For What It's Worth
Chapter 6
One week had passed since I was first initiated into the boys club. Apparently, I had passed their interrogation with flying colours and was now officially an honorary member of the Washington Capitols. But between you and me, I think it was my cooking skills that sold them instead of the fact that I’d rather be covered in dinosaur snot than skunk spray. It seemed like every time I entered the kitchen, a new boy was waiting to be served while the rest waited anxiously to see what was on the menu. Not that I minded though. Cooking and art are possible my two favorite things in life. Well, and Brooks of course, who was still as sweet as ever.
As the end of August grew nearer, so did training camp, and consequently, the boys’ appetites increased as they pushed their workouts even harder just to be ready for camp.
That was more or less how the last week had gone. The team would work out in the morning, I’d feed them lunch, and then they’d help me unpack my things. It was refreshing to be surrounded by people who weren’t obsessed with proving each other wrong. Poking fun at each other, well that was an entirely different issue, but it was all in good fun.
I was starting to like D.C., especially during the quite evenings that Brooks and I got to spend together. Mind you, they were few and far between since Mike was moonlighting as an event planner in his down time.
When we weren’t out at a bar or dining at some fancy restaurant, Brooks and I would spend our evenings on the front porch, cuddled up with a book. I have to admit, that these were my favorite moments, mainly because there was peace and quiet. These were also the moments that killed me because Brooks would smile at me sweetly as he turned the page or nudge my legs with his foot, simply because he could. Much like our dance in New York, Brooks never felt the need to fill our silence with incessant rambling or gossip. We would just sit quietly, Brooks and his playbook and me with some implausible art mystery, enjoying each other’s company until the sun had gone down and the bugs came out.
On this particular evening, it had begun to rain, so we snuggled under a blanket to keep the cool mist from dampening our clothes.
“What are you thinking so hard about over there?” he asked with a gently laugh.
“It’s nothing,” I replied.
“Something...”
“How do you know I’m even thinking anything at all?”
“Because you have your thinking face on.”
“I have a thinking face? Is it stupid?” I had never known that about myself.
“No, it suits you just fine. You get this little furrowed brow and you play with your glasses. It’s cute.”
I looked down at the glasses in my hand and suddenly felt the stress that was setting into my brow. Huh.
“I guess I’m just a little nervous about tomorrow,” I said, arranging the dark frames on my face.
“Well it’s your first day at a new job, that’s normal. They’ll love you…and besides, if anyone gives you a hard time, you just tell the boys and we’ll put a hit out on ‘em!” I laughed in reponse before i was interrupted.
There was a rustling in the garden which was followed by a sting of Russian profanities. Brooks held a finger to his lips, grabbed a tennis ball off the porch and hurled it towards the bush.
“Shit!” was all we heard before Mike Green tumbled out.
“Mike…why are you in my garden?” Brooks asked, slowly, but with a laugh tugging at his lips.
“Um…I was just walking by…” he said with shifty eyes.
“So you weren’t having a stake out in the garden?” I asked, taking in the mud and twigs that covered his clothing.
He shook his head no, but wouldn’t look at me. I had to laugh.
“So if I were to take this large stick, and poke it through the bush, I wouldn’t be hurting anyone named Ovie?” I asked, as I eyed a wildly jostling bush. Funny how everything else around it was perfectly still. I stood up to poke the bush but a startled Alex jumped out before I could get too close.
“Don’t hurt me woman…I’m too young to die!” Alex said as he pretended to faint from fright. Drama Queen.
“So what is it exactly that you two want?” Brooks asked as I sat down and he recovered my legs with the blanket, brushing my ankle slightly with his rough hands. I shivered, though I hoped he thought it was from the cool rain.
“We were…uh…collecting data…” Mike trailed off, flipping a few pages on his clipboard. I suddenly realized how ridiculous the pair of them were dressed. Army fatigues and a helmet, complete with a single leaf glued to the top of it. I couldn’t help but laugh as they shuffled nervously.
“Yeah…” Alex said.
“For what?”
“Top secret…if we told you, we’d have to kill you,” Mike said, looking to Alex for confirmation.
“I’m hungry,” was his only response. Mike rolled his eyes at Alex, trying to reprimand him for blowing their alleged “cover”. Apparently, they had not thought this through particularily well.
“Come on, I’ll fix you something,” I agreed but I’m not really sure why. I think I felt like I was obliged to feed them, especially after they had spent God knows how long, camped out in the bushes, scheming away at some unfathomable plot as the rain soaked their clothing.
I fed the boys a warm meal, which they were thankful for, and sent them on their way, using the fact that I needed to get a few things ready for work the next day as an excuse to send them packing. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the pair of them. It’s just that after two hours of nonstop banter, a girl needs a rest. Remember what I said about the peace and quite? It’s a rare commodity when the Washington Capitols are around.
