In It to Win It (8 page)

The jerk thing she could handle. In fact, it fortified her defenses against him. When Grayson was kind, when he spoke sweetly to her, when he looked at her like he finally saw her as the confident woman she was … well, that was when her carefully erected walls crumbled.

“
I gotta go. I’m on air in … shit!”

The floor director was waving his arms over his head. “Jane! Two minutes.”

She hung up without saying another word to Grayson and, grabbing her mirror to check her make-up, headed for the studio.

“
WELL HELL, THAT COULDN’T HAVE GONE worse,” Grayson groaned to the emptiness around him.

He tossed the phone down on the granite countertop where it skidded down the surface, luckily coming to a stop before tumbling off the edge. He leaned against the wall, knocking his head a few times. Jane deserved an apology. And she sure as hell didn’t deserve the firestorm that was going to land on her head tomorrow morning.

When he’d picked up the phone to call her, he’d meant to apologize. He’d meant to tell her what was brewing. Instead she’d misunderstood his intentions and lashed out at him. He’d heard the shake in her voice, which meant he’d also made her cry. He really was an ass!

Grabbing his keys he headed out the door. There was only one place that could bring him solace. He had responsibilities and he needed to take care of them. Daisy was due soon and she depended on him.

JANE REGRETTED ANSWERING HER PHONE, and wondered if she could avoid ever answering a phone again. Thankfully she’d made it through the sportscast without a single snuffle.

After watching her report and making sure that she came across as composed she gathered her things to leave.

“
Goodnight,” she said to Jordan, hiking her laptop bag onto her shoulder. He was on the phone and raised his hand in farewell.

“
What’s the rush?”

Jane cringed. She could hide her emotions from the world, from her co-workers and her viewers. Unfortunately there was one exception.

“
Hey, Molly.”

As Jane turned she came nose to nose with Molly, who stood with her hands on her hips. Her long blond curls tumbled down around her shoulders. Her brows rose for a moment before pinching together as she narrowed her eyes. “What’s up?”

“
Nothing.” Yeah, not even Jane bought that.

“
Wanna try again?”

“
No.” Jane slumped down into her chair and groaned.

“
Lemme guess.” Molly sat down on the corner of Jane’s desk. “Grayson?”

Jane looked up at her best friend … and hated that Molly knew her so well. “He called and I kinda ripped into him. It wasn’t pretty.”

“
Why do you let him get to you? Never mind. I know.” Molly shook her head. “Let’s get out of here.”

Molly and Jane lived in the same condo community. It wasn’t a coincidence. They’d been friends for years and had purposely tried to land jobs at the same station. Jane did sports. Molly did weather.

But that wasn’t the only way they differed. They were polar opposites; Molly was curly blonde, Jane straight brunette. Molly was stick thin with big perfect boobs. Jane had curves with … okay, her boobs were pretty perfect
now
. Molly was five, four—if she wore four inch heels. Jane was five, ten in bare feet.

Different as they were, Jane wouldn’t trade the friendship she had with Molly for anything in the world. Molly could practically read her mind, and freshman year she’d helped Jane heal and get over Grayson.

Molly stopped in front of Jane’s driveway. And Jane smiled. It was good to be home.

The driveways and garages were all on the backside of the condos, down alleys. The front doors faced each other with a large grassy area separating the buildings. Sidewalks weaved around huge trees that shaded the entire area in the summer time. Now though they were more skeletal with a few wisps of stubborn leaves.

She loved her condo. It was a drive to the station, nearly an hour, but the price had been right and it was all hers. And Molly lived two doors down.

“
I can come in,” Molly said.

“
No. I’m fine.” She wasn’t. But the last thing she wanted was to rehash her feelings for Grayson. Her unrequited, ridiculous feelings for Grayson. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” she said and got out of the car. She punched the code into her wireless garage door opener and waited for the door to slide up.

Her blue Mazda 3 sat alone in the garage and she hurried past it, shutting the garage just before she went inside.

It was dark. Not a surprise; it always was. Jane worked the ten, which meant she didn’t leave the station until nearly eleven. She flipped on a light. Without thought she put her bag on the table near the door.

She went over to scoop up the mail where it’d come to rest after coming through the slot in the front door earlier in the day.

Phone bill, electric bill, a flyer for a free dinner (if you bought one, of course), and an envelope with only her name scrawled across the front—in handwriting she didn’t want to recognize.

Her teeth sank into her bottom lip and she marched over to the garbage, depositing the unopened card where it belonged. She didn’t want anything to do with Grayson.

Really, she didn’t.

Unable to move, she stared at the white envelope resting amongst the soup cans and banana peel and empty Diet Coke cans.

Molly was right; Jane really should recycle.

She looked around her kitchen; the white cabinets and black appliances, the black and white checkered tile floor. Opening the fridge, she pulled out a bottle of juice and sank down into a chair at her black table. She picked through the rest of the mail, trying not to think of the elephant in the trash. She could almost hear the trumpet calling to her.

Finally she sighed and turned away, leaving the letter in the trash and went to bed.

Tomorrow. She would deal with Grayson tomorrow. Or not.

Hell, she didn’t know how to react. She wanted to yell at him. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to toilet paper his house, like she had in high school. She wanted to date someone uber hot and drive him crazy with jealousy.

Like that would happen.

Slamming a fist into her pillow she rolled over, huffing. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Grayson’s face. His gorgeous face with that arrogant grin that lacked any regard for her or her feelings. Sleep was not going to come anytime soon. She was too wound up. Television seemed like a safe alternative.

A press of the
on
button revealed ESPN and a report on … Grayson Pierce.

Would he haunt her forever?

