Shame the Devil (Portland Devils #3) - Rosalind James Page 0,48

your job wasn’t going to be that big a deal. Oh. We’re taking off. Wow. This feels really different than on a jumbo. That makes sense, though. The drag and weight are so much less, so it takes less thrust to get the same lift. I need to look up the equations.”

She’d clearly moved on from the topic, so Harlan asked Jennifer, “What do you do for a living? Now I’m the one trying to guess, and I’m blank. Idaho doesn’t have a lot of pro football teams.”

“Idaho doesn’t have a lot of pro anything,” Jennifer said. “Nope. I’m Blake Orbison’s executive assistant, up in Wild Horse, Idaho.” She smiled cheerily at him. “I’m guessing you both know him. Probably pretty well, because I’m also guessing Owen’s spent some of his career snapping him the ball, and that you’ve spent some of yours catching his passes. Football is my life. Except not, because Blake doesn’t play football anymore, and I’m losing my job anyway.”

“Wait, what?” Dyma asked. “Mom. What?”

“Oh, shoot,” Jennifer said. “I wasn’t going to tell you yet. Don’t worry. I’m going to get another one. We’ll be fine.” She didn’t look quite as sure about that as the words sounded, though.

Harlan said, “So, wait. You lost your job and broke up with your boyfriend? Recently? When was all this?”

“Wednesday.” She broke off a piece of chocolate croissant, still trying to make it look airy, but it looked a little forced to him. “Both things.”

Harlan said, “And all you did was drink a couple of Irish Coffees? Man, that’s restraint. I’ve behaved worse than that when I’ve lost a game.”

“I know, right?” she said. “I didn’t get drunk and fall into bed with you, like I’m guessing just about every other single woman would have, and if it’s true of the married ones, too, don’t tell me. I exercised and went to bed early. You’d think I’d get a prize for that, except that you never get those kinds of prizes, and anyway, that’s just my life.”

“Born careful,” Harlan said.

“Well, no,” Dyma said. She’d been looking upset since she’d heard about the job. “More like she hasn’t had a choice. And now she’s not going to have one again. Really? Blake’s laying you off? That’s why I was going to be able to leave, though. Because you were OK, and I wasn’t going to be wrecking your life again. How can I go now?”

16

Walk On

Jennifer so did not want to have this conversation here. She wanted to eat her croissant and be on a private jet and pretend she was capable of flirting with Kris—Harlan. She wanted to be somebody else, with somebody else’s life, for a little while longer. Real life would come back soon enough.

No choice, though, because here the conversation was. When you were the parent of an eighteen-year-old who’d been stubborn all her life, you took your conversations where they happened, because the chance might not come again.

“Of course you’re not wrecking my life,” she said. “Blake’s not going to be staying in Wild Horse much, the resort is built, and he doesn’t need me anymore. And that’s OK, because I’m going to get a new job. Maybe even a better one, who knows? He said he’d help me. And you’ve never wrecked anything. You’re the best thing in my life. And of course you’re going to leave. This is your time to fly. And maybe it’s mine, too, who knows? It’s all going to be fine.”

“Really?” Dyma said. “Without Grandma there to talk things over with and tell you you’re awesome, not to mention her disability check paying Grandpa’s rent? In Wild Horse without the Blake job, which is the only thing that’s made people be nice to you?”

“I’m sure they’d be nice to her anyway,” Owen said. “She’s a nice person. Anyway, getting sucked up to because you’re a football player isn’t really anybody being nice. It’s just getting sucked up to.”

“You don’t get it,” Dyma said. “You don’t know.”

“No, I don’t,” Owen said. “On the other hand, Orbison’s no kind of fool, and he doesn’t suffer fools, either, so if he hired her, I’m guessing she’s as good as they come. I’m also guessing he knows everybody there is to know, job-wise.”

“He does,” Kris—Harlan—said. “He was making money outside of football when he was still in football. He’s a good guy, too. If he says he’ll help, he will.”

“Then why doesn’t he switch her around or something,” Dyma said, “instead of just