Hustle Me (Bank Shot Romance #1)(39)
Author: Jennifer Foor

My mother was still crying when I walked out of my parents’ house. I was so pissed I wanted to hurt someone. Instead of heading back to Charlie, I stopped at a local bar that happened to be open on Mondays.

I was going to have to tell Charlie the truth; a truth that I don’t even think had sunk in yet. I’d known her my whole life. We’d been connected to each other before, even if we didn’t know it. It was like she was always meant to be mine.

As exciting as it was, it was also terrible, because when Charlie learned the truth, she was never going to be able to forgive me. Trying to save her tavern was going to cost me her heart.

I ordered a double shot of Jack and headed back to the pool tables. Tippy was leaning over the table, while his girlfriend and Jaye sat to the side. Jaye’s face lit up and I downed the two shots I had in my hands. This was the only life I knew, the life where having feelings didn’t exist.

Chapter 23

Charlie

I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. Just when I felt like good things were happening, it all turns back to shit again. I couldn’t catch a break. The only thing keeping me strong was knowing that Jammer still wanted to be with me. Sure, he still had secrets. I wasn’t naive. I knew there were parts of his life he didn’t want to tell me about, but since my past was so horrible, I decided it was better to wait until he was ready to talk about it.

I think when he offered to help me, it was out of desperation. It wasn’t like either of us knew someone that had fifty grand lying around. Still, when he kissed me goodbye he seemed confident that he could help. I was desperate. When I turned eighteen, I’d run up all of my credit with credit cards and then had no money to pay them back. My credit was shit and no bank was going to lend me the money to pay off the debt. My only other option was to get the paperwork from the attorney’s office and go beg the loan company for an extension.

I considered calling Jammer after I hadn’t heard from him in hours. Since he’d been staying with me, we were pretty inseparable. He’d had a couple pool matches to make extra cash, but always had them at my tavern. The only phone calls he ever got were from people wanting to set up matches with him and since he wasn’t traveling, he turned them all down.

I could tell part of him missed playing as much as he used to. A couple times I woke up in the middle of the night and found him downstairs shooting balls around. I remembered it was how he cleared his mind and since the whole relationship thing was new to us, I never wanted him to feel smothered by me, so I gave him the space he needed.

Since Elle had gone back to school after finding out about me and Jammer, she’d told Zach about my new boyfriend. He’d texted a couple of times, but never offered to stop by and hang out. Elle finally called me one night and told me that Zach had been in love with me. I felt so bad because I didn’t have those kinds of feelings for him. Even if I may have thought I did at one point, once I met Jammer and felt what he made me feel, I knew it wasn’t the same.

From the moment of my first encounter with Jammer, I felt like I knew him already. He’d made me feel safe immediately. I couldn’t explain it. I guess it was almost like we were friends in a past life or something. Okay, that sounds kind of lame to say out loud, but it’s the truth. I wasn’t exactly sure what loving a boyfriend felt like, but I was pretty sure that’s what I was starting to feel for Jammer. After spending the whole day thinking of him, I manage to wait until ten p.m. before the worrying started to really kick in. I dialed his number and prayed that he was okay.

Hello

Jammer, I was so worried.

You shouldn’t worry about me, baby. I always manage to make it on my own.

Okay, I guess I will see you at home.

Don’t wait up, Lena.

I hung up the phone and couldn’t believe that had just happened. Who the hell was Lena and why did he sound drunk? I went downstairs, thinking he was playing a joke on me and he was downstairs hiding. It was dark and quiet, with clearly no sign of my boyfriend. I guess a normal girlfriend would have called him back and gave him the third degree, but I wasn’t that girl. As much as I wanted to be mad at him, I just wanted him to come home to me. I needed him to hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay, even if it wasn’t. I was scared and felt completely alone.

By one in the morning, I’d fallen asleep on the couch waiting. I heard a key in the door and sat up and saw him stumbling inside. I rushed over to the door and helped him make it into the bedroom. "Thanks, baby. I would have called, but I seemed to have misplaced my phone. Did you know that when you have too much to drink, you lose everything? I think it’s somewhere in my car."

He smelled so bad of liquor and I just wanted him to pass out.

I tugged on his jeans and pulled them off of his legs. He started laughing and rolling around on the bed. "You want some of this too? Everybody wants some of Jammer tonight." He started laughing at the same time I think I felt the burning in my eyes.

Had he been out with someone else while I was home crying about losing my business and my home? Was he really that f**king horrible and I didn’t know it?

He reached over and tried to grab me and pull me on top of him. "Charlie, kiss me. I’m sorry about what happened. I didn’t know about Lena. I didn’t know about the little girl. I saw those pictures and it was as clear as day. She was always my Lena. Do you hear me, Charlie?"

I heard him, but I didn’t understand him. Whoever Lena was, she was his. Oh my God, did he have a kid and someone showed him the pictures of her today? Was that why he hadn’t called me. Did he meet his child?

I wanted to ask him, but feared what his words would reveal. My day was more than f**ked up and hearing that I could be losing him too was just too much. I covered him up and waited for him to fall asleep.

"Charlie," he whispered. "I remember playing house with my Lena."

"You can tell me tomorrow."

"Okay, and I have to tell you about John too."

John, as in John Thomas? Jammer knew where John Thomas was? I almost wanted to shake him awake, but his snores reminded me that he couldn’t say anything else to break my heart.

I stood over the bed crying for a while before I took my pillow out to the couch. Since Jammer had been staying with us, Ryan stayed in his room. He told me that he felt like Jammer kept the bad guys away.

I woke up to the sound of someone sniffling. At first I thought it was Ryan, so I jumped off of the couch. Jammer sat in the chair across from me. He looked like hell and I could tell from the way his eyes looked that he’d been upset. “Charlie, did I hurt you?”

I shrugged and looked down at my hands. “Not physically.”