Don't Hate the Player...Hate the Game(31)

Pastor Dan smiled. “You’re very welcome. Come back anytime.”

“Thanks.”

Maddie walked me to the door. As I started off the porch, I looked back. “So I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”

A small expression of surprise flickered in her eyes, and I felt like an ass. Maddie must’ve been thinking I’d be behind the scenes friends with her or something. “Um, yeah, sure. See you at school.”

“Okay, then. Thanks again for everything.”

“You’re welcome.”

As I dug my keys out of my pocket, I grinned. It wasn’t the way I’d envisioned the night—board games with the 7th Heaven gang and dancing around the Parker’s living room, but all in all, I had a fun, g-rated time.

***

Chapter Ten

On Tuesday, I stopped by the Nelson’s house. Luckily, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson were at work, and Jonathan was the only one at home.

“Hey man, what’s up?” he asked.

“I came by to look for Jake’s camera.”

Jonathan grinned. “Oh, like, for the ring investigation?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” I replied.

“Good idea. Man, I bet it’ll have an assload of chicks on there!”

I laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure it does.”

Jonathan led the way upstairs to Jake’s room. On the bed were a couple of duffle bags. Jonathan started unzipping some of them. “This was the stuff he had with him up at PawPaw’s. Mom hasn’t had the heart to unpack it yet,” he informed me.

I nodded. Something about seeing those bags weirded me out a little, and I backed away from the bed—fully content with letting Jonathan find the camera.

“Jesus,” Jonathan murmured.

My gaze fell on a plastic bag in his hand. It was Jake’s iPhone. He must’ve had it on him at the accident because it had clearly been bagged by the police—not Jake’s MeeMaw.

I gulped. “Does it work?” I croaked.

Jonathan shot me a look before he unzipped the bag. “I dunno, man. It looks fine.” He grimaced. “It must’ve been in his truck and not on him when…” Neither of us wanted to think about the rest of that statement. The battery clicked off, so Jonathan dug in the bag for the charger.

Luckily, Jake had never felt the need to lock his phone, or we would have been shit out of luck. “Lock it? Hell, I could never remember the password, so screw that!” he’d said.

Once the phone came up, I started scrolling through the pictures—paying particular attention to the dates. Finally, I found the ones Avery was talking about. “Whoa!” I didn’t know if I would ever be able to look at her again, considering she was not only naked, but in some very, very provocative poses.

Jonathan leaned over me. “Holy shit! Is that Honey Boo-Boo?”

I laughed. “Yeah, that’s her—a lot more than I’m used to seeing”

“Damn, I bet she doesn’t show all that at the pageants.”

“I sure as hell wouldn’t think so,” I mused.

“What are you going to do with them?” he asked.

“I promised her I would delete them.”

“Man, that’s a pity,” Jonathan said.

I quickly sent the five naughty pics to the recycling bin. Then I emptied it. “Okay, problem solved.”

“Yeah,” Jonathan murmured with a wistful look in his eye.

I slapped him on the arm. “Dude, quit memorizing the pictures of Honey Boo-Boo—I mean Avery—for your spank bank!”

He grinned wickedly and waggled his eyebrows. “Sorry but some pictures can’t ever be erased!”

“Yeah, that sounds exactly like something Jake would’ve said,” I said.

The mention of Jake brought us back to ourselves. An awkward silence hung in the air. I eyed the phone and then looked at Jonathan. “Hey man, would you mind if I took this phone? You know, for evidence and detective bullshit.”

“Sure. Mom and Dad won’t mind—they probably won’t even miss it for a while.”

“Okay, cool.” As I weighed the phone in my palm, I glanced up at Jonathan. “So do you have any idea who the ring chick might be?”

Jonathan rocked back on his heels before shaking his head. “I mean, I didn’t know of any specific girls in Jake’s life besides Honey Boo-Boo and that Presley chick.”

While I bobbed my head in agreement, Maddie’s face once again entered my mind. “What about Pastor Dan’s daughter?”

With his blonde brows furrowing, Jonathan gave me an epic WTF? look. “The girl who tutored Jake?”

“Yeah, Maddie.”

“Dude, I don’t think so. I mean, Jake might’ve mentioned her once or twice to me, but he never sounded like he had a jonesing for her.”

Chewing on my bottom lip, I thought about the many faces of Jake that Maddie, Pastor Dan, and even myself had seen. “But what if he was keeping his feelings for her a secret? Like he was hiding them away just like this ring?”

Jonathan snorted skeptically. “When did Jake ever hide anything? He said and did exactly what he wanted to.”

“Um duh, the ring?” I argued.

He pursed his lips in thought. “Well, maybe it could be her. Who knows. I’ll just say I’ll be shocked as hell if it actually turns out to be her.”