Chapter Fifty-Five

**

“You gonna stick by me?”

“Maybe…”

**

The girls came back in just before opening kickoff, nearly tripping over themselves they were laughing so hard.

I sighed…something was definitely up with them.

“So V…” Mia started, a huge grin on her face. “You sleep okay last night?”

“What?” he asked, looking up at her.

“You know…sleeping on the floor and all…” Amber chimed in.

“Oh…” Vince said slowly. “Yeah, it was fine. I slept good, actually.”

Jamie looked over at him then and smiled a little.

I could see Mia opening her mouth, ready to say something, so I decided to jump in and save Vince from the girls…even though it didn’t seem like he realized where they were headed with all the questions.

“C’mon guys…” I said, pulling Letty down onto the couch next to me. “The game’s ‘bout to start, and I’d like to be able to hear it…”

“Yeah, right, Dom…” Letty laughed as she handed me a beer. “We all know how much you bitch about Madden…”

“Have to be able to hear him so I can complain…” I muttered, lightly swatting her arm.

“Yeah, and now the game is starting, so could the two of you shut up already?” Leon asked, glaring in our direction.

We all settled down after that… Leon leaning forward, elbows on his knees, his full concentration on the television. Well, except for his right hand, that was twirled in Amber’s hair, absently stroking it. Vince had his arm draped over the back of the couch, with Jamie kinda leaning into his side. Letty scooted over to the other end of the couch, mouthing ‘sorry’ at me as she moved away. I just sighed, wishing Vince would decide quick if he wanted to keep Jamie around or not so we could either get rid of her or fill her in on the whole situation and stop having to pretend around her. I had to laugh - wanting to be able to just touch my girlfriend in my own house…what the fuck was I thinking? Letty and I would’ve had to go to Timbuktu before we could completely give up the act…and even there, we’d probably run into someone who knew Johnny.

“What the fuck are you thinking, ref! That was pass interference! Where the fuck’s the flag????”

Everyone turned and looked at Jamie.

“What?” she said, kind of ducking her head. “It was pass interference! Washington was all over him!”

No one said a word.

“Uhm…” she muttered, “did I forget to mention that I get really into football?”

“You a Raiders fan then?” Leon asked, grinning at her.

“Eh…you could say that, I guess…” she said slowly.

“Yes you are!” he said, still grinning. “Did ya hear that, Vincey? Jamie is a Raiders fan!”

Vince just glared at Leon before turning to Jamie. “I do have money on the Packers here, you know…”

“Well…” she said slowly, “I like rooting for the underdogs, you know? And the Raiders are definitely gonna need some help this season! Besides, that totally was pass interference…”

“Oh,” Leon sighed… “Why ya gotta be that way, Jamie? I thought we had something going here…”

“Sorry!” Jamie said, smiling sweetly at Leon and watching the tv out of the corner of her eye.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing????” she screeched two seconds later. “Don’t run through the middle, it never works!!!”

Everyone just bust out laughing… There was definitely more to Jamie than we’d thought.