The Hardest Cut by Jamie Bennett (book club recommendations .TXT) 📕

“Why did you break up?  Or did he die of old age?”

“Just a break-up,” I said, and left it at that.  I didn’t really want to get into the story of how that guy had actually gotten arrested, although it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with a scheme to counterfeit fishing licenses.  And yes, he was a little older than I’d been, but nowhere near death!  Maybe ten years.  Maybe twenty.  “In my junior year, I was crazy about the man who owned the studio where I danced.”  I thought back fondly, remembering him driving up in that big boat of a car, negotiating the snowdrifts with the cane he used due to two bad hips from years on the stage.  “His daughter was my ballet teacher and his granddaughter was in my jazz class,” I mentioned.

Marley’s face crinkled in disgust.  “Yuck.”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t have worked.  But you get it, right?  I have plenty of experience with unrequited love!  Let’s discuss your situation.  What are you going to do about this Cavin?”

Her attention was elsewhere.  “I recognize that guy,” Marley said, pointing toward the entrance to the restaurant.  “He’s staring at you.  Why does he look so familiar?”

“Gravy, what?  Who?”  I turned to look, feeling a sick dread form in my stomach that even overwhelmed the hunger pangs from smelling all the delicious, greasy food.  Oh, thank goodness.  “That’s only Ben Matthews!  He’s the guy I’m babysitting for, remember?  See Tessa hiding her face in his neck?”  I smiled and waved at him to come over.  “Sit on my side so they can join us.”

“Oh, right, the football guy from the bookstore.  From the naked picture you were drooling over,” she said, not moving.

“He wasn’t naked!”  A vision flashed in my mind of Ben…oh, gravy.  “Marley, come sit here.  Is he as cute as Cavin?” I teased, and she started to give me the finger, but stuck out her tongue instead and joined my side of the booth.

“Hi!” I greeted Ben and Tessa as they approached.  “Sit with us.  Tessa, do you remember Marley from the bookstore?  She works there with me.  Her parents own it.”  Marley got a smile when I said that.  Hallie and Gunnar were her foster parents, sure, but they wanted to adopt her, and they were a family all the way, whatever their actual titles might have been.

Tessa kept hiding, even when Ben did sit down.  Whatever rapport I thought we’d built by walking on the shore of the chilly lake and playing baby school now appeared to be gone.  “Tessa, say hello to Gaby,” Ben told her, but she wouldn’t pick up her head.

“That’s ok,” I assured them both.  “It’s pretty loud in here and maybe it’s a little scary to be in a new place, too.  But they have really good milkshakes, if anyone is interested.”

She was.  I could tell by the way she shifted a little.

“It’s nice to see you again,” Ben said politely to Marley, and looked around.  “I guess this is the real, local place to go.  One of the receivers told me to come here when I met him last week.”

“Who?  The slot receiver or the wide receiver?” Marley asked, and he looked surprised.

“I meant Karma.  Kellen Karma,” he answered.

“Is he as big a jerk as everyone says?” Marley asked, and Ben immediately frowned and looked at me.

“Who says that?”

“Not any of the guys we know from the team,” I assured him.  “They all think that Kellen is a great player.  It’s just that he has a little bit of a rep around town as being standoffish.  Not a jerk,” I said pointedly to Marley, who shrugged.

“He doesn’t ever come over to my house,” she reminded me.  “I’ve never met him and I know almost all those guys by now.”

“How do you two know the team?  From cheerleading?” Ben asked me.

“Oh, no!  I told you, no fraternizing,” I assured him, wondering if sharing a burger tonight might also count as that and feeling a little anxious.  “I’m not a rule breaker,” I said nervously, but then I thought of some rules that I had broken in the last few months, and I sucked in a breath so fast that I started to cough.  I left it to Marley to explain that her foster dad had just retired from the Woodsmen offensive line, and that she was used to having the guys hang out at her house.  By that point, I had mostly halted my guilt-induced hacking fit.  The waitress came over to take the additional food orders from Ben, which gave me even more time to recover.

I gulped the rest of my water.  “Tessa, I heard you tell your dad that we went to the beach.  Did you tell him how far you threw those rocks?”

“Did you throw them far?” he asked, and she disentangled herself enough from his body to pick up her head and nod.

“She has a great arm.  It’s lucky that you’re the quarterbacks coach because she might be headed in that direction herself,” I said.  Tessa’s curls had sprung out of the braids I’d made for her and I kind of itched to fix them.  I settled for messing with Marley’s hair instead until she removed my fingers from her ponytail.

“Tess has come to the stadium with me since she was born.  She grew up chewing on footballs.  Like a puppy,” he said, and smiled when she made a face at him.  He did have a very, very nice smile.  “How far did you throw the rocks?” he asked her.

“Four miles,” she answered, so quietly that it was hard to catch, but it made all of us laugh a little.

“There are probably a lot of things that you can show her,” Ben said to me.  “You’ll get around together more than she and Mrs. Haberman did.”

Well, it was hard to get around much if you slept like a sloth.  Tessa had managed to communicate to me,