Chapter 5
5
Suddenly there was a rumble of barking and a flash of fur and Jake found himself surrounded by four canines, all in various stages of excitement. A large Golden Retriever leaped up onto Jake’s chest.
“Genghis!” Ella chided. “Down, boy!”
But Jake didn’t mind, ruffling the dog’s head affectionately before crouching to pat the other dogs who were taking it in turns to sniff Cerberus’s butt. When Ella shooed them all into the house the pack seemed perfectly okay with the new dog on the block tagging along.
“Sorry about that,” she apologized. “They’re a lot.”
“Nah.” Jake pushed to his feet. “I miss having a dog.”
They’d always had some mangy mutt or other his father had managed to pick up from God knew where so Jake felt right at home here. In Ella’s house. Ella Lucas from Trently.
No matter how he tried, he still couldn’t wrap his head around how two misfits from the same tiny town in Kansas had ended up reconnecting in the same Inverboro burb.
Life was one weird son of a bitch.
He’d been drafted to the Inverboro Sentries for his rookie year and had lived here for a couple of years before being traded to the Broncos, then on to the Oregon Founders. But it was fair to say, his memories of Inverboro were not fond.
Stuff had gone down here that had been directly linked to the ignominious ending of his career. Still, when choosing where to settle after his retirement, it had been a no brainer – Trish lived here, so he’d moved back.
“Come on, I’ll take you through.”
Jake nodded even though he had no idea why he’d agreed to this at all. It was cozy, family crap which was stuff he usually avoided – even with Trish. But Ella had seemed so desperate and something else, something bigger, had wrapped his resistance in a giant tentacle and yanked.
They climbed up the four steps to the porch and entered via the front door which was wide open. Not particularly safe given the area they lived in but then anyone entering the house would have to brave the dogs and he supposed they probably could be fierce if called upon.
The house was best described as lived in . There were signs of some wear and tear and the furniture was cozy rather than fancy, but it was well proportioned and solidly constructed.
Jake stopped at a framed black-and-white portrait-style photograph hanging on the wall near the doorway that separated the dining room and kitchen. It was of two women, very beautiful although quite young.
Twins, he realized. Same dark hair, same wide-set eyes.
One was sitting at a table, her wrists laden with thin bangles, big hoops hanging from her earlobes. Her beringed fingers cradled what he could only describe as a crystal ball. And there was a faraway look in her eyes, like she knew something no one else did.
A secret.
The other woman stood behind, her hands resting on her sister’s shoulders. She wore a sleeveless dress with a modest neckline, leaving her thin arms bare. Except they weren’t bare. They were covered in tattoos from wrist to shoulder. This one’s gaze was more… Frank. Piercing, even.
As though she could sum a person up in an instant.
The background was one of those innocuous backdrops from an old photographic studio but there was something special about the portrait. As if the person behind the camera had known the subjects and managed to capture the essence of the sisters – the similarities as well as the differences.
“I like this,” Jake murmured.
Standing beside him, Ella smiled softly at the picture. “That’s Daisy and Iris. Back in the day.”
Jake glanced at her. “You weren’t kidding about the circus thing, then?”
“Nope. They got out a decade before we turned up on their doorstep. Come on.” She gestured to the back door. “Come and meet them.”
He followed Ella out to the porch where the aroma of cigarette smoke hung in the air. Two frumpy gray-haired women sat at an old-fashioned table. There were bowls and cutlery in the center along with a large pitcher of water and several glasses.
Two tumblers half-filled with amber-colored liquid were placed in front of each aunt. A bottle of bourbon and an overflowing ashtray sat between. One shuffled a pack of tarot cards. The other held what appeared to be a large iPad.
Two pairs of eyes fell on him. Age had grayed and frizzed their long dark locks, there were wrinkles around eyes and mouths, their bosoms were ample and their laps generous. But they were unmistakably the same women from the portrait.
The one with the cards gave him a dreamy smile while the other one, her tattoos still vibrantly colored and on full display, looked at him shrewdly.
Several dogs – not Cerberus – who were lolling on the floorboards, lifted their heads and thumped their tails against the boards. At the far end of the table sat Rosie who leaped up and gave him an enthusiastic hug. “Jake! I’m so pleased Ella invited you back for curry. Simon will be here soon and I’ll dish up.”
Jake glanced at Ella, who gave him an almost imperceptible shake of her head. “Er, thanks, but I can’t stay for long. I have to get back to the bar.”
