The Game of Love: (BWWM Romance) (3 page)

“Chin up,
Sommer,” Marcie teased. “Your mother’s a headstrong woman, you know that.”

Sommer
waved and smiled as Trudy exited. “Oh, I know. I can be the same way. I just can’t help feeling like I could do more for her. It’s driving me crazy sitting here watching her…,” she lowered her voice, “…
waste away
. She’s lost close to twenty pounds, yet acts as though nothing has changed.”

Marcie wrapped her arm around
Sommer’s waist and gave her a quick hug. “You’re a good daughter, Sommer, but maybe you should let your mother do things her own way. If it’s one thing I know about Caroline, it’s that she always asks for help when she needs it. One time, in 2003, she asked me to run out and get some parchment paper. She’d really needed it.”

Sommer
chuckled and gave her a playful shove. “She’ll ask for help when
she
thinks she needs it, which isn’t always when she actually does.”

Marcie gave her another hug and
Sommer moved to clean-up the trash the guests left behind on their tables. As the bells on the front door chimed, she expected to see Timothy Dugan, the elementary school’s secretary, dropping in to pick up the cookie order. Instead, she looked directly into Austin’s glittering orbs. He was dressed in a casual brown button-down and jeans, looking more like a Mediterranean male model with his dark hair, light eyes, and olive skin, than a professional football player. He was holding a gift bag in his left hand.

“
Oh, my word. Is that Austin Riley?” Marcie cried, making her way from behind the counter to wrap her arms around him. He bent for her to reach his neck, and she planted a loud smack on his cheek before holding him at arm’s length. “Sweetheart, we haven’t seen you in…,” she turned to Sommer, “How long has it been since you all left high school, Sommer?”

“Ten years,”
Sommer answered, tossing out a paper carton and wiping down the table.

“A whole decade? You have grown into quite the handsome man, Austin.” She glanced down at his bare left ring finger. “I can bet the ladies are always knocking down your door, aren’t they?”

Sommer let out a sound that was a mix between a snort and a laugh.

“They come knocking, but I only let the special ones in,” Austin replied, sending a look
Sommer’s way.

Marcie unabashedly began to poke her hand inside the gift bag. “Did you bring me something?”

“I promise I’ll bring you something next time, Marcie,” he said, tucking the bag behind his back. “This is actually for Sommer.”

Sommer’s
head popped up. “For me?”

“Yes, for you.” He
thrust the bag toward her. She left the wet cloth on the tabletop and slowly walked over. When she was close enough to grab it, he pulled it back.

“On one condition. Come outside with me.”

Sommer’s gaze went to Marcie, and then to the café’s backroom. “I don’t know, Austin. The lunch rush is going to start soon, and I have to help my Mom and Uncle Reese in the kitchen.”

Marcie, still bubbling with excitement, shook her head. “We’re hours away from the lunch rush, Austin.
Actually, we just finished the breakfast crowd not too long ago.” She gently shoved Sommer in the lower back. “Go on, girl.”

Reluctantly,
Sommer followed him outside, and they took a seat in one of the fancy metal bistro tables that had been installed for outdoor dining. Austin pulled out Sommer’s chair before taking the seat across from her, and then placed the bag on the table.

“Open it.”

She suspiciously eyed the bag. “What’s in it?”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

She reached for the bag, and he eagerly watched as she pushed the tissue paper aside.

From underneath
, Sommer pulled out a stunning silk, royal blue dress. Digging through more paper, she found a pair of gorgeous nude pumps.

Gorgeous
and
expensive.

“I don’t get it?”
she half-stated, half-asked. “You bought these for me?”

He nodded. “I bought them, but Ma picked them out
after asking Marcie your size.”

“But…why?” She fingered the soft fabric of the dress.

“Just because,” he answered, shrugging. “It was nice seeing you the other day, and I felt like doing something nice for you.”

Understanding,
Sommer placed the shoes and dress back into the bag. Austin had probably felt bad that she was going through a “difficult time” in her life and thought that a pretty dress and new shoes would make her feel better. If he really thought that was going to work, then he’d been dating supermodels for way too long.

“I get it, Austin.
Because my Mom’s sick. You don’t have to buy me anything to cheer me up.”

“
Sommer, it’s not like that.”

All of a sudden embarrassed, she stood to leave the table, but he rose and grabbed her hand. “
Sommer, it’s not like that,” he repeated, wrapping his hand around her fingers and pulling her back towards the table.

“Then why buy a gift for someone you haven’t seen in ten years? Not to mention it’s the same someone with which you had quite a longstanding rivalry.”

When he smiled, she felt her stomach uncontrollably flutter at the way the corners of his eyes lightly wrinkled and the gold flecks in his eyes shimmered.

“You didn’t let me finish,” he gently accused.

She pulled her hand from his and folded her arms across her chest. Then, realizing that her stance was too defensive, stuffed her hands into her back pockets.

“All the time we spent being enemies,
Sommer, we could have been building a pretty tight friendship,” he explained. “That’s what I’m trying to do now, but I don’t have another twenty-eight years to try to get it right. I have seven weeks before I have to fly back to Texas, so I figured that if I want to get on your good side, I have to start now. Hence the dress, the shoes, and an invitation.”

Her ears twitched. “An invitation? To where?”

“Dinner and a wine tasting. Tonight, if you’re free. Tomorrow night, if you’re not.”

Sommer
bit her bottom lip and eyed the bag.

“You can’t say no to good food, good wine, and good company,” Austin pressed. “And I know you like food. Remember in elementary school when everybody used to call you
Sommer, spring, fall
and
winter?”

