Chapter 19

While Billie dumped their empty glasses into the dishwasher, pouring the remaining coffee from earlier into a mug for herself, Jon called a cab company, who promised to have a driver at the address in a few minutes. He closed his phone and looked at Billie with a smile, then without further hesitation walked across to her.

Taking the coffee mug from her hand, he laid it aside and wrapped his arms around her in a hug, platonic and friendly, gratitude somehow evident in his touch. Billie wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him back, then they parted, both smiling.

“I’ll call you once Nikki fixes you a hotel, Billie.” He gave a twisted grin. “I’d say give Jay my love, but…..”

“Yeah, I know.” Billie gave an understanding smile. “We’ll tell him as soon as we can, Jon. You deal with telling your wife first, then you can let me know when you’re ready to talk with Jay.”

“I’m ready right now.” Jon said softly. “But you’re right, cowgirl. I’ll see ya.”

He turned to head for the door, then paused, pulling his phone from his pocket again. “What’s your cell number?”

Billie rattled off the number, and Jon quickly punched it into the memory. He knew Billie had his number from his message before. With a quick goodbye, he let himself out of the apartment and headed for the waiting cab.

In the apartment, Billie stood gazing at the door for a moment, then shook off the bereft feeling and set to tidying the apartment, making sure it was spick and span for Jay returning home. With that done - all that remained was to change the bedding again - she showered and climbed into her son’s bed, sleeping the night away dreamlessly.


The next day passed off without a hitch, with Jay discharged from hospital with just a minor warning to get in touch if he suspected any lingering symptoms. His favorite little pet nurse wasn’t on duty, and he was almost glad, so he didn’t have to say goodbye to her in public and potentially make a fool of himself. As soon as he and Billie were in the cab heading to his apartment, though, he pulled out his cellphone and the piece of paper with Kadie’s number, dialling quickly as Billie smiled, looking away diplomatically.

“Kadie?” Jay asked as the phone was answered, and the responding ‘uh-huh’ was guarded and ever-so-slightly suspicious. “Hi. It’s Jay.”

“Jay.” In her apartment, Kadie felt her heart race suddenly. He called. He actually called. “Did you get out already?”

“Yeah. And I told you I’d call when I did, right?”

“When did they release you?”

He chuckled, blushing slightly. “About five minutes ago. I’m in a cab heading home.”

After another few moments of conversation, very conscious of his mom sitting right there, Jay extracted a promise from Kadie to meet him for dinner the next night, and he was grinning as he clicked his phone off. Billie glanced at him, but didn’t say a word. The happiness in her son’s face was enough for her. As the cab neared his apartment, Billie’s own cell rang, and when the display flashed up ‘Deke’ she answered quickly.

“Hi.”

“Hey, Billie.” Jon replied, hearing the unmistakable sounds of movement in the background. “Bad time?”

“Oh, no. Not at all.” She turned slightly away from Jay, but he was lost in his own imaginings of Kadie and oblivious to his mom. “I just collected Jay from hospital and we’re heading to his apartment.”

“How is he?” Jon’s voice was tightly controlled, even though he was alone in his office.

“He’s fine. Actually,” Billie smirked, flicking a teasing glance at their son. “He’s better than that. Five minutes out of hospital and he’s making dates with his little nurse.”

Jon chuckled. “And you’re gonna blame me for that, too, huh?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I know you can’t really talk, if he’s there.” Jon said more seriously. “But I just wanted to let you know Nikki has booked you into Ritz Carlton. Booked in your name, but you don’t need to pay anything.”

“You didn’t need to do that!” Billie protested quietly, turning toward the window again. “Jesus - a Holiday Inn would’ve been fine.”

“Two things.” Jon grinned. “One - I can write it off anyway, because you’re here to visit with one of the players……”

“And two?”

“Two would be that if I come to visit, if we need to talk, there’ll be a hell of a lot less speculation at me walking in there than walking into a Holiday Inn.”

The second point made sense. So did the first, Billie realised. Jon hadn’t accumulated the money he had without a lot of business sense.

“Okay.” She capitulated. “And thank you.”

“No problem.” He said easily, then heard the unmistakable approach of at least two junior Bongiovis. “Gotta go. Kids inbound.”

“Bye.”

Billie closed her phone and turned to find Jay watching her curiously. He didn’t say anything, but the penetrating gaze of those blue eyes made her explain at least a bit.

“That - believe it or not - was…..” She hedged a little. “Your boss’s assistant. When he heard I was staying around for a bit, until I’m sure you’re okay, he told her to find me a hotel room. On him.” Billie tried not to wince at her poor words. Not like she hadn’t - one more than one occasion - been ‘on’ Jon.

