Playing for Keeps

Chapter 17

"Let me get this straight," Brad said, putting his beer on the ground between his feet. "You took Haley to meet your family without any type of warning and you were surprised they didn't believe the two of you were dating?"

"Yes!"

"Well, I can see why they didn't believe you," Mitch said as he snagged another beer out of the ice bucket.

"Oh, and why is that?" Jason asked as he stole the beer out of Mitch's hands.

Mitch grumbled something, but smartly let it go. He grabbed another beer and popped the top.

"Well, wasn't your mother getting on your case about settling down?" Brad asked.

"Yes, and you would think she'd be happy when I brought Haley home."

Brad nodded. "And for the past year hasn't she been threatening you with finding someone for you?"

"Yes, but-"

"And every time you went over there for dinner, party or cookout hasn't your mother had several women on hand to meet you?" Brad continued.

"Yes, but-"

"Did she have any women at the BBQ for you to meet?" Mitch asked.

"Five or six I guess," Jason said with a shrug of his shoulders. He hadn't really paid attention to any of them other than to duck the hell out of the way when they were looking for him. Just like every other time his mother tried to play matchmaker she'd chosen needy, well more like clingy, women who had no other interests other than themselves and finding a boyfriend.

Both of his friends sucked in a breath. "Shit."

"That must have pissed Haley off," Brad said.

"I don't think she had time to notice. Not with half the men in my family hitting on her," Jason bit out angrily.

"That's f*cked up," Mitch said.

It was pretty f*cked up. No one listened to him. It was one of the most annoying parties he'd ever been to. When he wasn't trying to get away from some really annoying clingy woman his mother had invited with the sole purpose of marrying him he was busy getting into arguments with whatever bastard in his family was asking for Haley's phone number.

Like every single other time Haley was completely oblivious to it. Every time he pulled her aside to talk to her about it she just laughed until tears were rolling down her cheeks. When they returned to the room it was obvious that she had cried and every man would glare at him. They acted like Haley needed protection from him.

It should have been painfully obvious to everyone in the room how he felt about Haley. He made no secret that she was his world, not that anyone believed him. Why was it so hard to believe that he'd straightened out for Haley? He didn't think there was anything difficult about it. Even if he wasn't constantly hugging her, putting his arm around her, holding her hand or trying to kiss her he told them, but had that stopped any of those bastards from trying to make a move on her?

"Your family probably thought you brought Haley there as a decoy to get your mother to stop harassing the hell out of you about settling down and to use her as an excuse to avoid those women," Mitch pointed out.

Jason crushed his empty beer can and tossed it into the bucket in the corner of his deck. It should be obvious to everyone that he'd changed. Hell, a year ago he would have had Mitch toss that beer can up in the air so he could shoot it with his paintball gun. Didn't it strike any of his friends as odd that not only did he toss it into a bucket but his deck and patio furniture were also cleaned and repaired, his lawn freshly mowed and the inside of his house was clean? Those were big goddamn changes in his book.

"That's what I was thinking," Brad said, tossing his can at the bucket and missing. It landed on Jason's freshly cut lawn. Jason gestured angrily for him to pick it up. With an eye roll Brad did just that.

"Whatever. This is really boring sitting around here talking about relationships like we're a bunch of women," Mitch said. "Let's get the hell out of here." He stood up, waiting for the other two men to follow.

Brad and Jason shared a look, shrugged and got to their feet. What the hell, it wasn't like they had anything better to do since Jill was off with a client and Haley was off hitting yard sales.

"Great, let's go hit the strip clubs," Mitch said merrily.

"Whoa there, Skippy," Jason said, coming to a sudden halt. "That shit isn't happening."

"What the hell do you mean?" Mitch asked, sounding like a petulant child. "I want to go stare at hot chicks getting naked."

"I'm out as well," Brad announced, not that it was really necessary. The man hadn't been to a strip club since he met Jill.

"Come on, it's Tuesday. It's all you can eat hot wings at the Hot Bunny Club. We can go there, fill up, and get a few lap dances. We can hook up with Candy and Mandy afterwards. What's more fun than stripper sex?"

Jason could only look at his friend dumbly for a moment. Mitch was serious, really serious.

"Have you forgotten about something?" Jason asked calmly, more calmly than he felt.

Mitch looked truly confused when he asked, "What?"

"I have a girlfriend!" Jason snapped, quickly losing patience. "Why in the hell would I want to pay some woman to show me something I'm not interested in when I'm dating Haley? And why in the hell would you think I wanted to cheat on my girlfriend?"

If humanly possible Mitch looked even more confused. "How is it cheating if you're not married?"

Brad and Jason just stared at Mitch. What the hell was he supposed to say to that? Actually, it worried him that not a year ago he would have been on Mitch's side of this argument. That was truly frightening.

Hell, he would have been the one starting that argument before Haley. Wow....wow..... It wasn't exactly the best feeling in the world to discover how big an a*shole he once was. He'd really changed since getting to know Haley and shockingly for the better. Surprisingly he didn't feel pissed off or scared that she'd been able to bring out these changes in him.

"Come on, man! Come with me. It'll be fun," Mitch pleaded.

Jason grabbed a fresh beer and dropped back into his chair.

"What the hell, Jason?" Mitch whined.

Shrugging, Jason took a long sip of his beer.

Mitch folded his arms stubbornly over his chest while he scowled at Jason. "I never thought this day would come," Mitch said with obvious disgust.

"Oh, what day is that exactly?" Jason asked as he leaned his head back to catch some sun. Anything was better than watching a grown man pouting.

