Penalty Play

by Jami Davenport

  “Yeah, you could say that.”

  “What are you going to do?” Izzy appeared to be fishing for information, but Vi wasn’t sure why.

  “I don’t know.”

  “If you decide to quit, I’d love to hire you. It won’t be as lucrative, but it’s still decent money and the tips can be good.”

  “You would?” This was her second job opportunity in less than twenty-four hours.

  “Of course. You’re a talented dancer, and I’m always looking for employees who can get men on their feet and dancing, especially the geeks, who have two left feet. Seattle is full of them.”

  “I don’t know what to say.” Vi wondered if she should reveal her criminal record to Izzy. She doubted Izzy would run a background check, and she didn’t know her real name anyway. Yet keeping quiet seemed dishonest.

  “Think about it,” Izzy said.

  Matt had said those very words earlier. Vi could accept both offers. The party crashing could keep her going until she’d built her business. She was crazy to be thinking like this, but why not? Why shouldn’t she have some good karma after all the bad she’d suffered in the past seven years?

  She was going to accept Matt’s offer and look to the future.

  The past would stay buried where it belonged.

  * * * *

  Vi hadn’t gone home in a week, and Matt wasn’t complaining, except he could do without the cat. He’d left on a two-game road trip and was back for the weekend. He was getting used to having Vi in his bed every night, going to his games with the boys, and hanging out at home with them.

  They spent a lot of time at Brick and Amelia’s houseboat. Matt toyed with buying one for himself. Downsizing appealed to him. They didn’t need all this space if the boys had a play area. He could keep his boat nearby. He loved being on the water and couldn’t get enough of it.

  She still hadn’t told him her decision, but she’d called her boss and taken the week off. Matt hated the thought of her going back there, but Vi had to make her own choices. As hard as it was for him to keep his opinions to himself, he managed somehow.

  Matt didn’t have a game until Sunday night, so they spent a lazy Friday night at home. They watched a kid-appropriate movie, then Matt switched on the evening news as he often liked to do, even though some of the story lines sparked a lively debate between Vi and him. The arguments always made for good sex afterward. And he was listening. She was expanding his horizons, making him see the world differently, which was a good thing for his family.

  Matt went to the kitchen to pour the boys some milk before he sent them to bed. He heard an odd whimper, almost like a sob, from the family room and hurried from the kitchen, hoping the boys weren’t harassing Vi’s cat again. Last he’d seen, Luther had been lounging on the back of the couch spreading black hair everywhere. How could one little cat leave so much hair around a big house and not be bald?

  Matt paused and took in the scene in the family room. Vi was sitting on the couch staring at the TV with tears streaming down her cheeks. He frowned, confused as to what had her so upset. She’d been laughing when he’d left the room a mere minute or two ago. He glanced at the TV. The reporter was talking about a young humpback whale who’d been spotted off the San Juan Islands. The whale had a net tangled around him. They showed a picture of him breaching, and Matt could clearly see the net covering the whale’s snout, fins, and all the way down his body. As he swam, he dragged it through the water behind him.

  Boaters who saw the whale were requested to take pictures and immediately report his location to a group that specialized in extracting whales from nets.

  Vi was crying over a whale encased in a net?

  Joey, the more sensitive of his boys, if such a statement could be possible, crawled onto the couch and hugged Vi tight. Andy hopped on the other side and hugged her, too. Vi put her arms around them and pulled them close. Now all three of them were crying.

  Shit.

  Matt’s gaze flickered back to the TV, which now showed a close-up shot of the unfortunate whale wrapped in the net. Whales ate seals and salmon as far as Matt knew. This poor thing wouldn’t be able to open his mouth enough to catch and eat his food. The whale’s eye looked sad and stressed, as if begging for help.

  The whale’s fate wasn’t looking good.

