Lead (23 page)

“Saying your sorry isn’t an immediate fix all, Jimmy. Actions have repercussions, you of all people should know that.”

A pause. “You haven’t asked about Liv.”

My whole body tightened, I’d been trying damn hard not to think about Liv. Actually asking about her seemed plain suicidal. “Should I have? I guess I figured that was none of my business.”

“I took her to a hotel and we talked for a while. I called just to check in with you.” He wandered a few steps over to the trashbin, dumped his ice cream cone. The broad expanse of his back in the black woolen jacket a sharper shadow against the rest of the view.

“You did?” I asked, surprised.

“Yeah. You didn’t answer.”

“No, I was asleep.”

He turned around, the wind blowing his hair in his face. With a hand he held it back. “I started worrying you’d gone. That you’d quit me and left like you were going to.”

“I wouldn’t do that without talking to you first.”

“I wasn’t sure.” He avoided my eyes. “After the way I treated you, thought you might have just taken off.”

“That’s what got you so worked up?”

He sucked in his cheeks, nodded. All of a sudden, the ice cream lost its flavor for me too. I likewise chucked the rest of mine, licking my sticky fingers clean. Jimmy watched all the while, face wiped of expression. This conversation was a minefield. All I could do was to tell the truth, do my best by us both.

“I was jealous,” I admitted, putting it all out there. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you, to ask you not to leave with her. I just wasn’t quite ready.”

“Yeah, I know.”

I nodded, put my hands in my pockets and waited. And then I waited some more.

Nothing.

I held in my groan, but only just. “Jimmy, now’s your turn to admit that you were jealous when you saw me holding Dean’s hand. Relationships are kind of a give-and-take thing, you know?”

He snorted. And then he scoffed. Then he kind of turned in a circle, his mouth wrinkling like he’d tasted something foul. I half expected him to bolt and run given all of the avoidance tactics previously displayed.

“Anytime you’re ready,” I said.

“I …”

“Yes?”

He winced. “I guess, I didn’t think about what it’d be like if you really liked one of them.”

“Even though that was the entire point to my dating other men? To like one of them more than I like you.”

A shrug.

“You over it now?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He chuckled. “’Course, its fine. Won’t happen again.”

Oh, the dubiousness, it filled me right up. But I couldn’t make him admit to caring about me more than he liked. I couldn’t make him do shit. “All right, one more go. I did enjoy going out with Dean and I was looking forward to seeing him again.”

“Okay. Good.”

“On one condition.”

He gave me a wary look. “What?”

“You meet Tom.”

The regal chin rose to unforeseen heights. “That replacement guy? No. Fuck no. We talked about this, you have to commit, Lena.”

“This was always meant to be temporary gig. Given how much we push each other’s buttons, I think it might be wise to have a backup plan in case I can’t continue.” I squared my shoulders, standing tall.

“I don’t think we should do that.”

“Jimmy—”

“If you just tried, Lena.”

And this was about the point where realization struck home, tough love was tough on everyone involved. Sometimes, however, you just had to. “Jimmy, I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. You’re going to talk to the man.”

The surprise in his eyes, I wish I’d taken a picture. His jaw moved, face tensing. “Fuck, all right.”

I held his car keys out to him, moonlight glinting off them. “Do you want to drive us home?”

He snatched them out of my hand. Something told me it was going to be a long and painful journey.

The next evening, Jimmy’s attitude had not improved. His resistance to the very tall thin and polite Tom Moorecomb read plain as day in his body language. Should he turn any further in his seat, his back would be to the poor man completely.

“Tom was involved in couples counseling, Jimmy. Isn’t that interesting?” I said, jaw aching from clenching so much. A tension headache was slowly but steadily brewing behind my eyes. “Jimmy?”

The jerk didn’t even look up from his phone. It was like trying to deal with a toddler, a very cranky one. Sadly, he’d seated himself opposite the room from me, out of kicking range. I’d hate to have to smack him in the head with a pillow in front of Tom. Perhaps it could be left as my final die-hard option.

“Jimmy?”

He looked up at me from beneath his dark fringe. “What?”

The doorbell rang. Fortunate for him really.

“Let me just get that while you two talk.” I gave the ignorant jerk a meaningful look.

He just blinked.

