“It’s not a problem,” Gia continued. “I’ve got it covered, but I need you to be honest with me. Are you going to forgive Jake? I totally believe that he was the jerk.”
“Hey!” I said, my anger finding an outlet in Gia. “You don’t know—”
“N-no,” Ellie said. “I—I had to get back to Indy, that’s all. And I forgot. I’m so—”
“Ellie, you’re a terrible liar,” Gia interrupted. “But honestly, girlfriend to girlfriend, do I cancel next week’s interviews? There’s plenty of time for me to cover.”
Oh hell. The publicity circus hadn’t really died down. Sure, the All-Star Game filled the news right now, but next week would be a different story. It was Gia’s job to keep the people’s attention on her players, any way she could. And next week was supposed to be on me. On milking my heroics from the fire with pieces on my romantic story with Ellie.
And naturally, I’d completely forgotten. Ellie had, too. And now I had to find a workaround because no way would she—
“I’ll be there,” Ellie said. “I promised.”
“But you aren’t here now,” I said, horrified by my bitter tone. Damn it, I sounded like my brother. “I came back to the room with coffee, but you weren’t there.”
Silence greeted me on the other end of the line. There was silence, too, from Gia, who looked at me with way too much understanding in her eyes.
“Um, I’m sorry, Jake. I…I just had to go. I just…” She took an audible breath. “I’m sorry.”
I didn’t know what to say as I fought with my anger. Damn it, I’d been the one to screw up. I knew it. And I’d just made her apologize, which hadn’t helped ease my pain at all. It had only made the guilt settle in worse. Meanwhile, Gia decided to take control.
“Ellie, how about you and me get together Monday afternoon? Before your shift. We can—”
“Oh, I can’t,” Ellie said. “I’m sorry. I had to pick up a few extra shifts next week. You know to cover for… Um. It doesn’t matter.”
Extra shifts to make up for the ones she was missing now. When she was supposed to be here with me.
“But I’ll be there for the interviews. I promise.”
“Okay,” Gia said, her tone more thoughtful than perky. “We’ll talk another time.”
“Yes. That sounds good. Thanks.”
“Yeah,” Gia said. “Okay.” She looked to me, obviously expecting me to say something to Ellie. The line was still open. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. What could I say? I couldn’t talk about what was eating me up. Not here, not now, with this audience. And what the hell would I say, anyway? I couldn’t even begin to form the words. And in the long pause, Ellie gave up on me.
“Right. Um, okay. Bye.”
Then the line went dead.
I was still staring at the phone when Pops decided he’d waited long enough. He grabbed my elbow and tugged me away. “Forget about her, son. Plenty of other pretty girls want to be on your arm, right?” he said, winking boldly at Gia.
She gave him a weak smile. “Yeah, sure. Just so long as he doesn’t take up with them until after the end of the season.”
I nodded, hearing the warning loud and clear. Pops didn’t, of course. His attention was on something else.
“Well, fine,” Pops said. “I’m starving. Let’s go get something to eat.” By which, he meant something to drink.
I thought about fighting him. I thought about putting him through a wall because none of this would have happened if he hadn’t shown up and screwed with my plans. But I didn’t. Instead, I turned to Gia.
“Is there anything I can do to make up for this?” I meant, to make up for screwing up the interview. At least I think I did. Maybe I was hoping for some advice from another woman. Someone who could explain to a clueless guy how to fix a fucked-up relationship.
Whatever I was hoping for, I didn’t get. She shook her head and sighed. “What do you want me to tell Connor?”
Oh, hell. Ellie’s cousin had already slugged me. And that was nothing compared with what he’d do if he found out Ellie was hurting. It didn’t matter whose fault it was. He would lay the blame on me. Along with his very big fists.
But at the moment, I didn’t really care. Pops was already wandering toward the beer stands. Ellie had left me and had refused to answer her phone when I’d called earlier. So what Connor thought really didn’t matter.
“Tell him to pay attention to his own love life and get the hell out of mine.” Then I stomped away to go babysit my father.
