The Game Changer: A Novel (10 page)

“Don’t get any ideas, buster. You pull that shit with me, and I’ll never speak to you again,” Melissa said, with a sassy neck gyration that made me want to laugh.

“Yes, ma’am,” he responded, placing the bottle to his lips and chugging.

Pussy.

“Holy shit, that story is amazing!” Cassie’s eyes squinted as she howled with laughter.

“It was pretty hilarious.” I laughed along with her, thankful for the upswing in her mood.

“How did Melissa keep that from me? That’s the best story ever!”

“She’s probably dying to tell you,” I admitted, feeling guilty that I’d asked her best friend to keep so much from her.

“Did the evil troll sign the papers after that?”

The smile fell from my face as I remembered what came next. “No.”

The three of us walked toward the exit of the bar as Chrystle jumped in front of me, grabbing me by the arm. I freed myself from her wretched touch before shouting, “Don’t fucking touch me, you crazy bitch.”

“I just want to talk to you, Jack.” She batted her eyelashes and tilted her head in some bullshit attempt to appear sweet.

“How about we talk after you sign the papers?”

Instantly, her mouth pursed together in frustration. “I’m not signing those. You can’t prove anything and you know it.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” I lied, hoping she’d buy it.

“You’re lying.”

Fuck.

“Just remember how many friends you have before I subpoena them all and make them testify against you. If you get them to lie on the stand, I’ll make sure they go to jail.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” she spat.

“The fuck I wouldn’t.” I leaned in close to her face, my words laced with anger and hate.

“It won’t work anyway. I’ve covered all my bases, so to speak.” She grinned wickedly, and I wondered what the hell I did in a past life to deserve this.

“Just sign the fucking papers, Chrystle.”

“No.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because I refuse to make it easy for you to get rid of me.” She smirked, and I wanted to smack the ever-loving shit out of her.

“Is this a fucking game to you?” I asked through clenched teeth, my temper rising to a boil.

“I want to stay married, so I won’t sign anything if I can avoid it.”

Her smugness radiated from her with such force that I had to fight the urge to scream and shout like a lunatic in the middle of the bar.

Keep your cool, Carter. Do not let this crazy bitch push you over the edge.

“Avoid it? You think you can avoid this?”

“Actually, yes I do.” Her voice, thick with deceit and confidence, made me want to gag.

“You’re just a bad person.” I threw my hands up into the air in my frustration.

“So are you!” she fired back.

“No. I’m an asshole. There’s a difference.”

This girl pushed every goddamned button I had. And not in a good way. I half wished Melissa would walk past me and deck her. Lord knows I couldn’t. If it were socially acceptable to punch a girl, this might have been the time I’d actually consider doing it. If she were a guy, I’d knock her teeth down her fucking throat.

“I will do whatever I have to do to be rid of you. You hear me? Whatever I have to do.”

“Are you threatening me?” she asked, her voice overtly raised.

“If I were threatening you, you’d know it. Sign the damn papers.” I turned away from her, punching the bar door open with my fist.

“I didn’t think it was possible to hate her more.” Cassie exhaled as she shook her head in disbelief. “Who does stuff like that?”

“Crazy bitches. I swear I’m never talking to another girl who isn’t you again.”

That actually isn’t a half-bad idea. If I never talk to another female fan, I’ll never get in trouble with Cass and she’ll trust me again.

“Gran might get sad.” Cassie’s sweet voice interrupted my new plan.

“Right. You and Gran,” I amended before continuing. “So, Chrystle filed a restraining order against all three of us the next day.”

“Shut the fuck up! Against you, Dean, and Melissa?”

I nodded. “She said we threatened her life and she feared for her safety.”

“Are you joking? That bitch better hope I never run into her or she will fear for her safety.” Her fingers tapped the top of her plate, making a loud ping with each touch.

I laughed out loud. “I like it when you get all protective over me, Kitten. It’s cute.”

“You should have had her locked up in an asylum or something when you had the chance.” Her voice filled with anger, and I found myself amazed at the amount of craziness in my life over the past year.

“I still can’t believe Meli didn’t tell me any of this. I mean, after I saw you at your game that night, I called her right away. She told
me to get over you. She said I needed closure, but she knew everything that you were doing the whole time.”

I grabbed the back of my neck in discomfort at the memory of seeing Cassie with some other guy at my baseball game and also how irritated Melissa had become. “Yeah. She was pretty pissed at me by that point.”

“Why?”

I tugged my neck to the left, cracking it before exhaling loudly. “She told me that I had a deadline. Either I told you by a certain date, or she would.”

“When was the deadline?”

I looked away from her eyes, the truth still a painful reminder. “Before I left for spring training this season.”

