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Dean was amused. “You and Bobby good friends, Ty? He like a little brother to you?”

“No, I just think you’re setting him up for
failure
. One of these days he’s going to say the wrong thing to the wrong person and—”

“That’s not your business, Ty.”

“Now that’s a little ironic, because you just
asked
me to make it my business.”

He glowered at me. “I can make your life a living hell if you want me to, Ty. Just say the word and dear old dad will be my pawn
again
in no time.”

I sighed. “He’s about as bad off as Bobby.”

“Oh, then maybe I’ll use
his
drunk ass to close this deal for me. Cliff probably is a better choice, being that he’s faced a few more prominent people than Bobby has.” He tapped his head, pretending to think. “You know, that might not be a bad idea. The fight is in three days. With your dad’s help, word can move up the chain in no time. Thanks for the idea, Ty.”

I silently groaned to myself. Dean knew that Bobby would trust anything that I said, and creating this type of bet was sure to cause mayhem for some major players.
They would bet according to their closest source, and Dean knew the exact channels to send which information to whom. With my dad it was a sure thing to get the information straight to the right people, but it was also riskier because of who he knew. The same information would get there through Bobby as well; it would take
a little more time, but it was a lot safer.

“Fine,” I replied. “I’ll talk to Bobby.”

Dean chuckled. “I don’t know, Ty. I think I’m liking the idea
of working with your dad again…
”
             
I looked at my watch and stood up. “I gotta go. I’ll talk to Bobby.”

He folded his arms against his chest and smiled as I walked away.

Traffic was slow, and I just barely
got to my house at ten to nine. I would hardly have time to shower, but
I
was on my way down the hall when there was a knock at the door.

Jayden was
early.

“I’m really sorry,” I said, opening the door. “I just got home.”

“Oh, that’s fine,” she smiled.

Smiling
was such a simple act, but
when
she
smiled,
it took
my breath away. She looked amazing. I hadn’t seen her since Sunday evening
,
and even though her face never left my memory, it was still a rush to see her again.
My heart was pounding like crazy.

“Uh, come in,” I said,
glancing
around. I hoped she didn’t see anything she shouldn’t. “My roommates aren’t exactly tidy, so I hope you’re not appalled. I haven’t been home all day.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she waved
it off
.

“
You look
beautiful,” I told her.
I couldn’t remember a girl that I had ever been so attracted to.

She smiled and said, “Thank you. You look like you’ve been underneath a car.”

I
looked
down at my appearance
and laughed
. “Yeah, sorry.
I guess it’s not exactly appealing.”

“I didn’t say that,” she replied, eyeing me carefully.

Her shy smile made my pulse race. I wondered if she even knew what she did to me.

“Well, uh, l
et me go take care of it
, anyhow
. Uh… I’ll just be a f
ew minutes, okay? Make yourself
at home, I guess.”

She only nodded.

I quickly showered and threw on a pair of jeans
. She was wearing jeans
as well, along with a pair of heels and a nice top, so I felt I was dressed okay. I looked at my hands to make sure most of the grease was off of them. They looked all right, but I t
ook another turn at scrubbing an extra time
, just for good measure
.

She was sitting in a chair in the front room
, and w
hen she saw me she smiled. “Wow, you clean up nice.”

I hoped that meant I looked good, so I said, “Thank you.”

             
“I’m not used to seeing you without a hat on,” she informed me.

             
“Oh,” I replied, running a hand through my
damp
hair. “Should I put one on
?”

             
She laughed. “No,
it was just… Sorry, I wasn’t
implying anything, it was just an observation.
”
She stood up. “
Are
y
ou ready?”

“Uh…” I looked around, knowing I was forgetting something, and patted my back pocket. “Hang on.” I headed bac
k to m
y room, grabbed my wallet, keys
and
phone, and returned to her. “Ready.” On the way out the door I asked, “Did you want me to drive?”

My house was closer to where we were headed, which is why she decided to meet me
t
here. We were already short on time since I worked late.

She smiled at me and shrugged. “That’s fine. Why,
do you think that den
t in my car was my fault?” The look she gave me was a playful challenge.

I lightly laughed as I looked over the rear quarter panel of her car. “No, I thought no such thing. But I can fix that for you if you’d like.”

“Really?”

I knelt next to it to take a closer look. “Yeah, it shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I’ve meant to get it fixed but… I don’t know. I always put off the things I don’t want to take care of,” she smiled.

“Don’t even consider taking it to someone else,” I warned her. “I would be offended.”

She l
ightly l
aughed.

“What happened, anyway?”

