THE HARDEST YARDS (A BAD BOY FOOTBALL ROMANCE)

by Andrea Rose

  “Dating her. Not me,” I said.

  “Watched your film trailer like you said. Good work.” Tyler corrected himself behind me and they moved further away.

  Phoebe giggled.

  I peaked around as she took his elbow. “Shall we?” she said.

  Sally Spinster huffed and trailed after them, a once-voluntary third wheel of this date. Mine and Tyler’s eyes met over Phoebe’s shoulder. A small whimper escaped from my throat.

  My head fell towards emails on my phone—Whatever kept me from staring at her hair too long, thinking how much prettier it is than mine. Or why I didn’t wear a more classic black dress like her.

  They headed towards a lounge where Phoebe wrapped her hands around the back of Tyler’s neck and I slowly lost my mind.

  Blood thumped faster in my ears.

  My eyes flitted anywhere but on them where I needed to be looking.

  Do your job, Ariana.

  In a haze, the room desaturated anywhere but from Tyler guiding her towards Leo. Phoebe received a kiss on her cheek and—suddenly blushing—a compliment too. She smiled her super-white smile and Tyler looked at her mouth when she talked.

  When he’d had enough, he stole her back and they fell into a cozy seat a few booths away from me. He readjusted his perfectly ironed cuffs. She messed up his hair with his fingers.

  Envy pulsed through veins.

  I wanted to cancel this. Cancel Phase One.

  Abort.

  Abort.

  I met Tyler’s burning eyes across the room. He held me in his stare a second, dropped saddened eyes then rested his hand of Phoebe’s cheek.

  My hand swept up my long gown and I scuffled through the hotel toward the nearest subway station.

  Abort.

  Ass nestled on a metal seat and the man who’d been staring at me asleep finally, I sent the happy couple a message:

  Yuri needs me back at the office. Behave yourselves. Please.

  My head fell back onto the subway car window, aborting the mission to obtain a grainy Couple Sighting photo since they missed the red carpet.

  Reason? Fear of possible heartbreak.

  18

  “Two weeks, huh?” Wes said with a pat on my shoulder. “You ready?”

  I caught a wayward ball before it hit Coach Wes and threw it back across the field.

  “New doctor signed off on it,” I told him with the letter from the specialist. “Two weeks, I’m yours if you lift that suspension. Lemme prove how much I’ve changed since the shooting, since Phoebe.”

  He stopped, pulling me around to him. “You do seem different since meeting that girl. Why’d you never bring her up to us before? Thought we were family.”

  “I wanted to keep this special one secret.”

  “You do seem less pissed off at the world. You think this ain’t gonna create long-term damage, coming back early? Gavin told me months ’til you’d be ready.”

  “Gavin ain’t a doctor, Coach.”

  Wes scratched his chin. “We’ll talk. Lemme speak with Gavin. I dunno how he’s gonna manage you and Josh in play since signing him on too.”

  “Gavin’s managing Josh?”

  “Didn’t he tell you?”

  “You think I’d be this calm if he had?”

  Wes threw his arm to hit my shoulder. “Hey, son, don’t blame the man for having a contingency plan. You were dead.”

  And him or Jacquie had something to do with it.

  “Mr. King?” A tiny hand tugged my shorts. A kid’s wide-eyes beheld me.

  “You’re the one who’s good with kids. I’ll leave this for you to handle. See ya over there.” Wes ran off to the other Lightning players that showed for the fundraiser Ari had planned.

  “Hey, buddy. Who’re you?” I knelt to match the boy’s size and offered him my hand.

  His little palm shook it back and he started giggling. “Jaden.”

  “Jaden. Nice to meet you, Jaden. I’m Tyler.”

  “I know,” he said and showed me the back of his mini-Tyler King jersey.

  I laughed. “Oh, you do. You excited about today?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Y’ever played football before?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  A man with in Lightning beanie and t-shirt saluted. “Good. That your dad?”