“I take it we have you to thank for the dog?” said the tattooed one in her two-pack-a-day voice, indicating the back yard where Cerberus was making himself at home by methodically lifting his leg on every tree, bush, rock and blade of grass.
Genghis followed after the smaller dog, peeing over the top of the newcomer’s wet spots.
“Yes.” He smiled at the older woman. “That’s Cerberus.”
She nodded. “And you’re Jake.”
Ella introduced him to Daisy and Jake felt an instant rapport. There was an astuteness to her that reminded him of his own great aunt – Thelma – who’d raised him for many years after his mother’s desertion.
She’d died of a heart attack when he’d been twelve and he’d missed her every damn day since.
“You know what an eight-letter word for storm is?” Daisy asked. “Starts with a B.”
“Oh…” Jake drew a blank. “Sorry, no.”
Daisy hmphed as she returned her attention to the device. If it was a test, Jake had definitely failed but he didn’t have any time to ponder that as Ella introduced him to Iris.
“You’re a Sagittarius, aren’t you?” she asked as they shook hands, her fingers devoid of the rings from the portrait but her wrists still sporting dozens of fine silver bangles.
Jake smiled at the woman with the dreamy voice. “Yep.”
Just then, the dogs leaped up and started barking in unison. “That’ll be Simon,” Rosie announced giving a little jiggle as she departed quickly, a pack of excitable dogs on her heel – Cerberus included.
Rosie was back quickly with a guy in tow. He looked a little younger than her and reeked of old money from his preppy haircut to his expensive threads which were currently covered in dog hair. In his hand he clutched a bottle of wine and a bunch of flowers and was clearly nervous.
He didn’t look like he’d ever ventured this far south.
“So this is Simon?” Daisy said, eyeing tonight’s second virgin sacrifice. “Come here. Give me a proper look at you.”
Simon walked closer and Rosie introduced them.
“Bit young for you isn’t he, Gypsy-Rose?” Daisy commented, looking him up and down.
Simon shot a glance at Rosie, who was grinning affectionately at her curmudgeonly aunt. “I believe age is irrelevant,” he said politely.
“Hmph!” Daisy grunted. “Speak to me when you’re seventy-two. You know an eight-letter word for storm? Starts with a B?”
“Oh… um.” Simon shot a quick glance at Jake who gave him a don’t-ask-me look. “Um…” He returned his attention to Daisy. “Is it… brouhaha?”
Frowning, Daisy consulted the screen. “Yes!” Tapping it in, she smiled approvingly at Simon.
“You’re a goat, aren’t you?”
“A… goat?” Simon asked as he darted a bewildered glance at Iris.
“Capricorn,” Rosie said, rescuing him. “Your star sign.”
“Oh, right.” He gave a laugh which sounded as weirded out as he looked. “Yes actually, I am.”
“And this is my bestie, Ella,” Rosie continued.
“Ah.” Simon smiled. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
Ella returned the smile with a huge one of her own, which annoyed the crap out of Jake. She’d never smiled at him like that. Not even after three goddamn orgasms!
“Don’t believe half of it,” she said.
And then it was Jake’s turn, but Rosie barely got a word out before Simon interrupted. “Good God. You’re Jake Prince .” He extended his hand and pumped Jake’s vigorously. “I’m a big fan. Big fan. It was a tragedy to see you go.”
“Thanks, man,” Jake said as he withdrew his hand, aware everyone was looking at him. The aunts clearly had no clue who he was, Rosie was beaming and Ella looked genuinely surprised that he’d been recognized.
Which was also seriously fucking annoying. He may never have deliberately courted attention and not be playing anymore but he was The Prince .
“Do you miss it?” Simon asked.
A great well of emptiness opened inside Jake at the question. Only every moment of every day. Football had been the only thing he’d ever been any good at and the way it had ended still churned in his gut. But he wasn’t about to open that can of worms.
“Sure.”
“What do you think the Founders’ chances are this season?”
Before Jake could answer, Ella interrupted. And hell, if he could have kissed her for it. “Must be curry time?” she said.
“Yes, yes.” Rosie clapped her hands. “Everyone sit. You too, Jake, I insist.”
“Oh no,” Ella said dismissively, “I think Jake has to get back.”
Her gaze met his, her eyes bugging slightly, a little movement of her head indicating it was time for him to go.
Which was bad fucking luck because, grateful or not for her interruption, he was in a mood now.
And she’d started it.
