Page 199 of Cross the Line
“Jayden—”
“Talk to me, dammit! Please!” Fuck, my yell ricochets around us, and I instantly regret the outburst because she looks as suffocated and on edge as I’ve been feeling.
“I’m devastated, JJ!”
My ears are ringing from her scream.
“Finley…”
“I’m angry. I’m… I’m fucking sick to my stomach.” Tears line her eyes, and before they skitter down her face, I catch them on my finger. “Every time I close my eyes, I see him.Presley.I see him all the time. When I look in the mirror. When… when… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I can’t… I can’t do this…”
Fuck.
I’m a jackass.
“Come here.” With one step, I engulf her in a bear hug, burying her in my chest while she bawls her eyes out. “I got you, Baby.”
It seems like forever that I stand there holding her while she pours all her anguish out to me. Seems like an eternity since I’ve seen her eyes when she looks up at me. Hands still clutching the lapel of my suit jacket, her bottom lip sucked in, looking embarrassed about her breakdown.
I’m about to move us closer to the sink so I can fix her makeup when there’s a loud knock on the door.
“You get one warning to make yourselves decent before I come in,” a deep voice calls from the other side.
“Oh, God,” Finley groans, patting at her face frantically.
Sitting Finley on the vanity by the sink, I dart for the door just as it swings open. Reaching it in time to stop Tony, one of the janitors, from walking in.
“Not you, Morrow!” Tony gives me a pleading look.
“Sorry, Tone, my girl isn’t feeling great. She just needs a moment,” I tell him as he tries to peer inside.
The franchise has rules about players and their girls frolicking in the arena. It’s no secret most of the players have broken them, but it goes unacknowledged unless you get caught with your pants around your ankles and your girl balancing precariously on your third leg. It’s never happened to me, unlike a few of the other guys.
“Does she need water or something? Want me to get one of the docs?” Tony runs his fingers through his hair when he hears Fin blow her nose and the cough that follows.
He’s a good guy—one of the older maintenance people. Once in awhile, he brings his grandkids to work, and they watch the team practices with the same enthusiasm as most fans watch the games.
“I’ll divert the ladies to the accessible bathroom on the other side. Don’t take too long, though. I’d like to keep this job. My grandbabies like the behind-the-scenes access.”
“Thanks, Tone. I’ll make it up to you. Get you a couple of game pucks from tonight.” It’s the least I can do for the way he’s kept his cool.
He inches the door shut and locks it as I go back to Finley.
She’s standing in front of the mirror, scrubbing at her face with a damp washcloth.
“Stop, Baby,” I tell her, spinning her toward me with one hand and taking the washcloth from her with the other. “Let me, before you scour the skin off your pretty face.”
Finley snorts. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“I’m not going to acknowledge that statement with a contradiction, because we both know you’re smarter and stronger than that.” Pulling my Vaseline from my pocket, I open the small pot and dab the washcloth in it before I gently go about cleaning up the streaked makeup.
“Smart?” Finley scoffs. “Eli came back home to me, JJ. I hugged him. I… I was right there with him, and I didn’t see it. Any of it. What kind of monster does that make me?”
“It makes you human. It makes you a person like the rest of us.”
“How could I not fucking see?” The pleading look on her face breaks my heart.
She’s so desperate to find her blame in all this that she can’t see there isn’t any.