  “Yes. He’s your biggest fan after me. We watch your games all the time together. My uncle used to play football but now he’s got a, um, a robot hip so he can’t play on the field anymore but he is my coach and I’m quarterback and stuff and yeah.”

  “Carrying on the family name, huh?”

  He threw his chin down.

  I playfully shook his baseball cap, regretting what I’d said. No kid needed to hear that from his hero. Legacy’s weren’t shit. My father’s legacy, is that what I was living?

  Hell no, I’d have paved this road on my own—with or without piggybacking my Dad’s success. Dad might have had gifts I did but he lacked what brought me this far: A vision.

  “Wanna come over and meet everybody?” I said. “We’re gentle giants, I promise.” The kid opened his arms and I lifted him up to my shoulders. His tiny fingers turned pink with how hard they gripped onto my hands.

  This hero wasn’t worthy of this kid’s respect. I wanted to feel I deserved it. I’d pleaded for years to change, to make this the year I wouldn’t fuck everything up but it never happened. I shamed my father for his choices, for giving in too easy, but I was no better than him. Hell, one more injury, I’d be on the same path.

  “Jaden, this is our physio, Mary. She’ll set you up with a buddy. I’m gonna say hi to mine, OK?”

  Jaden nodded and took Mary’s hand.

  Beyond them Ariana Maldova—in yoga pants I begged she’d never take off—decided to swallow her pride and show her face at her own event.

  She’d told me she might not make it.

  Last week, I’d offered up the idea to throw an event for underprivileged little league players with some of the Lightning. I never saw or heard from her until I received an invitation from Chrissy.

  Hey Teammate!

  You’re invited to the Little Lightning League Gala!

  Play football with your favorite Lightning players like Tyler King, Josh Hale and Matthew Horner!

  Ahead of Ari, I caught sight of Phoebe running my way, two large dogs bounding at her feet.

  Phoebe had been away on the West Coast for film festivals meaning I hadn’t seen her much.

  …Nor anybody else.

  “Hey, mate,” she said, panting with her hands on hips. “Oh…” She leaned forward and kissed my cheek, noticing the camera crews behind me. “You a dog man, King?”

  “To put it lightly.”

  “Good. They’re yours. I’m knackered.”

  Ari lumbered over.

  Neither of us knew the appropriate intro. She leaned forward, face in my chest, my hand on her ponytail and her palm patting my shoulder.

  Phoebe snorted. “The fuck was that supposed to be?”

  “It’s a…”

  “…New York thing,” I said and started lifting off my shirt.

  “Right.”

  Ariana caught my eye.

  “Aw, you guys. Anyway, I’m busting for the loo,” Phoebe said and ran off. “Hold the dogs.”

  Ariana returned to ignoring me and bent down to roughhouse the hounds.

  “They Phoebe’s?”

  “No. Meet Dino and Bentley, my pups. Braydon let me have them for what might be my last week with them.”

  “The Braydon who burned your wrist Braydon?”

  She nodded.

  I crouched to meet the shiny canines, their tongues going nuts on my sweaty chest. Their excitement overwhelmed me and I fell back on the grass.

  “Ew, gross guys. Gross. Get off him.”

  “Jealous?”

  I sat up chuckling as Ari pulled them away.

  “Sit,” she said.

  I showed her I was.

  “Cut
it out.” She spun, dogs on her heels, to walk toward the crowd of kids.

  “We gonna keep on like this then!” I yelled and she stopped walking.

  I wiped my brow, leaning back to give her room to kneel in front of me and stay unheard by the crowd in the distance.

  “You’re on such thin ice right now. I’ve forgotten it. You should too.”

  Her pointed finger told me stop. Her eyes traveling down my flexed abs told me don’t.

  “I’ll wait for that date,” I said, dusting off the grass from shorts.

  “Never gonna happen.”

  “Just you wait.”

  The local news needed interviews at the end of the meet-and-greet. Ari could ignore me so long before she had to step in and do her job.

  “How do you feel after today?” a reporter asked, “Being around kids who see you as a hero?”

