Chapter Nineteen
James
“No way!” Gabrielle exclaimed from the other end of the line. “We are not doing that.”
I was trying to convince her to go tandem skydiving with me later on that week. “Come on, Gabbi,” I said into the phone. “It’s been a long time since I’ve gone. No one ever wants to come with me, and it's only half as fun when there’s no one with me to experience the epic adrenaline rush. I’ll make it worth your while. I can think of at least a dozen places there where we can—”
“James Skye. Do not finish that sentence. First of all, I come with you plenty.” I couldn’t even believe that she was teasing about that. “Secondly, you can go jump out of a perfectly functioning plane by yourself and share the epic adrenaline rush with me after.”
“Don’t give that ‘perfectly functioning plane’ bullshit,” I argued, grabbing my gym bag and heading in to meet Ryder for our daily workout. “The only people who think about it that way are people who have never experienced it.”
“I haven’t, and I absolutely do not want to.” She wasn’t giving an inch on this one. She turned me down without a second’s hesitation, no matter how much I asked.
I shouldered my way through the swinging doors and turned to the locker room. “Jamie!” Ryder called from the weights section.
“Do me a favor and just think about it,” I said. “Read some blogs or something.” I made my way across the floor to Ryder.
“I have thought about it. There are so many things that I’m willing to try, as you well know. But I will not do that.”
“What if I promise to hold you tight and keep you safe?” Ryder’s eyes grew wide as he overheard the offer. Fuck.
“Oh God,” she groaned. “Do you honestly think that a cheesy line is going to get me to jump out of a plane? You have much to learn, young Padawan.”
“Nope, didn’t think it would work, but I had to give it a try. And I know plenty, I’ll have you know. I’m just desperate.” Ryder eyed me curiously. I had to get off the phone. He was never going to let it go as things were. I didn’t need to give him more ammunition.
She laughed. “Please, you’ve never been desperate for a day in your life.”
“That might have been true, until today. Look, I gotta go. We still on for tonight? We can talk about it then.” I avoided Ryder’s piercing gaze.
“Yes, we’re on for hanging out tonight. I’ll meet you at the beach at 9? But only if we don’t keep talking about it then.” A teammate had told me about a little Spanish place that I knew Gabrielle was going to love.
“We’ll see about that. Have fun studying.” I ended the call and threw my phone into my bag.
“What’s up, man?” I slapped Ryder’s palm.
He tilted his head as he studied me. “Who was that?”
“Just some chick.” I gave him my best ‘you know how it is’ shrug.
He shook his head and swapped out his weights, wiping his brow with his towel. “Didn’t fucking sound like just some chick.”
“What is this, the fucking inquisition? I gotta go change. I’ll meet you back here in two.” I stripped off in the locker room, changed into my gear, and racked my brain for a way out of the conversation that I was about to have.
“I’m having a party tonight,” Ryder grunted, curling a weight in each arm. He already dripped with sweat.
Talking to Gabrielle had distracted me. I was way behind on today’s routine.
“Okay, have fun, son. Don’t stay out too late.” I shot him a shit-eating grin. I didn’t want to have explain that the reason I was skipping one of his parties was to hang out with Gabrielle.
Ryder stopped his workout and asked his question pointedly. “What’s up with you lately?”
I studied the fading sunset painted on the wall in front of me and shrugged. “What do you mean?”
“You’re... different. You skipped the party on Saturday and the one the week before. Now you’re trying to dodge the one tonight. The one that I’m throwing. You turned down Luke for golf and Big Dave for that party cruise.” He launched into a list of a bunch of other stuff that I’d skipped out on to spend time with Gabrielle.
Have we really been spending that much time together? It didn’t feel like it. I didn’t think that I’d ever spent so much time with a woman and not gotten bored out of my mind. Why wasn’t I bored yet?
I kept my voice even, mentally trying to calculate if he was right about the amount of time we’d spent together. “I’ve just been busy. There’s nothing going on with me. I already have plans tonight. Maybe if you didn’t plan like a fifth grader and gave me a heads up in advance—”
“A fucking heads up in advance? Up until a couple of weeks ago, you were always down to party at the drop of a hat. Now you need notice? Do you really expect me to believe that?” Ryder was getting riled up.
No. “Yes. Like I said, bro. I’ve been busy.”
“Is it this girl? The one you were talking to just now?” His accusatory tone rubbed me the wrong way.
Yes. “No. Well, maybe some of it.”
Try all of it.
I wanted to come clean to him, but I wasn’t in the mood for the metaphorical pineapple he was sure to shove up my ass for getting involved with her.
