Finding Us (5 page)

“Hey,” I said when I opened the door.

“Hey, stranger,” Alessandra purred as she pushed past me and walked inside.

We’d met in the hallway a couple days before and she’d found out that El had left. I couldn’t tell if she was being genuine when she told me she was sorry, but knowing her, she wasn’t.

“What’s up?” I asked, watching her sashay her way over to the liquor cabinet, get out a glass and pour herself some bourbon. “Make yourself at home,” I said sarcastically.

“Oh, I will,” she said turning to me with a wicked grin.

Now, the woman was beautiful, and no one in their right mind would’ve disputed it, and a lesser man probably would’ve fallen for her bullshit. But I wasn’t that man. I knew what I wanted, and it damned sure wasn’t her, so I wished she’d stop with the flirting, stat.

“We start
filming the last commercial next month,” she said, pushing her lips out into a pout. “I can’t believe it’ll be over after this one.”

Thank God
for small favors.

“Yep. Time flies when you’re having fun,” I mumbled.

She frowned as she glanced at me over the top of her glass then said, “Jag, we really owe ourselves to give this a shot, don’t you think?”

I chuckled. “It’d never work,
Alessandra. Three people can’t be in a relationship.”

She tilted her head to the side. “Three?”

“Yeah. You, me and your ego.” I smirked hatefully at her knowing I was being a dick but not giving a rat’s ass.

She rolled her eyes. “Look, you’re single, I’m single. People expect us to be together. Do you know
how many fans have told me we’re perfect together? And we are. I’m beautiful and hot, you’re handsome. We just… fit.” She drank down the rest of her liquor setting the glass on the cabinet then walked seductively toward me putting her hand on my chest and leaning into me. “Let’s give it a try.”

I put my hand on hers, which made her grin, then pulled it off my chest, pushing it back down to her side and letting it go, which now made her frown.

“Let’s not and say we did. Wait a minute. Everyone is already saying we did and that’s a big load of shit.” Putting my hands on my hips, I let my head fall back and I stared at the ceiling wondering how things had gotten so screwed up.

“Well, you’re just an idiot
for not wanting to make the rumors true,” she said, idiot coming out as “eeediot.”

My head came down and I looked her in the eye. “You’re right. I am.”

This got another tilt of her head along with a smirk as she thought she’d finally gotten through to me.

“See? Now you’re getting it.”

I snorted. “Oh, I got it a couple weeks ago when the best thing in my life walked out on me. Look, I’ve got shit to do, Alessandra. Time for you to go. But it was great seeing you again,” I said as I took her by the elbow, leading her to the door.

She sto
pped suddenly, looking up at me and quickly saying, “I know how you can get Ellen back.”

Sure she did. But, hell, I was just about out of options, so why not hear her out.
“Oh, yeah? You and about twenty other people. So enlighten me.” I crossed my arms over my chest knowing she was going to blab on and on about diamonds and furs or some stupid shit like that.

“You need to woo her.” She nodded as she smiled s
oftly, her eyes gazing somewhere behind me as a melancholy look filled them.

There was that “woo” again. Maybe Dad was right.

I narrowed my eyes at her. Someone had obviously tried wooing her, I guessed, from the faraway look in her eyes. “And what do you suggest?”

“It’s different for every woman. It’s the one thing that touches her soul. If you find it, you’ll own her heart forever.”

“Sounds like someone owns your heart,” I stated carefully, watching her for clues to see if she was being serious. I never knew if this chick was being sincere or not.

She came out of
her pensiveness, looking up at me. She flicked her hand carelessly in a dismissive manner. “Oh, that was ages ago. He means nothing to me now. Besides, he wasn’t handsome enough for me.”

An
nnd she was back.

I chuckled. What a bitch. “Okay, thanks for that,” I said, opening the door and leading her out
into the hallway.

“See you in two weeks on the set,” she said, turning to grin at me,
putting a hand against my chest, tiptoeing up to kiss my cheek, then she spun and flipped her hair with her hand as she strutted back to her condo.

I
went back inside and closed the door, going to the kitchen to get a beer, thinking about what she’d said.
The one thing that touches her soul.

I needed to find the answer to that and fast.

Chapter 5

We’d lost the game and I was
on the plane flying back to Chicago. I hadn’t really come up with a plan of action; I just hoped it’d hit me when I landed.

I’d thought
a lot about what Alessandra had said over the next day and a half, and had come up with an answer.

The one thin
g I believed that touched Ellen’s soul was security, knowing I was there for her, keeping her safe and letting her know I wasn’t going anywhere. And I’d blown that all to shit. But now it was time to repair that.

Let the wooing begin.

I rented an SUV and called Ross asking him where El was. She was working, so I headed to the campus Starbucks. It’d now been a month, four weeks, since I’d seen or talked to her and I couldn’t wait
any longer.

I pulled into the parking lot
and turned off the engine, taking a deep breath. Here went everything. Getting out, I walked to the door, opening it for two women who were coming out then walked inside. The place was surprisingly busy at seven o’clock at night. Guess some people needed caffeine at all hours.