  I checked a disconnected Ariana for permission to dodge this one but she had her head to the floor.

  “I want kids of my own one day. I want them to have a father they’re proud of and who deserves that title of role model. To be the man I wanna be, changes must be made. I’m not there yet but I’m taking the steps.”

  Hearing her script read word for word, she moved her eyes to me.

  “Having a platform like mine comes with the responsibility to be an example. I know I’m about a decade late realizing that, but, uh, y’know—Never been a fast learner, Mary. Hence the football scholarship.”

  A debonair shrug and half-smile sent the interviewer into nervous giggles.

  Ari’s professionalism made a brief show when she flashed me a low thumbs up for another job well done.

  “Do you have anyone to thank for these realizations? A blossoming love interest, perhaps?”

  “Mary…” I glanced at Ari biting her fingernails. “Keep it secret, but I think I’ve found what might be the real deal.”

  I ended the interview.

  After shaking hands with the producers and crew, I walked close enough beside Ari so she’d hear me:

  “How will we know if we’re too scared to follow it?”

  Ari was left to brew.

  Phoebe was helping oversee a spoon race in the distance and I heeded Ariana’s wishes to really push this serious couple thing today.

  Phoebe stole her hand back from me when I went for a spoon.

  “What’s with the attitude?” I asked her.

  “You think I’m boring.”

  She kissed my cheek. “Come on, Blue!”

  “Ari tell you that?”

  “Of course Ari told me that. Transparency, remember?”

  “Of course.”

  “I admire you, Tyler. You don’t give a fuck, do you?”

  “I do about what matters.”

  “So nothing matters to you then?”

  “Up until a few weeks ago,” I said.

  Did that give too much away?

  “You can find me boring, whatever, I’ll try be less boring but please give a fuck about this. Please. We’re a tricycle, us three, and we don’t work if a wheel falls off. Can we try our best to pretend to like each other? I know we’re opposites but I’m not that boring usually.”

  “No?”

  “Xanax and champagne to ease festival nerves, not a good mix the other night.” She shrugged. “We’ve all got our issues, mate.”

  “Are you OK?” I said seriously.

  “I’m fine. I indulge.”

  “Phoebe, strange country, new people, I want you to know I’m here if no one else is. I know how lonely it can get at the top.”

  “Heavy.”

  “Yeah, heavy. Full transparency this time—Y’OK?” She let me hold her hand, staring straight ahead and sighed deeply.

  “I’m already lonely, empty and under more pressure than ever so no. But this PR fantasy helps me forget all that, even if we’re fake and I’m boring, it’s nice to have you and Ari.”

  “I’m a friend,” I said, head in my hand. “You have my number.”

  “I appreciate it. Look, as long as my Instagram is updated everything’s under control— That’s how mum gauges me, anyway.”

  She passed me a spoon with an egg.

  The gun went off and when it did, I got shoved. The egg toppled. Phoebe scrutinized me under her brow. “I see how it is. Playing dirty, huh?” I joked back and poked at her ribs—a direct Maldova order.

  Get your damn photo already, sweetheart.

  “Did she tell you I was fucking ticklish?”

  She whacked my chest and I grabbed her again by the waist, eyebrows tensing.

  “Transparency, right?” I said.

  Phoebe played along but we let go soon after, giving each other a look that neither of us were into this.

  In the distance, Ariana bounded with her dogs, no camera in sight. I needed to find out what held her attention.

  Phoebe hooked her finger into mine to pull my ear towards her.

  “Let me help you,” she whispered.

  “What?”

  “Fuck her already. Do something—You’ve both been away with the fairies any time I see either of you, which means it won’t be long until Yuri or the public notice.”

  “Nothing’s up.”

  “I can taste the chemistry—It’s sweet. Follow it, mate. You have to get it out your systems. The only way to do that is in secret and what better accomplice than me?”

  I strode towards the drink stand. “You’re seeing something that isn’t there,” I said. “I’m with you.”

  Phoebe dropped to the grass and re-laced her sneakers.

