“What’s up Luke? You look more pissed than me.” I question him.
“Ari, that’s the reason I stopped by today. Out of the blue, Sarah called me to warn me there were rumors going around the office about you. She wasn’t sure of the details, but Phillip’s assistant overheard him on the phone with a client. The client seemed to be complaining about you. His assistant has told everyone that will listen that your job is on the line.”
Suddenly dinner doesn’t appeal to me and the wine I’m sipping tastes sour. I feel the color drain from my face and my eyes sting. “You’re kidding?” I whisper.
“I wish I was, honey, Sarah wanted me to know because she knows how close we are.”
“Well, this is preposterous! I’ll be calling Phillip Green tomorrow and letting him know his assistant is a twat and needs to be reminded of confidentiality.” Katy hisses.
“No, Grandma,” I shake my head. “I’ll talk to him. Regardless of if it’s true or not, Phillip will never put up with it. His assistant may hate me when I’m done, but I can’t allow her to ruin the reputation I’ve built.”
She opens her mouth to argue but then smiles wickedly. “Okay, Ari, you handle it your way. But I expect to hear tomorrow night what happens to the little b-i-t-c-h.”
Luke and Reed laugh loudly at her use of spelling and Davis joins them. He has no idea what he is laughing at but his giggle is so sweet, I forget some of the hurt from a few minutes ago. Then I think about Sarah and what’s going on with her.
“Luke, what happened with Sarah? I thought you two hit it off pretty well.”
He looks around the table uncomfortably until his eyes land on mine. “It didn’t work out.”
“Obviously, but why?”
Something must click in both Reed and Katy’s head because they start nodding in understanding.
“You try and set her straight before you ended it?” Reed asks him.
“Nah, man. She was pretty out of line. Not sure it was worth it.”
“Her loss, sweetie, she’ll regret it.” Katy tells him softly.
“What am I missing?” I ask.
“Sarah couldn’t handle my relationship with you and Davis. Then when Reed came back into your lives, she became irrational.” Luke answers me.
I open my mouth to argue but he cuts me off. “Ari, don’t. Don’t argue, don’t feel bad, and don’t ever talk to her about it. It was my choice. Truth be told, it wasn’t entirely about you. She wanted more from me than I was willing to give and she started to harp on how now that Reed was back, I could back off. What she couldn’t understand was Reed or no Reed, you and Davis are my family.”
“That’s absolutely ridiculous.”
“Maybe, but it’s done now. I’m serious, Ari, don’t mention it to her.”
I nod my head even though I don’t want to agree. Reed’s phone rings and he excuses himself to answer. Katy and I discuss our annual Fourth of July barbeque and the guest list this year. When Reed comes back, he is smiling widely. He picks Davis up and sits him in his lap. “Well, that was my coach. The therapist has cleared me for training camp the second week of July. The rookies are already here and scrimmaging.”
“That’s great!” I scream a little too loudly. Luke slaps him on the back and Katy squeezes his hand. He leans over and kisses me quickly.
“That’s not all. There’s a player party on Saturday night in Jacksonville. I’d like you to come with me. I think it’s time we also talked to my agent and the team PR rep.”
Party, agent, PR rep keeps replaying in my mind, and I stay silent. Katy notices my inner freak out and speaks first. “I think it’s a wonderful idea. I’ll watch Davis.”
“Katy, do you think you can take him through Sunday night? We’ve been invited on a friend’s boat Sunday too. I really want Ari to meet a few of the player’s wives.”
“Wait—what? I can’t leave him overnight.” I interrupt.
“Why the hell not? I’ll be around and I’ll take him to the beach on Sunday. I don’t have any plans on Saturday so I can even stay over in case Katy needs to drive somewhere.” Luke answers.
“But—what about Sunday? It’s Father’s Day.”
Reed’s face falls and he pales. Shit! I didn’t think about how hard the day must be on him. Especially knowing how much he loved his dad.
