One More Shot (Hometown Players #1) (8 page)

“Cole, baby. Shut up,” Leah says softly, in the same friendly voice she’s always had. She was one of my best friends in high school and has been dating Cole since our senior year.

Donna waltzes in with a pile of dirty plates.

“Oh good, you found the cake!” she exclaims, either not noticing the tension in the room or purposely ignoring it. “Cole, don’t just stand there. Help me with the dishes.”

Jordan turns his attention to the cake he’s cutting. Callie leaves the room with a tray full of coffee mugs, and Rose and Leah busy themselves getting plates for the cake.

“I’m not feeling very well,” I announce quietly, and all the commotion in the kitchen stills again. “I’m sorry, but I need to go upstairs and lie down.”

“Okay. If you have to. Callie and I can handle everything,” Rose says hesitantly as she gives me a light hug.

I hug Leah, Cole and Donna and then turn and head into the living room and up the stairs. I throw myself down on my bed and will back the tears. He doesn’t deserve them. He doesn’t. I just want to sleep. Sleep until this whole stupid wake is over. Sleep until he’s gone.

And then I want to leave this town and never ever come back.

I
t’s almost five in the evening. The fall sun is sinking from the sky and the room is in shadows. The people have all gone home, including my parents. About a half hour ago Cole convinced Rose and Callie to go to the bar with him. It wasn’t easy. Callie would much rather have stayed here and stabbed me with a fork, but somehow Cole convinced her to just leave me alone here to wait for Jessie.

It’s weird being alone in their house. Well, alone with Jessie, who is still upstairs in her room. I haven’t been inside this house since before I was drafted. Everything looks exactly the same but it feels different. It feels uninviting and uncomfortable, so I grab a beer from the fridge to take the edge off.

I thought I would be halfway back to Seattle by now. My plan was to head straight to the airport as soon as my parents were ready to leave the wake and jump on the first plane to Boston. I already knew I couldn’t get back to Seattle before tomorrow, but I figured I would grab a hotel in Boston, drink a few at a local bar, find a girl who knew hockey, knew who I was and was impressed enough to spread her legs, and then fuck this uncomfortable visit out of my head forever. But then I’d turned around in that church parking lot and my eyes locked with hers and all the anger, betrayal and frustration that’s consumed me was replaced by one thought: God, she’s beautiful.

It’s the first thing I used to think of every time I saw her every day of my teenage life, but I was shocked to find out that it was stronger than ever. She’d stared back at me with a look of confusion and shock, and as she got out of the car and walked closer, I could also see a glimmer of curiosity. She was searching my face for something the same way I knew I was searching hers…

She looked exactly the same as she did in high school. Same moss-green eyes, same lithe build, same pouty mouth, freckleless skin and long wavy auburn hair. It threw me for a loop because, although I didn’t expect her to look incredibly different, I didn’t expect her to look
exactly
the same—or for her looks to make me feel the same as I did in high school. But they did.

I’d kept my eyes fixed on her through the funeral service. It was impossible to pull them away, and the more I watched her the stronger the realization became—she didn’t just look like the same as the girl I fell in love with, she
was
the same. She still twisted her delicate fingers when she was anxious. She still tucked her hair behind her left ear as a nervous habit. I knew before she did it that she would cup the back of Rose’s head and smooth her hair in a gesture of comfort. And I knew she would hold Callie’s hand and not let go even as Callie tried to pull away. She was always more concerned about her sisters’ feelings than her own. I watched as she absently caught a tear with the back of her hand before it fell and I knew, without a doubt, her tears weren’t over losing the relationship she’d had with her grandmother but over the loss of the possibility of ever having one. I knew this because I knew her. This Jessie was still my Jessie, inside and out.

I had told myself the girl who left me and ran off to Arizona wasn’t the same girl who I thought I wanted to spend my life with, but after seeing her again, I was beginning to think I might be wrong. So I needed to talk to her—and do it much more meaningfully than that awkward encounter in the driveway.

I’m halfway through my beer when I hear her small feet on the stairs. For someone only five feet six inches and probably about one hundred and ten pounds, she walks like an elephant. Always has. The familiar heavy thumping almost makes me smile.

When she comes into the kitchen I notice she’s changed into a pair of faded and torn hip-hugging jeans and a light blue, V-neck T-shirt with a tiny logo on the right breast that I can’t read in the dim light. Her long hair is pulled back in a ponytail and what little makeup she had on for the funeral is gone. She’s still the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. Everything about her, even when she was staring at me like she was willing me to drop dead earlier this afternoon, lights something deep inside me like it did when we were kids.

