Chapter 7

The Pansy... the flower of loving thoughts

Just a note... I will not be posting for the rest of the week...I am headed to the Great White North (Folyet, ON to be exact) to go Moose Hunting... I would schedule a bunch of posts, but I haven't gotten a chance to completely proof-read and I don't want to just post messes, so a vacation it will be. The next chapter will hopefully be posted next Tuesday!! Sorry to keep you waiting, but I hope you understand!!

Thanks again for all your enthusiastic comments!! You peeps are the best!!

“I really have to gooooo…” I whined when Joffrey pulled me across the console of his Jeep to kiss me again.  He looked adorable with his bed head and I just couldn’t get enough of his kisses.  I felt like a love-struck teenager who just realized the joys of kissing.

“After you get her off to school, you are more than welcome to come back over to my place,” he breathed into my ear, making the idea almost sound sane.

“I have a business to run,” I said, finally taking initiative by pushing on his shoulders to separate us.  “Bad enough I didn’t get any sleep and I’m sneaking back into my apartment at 6:30am so that my daughter doesn’t know I stayed out late.”

“Can I take you out to lunch then?” he asked with a puppy-dog face.

I frowned as I thought through my day’s plans, “I have to pick up Sofia from school at noon…”

“Well then I’ll take you both out to lunch,” he said with a confident smile before leaning back over the console to capture my lips in another kiss, reminding me once again of the amazing night we spent together.  I think in total I had about 2 hours of sleep since the rest of the night was spent rolling around in the sheets crying out in satisfaction from his touch.  He was an attentive lover who enjoyed giving out pleasure.  Of course, after not being in a man’s arms for an extended time, I reveled in the attention.  However, I was not sure where I wanted to take this.  I still had major reservations getting involved with anyone, especially another professional athlete.  Cause we all know how well the last relationship with one turned out.

“Um, okay,” I said as my heart said, “that’s the right idea,” and my head said, “don’t do this.”

“Alrighty, I’ll meet you at the shop.  Thank you again for an incredible night, Avery.  See you later,” he said with a smile as I crawled out of the Jeep so I could do the walk of shame into my apartment building.

No one seemed to be stirring when I quietly unlocked the door and let myself into the apartment.  Phew.  I made a beeline to my bedroom to find Sofia sound asleep on her side of the bed, hugging my pillow.  I smiled at the cute picture and then quietly stripped down to go stand under the scalding water of the shower.  When I came out of the bathroom, I found Nana making our morning pot of coffee.

“Morning, Avery,” she said with an amused smile.

“Morning, Nana,” I echoed and walked over to give her a kiss on the cheek.  “Sleep well?”

“Quite well thank you. You?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t come home last night,” I blurted out.

“You know what I’ve said hundreds of times before…”

“I know, but it’s not fair,” I said as I hung my head while stirring in my sugar and cream.

“What’s not fair is that I’m too old to compete against you for that boy’s attention,” she said with a chuckle.

I just slapped my head and laughed, “Oh Nana, you are too much.”

“So when are you going to play hockey again?” Sofia asked me as the three of us sat by the park eating lunch.

“Hopefully soon,” I said with a smile.  “Will you come to my first game back?”

“You betchya!” she said, bouncing up and down on the bench.  “Can my mommy come along too?”

“Of course she can,” I said while I looked over at Avery who rolled her eyes, trying to hide a smile.

It took all I had not to hug, kiss or touch Avery.  I didn’t want to make things awkward with Sofia around, but it was very hard with some of the looks Avery was giving me from across the table while we ate lunch.  I don’t think she was doing it on purpose but just her smile would send my nerves on alert.  So much for not being my type; she was that and more.

“We better get back to the shop,” Avery announced as she gathered up our trash.  “Thank you for lunch, Joffrey.”

“Um, before you go I was wondering if Sofia had any plans for the afternoon,” I whispered while following her over to the trash can.

Avery looked back over at her daughter still sitting at the picnic table just a few feet from us, paying attention to a caterpillar crawling on the seat next to her.  “I guess not.  Why, what do you have in mind?”

“Well, I’d really like to take her mother back to bed with me,” I growled as I leaned in towards her.  “But, I was wondering if I could take her down to the neighborhood hockey rink and get her signed up for hockey…”

Avery bit her lip and nodded slowly before speaking.  “Sure, that will be fine.  Please bring all the paperwork along with you so I can read through everything and get a check written out for them.”

“Okay, can do,” I said with a reassuring smile and a quick glance towards Sofia to make sure she still wasn’t paying attention to us.  I then leaned back in, pushed Avery’s hair back behind her ear and kissed her on the cheek.  I quickly stepped back and walked over to Sofia.  “So, grasshopper, you want to spend the afternoon with me?  I have some errands to run and I’d love to have you as my buddy,” I said as I sat down next to the little girl.

I laughed.  Her eyes grew big before becoming hesitant in a split second.  At first I worried, and then I realized she didn’t know her mom already approved of the activity.  She turned towards Avery who was standing next to her and said, “Mommy, can I go along with Loops?”

