Playing For Keeps (7 page)

Her little hobby meaning her job.
Smile. “It’s going great. Thank you for asking. We’ll be breaking
for the summer in two months. I’m thinking of traveling, or renting
a cabin in New Hampshire for a few weeks.”

“Honestly, dear, I don’t know why you
do it. If you're so determined to work you should go back to school
and get a real degree in law or medicine like your father. Is it
because you’re trying to meet a man?” her mother asked, sounding
hopeful.

Smile. “No, I’m not looking for a man.
I enjoy what I do.”

Her mother’s answer was a frown; well
it looked like she was trying to frown. Actually, everyone at the
table was frowning now. They couldn’t understand why she worked
since none of them had ever worked a day in their lives. Personally
she thought the whole bunch was rather spoiled and she was
wondering why she came here in the first place. Then she
remembered. She came here for Grandma. She couldn’t leave Grandma
to these vultures and it didn’t hurt that Grandma threatened to
take her over her knee and spank her if she didn’t show
up.

“Sweetheart!” her father said, smiling
hugely. He leaned over and kissed both cheeks. Smile. “Happy
Birthday, sweetheart. I’m sorry it’s a couple of weeks late,” he
said sheepishly.

“Thank you, dad,” she said, taking the
birthday card. Smile. Her birthday had been five months ago. Yes,
her entire family had forgotten, well except Grandma of course. She
called at five in the morning, waking Haley up on her birthday,
demanding that Haley should knock some sense into her parents.
Haley calmed her down and thanked her for the gift she'd sent the
day before. The next day she went and saw her. Her old nannies sent
her birthday cards and gifts. Her friends made her a dinner and
they went out, so it was okay.

“I can’t believe my little baby is
twenty-five already!” he said.

“I know.” She couldn’t believe it
either since she was twenty-nine, but hey if he wanted to make her
younger who was she to argue?

“She’s twenty-nine, you fool!” Grandma
said. “She turned twenty-nine in December. How I raised fools is
beyond me,” Grandma grumbled.

Smile. “Thanks, Dad. It’s
fine.”

His smile wavered and for the first
time in her life he truly looked embarrassed and
ashamed.

“I’m going to call you later this
week,” he said firmly.

“Dad, it’s okay,” she said, letting
him off the hook.

“No, it’s not,” he said before he
forced the fake smile back and turned to respond to someone calling
his name.

“Honestly, Haley. There is no need to
create such drama over nonsense,” her mother said, trying to save
face. Everyone sent her mother pitying looks and eye rolls at Haley
as if it was Haley’s fault for simply living.

Smile. “Sorry, if you’ll excuse me,”
she said, taking her card with her and sticking it in her purse.
She walked over to her grandmother and sat down.

Grandma huffed. “I don’t know why you
put up with such nonsense.”

“It’s fine.”

“The hell it is!”

For the first time since she arrived
she let out a real smile.

“Deborah, what are we eating today?”
Grandma demanded of Haley’s mother, her least favorite
daughter-in-law.

Her mother smiled, well tried to
smile. “We’re having Salmon with broiled spinach leaves, a nonfat
mock potato salad and some nonfat sugarless flourless soy French
delicacies that are simply to die for.”

Grandma’s eyes narrowed dangerously as
her hand went for the cane. Haley discretely wrestled the cane away
from her grandmother.

“Hey, that’s mine!” Grandma snapped as
Haley put the cane next to her chair, away from Grandma while
rubbing the back of her hand. Damn, Grandma had a firm
grip.

“Behave,” Haley hissed, making Grandma
smile. Out of all the children and grandchildren Haley was the only
one who treated Grandma as a human and not an old responsibility
they got stuck with.

Grandma turned her attention back to
Deborah. “I want a burger, a hot dog and some real potato
salad.”

“Mother dearest, we simply don’t have
that here!” she said as if the very idea of having such basic food
items in her house was unheard of.

Grandma glared at her for a moment
longer before turning her attention to Haley. “You?”

“Me what?”

“You have those things in your house,
don’t you?”

Haley nodded. “Yes.” In fact her
freezer and pantry were filled to the brim with staples for
barbeques since she lived for barbeque food in the summer, probably
had something to do with Grandma raising her. The woman simply
lived for barbeque food.

“Good,” Grandma said firmly as she
gestured to Chris, her helper. The man was just entering his
fifties, but he still worked hard to take care of Grandma. “Let’s
go, Chris.”

Chris nodded and walked over
obediently and began pushing Grandma around the house. Without
looking back Grandma said, “Let’s go, Haley!”

Haley stood. “Go where?”

“To your house. Where else? Now come
along before the parasites try to crash our party.”

Haley hid her smile as she obediently
followed her grandmother out the door. No wonder she absolutely
adored the old woman.

Chapter 6

“I’m hungry,” Jason grumbled as he
stared at the empty plates on his small coffee table.

Brad groaned, “You practically ate
both plates of cookies. How in the hell are you hungry?”

Jason shrugged leaning back in his
chair to watch the game. “I just am. Leave me the hell alone I’m a
growing boy, damn it!”

“Yeah, a growing thirty-one year old
boy,” Brad mumbled.

“I’m still growing damn it so shut the
hell up and feed me!”

“Order something and stop bitching!”
Brad snapped.

“You order something. I’m too weak to
move.”

Brad rolled his eyes. “I don’t know
how Haley put up with you for the last few weeks. I would have
killed you by now.”

“Haley worships me,” he said with a
snort.

“Yeah, okay,” Brad said, laughing.
“That’s why she dates other men and screws you over just to laugh
at you.”

“Exactly.”

Brad looked over at him. “You are a
seriously fucked up man, aren’t you?”

