Double Coverage (11 page)

Hannah dug through her purse for her keys to open her apartment when she felt the napkin Ryker wrote his number on. Even though he knew Hannah was taken, he didn’t stop flirting with her. It was flattering, but she knew Ryker wanted one thing and one thing only and she wasn’t the girl to give him that. Good Lord, was he attractive, though. Mason was bulkier than Ryker, but Ryker was toned; she could tell by the way his button-up shirt spanned across his muscular chest. He wore a very tailored shirt, so it left nothing to her imagination.

If she wasn’t in love with Todd and, hopefully, months away from getting engaged, then she would have possibly given Ryker a chance, but it would have been a date, not some late night booty call. That was not how she did things. It took her a few weeks before she slept with Todd and now she wished she hadn’t waited that long because, if she knew he was going to be gone as much as he was, then she would have soaked up as much sex as possible. Todd was the only guy she’d ever had sex with and he was good, or at least what she knew was good. He always liked how he was the only one who had been inside of her; she was proud of the fact too, especially since she knew she was going to marry him one day. Maybe when they had children, one day, he would slow down and spend more time with her and their family, rather than traveling for his job.

Hannah let herself in her apartment and let out an exhausted breath. Kicking off her shoes in the hallway, she deposited her purse and made her way toward the kitchen for a little late night snack. She was just about to grab a banana from her fruit basket when she saw a shadow move across her wall. She turned around quickly, holding her banana out in defense when she saw Todd approaching her.

Her hands flew to her chest as her heart beat wildly. “Oh my God! Todd you scared me half to death.”

A slight smile tugged at his lips as he came toward her. “I’m sorry sweetheart. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was just leaving the bathroom when you came in, so I didn’t hear you come through the door or else I would have said hi.”

Hannah was still catching her breath when Todd came toward her. He pulled her into his warm embrace, where she took in the rich smell of his cologne. She kept a bottle of his cologne on her dresser and would occasionally spray it when he was gone. It was the little things that helped her through the lonely nights of him being gone.

She looked up at him and was finally able to smile. “I missed you.” She kissed his chin.

“I missed you, too.” He pulled her to the couch where he sat down and pulled her on top of his lap. “Why do you have to work such long hours? I told you, you don’t have to work at all. I’ll support you.”

He was always trying to convince her to quit her job. He gave her a credit card to use, but she just felt weird charging things to his name, especially since they weren’t married, let alone engaged. Maybe once he popped the question, she’d think about quitting her job, but right now she was happy, even though she was exhausted when she got home.

“I like my job and I have a lot of fun with Piper.”

“Piper, she’s the redhead right?”

“Yeah, the gorgeous redhead with long legs and beautiful eyes.”

Todd tilted her head so she was looking him in the eyes. “Not as beautiful as you.” Hannah melted into him from the sincerity in his voice. He really thought she was more beautiful than Piper, which was surprising.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming home?”

“I wanted to surprise you,” he said with a smile and then got up. Hannah watched as he went over to his briefcase and grabbed a small box from it. Hannah’s heart stopped beating and she felt her throat constrict. She could not believe he was finally going to propose. Hannah sat up straight and tried to fluff her hair a little bit, just so she could look semi-presentable on her engagement night. The first person she would call was going to be Piper. She would never believe Todd proposed.

Todd sat back down on the couch and held out a small velvet box. “Here, open it.”

Hannah took the box in shaky hands and held her breath as she opened the tiny box. Diamonds beamed up at her from the black velvet background, but it wasn’t the diamonds she was expecting. Instead of them being on a single solitaire, they were separated into two stud earrings. Hannah quickly masked her disappointment and put on a happy face, even though she was crushed inside.

“Todd, they’re beautiful. You shouldn’t have.”

Todd grabbed the box and took them out. He pushed her hair behind her ear and placed each earring into place.

“Yes, I should have. We’ve been dating for almost two years now and you’ve put up with a lot of my traveling. I wanted to get you something special.”

Hannah touched her ears and held back the tears of being disappointed once more. She shouldn’t be such a brat; the man just gave her huge diamond earring studs, but she would give them up if that meant she got to spend the rest of her life with Todd. All she wanted to be was his wife and start a family with him, but that dream would just have to wait a little bit longer.

She placed a very soft kiss on his lips, while cupping his face. “They are lovely. Thank you.”

She started to pull away, when he grabbed her face with his hands and looked deep into her eyes. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong? Why are you going to cry?”

He knew her too well. She shook her head as if nothing was wrong, but he wasn’t buying it, which only caused her to let the tears fall that had built up. If she felt like she was going to cry and everyone around her was normal, then she was able to push back the tears, but the instant someone asked her what was wrong, she lost all ability to cork up the waterworks.

“It’s so stupid.”

He stroked her face with his hand and pulled her into his chest. “Nothing is stupid when it comes to you. Please tell me what I did to upset you.”

Hannah didn’t want to have this conversation, especially since Todd just got back from a work trip, but he was not going to let her tears go, so she might as well get it over with.

She blew out a long breath and gathered her courage. “I thought you were going to propose.”

Hannah felt Todd stiffen and she knew she should have kept her foolish thoughts to herself, but she had never lied to Todd and she didn’t want to start tonight. Instead of waiting for him to say something, she chimed in, “Never mind. Forget I said anything. I had a long night.” She started to get up when he stopped her.

She didn’t move as Todd ran his hand over his face. “Hannah, we’ve talked about this,” he said in an irritated voice.

“I know,” she interjected.

“Then why does this keep coming up?”

“Because I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you and start a family with you,” Hannah said on a choked sob.

