Last First Kiss (38 page)

Irritated at herself for letting Lisa get to her, Giselle tried to watch the next game, which lasted a lot longer than the first one. By the time it was over, it was close to noon. Everyone took a break for lunch while someone played music from a portable sound system. Giselle climbed down from the bleachers, and stretched to get the kinks out of her legs and back. She walked over to Jackson’s truck, where the drinks were located for their team. Jackson handed her an iced tea.

“
Have you seen the girls?” she asked

“
They’re over there with Red. He’s getting them chips and sandwiches. You ready to eat something?”

“
No,” she said, icily.

He pulled her around to the other side of the truck for some privacy. “Are you mad at me for some reason?”

“
Should I be? Just because you let Lisa hang all over you for a full twenty minutes? You encouraged her,” she seethed.

“
I said two words to her—‘what’ and ‘no’.” He grabbed her arm when she started to turn away. “Are you jealous?”

“
Of Lisa? Of course not!”

He leaned closer to her. "You know, we wouldn’t have this problem if we weren’t keeping a ‘low profile’. Then you could put your mark on me and make sure all the other females stayed clear.”

Giselle glared at his retreating back end, her mouth hanging open in a state of shock. Her eyes narrowed to angry slits. “I know he didn’t,” she murmured. “You want to play, big boy? Game on.”

Giselle sauntered over to Red. “Jackson must pay. Are you in or out?” A look of unspoken understanding passed between them, before Red nodded and looked at Jackson, several steps away and headed in their direction..

“
Hey sweet thing, you want me to fix you a plate?” Red crooned.

“
Would you do that, Red?” she asked sweetly.

“
Anything for you, hon.” He gave her his most charming smile.

She grinned. “Thanks Red.”

“
Anytime beautiful!” he answered loudly as he handed her a plate of food. He took Giselle’s arm and turned her in the opposite direction toward the bleachers, his hand placed intimately on the small of her back.

It was Jackson’s turn to stand there with his mouth open. He watched as they began to talk and laugh while they ate.

“
Aw, hell!”

“
What’s wrong with you?” Carrie asked, coming up behind him.

“
I think I’m being punished,” he groaned.

“
You should be...there’s no excuse for you letting Lisa hang all over you like that. If I hadn’t told Mac and Lexie to scoot in next to you, she’d be fused to your hip by now.”

“
I didn’t even talk to her,” he hissed.

Carrie released an exasperated sigh. “Come on, Jackson. Do you want me to cut up your food into bite size pieces for you, too?”

He rolled his eyes, and turned to her. “All right, how do I fix this before it gets out of hand?”

“
Treat Lisa the same way you treated Izzy. Don’t put up with any crap from her and you’ll be okay.” She walked off.

Jackson got a plate of food and a drink. He walked toward Giselle and Red, catching the wink his friend passed him. He recognized the sign letting him know Red was in on her game. When he was a few steps away he heard the most irritating of voices again.

“
Jaaackson—there you are! I found a spot for us right over here,” Lisa whined, pulling on his arm. Jackson glared at her, knowing Giselle, Red, and several other people were watching.

“
Lisa, I’m not interested,” he said, trying not to be rude.

“
How do you know, unless you’ve had a sample?” she asked.

“
Believe me, you don’t have a damn thing I want.” The line didn’t work as well on Lisa as it had on Izzy. She wrapped both hands around one muscular bicep, and pulled on him again. He glared down at her. “And you never will. Let go...
Now!”

Lisa jerked away, as the message finally seemed to sink in, and stomped off.

Jackson walked determinedly toward Giselle, glaring at her the entire way. “Are you happy now?” he asked, throwing his plate on the bleacher. He swiveled, aiming his glare toward Red. “And you,
buddy
! Your role in this little charade is over, so go find somebody else’s leg to hump.”

Red grinned at his friend, took his food, and walked off chuckling.

Jackson sat down, and began to eat in silence. Finally, he aimed what he thought was an intimidating look toward Giselle. “What?” he demanded.

“
That’s more like it,” she said.

<><><>

Giselle watched Jackson lead his team to another win, beating the winner of the second game far too easily. After that blowout, the three other team captains converged to form one all star team in order to give Jackson’s team some competition.

By the time the game began, it was three o’clock in the afternoon. The temp had soared to a miserable one hundred degrees, with a heat index of around a hundred and seven due to humidity. The all star team won the coin toss and lined up to bat. The first batter hit a double to center field. Jackson nodded in admiration as Todd landed safely on second.

“
Alright, heads up gentlemen...and lady,” he said, acknowledging his catcher. “Now we have us a ballgame!”

The second batter hit a grounder to third and Clayton scooped it up but held it to keep the runner at second. The next batter hit a pop fly that Jackson easily caught. The one after that tipped a ball making it pop up. Sherri, the catcher, caught it for the second out, causing the cheering section to go wild. Their next batter, Carrie’s old buddy, J.C., hit a good solid double, bringing one run in and leaving his team with runners on second and third. Their next man up hit a fast one straight up the middle, toward Jackson’s face. The crowd went wild when he applied sharpened reflexes to catch the ball in his glove.