When she realizes I’m sitting there, on the counter, she jumps.

“I thought everyone left.” Jessie gasps.

“They did. I stuck around.”

Her surprise morphs to irritation as soon as she calms down. “Why?”

“Wanted to make sure you were okay,” I say honestly.

“You’re about six years too late with that,” she responds sharply, and walks over to the fridge.

She pulls a beer out of the fridge, turns to face me again, twisting the top off with more force that necessary. As she takes a long sip, her eyes travel from my head to the countertop I am sitting on and then back to my head.

“We have chairs,” she states, gently kicking one away from the kitchen table toward me.

“I’m partial to the counter.” I shrug, and for a millisecond she freezes as she realizes I’m talking about exactly what she thinks I’m talking about.

She sips her beer again, so I sip mine. My eyes don’t leave hers and hers don’t leave mine. I’d give her an entire year’s salary if it would get her to tell me what she’s thinking.

“You should go, Jordan,” she says coldly.

“When are you going?” I counter with my own question. “You know, leaving the Bay?”

She glares at me in silence for a long moment. Even when she’s this hostile, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

“We have to meet the lawyer and deal with her will and then decide what to do with the house.” She sighs, and I can see for the first time a little bit of sadness in her face. I know it’s mostly sadness at losing her last living, known relative, but I hope some of that is for me too. Not that I want to make her sad, but…knowing she still has feelings other than anger for me would be a blessing. “I don’t know how long all of it will take. I’m hoping less than a week.”

“And where are you going after that?”

“Home,” she replies, and her perfect, plump lips flatten into a hard line.

“And where is home? Are you still in Arizona?”

She lets out a frustrated gust of air and rolls her eyes. “Look, Jordan, you’re an asshole. All the small talk in the world is not going to change that.”

“I
was
an asshole,” I agree freely. I pull off my hat and run a hand through my hair, knowing it’s probably all over the damn place. I should have gotten a haircut before I came here. “I want to not be an asshole anymore. That’s why I’m here. I regret what I did. I have since the moment it happened.”

“Yeah, you said that,” Jessie snaps, tugging her long hair out of the ponytail it had been in. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I regret it too.”

I smile with relief. “You regret leaving me.”

“No,” she snaps quickly with a look on her face like I’m insane. “I don’t regret that part. That’s the smartest thing I ever did.”

She finishes her beer and walks closer to toss the bottle in the recycling bin by the door. I can finally read her T-shirt: Sea-Tac Sports Therapy.

I cock my head and my eyebrows pull together. “Sea-Tac?”

She glances down at the logo on her shirt and back up at me, her hand rising and covering the words as she turns away. Sea-Tac? That’s what they call the Seattle-Tacoma area. Why is she wearing a shirt from a sports therapy place in my…

“Would you just go already?” Jessie demands, her eyes narrowed on me in anger. “You said your piece. You’re sorry Lily’s dead. You regret sleeping with me. Thanks for coming all this way to tell me that. Now go.”

“Wait! What?” I try not to let my mouth hang open with my shock at her crazy rant. “Are you insane? Why do you think I regret sleeping with you?!”

“You said you regret what happened!” She bellows.

“I didn’t mean I regret slee—” A knock at the door stops me mid-yell.

She storms toward it and flings it open. I have the distinct feeling she’s thrilled there’s an interruption. She’d probably let a serial killer in if it meant I would go away. I see a shadow walk in and sweep her into a hug.

“What the hell…” she whispers, and wiggles out of the embrace.

“I came as soon as I found out.”

I lean over the sink and reach out to flip the light switch at the other end of the counter. The room fills with light and I can see the guest clearly. And he sees me.

“What the hell are you doing here, Echolls?” I ask gruffly.

I’ve run into Chance Echolls through the years because, although he didn’t make the NHL like I did, he got a broadcasting degree and works for NBC covering games. But I had no idea Jessie had stayed in touch with him, and the revelation makes me nauseous.

“Jessie and I became friends again a few years ago,” Chance says, an irritated edge to his voice. “I thought I would come support her. That’s what friends do, right?”

Jessie steps away from Chance and shakes her head, a bitter smile on her lips. “If I didn’t know better I would think this is some kind of practical joke.”

I kind of have to agree with her there.

“I know I missed the funeral. I couldn’t get here any sooner,” Chance explains, adjusting the brim on his hat. “I had to cover a game last night. And I have to head to New York tomorrow night to cover a game between Brooklyn and Phoenix, but I wanted to come and see you in person. See if you’re okay.”

She shakes her head. “I’m fine. You shouldn’t have come.”

