No Time Like Mardi Gras Page 13

  There was another long silence before Colin nodded. “Are you hungry?”

  She grabbed onto the change of topic like a life rope. “Actually, I am. How about you order us something and I’ll go grab that shower?” It was a rather abrupt, and slightly lame, shift, but she needed the time to gather herself.

  She paced as she waited for the water to warm up. Why did Colin have to push? She wasn’t some lost soul in need of help, so why did he always try to fix things instead of just minding his own business? She wanted this to be easy, to be something where she could be herself without any pressure. She just needed him to back the hell off.

  Part of her figured she should just tell him the whole ugly story. She wasn’t running from her past, and she wasn’t hiding from it either, but she didn’t want it to hold her back. And the only way to do that was to just move on. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life looking under the couch cushions for secrets and lies. That much she knew for sure.

  What had happened with Joey had nothing to do with who she was or her life now, so there really wasn’t a reason to go into it. Except that she would have to tell Colin the full story eventually. Well, only if this was going to get serious.

  Frustrated, Jamie got into the shower and gasped as the tepid water hit her skin. See, this is what happens when you don’t think things through and jump in too quickly.

  But you can’t not jump, either.

  Which meant she needed to quit being embarrassed over the whole thing and come clean with Colin sooner rather than later. He’d shared something important and personal with her, and that seemed like a big step. One that would take them into a new place.

  So she needed to tell him. She should tell him.

  But not tonight. She needed more prep time before she went there.

  Scrubbing the restaurant off her skin gave her time to calm down and clear her head, and by the time she turned off the shower, she felt normal again. At some point, Colin had come in, because a clean T-shirt now sat on top of her towel. It hung nearly to her knees, and between using his soap and wearing his shirt, she almost had the complete Colin smell surrounding her. It made her smile as she combed out her hair.

  Barefoot and with her hair still damp, she went back to the kitchen to find Colin unpacking boxes from a white takeout bag. The smell of barbecue filled the air and her stomach audibly growled.

  “More champagne?” Colin asked. She loved how he didn’t harp on stuff, easily forgetting things that were better left behind. “I don’t know how well it will go with ribs, though. There’s beer if you prefer.”

  This was her life now.

  And it was pretty damn good. She just wanted to enjoy this part awhile longer.

  “Or,” he added, “there’s soft drinks, since you’re driving later.”

  “I’ll finish the champagne and then maybe have a beer.” He looked at her oddly, and she took a deep breath. “I mean, I don’t have to drive home tonight, right? Maybe I could crash here if I needed to?”

  A slow grin spread across Colin’s face. “Yeah. You could do that.”

  Yeah. I could.

  * * *

  For the first time, Jamie was sound asleep in his bed. And not just a catnap before heading back to her place—actual sleep with the intention of waking up there the next morning. It was nice, although he’d quickly discovered she was a bit of a bed hog, taking her half diagonally across the middle.

  But that wasn’t what was keeping him awake.

  Carefully, so as not to disturb her, Colin went to the living room and brought his laptop back up. He sat there for a minute, staring at the Google home page. She must have done the same, he reasoned, to find his address the first time she’d come to his office. It was no big deal.

  He typed Jamie’s name and hovered over the enter key. It hadn’t occurred to him until now to even search for her, since contrary to popular belief, most average citizens didn’t have a lot of information readily available or easily accessible out there. Plus, it seemed creepy and stalkerish.

  He believed in privacy. He’d had too much of his life examined by neighbors and therapists and doctors not to. He didn’t dig into other people’s lives because he didn’t want them digging into his.

  But he hit enter anyway.

  There were a lot of Jamie Vincents in the world, both male and female, and he ended up scrolling through the page of the returned links with only half an eye. Just as he was about to give up, something caught his attention that had him scrolling back to the top: the number of times he saw the name Jamie Vincent in a headline with “Joey.” She’d never mentioned her ex’s last name, but this had to be a good start.

  The first link had a large picture, and he didn’t recognize the woman at first. But then he realized that was Jamie, only as a blonde—which partly explained why he’d scrolled right past it before—pictured on the arm of Joey Robbins, who, it turned out, was baseball’s latest hottest thing.

  That explained her extensive baseball knowledge.

  Jamie’s ex wasn’t just any ex. Colin didn’t follow sports, much less baseball, but he did recognize the face from TV commercials for everything from soap to sports drinks.

  Well, no wonder Jamie was so freaked out by her new life. She’d gone from pampered fiancée of a pro athlete to waitress in a matter of weeks. This wasn’t just starting over; this was having the entire rug jerked out from under her.

  Was that why Jamie hadn’t blocked him on her phone? Were any of those “loose ends” the hope they’d reconcile? She had to be missing her old life a lot.

  Maybe she wasn’t as over Joey as she’d claimed. Maybe Colin was just a placeholder until she went back to him and her previous life.

  Maybe she considered him a step down from her ex.

  None of this sat very well on his mind.