  He shifted his gaze back to his boys and Vi crying over the poor animal. His heart squeezed tight, and he found it hard to breathe. Someone had to be the strong one in the group, even if he didn’t feel strong. Before Vi, neither he nor his boys would’ve given the whale story more than a moment’s thought. Vi had changed all that. She’d made them think about the world around them and how something as small as using insecticide on his weeds could have catastrophic effects on the local bee population.

  He swiped at his face. He was not going to cry. On stiff legs, he walked to the couch and sat next to Joey. Reaching out, he pulled them all into the circle of his arms. By now, Vi was sobbing and the boys were, too. Matt blinked several times to prevent his own tears.

  His youngest looked up at him, sniffling. “Daddy can help the whale,” Joey proclaimed. “Daddy can do anything.”

  Matt opened his mouth to protest.

  “Dad, help him, please?” Andy begged. “Vi’s sad. I don’t like her being sad.”

  “Guys, it’s okay. I’ll be okay.” Vi hiccupped and wiped her wet cheeks on his T-shirt.

  “Dad can fix it. Our dad is a superhero. There’s nothing he can’t do,” Joey said.

  Well, shit. Matt grimaced.

  “Can you help him, Dad? Please, can you? Please. Please. Please.” Andy gazed up at him with such admiration and trust, Matt’s heart stuttered a few beats before picking up again.

  “Guys, I—” He stopped, thrown by the way Vi studied him. She believed in him. She thought there was something he could do. “I’ll call Al. See if he can contact the people trying to save the whale and offer assistance.”

  A cheer went up from the boys, and Vi smiled with hope in her bright eyes.

  “It’s time for bed now, guys.”

  The boys jumped to their feet, already on to the next thing in their lives. Adults could take a page out of kids’ books. They lived for the moment. Matt dwelled too much on the past and worried too much about the future.

  “Vi, would you read us a story?” Joey asked, suddenly shy. Matt hadn’t met a person yet who could resist Joey when he put on his sweet little-boy face. Vi was no exception.

  “Sure. Run upstairs and get ready for bed. I’ll be there in a few.”

  They didn’t wait. They ran for the stairs. A few seconds later, Matt heard their feet pounding in the hallway above.

  Vi leaned her head on his shoulder and snuggled close. “Thank you.”

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “For what?” She leaned back and looked into his eyes, her pretty face puzzled and her arms looped around his neck. He liked the warm fuzzies he got from helping her and watching her bond with his boys. They’d been wary at first, but they were warming up to each other. He understood their reluctance to get close to another woman after the number their mother had done on them. His own mother had healed some of those wounds, and he greatly appreciated the sacrifice she’d made for them.

  “For opening my eyes and theirs to the world outside our little bubble.”

  She blushed. He couldn’t recall ever seeing her blush before. “You’re welcome.”

  “But don’t expect us to eat rice cakes or kale anytime soon.” He grinned, and she smacked him lightly on the shoulder.

  “Well, whatever you can do for that poor humpback, I’d truly appreciate it.”

  “I hope I can help. I like whales, and I like having you around. You enrich our lives and make the world so much brighter.” The words came out before he could stop them. He rarely spoke before thinking what he was going to say. Matt was not spontaneous, or hadn’t been until now. Now that he’d said it, he wouldn’t take it back if he could. He meant those word
s.

  She rewarded him with a teary-eyed smile so brilliant he was blinded by everything but her beauty, her uniqueness, her spirit.

  In that moment, Matt realized he more than liked her.

  He might be in love with her.

  * * * *

  Matt waited impatiently for Al to answer. Vi was in the kitchen making whole-grain pancakes or something like that, and the boys were “helping” her. He could hear their excited voices as they peppered her with questions. She answered each one with remarkable patience.

  “Do you know what time it is?” Al grouched.

  “Yeah, it’s ten o’clock on a Saturday morning, but that’s not why I called.” Matt grinned into the phone and chuckled, waiting for the imminent explosion of profanity by his cranky agent, and he wasn’t disappointed. He waited until Al ran out of steam.

  “I need a favor.”

  “Call Cindy. I’m out of favors. You’ve used up your quota for the month.”

