TWENTY-ONE
IF ELIZABETH WOULD
HAVE HAD HER WITS ABOUT HER, she could have gone toe-to-toe with
Mick. She never let athletes knock her on her ass. If they got in
her face, she got right back in theirs. So why had she let Mick do
that to her? She should have stood up to him and told him exactly
how he was wrong in his thinking. And then told him to stick his
opinions about her up his ass once and for all, because she was
tired of hearing them.
Dammit.
It was because of
Gavin. Okay, and also because she didn’t want to cause World War
III at his parents’ house. Not with his dad recovering. She’d never
do anything to upset him.
She pulled into the
parking lot at Riley’s bar, not sure what the hell she was doing
here. Hadn’t she had enough Rileys for a while? Did she need to get
her ass kicked by yet another one?
Maybe she was a
glutton for punishment. After all, Jenna hadn’t read her the riot
act yet. Might as well let her have a turn.
It was mid-week, so
a quiet night. She found Jenna at the bar tending to a few
customers who seemed to be regulars. Jenna, dressed in a black tank
top and jeans, was talking up her customers, so Elizabeth took a
seat at the end of the bar. Jenna made her way over.
“Someone kick your
puppy?”
“Your brothers
suck.”
She snorted. “Tell
me something I don’t know. What would you like?”
“A decent glass of
wine. You choose.”
“You got
it.”
Jenna poured a glass
of red and set it down in front of Elizabeth. “Okay, I can give you
a long list of why I think my brothers are assholes, but this isn’t
my party. You tell my why you think
so.”
She took a sip of
the wine. “This is excellent.”
“Of course it is.
It’s what I do. Now spill.”
“Are you sure you
don’t want to take their side?”
Jenna leaned against
the bar and cocked a grin. “Rarely.”
“Gavin’s been
restless since your dad’s surgery. Watching the game today, I could
tell seeing that first baseman they brought up bothered him. The
kid is talented, and I know Gavin feels threatened. Since your dad
is recovering so well, I told him maybe he should go back to work.
And Mick jumped all over me saying I had ulterior
motives.”
Jenna rolled her
eyes. “Isn’t he over that yet?”
“Apparently not. The
worst part was that Gavin stood by and didn’t say a word while Mick
was reading me the riot act about how I was only interested in
lining my own pockets at Gavin’s expense.”
Jenna looked livid.
“What a dick. You’re right. They both suck.”
Elizabeth laughed,
raised her glass, and tilted it toward Jenna before taking another
sip. “And here I thought I might be making a mistake by coming here
and venting to you, since you’re their sister.”
“Hey, I’ll defend my
brothers to the death when they’re right. Problem is, they rarely
are. They’re men; therefore, they have the testosterone
disadvantage. Screws them every time.”
“I hope that’s not a
mark against everyone in my gender.”
Elizabeth swiveled
on her barstool and grinned at Ty Anderson. “Hey, Ty. What brings
you here?”
“Stopping in for a
drink and spotted you right off. Can I sit down or is this a
male-bashing party?”
Elizabeth looked at
Jenna, who shrugged. “It’s your male-bashing party, Liz. They’re
just my brothers, and I’m always happy to play along.”
Elizabeth laughed.
“Ty, this is Jenna Riley, Gavin’s sister. Jenna, this is Tyler
Anderson. He plays hockey for the Ice.”
“Ah. Nice to meet
you, Jenna.”
Jenna studied Ty,
then sighed. “Another sports jock. My heart goes
pitter-patter.”
He grinned. “A fan,
huh?”
“Yeah, you know
it.”
Elizabeth laughed
and turned to Ty. “I think she gets bombarded with all the players
here because of Mick and Gavin.”
“Uh-huh. So I’m
damned before I even start, huh?”
“Afraid so, cowboy.
What’ll it be?”
“I’ll have a beer.
Bottled. Not light.”
“Careful there, Ty,”
Jenna said as she popped the top off and slid the bottle to him.
“Don’t want to put on too much weight, or you’ll have trouble
holding your stick.”
He grabbed the
bottle and held it to his lips. “Never had any complaints about my
abilities with my stick so far.”
Jenna arched a brow.
“And you’re here alone? With that charm? Shocking.”
While Jenna went off
to tend to one of her customers, Ty turned to Elizabeth. “Who
pissed in her corn flakes?”
“She’s always tough
on the guys in here. It comes from having famous brothers and
fending off all the jocks, plus coming from a family that lives for
sports. I don’t think guys like you are her type.”
