Chapter Twenty-One

Jake

“You’re late. And why isn’t Ellie here?”

Gia’s stern tone met me at the door as I walked into the interview room. I’d already texted her that Ellie had gone home, but she was having none of it. In fact, she was shoving me back out into the hallway as she hissed her fury at me.

“You told me that you were okay with the two of you doing interviews. You swore to me that you’d have no problem playing the happy couple.”

“I don’t—”

“Then where is she?”

I didn’t have an answer. It’s not like I could confess to what had actually happened. Not with the press less than ten feet away. “I, um—”

My father abruptly pushed forward. He was the reason I was late—I hadn’t wanted to leave him alone at the hotel. He’d take off, and I’d spend the rest of the day looking for him, dreading what I’d find. It was easier to haul him along. But getting him up and dressed had taken most of the morning. He’d been a huge, grumpy pain in my ass until he found out that Ellie had bailed. At that point, he decided he’d be a father and hand out relationship advice.

Suddenly I was hearing far too much about how he’d felt when Mom left. As if I hadn’t been there to see it firsthand. He offered to buy me a drink to help me get past the pain. I heard all the platitudes, about all those fish in the sea, and so on. And every word out of his mouth made me want to plant my fist in his face. And now he was about to turn his grumpy charm on Gia.

Pops tried to step between Gia and me. I’d made him wait in the hall, but when she brought us out here, he obviously felt he could interfere. And he did so with a charming smile.

“You don’t need that silly girl,” he said as I grabbed his arm and tried to keep him back.

“Pops, I got this—”

“Now listen here. I’m Jake’s dad and I got a million stories about my boy. About how he struggled with hitting until I showed him how to hold the bat right. It wasn’t in his hands, you see. It was in his feet. And then there was the way he moved when he caught the ball. His coach helped him there, and my boy listened. Quite the story. Good father. Good coach. And a boy who listened.”

Gia turned her tiny frame toward Pops. Her smile was tight and her eyes hard, but she spoke gently to my dad. “That is an interesting story, sir. And you’ve got a right to be very proud of your son.”

“That I do. That I do.”

“But I’m afraid this story is about Connor.” Her eyes drilled back to me, pinning me with her hard glare. “Connor, who is in the All-Star Game. Connor, who has his own story to tell. And Ellie was supposed to be here, as his cousin. And then you would get some lucky press, too.” She folded her arms tight across her chest. “But that can’t happen without her.”

“Um, yeah,” I said. After all, I already knew this. “We had… I mean, she had—”

“Look, the girl flaked out on him,” Pops interrupted. “It happens. I’m trying to help you out here. Give you a way to salvage the interview. Trust me, little girl, I can be right charming.”

I winced. If there was anything I knew about Gia, it was that she hated stupid nicknames. Sweetie, darling, honey, and most especially little girl. Thankfully, she didn’t unleash her fury on Pops. She reserved that for me.

“What did you do?” she asked, her voice low with threat.

“I… Um…” I swallowed. “Look, it’s personal. And I need to work it out with Ellie. But I’m afraid—”

She held up one long manicured finger in front of my face. I knew what that meant. I buttoned my lip as she pulled out her cell phone and dialed. A moment later, Ellie answered the phone.

“Hello?”

My heart lurched. My body did, too, but there wasn’t any place for me to go. I started to speak, but Gia flicked my lip with her pointy nail, and while I was recoiling from that, she started speaking.

“Ellie, it’s Gia. You’re on speaker. I’m here with Jake and his dad.”

“Oh. Um. Okay.”

Her voice sounded tentative and a little raw. As if she’d been crying. Or laughing.

I flinched from my own thoughts. I knew Ellie was a sweet person and that I’d been the one to screw up here. But what woman abandoned you after one screwup? I’d gone back to apologize. I was willing to talk this morning, only she hadn’t been there. She hadn’t been answering her phone, either.

Guilt and fury churned inside me, and I felt my temper start to fray. “Ellie, where are you?” My tone was harsh, too demanding. I’d heard it from my father a thousand times when he’d been in the wrong but didn’t want to admit it. He’d turn simple questions into accusations, and here I was doing the same thing.

Gia shot me a warning look, but she didn’t interfere.

“Um, I got back to Indy this morning.”