“Probably,” Jason said
unconcerned.

“I thought so.”

A soft knock at the door drew both
their attention. Brad cringed. “This isn’t another one of your
girlfriends coming for revenge is it?”

Jason rolled his eyes as he jumped to
his feet. “I think calling any of them my girlfriends is a bit of
an exaggeration. I rather you stick with referring to them as ‘the
women who agreed to having a good time with no strings attached who
got really pissed off at me when I got bored and left them for
someone hotter.’”

“Wow, that’s a mouthful,” Brad
murmured. “And surprising none of them has killed you
yet.”

“It is, isn’t it,” Jason
agreed.

He opened the door, knowing no angry
ex-lovers would be there. It had been a while since he took a woman
to bed and to the best of his knowledge all the previous women
already told him off. So, at least for now he was good.

Standing outside his door was Haley in
a cute pair of cut off jean shorts and a tank top. Her hair was
pulled back into a messy loose bun and some of the strands escaped
and teased her nape. It didn’t hurt that those glasses of hers made
her look like a sexy little bookworm.

She smiled sweetly. “I am so glad
you’re here!” He couldn’t bite back the smile from that
declaration. Maybe it was time to forgive her. It was pretty funny
after all and those cookies were damn good, not to mention that
smile she was giving him made him rather happy.

“Brad, do you think you could give me
a hand? I could really use a man’s help for a few
minutes.”

His jaw dropped. He could hear Brad
trying to stifle his laughter.

“If you need a man, I’m right here!”
he snapped.

Haley blinked and then blinked again.
“Oh, sorry I didn’t think of you. I need a guy with muscle and
you....” Her voice trailed off while she looked him over and then
shrugged. “Well, you know,” she said innocently.

“Know what?” he demanded.

She ignored him and focused back on
Brad. “Do you think you could give me a hand? I’m having company
and I can’t get the barbeque out by myself. It’s kind of
heavy.”
Brad chuckled as he came to the door. “Sure. I was on my way home,
but I can give you a hand since there’s no one around here strong
enough to help you,” he said, sounding amused with a twinkle in his
eyes.

“The hell you will!” Jason said as he
grabbed Haley’s arm and practically dragged her towards her house.
She threw a wink over her shoulder to Brad, who was still laughing
and shaking his head in disbelief.

Brad strolled to his car while Jason
gave Haley a lecture on his manliness and something about her being
a bad grasshopper, whatever the hell that meant. He looked back
over in time to catch Jason giving Haley’s ass an appreciative look
without breaking from his lecture. His buddy might not know it yet,
but he met his match in that little lady. If any woman could bring
Jason to his knees it was that woman.

************

“That’s not enough,” Jason scoffed as
Haley tried to put away the package of frozen hamburger patties and
hot dogs.

“There are only three of us. How much
food do you think we need?” she asked as she tried to sidestep him
to put the food away. Jason swiped the packages from her and took
out more food.

“What the hell?”

He shrugged. “I’m hungry.”

“You’re not invited.”

“Since when do I need an invitation?”
he asked as he doubled the amount of hot dogs on the
plate.

“Three weeks and we already have a set
history? For five years I contemplated manslaughter.”

He merely shrugged.

She growled.

He smiled, making her knees tremble.
Damn him.

“Tell me who's coming? It can’t be any
of your friends because you wouldn’t care if I was here since they
all think I’m a prick and you get a kick out of watching them bitch
me out.”

She sighed. “It entertains me
so.”

“As it should. I am a very
entertaining guy,” he said with a smile as he snuck a forkful of
the potato salad she made yesterday. She considered bringing it
with her today, but she knew how well it would have been received
and decided to leave it here.

“Damn, that’s good, woman,” he
practically growled.

“I’m glad you like it,” she said
casually, but in truth it was really nice to have someone to cook
for occasionally. Her friends were constantly on diets and glared
at her when she offered them cookies or other baked goods. It
seemed Jason hadn't found a food he didn’t like. She really was
surprised that he wasn’t fat.

“So?”

“So what?”

“So, tell me why you stayed less than
an hour at one barbeque only to come home to have one of your own?
Food suck or something?” he asked while sneaking another bite of
the salad before she returned it to the fridge. “Or was there a
family smack down?”

“It’s complicated,” she finally
said.

“What’s so complicated about a family
barbeque?”

“Just drop it. My grandmother is
coming here with her helper. Actually, she should be here by now,
but knowing her she stopped at store to get all her
favorites.”

His brows flew up. “Your grandmother’s
coming here? I didn’t think any of your family ever came to visit
you.”

She gave him a sly smile. “Been spying
on me have you?”

“Not really. I just picked up on
things. I’m an observant guy after all.”

“Well, my grandmother comes here
several times a year. I usually invite her when I know you’ll be
out of town.”

“Afraid I’ll embarrass you?” he asked
teasingly.

“Nope. Afraid she might kill
you.”

“Puhlease, she’ll love me. Every woman
loves and wants me,” he said sincerely.

She chuckled softly. “I’m glad to see
you’re so humble.”

“That I am,” he said as Haley began to
load his arms up with plates of food to take out to the grill. “So,
you mentioned inviting her down. I’m guessing you’re close to
her.”

“I am. She raised me off and on until
I was ten and then took over full time,” she said, opening the
screen door for him. "Anyway, I decided to cut my visit to my
parent's home short today."

“Why?”

“Because I told her to. That’s why,” a
woman’s crisp voice said.

Jason looked up to see an old woman in
a wheel chair being pushed towards them by a wiry man with thinning
gray hair. By the look of the man he was Haley’s grandmother helper
or caregiver.