Broken and Screwed 2 (BS #2)

“See. She doesn’t care. Only her opinion should matter.” She reached over and snatched them from my lap. No one stopped her this time.

Beth glanced over. “You really don’t care that Hannah has binoculars to scope out Jesse’s family?”

“I don’t. Really. I’d like to use them too.”

“Oh. Here.” Hannah had pulled them out and held them across Beth’s lap. “You were spot on about the girlfriend. I think she’s a Playmate. The sister looks weird. And your parents are still bitches. They won’t talk to the sister or the girlfriend.”

“The sister looks weird?” As I put the binoculars in front, I was able to follow along until I saw a girl sitting between Malcolm Hunt’s girlfriend, or I figured because of the long legs and big cle**age, and my mother. Ignoring the tension that came over me, I skipped over my parents and centered on Jesse’s father. He was striking, just like his son. He had a similar build, tall and lean with broad shoulders that tapered down to a slim waist. However, unlike his son, who had inherited his mother’s dark eyes, Malcolm had green eyes. It’d been years since I had spoken to Jesse’s father and judging from the confident authority that clung to the movie producer, I wasn’t looking forward to it. I hadn’t been surprised by Hannah’s comment. Malcolm wasn’t a womanizer just from his money. He had the looks to draw them in, but I was among the few that realized how careless he was when it came to his son or their relationship.

I backtracked to Jesse’s sister. She was petite with golden brown hair. It looked lightly curled and I could tell that it was long. Sitting down, it covered her shoulder and fell to her waist. It was then that I caught a slight movement. She had a hand wrapped around her hair. It was hidden underneath her other hand, but as her arm tensed the strand of hair tightened as well.

She was nervous. I understood.

“She looks weird.”

I lifted a shoulder. “She’s scared.”

“I don’t know what about. She’s set for life. Didn’t you say that he paid her off?”

I was regretting my one moment of confession with Hannah and Beth. Even though I still hadn’t given them any explanation of my relationship with Jesse, they weren’t stupid. They knew things had gone south so I had been interrogated why I was going to his game. So I broke and told them Jesse’s new sister would be there and I was curious. That started a whole new interrogation, which I tried to appease with a quick recant of the illegitimate daughter’s court case that never made it to court.

I hesitated about the mother, but figured they’d kept quiet about his sister. I hoped they’d keep quiet about her mother as well. “He paid off the mother, not the daughter.”

Hannah snorted, fixing the binoculars on them again. “Yeah, right. I’m sure she got a nice settlement.”

Beth punched her in the shoulder. “Stop that. He’s trying for a relationship with his daughter.”

“You don’t know that.”

“He brought her to this game.”

“Yeah, his legitimate son’s game. If he wanted a relationship, don’t you think he’d meet her in private for a while, father/daughter bonding and that crap? My bet, it’s some guilt manipulation to work on Jesse. And why are your parents here as well?”

I sighed. I gave them some explanation, but like my falling-out with Jesse, they had heard from Tiffany about my real relationship with them as well. Finally, I murmured, “I have no idea what my parents are doing here. But they like Malcolm. They went to one of Jesse’s games last year with him too.”

“Yeah, but that was before it was out of the can. Right? That they had dumped you.”

Swallowing over a tight knot in my throat, I willed my body to relax. I couldn’t dwell on what they’d done or even the last time I had talked with them. I’d been healing since coming to Grant West. I intended to keep healing. My parents would not have that power over me anymore. I refused to allow myself to relapse back to the slightly crazed state I’d been over the past summer.

Beth punched her cousin again. “Hannah, you’re being really rude. Watch what you’re talking about.”

“What? I’m just trying to get all the facts straight. Mute Girl here doesn’t say two bits to us all year. She finally opened up and I’m capitalizing. She knows all my embarrassing stories.”

I grinned. “You and Jamie. Fond memories.”

“Shut it.”

Reaching over, I snagged the binoculars from her. “Not that I don’t understand, but like Beth said, I’m a little sensitive with some of this information being talked about like it’s the weather.”

“I’m being a friend.”

“You’re being nosy and you know it. Stop it.”