She’d invited him inside for whatever in hell reason and now he’d fulfilled some purpose he wasn’t aware of, he could just walk his ass out of here?
Nope. He’d leave when he was good and ready.
“Thanks, I think I will.” He held Ella’s gaze as he grabbed a seat. The tightening of her lips was exceptionally satisfying.
“Can I help?” Simon offered.
“Nope.” Rosie dazzled a smile in his direction. “You’re a guest. Sit that cutie patootie down, mister.”
The three women blinked at Rosie as she departed, clearly surprised at the saccharine language. Jake was surprised, too. He hadn’t known Rosie for very long, but he’d seen enough to know patootie probably wasn’t in her normal vocabulary.
Daisy eyed Simon once Rosie had left. “Just so you know, this is your first test.”
“Oh?” He raised an eyebrow. “I thought that was you?”
Daisy hooted out a laugh and Jake gave him props for not only recovering from the culture shock of the introductions but not being intimated by the older woman.
“You survive your first curry, then we’ll worry about me.”
“Deal.”
“Cam grabbed some curry and took it upstairs,” Rosie said as she placed the large heavy pot in the center of the table and started dishing it into bowls. “He wants to watch the football.”
“That kid watches too much TV,” Daisy griped.
Jake, who was sitting next to Ella, noticed her pale a little at the comment. But that could have been the curry which was, as advertised, hot enough to melt his face off. It didn’t even start warm and build. It just went straight for the throat.
Simon coughed after his first mouthful and Daisy poured two glasses of water, passing them to the curry virgins.
“Some girl called him earlier,” Daisy said as she tucked into her curry with wild abandon. “Marissa…? Miri? Something like that.”
“ Really ?” Ella gaped. “How’d that go?”
“Kind of silent this end. He did a lot of nodding.”
She laughed. “Yeah. I bet.”
“Any more thoughts on a plan of attack, dear?” Iris asked Ella, changing the subject.
“Not really.”
“Problem?” Simon asked.
“Bureaucratic bastards at district are trying to shut Ella’s school down,” Rosie explained.
Simon pursed his lips. “Can they do that?”
“They sure can.” Ella grimaced as she worried a linen napkin between her fingers.
Had it been paper it’d be in shreds. She was clearly stressed about the situation given she’d mentioned it to him earlier. Maybe that’s why she’d been in such a mood at the bar?
“I still can’t believe they will,” she continued. “For a lot of the kids in this area the school is a refuge, a place where they’re seen and free from the everyday struggles of life for a while.”
Jake liked that Ella had become a teacher and it was apparent that it was more than just a job. The school and its students obviously meant the world to her. And not just to her if the wacky ideas for saving the school that were being thrown around – winning the lottery, having it declared an historic site – were any indication.
Simon, who’d been slowly making his way through his bowl, suddenly locked eyes with Jake. “I’ve got it,” he announced with a snap of his fingers.
Everyone turned to face him. Everyone except Cerberus, who was already looking at him adoringly, waiting eagerly for the next spoonful of smuggled curry. The other dogs, lounging far away from the table, appeared to know better.
“Does the school have a football team?” Simon asked, absently patting Cerberus’s head.
An itch shot up Jake’s spine. He did not like where this was going.
Ella frowned. “No. There’s a field so it must have at some point but there’s no money for extracurricular things like that. We don’t even have enough in the budget for the mandatory one lesson a week of PE.”
“How about getting a football team together and entering the high school football championships? You get to the playoffs and no way would they shut down a school that got that far.”
She gaped at Simon. “What?”
Jake, who’d been mentally preparing for the wackiest idea of all since Simon had eyeballed him, relaxed tense shoulders. Ella looked like she was about to have a stroke. Or at the very least ask Simon if he’d been dropped on the head as a baby.
He thanked God for her pathological dislike of football.
“Just like that,” she asked incredulously. “Just win a bunch of football games?”
“Look… I’m not saying it’ll be easy. But you do have a secret weapon sitting right at this table.”
Ella turned and looked at Jake. “He means you, right?”
Ignoring her, Jake glared at Simon. “No.”
Jesus. The last thing he needed was this kind of hassle. He was retired . It might have been forced on him, he might not have been ready for it, but he was done . He didn’t need to stir up a bunch of media interest now it had finally all died down.
He had a bar. He was drinking beer. Life was one long happy hour.
“You could coach them,” Simon pressed.
“Ohmigod, yes.” Rosie clapped, bouncing in her seat. “It’s perfect.”