I watched as her mind worked, the pieces clicking together like a puzzle that only fit together in one particular way. She was making the connection between Melissa’s demands of me months ago and their conversation after seeing me at the game a few weeks ago. “But she never told me. I mean, she never said anything. And obviously, neither did you.” She stopped, her forehead wrinkling with her continued confusion as she realized that Melissa threatened to confess everything to her, but never followed through. “Why didn’t she tell me? She knew how hurt I was.”

I nodded. “I know. She said that you were finally happy here. That you were giving people a chance and you loved everything you were experiencing. And she was afraid if she told you everything that you’d go back to being sad and close yourself off. She figured telling you would only make you take steps back, instead of forward.”

I watched as her forehead softened, releasing the tension. “Because of Joey?” she asked softly.

“Yeah. She said that even though it wasn’t the same, she could hear the subtle excitement in your voice whenever you talked about
him.” I forced a smile while my stomach churned and twisted with jealousy.

“So that’s why she pushed me so hard to go out with him.” She stopped picking at her nail polish and looked at me. “You knew about him, right? I mean, before that night at the field?”

“Mm-hmm” was all I trusted myself to say in response. I had no right to be angry, but the thought of someone else with my girl made me want to punch holes in the wall. Or his face.

“From Dean?” she asked, her voice curious.

“Mostly. After Melissa got pissed at me, I think she enjoyed telling me you had someone else in your life. She blasted me one night after Chrystle had finally signed the papers, but I still hadn’t called you. I told her I was trying to figure things out, but she fucking flipped out on me, yelling and screaming into the phone.”

I shuddered at the memory of making Melissa angrier than I’d ever heard her before. For a little thing, she sure was loud. “She demanded to know what the fuck it was that I still needed to figure out. Then she told me to leave you the hell alone and stay out of your life forever.”

Cassie moved her hand to cover her open mouth, her eyes wide as she listened.

“By that point I was waiting to see if the trade would go through. No one knew I was trying to get traded. Not even Dean.”

“I…” Cassie paused, exhaling, “don’t even know what to say.”

“I feel like someone out of a fucking Lifetime movie. Or some piece of shit from the Maury Povich show. Saying all of this out loud.” I stopped to look at her green eyes.

God, she’s so beautiful. How could I have ever hurt her?

“It’s all so insane to me.”

“It’s a lot to take in,” she agreed.

Cassie

R
eliving it all, when it wasn’t that far in the past to begin with, was beyond overwhelming. I had no idea all the things Jack had gone through during our time apart. Parts of it broke my heart and other parts downright pissed me off. I was half tempted to tell him to stop. That I didn’t want to hear any more. That I’d heard enough. What could there possibly still be left to say?

But my mind—my ever-loving, godforsaken, pain-in-the-ass mind—wouldn’t let it go. My mind would be the biggest monkey wrench in our getting back on track. I didn’t want to be stupid. I’d already accepted Jack’s apology and welcomed him into my home with open arms, but going forward, I didn’t want to be dumb ever again. There would be no next time if he fucked up. There would be no more chances. A girl can only take so much.

“Another break,” I suggested, and knew immediately what crossed Jack’s mind when I saw the knowing look on his face. “Not that kind of break.”

“Why not?” He licked his lips and my jaw dropped open.

“A change-of-subject break.”

“And change-of-location break?” He nodded his head toward the direction of the bedroom.

I narrowed my eyes, barely able to see him through the tiny slits. “Fine. But only talking first.”

Jack laughed. “Talking first. Sex after.”

“Jack!” I howled, my cheeks flushing.

“Come on, I can barely move anyway, I’m so full. New York pizza is fucking good.”

“I know, right?” I said. New York pizza was unlike anything we had in California. Don’t get me wrong, we had plenty of “New York style” pizza places back home, but they were nothing like this. This had become, hands down, my most favorite style of pizza. Ever. “They say it’s the water.”

“They say what? What water?” Jack asked as he put the dirty dishes into the sink.

“The pizza. They say it’s so good here because of the water. It does something to the dough. I don’t know if that’s true, but I totally buy it.” Every time I shared a tidbit of information I’d learned about New York since living here, an excited chill coursed down my spine. I loved being the person teaching Jack all this stuff.

“Sounds good to me.” He grabbed a towel and dried off his hands before turning to me. “Shall we?”

“If you insist,” I said.

“Oh, I insist alright.”

I walked into the bedroom and began stripping down, when Jack blurted out, “I thought you said we weren’t—”

“I’m just getting into my pajamas!” I interrupted. “I hate lying in bed in jeans.”

“Damn.”

“I thought you were full?”

He licked his lips. “I am, but there’s always room for K-I-T-E-N.” He sang the word like the Jell-O jingle, and I laughed.

“You forgot a T,” I teased.

“It wouldn’t fit. You try to sing it with two t’s.” He patted the top of the bed before leaning his head against a pillow as the Jell-O jingle played in my head. “Get over here.”