Chapter 16
“You have to realize her parents are crazy. I mean, you knew them when you guys were growing up, right?” Will asked after he passed a beer to Leo.
“I always saw how invested they were in Jazz. I guess at some point I figured she would have actually started acting like an adult.” Leo bit out the words, still pissed at what had happened that morning. “I mean, the fact that her mom didn’t think it would be a problem for her to arrange a date for Jazz is a little telling, right? Normal people don’t do that.”
The men were sitting in lawn chairs in the garage at Will’s house. The space had been turned into somewhat of a man cave with sports flags and specialty beer boxes decorating the large space.
Nix shrugged. “I’ve never met her parents, but after being around Jazz even I can tell that she is a people pleaser.”
“What the fuck does that even mean?” Leo growled, not pleased with the fact that Nix had even been invited out to the driving range earlier that day. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the man, but the last thing he needed right now was someone that had been interested in Jazz popping into the picture when things were sketchy between the two of them. He wasn’t happy with her right now, but he was nowhere near ready to let her go.
“I mean that Jazz always tried to help. It didn’t matter who needed help or what it was for she always volunteered. She goes with the flow no matter what, even if it’s something that she doesn’t really want to do,” Nix elaborated, before taking a long draw on his own beer.
“I know what you mean. Remember the truck wash we had a couple months ago?” Will posed the question to Nix, but Leo butted in with his own.
“What are you talking about?”
“We had a charity truck wash after it had snowed in March to raise some money for local schools. We pitched it as a winter wash to clean the salt off everyone’s car. Problem was that we had about three times as many cars show up as we had planned, and Winter was calling in favors left and right to get volunteers. Originally, Jazz was only supposed to be providing hot chocolate to the workers, but soon she was out there in her fancy clothes spraying and scrubbing with the rest of us,” Will explained while Nix nodded in agreement.
Leo didn’t see what the big deal was. He knew that Jasmine volunteered her time now and then so that wouldn’t have been that far out of character for her. “And?”
Nix just shook his head as if Leo was asking dumbass questions. “Man, not only was she getting over an awful cold that day but she also wasn’t dressed to be working in the water when it was only fifty degrees outside. One of the new guys didn’t know any better and had asked her to help. Since it was Jazz, she said yes automatically. It didn’t matter that she was sick and not prepared. They asked and she said yes.”
“Winter tore her a new one that day when she found her scrubbing one of the big trucks. Jazz looked tiny enough to have fit right underneath the tires. Yet, there she was, soaked to the bone and scrubbing away like she was a high school kid earning summer money.” Will shook his head at the memory with a small smile on his face. “I still remember her dragging Jazz out from under that lifted truck like she was a little kid.”
“So, am I making a big deal out of nothing?” Leo leaned forward in his chair and propped his elbows on his knees.
“Now, I can’t tell you that or not…but Leo, I’ve known Jasmine for a year now and the way her parents treat her is almost like an afterthought. I have a feeling she agrees with what they want most of the time because it’s what she’s always done. I also think a little bit of it may come from the fact that she doesn’t want to disappoint them. It’s as if she doesn’t want to say no just to keep them happy. Can you imagine having a relationship with your mom like that?” Will peeled the label off his bottle before meeting Leo’s eyes. “They didn’t even come to her graduation, man.”
“When Winter told me that they weren’t going, I made sure that the guys from the station that weren’t on call were there.” Nix’s voice had an edge to it that Leo had never heard before. “That pissed me the fuck off.”
“I didn’t know that.” Leo’s face showed the surprise he felt at his friend’s revelations. “I figured that her folks would have been there in the front row showing off Jazz to as many people as possible. Why wouldn’t they go?”
Will tossed his empty bottle a couple of feet into the recycling bin where it landed on some cardboard with a dull thud. “I asked Winter. Now, she said that Jazz’s parents decided to wait for something more prestigious to celebrate than a nursing degree when they had been pushing for her to go to medical school for years. I think she said that her parents had planned a reception for her later this summer to coincide with whatever job she ended up taking. They were pushing for her to assist some fancy new doc at the hospital that they are on the board of.”
“Jesus Christ…they are something special, aren’t they?” Nix mumbled.
“Tell me Leo, when was the last time you have been around the Kingsfords?” Will cracked open another bottle before offering one to Nix.
“I haven’t seen or talked to them since her high school graduation party.” Leo took the fresh bottle that Will was holding out for him. “My mom never talked about them after I moved away and she retired pretty quickly after that anyway.”
“Well, I have a feeling that they are a lot worse than you remember, especially now that she’s all grown up and out from under their roof. Winter had to jump through some pretty shitty hoops just to move in with Jazz.”