I decided a hot bath would be just what I needed to relax, and since Brooks had cleaned the tub, just like he promised, I was allowed to bathe. I’m not really a candles and soothing music kind of girl, bubbles do just fine for me. I slid deeper into the tub, letting the hot water sooth my aches and worries. I could hear the pitter patter of raindrops on the window and Brooks’ voice as he reassured his mother, via telephone, that he had gotten her package. I smiled to myself as I tried not to get carried away from the sound of his laugh. Trust me when I say, it’s harder than it sounds. His voice stopped and there was a soft knock on the bathroom door.
“Come in,” I said, rearranging the bubbles so that they came up around my collarbone.
Brooks poked his head in the door, more sheepishly than I would have expected from him. I sunk down lower into the water as his gaze fell on my wet shoulders. I can’t say I’d ever been self conscious in front of Brooks, but then he’d never looked at me like that before. He wasn’t someone who was easily intimidated by a beautiful woman, but there he stood, torn between what he thought he should do with his eyes and what his eyes wanted to do. Now I’m not tooting my own horn by any means here, I’m just saying I happened to be wet and covered by strategically placed bubbles. Normally, I could read him fairly easily, but at this exact moment, I had no idea what was running through his mind. If anything, he seemed confused. I assumed it was another case of TGS. Naked, wet girl = brain turning off. It was an automatic response, not a reaction to me personally... but how I wished it was.
“Brooks?” I asked as he failed to say anything, only blinking a few times as he stared in my general direction.
“Uh…sorry…I was uh…just going to make some tea. Do you want a cup?”
“Yes please. I’ll be out in just a minute.”
He nodded and shut the door rather abruptly, leaving me alone with my bubbles. I could have sworn I heard him swearing as he padded down the hall, but then I was caught in a day dream of my own from the way he had been staring at me. It would have been so easy for him to just climb into the tub with me…
I dressed quickly and returned to my room where my freshly made cup of tea and an episode of Friends awaited me. He’d even turned my sheets down. Seriously, this man was going to kill me and the only thing that could have made it more perfect was if Brooks had been waiting in the bed for me. I wiggled in between the sheets, wishing it were possible but knowing it would never happen. He had a girlfriend, who, I had yet to meet. I secretly hoped she was fake, but then again, Brooks was wonderful and I didn’t actually expect him to be single. These were my thoughts as I drifted in and out of sleep that night. I was restless with anxiety over my new job, and my old Brooks.
Finally, as the clock hit two am , I couldn’t handle the tossing and turning anymore. I knew what I had to do. I crept down the hall way to Brooks’ room, gently opening the door so that I wouldn’t startle him.
“Brooks?”
“Yeah babe?”
“I can’t sleep.”
That was all I needed to say because he immediately lifted the covers, a signal for me to climb into bed beside him. Against my better judgment, I snuggled into him, and he wrapped his strong arms around my waist, pulling me closer.
“Goodnight love,” he said, gently kissing the back of my neck. Why did I do this to myself?
As the end of August grew nearer, so did training camp, and consequently, the boys’ appetites increased as they pushed their workouts even harder just to be ready for camp.
That was more or less how the last week had gone. The team would work out in the morning, I’d feed them lunch, and then they’d help me unpack my things. It was refreshing to be surrounded by people who weren’t obsessed with proving each other wrong. Poking fun at each other, well that was an entirely different issue, but it was all in good fun.
I was starting to like D.C., especially during the quite evenings that Brooks and I got to spend together. Mind you, they were few and far between since Mike was moonlighting as an event planner in his down time.
When we weren’t out at a bar or dining at some fancy restaurant, Brooks and I would spend our evenings on the front porch, cuddled up with a book. I have to admit, that these were my favorite moments, mainly because there was peace and quiet. These were also the moments that killed me because Brooks would smile at me sweetly as he turned the page or nudge my legs with his foot, simply because he could. Much like our dance in New York, Brooks never felt the need to fill our silence with incessant rambling or gossip. We would just sit quietly, Brooks and his playbook and me with some implausible art mystery, enjoying each other’s company until the sun had gone down and the bugs came out.
On this particular evening, it had begun to rain, so we snuggled under a blanket to keep the cool mist from dampening our clothes.
“What are you thinking so hard about over there?” he asked with a gently laugh.
“It’s nothing,” I replied.
“Something...”
“How do you know I’m even thinking anything at all?”
“Because you have your thinking face on.”
“I have a thinking face? Is it stupid?” I had never known that about myself.
“No, it suits you just fine. You get this little furrowed brow and you play with your glasses. It’s cute.”
I looked down at the glasses in my hand and suddenly felt the stress that was setting into my brow. Huh.
“I guess I’m just a little nervous about tomorrow,” I said, arranging the dark frames on my face.
“Well it’s your first day at a new job, that’s normal. They’ll love you…and besides, if anyone gives you a hard time, you just tell the boys and we’ll put a hit out on ‘em!” I laughed in reponse before i was interrupted.
There was a rustling in the garden which was followed by a sting of Russian profanities. Brooks held a finger to his lips, grabbed a tennis ball off the porch and hurled it towards the bush.
“Shit!” was all we heard before Mike Green tumbled out.
“Mike…why are you in my garden?” Brooks asked, slowly, but with a laugh tugging at his lips.
