Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance

by Jami Davenport

  Kelsie’s heart stalled, then exploded in her chest in a rapid series of frantic drum beats. Zach never cried. Never.

  She fought for the right words, the words to make everything be okay. Only for once, she couldn’t come up with anything.

  “I never let anyone in, not even my brother, not since high school, but I was letting you in again, Kelsie. Learning to trust you. Believing in you.” Zach met her gaze, lines of deep sorrow cut trenches into his rugged face.

  “Zach, please, I should’ve told you why I came here, leveled with you.”

  “It’s not just that. You followed me everywhere tonight, never once let me out of your sight. You didn’t trust me not to screw this up, as if I didn’t realize how important this was to you.”

  “Zach, I just wanted to be there for you. To support you.”

  “Support me! Hell, you wanted to control my every move, my every word.”

  Kelsie gasped. He made her sound like her mother. Oh, God, she was nothing like her mother, was she?

  “You had to make sure this poor Texas boy didn’t soil your perfect gala and ruin your ridiculous business.”

  She grabbed hold of his statement and attacked. “You think my business is ridiculous?”

  “Well, yeah? Who does it help except you? Does it give a homeless man a coat for cold winter nights? Does it provide a warm meal for a disabled veteran on the streets? Does it cure a child of cancer?”

  “No, but, it—”

  “It what? Perpetuates a bunch of outdated, snooty rules that don’t say a damn thing about the person underneath.”

  She couldn’t argue with that logic. “Manners are part of civilized culture. Without them we’d be animals.”

  “Like tonight.” His wry chuckle didn’t reach his eyes. “What about compassion? Caring? Giving?”

  Kelsie couldn’t speak. Her mouth opened but nothing came out.

  “You used me, Kelsie. Just like you used me in high school, just like you used the team, and those pageant judges because nothing gets in the way of what Kelsie wants. Nothing. Not even a man who was fool enough to believe he loved her.”

  “You loved me?” She grasped the words and held them to her heart, searching for the glue to put this mess back together.

  “I’ve always loved you, worshipped you, carried an Olympic-sized torch for you. I got over it once. I’ll get over it again.”

  “But—”

  He held up a hand to stop her. “I’ll sign any divorce papers you want. Hell, I don’t even care if you ask for spousal support or whatever the hell they call it.”

  “Are you telling me it’s over?” She locked her knees so she wouldn’t collapse to the floor in a heap of blubbering female regret.

  “It never even started. Not really. This was a stupid idea from the beginning.”

  She turned away from him and started throwing clothes onto the bed from the closet with shaking hands. The tears flowed freely down her cheeks and blurred her vision.

  “You can stay here until we play our last game. That was our deal. I’ll sleep elsewhere.” Zach’s harsh voice softened. “This is for the best, Kelsie. It would never work between us. We’re too different.”

  “I know.” She hiccupped.

  “It’s best we end it now before one of us gets their heart broken.” He stood there for a moment, as if he wanted to say something else, but he didn’t.

  “It’s too late for that.”

  “I know.” Zach walked from the room. She started to run after him, stumbled and fell against the bed. She sank to her knees on the floor and sobbed into the soft fabric of the down comforter.

  Her heart cracked apart and left a gaping hole no one could fill but Zach.

  CHAPTER 26

  Forward Progress

  Zach stood near the window, the dreary day outside highlighted his obvious misery. In one corner sat Veronica, arms crossed over her chest, as she glared at Zach. Her father sighed and leaned forward in his executive chair, while HughJack paced the floor.

  They were going to suspend him, possibly for the rest of the season, or cut him, and cut their losses. The Zach Experiment would be considered a major disaster. He’d torn the team in two with his blatant dislike of their popular quarterback—the man who’d legitimized the Seattle Lumberjacks as a contender.

  Zach stared at the practice field and Lake Washington beyond. So not the way he’d planned to finish his NFL career. And definitely not the way he’d planned to finish his marriage to Kelsie. Out with a fizzle, no fireworks, no last-ditch effort to save his career or his marriage. They’d both just sputter out like a wick buried in candle wax until all light was extinguished.

