Phillip and I are in Lincoln, enjoying the Nebraska home opener in Danny’s new skybox.
“Isn’t this awesome?” Danny says, looking down at the field.
“It is.” I rub my belly. “Especially since it’s so hot. I’m not sure I could have taken the heat today. It will be so great to have both air-conditioning and our own bathroom. I swear, this baby’s goal in life is to get me to pee my pants. It’s got to be a boy.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because a girl wouldn’t do that to another woman. A boy would think it’s hilarious.”
Danny laughs. “You might be right about that.” He lowers his voice and leans closer to me. “Get this. Last night, Lori asked me if I might get traded to a different team eventually.”
I can’t hide my shock. “What? Why did she ask that? I don’t want you to get traded. Why would they trade you? You’re doing great!”
“That was my initial reaction. I couldn’t believe she’d even suggested it. And then she said she wished I had gotten drafted to somewhere more glamorous, like Chicago, New York, or Miami.”
“She wants you away from us,” I say with a sad sigh.
“I think you might be right,” he says grimly as his phone vibrates. He reads a text. “Holy shit. She’s coming. She’s here.”
“Lori decided to come to the game?”
“No, Jennifer.”
“Jennifer Edwards? Why?”
“Yesterday, when Lori decided not to come, I invited her. She didn’t reply, so I assumed she wasn’t coming, but she just texted me and said she’s here. That she wanted to surprise me.”
“Are you surprised?”
“Holy shit. Yeah, I am. Promise me you won’t treat her like a movie star.”
“Have I ever treated you like a football star?”
“No.”
“Then …”
“Okay, just make her feel at home.” He wipes off his forehead.
“You’re sweating. Are you nervous?”
“Ya think? I’m a freaking wreck. I didn’t think she’d actually come. Do not let me be alone with her.” He shakes his head. “Unless I tell you I want to be alone with her. No, no. Not even then. Even if I say I want to be, don’t let me.”
“Is she still seeing Knox?”
“I think so.”
“Is she happy with him?”
“She says it’s not serious. That she’s always had a crush on him. But he’s, like, ten years older than she is. Way too old.”
“But you’re just the right age?”
“Shut up.” He shoves his hand through his hair, causing the front of it to stick up. “Fuck.”
“Danny, calm down. Your parents just walked in.”
“That’s about like getting caught with a boner. Shit. What am I supposed to tell them? I didn’t think this through.”
“Have you ever thought anything through?” I can’t help but laugh. “Tell them the truth. That you met at a party in LA and invited her to Nebraska, so she could see what the fuss was all about.”
“Yeah, that’s perfect. I shouldn’t be nervous. I mean, we’re just friends.”
“Yes, you’re just friends.”
“We’re just friends,” he repeats.
“Danny, would you like me to go meet her?”
“No. No, I want to go. I’ll be right back.”
Danny escorts Jennifer into the skybox and introduces her to me, then Phillip, Nick, and our friend Blake, who is so cute. His nickname is Blakeness, as in Blake, His Royal Hotness.
“Well, hello,” Jennifer says, fanning her face and looking from Danny to Phillip to Nick to Blake. “Who knew this state was so full of hotties? I totally should have come here sooner.”
“You should have,” Danny whispers to her.
She’s gracious to his parents, and she is a ball of energy. She’s funny, silly, and cute, just as Danny described.
After she gets introduced to everyone, she plops down next to me. “Danny told me all about you. That you’ve been friends for a really long time. He also said you introduced him to his wife.”
I let out a breath. “You get right to the subject, don’t you?”
“I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about me being here.”
“Well,” I say slowly, wanting to be tactful but still letting her know how I feel, “Danny says the two of you are friends. I happen to believe that you can never have too many friends.”
She nods slowly and then breaks out into a beaming grin. “I think I’m going to like you. Oh, sweet, the game’s starting. Let’s go get a seat.”
She sits front row between Phillip and Danny and is animatedly cheering.
She and Danny jabber up a storm about everything and nothing.
Phillip leans over and says to me, “I have a surprise for you. Why don’t you come to the kitchen?”
That probably means he wants to talk to me about Jennifer.
But he walks straight to the fridge, pulls out a beer, and hands it to me.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“It’s a nonalcoholic beer.”
“I didn’t know there was such a thing. Who would want that?”
“People who want the taste of beer without alcohol. I figured you’d like having a beer during the game.”
“That’s sweet of you, Phillip,” I say, popping the top and taking a sip. “Not bad.”
“So, what’s going on down there?” He waves a finger toward Jennifer and Danny.
“The game?” I ask, pretending like I don’t know what he’s talking about.
He gives me a sigh.
“They’re friends.”
Phillip shakes his head. “Yeah, that’s what they keep saying, so why don’t I believe them?”
“Because they have a whole lot of sparks.”
“That’s what worries me. Is it a coincidence that Lori isn’t here, or was it planned?”
“Lori chose not to come last night.”
“And when did Danny invite Jennifer?”
“Well, he invited her when they were in LA, but he texted her again last night and told her Lori wasn’t coming. She didn’t reply, and he was genuinely shocked when she showed up.”
“So, did they hook up when he was in LA?”
“They talked all night,” I tell him.
Phillip rolls his eyes. “Talked?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Do you believe him?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Interesting,” Phillip says but then breaks into a wide smile as Jennifer runs around the box, high-fiving everyone when we score. “Is it bad that I really like her?”
I smack him. “You like her because she said you’re hot.”
He grabs me around the waist and kisses me. “Are you jealous?”
“Do you want me to be?”
“Do I want you to go all raving bitch like Lori? No. Do I want you to fight for your man by sticking by his side and kissing him all day? Yes.”
“Phillip, I loved you before you got so hot.”
“Good point. Dang. Guess that means there are no movie-star girlfriends in my future.”
“No way.”
“What about you? I know you and Lori haven’t been close lately, but does her being here bother you?”
“A little, but what happens in their marriage isn’t really our business. I just want him to be with whoever makes him happy.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Phillip says, but a few short minutes later, he pulls Danny aside and talks to him privately.
Danny makes a last-minute decision to spend the night instead of driving home and begs us to join him.
Phillip calls Peggy, who has been watching Angel, to see if she would mind if we spent the night.
She told him that the little hellion ate a loaf of bread, bag and all. But she was sleeping, curled up on the couch next to her, and she’d be happy to.
“So, what’s fun to do in this town?” Jennifer asks. “Is there, like, a water tower we can climb or a tractor we can ride? Wait! Can we go cow-tipping? I’ve never been on a real farm.”
“What about a hayrack ride?” Danny suggests with a smirk that insinuates the only thing he wants to ride is Jennifer.
I’ve been wondering how I really feel about all this.
Truth is, even though Lori has been a bitch to me lately, I didn’t want to like Jennifer, out of some sort of leftover best-friend loyalty.
But I can’t help myself. She’s fun and down to earth, and seems genuinely nice.
And, from what I can tell, she and Danny haven’t crossed any lines. They act like buddies even though their chemistry is palpable.
“We could call the Warren twins,” I suggest.
Thirty minutes later, we’re on a hayrack ride with a bunch of old friends, drinking beer.
Everyone adores Jennifer, and she likes that no one is treating her any differently than we would each other.
“Jennifer is cool,” Phillip says, snuggling up with me in the hay.
“Yeah, she is. I really like her. Although I still sort of feel like I’m cheating. Danny told me that he and Jennifer have emotional intimacy.”
“Sounds like us before we dated.”
“Yeah, I thought the same thing.”
“It’s interesting,” Phillip says for about the tenth time today.