"The day Jason Bradford became p-ssy whipped," Mitch announced, earning a chuckle from Brad.

Jason threw Brad a killing glare, but the man ignored him. He focused his attention on the little bastard who was obviously drunk or possibly high, probably both.

He snorted. "I'm not p-ssy whipped," he said. Since he'd done everything but slide into that little piece of heaven he didn't think the term applied to him. The things they'd done together made him stifle back a groan. He loved what they did and at the same time he absolutely hated it.

Having Haley but not having her was difficult as hell. For any other woman he would have simply shrugged at the "no actual sex" rule and walked away. But for Haley there wasn't anything he wouldn't do. She was the love of his life, his future and the woman he planned on spending the rest of his life with.

So for now he'd grit his teeth and fight against the urge to jump her every time he saw her. His little grasshopper wanted to stick with foreplay so that's exactly what he was going to do. As long as she kept doing that unbelieving erotic thing with her tongue and teeth along the ridge of his-

"I'm surprised he's not panting after her right now," Mitch said, yanking Jason away from his thoughts of Haley, naked, bending over.... He shifted uncomfortably in his seat as discretely as possible.

"We don't spend every minute of the day together," Jason shot back.

Mitch shrugged. "Pretty much."

"Well, I'm not with her right now, am I?" Jason snapped back.

"Probably because she didn't want you with her," Mitch said, snagging another beer. "She's probably getting sick of you."

Jason snorted. Then for good measure he snorted again. His little grasshopper wasn't getting sick of him. He was damn sure of that. She absolutely adored him, loved him. He knew it even if the stubborn woman hadn't said it yet, but she would. Then he'd tell her how much he loved her, but only after she told him because he really didn't want to feel like an idiot saying it first. He'd never said it before and had absolutely no idea how to go about doing it now. So, the safe plan was to wait until Haley said it. He had absolutely no doubt that she'd say it soon since there was no doubt in his mind that she loved him.

No, the reason he was hanging out with the guys today wasn't because she was getting sick of him. It was quite simple. He was banned from going yard sale hopping with her for one year. Not that he cared, he didn't. It did seem a little unfair to him that's all. It's not like he intentionally went out of his way to embarrass Haley. Those things just seemed to happen to those around him. Most accepted that little fact of life, but that hadn't stopped Haley from banning him.

You tell one or six people that the stuff they were trying to hawk on their front lawns was crap and all of a sudden he's banned. Well, that and the box of antique dishes that he broke might have had something to do with it. He didn't know why the guy was pissed. He gave him the fifty bucks for it. He should be the one that was mad after all he was the one who was out fifty bucks for a set of broken girly dishes.

"I bet Haley's off with another guy right now-Ow! What the hell?" Mitch whined as he rubbed the nasty looking red spot on his forehead that would no doubt be a noticeable bump by morning.

Brad sighed as he picked up Jason's half empty can of beer that rolled to a stop by his feet. He poured the rest of the beer onto the lawn as he shook his head in disbelief. "You knew better," he told a sulking Mitch.

"I was just kidding!"

Brad shrugged.

"That's f*cked up!"

"Don't talk about my little grasshopper," Jason simply said. The man should be happy that all he did was throw his beer at him.

Mitch grabbed a handful of ice from the bucket and pressed it against his forehead. "She's not even that beautiful," he muttered quietly to himself.

Jason was out of his chair and lunging for the little bastard before the last syllable left his mouth. Brad being Brad, dropped his beer and jumped between the two men seconds before Jason would have slammed into him. All three men went tumbling off the deck to the ground with Brad doing his best to keep a very pissed off Jason from killing Mitch.

"Get him off me!" Mitch screamed like a girl as he tried frantically to crawl away. With Brad on his back trying his best to hold him back, Jason lunged and managed to grab Mitch's leg and proceeded to drag the man to him so he could beat the shit out of him.

"For f*ck sake, take it back!" Brad yelled as he struggled to restrain Jason.

"Aaah!" Mitch screamed as he was dragged inch by inch towards a future in a body cast. He tried to dig his nails into the lawn to no avail.

"I didn't mean it like that! She's hot! Insanely beautiful! I just meant that you've dated really beautiful women before and you've never acted like this before! Oh my god, don't kill me!" The words rush out of Mitch's mouth, ending on a squeal as Jason dragged him beneath him and flipped him over with a fist raised and ready.

Mitch held his hands out palms out trying to get Jason to stop. "I swear to god I didn't mean it! I love her!" At Jason's growl of anger Mitch rushed to continue. "Not like that! I love her like a friend! I think she's great! I swear I didn't mean it!"

"I told you not to tease him about her," Brad groaned as he tried to pull Jason off the man, but Jason outweighed him by a good thirty pounds of muscle. He watched his friend through narrowed slits as he fought back the urge to beat the shit out of him. This was one of his oldest friends and part of him knew the man was only giving him shit, but he didn't allow anyone to talk about or treat his little grasshopper with anything but respect.

With barely controlled rage Jason took a deep breath before he spoke. "Let's clear this up once and for all." At Mitch's enthusiastic nod, probably because if Jason was talking it meant he wasn't beating the crap out of him, he continued. "Haley is my world," he said, ignoring Mitch's eyes bugging out at that announcement. "Because we've been friends since we were five I'm going to overlook this little act of stupidity." Mitch noticeably relaxed at that announcement. "As long as you stop ogling my girlfriend's ass."

Mitch pursed his lips, thinking over the ultimatum. After a minute he dropped his arms to his side and sighed, "I'd rather get my ass kicked."