  Gone was his hope for a ring, his lifelong dream. And gone was the other lifelong dream—Kelsie. Somehow a ring paled in comparison to losing Kelsie. He’d never thought they’d click like they did, in bed and actually also out of bed. In fact, for her he’d dress in some stuffy suit for a night on the town just to see her in a sexy evening gown or bring home a bouquet of roses just to watch her face light up.

  She used him and now she wouldn’t want to align herself with the man who’d been labeled a major fuck-up by his NFL team—probably his last team. Which explained why she’d called in the cavalry—her ex. Yet, even as he thought the words he didn’t completely believe them. She’d been truthful with him at last, and he believed what she’d told him.

  The door slammed open. Zach yanked himself out of his pity party and looked up just as Tyler Harris bullied his way into the inner sanctum of the owner’s office. He looked madder than a swarm of yellow jackets having their hive doused with water.

  “Harris. Get out. I’ll deal with you later.” HughJack jabbed a finger toward the door. Tyler ignored it and stomped into the room, slamming the door behind him.

  “Like hell, I will. Zach didn’t throw the bowl. Kelsie did. I saw the whole damn fucking thing.”

  Veronica rose to her feet. “You’re lying. You jocks stick together.”

  “Really? You think I’d defend him if it wasn’t the truth? We’ve barely said a civil word to each other all season.”

  Mr. Simms looked at his daughter. “Is what he says true?”

  Veronica wrapped her arms around her body and glared at Zach. “That’s not how I saw it. He started the food fight.”

  Tyler rounded on Veronica. “You say you want what’s best for the team, so prove it. Admit you had a hand in this.”

  All eyes in the room turned to Veronica. Silence reigned, except for Harris’s heavy breathing. The guy must have run to get here. Veronica refused to look at Zach, or anyone else for that matter. She crossed the room to the small bar and poured a glass of ginger ale.

  Harris waited, hands on hips, chest heaving, displaying a level of patience Zach would never master. But then his ability to stay in the pocket and wait for plays to develop and still not get sacked was legendary. A skill he sorely needed this year considering their offensive line.

  Three months ago, Zach would’ve preferred suspension to allowing Harris to defend him. He’d come a long way. Now he stood back and gratefully let the quarterback present his case, knowing for once they were all on the same page.

  “Daddy, this was a test for Zach. You wanted to re-sign him. I didn’t. He failed the test miserably.” Veronica turned and pleaded with her father.

  HughJack jutted out his chin. “She’s right, Zach. You’re suspended. Your behavior might have been goaded by Mr. Richmond, but you didn’t handle your reaction properly. You failed to meet the requirements we outlined for you a few months ago.” He’d have been throwing a clipboard if he’d had one in his hands.

  “You’re suspending him for something like that? It’s not even related to his performance on the field.” Tyler fisted his hands and stepped in between HughJack and Zach, toe-to-toe with his coach.

  “You’re taking Murphy’s side?” A smile tugged at the corners of HughJack’s mouth.

  “We need him.” Harris’s steely blue eye
s narrowed with determination.

  Zach stood behind Harris and kept his mouth shut as he watched the coach. Zach suspected both he and Harris were being played.

  “He’s a detriment to this team. He started that food fight, and ruined the gala. The sooner he’s off the team, the better,” Veronica recovered her stride and jumped back in the conversation.

  Harris rounded on her. “He’s not a detriment. Not to me. Not to you. And definitely not to the defense.”

  HughJack’s eyes narrowed. Zach knew Harris was walking into a trap but had no way to warn him. “I never change my mind.”

  “There’s a first time for everything. If you suspend him, you’ll have to suspend me, too. I’m as guilty as he is, and I’m calling bullshit on this entire thing.”

  HughJack studied both of them, not bending an inch. “You’re both team captains. You’re responsible for the actions of your team. Half the team and all the rookies joined in that food fight.” He turned to the owner and Veronica.

  Tyler had the guts to grin. “Yeah, they had a helluva good time.”

