Chapter Eight
Jake
‘Who are all those girls?’
Thankfully, the ceremony is over. It went on forever, made worse by the fact that Lemon Conway was a bridesmaid and kept looking over and smiling at me while the bride was reciting her vows.
Even the guys have started to notice the extra attention she’s been paying me.
Doesn’t help that I’m here with my sister, so everybody knows I don’t have a girl.
Even now, holding onto my drink, I can feel Lemon watching me with those hungry eyes of hers.
Serenity is inaccessible right now. I know she’s here. All I wanna do is see her and talk to her and—
‘Earth to Jake.’
‘Sorry, what?’
River raises her eyebrows. ‘I said, who are all those girls over there? The ones you’re staring at.’
‘CMC.’
Her mouth drops open. ‘They’re the cheerleaders?’
‘Uh-huh.’
‘No. Way.’
‘I didn’t know you cared.’
‘Duh. Like, do you know how competitive it is to become CMC? Their audition process is notoriously ruthless. And there’s the damage all that performing does to their bodies.’
‘How do you know all this?’
I don’t think I’ve ever seen River so animated.
‘I watched an exposé on TikTok. Compared to you guys, they literally work for peanuts. And they get none of the perks you guys do either. Is that why they’re all over there and not over here with everyone else?
You know they have a clause in their contract? They can’t go near the players.’
I stare at her, aghast. ‘I did know that, yes.’
‘I’ll bet you don’t have the same clause in your contract.’
‘You’re right,’ I admit. ‘I don’t.’
River shakes her head in disgust. ‘Yet again, always with the double standards.’
I don’t have a reply for her because, once again, she’s correct. ‘Do you like one of them, or something?’ I hear her ask.
I straighten my back. Oh god, am I no better than Lemon? ‘Why’d you ask that?’
‘I don’t know. You keep looking over there like you’re searching for something. Or somebody.’
I rub the back of my neck. Then I look at Hud Briar on the grass to my right, who’s holding a beer in his hand. He’s wearing sunglasses but I’d bet my last dollar he’s staring in exactly the same direction I am.
‘Can you give me a sec?’ I ask my sister.
‘Sure,’ she shrugs, looking nonplussed as I move through the crowd to Hud, pressing one hand on his shoulder.
‘Who’s the gatekeeper?’ I ask him and he snaps outta whatever thoughts he was sunk deep into. ‘The redhead over there.’
‘Kathleen Lafferty,’ Hud says with a grimace. ‘CMC squad coach. Professional cock blocker.’
‘Right now, she looks like a goddamned cattle rancher.’
He laughs at that. ‘It does look kinda ridiculous, right? I mean, what’s the point of having them as guests if they’re just gonna be rounded up and segregated?’
I lower my voice. ‘I got an idea. You wanna talk to Harmony, right? I say we go over there, point out to Ms Lafferty that this is a wedding reception. Nobody’s going to do anything to embarrass themselves if we mingle a little with some off-duty cheerleaders for an hour or so. No harm can come of it, right?’
Hud looks at me, inhales and puffs out his chest, as though psyching himself up. ‘You’re right,’ he says.
‘Want me to be your wing man?’
‘You bet.’
I slap him on the back. ‘Then let’s go, man.’
Side by side, we walk across the lawn toward Kathleen Lafferty.
A band with violins is still playing. As we edge closer, I can pick Serenity out of the crowd.
She’s in a long green dress, next to a woman with corkscrew curls tied back.
For a brief second, her eyes meet mine, and it only makes me more determined to talk to her.
‘Good afternoon, Kathleen,’ Hud says as we stop in front of the fierce-looking fifty-something, elegant redhead, standing with her legs apart.
She looks down at his beer, gives his suit a visual appraisal. ‘Good afternoon, Mr Briar. Who’s your friend?’
Hud puts his arm around me and now I’m wondering if he’s not a little lubricated. ‘This is Jake Walsh. He’s a rookie.’
‘First-round draft pick. I saw. Congratulations, Mr Walsh, welcome to Canyon.’
I grin. Man, she makes me nervous. ‘Thank you, ma’am. Good to meet you.’
We shake hands. ‘What can I do for you gentlemen?’
‘We, uh,’ Briar begins, and behind Kathleen, Harmony appears.
As she does so, Briar straightens. I wonder if Kathleen has heard the rumours about those two.