Todd brought her into his chest again and she cried while he rubbed her back. “Sweetheart, I love you too. You know that, right?” Hannah nodded into his chest while sniffing. “I’m just not ready yet. I want to be more financially stable when we get married.”

Hannah could understand that, but Todd was five years older than she was; he had a great job and had more than enough money in the bank. She saw his bank statement once and almost choked on the cookie she was shoving down her face at what he had saved up.

“You know money doesn’t matter to me.”

“It matters to me,” Todd said in a clipped tone, but then eased the tension in his body while kissing the top of her head. “I just want to be able to fully provide for you and be there for you and I can’t do that while I’m still traveling. Alright? Once I become more stable with my job, then we can talk about it. How does that sound?”

Hannah nodded, but still felt disappointed. She didn’t want to “talk” about getting married. She wanted Todd to want to throw caution to the wind, sweep her off her feet and whisk her to The Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas to have a very Elvis wedding. She wanted him to be a little spontaneous and reckless for once, but she could want all she wanted, it wasn’t going to change anything. Todd was always going to be cautious and methodical. Whisking her away somewhere to start their lives would never be in the picture for her.

***

Mason was drying off from his shower when his cell phone started ringing. Mason knew exactly who it was; he didn’t even have to look at the caller ID. Jake called once a week, same time, same day. Jake always said he wanted to catch up and see how the season was going, but Mason really knew what was going on. Jake was making sure Mason was doing alright. Jake had started calling once he found out Brooke tore his heart out and stomped on it.

Mason answered his phone. “Hey, man.”

“Mason, how’s the most hung man I know doing?”

Mason laughed. “Uh oh, you’re trying to butter me up. What bad news do you have to deliver to me? Don’t tell me you’re taking Ryker back.”

“Ha, I wish,” Jake said, with a little bit of remorse in his voice. “How’s he doing out there? Adjusting to the altitude?”

Mason thought about how well Ryker meshed with the team. The guy was outgoing, that was for sure. He didn’t really care about what people thought about him and he did his own thing. He was practically best friends with every guy on the team and had women crawling toward him, except for one, which made Mason laugh. Hannah was a smart girl for staying away from Ryker.

“He’s adjusting, just as you’d think he would.”

“Ah, so he’s banging every chick in sight and has the men feeding off his every word?”

“Pretty much, except for the chick part.”

“What? Ryker doesn’t have girls flocking around him? That’s hard to believe.”

Mason chuckled. “Well, they’re flocking alright, except for one specific girl that has his panties in a bunch. You should have seen him, man. We were at a bar the other night and Ryker takes one look at the waitress and loses his mind. Starts saying how he is going to marry her one day. He was practically begging her to go out with him by the end of the night.”

Jake was laughing. “Let me guess, blonde hair and big tits.”

“Not at all. She’s a petite thing, light brown hair and light blue eyes. I mean, she’s pretty, but she’s a good girl. She’s sweet, too sweet for the likes of Ryker.”

“Man, I wish I could see him now. Next time you’re at that bar, take a video for me or something.”

“I’ll try.” They were silent for a second and Mason was hoping Jake wasn’t going to go to his normal questioning during their once-a-week phone calls. It was like clockwork every phone call, they caught up at first and then Jake always asked how Mason was doing. Mason would tell him he was fine, even though inside he felt numb, completely numb. He hadn’t felt anything since Brooke destroyed him. He felt empty…until…

As if on cue, Jake asked, “How are you doing, Mace? Everything going alright out there?” Mason didn’t like talking about his life very much recently, but something happened to him the other night. Something he didn’t think he could hold in. He had to share it with someone and Ryker was out of the question because Ryker would only give Mason grief and most likely torture him with such valuable information.

Mason took a deep breath and said, “Better, I’m doing better.”

Shock laced Jake’s voice. “Wow, that’s not the usual, ‘I’m doing fine’ retort I get from you,” Jake said, trying to mock Mason’s voice.

“Yeah, well, something happened the other night.”

Mason could hear Jake shuffling around. “I know we sound like a bunch of chatty hens, but tell me about it.”

Mason sat on the side of the bathtub with his towel wrapped around his waist when he thought back to the night at the bar. “When Ryker and I went to that bar the other night, I ran into Piper.”

“Piper Shores?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok…”

Mason continued. “Well, come to find out, she works at that bar. What are the odds, right? She dropped off some chicken wings and we harassed each other a little bit, but something happened to me. When she was around, it was like she was unclogging some of the fog that’s been clouding over me for a while. I felt like I could breathe again for the first time since Brooke left.”

Jake was silent for a second and Mason contemplated whether or not he should have confessed himself to Jake. Mason didn’t really know what was going on with his emotions ever since the night at the bar; all he knew was that he didn’t feel as if the world was closing in on him anymore.

Jake cut into Mason’s thoughts. “Are we talking about the same Piper here? The one who you made throw up on the airplane, the same Piper who made you walk back to our wedding reception sporting nothing more than a couple of palm leaves, the same girl who you swore was the devil’s spawn? That Piper?”

“The one and only.”

“Wow, I thought you two hated each other.”

“I’m pretty sure she hates me, but I don’t know. God Jake, I don’t want to be attracted to her; she drives me up the fucking wall, but whenever I’m around her I can’t stop looking at her or wishing I knew more about her. She’s so damn intriguing.” Mason ran his hand over his face, irritated with his newfound feelings. “All I know is that the past couple of days since I saw her, I’ve been able to exhale without feeling pain.”

“That’s good man, even if she’s the devil’s spawn,” Jake and Mason both laughed. “So what are you going to do about it?”