How could the guy not be attracted to her? Joey thought. “That doesn’t answer why you brought him here. I thought we’d finally have some time together before you left but then you brought another guy home with you.” He still held her close, as though his life somehow depended on having contact with her.
“Joey, there’s nothing going between me and Gabe. He’s here because he didn’t have any place else to go for the holiday and we leave Monday anyway.”
She and Joey had started getting close last month when Ben had sent him to L.A. to bring her home and keep her safe from the stalker. They’d spent the past several weeks trying to work on the logistics of a long distance relationship, but between her schedule and his, this was the first time they’d even been able to see each other. He hadn’t been seeing anyone else, but he had been seeing pictures of her with Gabe all over the internet and on covers of the tabloids. Pictures of them leaving her condo, Gabe’s house, the gym, restaurants, and the movie studio. The reporters had them practically married for God’s sake, and they were going to be sharing a villa in Italy while filming there. On one hand, she was standing here right now, in his arms, telling him there was nothing going on between her and Gabe. On the other hand, she was an actress. God how could one small woman cause so much turmoil in his life? So what was he going to believe? What he read, or what she was telling him and what he was feeling right now?
Besides, there was always the possibility that there wasn’t really anything between them, except the closeness that had been borne out of the pressure of keeping her safe from the stalker. The fact that they hadn’t worked out getting together since seemed to support that possibility.
It was almost as though they’d both figured it out at the same time, but it was Jess who spoke first, “Look, Joey, maybe we should give this thing we think we have a rest. I’m going to be out of the country for who knows how long, and we weren’t even able to get together when we were in neighboring states.”
He looked down at her. She had a point and it wasn’t as if he was never going to see her again, her mother was married to his brother. If there was something between them, they had plenty of time to do something about it. “You’ve got a point. Maybe when you get back, we can see if there’s still anything.”
He kissed the top of her head and walked her back to the house.
Chapter 22
Friday morning at 5:30, Ben was up and dressed for his run. He was surprised to find Gabe, who was sporting two black eyes, in the kitchen waiting for him.
“I’m doing the ten mile route again this morning.” Ben said as Gabe followed him through the garage.
“Works for me.” Gabe replied as they stood in the driveway doing stretches.
Again, Ben started out south on Mission Road and again this morning, Joey joined them just south of 99th street. Ben thought that the tension between Gabe and Joey had dissipated last night after Joey had broken Gabe’s nose during the basketball game. Maybe it was after the two of them had stood on the court talking with Jess.
Ben had no idea what anyone said last night, but Gabe came back to the house alone and went straight to bed. Shortly after that, Joey got Pauli and went to Parker House. Jess came in later, changed clothes and went straight downstairs to the gym.
This morning, as they neared Parker House on the return trip, Joey peeled off, leaving Gabe and Ben to run the last half mile to Ben’s house alone.
Again, this morning, Ben didn’t get many cobwebs cleared. He had Jury selection starting Monday morning and he hadn’t spent much time thinking about it. He also hadn’t been able to talk with Tanner much yesterday about what was going on with the football team.
The game would be tonight at 7:30 in St. Louis. Jamie was supposed to make the trip on the team bus, while the family would be flying over on the Lucky Bets jet. Ben wasn’t sure how he felt about his son making the trip on the unsecured team bus, but he couldn’t let go of the feeling that whatever was happening wasn’t really about the whole team. Sure, they knew now that someone had put peanut dust in the ventilation system, and peanut oil on the door handle and steering wheel of Justin’s Jeep causing his peanut allergy to trigger. If Jamie hadn’t gotten there when he did and acted quickly, Justin could have died of anaphylactic shock. It was also true that the next day Jamie had found the football coach with the back of his head bashed in. However, it was also true that nothing had happened to any member of the football team in the two days since. Of course, much to Jamie’s frustration, he’d had someone with him every waking minute since finding Coach Ferguson.
Ben handed Gabe a bottle of water as he leaned against the counter and downed his own.
He went into the master suite to change into his workout clothes. Lane always slept on the side of the bed that was closest to the bathroom, but as usual after Ben had gotten up, she’d migrated toward the middle, to the warm space he’d left. She had pulled the covers up tight under her chin. He could stand here and watch her for hours, but he needed to change and get to the gym. He changed out of his thermal running gear into shorts and a T-shirt, pausing to watch Lane sleep again before kissing the top of her head and leaving the bedroom.
Gabe was in the gym doing a full body workout on the rowing machine. And, for God knew what reason he was singing Row, Row, Row your boat. Jamie was on the weight machine finishing his upper body workout. Ben knew Jamie would move to do leg presses soon. He turned the TV on, sat on the weight machine next to Jamie, and started his upper body workout.
Ben and Jamie normally worked out this way every morning and because they were men, they worked out silently. Gabe was a chatterbox though. It was enough to make father and son grind their teeth.
“Jamie, what time is the game today?” Gabe asked as he rowed his way merrily down the stream.
“Kick off is at 7:30 tonight.” Jamie replied.
“It’s across the state, how long does it take to get there? What time will we leave?”
Ben looked at Gabe. “The bus for the team will leave around 2:30, but the family will fly over in the Lucky Bets jet, so unless you have an overwhelming desire to drive,” God please, he thought, “we’ll leave the house around 5:00.”
“That’s Joey’s plane, right?”
Jamie shot a look at his father as he moved to do leg presses, as if to say, “God, is this guy ever going to shut up?”
Ben knew that there were mixed statistics, and that the average man spoke between 2000 and 7000 words per day, maybe Gabe was trying to get ahead in anticipation of a forced silence in his future.
“Yeah.” Ben replied as he got up and made his way out of the gym. He winked at Jamie as if to say, “Sorry Bambino, but you’re on your own now.”
Ben walked into the master suite and paused to kiss the top of Lane’s head before going into the master bathroom.
He shaved, and then turned the water on in the shower. He stepped in and stood with his face turned upward toward the rain showerhead in the ceiling.
Six months ago, he was single, living in this 6000 square foot house alone. Now he had a wife, a seventeen-year-old son, a baby on the way, and the house was full of family, who weren’t even related to him. He laughed thinking, Oh, and a super star houseguest who's a chatterbox in the mornings.
His wife, and now his son seemed to be murder magnets and he needed to find the current killer before anything happened to his family. The current killer, he thought, who even thinks like that? It didn’t matter; he didn’t feel good about Jamie getting on that team bus. He needed to talk to Tanner and see what he had been able to find out on his own or from Detective Duncan.