“You know, you could have told me you were dating him,” Chance says quietly, and glances at me. “No need to keep secrets.”

“You think I’m with him?” Jessie says it like Chance just suggested she was dating a prison inmate or something. “Why the hell would you think I would be dating
him
?!”

Chance looks confused and his icy eyes dart to me again. “Well, I mean, he’s been after you since we were together and I kind of assumed, when you said you were moving to Seattle, he would try something.”

If a two-headed alien marched into the room and bitch-slapped me across the face, I would have been less shocked than I am by what Chance Echolls just said.

“Seattle?” I repeat, and turn to stare at her. And suddenly I know why she’s wearing a Sea-Tac Sports Therapy shirt. It’s a facility in Seattle not far from our arena. And she has a kinesiology degree. She must be working there. “How long have we lived in the same city, Jessie?!”

“You didn’t know, Garrison?” Chance smiles and I ball my fists at my sides to keep from punching him. “Jessica didn’t tell you? Wow. She really does hates you.”

Jessie and I stare at each other. She says nothing to combat Echolls’ assumption. Why would she? She does hate me. I jump off the counter and a sharp short pain shoots up my leg. I wince but ignore it and storm past Chance, swinging the door open and turning to face her one last time.

“I’ll talk to you later.”

I’m reeling as I jump in my truck and pull out of her driveway.

She lives in Seattle. Who else knew that? Did my parents know? Did Luc? Cole? Devin?

Yeah, I know made a complete mess of everything when I was a kid, but so did she. So why did my family always seem to rush to protect her? Everyone seemed to think that I owed it to Jessie to come here, but they didn’t owe it to me to tell me we were living in the same damn city?

Screw them all.

I
listen to Leah Talbot and Phoebe Horvath’s conversation and smile to myself as I carefully pour hot water over the powdered hot chocolate mixture in the four Styrofoam cups in front of me.

“He hasn’t asked me out on an official date. Not yet anyway,” Phoebe is saying.

“He will. Cole told me he’s interested,” Leah says, and even with my back turned, I can hear Phoebe sigh in relief.

I turn and place two of the steaming cups on the counter in front of them.

“Thanks!” Leah grins, taking the steaming cup from the counter and brushing her platinum bangs from her face with her mitten-covered other hand.

I turn to gingerly lift the next two cups of hot chocolate off the back counter—the cups the girls purchased for Cole and Luc, who are on the ice with the peewee hockey team right now, teaching them drills. When I turn back around, both my sisters are standing with Leah and Phoebe.

They’re both grinning like maniacs.

“What?” I ask as I carefully place the hot chocolates on the counter.

“You have mail,” Callie says in a high-pitched, excited voice I have never heard her use before.

“What?”

Rosie jumps up and down excitedly, her big dark eyes suddenly brimming with tears. “It’s big! And it says congratulations on the front!”

Callie pulls a large white envelope from her crazy tie-dyed crocheted purse and places it on the counter next to the hot chocolates. I look down at it. Just like Rosie squealed, it has the word Congratulations! in red ink diagonally just above my address. The return address is the University of Arizona.

“I got in,” I murmur, and start to smile.

“YOU GOT IN!” Callie yells, then reaches across the counter to yank me into a hug. One of the hot chocolates starts to teeter. Leah reaches out and grabs it before it can do more than leave a wet brown drop on the counter.

“Congrats, Jessie!” Leah smiles brightly.

“Jess, that’s awesome!” Phoebe says with a giant smile that might be fake. I happen to know Phoebe didn’t apply anywhere because her family can’t afford for her to go to college, and she doesn’t have the grades for a scholarship.

“Your first choice!” Callie goes on, squeezing me so hard it hurts. I push her off me gently and pick up the envelope.

I meet her happy gaze and Rose’s overjoyed one with a calm eye. “I got in, but it doesn’t mean I got the scholarship.”

I tear open the envelope and pull out the letter. I skim the words so quickly my brain can’t absorb all of it, but I catch the important words: accepted; Kinesiology & Sports Therapy—Full Scholarship. There’s also information about campus jobs and summer sessions if I want to start classes early.

“So?” Callie yanks the papers from my hand. She reads it and screams.

Rose bursts into happy tears the way I would have expected her to. This is a dream come true—a dream that was such a long shot I didn’t dare dream it. I should be ecstatic, and I would have been…before Jordan.

“Everyone calm down,” I insist, but I’m smiling. It might not be my dream now, but it was my dream very recently, and I achieved it. I let myself revel in that feeling of pride and accomplishment.

