Page 34 of Playing for Keeps

“Oh, dear,” Mom said with a light chuckle. “Looks like we really did catch her at a bad time, James. You know how hard it is for her to do two things at once.”

Ignoring the bite of her words, I scrubbed the last bit of paint from my toe, then threw the cotton pad at my garbage can, missing completely. I hobbled to it, snatched it off the ground, and tossed it into the can as if it were the game winning shot in a basketball game.

One that I’d lose.

Completely.

Clearly, I wasn’t the one with the athletic abilities in my family.

Dad’s laughter grated on me, like a Wartenberg pinwheel being run across my back. I finally got the cotton in the trash, then looked around my tiny room, looked for a distraction that could help me bite my tongue.

“So after this thing with Frankie,” Mom said, “any other plans?”

The breath I’d been holding seeped out of me and I fingered the blue-green stone hanging around my neck, looking for the calm it always brought. “Kelly and I are going to go out with a few of our friends.”

“Oh? Anyone we know?”

I forced a laugh. “No, just a few of my coworkers. Melissa, Kristen, Jordan, and Aaron.”

“I’m so glad you’ve got some good girlfriends. Are you going to have a girls night?”

“Well, um... Not really. Aaron’s a guy.”

“Oh? Why haven’t we heard about him before?”

My skin heated. I pushed my sleeves up my arms, then twisted the bar on the window shades, blocking out some of the sunlight. “You have, actually. He’s the guy who helped me out my first day at work? I told you about him.”

Dad let out a little hum, but all I heard from my mom was the shuffling of papers, as if she was rifling through something more important than me.

“Well, be careful,” Dad warned. “We don’t need you getting all heartbroken again.”

Something in my chest pinched, and I worried that little stone I was clutching in my fingers might break. “I’m not going to... He’s Kelly’s boss,” I said, as if that explained it. As if that would keep them from digging in.

My dad paused, and I could still hear papers being shuffled around in the background. “Is it really appropriate to hang out with someone like that?”

“Like what?” My shoulders rose, my arm wrapping around my waist.

“Someone so old. In a position of power.”

“It’s not appropriate, Jen,” Mom contributed, her voice more distant than Dad’s.

“He’s not that old,” I said, shaking my head. “He’s only a few years older than me. And he’s in marketing, not accounting. He doesn’t... We’re not dating, we’re just hanging out.”

“If you say so,” Mom said, though her tone told me she didn’t believe it was true.

But what more could it be?

Sure, Aaron and I hung out all the time. We went to lunch a few times a week when he was in town. And more than once he’d come over to watch movies, often falling asleep next to me on the couch.

But we weren’t dating, I didn’t think. The man never made a move. Never once tried to kiss me. Never once did he do anything remotely inappropriate.

We were friends.

And it seemed likely that’s all we’d ever be.

“You don’t have to get all mopey, Jen,” Mom admonished, as if she could sense the thoughts swirling in my head but knew nothing of the content. “You’re young. You have plenty of time to find some guy and fall in love.”

My heart clenched in my chest, like a rope had been tied tight around it, squeezing until there was no chance I’d survive.