“Ari, come with me.” Luke gets up and watches to make sure I follow. When we get far enough away from the table so no one can hear, he corners me. “Don’t do this.”
“Don’t do what? I haven’t done anything.”
“No, you’re about to. Reed Matthews is back. He looks at you like the sun shines at your feet. He wants to introduce you to his life. Don’t give excuses and put up walls. Davis is young and I’ll help him make something for Reed. It’ll be a good project for us. Give Reed this weekend. Go with him to the party. Go on the boat. Meet his friends. He’s ready to announce to the world that he is a dad. He needs you by his side. He’s been around for weeks now giving you the respect and time you need. I saw the anger when he found out about Jack. He’s committed to this relationship, Ari. Do you feel the same?”
His hard stare penetrates my heart. Everything he said is right. I slowly nod my head and grin at him. Throwing my arms around his neck, I hug him tight.
“Right then, it’s settled.” He leads me back to the table where Reed and Katy are smiling at us.
“Looks like I’m gonna be hanging out with you this weekend DL. Think your daddy will let us use his beach house?” Luke ruffles Davis’s hair and looks at Reed.
“Sure, man, I’ll have a key to you tomorrow. Use it anytime. And we’ll be back late afternoon on Sunday. I can take everyone out to eat.”
“Nonsense, I will make dinner. I’ll make my famous lasagna and we will celebrate in style. Reed, I want this Father’s Day to be memorable for you.” Katy says.
He doesn’t respond but nods his head. His face is filled with raw emotion and I rub his cheek lightly. My heart melts at his smile as he kisses Davis’s head.
We talk a little more about the upcoming football season and Reed’s excitement is contagious. He announces that he’s getting all of us, including Sophie, into a box for the pre-season games.
After we drop Katy off at her house and pull up in my driveway, I notice Reed grab a duffle bag out of the back of the truck. He grins and follows me in without a word. My nerves flutter with excitement and I don’t hide the smile that spreads across my face.
Chapter 14
Reed
I hope she doesn’t kill me but there is no other way to do this. I’ve been thinking about how to tell my employer, friends and teammates about Ari and Davis for weeks. This is the only thing I came up with.
After Davis’s soccer this morning, we left straight from the fields and let Luke take him home. Ari felt this would be better than trying to explain that we were leaving. I’ve stayed over every night since I got back on Monday. Falling asleep with her in my arms has given me a sense of peace and contentment. I’ve been careful not to push her about sex but I am about to rub callouses on my hands from taking care of myself. The fucking hard-on I wake up with every morning is painful but watching her run around getting ready for work in her short robe is torture. As soon as I get back to my house, I jack off thinking about tearing off that robe and fucking her on the kitchen table. Wrapping her legs around my waist, squeezing her tits, licking every inch of her body until I’ve tasted-
“Reed?” Her sweet voice interrupts my dirty thoughts.
“Hmmm?”
“What are you thinking about? Why are you grinning?”
I look over and see her eyeing me, and I realize I’m cupping my dick. “Really wanna know, Angel?”
Her face flushes and I reach over to take her hand. “No, I guess not. It’s pretty obvious by the way you’re grabbing yourself.”
“Would you rather grab me? Open invitation. Anywhere and anytime you want. Feel free to grab, rub, suck, lick, kiss—”
“Reed! Stop it!”
“Okay, babe, but only because there’s no time to act on what I want to do to you right now. It wouldn’t be cool to show up for our meeting with a stiff dick.”
“Really? Isn’t that a bit crass?” She tries to hide her amusement.
“Nah, but in order to stop my dirty thoughts, tell me about the meeting with your boss yesterday.”
“Well, luckily, he’s looked over the three accounts with complaints and found no errors. Then personally called them and explained his audit. They seemed okay and explained there must have been a problem with their reports. So now, we are organizing a full audit of our data transfer since they received faulty earning statements. Good news is that I didn’t lose any of them. As for his assistant, she resigned. After I told him about the rumors floating around regarding losing my job, he called in HR and they talked to her. I don’t know what happened in the meeting, but she packed up her desk and told a few people goodbye.”
