How Forever Feels (9 page)

“But she's
not
a girl.” Carter laughed. “She's the devil in lipstick and she must be stopped.”

“You suck!” Ellie taunted as she jogged back across the yard. “Maya and Jayne could put up a better defense than you two.”

“Hey!” Maya laughed, turning to Jayne for support, but all Jayne did was shrug and grin. “Yeah, okay, whatever.”

With his hand on Jack's back, Carter leaned in and whispered something no one else could hear, but it made Jack laugh as they set up for their run.

“Hike!” Carter nailed the ball at Jack then headed straight toward Brett, who was putting up one hell of a fight to get past.

Meanwhile, Ellie ran straight at Jack, who again just stood there, until she got within reach, then he lifted the ball straight above his head, wrapped his free arm around her waist, and ran both her and the ball to the goal line, with Ellie squealing and flailing the whole way.

“That's cheating!” she cried when he finally set her down—gently. “You can't do that.”

“Aw, poor Ellie,” Carter teased, ducking as she faked a throw at his head. “Finally met someone who cheats as well as she does.”

“Okay, losers.” She laughed. “If that's how you want to play it, then it's game on. Let's go.”

And so they did. Back and forth the game went, and so long as Carter could manage Brett, Jack could keep the ball out of Ellie's reach simply by virtue of his height. Never one to be put off easily, though, she tried all sorts of things to get the ball away from him, including jumping on his back and trying to climb him like a tree.

“This could go on all night,” Jayne muttered. “Come on, let's get dinner started.”

Leaving Nick to man the barbecue, Maya and Regan followed her into the kitchen, where they went to work wrapping the corn in foil and tossing salads.

“I gotta say it,” Regan said. “I really like Jack.”

“Metoo.” Jayne nodded. “He's great.”

“Yeah.” Maya set the stack of napkins down then picked them up again and rearranged them. “He is.”

A second, maybe two, is how long it took her to realize the two of them were staring at her. Not just staring, either, but
staring
.

“Maya.” Regan took a step closer and lowered her voice a notch. “He's Dickhead's best friend.”

“I know.” She didn't even try to pretend she didn't get Regan's meaning.
“I know.”

“Then what's with that look?”

“What look?” She knew damn well what look. “I'm not stupid, Regan, it's just, he's a good-looking guy, he's fun, he's…shit, I don't know, hormones I guess.”

“Yeah, we figured that,” Regan said, making Jayne snicker behind her hand.

“It's been so long, Charles Manson would probably look good to me right now.”

“What about Tim?” Jayne asked. “How'd that go the other night?”

“Best date yet.” Maya laughed as she pulled cutlery out of the drawer. “He stood me up.”

“He did not!”

“Ask him yourself. He texted me yesterday to apologize, but neither one of us suggested we reschedule, so that says something right there.”

“Just as well,” Regan said. “You've got enough going on with one guy out in the yard and another wanting to have a baby with you.”

Maya shoved the handful of forks at Regan. “Louder, please. There's a dead guy in New York who didn't quite hear you.”

“What? Everyone here knows—” Regan stopped, and her eyes widened as she pointed outside. “You haven't told Jack?”

“No!”

“Yeah, I guess that'd be kind of weird, wouldn't it?”

“More than just kind of, and besides, I knew you three would all turn around and tell your Stooges.” Neither Regan nor Jayne made any attempt to deny it. “So I'm sure between the six of you, I'll have more than enough opinions and input on what I should or shouldn't do.”

“So you haven't decided yet?”

“No.” Arms crossed, Maya slumped back against the counter. “I really want to have a baby.”

“Then do it.” Regan said it so matter-of-factly you'd think they were talking about what kind of cheese Maya should put on her burger.

“But I…” Maya stopped, sighed. It was stupid.

“You want the fairy tale,” Jayne finished. “Nothing wrong with that.”

That made Maya snort, loud and long. “There's plenty wrong with it when there's no Prince Charming anywhere on the horizon.”