“This is so awesome! You’re getting out of this craptastic town and you don’t need a fucking hockey player to do it!” Callie claps, and then her grin falters for a second. “I mean you have one, but you don’t need him.”

Phoebe gives Callie a cool stare and then turns her brown eyes to me with a warmer, more inquisitive look. “A hockey player? I thought you and Chance broke up.”

“We did.” I nod and then freeze. I haven’t told anyone except my sisters about Jordan and me. And before I can even decide if I should tell anyone, Rose does it for me.

“She’s with Jordy now. Finally,” Rosie says dreamily like she’s talking about some star-crossed couple on the latest teen angst TV show.

“Jessie, you should be more excited!” Callie tells me sternly, waving the Arizona papers at me. “If you’re worried about leaving Rose and me, don’t be. I’ll be fine. I’ll make sure she’s fine.”

“She means
I
will make sure
she’s
fine,” Rosie interjects, grinning. Callie ignores her, those big brown eyes still piercing into me.

“Arizona is your dream school,” Callie reminds me.

“It was only because it has a good program and a great scholarship…” I shrug and take the package and place it under the counter on top of my jacket. “But I…I’m thinking I might wait and start in the winter semester. At a different school.”

“Why the hell would you do that? What other school?” Callie demands, anchoring her tiny hands on her curvy hips.

“Jordan?” Phoebe repeats, and then I see something weird cross her face. “Jordan Garrison?”

I nod and glance at her pretty if overpainted face. She looks confused. I move my eyes to Leah. Her ever-present smile suddenly disappears. The lack of it makes her usually wide, bright eyes look panicked instead of happy.

“Jordan Garrison. Cole’s brother Jordan?” Leah says.

Callie ignores the girls and stares at me imploringly. “What school are you going to go to if not Arizona? And you applied for fall everywhere. If you delay, you’ll lose the scholarship.”

I suddenly feel uneasy with Phoebe and Leah both staring at me. The uncomfortable looks on their faces makes me think they know something I don’t—and that it isn’t good.

“Jordan is dating Hannah,” Phoebe says matter-of-factly.

“He broke up with Hannah,” I say firmly but quietly, because I really don’t want to talk about it.

“Umm…when? Because I just saw her yesterday and she didn’t mention it,” Phoebe says. I turn and stare at her and she goes on. “Considering she acted like she was going to marry him, you think she would be upset or something.”

I’ve talked to Jordan twice since he left for Minnesota two days ago for the NHL draft. Both times he sounded tired and very nervous. He said the draft, which is a weeklong event filled with hockey scrimmages, fitness tests, press events and agent lunches, was way more intense than he thought it would be. He was overwhelmed. He missed me. He admitted he was lonely and although he didn’t admit it, I knew he was scared.

He couldn’t wait until his parents, Devin, Luc and Cole flew out to join him for the actual draft. He wished I could fly out too, but there was no way I could afford a plane ticket. We talked more about the future. He’d all but convinced me to go with him to whatever city drafted him and let him pay for school. I hadn’t told him I would do it for sure, but when I lay awake at night trying to think of life somewhere he wasn’t, I didn’t like it one bit.

Never once did he mention Hannah, and he told me to my face before he left that he broke up with her. Jordan has never lied to me, and I believe in my heart he isn’t doing it now. Phoebe must just be confused, or Hannah isn’t telling anyone yet.

“Well, he broke up with her,” I say more firmly this time.

Phoebe and Leah exchange glances but both say nothing. Then suddenly Luc and Cole are there. Luc starts to say something but sees Rose’s teary face and his cocky smile drops. He pulls her into a hug. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Did something happen?”

Callie laughs and rolls her eyes at his overprotectiveness. “She’s fine!”

Luc puts his big hands on my sister’s little shoulders and pulls her off his chest to look into her face again. He seems skeptical. “Rose?”

Her face flushes a delightful pink and she lowers her coal-colored eyes. “These are happy tears. Jessie got into Arizona!”

Luc sighs in relief and looks up at me, his cocky grin back in full force. “Way to go, smartypants. So next time I get injured, you can fix me up?”

“Please, you’re unfixable,” Rose interjects, batting her long dark eyelashes and giving him a playful shove. He laughs at her and messes up her hair.

Callie and I exchange glances. When did Rose learn to flirt?

“Congrats! But Arizona is pretty far away,” Cole says as he leans across the counter to hug me. “And it’s a Garrison-free zone. Why would you want to live in a Garrison-free zone?”

“I don’t,” I admit, and then grin.

“Jordan will be happy to hear that,” Luc says with a smile and a wink.

“Jessie!” Callie looks genuinely upset.