‘We were thinking that perhaps, you could let the squad socialise a little with the rest of the guests. Seems a little unfair to keep them all cooped up over here, don’t you think?
I’m sure everyone would behave themselves. ’
‘It is a wedding, after all,’ I add, and I feel all eyes on me and Hud.
Kathleen looks to Harmony, as though to confer. The girl with the corkscrew curls has come over and is holding her hands in a prayer position. Harmony gives a shrug, but her expression remains unreadable.
Kathleen clicks her tongue. After what seems like an eternity, she says, ‘I’ll allow it, but just this once.’ She raises her eyes, looking over the crowd of guests. ‘I’ll talk to Sam,’ she then mutters, more to herself. ‘And only because this is a wedding.’
Hudson gives a nod. ‘Thank you, Kathleen.’
‘It’s Ms Lafferty to you, Mr Briar.’
‘Ms Lafferty,’ Hud corrects himself, standing to one side, but a pleased smile is threatening to explode onto his lips.
‘Girls, you can mingle if you want,’ Harmony instructs and within a second the group breaks up, the girls all walking over to the main group. ‘Please remember to exercise CMC decorum.’
I glance at Hud. His eyes are fixed on Harmony. For the first time, I think I see the whisper of a smile on her lips, but I can’t hear their conversation as the girl with corkscrew curls is now standing squarely in my face.
‘Hi, I’m Jewel,’ she beams. ‘And this is my friend, Ren.’
My heart starts to pound. I grip my glass. So I guess it’s ‘Ren’ for short.
‘Hey, Jewel,’ I say, and she shakes me by the hand. ‘Hi, Ren.’
Serenity holds out her hand. I swear, when I shake it, it sends little lightning bolts racing up my spine.
But something’s off, because she’s not making eye contact, and it hits me that she’s pretending not to know me.
The disappointment hits me with the force of a high tackle.
Before I know it, Serenity’s excusing herself, leaving me alone with Jewel.
This was not in the plan.
‘So, how you finding Canyon?’ Jewel asks me. ‘I’m new here myself.’
I turn my head. Serenity’s walking back across the lawn away from me. ‘Oh yeah? Um— where you from originally?’
‘Missouri. St Louis. It’s always been a dream of mine to qualify for the CMC.’
‘Why’s that?’
She gives a dramatic shrug, but she’s still grinning at me. ‘The prestige, I guess. CMC is the best cheer squad in the whole of the NFL.’
She’s cute. Her hair is a mass of spring coils and the way they bounce around distracts me a bit.
But she’s still not who I wanna be talking to.
I glance across at Hudson and Harmony. Hud’s removed his sunglasses, and I swear – the way he looks at her – I’ve never seen a guy more ga-ga for a woman in my life.
It makes me happy that we were able to engineer this.
Jewel is still talking when I find myself sneaking glances across the lawn to my left, trying to see what happened to Serenity.
That’s when I witness Sam Conway in her mother-of-the-bride outfit walking our way, the heels of her shoes sinking a fraction into the lawn with each step, and it’s only after a moment that I realize she’s making a beeline for me.
When she stops in front of us, Jewel hangs up whatever she was saying, mid-sentence. Her back goes straight but her grin remains fixed, and it’s obvious she’s kind of terrified.
‘Hello to you both,’ Samantha Conway breathes with an effortless smile that exudes inauthenticity. ‘Young lady, I wondered if I could borrow Jake for a second?’
‘Of course!’ Jewel beams at her and grants me a little wave as she skips off across the lawn. I wish I could tap out of this conversation and follow her, because my spidey-sense tells me where Jewel goes, Serenity will be.
I’ve met Sam Conway before, when I had my official welcome to the Mutineers following the draft. I had to hold up a signed shirt and have some photographs with Sam and her father. A former player himself, Hank Conway is, by all accounts, a decent man.
‘Thank you so much for coming,’ Samantha says. She has a stain of lipstick on her teeth. Up close, it seems like she’s indulged in a little Botox.
‘You’re welcome, ma’am, thank you for inviting me.’
‘Did you bring a date?’
‘Uh, I brought my sister. I kind of abandoned her a minute ago, I should probably try and find her.’
‘I’m sure she’ll be fine. I just wanted to have a quiet word.’
‘About football?’
She purses her lips. ‘About my daughter, Lemon.’
Oh god. Anything but Lemon.
