"The Ole Ball Game" chap 7

Chapter 7

Jazzelle stood beside Keely, supporting her as she shook hands and hugged people who'd come to pay there last respects to Blaze. His parents stood on her other side, they had come to the hospital to see how Keely and the baby were. Somehow she'd expected them to be upset with Keely, but they'd been nothing but completely tuned into her needs. Things she needed for the baby. All in all, Jazzi was thankful for their support, because in the coming months her friend would need it. To her left, Daemyn stood with his arm around her waist, supporting her. It felt good to have him here again, yet she felt sorry for Keely having to see her other friends and herself with the ones they loved. Shaking her head, Jazzi surmised Keely wasn't exactly looking at their flirtaciousness, only at the fact that her love was gone.
Just as they thought the last of the mourners had come, one last woman scurried inside. Dark eyes assessed the casket and the cold body inside, then just as Jazzi expected her to turn and say that she was sorry for their loss, the woman laid herself over the casket and began to cry. With little reguard for the scene around her, she began to press kisses to Blaze's cold lips and face. Keely reeled backward and stared at the scene before her. Blaze's parents stared hard at the woman as if they wished to identify her. Jazzi who could no longer take their laid back approach walked forward, grabbed the woman by the arm and yanked her away from the casket. "Just who are you and what do you think you're doing here?"

"I'm Julie, Blaze's wife."

"Wife?" both of Blaze's parents reeled in shock, each taking a seat behind them.

"Yes, I supposed to be here earlier, but I couldn't get away from work. I'm sorry I've never met you before, Blaze said you were very busy people." Julie extended her free hand to the pale looking parents, while still squirming to get out of Jazzi's grip.

Daemyn stood and tugged on Jazzi's arm, "Let her go, honey, she has a lot of explaining to do."

"I should say so!" exclaimed Jazzi, letting the woman free, but keeping her pinned with a deadly glare.

"And you are? Blaze's sister?" Julie extended her hand toward Keely.

"Sister?" Keely's blue eyes were filled with tears and rage, Jazzi simply set her hand on top of Keely's hoping to comfort her long time best friend. "I am..was his fiance. I'm carrying his baby." A lone tear escaped from the corner of her eye, and Jazzi reached to wipe it away.

"His baby?!" the other woman seemed stricken and fell back into a chair.

Something about this situation had Jazzi reeling herself. How could Blaze do that to both of these women? Hadn't she known him better than that?

--
Daemyn wrapped an arm around Jazzelle's waist, escorting her toward the car. "Are you okay?" he whispered against her ear. She shook her head hard, dark hair flying in the breeze as she lay her head on his shoulder.

"I never thought he could do this. Never in a million years would I have thought he was married, Daemyn. I did this to Keely. Did you see her face? The hurt, oh Daemyn what have I done?" her voice broke and tears began to trickle down her cheeks in twin rivers.

"Here let's sit," he whispered, tugging her toward a bench, "It's not your fault. Keely is a big girl, and she should have found out that stuff before dating him. She knew him more closely than you did, Jazzi. How could she have missed his going to see his wife?" he rubbed her back gently, hoping to calm her and stop the tears. He hated seeing her cry.

His heart contracted painfully as she looked over at him, tears still pouring down her cheeks. "I set them up, Daemyn. I should have known better. Now she's having the man's baby and she's not even his true love. Never was. That's got to kill her. I know it would kill me." Her eyes had changed to that blue-green color he knew so well. She was past upset.

Seeing those eyes, hearing the words she'd just uttered he could hardly hold back a smile as he thought of something to say. With one hand, he cupped her cheek, with the other he dried her tears. "Jazzelle, you are my one true love. I just want you to know that." The whispered words hung in the air between them. Daemyn watched her eyes transform, yet tears still dripped from her eyes as she stared into his eyes.

Her hand slowly made it's way to his cheek, "You're mine as well. I love you, Daemyn."

Holding back his happiness was not an option, it seemed like forever hung between them as he leaned in to cover her lips with his own. Body full of the electric charge that came with kissing her, he felt like fireworks were going off inside of his heart. She was incredible.

"Jaz....oh...sorry." the words stopped him, and he painfully dragged himself away from Jazzelle.

"Keely, stay. I'm sorry, honey. Do you need a ride home?" Jazzi jumped up from her seat on the bench beside him, and raced to her friends side.

Keely shook her head hard, "I don't want to go home, maybe not ever. Could I stay at your place? I can't be alone tonight."

Jazzi nodded tugging her friend into a hug, "You're welcome for as long as you need."
Daemyn swallowed the lump in his throat, the love for her friends and family had him nearly tripping over his own feet. This woman was incredible. She turned to him, eyes assessing him.

"You ready?" her eyes caught his, the sincerity he saw there caught his breath.

"Yes ma'am."

--

Lidia sat on Jazzelle's couch watching her friends and their solemn faces. It was just like the old days, just the girls and Andre sitting around. All of them had been asked to come alone. Slowly, Keely began to speak, telling them what had happened. Lidia fastened her eyes on Keely and Jazzi, watching for any sign of a cruel joke, but none came.

"I got into the car with him, I wanted to give him a chance to make it up to me. He always went back to the, "I love you baby." But, right now I can't help but be unsettled when I hear those words in my thoughts." she rubbed her hands up and down her arms as if she'd caught a chill. "We were just driving down the street, I was trying to get him to tell me where he'd been instead of taking me to my doctor's appointment. He wouldn't speak to me. I thought maybe I'd done something for him to be mad at me for. Then it was like the gravity was turned off, we were kareening toward a tree, and he never swerved. He wasn't kidding! Blaze wanted to kill me, to kill us!" she rubbed a hand protectively over her mid-section. "When I woke up, Jazzi told me-told me about what had happened to him. I couldn't believe it." Keely errupted into sobs, laying her head against Jazzi's shoulder.

"There's more." Lidia said instinctively. There was trouble brewing and she could feel it. It was no time to joke, there was something dreadfully wrong with her good friend Keely.

"He's married to another woman. Or rather he was. Apparently the wife was putting pressure on him, trying to find out where he was all of the time. He didn't want to tell them about Keely or the baby." Jazzi supplied for them.

A hush fell over the room and the only thing they could hear were Keely's sniffles and sobs.

Lidia's mind ran fast and furiously, that lying, backstabbing....she was growling under her breath. If the man wasn't dead already she would've killed him with her own hands. "We're going to be here, Keely. We're going to make it through this and everything else." She lay a hand on Keely's shoulder and sighed. The way her sobs came one after the other, her friend's heart was broken.

"She's right, and we're going to be better for it." added Charity, walking toward them and sitting beside Jazzelle.

"This is what family is for." came Andre's voice as he crossed the room to pull them all into a sort of group hug.

"Thank you guys." said Keely, her face red and puffy from her tears, yet her eyes remained steady and thankful.

"No thanks needed, we love you and we're going to take care of you." said Jazzelle, her eyes filled with self-torment. Lidia made a note to talk to Jazzi later all by herself. There was something in those eyes that made Lidia want to cry herself.

Yet, she knew deep down that everything was going to work out for the better.