Lainey’s List Chapter 7

“Your fish are here,” I announce, as I fling open the door to the condo Nick and Charlie share. The doorman trails behind me, carrying the two styrofoam coolers. “You can put them over by the aquarium,” I tell him.

Nick pulls his ass off the sofa and comes over to hand the doorman a tip. “Thanks Brett.”

Brett doffs a non-existent cap and backs out of the room. As soon as the latch clicks shut, I round on Nick. “Why all the subterfuge? Did you lie to Charlie or did Charlie lie to me?”

“Neither of us lied to you,” Nick says with a scowl. “I was going to pick the fish up today but my trainer told me yesterday I needed to come in for some lifting. And the only time he had available conflicted with the time I’d scheduled to pick up the fish. He’s worried about my throwing arm, given all the injuries that happened last year. Charlotte needed to go to San Antonio to meet with a potential client, and she needed someone to help with her existing client.” He points to his chest. “Me.”

All of what he just recited is accurate, but it still grates. As if the two conspired behind my back to get me in close proximity to Nick.

I know Charlie thinks if I just gave Nick a chance, we’d be great friends. For her sake, I need to just suck it up and pretend to like him.

“You don’t have to stay if it bothers you so much.” He leans against the console table near the door. “I’ve read up on how to take care of the fish.”

“I promised the aquarium manager I’d stay,” I mumble resentfully. “Where’s Cassidy?”

“Napping. The trainer and I wore her out. We had her doing sprints and lifting those little travel cereal boxes. She sat on my back while I did pushups. The little shit had a great time and kept saying things like ‘Unca Nick, why are you compwaining all the time? This is easy!’”

I press my lips together to keep from smiling. I don’t want Nick to think I find his stories cute, even though they are. “I’m sorry she was underfoot.”

“Nah. I think half the guys in the weight room went home and poked holes in their condoms.”

“I hope not. They’ll forget about sabotaging their birth control and then blame their girlfriends in about three months.”

Nick cocks his head. “You know, for someone who is around athletes so much, you sure don’t like them.”

“Ever think it’s because I’m around athletes so much that I have a low opinion of them?”

“Not really. We both know 99% of athletes, even the professional ones, are decent men. It’s the 1% that tarnish all of our reputations.”

I want to argue with him, but he’s right. For the most part, all the athletes I’ve come in contact with are okay. It only takes one bad apple to ruin someone’s life though. I still taste the bitter effects of that rotten fruit. “Let’s agree to disagree.”

Cassidy’s father was a pro football player who’d romanced teenage me until I was dizzy and confused. I’d lowered my guard, let him in, and he torched my life. I lost my family, most of my friends, even my job. But I’d do it over again in a heartbeat because I got Cassidy, and she’s worth walking through fire and back again.

If there’s one thing I can say in Nick’s favor, it’s that he is good to Cassidy. But I can’t forgive or forget what happened all those years ago with Cassidy’s father.

“Here are the instructions.” I pull out the sheet handed to me by the fish guy. “This is going to take an hour. The bags go in first and then once thirty minutes have passed, you mix the tank water with the bagged water and let those float for another thirty. Oh, and you need to send this guy a signed photo made out to his son, Joe.”

“Why the scare quotes around ‘Joe’?” Nick asks. He takes the sheet, looks over the instructions, and then tosses the paper onto the table behind him.

“Because the manager’s name was Joe too.”

“So I’ll make it out to Joe Jr. and if he sells it, then, I guess, more power to him.”

Nick won’t sign autographs for adults anymore. Too many of them show up on eBay. He doesn’t mind doing it for the kids because the signature means something to them.

Nick and I transfer the fish from the styrofoam coolers to the aquarium and then settle on opposite ends of the living room to wait for the fish to become acclimated to their new environment.

“Why’d you install the tank?” I ask. The entire condo is decorated in Charlie’s taste. Other than the game console, there’s not a speck of Nick in this place. So it surprises me that he up and got a tank installed.

“You can’t guess?” He looks surprised.

I shake my head. “No. I’ve never once heard you say you were into fish. Or aquatics. Or even pool therapy.”

“Cassidy couldn’t take her eyes off the one at the dentist. She thought it was the coolest thing.”

“You…you bought this gigantic, expensive thing because Cassidy liked the one at the dentist?” I ask incredulously.

Nick shrugs. “Is there any better reason?”

Good Lord. Why? Why is he trying to be so danged attractive?

“Stop it,” I order. “Just stop it right now. What’s next? A dog? A pony? A car?”

I can hear my voice rising into perilously high levels and snap my mouth shut. Nick rises from his chair and walks over to mine, stopping only when his bare feet are only inches from the toes of my sensible two-inch pumps.

He leans forward and places one hand on the back of my chair and the other on the edge of the seat. “If I tell you you’re overreacting, are you going to attack me like the last time?”

I open my mouth to tell him exactly how much I hated the last time we were together, but before I can, his mouth is on mine.

It’s a light touch, and I know if I pushed at him, he’d back away immediately. I raise my hands to do exactly that — push him away, but instead of pushing him away, those silly, traitorous digits dig into the cotton of his t-shirt and pull him closer. He sweeps me off the chair without breaking the contact between our lips and has me across the sofa cushions before I take my next breath.

Goddammit, I wish I wasn’t so weak.

But I am.

I’m so very weak.

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