“I actually am too. Just don’t get it in your head that you think I’m going to want to come back.”
“I won’t. I promise. I believe you.”
40
ACTIONS DIFFERED
The more people who came to the table that night, the more Farrah struggled to keep her giddiness in check.
The last to arrive were Nino Meyers and his wife. Archer was going to be through the roof.
“It’s so nice to meet you,” she said. “It was my son who Jayce asked you to sign the jersey and birthday card for. He’s not going to believe me when I tell him I had dinner with you tonight.”
“We’ll make him believe,” Nino said. “Jayce, snap a picture with my arm around your woman fast before mine gets jealous.”
She moved closer to Nino when he dropped his arm around her shoulder, Nino’s wife, Brianna, smiling on as if this was an old joke between them. Her grin was huge, Jayce took a few shots and then she sat back down.
There were ten couples at the table including them. Two coaches and their significant others, someone from the office who worked with Jayce, and two players. Nino being the most notable, then someone who she knew the name of but didn’t play often, Brice being new to the team two years ago but only playing for the first time last year.
“Tell us what you’ve been up to,” DeVone said. “I know I’m not alone when I say we were all shocked to hear you left.”
Which just went back to the fact that these people who said they were his friends or close with him didn’t notice he might not be well. That he was burned out, stressed, exhausted and even ill.
Did he always put on such a front for everyone?
She hated to think he did it with her. Could he be and she was blind to it?
Nah, he didn’t. Not after that fight they’d had weeks ago. She’d seen that he could be open and raw. That he wasn’t holding it in. That he accepted her and Archer into his life as much as she had him into theirs.
There would be ups and downs like everything else, but he’d proven that he didn’t shy away from anything. That he wouldn’t give up on her and she wouldn’t on him.
“I’m working for my parents’ firm. Handling all the marketing, advertising, communication, even stepping in to manage some projects and dealing with clients.”
“We know you can kiss ass like the best of them,” Brice said. “Probably how you got Farrah.”
There was some laughter to that statement by the guys at the table. She didn’t think Jayce was much of an ass kisser, but she didn’t know adult-Jayce like she had school-aged one.
“Jayce and I were friends for years in high school.”
“And we dated for two months, but she broke my heart and gave me the boot our senior year.”
He pulled her close to his side and planted a smooch on her cheek.
“I hardly broke his heart and you know it. Seventeen-year-olds rarely love like that and we were leaving for college. I knew enough to let Jayce have his wings to spread. We came back around.”
“That’s really sweet,” Brianna said. “Nino and I were high school sweethearts. It was hard to watch him go off to another college without me, but I was close enough to drive and see him on the weekends. I had to make sure no one else was catching his eye. You know, lay the law down to not mess with me.”
“And Brianna was scary in her own right,” Nino said. “She played ball too.”
Being five foot nine, Farrah was used to being one of the tallest women in the room, but Brianna was close to six-foot so she wasn’t surprised to hear Nino’s wife was an athlete herself.
“Farrah is mean on the court,” Jayce said. “Don’t let her sweet looks fool you. Between basketball and volleyball, she was out for blood.”
“Did you play in college?” DeVone asked.
“No. I wasn’t that good and it’s not something I was interested in. I’m a physician assistant and school was more important.”
“Did you want to be a doctor and just didn’t make it?” Molly, Brice’s girlfriend, asked. If she found that rude, she’d just brush it off. Molly might have bigger boobs than brains at the moment, and she was putting it out for everyone to see.
