JP gave a hesitant nod, but his body was still coiled up with tension.
Unfortunately, despite Kappy’s best effort, things kept snowballing, and JP got a call from his head coach about an hour later.
“What’s going on?” I whispered.
JP changed the call to speakerphone so I could listen in. It only took a minute to realize his coach was suspending him.
“You know this is all bullshit, don’t you?” I blurted out. “Tell him,” I whispered to JP. “Tell him all of it.”
His eyes softened as he sat there silently.
“What’s that, McQuaid?” his coach asked.
“This is Ali. I’m his…” I trailed off, not quite sure what to call myself. “Anyway, this is all bullshit.”
“Uh, McQuaid, you still there?” his coach asked.
JP swallowed hard. “Yeah, I'm still here, Coach.”
I took the phone out of JP’s hand and started talking to his coach, explaining the whole story, while rubbing circles on my stomach.
As soon as I finished with the whole sordid tale, his coach thanked me before hanging up.
“You don’t need this stress,” JP said, placing his large hand on top of mine on my stomach. “I’m sorry.”
“Now you sound like me,” I said with a wry grin. I reached my palm up to touch his face. He immediately turned and kissed it. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn’t do anything wrong, JP. If anyone should be sorry it’s me. I’m the one who wanted to stay here a few more days.” And now we couldn’t go back to Chicago until JP was cleared of everything.
JP shook his head. “We’re not tiptoeing around because of him. In a way, I’m glad this is happening. When this is over, we’ll be done with him once and for all.”
That sounded like a fever dream. Mark Rossi had taken up residence in the back of my mind for far too many years now. I closed my eyes and leaned into him.
The next few days passed in a confusing blur. The news story about JP kept circulating, and once social media got ahold of it, it went wild. I thought the memes about the icks were bad, but those could be laughed off. Now people were creating compilations of JP’s hits and fights, making him look like an angry, violent person.
Each time Johnny called, my heart jumped to my throat, holding onto a shred of hope that he’d say everything was dropped. But that never seemed to be the case.
At the end of the week, Cliff put JP and I to work at Herb’s. Cliff claimed it was their busy season and he needed the help, but I had a feeling he was just trying to distract us. While Cliff worked outside in the cold, helping customers in the Christmas tree pasture, he hadus manning the cash register, charging people for their trees.
We were untangling extra strings of Christmas lights and sipping on hot chocolates when Johnny’s name flashed across JP’s phone.
JP grimaced. “I don’t even want to answer.” After a beat, he dropped the lights and stood to take the call. I continued untangling the lights, needing to do something with my hands. But as JP spoke on the phone at the back of the store, his eyes flashed to mine.
“Good news?” I whispered.
He rubbed a hand over his jaw and reluctantly shook his head, making my heart plummet.How could things get any worse?
“Okay, whatever,” JP said into the phone. “Any news on the divorce?”
With everything happening, the divorce completely slipped to the background for me, but apparently it hadn’t for JP, and my heart wobbled in my chest. I hated that I had any part in adding to his hurt.
JP’s eyes closed and his jaw flexed. “Yeah, that’s notfuckinghappening, Johnny.” JP shook his head. “Absolutely not,” he said again before hanging up on him.
“What’d he say?” I asked as he made his way back to the stool beside me.
JP’s arm went to his right peck and he winced. “Rossi was granted a temporary restraining order against me.” He snorted a dry laugh. “He wants to keep me away.”
My eyebrows pulled together in confusion.
“And he’s saying he’ll only sign the divorce papers if he can have a meeting with you face-to-face, a meeting that I won’t be able to attend because of the restraining order.” He ran his tongue over his teeth as he stared straight ahead. “He’s getting exactly what he wants.” He dropped his head. “Howdoes he always get what he wants?”