  “I don’t have her personal number.”

  “If I wasn’t such a responsible dumbshit, you wouldn’t have mine, either.”

  Mat had a good laugh about that.

  “What do you want?”

  “I need you to save a whale.”

  “You need what?”

  “For you to save a whale for Vi and the boys.”

  The silence on the phone seemed to stretch into infinity. He’d rendered Al speechless. That was a first.

  “Al? Did you faint?” Matt couldn’t keep the amusement out of his voice.

  “No, I’m loading my gun, and I’m going to shoot myself in the head.”

  “I see. Before you do that, I need you to save this one whale.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about your unprofessional behavior,” Matt teased.

  “Talk away. I’m turning away clients so it’s not hurting me any.”

  “Okay, Al, about this whale—”

  Al groaned, sounding resigned to his fate.

  “Did you see the news last night about the whale entangled in a fishing net?”

  “How do you know that I’m even in Seattle?” Al shared his time between Seattle and New York, but he had so many clients in Seattle, he’d been spending more and more time in the city.

  “Are you?”

  “Yeah. And I did see it. The pictures were…disturbing.” Al’s voice hitched. This was a side of Al Matt had never seen. The guy seemed so self-centered and driven, and all the while he’d been a closeted whale lover.

  “Vi and the kids saw it, too. They want me to help.”

  “You going to dive in and try to cut the net off?”

  Matt ignored the sarcasm. Al practiced it to the level of master. “No, but there’s an organization that extracts nets from marine wildlife, but first they have to locate the whale.”

  “And what are we going to do about it?”

  The use of the word “we” wasn’t lost on Matt. “Contact them. Offer them whatever monetary help we can give them. Hire some whale-watching vessels out of Friday Harbor to locate the whale for the rescuers.”

  “That could get expensive.”

  “I don’t care. Whatever it costs.”

  “I hate to say this, but I’m on it, and I’ll match whatever you put in.”

  “I had no idea you were such a nature lover, Al.”

  “Whatever,” he grumbled.

  “I thank you.”

  “You’re in love with this woman, aren’t you?” Al said, throwing Matt a curveball he hadn’t seen coming.

  Matt’s entire face heated up from his neck to the top of his head. Thank God Al couldn’t see him. “It’s turned more serious that I thought it would.”

  “I see. You know your ex has been sniffing around, trying to come up with ways to get money out of you.”

  “I’m aware. What have you heard?”

  “I’ve talked with your attorney a few times. Didn’t want to alarm you. She’s not making any serious attempts to get the boys back. We think she’s bluffing to see if you’ll buy her out.”

  “I see.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I have it under control, and Super Al will save your whale, too. All in a day’s work.” Al disconnected the call before Matt could tell him about Vi’s not-so-secret career.

  He’d deal with that problem another day, once he convinced Vi to take him up on his offer and quit her exotic dancer job.

  “Is Al going to help us?” Vi said from behind him.

  Matt turned and went to her, wrapping her in his arms. She felt so damn good. So right. So…everything. If the boys weren’t in the next room, he’d take her to bed. He nuzzled her hair. She smelled like springtime promises, and he was developing an affinity for piercings, tattoos, and purple hair.

  “Yeah, he’s going to help. Turns out he’s a nature lover.”

  “Al?” She drew back and looked into his eyes, probably to see if he was pulling her leg or not.

  “Yeah, seriously.” He tugged on her hand. “Come over here and sit with me. There’s something I need to tell you while the boys are still preoccupied.”

  “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “It’s neither good nor bad. It’s just an FYI.”

  They sat on the window seat looking out at his big backyard.

  “My ex’s attorney has been in touch with my attorney.”

  Vi sat back against the window and made an odd little sound, like a wounded animal.

  He grabbed her hand, not meaning to cause her distress but wanting to be straight with her. “I just wanted you to know.”

  “My profession could jeopardize your custody arrangement.”

  “I’m not going to lie to you. It could.”