“Yeah? Can’t say I’m surprised, though.” Jay nodded. “I don’t think people always give the boss credit, but he does a hell of a lot of good things. Just that, unlike a lot of celebrities, he doesn’t feel the need to make them a big deal.”

Billie smiled. Jay’s obvious admiration for Jon could only be a good thing, with the news he had coming his way soon. Hopefully the fact he already liked the guy would make it easier to find out they were father and son.

“Yeah, well, they didn’t need to make it the Ritz Carlton!” She grinned, but Jay laughed.

“It’s a tax write-off, mom. You’re here to visit one of the team players - that would be me, in case you’ve forgotten - who got hurt playing, so they can spin it into a tax break.”

“So he said.”

“He? Thought you said it was Nikki?” Jay frowned, and Billie cursed silently.

“It was. I meant she said your boss said to use the Ritz.”

Thankfully Jay let it drop, as the cab was just pulling up to his building, and they headed on inside where he dumped his bag in the bedroom while Billie fixed coffee. Another thing he’d inherited from her was the love of strong coffee.

They stayed home that night, ordering in pizza and just generally catching up. Though Billie kept an eye on him, watchful for anything ‘bad’ becoming evident, his huge appetite for the pizza made it pretty clear he was back to his old self. Over his protests, she made up one of the couches into a bed for herself when it got to that time, telling him she’d already changed his sheets so he may as well just get into bed, jokingly telling him it was a ‘mommy order’ and to get his ass into bed.

She slept pretty well, considering, waking to the smell of fresh coffee and stumbling to the kitchen to find Jay already standing at the counter devouring toast with a thick layer of peanut butter.

“Ew.” She said, pouring herself some coffee.

“Good morning to you, too, mom.” He grinned, cheeky and smart-ass. Just like his dad.

“Sorry. Good morning.” She kissed him lightly. “And ew.”

After they’d both eaten - Billie having just toast and butter - she showered and was just about to dry her hair when her cell rang. The display just showed a Philadelphia number, but she answered anyway.

“Hello?”

“Billie?” The voice was slightly familiar. “It’s Nick. Nick Fabian?”

“Oh, hi Nick. How you doing?”

“I’m good.” In his apartment, the physiotherapist gently pushed the door closed, keeping his voice pitched low to not disturb his sleeping wife. “Just thought I’d check on Jay. He doing okay?”

“Oh, yeah.” Billie wandered to the kitchen for more coffee, finding Jay there, eating again, and she dipped the phone slightly to speak to him. “It’s Nick. Wants to know how you are.”

“I’m fine.” Jay said shortly, still irritated by the way the guy had been looking at - practically drooling over - his mom.

“He’s - as you probably heard - fine.” Billie said, frowning a little at her grouchy son as she went back to the living room with her coffee.

“And you? How you doin’, Billie?” Nick lowered his voice slightly.

“Oh, I’m fine. Just showered and getting ready to leave soon.”

“You’re leaving? Already?!” That didn’t fit with Nick’s hopes at all. He’d been planning to get inside her at least once before she vanished back to wherever she’d come from. Utah, he thought. Or Dakota. Some shitty little country town anyway, somewhere out in the sticks.

“Just to a hotel.” Billie laughed. “Jay has only one bedroom here, so I’m moving to a hotel until he’s well enough that I decide to leave again.”

“Oh. Cool.” That fit far better. “Which hotel?”

“Ritz Carlton. I’m heading over this afternoon.”

“Yeah?” Nick thought quickly. Tonight his wife had one of her damned classes. Pottery. Painting. Cooking. Some shit like that anyway. Perfect. “And do you have dinner plans?”

“Nope. Jay has a date, so I guess I’m on room service.” Not exactly an innocent young girl, Billie had a fair idea what was coming next, and she quite liked the idea. The physio was young - old enough to not be cradle-snatching - and handsome and obviously interested. A bit of fun might be just what she needed.

“Never!” Nick chuckled. “I can’t have that. Why don’t you let me buy you dinner? The oysters at the Ten Arts Lounge are spectacular.”

“Don’t like oysters.” Billie smiled. “Okay, not strictly true. Not tried them. Kansas is pretty far from the ocean, so…..”

Kansas, Nick thought. That was it. He knew it was somewhere like that.

“Hey, you’re not in Kansas now, Dorothy.” He joked. “C’mon - whaddya got to lose?”

“Okay.” Billie grinned. “Deal. What time?”

“I’ll come by around eight-ish - I’ll call you on this number when I get there, if I don’t see you.”

“Fine. I’ll see you later, then.”

“Count on it, Billie.”