Yeah, that much I’d figured out. But before I could give voice to my sarcasm, Gia interrupted.

“Did Jake tell you about the interview this afternoon? The one with Connor?”

I heard Ellie gasp, and I knew she’d forgotten. “Oh crap. Oh, Gia, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not a problem,” Gia continued. “I’ve got it covered, but I need you to be honest with me. Are you going to forgive Jake? I totally believe that he was the jerk.”

“Hey!” I said, my anger finding an outlet in Gia. “You don’t know—”

“N-no,” Ellie said. “I—I had to get back to Indy, that’s all. And I forgot. I’m so—”

“Ellie, you’re a terrible liar,” Gia interrupted. “But honestly, girlfriend to girlfriend, do I cancel next week’s interviews? There’s plenty of time for me to cover.”

Oh hell. The publicity circus hadn’t really died down. Sure, the All-Star Game filled the news right now, but next week would be a different story. It was Gia’s job to keep the people’s attention on her players, any way she could. And next week was supposed to be on me. On milking my heroics from the fire with pieces on my romantic story with Ellie.

And naturally, I’d completely forgotten. Ellie had, too. And now I had to find a workaround because no way would she—

“I’ll be there,” Ellie said. “I promised.”

“But you aren’t here now,” I said, horrified by my bitter tone. Damn it, I sounded like my brother. “I came back to the room with coffee, but you weren’t there.”

Silence greeted me on the other end of the line. There was silence, too, from Gia, who looked at me with way too much understanding in her eyes.

“Um, I’m sorry, Jake. I…I just had to go. I just…” She took an audible breath. “I’m sorry.”

I didn’t know what to say as I fought with my anger. Damn it, I’d been the one to screw up. I knew it. And I’d just made her apologize, which hadn’t helped ease my pain at all. It had only made the guilt settle in worse. Meanwhile, Gia decided to take control.

“Ellie, how about you and me get together Monday afternoon? Before your shift. We can—”

“Oh, I can’t,” Ellie said. “I’m sorry. I had to pick up a few extra shifts next week. You know to cover for… Um. It doesn’t matter.”

Extra shifts to make up for the ones she was missing now. When she was supposed to be here with me.

“But I’ll be there for the interviews. I promise.”

“Okay,” Gia said, her tone more thoughtful than perky. “We’ll talk another time.”

“Yes. That sounds good. Thanks.”

“Yeah,” Gia said. “Okay.” She looked to me, obviously expecting me to say something to Ellie. The line was still open. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. What could I say? I couldn’t talk about what was eating me up. Not here, not now, with this audience. And what the hell would I say, anyway? I couldn’t even begin to form the words. And in the long pause, Ellie gave up on me.

“Right. Um, okay. Bye.”

Then the line went dead.

I was still staring at the phone when Pops decided he’d waited long enough. He grabbed my elbow and tugged me away. “Forget about her, son. Plenty of other pretty girls want to be on your arm, right?” he said, winking boldly at Gia.

She gave him a weak smile. “Yeah, sure. Just so long as he doesn’t take up with them until after the end of the season.”

I nodded, hearing the warning loud and clear. Pops didn’t, of course. His attention was on something else.

“Well, fine,” Pops said. “I’m starving. Let’s go get something to eat.” By which, he meant something to drink.

I thought about fighting him. I thought about putting him through a wall because none of this would have happened if he hadn’t shown up and screwed with my plans. But I didn’t. Instead, I turned to Gia.

“Is there anything I can do to make up for this?” I meant, to make up for screwing up the interview. At least I think I did. Maybe I was hoping for some advice from another woman. Someone who could explain to a clueless guy how to fix a fucked-up relationship.

Whatever I was hoping for, I didn’t get. She shook her head and sighed. “What do you want me to tell Connor?”

Oh, hell. Ellie’s cousin had already slugged me. And that was nothing compared with what he’d do if he found out Ellie was hurting. It didn’t matter whose fault it was. He would lay the blame on me. Along with his very big fists.

But at the moment, I didn’t really care. Pops was already wandering toward the beer stands. Ellie had left me and had refused to answer her phone when I’d called earlier. So what Connor thought really didn’t matter.

“Tell him to pay attention to his own love life and get the hell out of mine.” Then I stomped away to go babysit my father.