The Player's Game

by Alice Gaines

  “I’ll be there.”

  …

  Just because Jim Brandenburg had given Katy time off, that didn’t mean she didn’t have to work. The Winthrop case looked no better than it had the day before, but she’d find some novel way to approach it. She sat at her desk in what used to be the guest bedroom in the condo she now owned and scanned the list of potential cases her paralegal had compiled. She knew all the important decisions that might apply. She’d have to research the more obscure references, and if she didn’t find anything in them, she might discover other precedents to pursue.

  Damn it. Jim was counting on her, at least for now, to put her marriage back together. Hah, fat chance of that. But if she could use this loser of a case to dazzle him, he’d forgive her failure with Grant.

  Her stomach growled, and she put a hand over it. “Shut up. I’ll feed you when I finish here.”

  Out in the entryway, something banged on the door. Not a knock. More like someone had kicked it.

  “Chai tea!” a voice yelled from outside.

  Katy opened the door to discover her upstairs neighbor and friend Xandra on the other side. She was holding two take-out bags, an amazing aroma of delicious food emanating from them. “I thought chai tea would get your attention.”

  Katy stepped aside to let Xandra breeze by her and head toward the dining room table. “Something told me you hadn’t fed yourself yet.”

  “I was going to.”

  Xandra set the bags on the table and raised a blond brow. “When?”

  “Soon.”

  Xandra put a fist on one hip and gave Katy a look. “Sure.”

  “Seriously, thank you. I’m starving.”

  “Tom yum or po tak?” Xandra pulled two containers of noodle soup from one bag and followed them with disposable chop sticks. “Tea for later.”

  No doubt Xandra knew what tom yum and po tak meant. She also spoke Spanish with the cute waiter at the Cuban fusion restaurant on the next block. She’d probably dated staff from both places.

  “I don’t care,” Katy said. “It all smells wonderful.”

  Katy took a seat next to Xandra at the table and dug into her meal. It was, indeed, glorious. Once upon a time, Katy might have wanted to learn how to make it, but who had time for cooking these days?

  “So…” Xandra hesitated. “Looked at any interesting videos lately?”

  “You mean, the one of me pounding on hotel room doors?” Katy answered. “You put me up to that, you know.”

  “Did not.” Xandra’s chopsticks stopped on their way to her mouth. “I just suggested you find Grant and get laid. You figured out how.”

  “I know.” It was her own damned fault. Next time she got horny, she’d take a cold shower to get herself under control.

  “Did all the legal hot-shots at your firm see it?”

  “I didn’t ask all of them.” The last thing she needed was Jamison smirking at her. “But the big boss saw it.”

  Xandra set her soup down. “Are you in trouble?”

  “Nope. He’s happy for me. He thinks it means Grant and I are getting back together.”

  Xandra’s blue eyes sparkled. “Are you?”

  “For God’s sake, not you, too.”

  “I never understood why you two broke up,” Xandra said. “You loved each other so much.”

  “Maybe love wasn’t enough.” She never would have believed that, back when she and Grant were in college. Love was the be-all and end-all. She’d managed to keep her grades up, and he’d passed all his classes, but every other second of their lives had been dedicated to being together. “Toward the end, we fought all the time.”

  “You never showed it.”

  “We hid it pretty well.” Katy sighed. “He wanted a family, and I’d just started my career. He couldn’t understand why we had to wait.”

  “You can have kids later. You’re not that old.”

  “I know. But I refused to even consider it.” He’d been stubborn, and she’d been stubborn, neither of them giving an inch toward the end. It had been more of a battle of wills than a negotiation. “Then, we both crossed the last line and said the one thing we knew would cause the maximum hurt.”

  Like a good friend, Xandra didn’t prod but waited for Katy to speak when she was ready. Finally, the time had come to tell her friend the worst, something she hadn’t shared with anyone else.

  “I called him a dumb jock.”

  “Oh, honey, you didn’t.”

  “Well, he got me back.” Katy took a breath. “He said the only reason Jim Brandenburg hired me was to get close to him.”

  “But that isn’t true,” Xandra said.

  That was easy for Xandra to say. She didn’t know how things went in firms like Brandenburg’s. They only hired the best and brightest, usually from elite universities. Sure, Katy had had great recommendations from her profs and the other attorneys she’d worked with, and she’d contributed to a few research papers while in law school…but she wasn’t from Hahvahd. What if Grant had been right? Jim wouldn’t fire her outright if she didn’t get back with Grant, but she might spend the rest of her time with her dream law firm working on cases like Winthrop’s.

  “You think it is true, don’t you?” Xandra asked.

  “No.” Katy waved a hand. “Of course not.”

  “Well, it isn’t.” Xandra pointed her chopsticks at Katy. “Take it from momma Xandra.”

  Katy almost laughed at the idea of Xandra being someone’s mother, but then maybe that wasn’t what Xandra had meant.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Xandra said. “Are you and Grant getting back together?”

  “We’re going to pretend to. Jim gave me some time off so we could work on reconciling, and Grant agreed to play along. We’re going on a PR tour for his team together.”