Plus, the fewer people who knew about Gabbi and me, the less the chances were of it ever getting back to Richard. Ryder would keep the secret, but shit happened.
He contemplated my answer, apparently finding it unsatisfactory. “Who is she?”
“She’s nobody. Just a girl that I’ve been hanging out with.” I lied through my teeth.
“Hanging out with?” His voice was incredulous. “Do you mean fucking?”
“Both.” There, I could give him that much.
As it turned out, it wasn’t enough. “Since when do you hang out with women for longer than it takes you to get their panties to hit the floor?”
His tone was seriously rubbing me the wrong way. I hardly ever snapped at Ryder, but I did then. “Why don’t you get your panties out of their twist? I’m just having some fun, okay?”
“Consider them untwisted, asshole. Who is she? Her pussy must be made of gold if you’re willing to hang out with her to get it.” It was, but I wasn’t only hanging out with her to get some.
I could get some from just about any straight single girl by doing little more than smiling at her. Maybe even some of the married ones if I was that kind of man, which I wasn’t.
“You do realize that I am a human being who happens to enjoy good conversation from time to time. There is a body with a brain attached to my dick.” My fuse got shorter by the second.
“Yeah, but you used to separate the two. Why won’t you just tell me who she is?” Pushy motherfucker.
I’d had enough of his shit. “Why do you want to know so fucking badly? You don’t know her. I enjoy talking to her. End of story.”
He completely ignored the venom in my tone and returned it with ice and determination in his. “It is not the end of the fucking story. There’s a lot more to this. Is it serious?”
“Fuck no,” I answered without hesitation. Ryder knew me better than that. I didn’t do serious.
Even if Gabrielle was fun to be around. Even if she did make me feel shit that I didn’t know what to do with. At worst, I had a fucking crush or something. It would pass, probably sooner rather than later.
His eyebrows raised all the way to his dark dreads. “You sure?”
“Who’re you talking to, Ry? ‘Cause I’m sure that Ryder, the guy who’s known me for years, knows that I don’t do serious.” We both thawed out a little, allowing our frustration with each other to flow to our muscles and into our workout.
“James, the guy who I’ve known for years, has never blown off just about everything for some girl.” He threw my shitty reasoning right back at me.
“I told you, I’m just having some fun.” My brow was covered in sweat, and I was so far over this conversation that I was coming up on Timbuktu. “Since when do we gossip like teenagers about girls?”
“Since now, apparently. Who is she, James?” The man was tenacious; I had to give him that. Grudgingly.
A deep sigh ran through me. He wasn’t going to let me off the hook. It was time to get it over with. “It’s Gabrielle, okay. Gabrielle Ralls.”
Ryder went rigid. His jaw hit the ground as he turned to me. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“No,” I admitted. “We met. Shit happened. We’re having fun.”
“Does she know that?” It would be an understatement to say that he looked doubtful.
“Yeah, of course.” We hadn’t talked about it, necessarily. Not in so many words, but I was sure that we were on the same page.
In fact, I was convinced that she’d only had dinner with me that first night to piss off her father.
The thought made me, I don’t know, uneasy maybe? But I was sure that her hanging out with me wasn’t about that anymore. Now it was something else.
“So you’re telling me that you’re potentially sacrificing your spot on our team for a fling?”
“What are you talking about?” It was my turn to stop and stare, though I knew exactly what he meant.
“You know what I’m fucking talking about. Don’t play dumb, Jamie. Not with me, cause I ain’t falling for your bullshit.” He was full-blown annoyed if his twitching jaw and harsh tone were anything to go by.
“Come on. Richard might not be happy about it, if he even finds out, but he’s not going to kick me off the team.” I’d dialed down my own irritation.
“No, maybe not. The restructuring of your contract, on the other hand, that might be in trouble.” His jaw clenched, and his dark eyes radiated a seriousness that he didn’t display too often. “I’m not going to say anything, but shit like this tends to get out. You said yourself that you’re not serious about this Gabrielle. So is it really worth it to risk your future over a fling?”
“If I agree to think about it, can we drop it?” I huffed. I was done with his shit.
He cast a last worried look my way, then broke out a grin. “Sure, man. Let me spot you.”
We grunted through our workout, hit the showers, and were out the door without another word about Gabrielle.
Thoughts swirled around in my head as I drove around, not wanting to head home just yet. Harper’s eyes flashed in my mind, as did the kind of life that I wanted for her.
Next was the Super Bowl and how shitty I had felt watching it on Ryder’s flat screen when it should’ve been us on that field. The ring that had eluded me for so long.
As much as I liked spending time with Gabrielle, maybe Ryder was right. Maybe she wasn’t worth risking my future.