The Game Changer

Grabbing the bag from Dean, I started walking toward the kitchen.



“I’ll show you around the house.” Dean grabbed Melissa by the hand, leaving me alone.



Gran and Gramps sat at the table, drinking out of coffee mugs. Gran scooted out of her chair and shuffled toward me, her arms outstretched. “Oh, Cassie. It’s so good to see you. We miss you.” She kissed the side of my cheek and hugged me as tightly as her frail arms could.



“I miss you too. Here, I brought these.” I pulled out the flowers and the wine.



“The kitten is here!” Gramps practically shouted before wrapping his burly arms around me, the smell of tobacco lingering on his clothes.



I breathed him in, the scent reminding me of being here with Jack. “Gramps! I miss you the most. Don’t tell Gran,” I whisper-shouted near his ear.



“I heard that!” Gran yelled out from the sink where she worked on arranging the flowers in a vase.



“Come sit,” Gramps said as he plopped back into his chair.



“Should we open the wine?” Gran asked, still arranging the flowers.



“I’m OK. We brought those bottles for you guys to enjoy with dinner. Save them.” I winked at Gramps, and he grinned.



Gran placed her hand on my shoulder as she passed me to sit down. She sipped from her mug before eyeing me. “So, dear, how is everything?”



My smile faded quicker than I intended. “It’s good. Everything’s good,” I lied, as the realization that being around Jack’s family without Jack was harder than I anticipated. I missed him. And I knew I couldn’t get anything past Gran.



Gran reached out a hand, touching my fingers gently. “We saw that dreadful magazine. Why won’t she just go away?”



“I don’t know, but I’ve wondered the same thing.”



“Jack said you’re having a hard time dealing with it all. Tell us what’s going on.” Gran had a way of making you talk about the things you wanted to avoid.



I looked into Gramps’s tired eyes, the worry lines around them increasing. “He’s right. I’m just having a hard time dealing with all the press and the Internet sites.”



“Why? What do they say?” Gramps asked through his confusion.



“Just a bunch of mean stuff about how I’m not hot enough for Jack. I’m too fat. They take my picture and basically say whatever they want about it. They just make things up. And now with the whole Chrystle thing, I feel like I can’t take it anymore.”



“Cassie, you know how much we love you, right?” Gran asked, and I nodded. “It broke our hearts what Jack did to you. We were so disappointed and sad. But to know that you’ve taken him back after everything, we can’t tell you how happy that makes us.” She reached out to squeeze Gramps’s hand.



“The press sounds dreadful. Truly awful. And I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to deal with that on a daily basis. But, dear, one day, all of that will fade away. The press, the Internet, the websites, Chrystle,” she paused, “they will all be things of the past.”



She leaned forward, cupping my face in her hand. “I know you can live your life without all of those things, but can you really live your life without Jack?”



They already knew the answer as I blinked back the tears. “I think I’d be miserable without him.”



“Because you love him,” Gramps called out, joy animating his voice.



“Of course I love him.”



“Then don’t give up. One day you’ll look around and realize that all the things you thought mattered so much, really didn’t matter much at all.” Gran eyed Gramps, the love between them apparent. “What matters the most is who you love. Because when everything else is a distant memory, the people you love are all that’s left. And love is the single most important thing we can do in our lives. Give it. Receive it. Teach others how to do it.”



My eyes filled with tears again. “Love is the most important thing? Above everything else?”



“Absolutely,” Gramps said with a crooked smile. “It’s funny the things you think will last forever when you’re young. I figured I’d work until I died. But even work stops at some point. And you find yourself looking around, taking stock of your life, and you realize that you don’t give a shit about where you worked, or what you did to bring in money, but you care about the lives you touched. The love you shared. The family you created. You care about who is standing beside you when the shit hits the fan.”



Gran swatted at Gramps twice, presumably for each time he cursed, but missed. “It’s true,” she said. “The older you get, the more you realize that it isn’t about the material things, or pride or ego. It’s about our hearts and who they beat for. I know your heart beats for Jack in the same way that his heart beats for you. I don’t think one can survive without the other. Do you?”



I wiped at the tears rolling down my cheeks, their words striking a chord inside my soul. How could I ever think I’d be OK without Jack in my life? I might be able to distract myself for a little while, but eventually I would realize that my heart lay vacant and cold. “No. I’d be miserable without him.”



“Then you have to figure out a way to let all the other stuff go. You have to let Jack carry some of the load for you. If you keep things from him, he can’t help.”



Gramps raised his hand before quickly adding, “I know you ladies like to think that we can read your minds, but we can’t. We don’t know anything that’s going on in those heads of yours unless you tell us.”



