Defensive (4 page)

“Your parents are over there and I assume the guy and child are Landon and Eric,” he said, pointing toward my family.

“Yep, that’s them.” I let go of his hand and picked up the pace to walk over to my family. Even though my parents didn’t live that far from me, I didn’t see them very often. I had missed them and I’d missed my brother a lot.

“Hey, sis. How you been?” My brother gave me a big bear hug.

“I’m good. I’m better than good actually; I’m great.” I turned toward my nephew, who was staring at Jackson. “Hey, Eric. How are you, buddy?” I asked before wrapping my arms around him.

“I’m okay,” was all he offered. He couldn’t stop looking at Jackson.

“You must be Eric,” I heard him say.

Eric’s face lit up. “Yeah. You know my name?”

Jackson walked up closer to him. “Of course I know your name. Your aunt talks about you all the time.” That was kind of a lie. I had mentioned him, but I never really talked about him that much because I hardly knew him. They lived two hours away, which wasn’t that much but enough of a distance we didn’t see each other a lot.

“Cool. So you play basketball for the Thunder? I watched you last night on TV.”

Jackson’s grin grew. “I do. Maybe one day you can come to one of the games.”

“I can?”

He ruffled up Eric’s hair a little. “Sure. Whenever your dad says you can.”

“We’ll see, buddy. Why don’t we go inside and look at all the animals?” my brother suggested, before walking down the sidewalk.

I walked over to my parents and gave them quick hugs and fell into step with Jackson. He grabbed my hand. I noticed that Eric wasn’t walking with my brother; instead, he was walking on the other side of Jackson. At least he had won him over.

“Aren’t they cool? I love lions,” Eric exclaimed as we strode up to the glass wall where the male lion was sunning himself on a rock.

“They are. Very cool,” I told him. I turned around to see Jackson talking to my brother who was using all sorts of hand gestures. They looked happy so I decided to let them talk. I wanted to hang out with Eric and get to know him better. “What’s your favorite animal?”

“The lion. No, bears. No, I don’t really know. I guess I like a lot of them,” he said, still watching the lion. The lion let out a roar and Eric yelled. “Awesome!”

I laughed as my dad came up next to me. “How are you, Vanessa?”

“I’m really good, Dad.”

“Good. Have you seen Shane lately?”

I gave him a questioning look, “No. I divorced him so I don’t plan on ever seeing him again if I can help it.”

“I was just checking. I didn’t know if he would leave you alone or not.”

“We just didn’t know how he would be after what happened to his mom,” my mother said.

I shook my head. “What happened to his mom?”

“She had a stroke Thursday. She’s okay. I mean, she’s going to have some mobility issues but she’s going to live.”

I may not have cared much for Shane but I still loved his parents. The thought of Jeannie having a stroke made me so sad. I also felt conflicted because I felt like I should call or visit or something, but I wasn’t sure if that was appropriate with all that had happened with Shane.

“No. He hasn’t tried to contact me at all,” I said.

“Let’s go look at something else.” Eric said as he turned away from the lion.

I looked over at him and tried to clear my thoughts from Jeannie’s stroke. “Yeah, what’s next?”

“Monkeys!”

I felt an arm wrap around my shoulder. “Hey, are you okay? You look… sad.”

I looked up to see Jackson’s concerned face. “I’m okay.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“It’s just, um… Shane’s mom, whom I still love, had a stroke. It just made me sad to hear the news.”

His face fell. I could tell it hurt him a little that I still cared about Shane’s family. “I’m sorry to hear that. Is she okay?”

“Mom said she would live but she had some mobility issues. I’m sorry if it bothers you that I feel upset. It’s just that I still like his parents. I’ve known them for a long time.”

“I know. It’s okay. I mean, if someone has something like that happen, you should feel bad. I’m not heartless.”

“I just know that you hate Shane.”

He gave me a kiss on the top of my head. “Yes, I do hate that asshole. After the way he treated you, he’s lucky I haven’t beaten the shit out of him.”

I grabbed his arm. “Come on, let’s go see some monkeys.”

He smiled, which made me glad that he wasn’t still upset. “I wouldn’t want to miss the monkeys,” he said with a smirk.

Jackson walked over to stand beside Eric in the monkey building while I stood with my brother. “I can’t believe my little sister is dating basketball superstar Jackson Berrios,” he said.

“I know, right? He’s very good to me, though.”

He looked over at Jackson and Eric. “He seems like a really nice guy. You deserve that.”

“You deserve a really nice girl.”

He looked at me thoughtfully. “How is she?”

“She’s good. She’s single, too.”

He bit the inside of his cheek and nodded. After a beat he finally spoke, “I’m glad. But it doesn’t really matter that she’s single. She won’t ever forgive me and I can’t really blame her.”

“We all make mistakes in college. I married Shane.” I laughed.

“That’s a little different.”

I grabbed his arm. “Maybe. Come on, let’s go get a closer look at the monkeys.”

A couple of hours later, we were hanging out at the zoo restaurant and munching on burgers and fries. My brother spoke up. “So… I have some news. Eric and I are moving back to OKC. I got offered a job that I couldn’t refuse.”