Avery put on a little bit of an unsure act to draw out her daughter’s anxiety and then smiled, “As long as Loops doesn’t mind having a little girl tag along with him.”

Sofia looked up at me with her big doe eyes and said, “You don’t mind me?”

“Of course not!” I exclaimed as I scooped her off the bench and set her feet down on the ground next to me, taking her hand to walk back to the shop to get her booster seat.

Before heading to the rink, we stopped to pick up Bobby.

“And how are you today, Miss Sofia?!” Krissy asked happily as she lifted Sofia up and hugged her.

“I’m great! Loops is in charge of me for the afternoon,” she said with a big smile.

“Oh? And how come?” Krissy asked as she raised an eyebrow at me.

“Because he promised to make up for not taking me along with him and Mommy last night,” she proclaimed while putting on the most adorable pouty face and almost making me feel bad for not taking her along.  But only almost.

“Oooh,” Krissy drew out while she elbowed me in the ribs.  I just frowned and shook my head to make sure she didn’t ask any questions about the situation in front of Sofia.

“Is Bobby here?” Sofia asked, effectively getting me off the hook or so I thought.

“Yup, he’s downstairs playing guitar if you wanna go get him,” Krissy said as she opened the basement door so Sofia could go down and see him.  I went follow the little girl, but the door was promptly closed and I found myself running into Krissy.

“Soooo??” she berated.

“So, what?” I played.

“How did last night go?”

“Well, I didn’t have to wait a week to see her again,” I said with a cocky smile.  “The three of us just had lunch.”

“Aren’t you glad you made the first move?” she asked coyly.

“If you want me to stand here and tell you ‘thank you,’ I’m not going to.  It was just one night together…” One incredible night together.

“It’s a start,” Krissy said with a big smile as she stepped aside to let me pass.

Before I did open the door, I looked at her and said, “We did have one problem last night though,” I said slowly.

“Oh?”

“Evan Longoria was at the Sushi restaurant last night and he came over to our table and the too of them looked like they had seen ghosts.  Didn’t you graduate with Evan?”

“I did…”

“Did Avery go to school with you guys?”

Krissy eyebrows furrowed together as she thought about it for a moment.  “No, not that I am aware of.  Do you think there was something between them?”

“I’m assuming so because he made a comment her changing her cell phone numbers and I’m pretty sure she blatantly lied about losing her phone.  I have a feeling she changed the number on purpose, but I don’t see Evan being the stalker or abusive type,” I pointed out.

“No, he is definitely the biggest sweetheart and a heck of a nice guy,” Krissy said, reaffirming my thoughts.  “Huh, I don’t know…you didn’t ask her about it?”

“No, she was really upset about it and I decided to leave it alone, not wanting to get her more upset.  Plus, I didn’t need anything ruining our first date,” I said honestly.

“I understand,” Krissy said.  “Well, I’m sure in time you will find out or maybe I will make sure to cross paths with him in the near future,” she said with a wink.

“Thanks,” I said as the door pushed open into my shoulder.

“Loops! I have Bobby, can we go to my surprise now?!” Sofia begged as Bobby pushed through the door with her dangling over his shoulder.

I took the liberty in tickling her, causing her to kick and squeal with laughter as I said, “Yup!  Let’s go!  See you later Krissy,” I said as we paraded out the door.

“Oh!  I almost forgot!” Jess said when she walked into the work room where I was putting together some arrangements for one of the local café’s.  “An Evan called.”

His name made me slip with my knife, causing me to cut open my finger.  “Shit!” I squawked.  I quickly brought my finger to my mouth, tasting the metallic blood.  It wasn’t a bad cut, but I knew I’d have to get a band-aid.  I walked over to the sink as Jess came rushing over to see if she could help me.

“Oh my goodness, are you okay?” she exclaimed.

“Just get me a band-aid,” I grumbled.

In a flash, she was back with a dry paper towel and band-aid in waiting.  “So,” she said as helped patch me up, “I told him you were out to lunch and that I would have him call you. He then said not to worry about it and that he’d just call you later.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“He sounded really hesitant on the phone,” she said in an attempt to get more information from me.

I just shrugged my shoulders and said, “Okay, thank you,” once more and turned back to my awaiting arrangement.  I stuck a couple more flowers into the foam before acknowledging her again, even though I was quite aware she was still standing at the sink, staring at me.  “What is it Jess?”

“You know what,” she said with a raised eyebrow.  “Last time I checked, we are best friends and best friends are supposed to talk about shit.”

I looked over at her and attempted to glare but instead I just looked at her with a blank face.  “I can’t talk about it, Jess.  I know you are my best friend and I’m glad that you are but I truly cannot talk about.”

I watched Jess take a deep breath and give an understand nod of the head.  “Fine, but you know I’m here when you need to talk about it, which I’m sure will happen sooner than later since you still are pale as a ghost.”

“Thank you,” I mouthed and went back to my creation, glad that the smell of the flowers always seemed to take me to a land where life was simpler.