“I’m sorry I’ve seemed distant. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately.” She admitted some of the truth.
Tess seemed satisfied with the answer and let it drop. Soon everyone was leaving, and Amanda walked with Mia across the street. How fun it had been earlier in the year when there had been four that lived downtown. Ruth, Mia, Amanda, and Tess had all been within a block of each other. Now Tess was living at the farm with Mathias, and Ruth was probably going to find something bigger with the baby coming. A short era was coming to an end.
With a goodbye, they separated, and Amanda walked slowly to her place, making sure her younger cousin made it inside. Once Mia’s door was closed, her pace increased. It was getting cold out at night, so she didn’t linger.
Happily, she let herself into her apartment and, for some reason, she had thought Hue might still be there. But he had been gone for hours. It was only 7:00 p.m., but Amanda knew her day was over. She was exhausted.
Before she could rethink her decision, she took the jersey Hue had given her and left it on the hanger she kept it on, took it across the hall, and hung it on his door handle. She shouldn’t keep the shirt; it was his. She wasn’t even a big sports fan. In the beginning, she had watched to bond with her dad and brother, but now she watched because it was relaxing. Something that took her mind off everything around her. Except Hue. It made her think a lot about Hue.
Shedding her clothes, she climbed into bed and snuggled into the cold blankets, waiting for them to warm up. She would miss his shirt—she really did like to wear it, and it smelled like him. Fresh air and outdoors. Hue. It was also a shirt she could fit into. Those were lacking in her closet these days, but she wouldn’t complain. She would never complain as long as her baby was still growing.
CHAPTER7
Hue was never goingto forgive his best friend for as long as he lived. Math had finally come between him and a woman. It hadn’t happened in all the years they went through school together, and the female population in their class hovered at just around twelve. And not when they were both carefree, divorced men about town at the same time. But today, he had come between him and Amanda.
Not literally, but when he had called, he had destroyed a moment Hue had wanted for so long. She had been in his arms. And she was responding to his touch. He was almost sure she moaned!
Grabbing her and teasing her about her loyalty to his team had been a game they played over the past year. But when she had laughed as she pushed past him, he just grabbed her, holding her so that she couldn’t touch the ground and taunting her until she gave in.
It had backfired the moment his body felt hers pressing against him, her perfume surrounding him. When he had accidentally almost touched her breast, the moment turned, and all he wanted to do was kiss her. And when he did, she had given him permission by moving her head to allow him to touch her, kiss her.
Then Math had called, and she was out of his arms before he knew what was happening. Math, who was just bored and calling about the game being played. A game nobody even cared about. He and Amanda hadn’t even turned the TV on yet. So, he let his friend rattle on about the game and tried to sound like he had been watching. Not kissing the neck of his older sister and loving the smell of her perfume.
Hearing her say she was leaving made him turn and watch her go. But with Math on the phone, he couldn’t stop her. What was he going to say to his friend,sorry, Math I have to go. I want to smell your sister’s perfume again, maybe kiss her lips this time?That would have gone over well.
Oddly, he knew Math wouldn’t be upset if Hue ever dated any of his sisters. Or maybe Mandy would be different. The entire family was a little more protective of Amanda than the other two sisters. He had noticed it over the past year at family events. Maybe it had been going on for longer, but he hadn’t been around to see it.
After she had left him alone in her apartment, it had felt weird not having her there with him. He hurried over the window and was able to watch her walk across the street to Ruth Kennedy’s place above the rental office. From his vantage point, he watched her blonde head enter the stairway to her friend’s upstairs apartment.
At the end of the call, Math asked if he wanted to go to a poker game. He looked at the apartment Amanda was in all afternoon and evening and said sure. So, within a few minutes, Math had picked him up, and they drove together to Ruston Abbot’s house.
“What is this?” Hue asked his friend in confusion. The man was a preacher, after all. Could they even have poker night at his place? Weren’t there laws about that?
“Poker night with the book club widowers. This is our first time,” Math explained.
“Pastor Abbot’s house?” Hue knew of the man, but not the man himself. Hue attended a different church in town when he attended at all.
“Yup, he was the one who came up with the idea. If it works out, we might have to change poker to something else.” Math parked the pickup.
With nothing better to do, Hue got out of the truck and followed his friend into his preacher’s house to play cards. Having never been in Ruston’s house, he was surprised to see how homey it was, but the place had a woman’s touch now that he had married Hazel.
They had been the last to arrive, with Anderson Miles, Rafferty Brooks, and Sam Sullivan already there. He knew them all, but he didn’t know any of them well. As the beers were passed around, the men talked about book club. They discussed the book of the week, which was not what Amanda had said it was. In truth, it was a book about a serial killer. Remembering how she had promised a book report on the book she was reading, he wondered if she would tie him up for sex or to murder him? He hoped the former.
Very little poker was played, but many stories were told about the women meeting across town. He learned that they always met at Ruth’s place, always drank, and always argued. Also, that it had only been going on since last January.
Sadly, he didn’t learn anything interesting about Amanda, but he did learn a lot about the other five women, and he understood why she got along with them all. They had found friendship in a small town with people who were mostly different from them but somehow the same.
Just after 7:00 p.m., Hazel and Natalie came into the house, both a little tipsy and laughing as they walked in. As if on cue, everyone got up to leave. It seemed that when the men got their ladies back, they were done with their mens’ night. He knew exactly how they felt—he wanted Amanda back, too. Back in his arms.
Math dropped him off and picked up Tess and the baby at the same time. Waving goodbye to the little family, he looked up at Amanda’s window since he was on the opposite side of the street. Her lights were off. Was she already in her bedroom, a window he couldn’t see? Or was she still at Ruth’s?
At the top of the staircase, he saw the jersey hanging on his door. She must be home. Unlocking the door, he wondered what it meant that she had returned it. Would she not watch football with him anymore? Did she not want to be his friend anymore? Was she mad about the kiss?
Either way, he decided he was not excepting the jersey back. How could he? Every time he saw it, he would see her in it and how it bothered him that it covered her butt so he couldn’t see it. And how much he wanted to just take the thing off her.
Taking it off his door handle, he took it over to hers, leaving it there. Would she accept that he wasn’t being kicked out of her life? That next Sunday, he would be back to watch the game with her, whether she liked it or not.
* * *