I walked toward the counter and froze when I saw her, sucking in a deep breath. My God, had she always been that stunning? She
was waiting on a customer, smiling as she took his order then turning to make his drink.

She
must’ve felt my stare on her as she prepared the order in a blender because she shifted her head to the side a tiny bit for just a second as if she sensed me, before turning back around to pull the jar from the machine, filling a cup with its contents. Then as if she had to know if I was really there, she turned all the way around and met my eyes with a gasp. And immediately dropped the cup she was holding.

“Shit!” she hissed, looking at the guy and apologizing then glancing back at me with a scowl before disappearing behind the counter to clean up the mess. She stood back up and began the guy’
s order again, not sparing me another look.

Jesus. That went well.

I stood watching her, my heart about to beat out of my chest, aching to touch her as she completed the guy’s order and took his money. When she finished, she turned to go to the back of the store.

“El!” I called, but she kept walking
, going through a door that I figured must’ve been the office.

A girl behind the counter asked, “May I help you, sir?” She looked closer at me and started stammering, “You’re… you’re… you’re Jag Jensen! Oh, my God!”

Seriously? This girl was a baseball fan? Now that made my lips twitch just a bit, I had to admit. Might just come in handy.

“Yeah, that’s me,” I replied with a grin.

“Oh, my God! Wait until I tell my boyfriend!” she squealed.

“I, uh, really need to talk to Ellen. Is there any way I can go back and see her? I’m assuming that’s an office she just went in,” I said, giving her a pleading look, hoping my pro status would help.

She looked surreptitiously around for a few seconds before stating, “Well, I’m really not supposed to let anyone behind the counter, but the manager’s not working tonight.” She bit her bottom lip in indecision.

“It’ll only be for a few minutes. Promise,” I said with a wink. Hey, gotta do what you’ve gotta do, right?

She smiled great big before saying, “Okay! But just for a few minutes. I don’t wanna get fired or anything.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen…” I bent to look at her nametag, “Cassie.”

She squealed again when I said her name, which made me chuckle. “Do you think I can have your autograph first? Please?”

“Of course,” I answered. Hell, it was the least I could do for what she was doing for me.

She handed me a napkin and I wrote, “To Cassie. Best wishes, Jag Jensen #12” and handed it back to her. I thought her face was going to split in two she was smiling so big.

“Just come around and go on in,”
she said conspiratorially, nodding her head in the direction I should go.

“Thank you,” I said as I walked around the counter and headed back to the closed door.

There are moments in life that are
so defining that sometimes we miss them. But I sure as hell didn’t miss this one as a coffee cup zoomed by my head and smashed against the wall.

“Jesus, El,” I mumbled, frowning at her
, turning to look down at the shattered mug on the floor. I’d walked into the office to see her standing behind her boss’s desk and was just getting ready to say something to her when she attacked with java. Damn.

We stood staring at each other for so long I thought it would’ve been pretty cool if the theme song for
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
started playing. Yeah, yeah, that’s dumb, but, hey, I’m a guy. We think stupid shit like that at serious times. It’s how we deal.

But standing there looking at her also melted my heart. God, she was beautiful. And even though it might sound weird, her being mad somehow made her even more so, her eyes
shooting angry sparks at me, her jaw set proudly making her look like some warrior woman who didn’t take shit from anyone.

I wanted to jump that fucking desk and wrap my arms around her and never let her go, but I knew I had to be smart here because she was already pissed and I
didn’t want to make her even angrier.

She took a deep breath through her nose
as if trying to maintain a semblance of calm, before she finally hissed, “What the
fuck
are you doing here?”

I clenched my jaw at that because she was sexy as hell right then
, and I was afraid I’d blurt that out, which I’m sure wouldn’t have gone over very well and would probably have had her coming at me ready to scratch my eyes out.

“El,” I said quietly, the emotion
finally catching up with me. My heart was beating so hard in my chest I thought it was going to explode. But, God, it’d been so long since I’d seen her that being in the same room with her made me feel like a dead man come back to life.

“You shouldn’t be here.” She glared at me.

Damn.

“I wanted to see you.” My eyes bore into hers hoping she’d see everything I was feeling—my regret over what I’d done to her, how sorry I was for letting her leave, how much I wanted her
to come back.

She huffed out a sarcastic chuckle. “Yeah? Well,
you shouldn’t have wasted your time because I
don’t
want to see you.”

I couldn’t keep my lips from twitching. She was just so radiant standing there, her anger creating an aura that seemed to glow around her.

She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head to the side. “Oh, you think I’m funny? Let’s see how fucking funny it is when I call the cops and tell them we have a man loitering on the premises, when
clearly
, there’s a
No Loitering
sign at the front!”

How cute was that? But s
he was yelling now, and I didn’t want anyone to think I was harming her, so I took a step toward her and said, “El, please, calm down.”

