Free Fever Pitch by Ann Marie Frohoff Page A

rehearsal.”
    I huffed, straining to look up at him. “Jake, you have to go. They’re waiting for you.”
    “Time just got away from me.” He nestled his nose into the nape of neck. “I’ll text Dump and let him know I’m sick.”
    “Don’t lie, that’s bad energy.”
    “It’s not a lie, I’m sick in the head for you.”
    I hadn’t heard Dump’s name in years, and it made me think of Sienna. They were to be married after she graduated. I never heard anything, not that I wanted to. I purposely stayed away from any social media and basically disappeared from my Jake life after he left me crumpled in my driveway and they all moved to New York. At the time I didn’t want to know anything about any of them, ever again.
    “How are Dump and Sienna? Did they get married?”
    “Yep.” He gave me a firm squeeze then released me and walked across the room to an armoire.
    “And?”
    “And they’re married. What?” His back remained facing me as he dug around the cabinet, totally unconcerned about my inquiry. He didn’t get that girls wanted to know everything when they’ve asked a question.
    “Well…” and I thought about what. “Are they happy? Do they have a kid yet? Is she still super groovy looking? I don’t know.” I shrugged.
    Jake pulled on his own set of comfy loungewear. “Yeah to all of those, except the kid thing.”
    I waited for more info. “Is she here?”
    “Yes, right now she is. She goes back and forth.”
    “What does she do?”
    “She’s a model.”
    Of course she is. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
    “Yeah, she doesn’t look all goth anymore. She looks great; you wouldn’t recognize her. She has long hair now and it’s not black anymore...it’s brown.” He glanced back at me. “Kinda like yours.”
    “Wow.” I was dying to see what she looked like. “Do you have a picture?”
    “Nope.”
    “I’m sure Dump does. I can’t wait to see what she looks like.” I spun around and looked into the oven. The smell of baking food filled my head, making my stomach grumble with pronounced hunger.
    Jake was stoking the fire, teasing it back into a mad roar. I was the happiest I’d been in years. A ping chimed from Jake’s phone and all that happiness froze in an instant.
    Sophia.
    I stared at it and blinked over and over again, as if I might be hallucinating.
    What. The. Fuck. He asked me to marry him, he asked me to marry him, he asked me to marry him, I chanted in my head.
    By the look on his face, he knew whom it was by its probable assigned tone, chosen just for her. He ran his hand through his hair. Great, he was agitated or nervous. A gesture that always gave him away.He walked toward me, and I couldn’t look at him. I had no idea what to think. So I just blurted out what I was thinking.
    “She obviously doesn’t know you were planning to be with me, let alone asking me to marry you,” I said, staring into the oven, watching the cheese bubble violently. My throat grew thick with jealousy, anger and I don’t know what else, thinking about Nicole’s revelations right before I left. “Or maybe she does and she doesn’t give a shit because she’s just that kinda girl.”
    “Stop it, Aly.”
    “What?” I whipped around to meet his gaze. “What’s going on with that? Does she even know about me?”
    He inhaled deeply, throwing his head back. “She knows about you, yes.”
    “And? Is she really your girlfriend? You told me she wasn’t.”
    “Aly, it’s not cut and dry, ok. This thing with you is years in the making, and so was my relationship with her.”
    “Is she your girlfriend or not?” I raised my voice, totally unlike me. “Don’t fucking play games with me.”
    “Hypothetically, yes, I suppose she used to be my girlfriend.”
    “Used to be? Does she know I’m here?”
    He paused. Mhmm, clearly she didn’t. “No, but we’re not exclusive, Aly. We never were, and I’ve always told her that I couldn’t have that kind of relationship.”
    I knew