  “Good. Come upstairs later, and we’ll plan your wardrobe.”

  “I don’t need a wardrobe. Simple, casual clothes will do.”

  “For the public, yeah,” Xandra said. “But when you’re alone with Grant, you’ll want something different. And I have just what you need in Xandra’s Magic Closet.”

  “I’m not going to be alone with Grant…” Katy stopped herself. Xandra was a friend, and she deserved honesty. “At least, I won’t very much.”

  Xandra rested her elbow on the table and put her chin in her hand. “Do tell.”

  “Most of the time, we’ll be in local places. Schools, kids’ clubs, things like that.”

  “And the rest of the time?”

  “There are a few overnights,” Katy confessed.

  Xandra’s eyes gleamed again. “You’ll have to share a hotel room.”

  “Probably.”

  “I have just the negligee for you.”

  Katy held up a hand. “No negligees. Plain, flannel PJs.”

  “Aw, come on. You have the chance to have Grant, and you won’t take it?”

  One, it wasn’t clear she could have Grant. Maybe he wouldn’t want a roll in the hay that went nowhere. Two, he wouldn’t push the matter. He’d promised. And three, Katy would do her damnedest to keep her hands off him. Self-preservation had to kick in at some time, right?

  “It was fine for my birthday,” she said. “Just a one-time thing. But we can’t make a habit of it.”

  Xandra sat and stared at her as if she’d said something supremely dumb. And maybe it was—to her. Xandra lived in the moment. Katy had a future to worry about, and having her heart broken again wasn’t going to be part of it.

  “We were so close for so long. For years, we practically lived inside each other’s skin. I can’t risk my heart,” Katy said. “And I don’t want to hurt him again, either.”

  Xandra put her hand on Katy’s and squeezed. “You won’t, honey. If you two are meant to be together, you’ll find a way.”


  Katy rolled her eyes. “You’re hopeless.”

  “I’ll drink to that.” Xandra picked up her tea and handed the other cup to Katy. “Here’s to being hopeless.”

  …

  The tour had started. On the first day, they visited a local high school in Long Island—one of the day trips. In total, there were five players and three wives, including Katy. Grant watched her during the whole drive from Manhattan to Patchogue, gauging her reactions. She’d never done a lot with the team when they’d been married—in fact, they hadn’t travelled much at all together. She’d always been so damned busy, first with law school and then with her firm. She looked relaxed enough, but who could tell what was going through her mind?

  His phone rang, and he pulled it out of his pocket. His agent Stu’s name came up.

  “Hey, what’s up?” Grant answered.

  “Hello to my favorite client,” Stu said. He probably said that to everyone, but it always sounded good. “Where are you?”

  “On a bus headed to Long Island,” Grant answered. “With some of the other players.”

  “And management?”

  “Some.”

  “Okay, then, I’ll do the talking, and you listen.”

  Katy glanced his way. “Something going on?”

  “Just Stu.” Katy had been involved in his life long enough to know there was nothing “just” about talking to his agent. Stu got him contracts that brought in more money than Grant had ever expected to make. But he knew those contracts wouldn’t keep coming forever.

  “Did I hear Katy?” Stu asked.

  “You did,” Grant answered.

  “You guys back together?”

  “Let’s stick to business, okay?”

  “So, your contract is up at the end of the season. You sure you want to stay with this team?”

  No point picking up and moving if he didn’t have to. Besides, here he didn’t have to prove himself. He was the starting quarterback. For now. “Yeah.”

  “Got it,” Stu said. “For three more years?”

  Katy watched him the whole time he was talking to Stu. She’d know anything in this conversation would be serious. “Yup.”

  Stu was silent for a few seconds. “You realize this might be your last contract with them.”

  “Do I ever.” He was thirty-two now. Three years from now, he’d still be viable at thirty-five. But would they want to keep him on for another contract after that? Assuming, of course, that he was still healthy. He didn’t avoid facing the fact he was approaching the end of his career, but he didn’t go around worrying about it, either. He had plans for how he’d keep himself busy when he retired, and it would involve helping kids.

  “So, we’ll ask for more money,” Stu said. “You had a good season last year. Maybe I’ll put in a bonus for making the play-offs.”

  “We still have several months,” Grant said. “Start working your magic.”

  “Will do. Say hi to Katy for me.” Stu ended the call.

  “Stu says hi,” Grant said.

  “How’s the business side of football going?” she asked.

  He shrugged. “Okay. One more three-year contract and I might hang it up.”

  They’d often discussed the reality that he’d be out of a job before he was forty and what it would mean for them. Football had been his identity since high school. He wouldn’t lack for money, but his ego would take a beating. At one time, he’d thought they’d face that together. He turned to look at her. Her expression told him she cared, but she wasn’t part of his life any longer.

  “Have you put any thought into what you’ll do when you retire?” she asked.

  He’d spent plenty of hours tossing in his empty bed with nothing to think of but what lay ahead of him in life, now that his life didn’t include Katy. One way or another, it would involve kids, but he didn’t need to bring that sore subject up. “Stu has someone in his agency who gets endorsements. I can make money doing that.”

  “Beer?” she asked.