And that got her ire up.

“Calm down?
Calm down?
Are you fucking kidding me?”

She was getting even louder and I
cringed when Cassie came to the door and asked if everything was okay.

“Yes,” I answered at the same time El said, “No!”

Cassie looked back and forth between us, obviously at a loss at what to do. Should she be loyal to her coworker, or should she take the side of the pro baseball player who’d just given her his autograph and was undoubtedly the innocent party in this scenario.

Yeah, I threw that last part in
to make myself feel better.

“Cassie, you need to call the police and tell them we’re being robbed,” El snapped
, glowering at me, a threatening gleam in her eyes.

Both Cassie’s and my expressions instantly turned
to shock. Holy shit. She was definitely one pissed off woman.

Cassie looked back at me and I could tell she was checking to see if I had a weapon.
I held my hands up to the side to show her I didn’t then looked back at El, narrowing my eyes. So this was the game she wanted to play. Okay. I was up for it. I mean, it’s not like I had anything to lose at this point. Well, except for her, completely.

“You win,” I said to El.

“Good.” She put her hands on her hips, looking so damned cute, like she’d actually just won something.

“But I’m not giving up,” I countered,
my eyes fixed on hers making sure she understood what I was saying.

She scowled, and the cute little line between her brows appeared, as she looked back at me, all flustered and sexy as hell.

“Cassie, it was nice meeting you,” I said nodding at her before turning and walking out of the office. The place was still busy, so I made my way past a couple people who scowled at me like I was a huge troublemaker who’d just been harassing their sweet and gorgeous barista, and they were ready to take action, which made me grin and look down as I shook my head, then I headed outside to my car. Before driving away, I chanced a look inside to see El shaking her finger at Cassie who was shrugging her shoulders with a little grin. Thatta girl.

“Jag! Oh, my! I’m so glad you’re
here!” my mom said as I walked inside the house.

“Hi, Mom,” I said as I bent to hug her.

She pulled away and yelled, “Royce! Jag’s home!” She then grabbed my hand and pulled me into the living room. “Have a seat! Are you thirsty? Hungry? I just put away the roast we had for dinner. Would you like me to fix you a plate?”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” I said and followed her into the kitchen.

She got busy pulling a dish out of the refrigerator to make me a plate.

“So I went to see El,” I informed her.

She raised her eyebrows as she put plastic wrap over my food to put it in the microwave. “How’d that go?”

I grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator and took a deep drink before answering. “Not great.”

“Jag! You didn’t tell us you were coming, son,” my dad said as he entered the kitchen. He gave me a hug, kissing the side of my head as he usually did. “What brings you home?”

“He went to talk to Ellen,” my mom apprised him.

Now his eyebrows shot up. “Yeah?” He looked at me. “How’d that go?”

I took another drink as my mom repeated what I’d told her.

“Hm,” was all he said.

“Just what does ‘Not great’ mean?” Mom asked.

“It means that I went to Starbucks to see her but she ran back into the office when she saw me. I somewhat bribed her coworker with my autograph so I could go back there. Walking in, I was almost beaned in the head by a coffee cup she threw. Then she told me she was gonna call the cops if I didn’t leave. Pretty much sums it up.”

Dad grabbed a beer out of the fridge then, coming around the bar
to stand across from me. “She’s still got an arm, huh?” he said with a grin before taking a drink.

I chuckled. “Yeah, she does.
Good thing my reflexes are better or I’d be in the ER right now getting staples in my head.”

“She’s been really upset,” Mom told me
with a sigh, which took the smiles off Dad’s and my face. “I talked to Beth last week and she said that Ellen has just thrown herself into school, just going ninety to nothing to get finished. Said she’s just got her spring semester then she’ll graduate and start working at one of the clinics in the city.”

I knew this wasn’t fair, but upon hearing that, I couldn’t help but get a little angry. I mean, I’d been trying to focus on pitching and winning the pennant, all the while sending her flowers, buying her jewelry and writing her letters
, and she was just living her life as if nothing had happened, as if everything was A-ok.

“Doesn’t sound like she’s been too upset,” I mumbled.

“I don’t know, son. I ran into her and Beth at the grocery store a couple weeks ago and she didn’t look happy. It was like her sparkle was gone,” said Dad.

Yeah. She probably wasn’t happy because the store had been out of cherry popsicles or something. And here I
was suffering while she seemed to be going about her business.

“How’re you going to fix things?” Mom asked.

“I’m gonna get her back, goddamn it.”

Dad clapped me on the shoulder. “That’s my boy.”

I ate Mom’s roast while we all sat at the table talking about the season and how things had panned out. After I finished, Mom told me she’d make up my bed for me, but I told them I wasn’t sure if I’d be back. I was going to go by El’s but I was also going to call Ross and some guys from school and see if they wanted to get together first. If things went the way I wanted, I’d be staying the night with El then making arrangements for her to return to LA with me at the end of the week.

I just hoped my plans followed through.