Down the Line (Sports Romance)

by Cheryl Douglas

  “Uh, yeah, but don’t you jog and work out at home?”

  He surprised her with a smile. “You been keeping tabs on me, Gracie?”

  Was he flirting with her? No, that was impossible. Ethan hadn’t flirted with her in years. Every time they saw each other, it was awkward… and painful.

  “Dude.” Her friend and business partner, Ashton, came around the corner and gripped Ethan’s hand before bringing him in for a half-hug. “When did you get back to town?”

  Ethan’s eyes darted to Grace’s. “Just last night.”

  Ethan and Ashton had been friendly in high school, but now that he was one of the hottest players in baseball, her partner had a man crush and it was embarrassing and nauseating to witness.

  “We should go out for a beer sometime,” Ashton suggested.

  Ethan’s eyes never left Grace as he nodded. “Yeah, we definitely should. But I was just telling your partner here that I need a membership while I’m in town. Think you can hook me up?”

  “Definitely.” Ashton walked around the counter and grabbed the iPad so Ethan could fill out his medical history.

  Not that Grace needed that to know he was a perfect specimen. His washboard abs spoke for themselves. The smug bastard. She watched him swipe his finger across the screen after Ashton instructed him to follow the prompts. He was hotter than he’d ever been, and that just wasn’t fair. His dark hair was a little shorter, and he’d grown a playoff beard. It was clipped short now, but he apparently liked it enough to keep it. And she could see why. It definitely worked for him.

  Ashton groaned when the chime above the door rang again.

  Grace looked up to see her ex walking toward them. She’d ended their engagement two years ago, but made the mistake of going out with him again a few months ago. Now he thought there was a chance they were getting back together—despite her claims to the contrary.

  She forced a smile as Ethan glared at her ex. He was practically baring his teeth in a full-on snarl by the time Joel reached the desk.

  “Hey, beautiful.” He glanced at Ethan out of the corner of his eye, but it was obvious both men were prepared for a pissing contest.

  And she was having no part of it. “You here to work out?” she asked, noting the bag slung over his shoulder. “Don’t let us keep you. Enjoy.”

  “I guess I should congratulate you on taking it all this year,” Joel said to Ethan.

  “Don’t bother.” Ethan handed the iPad back to Ashton, along with his credit card.

  “You’re joining here?” Joel asked, looking from Grace to Ethan. “Why?”

  “Because I need a place to work out,” Ethan snapped. “You got a problem with that?”

  Ethan only had one reason to hate Joel. Her. And if he didn’t care about her anymore, why would he let her ex get to him?

  “Joel,” Grace said, giving him a warning look, “Ethan is a client. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to show him the ropes so he can get a workout in.”

  “Did you get my flowers?” Joel asked.

  “Yes.” She’d asked him half a dozen times not to send her flowers or candy or balloons or stupid little meme hearts. Yet he persisted. She was aware Ethan was hanging on their every word though, so she smiled politely and said, “You really shouldn’t have done that. But we can talk about it later. Enjoy your workout.”

  Ethan waited until Joel had walked away and Ashton had excused himself to answer a call before he moved in closer. “Hey, is he giving you a hard time? You need me to set him straight?”

  Oh no. Standoffish Ethan she could handle. Even Ethan the ass was doable, but overprotective, possessive Ethan did her in every time. She hadn’t seen him in years, but that side of him was no less potent now than it had been all those years ago.

  “You don’t have to do that.” Even though her insides had turned to goo when he offered. “I can handle him.”

  “You sure about that?” Ethan scowled at Joel, who was staring at them as he warmed up on the treadmill. “Looks like he’s a little slow on the uptake. Maybe it would help if someone delivered the message in a way he can understand.”

  “Oh yeah?” She couldn’t help but smile. “What are you proposing, tough guy?”

  He cracked a smile, making her heart race a little. Okay, a lot. “There’s one sure way you could get rid of him.”

