Page 10 of Raging Fires

Asa listened, his expression going from confusion to astonishment, and he began to laugh. “Man, your family is insane. I mean, absolutely bonkers. I love it.” He laughed some more.

“They’re not that nuts.” Jake scowled.

“You only say that cause you’re one of the crazies. What about that cousin of yours who used to come to games with the red and gold devil mask on?”

“That was football. You can’t count football; everybody’s crazy. And we were the Sun Devils; what else was he supposed to come as?”

“Yeah, well, he didn’t have to carry that plastic pitchfork, did he? And poke people with it if they booed us. And what about the barbeque where that dude knocked over the grill and set a lawn chair on fire?”

“He was one of Gran’s family.” Jake waved a hand in dismissal. “The O’Malley’s are crazy.”

“Like I said.”

“Okay, okay, I admit it. We’re out of our minds.” Jake sighed. “I shouldn’t have agreed to get remarried. I said no several times. But you know how Gran is. And then Kelli said she’d do it.” And he’d looked at her, and there had been that hope and yearning in her eyes, tears turning her lashes into stars and making her eyes that unbelievable green. He knew how much the Blue meant to her, and he just couldn’t be the one to take it away from her. “And I—it’s only a year, and it’s not like I have to pretend we’re in love or actually be with her.”

“I thought you said there was something about living in that little house behind the bar.”

“Yeah, it has to be in our possession or something, but Kelli’s fixing it up now, and she’s going to move into it after the wedding. So…” Jake looked at his friend. “You going to come to it?”

“Are you kidding? No way I’m missing that.”

The rest of the week went pretty smoothly. His belongings arrived, and he put all the stuff in a storage facility until he could find a place to live. Jake browsed online some, but the amount of housing was kind of overwhelming. He decided he was going to have to find a real estate agent and tell him what he wanted.

Or her. Maybe he could find a hot real estate agent. He’d been thinking way too much about getting laid the last couple of weeks; he needed to do something about it. They could do it at one of the places she showed him. That was an intriguing idea. Only when he fantasized about that, the dark-haired agent turned into a blonde, and he was thinking about Kelli. Which was so irritating, it pulled him right out of the fantasy.

At least he didn’t have to talk to Kelli before the wedding. She texted him: 2:00 Thursday, Clerk’s office, Northeast Court. Bring 2 forms of id. BE ON TIME.

She didn’t have to put it in all caps. But he decided to be a model of restraint and only replied: OK.

At the clerk’s office, the appointment made it fast, and they managed not to get into a squabble, although the woman behind the counter gave them an odd look or two. Probably because they were standing a foot and a half apart, arms folded, heads turned away from each other.

That was it, and they parted, him to go work out again and her to go... supervise someone, probably.

Before he knew it, Jake woke up one morning and, holy crap, it was his wedding day.

His stomach was a riot of nerves, his whole body filled with electricity. He was scared as hell and perversely excited. It occurred to him that this was the way he’d felt when he walked out on the field the time they’d played Alabama and it had come home to him that this was real.

And he was about to get hammered.

Chapter Seven

Jake was determined to be on time for his wedding this time around, so he got in an early workout and was showered and dressed—at least this time he didn’t have to wear a tux—and ready to go by two. Unfortunately, the wedding wasn’t until seven, which left him with five empty hours. He flipped through the tv channels and fidgeted and paced and played games on his phone. It was late in the afternoon and he’d reached the point where he was contemplating reading one of Gran’s magazines when suddenly it occurred to him that he didn’t have a ring. He was getting married and he didn’t have a ring.

“Gran, I gotta go.”

His grandmother narrowed her eyes. “Jake Riley, if you’re running away...”

“No. Have some faith, Gran. I just—I don’t have a ring.”

“Oh. Well, shoot, you can use mine.” She began to twist the band on her left hand. “If I can get it over my knuckle.”

“No. It’s okay. I can get one. I just have to run.” He glanced at his phone. Damn, it was almost rush hour. “I’ll come back in time to take you to the bar.”

“Don’t be silly.” She waved her hand. “I’ll call one of the boys.” The ‘boys,’ Jake knew, were her brothers, but at least most of them were younger than her. It’d mean another person at the ceremony, but no one would be surprised by Gran dragging someone else along with her.

Jake grabbed his keys and left the house. He was not going to be late or he’d never hear the last of it from Kelli. He could picture her glaring at him, hand on hip, which was cocked out in that way he used to think was sexy as hell if you didn’t listen to what she was saying.

He decided to take the old Jeep instead of his SUV. Kelli had always hated that car—said it was too top-heavy for someone that took corners as fast as he did—it seemed like a fitting good-bye to freedom. He zipped out and drove to the storage facility.