I ignore her and hand the boys their hot chocolates before shooing them all away. “Can you all wait for me outside while I close up?”

“Yeah. No worries.” Luc nods and wraps an arm around Phoebe. It makes Rose’s bright eyes darken. “Let’s go to Bill’s Pizza and celebrate!”

I nod and watch them go. Callie stays behind for a second, giving me her classic Callie death stare, until Rosie grabs her arm and drags her away. As soon as they’re all out of sight, I climb onto the counter, grab the latch and roll down the metal gate that closes up the front of the concession stand.

Inside, alone, I dig my phone out of my jacket. I know Jordan’s probably busy and has his phone turned off but I decide to text him anyway.

“I got into AZ. Full scholarship. Go me!” I type and add, “I miss you.”

I finish locking up and as I’m shrugging into my jacket, my phone buzzes.

“Proud of you! Check your email ASAP, ok?”

My heart flip-flops. Check my email? Is that good or bad? Is he going to tell me Phoebe is right? He went back to Hannah? Did he change his mind and he doesn’t want me to go with him next year? I’m suddenly so worried I’m teetering on the edge of a panic attack. I’m just so used to everything going wrong in my life.

I jog through the darkened, empty arena and wave a good-bye to Mr. Milner, the janitor, before joining my friends in the parking lot. It’s a dark, cool June night in Silver Bay. The threat of rain hangs low in dark ominous clouds that cover half of the crescent moon. The group is gathered around Luc’s pickup and my old Honda Civic hatchback. Still fumbling with my phone, I toss Callie the keys.

“Practice?” I ask, and she looks stunned. She has her permit but I haven’t let her drive much. Mostly because when she does, she scares the crap out of me.

“Really?”

“Well, no matter what, I won’t be here next year. You’re going to have to get your license,” I tell her. Rose gets into the backseat and I slide into the passenger seat while Callie jumps behind the wheel. Leah and Phoebe wedge themselves in between Luc and Cole in the cab of the Luc’s pickup.

“Remember, the tires suck and the brakes scream if you stop too hard,” I warn her, pulling up my email on my phone.

“You have to go to Arizona, Jessie,” Callie says as she makes her way toward the parking lot exit, faster that I would have liked. “This is your dream.”

“I’m going to be a physical therapist,” I promise her. “I’m just thinking about going to another school, which isn’t a big deal. Arizona wasn’t my dream. It was just a school with a free ride.”

“Which you got! Which you need!” Callie cries. “And you can even start in the summer! You could be out of this craptastic town right away! Besides, where else would you go?”

“I don’t know yet…” I see his email, open it and hold my breath. Please don’t let me down, Jordy…

“Callie!” Rosie screams, and I look up to see my sister cutting a sharp turn in front of oncoming traffic. Our tires screech and the other driver slams on the horn.

“He had the right of way!” I holler at her.

“Relax. We didn’t hit him. I know what I’m doing.” Callie glances at me and her eyes land on the phone in my hands. “What are you reading?”

“An email from Jordan.” My smile is so big it hurts my face.

“I love that you two are together.” Rosie sighs dramatically from the backseat.

“Stop flirting with Big Bird and tell me where you think you’re going to go to school if not Arizona,” Callie demands.

“Well, I’m going to go over the curriculum at schools in Quebec City, Sacramento, New York and maybe—”

“No.” Callie cuts me off, her voice deep and grave. She slams on the brakes, causing Luc to slam on his brakes behind us, swerving to avoid rear-ending us.

“Oh my God, Callie, you suck at driving!” Rose wails. “You’re going to kill me next year.”

Callie ignores her, staring straight at me with a look of disappointment she’s never directed at me before. “You’re following him.”

“I’m thinking about studying at a school near him,” I explain slowly, like what I’m saying is incredibly different from what she’s saying. Well, it is. In my heart, it truly is.

“You’re going with Jordan?” Rosie presses, her voice excited. “Oh, Jessie, that’s so romantic!”

I glance into the backseat and see the look of pure support and happiness on my littlest sister’s face; it causes a surge of happiness in my own. I smile. Callie glares at me.

“Don’t do this. Don’t rely on a guy,” Callie hisses. “Don’t be that type of girl.”

Luc honks behind us.

“Umm…I don’t understand what’s happening here, but I don’t like it,” Rose murmurs cautiously, inching forward so she can see our faces.

“I don’t need Jordan to get out of Silver Bay,” I remind Callie, pulling the acceptance package from my bag and shaking it in her face. “I got out all on my own. But I want to be with
him. I’ve needed him for years and he’s always been there for me. Now I want to be there for him. And he wants me to be.”