  “What’s that?”

  He leaned over the desk, getting all up in her personal space. The faint smell of his cologne was making her dizzy in the best possible way.

  “Make him think you’re back with me,” he whispered, almost caressing her cheek with his beard.

  She licked her lips, wondering if his beard felt as soft as it looked. She still had it so bad for this guy. If only he knew. “What makes you think I want to get rid of him?”

  He chuckled, making all of her girly bits stand at attention. “You forget, I know you. When you’re turned off by someone, it’s written all over your face.”

  “I don’t want to hurt him,” she said, glancing at Joel out of the corner of her eye. “I just want him to accept that it’s over.”

  He leaned his elbow on the counter and brushed a strand of hair off her cheek while he looked into her eyes.

  “What are you doing?” she whispered, mesmerized by his lips, his eyes, his… whole package.

  “Trying to decide if I should kiss you.”

  Yes please! “Why would you do that?” Her voice was breathy, making her sound like a porn star who was trying too hard.

  “To remind him that you were mine first.”

  She gasped as she pushed off the counter. He did not just say that!

  “Excuse me?” she snapped, stepping in front of him. “Did I just hear you say what I think you said?”

  She was aware at least a dozen people were working out behind them. And while Ethan may be a hometown boy, he also had that championship ring, which made him a celebrity too. For all she knew, they could be whipping out their cell phones to capture her little meltdown.

  “Outside,” Ethan muttered, reinforcing her suspicions about their audience.

  She had no choice but to follow him, but once they were outside, she stood her ground, prepared to let him have it. “If you think you can just—”

  He cursed softly before ushering her toward the black Jeep that had been parked in his driveway when she stopped by his house earlier. “Get in. We’re not doing this out here.”

  She assumed he was more concerned about his reputation than hers, but she obliged, acknowledging the middle of a crowded parking lot in a strip mall was not the best place to air their dirty laundry.

  He got behind the wheel and gripped it with both hands before releasing a long, slow breath.

  “You gave me the impression you didn’t want to talk to me earlier,” she said, eyeing him as if he were a volcano about to erupt. “So what are you doing here?”

  “I told you,” he said through gritted teeth. “I came to work out.”

  “And I told you I thought that was a crock. So how ‘bout the truth this time?”

  His face was red, presumably with frustration, when he finally turned to face her.

  She bit back a joke about his blood pressure, knowing it wouldn’t be well-received. One thing she remembered about Ethan—he was slow to anger, but he had an explosive temper.

  “Why that loser?” He slapped his palm against the steering wheel. “Of all the guys you could have left me for, it had to be that ass—”

  “Left you?” she repeated dumbly. “What the hell are you talking about? You left me, not the other way around. And not only did you leave me, you dumped me!” A sore spot for her even after a decade.

  “Look, I tried to explain that. It wasn’t that I wanted to leave or break up with you. I just had to think about baseball, and the long-distance thing was getting to me. I missed you like crazy and it was messing with my mind. I couldn’t afford any distractions.”

  None of this was news to her. He’d said the same
words, almost verbatim, when he broke up with her. But they didn’t hurt any less now. She almost felt as though she had been transported back in time to that stupid kid, full of hope and plans for the future, who was being crushed by the man of her dreams.

  “And I couldn’t sit around and wait for you to change your mind.” She jutted her chin out as she stared out the window, trying her best to ignore the physical chemistry that still sizzled between them.

  “So you hopped right into bed with the first guy who came along?”

  “No!” She’d waited five months to sleep with Joel. Ethan had been her first lover, and she’d wanted him to be her last. It had taken her a long time to accept that wouldn’t be the case. “How dare you imply I would—”

  “Three months. You waited three goddamn months before you started seeing him. Two more months before you decided you were in love with him.”

  She didn’t see his point. She’d known after her first date with Ethan that she was in love with him. Bitterness seeped into her all over again. “How long would you have had me wait? The rest of my life? While you screwed around with every groupie on campus?”