“No,” Jake said at the same time Ella did. He shot her some side eye before returning his attention to Simon. “I’m retired.”
“He’s retired,” Ella repeated.
“Every year Chiswick Academy invites another high school football team that has done well in the competition to play a nonconference game at their campus,” Simon continued. “It’s very prestigious to even be asked. There’d be a lot of eyes across that game. Win that and you’d be untouchable.”
“Yeah, even I’ve heard of that,” Ella admitted. “But… we’d have to win, right? A lot. As a new team? We’d need more than Jake. We’d need God’s gift to football.”
Simon cocked an eyebrow. “Jake is one of the best tight ends this game has ever seen. He is God’s gift to football.”
Jake accepted the accolade without any false modesty as her eyes flashed over him. Eyes that had turned contemplative. Like maybe she was… considering the hare-brained suggestion?
“The cards are favorable,” Iris said with pursed lips, snagging Jake’s attention.
Her almost empty bowl had been pushed to one side and she was staring down at several cards laid out in front of her in some kind of pattern. Nodding at them, she added, “They’re indicating it could be very good for Cameron.”
Jake sensed Ella, who’d been holding herself rigid, deflate a little, a sigh escaping her mouth. “Well that’s it then,” she said to Rosie.
His head swiveled between the two of them. What was it ?
Rosie nodded. “The cards are never wrong.”
“Do they say we’ll win?” Ella asked.
Iris gave a faraway smile. “You know they don’t deal in absolutes.”
Ella turned her gaze on him then, determination turning them steely. Jake shook his head. “No.”
She gave him a reproving look which didn’t move him one iota. “I’m retired,” he said, exasperation in his voice.
Everyone stared at him.
“So you have plenty of time on your hands.”
What the fuck? What was happening right now? A minute ago she was on his side. “I run a bar .”
She faltered for a moment, and Jake thought she was going to change her mind. But then her gaze slid momentarily to Iris, who nodded and Ella straightened her shoulders. “Challenge too big for you, Jake?” she goaded. “Not up to it? Prefer to fritter away life drinking beer and signing women’s body parts?”
Was that even a proper question? “Hell, yeah.”
Ella rolled her eyes. “This is important. More important than beer and women.”
“Nothing’s more important than beer and women.” Certainly not this stupid, hare-brained… whim.
“Margaritaville every day for you, huh?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She regarded him for a long moment. It was clear she was suddenly, desperately invested in this ridiculous plan. “ Please. ”
Oh God… the way she said please. Like she had that day two years ago and man if it didn’t tug at him just as hard.
He sighed. “A public school has never won against Chiswick Academy since they started doing it ninety years ago.”
Ella started. “Is that true?” she asked Simon.
He nodded. “Doesn’t mean yours won’t be the first.”
“Right?” She turned to Jake. “We could be the ones.”
“You told me, not even an hour ago, that you despise football.”
“I’m prepared to tolerate it.”
Jake huffed out an exasperated breath. “Don’t you… have a plan B?”
“Sure, sleep with the entire education review panel.”
“There you go, then.” He nodded. “Problem solved.”
“You want me to do a dozen sexual favors for a bunch of men who look like they come from the pre g-spot era?”
Cameron chose that moment to appear. Considering he was a big kid, he looked surprisingly like his petite mother. Ignoring everybody, he snatched up a handheld game console that had been sitting discarded in the middle of the table.
“Hey, Cam,” Ella called as he turned to leave.
Cameron came to an abrupt stop, clearly aggrieved by the intrusion. “What?”
“Can you let me know when the game’s over, please? I need to talk to you.”
He blasted a hostile glare at his sister. “Talk, talk, talk. That’s all you ever do.” Then he stormed off in the direction of the door.
“Cam,” she called after him.
“Fuck off ,” he threw over his shoulder as he yanked open the door and slammed it behind him for good measure.
Jake blinked as an uncomfortable silence descended. Ella sat deathly still, her knuckles blanching white against the back of the chair. No wonder she’d looked so strained earlier. If he’d spoken to an adult like that at fifteen, he would have been knocked sideways.
Cameron Lucas needed a serious attitude adjustment.
But, amid the heat simmering inside him, a primal kind of recognition glowed. Ella’s brother was a product of Trently. As he had been.
Cameron Lucas was him – before football.
“Okay.” He stood abruptly, driven by something deeper than he could explain. “I’ll be there Monday at three o’clock. You got yourself a coach.”
Then he excused himself and left before he changed his mind.