“I don’t envy you, man,” Nix admitted, shaking his head.
“What does that mean?”
Nix held out his hands. “I admit that I had a slight thing for Jazz. I mean, who wouldn’t? She’s smart, sweet as can be, can bake a hell of a cookie and has an ass that makes me want to cry.” At his last words, he barely dodged the punch that Leo swung at his arm. “But, shit man. She comes with a lot of baggage. Those folks of hers have probably run off tons of guys without her even knowing it. I do not envy you one bit.”
“What’s to say they haven’t run me off, either?” Leo asked, even though he already knew the answer deep in his soul.
“’cause it’s Jazz, man. She’s special.” Nix tipped the beer bottle he was holding toward Leo in a mock toast. “I’ll tell you right now that if I had that little spitfire in my bed and looking at me the way she looks at you…let’s just say that there would be nothing her asshole parents could do or say to make me give that up. Not one damn thing. In fact, I would probably make sure to tie her up extra tight just to make sure she couldn’t get away from me.”
His words rang true. Leo knew that what he had started with Jazz was on a completely different level than anything he had ever felt before. There was just a rightness to everything about them.
“So, what are you going to do?” Nix asked, nosy as can be.
Leo sat back in the lawn chair, the creaking of the aluminum the only sound in the quiet garage. “That’s the million-dollar question and I can safely say…I don’t know.”
Nix raised his eyebrow at Leo.
“You got something to add?” Leo asked sarcastically. The last thing he wanted or needed right now was Nix giving him love advice.
“Only that you’re a goddamned idiot if you let something that her parents did fuck with what’s between the two of you, that’s all,” Nix answered, his voice mocking Leo.
“So, now I’m an idiot? Nix, she’s twenty-six fucking years old and her mom thinks that she can set her up on a date and not only that, but she told her what to wear to the fucking thing! Can you imagine how hard they could make it for us?”
“She never said she was going on the date, you big asshole, now did she?”
Leo recalled their conversation from this morning and answered honestly, “No, she said she wasn’t.”
“So, what’s the real problem? The fact that her parents treat her like a kid and she’s let them up until now?” Nix prodded, making Leo mad. “From what I heard she tried to toe the line because they were paying for school. They held it over her head quite a bit.”
“She hasn’t fucking told them about us, all right?” Leo growled, his anger showing. “We’ve been practically living together for a week and she never even mentioned me to her parents.”
“You sound like a fucking girl right now, Leo.” Nix laughed, and giving his voice a high pitch he mimicked a woman’s voice. “We’ve been dating a whooole week and she hasn’t told her parents yet. Jesus man, it’s only been a week. Has she even seen her parents since y’all hooked up?”
Leo transferred his gaze to the floor, unable to keep Nix’s mocking gaze. “No.”
“Even I know that it’s something that Jazz would want to talk to her parents about in person, man,” Will added his two cents. “Is that why you’re so pissed?”
“I don’t know, maybe…I guess.” Leo hated dealing with shit like this. It had been so much easier when fucking a woman was simply that. Fucking. Now that he had to get all touchy feely with his emotions, it made everything go to hell.
“Get over yourself.” Nix tossed his empty bottle into the recycling container against the wall. “Because I’ll tell ya right now, if you don’t get over this snit that you’re in, you are going to lose that girl and someone else will be there to pick up the pieces.”
“Like who? You?” Even the thought of Nix possibly making a move on Jazz made Leo feel homicidal.
“I would be so lucky,” Nix admitted. “You know she wouldn’t move on from whatever it is that you two have and turn around and date your friend. She’s not like the pole bunnies, you gotta give her a little leeway, man.”
“Fuuuck.” Leo leaned back in his chair, looking at the ceiling. “How do I fix this?”
“First you have to want to fix it.” Will stood up and moved to the dartboard mounted to the man cave’s wall. “So, do you?”
“I know it’s only been a week, but I can’t see a future without her,” Leo admitted to his best friend and previous arch nemesis.
“When you know, you know.” Will echoed the words that Leo had been thinking.
“Well then…you need a plan,” Nix pointed out. “And it is probably going to include you going and talking to her folks at some point.”
“I’ll do whatever I need to fix this.” Leo grabbed three darts and stood behind the line they had taped to the floor. “I have to fix it. If not, then I’m fucked.”
Throwing the darts in rapid succession, Leo got a bullseye on his first throw. Now he had to transfer some of that bullseye luck to the clusterfuck he had somehow gotten into with Jazz.
“When you know, you know,” Leo whispered to himself, hoping that he hadn’t completely screwed things up.