  “I never screwed around with anyone the year we broke up!”

  “What?” Ethan had always been insatiable. No way had he gone months without sex.

  “You heard me. There was no one.” His voice softened, but there was still anger in his eyes when he said, “I didn’t want anyone else.”

  When he came home for a brief break that summer, he’d come to her house and told her he’d missed her, but before he could get carried away, she’d told him about Joel. She hadn’t wanted to be mean or spiteful. She just didn’t want to be tempted by her sexy ex when she finally believed she had a guy who cared about her and wasn’t going anywhere.

  “We waited a long time to have this conversation,” she said, sad for all their missed opportunities. “Probably too long.”

  “Agreed.” He cleared his throat. “There’s no going back, that’s for sure.”

  Not that she would want to, she told herself. That part of her life was over. Except for the good memories. She hung on to those. “I really am sorry about you and your fiancée. If you think I came to your house this morning to gloat, I didn’t. I was genuinely concerned about you. I heard you were alone and well…” She shrugged. “I remember how painful it can be to lose someone you love and feel all alone.”

  “Joel?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  It took a moment for her to realize he was asking about her emotional state when she broke up with Joel. “It wasn’t like that,” she said, unsure why she was confiding in him. “I cared about him still. I probably always will, but it was time to end the relationship.”

  “Then you were talking about me?” he asked, sounding surprised.

  “Of course I was talking about you.” When he broke up with her, she’d never felt more alone. “Who else?”

  “I’m sorry, Gracie.” He sighed before tilting his head back against the headrest and closing his eyes. “I never meant to hurt you.”

  “I know you didn’t.” She’d come to terms with their breakup a long time ago. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t her fault. It just wasn’t meant to be. “Baseball was your first love. I knew that when we started dating.”

  “I wouldn’t say that.” He swallowed. “Do I love baseball? Yeah, sure. But I loved you too.”

  “I know you did.” They were finally having the conversation she’d been too hurt to have years ago, and it felt good to clear the air. Even if it was a decade too late. “I loved you too.”

  “Sometimes I think you’re the only person who ever has—loved me, I mean.”

  “What are you talking about?” After bringing home a championship, an entire state loved him.

  “Outside of my family, friends, and teammates, I mean. I’m talking about women.” His phone buzzed in his pocket, but he ignored it. “Since you, there hasn’t been anyone who loved me… for me, ya know? They loved the game. They loved the big, fat contract, free tickets, and all the money and toys that went along with it, but they didn’t love me.”

  “Not even Issie?”

  His laugh was harsh. “Especially not her. I should have seen her for what she was a long time ago. Everyone else did. But I guess I was tired of being alone. All my buddies were settling down. I wanted that too.”

  She understood. She’d felt the same way when she agreed to marry Joel. She had been ready to move on to the next phase in her life. Marriage and kids. And she’d tried to ignore the niggling feeling something wasn’t right… until she couldn’t anymore.

  “I guess we’re all guilty of settling sometimes.”

  “Is that what you did with him?” Ethan asked, opening one eye to look at her. “Settled? ‘Cause I gotta tell you, there’s no way that guy was ever good enough for you.”

  She’d felt the same way when she met his fiancée at his father’s birthday party last year. Ethan was so far out of Issie’s league, she didn’t know how they’d connected at all.

  “I saw what I wanted to see,” she said, crossing her arms. “Just like you did with Issie, I guess.”

  “I guess.” He sighed. “It sucks, huh? Being so wrong about someone.”

  She touched his forearm. “You want to talk about what happened? I mean, I know she cheated on you, but—”

  “I honestly don’t even care anymore.” He smirked. “How bad is that? She cheated on me. I ended it. And I can’t even summon the energy to care. What does that say about me?”

