Game Changer by Kelly Jamieson Page 0,62
on my lap.
She’s naked. Warm. Soft. Curling into me like a kitten, her hand sliding around the nape of my neck as she tucks her head beneath my chin. We sit like that for a while, who knows how long, and then she says, “That was the best trivia game I’ve ever played.”
I blow out a soft laugh. “Yeah. Same.”
Molly
The third weekend we’re there, I’m sitting on the deck with coffee in the morning when a man walks around the corner of the cottage. I nearly spill my coffee I’m so startled.
“Hi!” he says. “How are you?”
“I’m, uh, good.” I stand, only a little embarrassed that I’m wearing a huge pair of Jax’s plaid flannel pants and a hoodie.
“I’m Oliver MacDonald.” He jerks his head. “We have the cottage next door.”
“Oh! Nice to meet you. I’m Molly.”
“Are you…I mean, I heard Jax is here.”
“Yes! He just walked to the store for milk. He should be back any minute.”
“Oh, cool. We kind of grew up together here, when he used to come and spend summers with Mr. and Mrs. Thompson.”
“I’ve heard a lot about those summers.” I smile, my chest warming. “Jax loves it here.”
“It’s great that he still comes back. My wife and I live in Toronto now, but we try to come back every summer too, and usually we meet up with Jax.”
I hear the door of the porch open and close and footsteps in the cottage. “Jax,” I call through the screen door. “There’s someone here to see you.”
Jax appears, and a broad grin breaks out over his face. “Big Mac!” He slides open the door, steps out and they do a bro handshake-hug combo. “How the hell are you?”
“Great, man. You?”
“Good! You here for the week?”
“Yeah. The whole family’s here this weekend, but Sophia and I are staying next week, too.”
“Oh hey, this is Molly,” Jax says.
“We met,” Oliver says with a smile. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”
“I…” Jax’s voice trails off.
There’s a brief awkward silence as our eyes meet.
“You’re from Chicago?” Oliver asks me.
“Yes!” I nod vigorously.
“Your first time here, then?” Oliver asks. “How do you like it?”
“I love it. Jax has been touring me around and sharing all his memories with me. Was it you whose bathing suit he shoved a minnow into?”
Oliver barks out a laugh. “Yeah, that was me! Asshole. Anyway, come over tonight for a drink and say hi to Mom and Dad. Abby’s here too. My sister,” he adds for my benefit.
“We just may do that.” Jax follows Oliver around the cottage, and I can hear their voices before Oliver hikes through the bushes separating the two cottages.
Jax reappears, still smiling.
“Well, that was awkward,” I say.
He grimaces. “Whatever. Just go along with it. It’s easier than explaining everything.”
“I guess so.” Unless Oliver keeps up on hockey gossip and knows that I’m the one who jilted Steve Shevchuk at the altar.
We do go next door later, carrying our drinks with us. Jax pauses outside our cottage door. “Um…Oliver’s sister Abby is going to be there.”
I blink. “And…?”
“She always had a little crush on me. Maybe you could stick close?”
I purse my lips. “Oh, come on. That was how many years ago? You think you’re such a stud she’s still going to be after you?”
He shrugs. “It could happen.”
I laugh. “Sure, big guy.” I pat his back as he starts through the bushes toward the next door cottage.
Everyone is out on the deck, and Jax is greeted like a long-lost son by Mr. and Mrs. MacDonald. I watch Oliver’s sister Abby greet Jax with a clinging hug that’s not at all sisterly, and she regards me with chilly eyes as Jax introduces us.
Dammit, he was right.
Okay, I can do this. I slide my arm into his and press my body against him, eliciting raised eyebrows from Abby. Ha. I’ll sit in Jax’s lap all night if I have to.
Abby ignores me and asks questions about Riley and how she’s doing, and Jax is happy to brag about his little sister. Oliver’s wife Sophia is pregnant, six months I learn as we chat. I hear a lot of reminiscences, including a hilarious story about Jax and Oliver capturing crayfish in the lake and putting them on the counter under a plate for Mrs. MacDonald to find.
“I damn near peed myself,” she says, laughing. “They looked like giant bugs. I ran out of the kitchen screaming and the boys were howling.”
“I nearly died too,” Abby says. “I came in asking what the heck