Hustle Me (Bank Shot Romance #1)(40)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“I don’t remember getting home last night. What happened?”

Since I knew he was okay, I was actually feeling more pissed than upset. “You tell me. Who is Lena, Jammer?” His eyes got really big before he put his head down and shook it back and forth. When he wouldn’t answer me, I stood up and walked over to him. I put my hands on my hips. “What do you know about John?”

“Baby, please just sit down for a second. I will explain everything if you just give me a damn second to figure out how to say this.” He put his hands up to his face and kept them there. “God, I f**ked up so bad.”

“Did you cheat on me?”

He removed his hands quickly. “No!”

“How do you know? I mean, clearly you were at a bar.”

“I know that I wouldn’t do that to you, not to you.” I was more than confused.

I threw my hands in the air. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I can’t explain with you freaking out in front of me. Can you please just calm down and give me a damn second?”

I was angry and hurt and confused, all balled into one. I couldn’t give him a second, because I was going insane waiting. “I want you to tell me what is going on. What are you hiding? Who the hell is Lena?”

“Charlie, please, I can’t just come out and say it.”

“You have five seconds to explain, or you can get your shit and get out of here. I have enough problems than to sit around and live with someone I can’t trust.”

He stood up and pulled something out of his pocket and placed it in my hand, before sitting back down in the chair. I looked down and noticed that it was a picture of a little boy and a little girl. The boy looked a few years older, but she was sitting on his lap and they were both laughing. There was something familiar about both of the children that I couldn’t put my finger on. “What is this? Who are these people?”

“Charlie, I think you need to sit down.”

I just stood there. “You’re scaring me, Jammer.”

I backed up and sat down on the couch, still staring at the picture. He got up and kneeled down in front of me. “When I was seventeen I left home. It wasn’t because I had a bad upbringing like you did. I had quite the opposite actually. I went to elite private schools and hung out with my rich snotty friends. My dad owned businesses all around Baltimore, but from behind closed doors, he was a loan shark. He’d lend money to people, only to turn around and take everything from them. He built an empire out of taking away people’s homes and their jobs. I didn’t want anything to do with that, so I just left. I met this guy who shared an interest in pool. He took me in and gave me a job. He taught me the real game of pool and showed me how to survive by doing what I loved. After a year, I left. I wanted to do my own thing and didn’t want the responsibility of answering to someone else. When I came back to town, it was to see your father, Charlie. I lived in this apartment with your dad.”

“This is a joke right? Like this is your way of getting out of cheating on me? You’re making up this convoluted story so I go easier on you?”

He stood up and started pacing around the room. “Charlie, I stayed to help you because I found out my father was involved in the attacks on you. Our fathers were in business together. That is you and me in the picture and you were my Lena.”

I flipped the picture around and sure enough, in a woman’s handwriting it read, “Charlene McNally and John Thomas (Jammer and his Lena)”. I covered my mouth with my hand and could feel the tears falling down my face.

“You’ve known this all along? How could you do this to me? How…”

“Whoa, I swear to God that I just found out yesterday. I went to see my mother, to find out what my father was trying to do. I thought I could get him to back off. She told me the story of your parents and their separation. She told me how my father and Joe were best friends and they had a falling out. I didn’t know I knew you, Charlie. I swear I didn’t know.”

“Please leave.” I was crying too hard to say anything else.

“Charlie, I swear to you that I didn’t know. This has nothing to do with how I feel about you now. It just means that its real. What I feel for you is so real, Charlie. Please believe me.”

I pushed him away from me and ran into my bedroom. My body fell on the bed and I just started bawling. I’d been living with John Thomas this whole time. Jammer had lied to me, even if he didn’t know the other stuff. I couldn’t forgive him.

I heard him come into the room and felt the bed move as he sat down next to me. His hand touched my back and I moved away. “Don’t touch me. I don’t even know you. Get your things and go, John.” I waited until he got up. “Don’t you dare say a word to my brother. I won’t let you hurt him too.”

I could hear him getting his stuff together. The sound of zippers was amplified for the simple fact that I knew what the sound of them actually meant. They meant he was really leaving. As angry as I was, a part of me wanted to run into that room and beg him to stay with me. My heart was ripping apart and for the first time, I was sure that I was in love with him. Nothing could be more painful than feeling the loss of someone you love.

I heard keys rattling and then the door closing. I don’t know how long I cried, but my brother came in and jumped on the bed beside me. “Charlie, why are you sad?”

“Jammer had to go away, buddy. I’m just sad about it.”

“Because you love him?”

I rubbed his head and tried to smile. “Yeah.”

“I love him too. When is he coming back?”

How do I tell my little brother that someone he cares about isn’t coming back, after he’s lost his father. He is going to think that everyone leaves. “I don’t know.”

“I hope he comes back soon so you can smile again. Jammer always makes you smile.”

While I got my brother to go get dressed for school, I got myself dressed enough to take him down to his preschool bus. My whole life was crashing down on me, but my brother’s education was still important.

I called Shaun and let him know that we were having plumbing problems and the tavern would be closed for the day. It wasn’t a total lie, considering that I was flooding the building with my tears. I needed Jammer to hold me and tell me everything was going to be alright, but he was the reason for my tears. He and his father were completely to blame.