Ty took a long pull
from the bottle, his gaze trained on Jenna as she worked the bar.
“Fine with me since she isn’t my type, either.”
“Is that right?”
Elizabeth studied Jenna’s short dark hair, slender body, tattoos,
and multiple ear piercings. She thought Jenna was sexy and
adorable. “What about her isn’t your type?”
“I like them with
big tits.”
Elizabeth rolled her
eyes. From the way Ty hadn’t once taken his eyes off Jenna, she
figured Ty was full of shit and just hadn’t enjoyed getting shot
down.
“I think I’ll go try
my luck with darts. See you later, Elizabeth.”
“Later,
Ty.”
Elizabeth emptied
her wineglass, and Jenna was there to refill.
“Another egocentric
jock. Just what Riley’s needs.”
“Huh? Oh, you mean
Ty?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s actually a
pretty nice guy once you give him a chance.”
“One of
yours?”
“Yes.”
“Not my
type.”
Grateful to be
discussing something other than herself and her miserable
relationship with Gavin, Elizabeth asked, “Oh, really. And what is
your type, Jenna?”
She laid her palms
against the bar. “I like them cerebral. Poetic. Book smart.
Lyrical. Musical. And interested in anything other than sports.
Growing up with sports and being surrounded by them in this bar, I
prefer to be with a man whose focus is on anything
but.”
“I can understand
that. So you go for the office types or the teacher types. Or maybe
a lawyer.”
“I don’t care what
he does for a living as long as we don’t have to talk about sports
when we’re together.”
But Jenna’s gaze
strayed to Ty while she wiped down the surface of the bar.
Elizabeth turned and watched Ty, now involved in a game of pool
with a few other guys. His jeans stretched across his mighty fine
ass as he leaned across the table to take a shot. His tight T-shirt
showed off his bulging biceps, and Jenna would have to be dead not
to notice.
As Elizabeth turned
to face the bar, it was clear Jenna was noticing.
“Ty’s not your type,
huh?”
Jenna shrugged. “He
has a great ass and that bad boy look that gets my panties wet.
It’s been a dry spell. I’m human. But I still don’t date jocks. Too
bad, because I could definitely take someone like him for a
spin.”
“I’m sure he’d take
you up on your offer, too. He was giving you the eye when you
weren’t looking.”
Jenna gave him
another quick glance, then sighed. “Why does this place attract so
many guys like him? Maybe we should do some kind of promotion to
attract the men I want to date, instead of the ones I
don’t.”
“That’s a good idea.
You should come up with something.”
“Yeah,” Jenna said,
her lips curving. “In my spare time.”
“I could help you.
I’m kind of good with promotional stuff.”
Jenna leaned over
the bar. “That’s true. It is your area. But you’re probably
busy.”
“Not that busy. I’d
love to help.”
“You’re just trying
to avoid everything Gavin.”
“You’re right. I
am.” She lifted her glass and took a drink.
“So how are you
going to solve that particular problem?”
“I have no idea what
to do. I don’t think he trusts me. And I don’t honestly know how he
feels about me. Being his agent and being in love with him is
screwing everything up, both professionally and
personally.”
“How
so?”
“As his agent, I
should be kicking his ass back to the game. He’s been gone way too
long. As the woman who loves him, I understand how he feels. I’m
empathetic to his concern about your dad and his need to be
here.”
“My dad is
recovering just fine, getting stronger every day. This whole thing
scared the shit out of all of us, so we’re naturally
hovering.”
“That’s to be
expected, I think. It scared me, too. I love your
parents.”
Jenna smiled and
reached for her hand. “I know you do. You’ve been family for a long
time.”
“But he is
recovering well, and you all take such good care of him. And
Gavin’s restless. I can see it, can feel the tension in him. He
watches the game and he knows he needs to get back to it, but
something’s holding him back. A sense of responsibility coupled
with the fear that if he’s gone, something bad will
happen.”
“So go put your
agent hat on and kick his ass back to work. You’re just going to
have to realize that sometimes you can’t be both girlfriend and
agent. Sometimes you just have to be his agent and make him see
that it’s time to do his job.”
She sighed. “Or I
might find out that I can’t be both at all, that I’m going to have
to choose one. Or he’ll choose one for me.”
Jenna gave her a
straight look. “Yeah, that might happen. If he loves you, it won’t
matter.”
“And if he doesn’t
love me at all, it might matter a lot.”
“Are you afraid to
find out?”
“I think that’s the
million-dollar question.”