I nodded. “I know you’re right. It’s just easier said than done right now.”



Gran didn’t miss a beat. “If you quit on Jack, you’re giving everyone what they want. Chrystle wins. And I would hate to see her win at anything.” Her eyes narrowed. “But you and Jack would be the real losers because you’d lose each other. People spend their whole lives searching for the kind of love that the two of you share. That’s what life is all about.”



Gramps chimed in, “Love is life. If you miss out on love, you miss out on life.”



Melissa and Dean shuffled into the kitchen, goofy smiles on both their faces. “Gran, Gramps, this is Cassie’s best friend, Melissa.” Dean beamed with pride as he introduced her to his family.



Gramps grinned. “Hi, Melissa. You’re just as pretty as the kitten,” he said with a wink, and Melissa couldn’t help but smile even wider.



“It’s nice to meet you.” Gran extended her hand before glancing in my direction and whispering, “This one’s going to need a little work on the Dean front, isn’t she?” I nodded, wondering how the hell Gran seemed to instinctively know everything.



After a couple hours of polite conversation and Gran force-feeding us sandwiches, Melissa and I said good-bye. Dean stood on the porch with a pout on his face as he watched us leave. She begged him for some time alone with me, but he claimed he wanted to spend time with me too. They compromised on girl time tonight and Dean time tomorrow. I laughed at their conversation.



“You like them, don’t you?” I asked Melissa as she lowered the car radio.



“They are pretty great. How was your alone time with them? Dean insisted we let you guys talk by yourselves.” She sounded slightly annoyed by Dean’s suggestion.



“I appreciated it,” I admitted, hoping to relieve her irritation. “They’re so awesome. They always seem to know just what to say and how to say it.”



“What did they say this time?” she asked, her eyes focused directly in front of her.



“They talked about the importance of love. And how in the end, it’s all that really matters, and it’s all you have left when everything else is gone.”



“They sound almost as smart as I am,” she said, and I smacked her shoulder with the back of my hand. “Hey!”



I watched as we passed the restaurant where Jack and I had our first date, the quick jolts of pain to my heart reminding me how much I missed him.



“So, did they fix you?”



“I still need to figure out how to find some balance, but all of you are right. Breaking up with Jack won’t solve anything in the long run. I’d regret it eventually, and I’d probably never get over it.”



“You know, Cass, Jack isn’t the only one who changed. I mean, you changed him. But he changed you too. Whether you realize it or not, it’s the truth.”



Hearing Melissa say those words solidified what I’d known for some time. She’d told me the same thing back in college, but it seemed to carry more weight now. I felt like I’d grown up twenty years in the span of the last two.



“You’re right. I honestly can’t imagine my life without him. And I don’t want to.”



“Then you need to stop running away from him when things get rough. You do that a lot, and eventually he’s going to get pissed.”



“I don’t run away,” I sniped defensively.



“Really? You left the state! You’re either running away or shutting him out completely. And both of those things suck.”



I watched the palm trees blur into green streaks across the sky blue backdrop. Melissa was right. “I’ll work on it.” I’d bottled so many of my emotions inside because I didn’t want to burden Jack with them. And I needed to learn how to clear my head with Jack in the picture instead of pushing him out of it.



Melissa’s phone started to ring. “Can you see who it is?”



I grabbed for the phone and noticed Jack’s name flashing across the screen. “It’s Jack.”



“Speak of the devil. Answer it.”



My stomach dropped to the floor. “Hi,” I answered nervously.



“Where’s your phone?” Jack’s voice was tight and agitated.



“I left it in the apartment. Why? What’s wrong?”



“Check it as soon as you get back and then you fucking tell me,” he said tersely.



“Jack? Hello?” I pulled the phone from my ear to look at the screen. “Holy shit, he hung up on me.”



“What’s going on?” Melissa sounded worried.



“I have no idea. He told me to check my phone.” My head started to spin as I wondered what the hell could have happened.



Don’t



Jack



My cell phone beeped, signaling I had a new text message. Instead of a return phone number, the sender was an anonymous e-mail. I considered not opening the message, knowing that nothing good could come from an anonymous source. After a short battle with myself, I clicked the message and a picture popped up.



What the fuck?



Matteo kissing Cassie displayed on my screen and violent urges instantly ripped through my guts. My temper flared as a fire blazed through my every pore. I wanted to tear Matteo’s fucking head off. How dare he put his lips on my girl? How dare he fucking even think about touching her?



But she let him. She wasn’t pushing him away in the picture, she was kissing him back. Fuck, even her goddamn eyes were closed!