Page 36 of Rewrites of the Heart

His rigid body relaxed some. “Great. Is it okay if I pick you up at one? I know the game doesn’t start until two, but I want to give us enough time to fight the crowd.”

She laughed. “Are we talking about the same football game? The team I thought we were going to watch hasn’t won a game in five years. What makes you think there’s going to be a crowd?”

“A rich alumnus donated a jumbotron screen TV for the stadium. This game is the first time it’s getting used. And it’s being advertised with a tease to pan through the stands to show the fans close up and personal.”

“It just might be more interesting than the game itself.” She furrowed her brow and asked, “Who would waste money on a losing team with such an extravagant purchase?”

“A former member of the football team.”

****

JJ had only been home twenty minutes when she heard Alex and Blake enter the house.

“Did you see the look on Craig’s face?” Alex asked.

“I did, indeed. It was priceless.”

“JJ, we’re home.”

“Out here on the front porch,” she answered. She had a scrapbook of photos from her marriage to Geoff on her lap. She smiled at them as they rambled on about the events of their day.

Alex was in the middle of telling her about her psychology class when she stopped in mid-sentence. “Something wrong, JJ?”

Without saying a word, Blake rose and went into the house.

Maybe I did write some sensitivity into his character, she thought.

“Nothing, really.”

“You’re looking awfully sad for someone who says nothing’s wrong. Of course, something is wrong. Your two uninvited fictional characters have invaded your life. And then there’s the dreaded Cooper at school.”

She laughed. “The dreaded Cooper is part of it,” she confessed, “but not in the way you think.” Alex shifted her weight in the patio chair she had eased herself into as JJ was talking.

“You’ll be pleased to know that the Dreaded Cooper and I are going to the football game together Saturday.”

Alex immediately jumped up, ran over, and hugged her. “That’s wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I’m so glad for you two.” Then she paused and looked at JJ. “You don’t seem happy about it. Still not sure he’s got it to be your hero in your personal love story?”

“Actually, quite the opposite. I find that every day I’m more attracted to him. Not only is he sexy, but he’s turning into a great friend too. What more can you ask of a man?”

“Exactly,” Alex said, straightening her shoulders. “You taught me that. So, what’s the…”

Then Alex glanced down at the scrapbook open to JJ’s wedding day.

“Feeling guilty? Feeling like you’re betraying your late husband’s memory?”

Alex had spoken out loud what JJ had feared to. Large tears rolled down her eyes. Memories of all the good times she had with Geoff overwhelmed her. She had pushed the inevitable fights, arguments, and days they would go without speaking in the background. It was all she could do to answer by simply nodding her head.

Quickly, Alex knelt down beside her. “JJ, I know you didn’t write any late husband into my background, so there’s a part of me that doesn’t have a clue about the pain you’re feeling now. And I know I’m only a two-dimensional character from a romance novel.”

JJ sniffled and giggled at that comment. “You’ve become far more than a two-dimensional character, Alex. At least to me. You’re a vibrant young woman and an excellent friend.”

“I’m going to try to offer you some advice from my limited background, which incidentally includes your previous three books and several other romance novels I’ve read since I’ve been in your world.” She cleared her throat.

“You deserve to get on with your life. You can’t hide forever behind the covers of your books. You can’t live forever on the same pages as your characters. Just as we cut loose from you, so to speak, by popping out of our book, you, too, need to poke your head out of your self-imposed book and look around.”

“But I feel as if I’m cheating on him, somehow. I know he’s gone. But by going out with Kenn, even to an innocent football game, I feel as if I’m demeaning his memory and everything our marriage meant to us.”

“I’m betting Geoff loved you very much.”

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