“That’s not fair!” Jessica wailed. “How am I supposed to know he’s a good guy?”
“That’s up for me to decide, not you. Now just stop messing around with my life, or you might not hear from me again.”
“You would cut me off?”
“You’re on your last warning, Mom. Stop it and leave me alone.”
“But…”
“I’ll contact you when I’m ready, okay? And leave Fleur alone, too. Just because I’m gone doesn’t mean you can turn your attentions onto her. We just want to live our lives without you butting in.”
Jessica huffed. “Honestly, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. I’m just trying to help.”
“If you want to help, do that by stopping this stupid attempt to find me a boyfriend. I’m not interested. Bye, Mom.”
Elena hung up before Jessica could respond, then leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes. The pain was throbbing around inside her skull, just as it had after every conversation with her mother recently.
She understood that all parents wanted their children to settle down, but this was a step too far.
Maybe living in Nebraska would be better for her in more ways than one.
CHAPTER9
JASON
Jason stood at the edge of the field and watched as Liam slowly jogged around the outside with Elena at his side. The quarterback had a bit of a grimace on his face, but he was doing well. Especially considering that he hadn’t been able to do half of the pitch the week before.
Elena kept in step with him, and even across the field Jason could see she was talking to Liam. Whatever she was saying was helping, because Liam was working harder to get moving.
“She’s doing some good stuff, isn’t she?”
Jason hadn’t noticed Carl appearing at his side until just then. For a muscle-bound, hard-hitting man, he was very light on his feet.
“I can see why you wanted her to come here,” Jason said. “She’s only been in Wenstown for two weeks, and Liam’s really improved.”
“Liam has been complaining that he doesn’t want to do the physical therapy anymore. But he understands that it’s improving his injury.” Carl shook his head. “I just wish he could recover faster. It’s annoying waiting to see if Elena will allow him to play again.”
“So, he won’t be ready for the first game?”
“It’s in three days, and Elena’s not confident that he’ll be ready by then.”
“So it looks like Adam is going to be the starting quarterback.”
“Yes. He’s going to love that.”
Jason could imagine. The kid was showing a confidence that had apparently not been there before. He had heard that Adam was making great strides.
Maybe the team would be okay if they didn’t have Liam. Relying on just one player was never a good idea. The whole team had to be cohesive, otherwise they were going to fall apart very quickly. Jason wasn’t about to say that to Carl, though; he didn’t want to tell the coach how to do his job.
“Anyway, what are you doing down here?” Carl asked. “I thought you had plenty of checks to sign in your office.”
“Are you always going to make those remarks? I’m not just a rich man with a pen, you know.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“Charming.” Jason shoved his hands into his pockets. He had forgotten about the wind tunnel that seemed to be right across the training pitch. “Anyway, I’ve got a few things that require me to be out of the office.”
Like talk to the police officer about his car. The report had gone through and pictures had been taken, but beyond that there wasn’t much they could do. There were cameras, but none of them had been pointing in the direction of his car at the time of the incident. Either that or they weren’t working. Jason had spent most of the day after getting a proper security system that would actually work.