She changed the channel, settled on a movie, leaned back against the pillows, and fell asleep.



THE NEXT MORNING JANE WOKE FROM A dreamless sleep. Refreshed and ready to take on the day, she stretched and headed for the bathroom. After washing her face, she looked in the mirror and frowned at the dark circles under her green eyes, not to mention that she looked pale—even paler than usual.

Not wanting to think about that though, she gathered her long brown locks in her hand and whipped them into a bun on the top of her head.

Dressed in shorts and a sports bra, Jane turned on the morning news and hit the treadmill. The steady pounding of her feet was a comfort. The television was on, but Jane’s only thoughts were of the
thud, thud, thud
of her feet and the whirring of the treadmill. Her morning routine kept her centered; the thumping of her feet, the in and out of her breath.

After the escapade with Xavier and Grayson in the hotel gym, she’d avoided it like the plague. Which was probably best since the last thing she needed was to have pictures of her, half-naked on the internet. Stranger things had happened.

Her phone rang, interrupting her concentration. Her feet stuttered and she nearly found herself flipped off the back of the treadmill. She grabbed the handrails and jerked the emergency key out. The whirring stopped immediately and Jane ran over to grab her cell phone off the dresser.

“
Yeah?”

“
Hey. Are you okay?” Nate sounded strange.

“
Um … yeah … are
you
okay?”

He chuckled. “I’m fine, but it’s not my face on the cover of every tabloid in the grocery store.”

“
What? Why am I…? I’m nobody.”

“
But Grayson Pierce is definitely somebody.”

“
Nate—” She forced herself to take a deep breath and
try
to relax. Something about his tone and the few words he’d said had butterflies zooming around in her stomach. “—what the hell you’re talking about?”

An exaggerated sigh whistled through the phone. “Roxie is a sucker for the tabloids. We get some that come to the house, but the others she goes out and buys. Every month.” He sounded disgusted and Jane laughed. She never would have guessed that side of Roxie Hughes. “I swear half my salary goes to them.”

“
Nate.” That one word from her brought him back on topic.

“
Okay, so anyway, Roxie went to the store this morning and brought home three—or maybe it was four—magazines with your picture on the front.”

“
My
picture?”

“
Yeah, your picture. You and Grayson.” She heard the turning of pages and knew Nate was describing what he was looking at. “Some of the pictures are just you, with the byline
‘Who is Grayson’s latest girl?’
. And you’ll never believe which one’s the biggest…”

“
I don’t wanna know.”

He plowed on like she hadn’t spoken a protest. “It’s you and Grayson at dinner, when he hugged you. Crappy resolution. Probably a cell phone.”

“
Ugh!” she groaned and suddenly felt like she was going to hurl.

“
No kidding. Sucks to be you, Jane.”

“
I thought we had privacy,” she said more to herself than to Nate.

“
I even made one of the pictures. Roxie’s so proud.” He sounded just as proud of this great accomplishment and Jane’s fingers curled into fists.

“
I’m glad you guys are enjoying your thirty seconds of fame,” she snapped only to instantly regret it. “I’m sorry.”

“
We’re cool. You have to admit that this is pretty freakin’ awesome. I mean to be associated with Grayson Pierce … that’s just awesome.”

“
Nate, I don’t want to be associated with Grayson Pierce. He’s a jerk. Always has been.” Even as she said the words she knew she was embellishing the story. Grayson hadn’t
always
been a jerk. There were times when he was quite sweet … and cute. No, cute wasn’t the right word. Maybe he’d been
cute
in elementary school. By high school he’d graduated to hot and never looked back.

“
Jerk or not, his popularity could really help your career. Not to mention what it could do for KHB if you could land an exclusive.”

Jane snorted. “You sound like Dale.”

“
What can I say—” He paused and she could imagine his beefy shoulders lifting in a shrug. “—I’m a team player.”

“
How very noble of you,” she said sarcastically.

He chuckled. “That’s me. Excuse me … I have to go buff my shining armor.”

Jane laughed. Leave it to Nate to lighten her mood. His sense of humor was his most admirable trait.

Her doorbell rang and Nate said, “I wouldn’t answer that.”

Peeking out through the blinds from her upstairs bedroom verified that she would
not
be opening the door. “Oh hell! It’s starting already. I never thought I’d hate damned reporters.”

“
Anyone we know?”

“
Yeah, it’s Clayton.”

He laughed, really hard. Jane wondered if he had to wipe any tears away. Despite that she didn’t find the situation a bit funny, she found herself smiling. Nate gasped and snorted, struggled to take a deep breath.

“
Damn … that guy will … do anything … for a story.”

Clayton Tate, reporter extraordinaire, had managed to make the rounds of all the stations in the Salt Lake valley. He’d left KHB three months before Jane had come on board. She didn’t like working with him on the rare occasion they crossed paths in the field. He had beady little eyes that focused on her breasts when he talked to her. Like most of the other guys she worked with, Nate despised the toe-headed weasel.

She took her time going downstairs, pausing to rub a hand over the back of the leather couch that formed a faux wall between the living room and the kitchen. She stared at her reflection in the television and pushed at the hair that had come loose during her workout. Slipping her phone into the pocket of her workout shorts, she took the dark brown fleece blanket off the back of the couch, unfurled it with a snap then refolded it and replaced it. Some might say she was stalling. Jane chalked her attitude up to patience.

Clayton obviously didn’t share her patience, since he rang the bell three more times and had started to pound on the door. When she couldn’t put the confrontation off any longer, she walked to the door where she took a moment to compose herself. Deep breath in through the nose, out through the mouth. Then she looked out the peephole only to see an eye staring back at her.