  The article beneath the picture wasn’t about Jamie, though. Joey, it seemed, was currently suspended from play and under investigation for a string of offenses, including steroid use, betting against his own team and some possibly dodgy tax issues. He was maintaining his innocence, claiming a series of misunderstandings, but this article opined that the evidence was strong against him. His career—and his pricey endorsement deals—were hanging in the balance of the investigation.

  Maybe Jamie was waiting to see how it all turned out before she made her final decision.

  He started clicking through some of the other links, focusing on Joey instead of just Jamie.

  There were also some accusations of other drug use, a DUI and some wild partying with women who weren’t Jamie—and might possibly be prostitutes.

  Even with such a myriad of evidence and accusations, the consensus seemed to be that he’d survive this with probably only fines and community service. But he wouldn’t survive it unscathed; the damage to his reputation was done. Until this exploded, Joey Robbins had been the poster boy of positive sportsmanship, a role model for working hard and doing the right thing. He’d led his college team to take the championship three years in a row, been a standout during his years in the minor leagues, and since he’d been in the majors, his fastball had become a thing of legend and glory.

  Additional proof of his all-around goodness was in the eight-year relationship with his college sweetheart, who’d initially stood by him, professing his innocence when the accusations had first hit the papers.

  They’d called her naive, foolish and a dumb blonde. Gold digger, silly arm candy.... It was brutal.

  No wonder she’d snapped at him when he’d asked her to be his arm candy for the launch party. She was probably good at it, but not proud of the skill.

  The news she’d left Joey shortly thereafter was considered pretty conclusive evidence that the accusations were true, and Joey’s fans were now vilifying her for turning on him, betraying him, and calling Jamie a liar
and a publicity whore.

  Jamie couldn’t win with those people no matter what she did.

  She’d said it was ugly and public. She hadn’t been kidding. The question, though, was why she’d kept it so quiet, as though it was her dirty secret, not his. If anything, she came out looking pretty good in this.

  Except...

  She’d been arrested. And hauled in by investigators for questioning. And here was a report of her bank records being subpoenaed. Although this article didn’t outright accuse her of anything, it presented more than enough information to make people believe she was hip deep in the same legal and ethical hot water as Joey.

  He had a hard time believing that.

  At the same time, though, what did he really know about her? If you’d asked him an hour ago, he would have said he knew her pretty well, but this information not only called attention to the gaping hole in his knowledge, it also cast a different light on what he did know about her.

  She claimed embarrassment about what had happened, but no amount of embarrassment really justified the levels of avoidance Jamie attempted. Did she honestly think no one would ever find out?

  Didn’t people who were wrongly accused protest their innocence loudly? Why wasn’t she telling her side of the story to anyone who might listen?

  And that made him wonder what else she had to hide.

  Hearing footsteps, he quickly closed out the window and looked up just as Jamie came into the room. She looked tousled and sleepy. “What are you doing up?”

  “I couldn’t sleep, so I was just browsing around.”

  She came to sit next to him on the couch and curled up against his arm. “Anything interesting?”

  Very. “Just the buzz on this hot new game called Dungeons of Zhorg. It’s supposedly awesome.”

  “Sounds fascinating.” She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. “I’d let you tell me all about it, but I’m too tired.”

  “Then go back to bed. I’ll be in in a few minutes.”

  “Okay.” After a quick kiss on the cheek, Jamie looked at him oddly. “Is everything all right?”

  “Of course.”

  He just needed to think for a little while.

  * * *

  A job. A real job where she got to wear nice clothes and not smell like fried stuff at the end of the day. A job where people talked about interesting things—things she’d never even considered before, like how light affected color and mood or how to modernize old buildings without destroying their charm and historical importance.

  A full week under her belt and a paycheck in her hand, Jamie didn’t know whether to giggle in glee or thank her lucky stars.

  So she did both.

  Oh, there was a lot to learn, but she was looking forward to it. She was already thinking that maybe next year—after she’d had a chance to really get settled and save up some money—she would look into going back to school. That would delay her getting into her own place, of course, but even though she and Kelsey still hadn’t become friends in any real sense, they were getting along fine as roommates.

  It wasn’t as though she was there a whole lot anyway.

  It felt so good to deposit that paycheck that Jamie bought a milkshake to help fight the heat as she did some browsing through the French Market. Talk about savoring... She couldn’t remember the last time she’d not been on a diet or living Joey’s newest high-protein, low-carb, super-soy-or-something training diets. The milkshake tasted like heaven in a paper cup.

  The French Market’s stalls of merchandise were hit-or-miss on quality and necessity and highly targeted toward tourists looking to pick up cheap souvenirs, overpriced “art” and low-level knockoffs of designer brands, but it was fun, nonetheless.

  She was contemplating a kudzu-blossom-scented candle when something at the next table caught her eye. It was a small clay statue of an old-school computer with a guy in a superhero cape standing on it in a heroic pose. The inscription on the base read, “Alpha Geek.”

  She laughed out loud.

