bars. Don’t get me wrong. I like to have a good time. But I saw what too much of that could do to a person, and I don’t want to slip down that particular road.”

“Good thinking.” She slid the coffee pot into place and punched the button to start it brewing. “So my next guess would be that maybe you’re gay, but nowadays, there’s no reason to hide that, and I haven’t seen you ogling the cuties on the team. Not that you would, maybe, but still—you’ve got no vibe.”

“El, babe, you’ve got the world’s worst gaydar. And you’re embarrassing our guest here.” Corey took a handful of forks from me and deposited them into the silverware basket in the dishwasher. “Let him be.”

“No, it’s okay.” I ran water into the larger pot, added soap and found a long-handled dish brush. “I’m not gay. I’m into the ladies.”

“Ah.” Ellie stood behind us, hands on her hips. “So that’s it then.” She nodded, as if I’d actually said something aloud.

Corey cast me a sideways look and gave his head a little shake. I stayed quiet.

“You’ve had your heart broken. Someone hurt you so badly that you’re shying away from taking a chance that it might happen again.”

She’d come way too close to the truth for my comfort. I didn’t want to talk to anyone about my past love life. On the other hand, Ellie didn’t seem to have an ulterior motive. I got the sense that she was a kind person who was honestly interested in other people and what made them tick. In a way, she reminded me of Quinn.

“So who was she? And what on earth would make her give up on a terrific guy like you?”

I finished one pot and started scrubbing the second. “It’s a long story. And the truth is, the whole thing is complicated. What went down between us wasn’t her fault. Or mine. It was just something that sort of . . . happened.”

Ellie hadn’t stopped staring me down, but when she spoke, her voice was soft. “What’s her name?”

“Uh, Quinn.”

“How did you meet?”

I smiled. “We didn’t. Well, at least, neither of us remember it. I’ve known Quinn her entire life, and she’s known me most of mine. Less three weeks, that is.”

“Ohhhh.” Ellie breathed out. “Childhood sweethearts.”

“Not exactly. Best friends, yes. But we weren’t sweethearts.” I ducked my head, fastening my eyes on a spot of burned potatoes at the bottom of the pot. “There were three of us: Quinn, me and our friend Nate. She was always caught between us, in one way or another. I was kind of a jerk in high school. And back then, I was a total party dude. Quinn . . . she was the opposite. She was smart and serious and kind—way too good for me.”

“But you loved her, still.” Ellie sounded so certain.

I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. “Yeah. Yeah, I did. I fought it for a long time, tried to avoid her, but then . . . stuff happened, and we ended up together.” I thought about those golden days in our junior year, when it felt like nothing and no one would ever come between us. “We were together for about six months, and then we weren’t.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Long story.” I attacked the burnt bits on the pot with more elbow grease. “I listened to some advice I probably should’ve ignored, and I managed to talk myself into believing I wasn’t good for Quinn. So for over a year, we didn’t speak to each other. We didn’t interact at all, until Quinn’s dad was killed the day after we graduated from high school.”

“No!” Ellie looked genuinely sad, as though she’d known Bill Russell. “That’s terrible.”

“It was.” I turned on the water and rinsed the soap out of the pot. “Quinn and her mom were both devastated. I’d been down at the shore, but I went home to be with Quinn, and one thing led to another . . .” I flashed back briefly to those nights when I’d held her as she cried herself to sleep. “We got back together.”

“For how long?” Ellie cocked her head. “Because if you’re not together now . . .”

“The summer before our junior year in college, we were living together down at Carolina. There were a couple of stories about me that went crazy in the media, and things were tough on Quinn. The stress . . . it tore us apart. What started out as a break, just some breathing room for her, ended up being a lot longer and more complicated.”

“Do you see her often?” She returned to the coffee maker, now blinking with a green light, and began pouring coffee into mugs.

“Not that much. She, ah, she married our friend Nate in May.”

Ellie’s mouth dropped open, and for a moment, I was afraid our coffee might end up on the floor. “No way. Are you serious? Why in the world would she do that?”

I turned the now-clean pot upside down on the wooden drying rack and blotted my hands on a towel. “That’s an even longer story. Maybe it would be better over pie.”

“Taylor, man.” Corey finished the last bite of his third slice of pie. “That right there is some seriously fucked-up shit. It’s like something you’d see in one of those
Lifetime
movies.” He darted a glance to his wife and then back to me. “Not that I’ve ever seen any of them. But I hear things.”

“Yeah, well, I’d trade it in for some plain old boring any time, as long as that came along with Quinn.” I forked up a bite of my first slice of pie. Talking had kept me from eating as fast as Corey had. “But it’s out of my hands.”

“For now it is.” Ellie reached over to lay her hand on my arm. “But . . . have you thought about what comes next?”

“Sometimes that’s all I can think about.” I licked a crumb of crust from my lip. “As long as we were deep in the season, I could push it to the background. But I’ve got too much time right now, and I’m going out of my mind.” Laying down my fork, I sat back. “Which makes me feel like shit, because I’m basically waiting out my friend’s death. When I saw Nate this summer, I realized I’ve been so focused on Quinn and how miserable I am that I’d almost forgotten how much I’m going to miss him.”

“You poor thing.” Ellie stood up and came around the table to hug me from behind. “Listen. I know you’re new in town, and I realize you don’t know Corey and me much beyond just a teammate and his wacky wife. But please, think of us as your family down south. If you need someone to talk to or just a place to hang out so you’re not alone . . . we’re here.” She ruffled my hair. “I never had a little brother, but I think I could do a decent job as the big sister you never knew you wanted.”

Warmth spread over my chest. “Thanks. I really appreciate that.”

“And if the time comes that Quinn is . . . in your life again, I’ll be happy to take her under my wing and help her adjust to life with a football player. It sounds to me like she’s scared and overwhelmed. Maybe she just needs a helping hand. Someone to show her the ropes.” She paused. “And if things don’t work out with Quinn, then we’ll start looking for the right woman for you.” She grinned. “I know a
ton
of eligible women.”