Regan shook her head slowly as she made her way to the fridge. “I still can't believe he asked you. I mean, I know you guys have been out a few times and I know he calls, but this? This is crazy fast; you barely know him.”

“You're the one who gave him my number!”

“Yeah, I gave him your number, not a color-coded map to your uterus.”

With the last of the corn wrapped, Jayne scouted the area to find any lurkers. “If you decide to do it, how will you…you know…do it?”

“You mean will I have S-E-X with him?” Maya laughed. “Or will we use a turkey baster?”

“It's a legitimate question.” Regan set a jar of pickles on the counter and reached for the cutting board. “The sex might be good, scratch that itch you've got going on, but it could also make the whole thing awkward.”

“Yeah.” Jayne nodded. “Like what if the sex is awful and you don't get pregnant and then you have to keep having sex with him over and over? Or what if he's just using this whole thing to get into bed with you?”

“Jayne!”

“What? You don't know, Maya. It could happen.”

“Oh, please,” Regan said. “There's probably a mile-long lineup of men and women who'd be only too happy to have sex with him anytime of the day or night.”

“Exactly.” Jayne nodded. “But Maya's not one of them, so maybe that's part of the attraction.”

“Or,”
Maya said, rolling her eyes at both of them, “maybe he's not a sex maniac of any kind, but just a perfectly normal human being who wants to have a baby.”

Regan glanced over at Jayne. They both grinned, and then Regan shrugged. “Okay, or that.”

Footsteps neared the door, bringing their conversation to a screeching halt. Carter was the first one in, and grinning like a fool, he headed straight for the fridge, then detoured slightly so he could kiss Regan.

“Hey, Red.” Typical Carter, he couldn't just give her a quick kiss and move on; he had to wrap his arm around her waist, pull her up tight against him, and kiss her like it was the first time.

“Get a room,” Maya muttered, pushing past them, but they both just laughed.

“I'm almost afraid to ask,” Jayne said. “But who won?”

“Oh, right, that's why I came in here.” One more kiss before Carter finally let Regan go and headed back toward the fridge. “I owe that man a beer.”

“Wait…” Open-mouthed, Maya pointed between Carter and the door leading to the yard. “You mean…”

“We kicked her ass!”

“You did not,” Ellie groused, stomping into the kitchen. “Ponch and I took it easy on you guys this time is all because we didn't want to scare off the new guy right out of the gate.”

“And that new guy would be me?” Jack filled the doorway, his grin a little teasing, a little sheepish all at the same time.

“Jack, my man!” Carter held out one of the bottles triumphantly. “Out of the way, Ellie, only winners get to drink tonight.”

“Is that right?” She'd barely taken a single threatening step toward him before he shoved a bottle at her, both of them laughing. She twisted off the top, flicked it back at him, then tried not to smile when she turned to Maya. “Jack's never allowed to play again. You need to pack him up and send him on his way. Right now.”

“Oh, come on, Ellie, we don't want to disappoint the fans, do we?” Jack smirked over her head at Carter. “I think I can still hear them…”

“Shut—” Ellie started.

“Hold on, there it is.” He cupped his hand against his ear, leaned a little closer to the door and whispered.
“Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack.”

By the time he lowered his hand, everyone but Ellie was chanting along with him.

“Nice, you guys.” Narrowing her gaze, she tipped her bottle at each of them in turn. “Really nice.”

“Come on, loser.” Still laughing, Carter wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze. “Get a little food in your system and you'll be all ready for the next round of ass-kicking.”

With a sharp elbow to his stomach, Ellie lifted a slice of cheese off the plate on the table and pointed it toward Jack. “You're going down, new guy. And you're going down hard.”

Maya lifted the platter of burgers and headed for the door. “Just let her win, Jack. It'll be faster and we'll all thank you for it.”

“Yeah…” He and Carter both shrugged. “That's not going to happen.”

With the burgers and corn on the grill, Maya and Jayne shooed everyone else back outside while they finished putting out the rest of the food.

“He fits right in,” Jayne whispered, tipping her head toward the big window that looked out over the deck. “And it sure seems like he and Carter already have some kind of bromance going on.”

