Page 16 of Small Town Frenzy
Although I appreciate the lack of questions and the quiet to allow myself to decompress, it’s rare for silence to last long. There’s not a click of the mouse or a tap on her keyboard, and her phone doesn’t buzz on her desktop. Just . . .silence.
Maybe I’m the one who can’t deal with it because I glance over at my cousin, bordering on gobsmacked by the quiet. “Okay, Sav, what’s going on?”
“Huh?” She looks up from her computer screen. My reply is a few very pointed slow blinks. Laughing, she punctuates the sound with a perfected eye roll. “I figured I should let you get the upset out of your system before piling on even more. Seems now is as good a time as ever.”
“With an intro like that, I’m worried.” I angle to face her. “We’ve worked so hard on this event. Please don’t tell me we’re getting rained out or a player has dropped from the roster.” I’m startled by an image of Griffin Greene popping into my head. And then irritation courses through me. He had to ruin the past two days with his presence, and now he’s invading my thoughts. Typical arrogant athlete. They’re all the same.
“I—”
“It was Greene, wasn’t it?” I’m already shaking my head, knowing deep down that whatever the issue is, he’s the cause of it. I stand and start pacing across the small room. I need to shake this off, but my mood only sours more. “I knew he’d do this even after signing that contract.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I stop in front of her desk, and although she’s just the unlucky messenger, I narrow my eyes as if she’s to blame.
Anchoring my fists on my hips, I say, “He’s not getting his fee back. That document is legal, so that money is mine.” I waffle my head on my neck. “Not mine personally, but youknow what I mean.” Throwing my arms out, I’m still bracing for the bad news. “Well, are you going to tell me?”
“Haven’t had much of a chance, considering that display.” She rocks back in her chair, then kicks her feet up on the desk. She taps the end of a pen on her chin. “That’s quite impressive?—”
“What is?” My mind bounces through every hoop she throws out, but I still manage to trip over myself and come up empty-handed.Until—“No.” I shake my head in denial because there is no way . . . “Absolutely no way. You cannot possibly mean you’re impressed by that intolerable . . .” My hands punch down at my sides. “Disrespectful, annoyance of a man. I don’t care if he does have a stupidly perfect face or that one could easily grapple off the sharp-edged cliff of his jawline. You are not allowed to date him.”
“Moi? I am not allowed to date him?” She lowers her chin, keeping her grin at bay. “I love you dearly, but you do not have a say in whom or with whom I date.”
My shoulders slouch from that earlier sinking returning. “Don’t tell me you and Blake broke it off again?”
Standing, she snaps her fingers in front of my face. “Snap out of it, cuz. No one is talking about me and Blake. Blake is Blake and will always be Blake. That’s . . .” She playfully shrugs. “It’s one of the things I love about him. I’m not talking about him, or me, or Griffin Greene for that matter, though I think you have a few things that you need to get off your chest to cause such a reaction at the thought of that man.”
Raising my chin ever so slightly, I reply, “I’m good. Thanks. Now spill the bad news.”
I’m answered with an arched eyebrow. “The umpire threw his back out and can’t officiate the game tomorrow.”
The exhale I release causes her eyes to widen before Iunderstand what I did. “No. No. I’m not glad he threw his back out. That’s awful. I’ll send flowers?—”
“You mean I’ll be sending the flowers from you?”
“Fair point,” I reply. “Thank you for doing that.”
“You’re welcome. I did it an hour ago.”
“See?” I signal toward her as I return to my chair. “You’re the most amazing assistant. Always two steps ahead of me. Since that’s settled, I’ll try to find a replacement umpire.”
“Done. I found a guy out of San Antonio through Coach Barth. So no need to worry. It’s been taken care of as well.” Her eyes return to the monitor, but then she drops, “Now you have time on your hands to figure out why you got so worked up over a man who is apparently intolerable.” She peeks around to make eye contact with me. “It was intolerable, right?”
I nod just a little, embarrassment slipping in. “And disrespectful,” I whisper. Trying not to think about Griffin at all, I don’t bother whispering this time. “Can we pretend I didn’t go off on that tangent?”
“Of course. I mean, why would we want to talk about that perfect face?”
I don’t bother looking up from my computer screen. “Stupidly?—”
“Oh yes, we don’t want to forget that it was a stupidly perfect face of his.” She stands, picking her phone up off the desk. “Or even have that jaw cross our filthy minds again. Nope. We wouldn’t want that.”
With tightly closed lips and another shake of my head, I reply, “I definitely don’t want that. I’m trying to forget him altogether.”
“I think you’re going to need to try harder next time. Soda? Coffee? Water? Food? I’m heading to the restaurant toget lunch before it sells out. I heard they’re serving nachos today.”
“No. Thanks, though. I’m heading back out to the stadium to make sure all the sponsorship signs are displayed properly.”
She turns back in the doorway, grinning like she’s in on some big secret. “I’d just like to note at this day and time that I just watched the most put-together woman I know unravel before my very eyes. And I suspect that a certain insufferable?—”
“Intolerable.” Rolling my hand on my wrist, I bow down my head. “But I’ll allow insufferable since it works as well.” I might as well embrace the shame and play along. Fighting it will mean discussing it another time, and I’d rather just forget this conversation ever happened.
A lack of good sleep.