‘Uhh—’
‘Look, I won’t beat around the bush here, seeing as you don’t seem to have a girlfriend. Jake, I would very much appreciate it if you could take my Lemon to dinner one night.’
I hold her gaze, swallowing hard. I don’t want to give my true feelings away, not when this woman is technically my boss and I’ve only played two pre-season games for the Mutineers. But… What. The. Actual. Fuck?
I can feel my teammates’ eyes on me. ‘I, uh—’
‘Look, hear me out. She can be a shy girl. But she’s a heart of gold. Being my daughter, and given that her Daddy ain’t around no more, I sometimes feel men are… well the fact that I’m her momma makes them nervous to ask her out.’
‘Nervous?’
‘Men are sometimes a little afraid of me, Jake.’
You don’t say.
‘All I’m asking for is one dinner,’ she adds when I don’t say anything – due to being lost for fucking words. ‘Nothing too fancy, though my Lemon is known to have her mother’s impeccable taste. The Country Club, right here, has an enchanting restaurant. Great steak.’
Her smile is fixed, like the Botox is stopping it from being any wider, and there isn’t a single wrinkle in that forehead. How the hell did I end up in this situation?
‘Hank adores his granddaughter. Did I mention that?’
Holy fuck. Was that a threat? That if I don’t be nice to his granddaughter, Hank Conway will have a word with Coach and have me dropped from the team?
‘Sure, I can take Lemon to dinner,’ I say, and my throat sticks when the words come out. ‘Should I— Do you wanna—’
‘Why don’t you ask Lemon for her number? Before you go home. That would be just fine. Thank you, Jake. And everybody is real pleased with your performance on the field so far. Keep it up.’
When I watch her walk across the lawn, I swear a little part of me dies on the inside. Hudson and Harmony are gone and I’m standing on a patch of grass all alone.
‘Where’d you go?’ River asks me when I eventually find her hanging out near the bar, at a table on her own. She doesn’t look happy. I pull out a chair.
‘I am so sorry. I was helping out a teammate before I got cornered by Samantha Conway.’
‘Right. Can we go now?’
She glances over her shoulder, looking uncomfortable. ‘What’s up?’ I ask.
‘Two of the waiters are in my high school class.’
‘They are? Did you talk to them?’
‘No. They were pointing at me and laughing. I only agreed to come with you to be nice. I didn’t expect to see anybody I knew here. Now my whole class is gonna think it’s normal for me to hang out at places like the Country Club.’
‘Do you know their names?’
‘One of them. His name’s Scottie Lincoln. He’s a soccer player.’ Her eyes well up and now I feel like shit for leaving her. ‘Can we go now?’ she asks again.
‘There’s the whole wedding breakfast to sit through. We can’t leave yet.’
River groans, massaging her forehead.
I rub her arm. ‘I’m sure those guys weren’t laughing at you. They prolly didn’t even recognize you.’
‘Oh, they recognized me. And now everybody at school will know I was here.’
‘So what? It’s just a wedding.’
‘I didn’t wanna be singled out, Jake! I just wanted to blend in and be like everybody else. Do you know how hard it is to transfer schools before senior year?’
She looks like she’s gonna cry. ‘I get it. I’m sorry. This is all my fault. Look, we’ll just stay for a little food then get an Uber home, okay? Is that alright?’
She nods stiffly, holding the tears on the inside. ‘You wanna hear somethin’ funny?’ I say.
‘What?’ she asks.
‘You know the bridesmaid I pointed out? Lemon? Samantha Conway wants me to take Lemon to dinner.’
River brightens, wipes her eyes. ‘You are not serious. She looks like a crazed stalker.’
‘A crazed stalker who I now have to ask out on a date.’
‘Woah. Is she, like, gonna arrange it or something?’
‘She wants me to ask Lemon to her face.’
‘That’s insane.’
‘All true. Cheered you up, though, didn’t it? And if you see anybody laughing at you again, tell me. They’ll have me to deal with.’
I hold my smile, but in my mind, my sister is right.
Something tells me Lemon Conway has more than a little crush on me, and that taking her out on one date is not gonna spell the end of this.
She’s the boss’s granddaughter. She has power over me already, and I’ve barely said a word to the girl.
Worse still is that I’ve been at this wedding for what seems like a decade, and I haven’t even gotten to speak to Serenity yet.
I look around, hoping to catch a glimpse.
Except she’s nowhere to be seen.