“You back in the running for the promotion?”
“Maybe, I think we are going to let this die down a bit. And to be honest, I’m okay with that.”
I raise my eyebrows in confusion but don’t have time to question her because we pull up to the stadium. I lead her through the offices and see three people waiting for us. She links her fingers in mine and looks at me nervously. I bend down and brush my lips lightly over hers, which seems to relax her as we walk into the small conference room.
There are back slaps and hugs with a lot of congratulations on the successful rehab. Stepping back, I move Ari in front of me and rest my hands on her hips.
“Ari, this is Coach Sams, Connor Michaels, my agent, and Bella the Public Relations Manager. Y’all this is my Arianna Williams.”
There’s a quiet hiss and I don’t know if it was coach or Connor. Ari must not hear because she gives them a full smile complete with her amazing dimples and shakes their hands.
“Gotta tell you, son, it’s an honor to meet your new girlfriend, but is it really worth calling a meeting on a Saturday afternoon?” Coach asks.
“This isn’t just some girlfriend. I have a feeling there’s a lot more to this story.” Connor looks at me suspiciously.
“Let’s all sit down. I’ll make this brief so we can get ready for the party tonight.” I help Ari into her seat and take her hand back in mine. We are united in this, and everyone needs to see how serious I am.
“Right, so thanks for coming in today. I’ll get to the point. Ari and I have a son that’s almost four.” I watch Connor’s face fall and Bella and coach look at one another with shock. “I don’t want to go into the dirty details, but Ari was my college girlfriend. We had a huge misunderstanding and broke up. I found out about Davis around the end of April. I wanted to tell you guys the story and see how you want to proceed. They are going to be in my life and the public will find out soon.”
“Well, if you can give me more details, we can take a spin to make it less scandalous. I think we should hold back until asked about it, but I’ll have a statement ready. A lot of athletes have a child out of wedlock so it won’t be front page news.”
“Jesus Bella, don’t make it sound so slimy. This isn’t just about a kid out of wedlock. There’s so much more to this story and I’ll let Ari answer your questions.”
“Listen, I hate to break it to you, but it won’t affect us as an organization. It’s going to hurt you and Ari personally more than anything. People will speak out and accuse her of coming forward now because of your fame. These same people will turn around and call you a dead-beat dad for abandoning your own kid for your career. It will affect you, but like I said, it won’t affect the team.”
“You’re fucking kidding me? I came to you today for support and that’s what you’ve got to tell me?” I slam my free hand on the table and Ari squeezes my other tightly.
“I’ve got people to handle your personal press statements and put together an image re-build if necessary.” Connor takes out his phone and starts typing. “Believe it or not, it’s a part of my fee to be a cleaner.”
“There’s nothing to fucking clean. Ari and I were in love and we were manipulated into breaking up. I’m the asshole in this situation because when she tried to talk to me, I pushed her away. She has been a single parent for all this time and done a tremendous job. Now that I know about him, he will be a fixture in my life forever. Don’t see why me being a dad would need to rebuild my image.”
“Reed, calm down. I can understand why they feel this way. This is personal to us and they are on the outside looking in. I agree with Bella. Let’s put together a blanket statement and see how this plays out. You already said we’re not hiding. So now we just wait and see if people react or not. I know you’re a football star, but I’m no one special. The biggest concern is Davis so we need to concentrate on his safety here.” Ari says softly.
“She’s right, let’s just get a few facts down and then Connor and I can combine a statement if needed. There are far worse things that we could be talking about. At least you’re not married and coming forward with a love child. People go ape shit over that.” Bella smiles slightly trying to break up the tension.
“Coach? You’re quiet over there. What do you think?”
“I’m shocked as shit but happy for you. My kids are the best thing I have ever done in my life. No Super Bowl ring, winning season, broken records, or VIP trophies will ever feel as good as holding my kids for the first time. We’ll get this straightened out. You’ll be back on the field, and now you’ll have a number one fan. Guess this Father’s Day takes on a whole new meaning, huh?”