My excitement level went up. I had missed not being close to my brother. We had been not only siblings but friends once, before he broke Amanda’s heart. I was hopeful we could be close again, especially with him moving back. “I am so excited!”

“We can play some basketball together now. What do you say to that?” Jackson asked Eric.

“That would be amazing! Wait until I tell Zach at school on Monday. He’ll be jealous.” We all laughed at his excitement.

“I think we’ll be back next weekend to look for places. I gave a month’s notice at my current job so it’ll be a little bit.”

I thought about it and I figured I’d need to let Amanda know. Maybe a month would ease her into the idea that he would be a lot closer. I took out my phone and texted her.

Me: I have something to tell you. I’ll call you tonight or maybe you can come over.

Amanda: Are you pregnant???????

Me: No!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amanda: Call me later and we’ll meet up.

“You’re staying with me tonight, right?” Jackson asked as we drove back to his place after we saw every animal the zoo had to offer.

“I don’t know. I really need to hang out with Amanda tonight. I need to tell her about Landon moving back.”

“If you’re just going to hang out, just have her come over. I’ll be gone to practice so y’all can talk about whatever girls talk about while I’m gone. Please. I’m gone so much during the season, I want to come home to you.”

“I can’t spend every night at your place, but I can tonight.”

“Thank you, but why can’t you spend the night at my place every night?” he asked.

“Because I have a place of my own,” I told him then quickly looked out the window.

“Look at me.” He waited until I looked back at him. “You could just move in with me. I mean, we love each other, right?”

“Of course we love each other. But I just don’t think that’s a good idea right now. It’s too soon.”

“Fine. But as soon as you change your mind, the offer still stands. How about we compromise?”

I turned my body toward him. “Compromise how?”

“When I’m in town, you stay at my place and when I’m gone, you stay at your place.”

I thought about it for a minute and it did make sense. “Okay, deal.”

He gave me his mega sexy smile and kissed my hand.

After Jackson left for practice, I texted Amanda to tell her to come over.

Me: Hey, I’m at Jackson’s want to come over?

Amanda: Sure, be over in a bit.

An hour later, the doorbell rang and I opened it to see Amanda standing there with a six pack of beer and take out chips and queso.

“I hope you haven’t eaten yet,” she said. “I had a craving so I stopped by and got us some chips and queso from Chelino’s.”

“I haven’t but even if I had, I’d still eat that,” I told her as she entered through the doorway.

“So what did you want to talk to me about?” she asked as she put the bag and beer on the kitchen counter.

I didn’t really know how she would react to Landon moving to town. “Let’s have a beer first,” I said as I pulled two beers from the pack that was still cold.

“So you’re definitely not pregnant,” she said eyeing the beer. “But you’re kinda scaring me.”

“Nothing to be scared about. Let’s just drink a little first.”

“Whatever. Can we take the queso into the living room or will the basketball star get mad about that?” she asked.

“You’ve met him, right? I don’t think he’d care. It would bother me more than him if we stained his furniture.”

“I figured that, but I felt like I needed to ask instead of just assume. Even after all this time, it’s so weird that my best friend is dating him and I’m hanging out at his house.”

“I’m the one dating him and I feel weird if I think about it too hard. I mean, not only is he a great player but he’s…”

“Sexy? You’re a lucky girl, Vanessa. But you deserve it after what the asshole put you through. That’s something else I can’t understand if I think about it. I mean he was such an amazing boyfriend to you and then, like five months after you say ‘I do,’ he’s like the biggest asshole in the world.”

I sat down on the couch. “Yeah. It makes it really hard to believe that Jackson and I will make it because he is so amazing. It’s like I’m just waiting for the other asshole to come out in him.”

“Just keep your defenses up,” she said, “but you know, in check. So, come on, tell me whatever you need to tell me.”

I turned my body toward the recliner where she had sat down. “Okay. I actually don’t know if this is a big deal or not.”

“Spit it out.”

“Fine. Landon and Eric are moving to the area in a month. He got offered a job here he couldn’t refuse.”

She sat there for a minute dipping her chip in the queso several times. I was beginning to think she wasn’t going to say anything until she finally looked up at me. “It’s okay. I mean it’s a big city. Doesn’t mean we’ll ever even see each other.” She placed the chip in her mouth and chewed really slowly.

I knew her and I knew it was bothering her no matter what she said. “I’m really sorry. I know how bad he hurt you but for what it’s worth, he’s been miserable ever since.”

“I’m sure he isn’t miserable.” She grumbled.

“Amanda, I don’t mention him much because I know you don’t want to talk about him but he hasn’t dated since Eric’s mom because he’s still in love with you. All he does is work and take care of Eric.”

“He hasn’t dated at all?” she asked as she took a drink of her beer.

I took a drink of mine as well before answering her. “No. He says he knows that it would never work with anyone else because he still loves you.”

“If he was so in love with me, why did he ditch me for a good time?”

“People do stupid shit at nineteen. Let’s not talk about this anymore. I just wanted you to know he would be living here soon.”

“Yeah, let’s talk about something else.”