Page 16 of No Place Like Home

“And whatever Jess and Rosie want, Jess and Rosie get,” a voice purred.

I smirked at the girl who refused to give Jess and Rosie breakfast when Freya came into view. She appeared behind me, shooing the waitress and telling her to go put their order in.

“Aw, look. My babies all together again.EMMA!”

There were some people I didn’t mind making a big deal of my homecomings, and that included Emma and Freya. They gave me a job. They made it easier to help out my mom and pops when football took the money we didn’t have.

“Thirty looks good on you, mamas,” I teased Freya, and she swatted my head. “Thirty and twenty-four doesn’t sound so bad now, does it?”

“What doesn’t sound so bad?” Max, Freya’s husband, asked as he possessively wrapped a hand around her waist.

All the men around here were pussy-whipped. I didn’t get the appeal of monogamy when there were so many women. I wasn’t going to lie. The game could get lonely. Practices, home games, away games, campaigns, commercials…I was always on the go. Without commitment, I was never alone in a new city. If I’d had a ball and chain, that wouldn’t have been the case.

“Q, still trying to get in Freya’s pants,” Jess said, looking anywhere but at me.

Max’s hand came to my shoulder, applying slight pressure. “You like playing football?”

“Come on, bro. You know I was joking. People would kill you if anything happened to my throwing arm,” I said, pretending to throw a football.

“If you were a Packer, they might, but since you’re all the way in the Sunshine State, I think I’ll live.”

“That’s cold, man. You know I don’t get a say in that shit.”

“Leave him alone. He’s harmless.” Freya swatted Max’s hand away from my shoulder. “Besides, you can’t blame him. Thirty does look fab on me.”

Jess snorted.

Freya and Max were still bickering as they walked away.

“They’re still in love, aren’t they?”

“It’s so gross. You should’ve seen them on Thanksgiving. I come close to getting diabetes from being around Emma and Dex, Jana and Rusty…and don’t get me started on Jules and Jake,” Jess said as she shivered in mock goosebumps.

All the people she’d mentioned were a couple of years older than us, but solid. After everything Jess had been through, I was glad she had people she could trust.

“Jessamine,” Rosie said.

I gave Jess a questioning look.

“Don’t forget my ice cream.”

“Jessamine?” I questioned as I petted Simba. “Is that what Jess stands for?”

Jess grabbed the butter knife and pointed it at me. “I will cut you if you ever repeat that.”

“Whoa! What’s with you people wanting to hurt me?” I threw my arms in mock surrender.

“Jess doesn’t like it when anyone calls her Jessamine,” Rosie chimed in.

“Who else calls her Jessamine?”

The name was foreign, but delicate, rolling off my tongue. She was Jess—short, simple, dull—when she was anything but those things. In high school, she’d never cared for cliques and popularity. She’d kept to her own. Jessamine fitted her more now; still short, but with added femininity, which she seemed to have found.

“Herboyyyyfriendd,Blake,” Rosie answered.

My hand stilled on Simba’s fur as my eyes roamed over Jess again. She was now pointing the butter knife at her giggling sister. Jess deserved better than Cubbie. There wasn’t any lost love on our part, but he wouldn’t be able to appreciate the type of woman Jess was. I didn’t keep up with him, and I hadn’t run into him in my visits either. As a matter of fact, it was the first time running into Jess, but I hoped he treated her right. Cubbie used to get as much ass as I did, except he was always more discreet than me.

But discreet or not, he wasn’t right for someone like Jess. He was too cocky and spoiled. He wouldn’t worship the ground she walked on, and after all she had been through, she deserved that.

---