“Yeah, for the first time since losing my dad, I’m looking forward to Sunday.”
Unbelievably beautiful. That’s the only way to describe Ari tonight. Her dress is tight in all the right places and the strappy sandals she’s wearing are going to look great wrapped around my waist. I watch her flit around my kitchen changing out her purse. She has been quiet since we got here. I purposely gave her the condensed tour leaving out the back of the house. She didn’t say anything when I unloaded our bags in my bedroom. Her only comment was that it was a big place for one person. I agreed with her, but now this house isn’t going to be for just me.
“Babe, are you almost ready? I’ve got something I want to show you really quick before we go.”
She nods and I gesture for her to come to me. When she gets to my side, I push a button that retracts the blinds and exposes the back yard. Her body goes still against mine and I hear her gasp. My house is nice, but I bought it for the backyard and view. An extended patio leads to a pool with a cascading rock waterfall. There’s a separate pool house and summer kitchen to the side with a wrap-around bar. The landscaping is made up of all different palm trees and tropical plants. Beyond the patio is a grassy area that leads to a deep-water dock on the Intercoastal Waterway complete with a boatlift. The houses in this neighborhood are spaced generously so the entire area is completely private.
“This is breathtaking,” she says softly.
“Is it what you envisioned?”
“It couldn’t be more perfect if I did it myself. How did you remember?”
Lacing our fingers together, I lead her to the bar where there’s a bottle of wine chilling. Settling her on a stool, I pour us a glass and hand one to her. “I told you I remember everything. Did I know we would reconnect, no, but when I saw this backyard paradise, I knew I had to have this place.”
“I absolutely love it.”
“I’m glad. It’s important you feel comfortable here.”
She opens her mouth to argue, but I cut her off by slamming my lips to hers. She tastes like strawberries and white wine and it makes me want to savor every inch of her. I try to be gentle, but when she moans I deepen the kiss. Our tongues dance together as I fist the back of her neck holding her to me. I pull back lightly and kiss a path from her chin to her earlobe. She’s slightly panting which turns me on even more.
“Baby,
I won’t push. But go with me on this okay? I need to know you will feel comfortable in my place.” I lay my forehead against hers to stare into her eyes.
“Is this all part of your plan?” She grins.
“Operation Matthews in effect. You’re still on a need to know basis.”
“Well this mission is accomplished. I love it.”
Stepping back, I sip my wine while staring at her. This is a good moment between us and I don’t want to ruin it but I need to warn her about tonight. I pluck her off the stool and twist so I am sitting and she is between my knees. I squeeze her hips and she smiles at me exposing the dimples I love so much.
“Ari, I need to tell you something about tonight. There are going to be some people there that are going to intentionally make you feel uncomfortable. I’ve never had a date to these parties but that doesn’t mean I haven’t left with someone. None of these women mean anything to me and from what I can tell, the wives and girlfriends don’t like them being there.”
Her face pales, and the smile is gone immediately. I can feel her shields going up with the stiffness in her body.
“This is going to be very uncomfortable for me isn’t it? Not only am I your baby mama, but now I’m going to be around a bunch of women you’ve slept with for years. Why would you want to do that to me? You know how insecure I am already and this rekindling of ‘us’ is so fresh.”
“Stop.” My voice is a bit harsher than I meant. “Don’t ever degrade yourself like that again. That’s twice today. First today in the meeting calling yourself nothing special and now referring as being a baby mama. To me, you are one of the three most special women in the world. And since it’s weird to put you in the category with my mom and sister, I’ll say you are precious to me. As for why I want you with me, it’s because of how I feel about you. Some of the women you’ll meet tonight will be wonderful and I need you to know whom you can trust. As for the others, they are what we call ‘player pussy’. They are invited by guys who want to get laid, and know they are an easy bet. Some of them even come alone looking to hook up. Think of them like musician groupies.”
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