Before I could reach the door, Mal and Ben barreled on in.

“Lena, helloooo.” Mal shook my hand so energetically I feared my shoulder would dislocate. “Looking foxy and strict in your business suit. I would totally take orders from you if my heart and soul were not spoken for.”

“Thanks.” I’d bought the navy suit in an attempt to make the right impression on Tom. Jimmy had just given my new outfit a weird look and told me double breasted didn’t suit a girl with such assets. I’d been nervously fussing with the buttons on the jacket ever since.

“We in the living room?” asked Ben, already making his way into said location.

“Wait, we’re—”

“Hi.” David, Ev, and Anne followed close behind. Ev and Anne were dolled up, the first in jeans and a slinky top, the second in a smokin’ hot green knit dress. Their awesome style however did not answer any of the questions pouring into my head.

“Hey,” said Ev, kissing my cheek while David gave me the rockstar chin tip.

“I’m really looking forward to tonight,” said Anne.

“Great.” I smiled.

She stopped and studied me. “Shit, you have no idea what’s going on, do you? Ev.”

“What’s up?” Ev about turned on her cool boots.

“Lena doesn’t know anything about this.”

Her face fell. “What?”

“Nope.”

“Crap.”

“Yep.”

“Please,” I said, getting a little desperate. “What’s going on? Why are you all here?”

“Jimmy invited us over for dinner,” said Ev.

“He did?”

And through the open door marched what I could only guess was a small army of butlers and one chef. So many black suits with one tall white puffy hat standing head and shoulders above the rest.

“We’ll get set up,” said the eldest of the butlers entering.

“Right,” I murmured, turning back to Anne and Ev. “He’s outplayed me.”

“Sometimes,” said Ev, throwing an arm around my neck. “You just have to follow Jimmy’s lead.”

“Are you insane? He’ll lead me straight to hell.”

“Perhaps. But he likes you, so I’m guessing he’ll bring you back out safe and sound.”

I narrowed my eyes on the insane woman. “We’re interviewing my replacement. Right now.”

Her face fell, yet again.

“We need to get in there,” said Anne.

“So, Tom. Tom was your name, wasn’t it?” Mal projected his voice so well. It positively rang through the marble halls of Jimmy’s mini-palace.

All three of us females bolted for the living room.

The drummer sat beside the poor innocent Tom. His muscular arms were stretched out along the back of the two-seater sofa.

“Yes, Mr. Ericson. It is.” Tom’s rather pronounced Adams apple bobbed.

Oh god help him, they were going to eat him alive. I leveled a death glare at Jimmy, a futile, wasted effort since he failed to notice.

“Tom, would you consider yourself, a rock ’n’ roll man?” Mal asked.

My heart stopped when Tom visibly paused. “Ah, actually, I prefer classical music.”

Ben huffed out a laugh. He was so off my Christmas card list. “Ah yeah, he’ll fit in just great. Good call, Lena.”

“He’s here to discuss becoming Jimmy’s sobriety companion,” I said. “What music he listens to is irrelevant.”

“Of course, of course,” said Mal, soothingly. “Just curious.”

Ev had perched on the arm of David’s chair while Anne sat sandwiched between Ben and Jimmy on the couch opposite Tom and Mal. We had a full house. With all the seats taken, I chose to stand.

“Now, Jimmy likes to spend his free time working out,” said Mal. “How do you feel about jogging and free lifting, Tom?”

By the look of him, I highly doubted Tom lifted anything heavier than a book.

“Mal, that’s enough.” I interceded, someone had to.

“You now go jogging with him, Lena. He’s used to having company. Would you deny him that? We all just want what’s best for Jim, don’t we?”

The man in question had a hand covering his mouth, his face half turned away from me. So fucking glad he was amused.

“He still jogs on his own as well.” I stood, hands on hips.

“Perhaps. Tom, Lena also spends all of her free time with Jim, watching TV or just generally hanging out with him. Will that be a problem?”

The man gave me a worried look. “Being a sobriety companion is a major commitment, of course. But … she doesn’t have a life of her own at all?”

“Of course I have my own life,” I said in a slightly shouty voice.

“Jimmy is her life, Tom. That man is everything to her.” Mal crossed his legs and lazed back against the couch. “Are you willing to do as much?”

Tom blanched.