“Um…I was just walking by…” he said with shifty eyes.
“So you weren’t having a stake out in the garden?” I asked, taking in the mud and twigs that covered his clothing.
He shook his head no, but wouldn’t look at me. I had to laugh.
“So if I were to take this large stick, and poke it through the bush, I wouldn’t be hurting anyone named Ovie?” I asked, as I eyed a wildly jostling bush. Funny how everything else around it was perfectly still. I stood up to poke the bush but a startled Alex jumped out before I could get too close.
“Don’t hurt me woman…I’m too young to die!” Alex said as he pretended to faint from fright. Drama Queen.
“So what is it exactly that you two want?” Brooks asked as I sat down and he recovered my legs with the blanket, brushing my ankle slightly with his rough hands. I shivered, though I hoped he thought it was from the cool rain.
“We were…uh…collecting data…” Mike trailed off, flipping a few pages on his clipboard. I suddenly realized how ridiculous the pair of them were dressed. Army fatigues and a helmet, complete with a single leaf glued to the top of it. I couldn’t help but laugh as they shuffled nervously.
“Yeah…” Alex said.
“For what?”
“Top secret…if we told you, we’d have to kill you,” Mike said, looking to Alex for confirmation.
“I’m hungry,” was his only response. Mike rolled his eyes at Alex, trying to reprimand him for blowing their alleged “cover”. Apparently, they had not thought this through particularily well.
“Come on, I’ll fix you something,” I agreed but I’m not really sure why. I think I felt like I was obliged to feed them, especially after they had spent God knows how long, camped out in the bushes, scheming away at some unfathomable plot as the rain soaked their clothing.
I fed the boys a warm meal, which they were thankful for, and sent them on their way, using the fact that I needed to get a few things ready for work the next day as an excuse to send them packing. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the pair of them. It’s just that after two hours of nonstop banter, a girl needs a rest. Remember what I said about the peace and quite? It’s a rare commodity when the Washington Capitols are around.
I decided a hot bath would be just what I needed to relax, and since Brooks had cleaned the tub, just like he promised, I was allowed to bathe. I’m not really a candles and soothing music kind of girl, bubbles do just fine for me. I slid deeper into the tub, letting the hot water sooth my aches and worries. I could hear the pitter patter of raindrops on the window and Brooks’ voice as he reassured his mother, via telephone, that he had gotten her package. I smiled to myself as I tried not to get carried away from the sound of his laugh. Trust me when I say, it’s harder than it sounds. His voice stopped and there was a soft knock on the bathroom door.
“Come in,” I said, rearranging the bubbles so that they came up around my collarbone.
Brooks poked his head in the door, more sheepishly than I would have expected from him. I sunk down lower into the water as his gaze fell on my wet shoulders. I can’t say I’d ever been self conscious in front of Brooks, but then he’d never looked at me like that before. He wasn’t someone who was easily intimidated by a beautiful woman, but there he stood, torn between what he thought he should do with his eyes and what his eyes wanted to do. Now I’m not tooting my own horn by any means here, I’m just saying I happened to be wet and covered by strategically placed bubbles. Normally, I could read him fairly easily, but at this exact moment, I had no idea what was running through his mind. If anything, he seemed confused. I assumed it was another case of TGS. Naked, wet girl = brain turning off. It was an automatic response, not a reaction to me personally... but how I wished it was.
“Brooks?” I asked as he failed to say anything, only blinking a few times as he stared in my general direction.
“Uh…sorry…I was uh…just going to make some tea. Do you want a cup?”
“Yes please. I’ll be out in just a minute.”
He nodded and shut the door rather abruptly, leaving me alone with my bubbles. I could have sworn I heard him swearing as he padded down the hall, but then I was caught in a day dream of my own from the way he had been staring at me. It would have been so easy for him to just climb into the tub with me…
I dressed quickly and returned to my room where my freshly made cup of tea and an episode of Friends awaited me. He’d even turned my sheets down. Seriously, this man was going to kill me and the only thing that could have made it more perfect was if Brooks had been waiting in the bed for me. I wiggled in between the sheets, wishing it were possible but knowing it would never happen. He had a girlfriend, who, I had yet to meet. I secretly hoped she was fake, but then again, Brooks was wonderful and I didn’t actually expect him to be single. These were my thoughts as I drifted in and out of sleep that night. I was restless with anxiety over my new job, and my old Brooks.
Finally, as the clock hit two am , I couldn’t handle the tossing and turning anymore. I knew what I had to do. I crept down the hall way to Brooks’ room, gently opening the door so that I wouldn’t startle him.
“Brooks?”
“Yeah babe?”
“I can’t sleep.”
That was all I needed to say because he immediately lifted the covers, a signal for me to climb into bed beside him. Against my better judgment, I snuggled into him, and he wrapped his strong arms around my waist, pulling me closer.
“Goodnight love,” he said, gently kissing the back of my neck. Why did I do this to myself?
♠ ♠ ♠
So sorry for the wait! Enjoy and don't forget to comment!! Sleep tight =)