  “I’m taking five. Talk to her. She’s wouldn’t have showed if she didn’t want you to.”

  I took a sip of water. Me and Ari made eye contact again and, like always, something else caught her attention straight away.

  I watched her scrumptious ass sprint across the grass, racing her dogs under the oak tree.

  Phoebe got tangled in her sweater. “Go get her, tiger.” She allowed me a break to keep trying.

  I hooked my arm around Ari’s shoulders. “Wanna race?” I said.

  Ari jumped the gun, sprinting hard down the long side of the field.

  I caught up with relative ease but held back speed to let her have this win. We crossed the faint markings of a touchdown line followed soon after by a wheezing Dino and Bentley.

  “Why did you slow down?” she said, breathing heavy over her knees. “Thought you’d catch me?”

  “I did catch you.”

  “Don’t be soft on me. I’m an army brat. We hate that.”

  We huffed in sync. She hadn’t realized she broke a rule—She told me something personal.

  “Why are you looking at me like that? You’re not allowed.”

  “We see each other,” I realized, gesturing at her. “I see you for you. You see me as…me.”

  She squinted and glanced to her left. “What does that even…?”

  “I don’t know yet. But tell me you haven’t stopped thinking about me.”

  “I have, actually.” Ariana lifted her head. “Because between preparing for a custody case, my work, planning this day single handedly and the minute my head hits the pillow, I didn’t have the time.”

  “Custody battle…of…?”

  “My dogs. You think I have any time for kids?”

  “You do disappear.”

  “Apologies my whole world doesn’t revolve around you. It revolves around the dogs. Hope you don’t have jealousy issues.”

  I stayed quiet.

  “You can laugh,” she said and cradled Bentley. “Others do when they realize they aren’t humans I’m fighting for in court.”

  “I wouldn’t laugh at that. Y’holdin’ up OK?”

  “Enough. It hurts too much to think of losing them but…I feel stupid telling anyone—Wait, why am I telling you?”

  I prompted her to carry on.

  She lay flat on her back for the boys to bound over her and catch their breaths. “I rescued them when I was sevent
een, long before Braydon, back in high school. Then I date the guy three years, he gets half my shit and both my babies and my apartment. It’s fucked up but…I’m too poor to fight his money that long. One person cares enough…She’s half way across the world right now and equally broke as me.”

  She exhaled sharply and put her arm on her head.

  “Your parents?” I asked, laying down beside her.

  She sat up on her elbows and scanned the trees.

  “We don’t talk.”

  “Same story.”

  Ariana dusted herself off and stood again, unable to relax around me.

  “Why did I tell you that!” She threw her arms in the air, posting herself from view against a large tree trunk.

  “I wanna be here for you if no one else is. Lonely sees lonely, Ari. I see you. And I’m here.”

  “Good line. Save it for someone who isn’t off limits.”

  “‘Scuse me?”

  “I’m a chase,” she said from the opposite side of the trunk. “The moment you get me, you’ll move onto the next shiny thing. Acting on impulse is not worth the risk. I’ve moved on from any idea of us. You should too.”

  “I can’t. I won’t.”

  “You ask me to be at these events and you push me away by saying crazy things that could get us in trouble. Why do you think I never see you in person?”

  “Fine.”

  “Fine,” she said walking towards the parking lot.

  “Before you go!” I said swinging off a branch to land in a squat.

  The dogs ran back towards me and Ari followed.

  “Gavin took on Josh as a client,” I said and pet them under my feet. “Conflict of interest, don’t you think?”

  Ari dropped down her sunglasses over her eyes. “You told me to stop working on that, remember?”

  She took the dog’s leashes and strode away again, slipping her phone out on the way.

  That’s my girl.

  19

  “You look a million miles away.” I jumped out my skin as Tyler appeared behind me.

  I commended the man’s persistence. Three weeks since our definitely casual business evening between colleagues, the man had been nothing but obedient to my professional requests…

  …Except the very one I needed him to follow: