The End Zone: SPORTS ROMANCE (Contemporary Sport Bad Boy Alpha Male American Football Romance) (New Adult Second Chance Women’s Fiction Romance Short Stories) (74 page)

Connor leaned forward a little. “You said you wanted the truth, and that’s what I gave you, despite my mind screaming that you would never believe me. Annique, I wish I was exaggerating, but the truth of the matter is, Rosie needs serious mental help, and no one can force her to seek it. I spent almost ten years of my life trying to help her get better, and she’s spent the last five years trying to keep me from finding another woman. I know it sounds far-fetched, but trust me when I say, I left a lot out.”

Annique nodded, but she still wasn’t sure. Of course he would say all that, but what if
he
was the crazy one? She pushed the thoughts away and dug into her salad, chastising herself for jumping
to conclusions. He deserved a chance, and she really liked him. He was handsome, but he was also caring and funny. She would be a fool to let him go because of his story about a crazy ex. Didn’t they all? Annique smiled at him, reassuring him that all was not lost.

“Thank you, for believing in me.”

“Maybe I’m naïve, but I feel like you’re telling the truth.”

Outside the restaurant, a shutter clicked loudly in the car, the noise from the camera almost deafening in the tight space. Rosie felt her blood boiling again as she struggled to focus on Connor and his mystery date. They’d chosen a table away from the windows, but Rosie was still able to get a few shots of the back of the woman’s head and Connor. She waited, holding her breath, waiting for her to turn her head. When she finally did, Rosie snapped a quick succession of photos. She focused on the woman’s face and gasped.

“That black girl from the ER, I should have known!” Rosie was seeing red, she was so angry. No wonder she hadn’t known about them, the hussy was posing as a patient and sneaking in. But she wouldn’t be fooled again. Rosie got a few good shots, then put her camera away. She moved her car to a parking lot across the street, backing into a spot under a shade tree. She watched the doors, waiting for the pair to exit so she could follow them home. This woman, whoever she was, would be sorry she messed with Rosie’s marriage. She gave her until the end of the week before she ran screaming for the hills.

Rosie laughed, the sound cold and shallow, completely lacking in joy. She’d been planning her next moves for over a year, she had a few surprises in her sleeve for this woman.

*****

Leah was mucking out Sampson’s stall when Annique popped her head in.

“How did you get here? I thought you weren’t supposed to drive until tomorrow.” Leah put her hands on her hips and gave Annique her best “concerned mommy” look.

“Relax. Connor ran me by my house for a change of clothes, then dropped me off. I told him that you would drive me home.”

Leah rolled her eyes,
“I
guess
I
can take you home when I’m through with all of
your
chores.” She laughed and hugged her friend. “I’m so glad to see you here. How was lunch with the handsome Doctor?”

“It was good. Well, mostly good. He talked about his ex a little, and I wonder about guys that do that. I felt like he was telling the truth, but I don’t know. I can’t believe a woman would spend the last five years since their divorce trying to scare off every woman he dates.”

“Why is that so hard to believe?”

“I don’t know. I just think it’s a little too much. Sure, maybe the first few months she struggled.
Maybe
she even got a little carried away and showed up at a restaurant and ruined a date or two, but to do that for five years? That seems like a long time to hold on to someone that doesn’t want you.”

“You remember Alec, don’t you? That went on for a while.”

Annique groaned. She did remember Alec, and she was glad that Leah had lived through that hell with him.

“But Alec had some real mental problems and I—”

“So who’s to say this woman doesn’t too?”

“She could. I guess I just don’t want to believe it.”

“Has he said or done anything else suspicious?”

“No.”

“Do you have a concrete reason
not
to believe him?”

Annique sighed. Leah was right. “No. Fine, you’re right. He’s probably not lying. He says it’s been a year since he last dated, so maybe she’s over it.”

“Don’t be so sure. I wouldn’t worry too much about her, but definitely don’t let your guard down. And start locking your doors,
especially
when you’re home alone.”

“Okay, okay.”

Annique picked up a brush with her good arm and started brushing Sampson, who was tied just outside his stall while Leah worked. He whickered at her, the sound soft and welcoming. She leaned into him, inhaling his scent as she worked. It had been nearly a week since she’d last seen him, and she’d missed him terribly. She was glad to know the feeling was mutual.

The pair talked easily, catching up on the week while they completed the chores around the barn. When they finished, Annique said goodbye to Sampson for the day, promising to see him tomorrow.

Leah drove through the streets, chatting with Annique about Sampson’s week, and how pleased the vet was with his progress.

“He’ll be healed before you I think. He already has stopped limping and there’s no residual swelling.”

“That’s the best news. I was so worried for him when we fell. It could have been a disaster.”

“I could have, but it wasn’t. Try not to think about the “what ifs”. You’ll drive yourself mad.” Leah changed the subject, trying to keep Annique’s mind off the accident. “So are you going to keep seeing Connor, crazy ex and all?”

“Yes. He’s a good guy, and handsome. Eventually, she’ll have to get over him. And I can’t let a good guy like him go because his ex has issues. What if things were reversed and I was in his shoes? I would be devastated if someone rejected me because of an ex.”

“So true. Besides, you might be right. It’s been a year. Maybe she has moved on.”

Annique nodded, but she wasn’t so sure. If she had moved on, why did Connor still avoid sitting in windows?

Leah pulled into Annique’s driveway next to her battered truck, putting the car into park but letting the engine run. “Do you need me to come in with you?”

“No I’m fine, and just a little exhausted. This is the most active I’ve been since the accident, and I’m feeling a little spent. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Leah waved as she pulled into the street, and Annique let herself into the house. First thing was first, she was going to start locking the doors. She rummaged through her kitchen drawer, looking for her extra house key. If she was going to start locking the door, she wanted to hide the extra key somewhere so she didn’t lock herself out.

The drawer was a mass of odds and ends. She found several loose keys, but none of them a house key. She vaguely remembered giving Leah a house key to take care of her plants when she went home last Christmas, but she didn’t remember getting it back. She shrugged and went up the stairs. She would ask Leah for the key back tomorrow.

Annique took her arm out of the sling, and undressed to get into the shower. She turned the water on high, letting the hot steam fill the tiny room before she stepped into the warm spray. She picked up her favorite bottle of shampoo, cursing her sore shoulder and as she attempted to pour some in her hand. She squeezed the bottle, shaking the bottle downward several times, trying to get the liquid to come out of the stubborn bottle.

That’s funny. I thought I just bought a new bottle.
Annique looked around her tiny bathroom, wondering if she had forgotten to put the new bottle in the shower stall. She finally got enough out of the bottle to wash her hair, tossing the empty bottle into the small bin she kept for recyclables in the bathroom. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she had bought a full bottle the week before, but she chalked her bad memory up to the concussion she’d suffered in the fall. Connor had told her she would forget a few little things here and there as her brain healed, and not to worry unless it became debilitating.

Annique scoffed at herself. She hardly thought running out of shampoo was debilitating memory loss.

She toweled off and headed back into her room, expertly rewrapping her shoulder before getting dressed. She couldn’t wait to ditch the wrap, and the random memory loss.

*****

Annique pulled into the parking lot outside Sampson’s barn, going around the back to park under a large shade tree. The heads of several hopeful horses peeked out of stalls when they heard the truck engine, but only Sampson whinnied in greeting as she passed by.

Leah had left for the day, put she’d haltered Sampson up for Annique so she could lead him out to the pasture for his free run day. The vet had given Sampson the all-clear, though Leah and Annique had agreed to keep his leg wrapped for another week for good measure. Leah had taken care of rewrapping Sampson, knowing that Annique’s limited mobility would make the task nearly impossible.

Annique clipped the lead rope to Sampson’s leather halter, leading him down the hill and towards the pasture. Because he was coming off an injury, Sampson would be spending the afternoon in the geriatric pasture with horses in their late twenties and thirties. A much calmer crowd, Sampson would enjoy a little horsing around without Annique worrying about injury. She opened the gate and turned him loose, watching for a moment to make sure that the trio that lived in the pasture was okay with Sampson’s arrival. After a bit of sniffing and squealing, the four horses walked off towards the green grass near the base of the gentle slope.

Annique locked the gate and began walking up the steep hill and back to her truck. While he played, she had errands to run. On the top of her list was shampoo, and a few other things that she was surprised to find herself out of. She kept reminding herself that she’d had a really rough week and to cut herself a little slack.

Annique arrived at the truck slightly out of breath, cursing the week of inactivity. She dragged herself the final few steps to the truck, walking around the back and pushing the remote unlock button on her key fob. She was about to get in when she realized that something wasn’t right with her back tire. Taking a second look, she saw that it was flat. She groaned. It was going to take forever to change a tire with one good arm. She walked around the back of the pickup to check the spare when she noticed that the other back tire was also flat.

“What the hell?”

Horseshoe nails!
That had to be it. Annique resisted the urge to kick the tire. She was very careful to clean up after her farrier, dragging a large magnet in the dirt to make sure that all of her nails were picked up, every time. But many of the other boarders weren’t as considerate. She’d have to have all four tires checked since it was likely that they all had a nail or two in them. Groaning, she realized that she had no way to leave the farm, and roadside assistance would only change a tire for her, not bring her two fresh ones.

Her phone rang, Connor’s picture popping up on her screen. She answered it on the first ring, wishing she’d taken a second instead. She didn’t want to appear desperate.

“I was thinking about you.”

“I was thinking about horse shoe nails, but then you called and now I’m thinking about you.”

Connor laughed in her ear, a manly chuckle filled with joy and something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“I have two flats and I’m sure the other tires have nails in them. So I’m stuck here until Leah gets back with the farm truck from picking up hay. She will be gone until late this afternoon. She takes a flatbed trailer and buys a few hundred bales at a time, directly out of the field.”

Connor whistled between his teeth. “I guess you’re stuck for a little while then.”

“I guess I am.”

“In that case, might I suggest that a picnic at the horse farm might be exactly what the doctor ordered?” He laughed at his own cheesy joke, and Annique couldn’t help laughing with him.

“I think that would be the best way to deal with flat tires.”

“I’ll be there soon, I already had a basket packed and was heading out the door.”

“What if I had said no?”

“I knew you’d say yes.” He hung up the phone, leaving her standing there with a foolish grin on her face.

True to his word, he arrived a short while later. Hand in hand they walked to the hill overlooking the pastures, choosing a grassy hillock under a large tree near the back of the property. Connor spread a thick quilt onto the grass and set the basket down. He pulled out a bottle of wine and popped the cork, pouring a little into each glass and handing one to Annique. She ate her food and sipped the sweet wine slowly, enjoying the scent and the smooth texture as it went down.

Annique held the glass out for more, but Connor shook his head. He said, “I want you to be sober for this.”

“For what?” she asked.

Connor leaned forward and kissed her ever so gently. His lips were soft and coaxing as he slowly kissed her full lips. His hand caressed her face, knuckles brushing smooth skin as she kissed him back, a fire building within her. She pulled back, her face feeling flushed as she looked into his eyes.

“I want you Connor.”

“Are you sure? Because I can wait. You’re worth the wait.”