Jackson’s team performed beautifully at their first bat and by the time the second inning started, they took to the field with a solid 6-1 lead. The all-star team tightened up the score dramatically in the next inning, pulling ahead by one.

By this time, every single one of the ball players was soaked with sweat. Jackson and Red walked over to the water faucet to drench their heads and upper bodies. Then Giselle watched, in horrified amazement, as they removed their shirts and stuck them under the faucet.

“
Oh my God,” she murmured under her breath.

“
What’s wrong?” Carrie asked.

Giselle shook her head, sat back, and waited for what she knew would surely come next. It wasn’t more than a few seconds before she heard several women gasp as they saw the two men shirtless.

“
Oh my God, would you look at that,” Amanda murmured.

“
Holy crap! How long has Jackson been hiding
that
under those business suits?” Tina asked.

Soon every woman in the stands was staring appreciatively at the bronzed physiques of Jackson and Red. Giselle clenched her jaw as the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ continued even after they wrung their shirts out and put them back on, causing steam to rise up off of their hot bodies.

“
Carrie, who the hell is that other guy?” Jeanette asked.

“
That’s Scott McAllister, but everyone calls him ‘Red’. He’s from my hometown, and I used to babysit for him.”

“
Lord have mercy, I’d like to babysit for him now,” Jeanette said with a laugh.

“
I’d like to have his baby,” another woman exclaimed.

“
I’d have either one of their babies!” cried another.

“
I’d have both their babies!” cried a third.

Carrie leaned forward to Giselle. “You can’t blame them.”

Giselle shook her head and rubbed her pounding temples.

<><><>

Jackson and Red began to walk back to the dugout to wait their turn in the line-up. All the men followed their lead by drenching their heads and necks under the faucet. Hearing a buzz from the stands, Jackson turned to seek out Giselle’s beautiful face. What he saw was a grim woman who seemed about ready to explode. He watched Giselle shake her head then rub her temples as if she had a headache. Concern for her overcame good sense, as he turned around to make the long walk back over to the stands to see if she was okay. As he neared, he saw Giselle shake her head and tell Carrie something before she jumped out of the bleachers and headed toward the parking lot. She was nearly to her truck when Jackson caught up to her.

He pulled on her arm until she stopped. “Are you okay?”

“
I have a headache,” she said, sounding annoyed at him.

“
Do you have something?” He felt her forehead.

She pushed his hand away from her face. “Yes, I’m going to get it out of my purse.”

“
Do you think it’s heatstroke or something? Maybe you need to drink some water.”

“
It’s not heatstroke. It’s stress.”

“
From what?”

She looked at him, in disbelief. “Oh, for God’s sake... Carrie’s right. You have no idea, do you?”

“
About what?”

“
Go, I’m fine.” Giselle waved him off and walked to her truck.

Jackson stood there, his hands spread out to the side, in total confusion. “No idea about what?” he asked. “What did I do now?” He watched her stalk away, then dropped his jaw in shock as his sweet Giselle mumbled something and swore like a Marine. He made his way back to the stands and stopped to question Carrie.

“
Does Giselle seem okay to you?”

Carrie and her three daughters looked at each other then laughed. “She’s fine,” Carrie told him. “She’s got to learn to adjust, that’s all. She’ll get over it.”

“
Adjust to what? Get over what?” he demanded, as the four women laughed again.

“
Go play ball, Jack,” Carrie told him.

“
It’s time to kick some ass out there,” Gretchen told him.

“
Yeah, so we can go home,” Lauren added.

“
It’s too damn hot out here,” Amanda threw in.

Jackson shook his head and started back to the field. When he got about ten yards away from the stands, a loud whistle followed by a woman’s cat call, made him stop.

“
Hey baby! I’d like to have that swing in my back yard!”

Jackson turned slowly to see who she was talking to, and was surprised to find all eyes were on him. “What the hell?”

“
That’s right, big boy, I’m talking to you,” followed by female snickers.

Jackson turned quickly back to the field, shaking his head as laughter erupted from the bleachers.

“
What’s the matter buddy?” Red asked, as Jackson walked into their team’s dugout with a perplexed look on his face.

“
I’m not sure, but I think I’ve just been sexually harassed.” He grinned as everyone in the dugout gathered around.

“
What did they say?” Sherri asked him.

“
Um...something like...Hey baby...I’d like to have that swing in my back yard,” he said, as the dugout exploded with laughter.

“
Poor baby!” Sherri said. “Are you upset?”

“
Should I be?” he asked as Sherri shrugged. “If any of us guys would have said that to
you
, they would have crucified us.”

Sherri threw her knee-pads on a bench inside the dugout. “Hey, if I’d have worn a
wet
tee shirt to play baseball, you would have said I was asking for it, so get over it.”

Red busted out laughing and slapped him on the back. “You just got burned!”

“
I guess I did.” He joined in the laughter as he turned to watch Giselle walk slowly back to the bleachers. She still rubbed her forehead as if she were in pain. At least now he knew why she was so upset. He imagined how he’d feel if he had to sit through a bunch of guys making lewd comments about her.

Jackson could hardly wait for this game to end. He was about to explode with the need to tell her something important. Thankfully, the teams had decided to implement the ten-run rule, meaning if any team scored ten points more than the other, they’d call it a ballgame.