“Lena has also been working with Jim on breaking down his boundaries regarding physical touch. A sort of hug therapy shall we say. I believe her next step in this delicate process will be sleeping with him nightly with advanced cuddling practices. Will that be a problem for you?”

Tom looked around in confusion.

“Right.” I clapped my hands together, summoning the room’s attention. “Jimmy, we’re talking in the kitchen. Now.”

He rose slowly from his chair, face calm as could be.

I turned to the drummer. “Mal, you say another word and I shoot you.”

He drew back, aghast. “Threats of violence are not necessary. Tom, quick, counsel her, she’s going over the edge!”

At which point, thank god, Anne stepped in and saved the day. She did this by sitting with her legs further apart. It was amazing really, almost as if Mal had some sort of extrasensory perception when it came to the girl and her sex. His gaze shot to the widening gap between her knees and all else fell away. The shadow beneath her skirt seemed to call to him on some mystical higher level. Or around the groin level, hard to say which exactly.

“What was I saying?” Mal muttered, leaning over, trying to get a better view up Anne’s skirt.

“Nothing important,” said Ben, playing on his phone.

“Something about how Tom seemed great for the job.” Ev wound an arm around David’s neck. “Not that we’d ever want to lose Lena.”

“Right, right.” Mal leaned a little further.

There were no ends on the two-seater Tom and Mal sat upon. And so, when Mal finally tipped over far enough in his attempt to see between Anne’s thighs, he toppled straight off the end of the couch. David chuckled while Ev smiled. Big Ben didn’t even notice, so taken was he with his texting. These people, I loved them as much as they drove me out of my god damn mind.

Anne just smiled. “Oops! You okay, babe?”

“All good.” The man set himself to rights, still seated upon the ground. “But I need to tell you something in the bathroom.”

“Do you?”

“Yep. Right now.”

“Something good?” she asked, a certain lustful twinkle in her eyes.

“Yes, something good. It’s a show-and-tell type thing, I think you’ll really like it.”

“Okay.”

Mal sprung to his feet, hands in the air. “Hooray! Quick, let’s go. Hurry, woman, no time to waste.”

With much giggling, Mal carried Anne from the room. Ah, young love, all the feelings.

“After you,” said Jimmy, standing beside me being all calm. It instantly brought my rage back to the forefront.

“Actually, let’s make it the office,” I said. “I forgot your dinner crew are busy in the kitchen.”

“Sure, Lena.”

I should have known he had something planned. For someone so resistant to the idea of my replacement, he’d gone all out dressing for the appointment. A black long-sleeved button-up shirt, black trousers, and shiny shoes adorned his fine self. His hair was carefully slicked back. Usually hanging around home warranted just jeans and T-shirts. The signs had all been there. But I could still salvage this situation damn it, right after I ripped Jimmy a new one.

Except it was too late. Tom got to his feet, his movements jerky. “I think I better go. You obviously have guests to entertain.”

I stepped forward. “What? No. Tom—”

“That’s a pity,” Jimmy replied. “Nice to meet you Tom. See you around.”

“Quiet.” I turned to the counselor, hands outstretched. “Please, Tom. Just … if you could just give me a minute to talk to my employer. They’re not usually like this.”

“Don’t lie to the man,” said Jimmy. “This is exactly what me and my friends are like all the damn time.”

I growled. “Way to throw him in the deep end.”

“Honesty is the best policy.”

“You’re such an asshole.”

“Language, Lena,” he tutted. “Watch the fucking language.”

Tom cleared his throat, straightening his already unbearably straight tie. “Mr. Ferris, I’m afraid I’m going to have to withdraw my interest in the position. And Lena, you seem like a nice girl, but this relationship you have with your employer isn’t healthy.”

“Hey,” said Jimmy, looking down his nose at the man. “You don’t know anything about it.”

“Believe me, Tom, I’m aware,” I said. The man obviously knew a train wreck when he saw one.

With one last nod, he strode out, taking with him my last hope of an easy exit. It had always been a pipe dream really, I should know better. Nothing about Jimmy had ever been easy.

Speaking of which, I took the opportunity to smack him in the arm with the back of my hand.

“What was that for?” he bitched, rubbing at his arm as if I’d actually hurt him. Such a damn baby.

“Don’t even start with me.”