A smile peeked from the corner of her mouth. “They did not. I wasn’t
that
chubby in elementary school.”

Austin chuckled and defensively put his hands up in front of him. “I know, I know. I’m just kidding. You were beautiful.”

Her face warmed at the compliment.

“You think you’re charming, don’t you?”

“A little,” he answered with a shrug.

She grabbed the bag and held it against her side. “I’m free tomorrow.”

“It’s a date then,” he confirmed. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow. Ma told me that you moved back in with your Mom?”

She nodded. “Yeah, to help her out. Do you remember where it is?”

“1313 Cherry Avenue.”

“Right.”

Austin waited until she was inside the café before he moved back towards the car—the 5-series BMW he’d bought as a present for his mother that she still didn’t feel comfortable driving around town. As he pulled on the door handle, he noticed that Sommer was running after him.

“Everything okay?” h
e asked.

“Everything’s fine. I just forgot to say thank you. For the gifts. They’re beautiful. I
really appreciate them.”

He smiled, feeling
triumphant. “You’re welcome, Sommer.”

Then she walked back to the shop, turning around to wave when she reached the door. When she finally disappeared from sight, Austin pulled out of the parking lot and sped down the street.

*****

Austin wasn’t quite sure what he was getting himself
into. He’d been honest when he told Sommer that he was interested in taking her out to work on their friendship, but in the back of his mind, he knew that there’d been something more.

As she sat across from him underneath the diffused chandelier lighting of the old winery, the royal blue of the dress radiating perfectly against her dulcet brown skin, he realized that the feelings that he’d had for her
were still just as strong. And they were making it difficult to get through the night without wanting to reach out and touch her in some way.

“Up next, we have our signature blackberry wine,” a slender man with salt and pepper hair a
nnounced at front of the room. “As you will see, it is a favorite among many.”

Austin reached across the table to touch the back of
Sommer’s hand, but she turned to face him before his fingers had a chance to graze her skin.

“Are you having a good time?”
he asked, scanning her face to read her expression.

“I am,” she replied with a slight smile. “Thanks, again. It’s been a while since I’ve had a night out like this.”

They both leaned back as the dark liquid was poured into their glasses.

“What are you usually doing on a Saturday night?”

As far as his mother had told him, Sommer wasn’t dating anyone around town. Of course, his mother volunteered this information without him asking.

“Taking care of Mom,” she answered, taking a whiff of
the contents of her glass.

“You don’t go out with girlfriends? Maybe a boyfriend?”

Her brow wrinkled. “Real smooth, Riley. Who’s asking if I’m dating someone, Ms. Emma? Because both our mothers went through a phase where all they did was try to play matchmaker.”

Austin laughed. “She does that to you too? I think she believes that she has a special gift because she set up Arielle and Justin.”

Sommer laughed along with him. “How are they by the way? Your sister and her husband? I heard that they were on kid number three?”

Sommer
thought that Justin and Arielle had the most beautiful children. With their mocha skin and thick, curly manes, they were a beautiful mixture of Arielle’s Italian and Justin’s African American heritage.

“Four. They’re having twins. A boy and a girl. I told them to name the boy after me, but then Arielle said that only made her afraid that he’d grow up to be like me.”

“That was smart on her part,” Sommer said with a nod. “The last thing that this world needs is another Austin Riley running around wreaking havoc.”

Austin’s mind briefly wandered to a time when he’d seriously considered having children with Jessica. Surprisingly, she’d wanted children also, but finding out about her cocaine habit had put those dreams on the back burner.

“I wasn’t that bad,” he argued.

“Austin
…,” Sommer began with an incredulous hint to her voice, “…did you or did you not put a dress, hat, and lipstick on Tara Hannaway’s Arabian when we were twelve? And was this not the same dress that she’d been planning to wear to the homecoming dance?”

He grinned. “To be fair, she’d threatened to start a rumor that my sister was sleeping with Coach
Kierkson all because Justin had turned her down for the dance. I wasn’t having it.”

Their eyes followed as
a second, older gentleman in a three-piece suit made his way to the front of the room with his glass in tow.

“I heard about that,”
Sommer affirmed. “That’s really awful that she would want to ruin both their reputations like that. You should have gone for the shoes too.”

Austin grinned again. “We tried, but they were too big for the horse.”

The older gentleman held up his glass and signaled for everyone in the room to do the same. Wine glasses were tipped as the liquid was drained, swirled, and then swallowed.

“Full-bodied,” Austin began.

“Silky,” Sommer added.

“With a hint of disgusting,” Austin finished.

Sommer burst out laughing and frantically searched for a napkin before she sprayed wine all over the wooden tabletop. A few of the other patrons turned to stare at them, and they guiltily turned away as laughter shook their bodies.

“Do you like it?”
he asked as she was still coughing and laughing into her napkin.

“Not at all,” she managed to squeeze out. “Blackberry wine…not my thing.”

Austin glanced down at his watch. “We still have time to make it out to Louie’s, and I know how much you love his salmon pasta.”

Surprised, she stared at him. “How’d you know that?”

He made his way around the table to help her out of her seat, her silky skin and intoxicating scent threatening to direct his blood to one region of his body. He then extended his elbow and Sommer hooked her arm through it as they exited the winery to the car.

“Your sixteenth birthday,” he answered. “I was there with Darrell and Kyle that same night you were there with your mother. You ordered the salmon pasta and then sent the waiter back for a take-home portion.”