  “That you’re tired,” she said, trying to be sympathetic. “You’ve had a hell of a year, worked your ass off. You’re probably physically and emotionally exhausted. You need time. To heal. To regroup. To figure out what comes next for you.”

  “You’re probably right.” He smiled. “What the hell’s going on here?”

  She grinned. “Damned if I know.”

  “We’re talking like… old friends.”

  “We were friends for a long time.” Not that she hadn’t been crushing on him the entire time.

  “You think we can be again?”

  “I’m willing to try if you are.”

  He extended his hand for her to grasp. “I’m game.”

  Chapter Two

  Ethan watched Gracie walk back into the gym and wondered how he’d been stupid enough to let her get away. She had it all. She was a knockout. Sweet. Sexy. Ambitious. And man, did she get him. Talking to her again reminded him how much he’d missed having her in his life.

  His phone had been blowing up all morning, and he grimaced when it buzzed again. His teammates had all heard about the breakup and wanted to know if he was okay. And of course, Issie herself had called, seven times, to try to undo the damage she’d done. She must have realized she’d let her meal ticket get away and now she was panicking.

  He thought about ignoring her eighth call but decided it would feel good to tell her off, so he connected. “What the hell do you want? Isn’t it obvious by now that I don’t want to talk to you?”

  “I know you’re mad at me,” she said, sniffling. “But if you’ll just let me explain. I think that bartender slipped something in my drink, E. I swear to God, I don’t even remember how I got up to the room.”

  “Yeah, right.” If he’d loved her as much as he should have, he might have given her the benefit of the doubt, but he was so done with her that it didn’t even matter now.

  “Are you saying you don’t believe me?”

  “I’m saying I don’t care.” He’d stood in that hotel room and watched them for long enough to know Issie knew exactly what she was doing and who she was doing it to. “We’re through. You don’t owe me an explanation. Or an apology. In fact, you don’t owe me a damn thing.”

  “Wait, are you back in Hillsborough? Maybe I should come there so we can talk face to face.”

  Was this chick for real? “Didn’t you hear a word I just said? I’m done with you. I don’t want you to come here. I want your stuf
f out of my house and you out of my life by the time I get back. Understood?”

  Thankfully, they hadn’t been living together, so he wouldn’t have a messy legal battle with her there. His lawyer had warned him against that, and he’d been smart enough to take his advice.

  “You don’t mean that. It was one stupid mistake—”

  “Then you admit you knew what you were doing?” When she fell silent, he said, “So you not only cheated on me, but you lied to me.” Not that he was surprised. She’d probably lied to him countless times.

  He watched Joel walk out of the gym and scan the parking lot. The good doctor didn’t seem to see Ethan. Joel walked up and slowly circled Gracie’s little Audi, peering in the front and back seats. What the hell was that about?

  “You know what, don’t answer that. I really don’t care. I have more important things to deal with right now.”

  He hung up, jumped out of his Jeep, and locked it before crossing the parking lot. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  Joel jumped back, obviously surprised he’d been caught. “I was just… uh…” He scowled before slipping on his sunglasses. “None of your business. I don’t have to answer to you.”

  “Kinda creepy if you ask me, lurking around your ex’s car.”

  “Yeah, well, no one asked you.” He hit his key fob, unlocking the BMW next to them. “But I do have a question for you. What are you doing here?”

  “In Hillsborough?” He shrugged, leaning against Gracie’s car as he crossed his arms. “I live here. What’s it to you?”

  “I’m not talking about the town. I want to know what you’re doing here.” He gestured to the gym. “At Grace’s work. You’re not trying to get back with her, are you?”

  “What’s it to you if I am?” Not that Ethan thought she’d be willing to take him back. Gracie had too much pride to forget the fact he’d dumped her.

  “She’ll never go back to you,” he said, looking bitter. “She doesn’t even like you.”

  “Oh yeah?” Ethan smirked. “We just had a good talk in my car. Took no time at all to get real friendly with her again.”