  She’d never heard of the term, but it seemed to fit Colin perfectly. At first glance, he was built more like an athlete—which, as she’d learned when she started spending the night at his place, came from disgustingly early morning runs—but he definitely had an inner geek and a brain full of sci-fi trivia. Ridiculously smart, even in a group of ridiculously smart people, yet not at all unsociable or awkward. He was certainly the alpha dog in his pack of programming wunderkinds.

  She had to buy it.

  Successfully haggling the price down to twelve dollars—although she would have paid fifteen—gave her another burst of self-satisfaction, and she stopped to buy a pretty gift bag and bow on her way home.

  She’d never bought Colin a gift before—not even just a little cheesy one—and there seemed something rather important and portentous about that step. But they were moving forward, so...

  Vaguely wondering how long it would take her to get used to the humidity in this city, she made her way home. When her phone began to ring, she had to juggle her cup, her bags and Colin’s gift to get to it, only to realize she didn’t recognize the number. Or even the area code.

  She was tempted to let it go to voice mail, but she’d given out her cell number to a lot of people this week and couldn’t be sure that the call wasn’t work related. And while it might be after six on a Friday, she didn’t want to be branded a slacker who wasn’t willing to go the extra mile when necessary—especially during her first week.

  “Hey, sweetheart.”

  Sneaky little bastard, calling from someone else’s phone. “Do not ‘sweetheart’ me, Joey. In fact, don’t talk to me at all.”

  “Jamie, wait! Don’t hang up.”

  She got the door unlocked and pushed it open with her hip. There was a slim chance this might be important, so she reined in her frustration. But only barely. “What?”

  She could almost hear the charm click on, see the lazy smile. “How are you?”

  “Does it really matter?”

  “It does. I’m worried about you. And I miss you.”

  She dropped her keys and bags onto the coffee table and sank onto the couch, very glad Kelsey wasn’t home. The headache was already starting to throb behind her eyes. “So I’ve heard.”

  “Can’t we just talk about this?”

  “Oh, I think we’ve talked quite enough. There’s nothing you can say that would make any difference.”

  There was a long, pregnant pause. “I love you.”

  Ah, hell. “And I believe you when you say that.”

  “Then why don’t you come on home?”

  “Because I don’t love you anymore.” It was harsh, but she’d never said that to him before and he needed to hear it.

  “That can’t be true.” It was a confident, even arrogant, statement, but Jamie knew him way too well not to hear the hurt under it.

  She wasn’t going to let that stop her from saying what needed to be said, though. “And yet it is. But even if it weren’t, your definition of love isn’t acceptable to me.”

  “Those other women meant nothing to me. You have to believe that.”

  That grated across a nerve that she wasn’t aware she had until now. “Yet you were willing to jeopardize your relationship with me in order to sleep with them. You threw away an awful lot to have sex with women who meant nothing to you. That doesn’t make it sound any better. In fact, that makes it sound worse.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Good,” she snapped, unable to help it. “Maybe you’ll learn from this experience, grow as a person.”

  “Jamie, honey, please...”

  “I told you when I left that it wasn’t just the women. The drugs, the gambling, the lies...I don’t even know who you are anymore. Or even if I ever did.
But you’re certainly not the man I fell in love with.” She rubbed a hand over her eyes. “God, I don’t know if that’s my fault or yours. Maybe this is who you’ve always been and I just didn’t know it. But either way, we’re over.”

  Joey sighed. “I’m going to come down there.”

  “It’s a free country. And New Orleans is a great place, so I’m sure you’ll have a blast.” She’d said that airily, but let her voice drop so he’d understand that she was serious now. “But if you come near me, I’ll have you slapped with a restraining order. Think your image can handle another blow like that right now?”

  She heard his sharp intake of breath and had a quiet moment of victory. Joey didn’t know what to do with this Jamie. The surge of raw girl power, followed by a punch of I-am-woman-hear-me-roar was the best natural high she’d ever had—outside of sex.

  “I gave you eight years, Joey, and for most of them I was really happy. But you’re making this worse. Own up to what you’ve done, be a man and take responsibility. And not just about us. Everything. And then move on and do better. Otherwise...” She sighed. “Please don’t make me regret our entire time together.”

  “So you’re really ending it.” His voice was flat. “It’s over. Just like that.”

  Finally. Something gets through. “I ended it a long time ago. I’m sorry that you’re just now catching up, but I rather thought you would’ve figured that out when I tried to give you back the engagement ring and moved out.”

  “That’s your ring. I want you to have it. I want you to wear it.”

  “Not going to happen.”

  “You’ve met someone down there, haven’t you? That’s what—”

  “Don’t go there. You’re only embarrassing yourself now.” Wow, it truly was amazing what time could do. Three months ago—hell, probably three weeks ago—she’d have been pulled into his cajoling and wheedling to listen to his side again, forced to explain herself repeatedly, gotten defensive, and ended up feeling guilty and sad. Instead, she’d said her piece and made her stand. In fact, this conversation had gone on far too long already. “Joey, it’s over. Done. Don’t call me again.”