Jayne was absolutely right; it was like Jack had always been part of the group. As Maya watched—discreetly, of course—Jack made his way from where he was talking to Carter over to the picnic table where Brett and Ellie were sitting. She couldn't hear what he said to them, but both she and Jayne froze in place and stared open-mouthed when Brett laughed.

“Wow,” Jayne murmured. “There's something you don't hear every day.”

Everything inside Maya warmed to a slow melt. That was Jack; always able to make someone laugh, even Brett, who rarely smiled at anything or anyone besides Ellie.

“What does Dickhead think about you and Jack?”

Maya snorted so loud Nick looked up from the barbecue outside. “The worst, I'm sure. What else would someone like him think?”

As Jayne cut the buns, Maya quietly filled her in on what happened at the hotel.

“So you just left?”

“What else was I supposed to do? I'm not going to get into a tug-of-war with Will over who gets Jack.”

“Because you think you'll lose?”

“Because I
know
I will.”

Jayne set the knife down and looked over at Maya who was busy turning a plate of tomato slices into a work of art.

“Maya.” After a second, she reached over and pulled the tomatoes out of Maya's reach. “You really like him, don't you?”

It took Maya a bit to stop staring at the plate, now on the other side of Jayne, and look at Jayne, who obviously thought she already knew the answer to her question.

“I've always liked him,” Maya said quietly. After a quick glance at the door, she leaned closer to Jayne so her voice wouldn't carry outside. “But it was always just a friend thing, you know? And then…I don't even know. From the second I saw him at Chalker's last week, something felt different. He's the same guy he's always been, hasn't done or said anything different than he used to, and yet…”

“And yet,” Jayne repeated, nodding slowly. “It's always the ‘and yet's that get you.”

“It must be because my girlie parts have been neglected for so long that they've gone on high alert, right?”

“Maybe.” Not even a little bit convincing and they both knew it.

“Or maybe it's just because I haven't seen him in a while.”

“Maybe.” Slightly more convincing, but not by much.

“So maybe it'll go away, this…this…
feeling
.”

“Do you want it to?”

“No.” The admission was out of her mouth before she could stop it. “But it's complicated with him, and it's not like he's ever going to move here, so where would that leave us? He's just started a new project and he's going to be pretty busy for the next little while. So really…”

“So really,” Jayne muttered. “That doesn't give the two of you much time to make those girlie parts of yours happy.”

“Uh, excuse me, Jayne.” Jack stood in the doorway, both hands twisting around his almost-empty bottle, his gaze flickering from Jayne to Maya to the far wall of the kitchen. “Sorry to interrupt; Nick sent me in to get a platter for the burgers.”

Unable to move, Maya couldn't even drag her mortified stare away from him, so she just stood there at the corner of the table while Jayne hustled over to the cupboard and pulled out a big oval platter.

“Thanks.” Jack bobbed his head slightly. “I, uh, I think we're done. The burgers, I mean. They're cooked.”

With another quick nod, he stepped back out onto the deck just as Jayne burst out laughing.

“Ohmygod.” Maya stumbled to the farthest chair and collapsed on it. “How long was he standing there?”

“I don't know.”

“You don't think he heard, do you?”

“Well, I guess it's possible Ellie might have hit him so hard in the game that he suddenly became deaf, but if I were to guess…”

“Ohmygod,” Maya squeaked. “Do you think he even heard what I said about my girlie parts?”

“God, I hope so.”

With her hands slapped over her face, Maya dropped her head to the table and let out a long, low groan. “Ohmygod, ohmygod,
ohmygod
.”

“Sit up,” Jayne warned, still snickering. “Here they come.”

Thankful for the crowd, Maya stayed on the outside of the group, busying herself with collecting the empties and running them out to the refundables bin in the garage.

“Great job,” she muttered to herself. “You don't see the guy in two years and then you scare him off within a week. Yup, well done. He's probably bookin' it down the road right now.”

Straightening her shoulders, she lifted her chin, inhaled deeply, and headed back to the kitchen.