  “I for one, did not have a good time. That incident reflects badly on the team and my family.” Veronica lifted her head, getting that haughty rich-bitch look Zach used to see on a teenage Kelsie, the one that didn’t fit her anymore.

  Tyler turned to Veronica. “Who gives a shit about your reputation? We had a record-setting fundraiser.”

  Veronica ignored her favorite player and turned on Zach. “Zach deserves to be benched. He behaved like a moron at the gala. That was the deal. He broke the agreement.” On that note, she cast one last threatening glance at Zach, brushed past Harris, and left the office.

  HughJack almost looked sorry. Zach knew they’d put him between a rock and a hard place. Zach hadn’t conformed to the terms of the agreement in HughJack’s mind. “That was the deal, Zach.”

  HughJack turned toward Tyler who lifted his chin in defiance, as if daring the coach. “For unacceptable leadership behavior, I’m benching you both for the first half of the next game.”

  Zach nodded, and Tyler glared at each man before he strode out of the room. Turning, Zach followed him into the hall. Neither spoke as they walked down the stairs. Swallowing, Zach turned to Tyler. “Thanks, I—”

  “No, thanks. We’ve got a football game to win from the sidelines, at least part of it. Let’s get started.”

  Together, they headed for the film room. Maybe hours of film would burn out the image of Kelsie’s stricken blue eyes when he had told her they were through.

  * * * * *

  Kelsie performed the physical motions of being a wife. She cooked, she cleaned, and she tried to wrap her head around what happened to destroy the fragile bonds they’d forged. She and Zach barely spoke. He went about his business, and she went about hers, what there was left of it.

  Kelsie made it her mission to do as much of the gala cleanup as possible by herself, just to show Zach that she didn’t need his money. She underestimated the sheer amount of lights and Christmas decorations and garbage littering the huge house. The kitchen looked like a war zone and the parlor didn’t look much better. Regardless, she toiled away like Cinderella, only her Prince Charming had resigned from the job.

  Day by day, she made a bigger dent in the mess, but it was nothing like the dent in her heart.

  Mark had to be behind this entire disaster. He’d probably hired the PI to scare her and showed up at the gala to further ruin her life just because if he couldn’t have her, no one could. That was the type of man he was. He hated that she’d moved on and found someone else.

  Lavender told her Zach and Tyler had been suspended for the first half of the next game. She tried to talk to him about it, but he just walked away. She knew the Jacks’ playoff dreams hung by a thin jockstrap, and one loss would pretty much dash all but the dimmest hopes.

  If only she could do something to help. Sex helped, but Zach wouldn’t let her within a mile of him or his fine body. Dang, she missed that body with all its hard, bulging muscles and the dark crinkly hair on his chest. Those strong thighs and big feet and even bigger—

  Kelsie dropped the broom she’d been holding and sank onto the couch. She needed another jetted-tub therapy since Zach didn’t seem to want the task, but with her luck he’d walk in on her again. Maybe her naked, soapy body would entice him to crawl in the tub with her.

  Scranton interrupted her thoughts with a low guttural growl. Kelsie’s head shot up. A car without headlights crept by on the street. As she watched, it parked across the street. A dark sedan. A very familiar dark sedan.

  Instead of fear, fury built inside her. She grabbed Zach’s Ken Griffey Jr. autographed bat and ran out the door. She’d never been a Yankees fan anyway.

  Brandishing the bat, she ran for the car. Trench-coat man stood several feet away, taking a leak. He yanked up his pants and started toward his car. She blocked his escape, swinging the bat in front of her.

  He held out his hands, palms up. “Hey, look, lady, I don’t want any problems with you. Just let me get in my car, and I’ll be on my way.”

  “Like hell you will. Not until you tell me who hired you.” She threatened him with the bat.

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Really?” Kelsie swung that bat hard against one headlight. It shattered into millions of tiny pieces. “You don’t seem to like using these things anyway.”

  “You’re fucking crazy. Leave my car alone.” The guy tried to skirt around her on the sidewalk to escape.