  She stared at their entwined fingers and lifted her gaze to meet his. “I’m going to quit. I’m not dancing anymore. I was already considering it.”

  “Does this mean you’ll take me up on my offer?”

  She nodded. “Yes, but I want a business contract drawn up. I don’t want this to be charity. I’ll make a go of this business or I won’t, but when we go our separate ways, I don’t want you to feel any obligation to me other than as a business investment.”

  “Not when. If.”

  Her brow furrowed. “What?”

  “If we go our separate ways.”

  “What are we doing here, Matt?”

  “I’m not sure, but I’m taking a page out of your book and living for the moment instead of worrying about the future. You should try that. It’s incredibly freeing.”

  She laughed, and a two-hundred-pound weight was lifted off his back.

  “Vi, I’ve been struggling with naming this thing between us, but I’ve finally figured it out. Why it took me this long, I haven’t a clue. Maybe because you’re not the woman I pictured in my life, yet you’re exactly what I need. You’re my girlfriend, Vi. The only woman I want in my life.”

  She sniffled and wiped her eyes. “Matt…you don’t really know me.”

  “I know all I need to know. You’re the woman who claims she doesn’t like kids but weasels her ways into my boys’ heart, you look damn good on purple skates, and you cry over whales tangled in nets.”

  “My skates aren’t purple.”

  “We’ll have to rectify that.”

  “Vi! Look at my picture!” Joey ran into the room and crawled onto the window seat between them. Matt swallowed hard as he watched Vi dip her head to study Joey’s drawing. He’d been wrong about her. She’d make a great mother. And soon she’d be a business owner. Then whatever happened, at least she’d be living her dream. Whether she was successful would be up to her, but Matt would put his money on Vi.

  Chapter 15—Delayed Offside

  Vi was the queen of delusional denial.

  She’d lived most of her life doing her own thing and dealing with the consequences later, and not much had changed. Matt being the perfect case in point. Their situation was rife with disastrous possibilities, but Vi
was a survivor, and she’d roll with the punches and enjoy what she had while she had it. She would feel no guilt when it came to not revealing certain things from her past, because that person didn’t exist anymore.

  As far as Matt and the kids, she wasn’t sure what she was doing and where their relationship was going, but she was pretty damn sure she was taking this journey without a seat belt or airbags. If they crashed and burned, she would most likely end up on life support.

  Enough of such sad thoughts. Vi trusted in the universe to take care of her, even if she didn’t always understand its methods.

  That night, Matt drove her to the club so Vi could give her notice, pick up her last paycheck, and say goodbye to everyone, especially Steph. Abandoning Steph caused her more than a stab of guilt, but she wasn’t sure what more she could do. It wasn’t as if they could throw Steph in the trunk and kidnap her. Yeah, just what she needed, another criminal charge.

  “I’ll be right back.” Vi kissed Matt on the cheek and ran inside. She said goodbye to Benjamin and the bouncers, along with the girls, pausing at Steph’s dressing table. The girl hadn’t said a word to her since she’d walked in the door and was applying her makeup.

  “Hey.” Vi pulled up an empty chair and sat down.

  “So you’re leaving?” Steph said, her voice flat and hollow. Her hand shook as she put on her mascara.

  “Yes. I’m going to work for a friend and start a dance studio.”

  “I’m happy for you.” Steph’s eyes held a hint of accusation, and she didn’t look happy at all.

  “You could go with me.” Vi already knew the answer, but she had to try one last time.

  Steph hesitated and shook her head. “I can’t. Gino—”

  “Doesn’t deserve you.” There, she’d said it. Vi braced herself for the fallout.

  Steph refused to look her in the eye. “He loves me, and he needs me to do this for a little while longer.”

  “You’ve been saying that for months. Are you dancing at the scuzzy place?”

  Steph nodded and ducked her head, letting her hair form a curtain across her face. Vi wrung her hands, uncertain what to do next, while the universe stayed silent and unhelpful.