  “Mom would not approve,” he said. “And I’m not going to have little kids overseas making sneakers in my name that little kids here can’t afford.”

  “Then what?”

  “I dunno. Soup. Razor blades.” That part of his future life didn’t matter much. “And I’m already working for a charity.”

  She turned toward him. “Really? Which one?”

  ASK, USA—Adopt Special Kids. He’d not only represent them, he intended to become a parent to one of them. “It’s not important.”

  “I guess.” Her forehead wrinkled in concern. “I’d just like to know.”

  “Trust me. It’s no big deal.” Someday, she’d probably see him on TV with the child he’d adopted. By then, they’d be over each other, and she wouldn’t care. Neither would he. Maybe.

  She studied him some more and then glanced away at the scenery passing by. He’d shut her out of the conversation. That was their reality now.

  …

  When the bus arrived at their destination, school officials had already assembled to greet the team. As the players and their wives climbed out, the marching band struck up the team’s fight song. And the local press recorded it all. You couldn’t get a lot more wholesome than that.

  He took Katy’s hand, and she smiled up at him. All for the benefit of cameras, but the gestures took him back to the days when they’d first met in college. He, the football hero, and she, the brainiac. They shouldn’t have been a good match for each other, and maybe they hadn’t been, but it had felt so damned good to be with her back then.

  “Mr. Howard, over here, please,” one of the school officials—a man in his thirties, slender and prematurely balding—said.

  Still holding Katy’s hand, Grant stood where he’d been directed. Introductions went around—the principal, the football coach, the guidance counselor.

  “You’ll be speaking first to the team and then to the student body as a whole,” the principal told him.

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Just then, the roar of an engine revving broke up the conversation. A lipstick-red Corvette pulled into the parking lot, and Jimmy Harrington climbed out. Great. Grant’s competition had arrived.

  Grant inclined his head toward the team manager who’d put this little party together. “What’s he doing here?”

  “He knows the schedule, and he isn’t on it,” the manager answered. “He must have decided to come on his own.”

  When the band finished its number, Jimmy unfolded his six-foot-four body out of the car and lounged against it, crossing his arms.

  Katy leaned in toward Grant. “Is that the quarterback the team used its number one draft pick on?”

  “Jimmy Harrington, in the flesh,” Grant answered.

  She did her thinking thing where she screwed up her face and stared at Jimmy for several seconds. “He’s tall.”

  “Yeah.” Exactly three inches taller than Grant, which the sportscasters and journalist had pointed out. On every occasion. And now that Grant was looking at thirty in the rearview mirror, the kid was faster than him, too.

  “He’s not the passer you are,” Katy said. “He can throw halfway down the field, but he doesn’t have your accuracy.”

  Now it was Grant’s turn to stare…at her. “You watch the games?”

  She shrugged. “I always liked football.”

  She was way too casual about that. She hadn’t stopped watching him play, even after the divorce. The knowledge made him all warm inside, as if he’d had a stiff drink and it had gone down really smooth. He’d tuck that tidbit away for something to think about after they’d separated again.

  When the band finished playing, the little crowd applauded. Jimmy did it louder than any of the others, and then he sauntered over toward the team manager and the assembled school officials. After in
troductions, Jimmy joined Grant and Katy.

  “Hey, pops,” Jimmy said. “How’s it going?”

  Pops? No one said that anymore. “Where did you learn that word? In World War II?”

  “Nah, from my grandfather,” Jimmy said. “Who’s this foxy lady?”

  Grant put his arm around Katy. “My wife, Katy McCord.”

  Jimmy took Katy’s extended hand and shook it. “Robbing the cradle, huh, Pops?”

  “Grant and I are the same age,” Katy said. It wasn’t exactly true, but close enough.

  “I guess he’s just been beat up a lot,” Jimmy said.

  Grant tugged Katy a little closer. “Why don’t you go talk to the kids? They’re about your age.”

  “Cute. I guess I’ll show them my car.” Then Harrington moseyed back toward his Corvette.

  “Do you have to put up with that all the time?” Katy said.

  “Only when he’s here.” And Harrington seemed to be there every time Grant turned around.

  “He’s too green to play starting quarterback,” she said. “I remember how hard things were for you when you first signed.”

  Another one of those sweet tidbits. If she kept this up, he’d get addicted to them the same way he’d become addicted to her. And her smiles. And her orgasms. He owed her this attempt to make her boss happy. But if he wasn’t careful, he’d end up having feelings for her again. And the last time he’d felt anything for her, those feelings had been ripped out of him along with half of his heart.

  With their performance finished, the band had clustered around the Corvette, and Jimmy was entertaining them with a combination of smiles and swagger. He saved the sexiest of those smiles for the girls, especially the pretty ones.

  “He’s not going to pick up one of them, is he?” Katy asked.

  “He’s not that dumb.”

  “Well, he’s not as smart as you.”

  “You’re full of compliments today.” He tugged her closer. She could just be making nice. That had been the plan for this tour. Two ordinary people behaving in ordinary ways. His only problem was remembering it was all an act. After the tour, they’d go back to their lives apart.