With a shrug she replied, “I have no idea. I came out of a concert a few weeks ago and found it like that. Someone must have hit it and just took off.”

“That sucks. But honestly,
let me have it for a day and I can take care of it for you.”

After much persistence she finally agreed, but only if I let her pay for it.

I refused.

“But I will let you make it up to me,” I told her.

She eyed me carefully. “Meaning what?”

“Meaning you’ll just have to trust me,” I smiled.

After a moment of consideration, her skepticism seemed to soften. “Okay, I’ll trust you. But I know people,” she warned with her finger.

I laughed as w
e both got in my
truck, but this time she actually let me open the door for her.

I walked around to the driver’s side
and when I sat down she asked,
“So you don’t mind that I’m delay
ing
our second date?”

I shook my head
and started the ignition
. “Not at all.”

“Okay
good, because I really wanted you to come with us tonight, but I didn’t want it to count as our date that’s supposed to be ‘very much me.
’
”

She looked at me with a smile and it made my heart skip a beat.

“Well, if it gives me
an extra date from you
, I’m all for it,
”
I told her. “I would be an idiot not to.”

She chuckled, but I think
she was actually agreeing with me.

We had both been pretty busy during the week. She worked all day and then taught
music lessons
on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings. I had
classes until one on most days, and p
ractice was
every weekday from three to five-thirty if we didn’t have games. Most of our games were on Saturdays and Sundays, and they were generally double-headers because of the distance we sometimes traveled
, or other teams had to travel.

I’d spoken
to Jayden on the phone everyday
that
week. We knew each other’s schedules (I had to write hers down since I could barely keep track of my own), so we’d try to call each other at the best possible
times
. I loved talking to her on the phone, but being with her in person was even better.

We pulled into the movie theatre at nine-
forty
. We would be meeting several of Jayden’s friends
t
here, and I had to admit I was a little apprehensive. She ass
ured me that they were all nice
.
She had described them to me, and none of them
seem
ed
to worry me
, but Jayden had
implied
that Chris held a disliking to me already.
I assumed that there could be some sort of
romantic
history between the two of them, but I wasn’t sure. I knew that they practically grew up together, but I was too embarrassed to pry into
that part of her life just yet.

“So you guys do this once a month?” I asked as we made our way into the theatre.

“Yeah, at
the very
least
. But i
t’s not alwa
ys a movie. We do other things, too.”

I
wanted
to hold Jayden’s hand
that night
, no matter what, but I didn’t want the awkwardne
ss of
making my move
in the theatre—e
specially with pe
ople that might be watching. So
as we were walking, I just
reached for her hand
.
She smiled at me just as Cali came bouncing to us, putting her arms around Jayden and giving her a hug. It caused her to release my hand so she could hug her back.

“You look
great
,” Cali told her. “Nice shoes.
Where’d you get ‘em?” Without waiting for a response s
he looked at me a
nd held out her hand. “I’m Cali
and
you must be Ty.”

“I am. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too.”
She returned her attention back to Jayden. “Guess who’s here?” she asked.

“
Wade
?”

“Yes! How’d you guess?”

“Because you said you were going to invite him.”
             
“Oh, did I?
He’s kind of sitting all the way down by Matt, which totally defeats the purpose of inviting him, but oh well. A
nyways, you know where to find us!” She turned and disappeared into the theatre.

Jayden
faced me
with a smile
and said, “She
gets really excited,
really
easily
.”

“Yeah, I ca
n see that,” I lightly laughed.
“
She seems
pretty
friendly
, though.”

“She is. Sh
e’s the best. Come on, let’s go,
”
she motioned with her head.

With another smile she
slid her hand back into mine,
and we walked into the theatre together. I just followed her lead
and walked with her
as sh
e headed up the stairs to the
center of the
v
ery top row next to Cali.

A
nd Chris
.

Jayden introduced me to the
five
other people that were there and they were all very nice, except for Chris. He barely offered me a nod. We sat down next to Cali and she immediately began chatting with Jayden.
I was ready to just sit patiently until I received Jayden’s attention again, but
I was actually surprised when Chris leaned back to talk to me behind the
two
girls.

“S
o how’s your season going
?”
he asked somewhat coolly.
             
“O
h, pretty
decent
. But w
e’re about to get into the tougher teams, so hopefully we can hold our standing.”

He nodded
slowly a few times, like he was thinking of a response, but all he finally said was
,
“Well, good luck with that.” He didn’t seem comfortable saying anyth
ing further and left it at that, but maybe
it was
because
Jayden brought her attention back to me.