  “Not so fast, buster. Tell me who hired you.” She smashed his windshield and watched with smug satisfaction as a nice snowflake pattern formed in the glass.

  “Damn it. You’re a crazy-assed bitch.”

  “You’d better believe I am. Tell me what I want to know, or you’ll be walking home tonight.” She did in the other headlight.

  “Stop. Please stop.” He begged like a coward. Trench-coat man didn’t seem so formidable now. She couldn’t believe she’d ever been afraid of the idiot.

  “Who hired you? Tell me now or I’ll start on the hood.”

  “Okay, just stop, please.” He backed up several steps and regarded her warily. “Veronica Simms.”

  “Really?” She held the bat poised over her head.

  “Yeah, really. Said she needed to find a way to bring Zach down, and you were it.”

  “What else?”

  “That’s it.”

  Kelsie nodded as it all became crystal clear. Veronica. All Veronica. She tossed the bat at the guy. “Here, sell this on eBay, and you might have enough to fix this car.” She ran into the house and dialed a phone number from memory. “Don’t you dare hang up on me.” For a moment her threat hung suspended in air like a jumper teetering on the ledge. Mark’s breathing on the other end of the line indicated she’d interrupted something strenuous. He’d never been known to hire his legal assistants because they could use a computer. Their skills lay in other areas.

  “What the hell do you want?”

  “The truth. Why did you come to the gala?”

  “Oh, fuck. You’re not going to give me any peace until I tell you, are you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Fine. That Simms woman called me. I thought her plan sounded interesting, and she was footing the bill.”

  “So you came out here to harass me and drive a wedge between Zach and me.”

  “Honey, I sure did. And it worked from what I understand. You got your answers, now good night.”

  The line went dead. Kelsie sat down at the breakfast nook and considered her options. She wasn’t done with Veronica yet, and she definitely wasn’t done with Zach Murphy.

  * * * * *

  A few days later, Zach slumped on the bench, miserable, cold, and frustrated. Harris sat next to him, hating the helplessness of being benched as much as Zach did.

  Out on the field, the Lumberjacks floundered like coho salmon washed ashore and dying with their last breath.

  Brett couldn�
�t complete a pass to save his soul—or the team’s. Bruiser ran like a ninety-year-old man. The defensive line crumpled under the 49ers constant bombardment, leaving big holes, while the secondary staggered and weaved worse than his grandma’s knitting circle after a few shots of Amaretto.

  Zach buried his head in his hands and groaned when the Niners’ running back skipped into the end zone untouched from twenty-five yards out, while the bodies of fallen defenders littered the field. Thirty-eight to nothing. Holy crap. At this rate, they’d be breaking a league record, and not one they’d want to break.

  Even worse, Kelsie had barely spoken to him since the gala. He slept alone, thanks to his stupidity. He couldn’t concentrate without her, couldn’t play the game he needed to play, couldn’t think of much else but her, even as his team imploded around him. Fuck, he needed her. Big time. His quest for a ring faded in comparison to his grief over losing her. And he had lost her. He’d told her it’d never work between them. Yet it had been working until he’d been an idiot who couldn’t get past his damn pride and humiliation.

  Someone nudged his shoulder. Zach looked up to find Harris studying him with determined intensity.

  “Two more minutes of this shit, and we’ll be off the bench.” Harris nodded at the scoreboard as it mercilessly ticked off the seconds to halftime.

  “This is a fucking disaster.” Zach sat up straighter.

  “Hey, I’m always up for a challenge.” The cocky Harris grinned at him, but Zach caught a glimmer of concern in the quarterback’s blue eyes.

  “Yeah, we’ll come back.”

  “As long as your defense gets their ass in gear.”

  “As long as your offense puts some points on the board.” Zach shot back, but not quite as indignant as he could have been. The final second ticked off the clock, ending the first half.

  “You and I will find a way.” Harris stood up, clapped Zach on the back, grabbed his helmet and jogged toward the tunnel.

  Only they didn’t—find a way.