“Mr. McKay!” she exclaimed, standing quickly, not daring to call him by anything other than that formal title. Though Daniel never failed to use the more familiar Harlan, she was strangely intimidated by the man. And for good reason, it would appear.
“That’s right, Mrs. Phillips.” Had he put undue emphasis on the Mrs.? “I thought it was about time we had a talk.”
Mustering her poise, Nia forced a smile. “You should be celebrating with your team. After all, they are the division champs.”
“They’re celebrating. I’m just going to make sure they stay the champs.”
“Daniel agrees with you completely.” She held her smile rigid as the back of her neck prickled in anticipation of a slowly falling bombshell. Harlan McKay was a large man, but there was nothing athletic about him. He had more the air of the domineering patriarch— which gave her a clue as to his purpose in seeking her out, moments before he thrust aside all pleasantry to make his point.
“I know what Daniel says, Mrs. Phillips. I’ve known Daniel for a lot longer than you have.” She had no argument with that. All she could do was wait for him to continue, which he did quite summarily. “I want you to stay away from him,” he ordered in a coarsely demanding tone.
“What?” She hadn’t expected outright hostility.
“I believe you heard me.”
“I think I did,” she shot back, feeling an instinctive sense of anger. “I just don’t think I understand.”
“That’s too bad,” he commented coolly. “I thought you were a little more intelligent than average. Let me spell it out for you.”
She frowned. “I wish you would.”
Harlan leveled his gaze and shot her a look of pure venom. “I don’t want you to have anything more to do with Daniel Strahan. The season’s over; you can pack your bags and get out. He doesn’t need you…or anyone outside this organization.”
“I can’t believe you’re saying this—”
“Well, believe it!” he thundered, then quieted. “You’ve disrupted his life enough as it is. We have the playoffs coming and I want him to be in top shape. With you hanging on to him he can’t possibly be.”
“Does Daniel know you’re talking with me?” she asked in sudden defiance. If Daniel Strahan fought to win, so did she. And she was not about to fold before any autocrat, self-proclaimed or otherwise!
“I know what’s best for Dan,” he answered without answering.
“He may disagree.”
“Well, I know what’s best for my team, and that includes Daniel. I’ve seen him with you day after day, rushing out of here to go to you, sitting with you in airplanes and restaurants. I know that you’re living with him. And I’m sure that you’re the reason why he arrived in San Diego late. Something personal—hell! The team is the only thing that should be occupying his mind, not some divorcée.” His lip curled in disgust as she paled.
“What does my past have to do with this?”
Harlan shook his head at his cleverness and smiled. “I saw you talking with David Phillips today. I had heard those stories about a little wife tucked away, too. It wasn’t until I saw the two of you together that I realized you must have been the one.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” she cried, feeling herself being backed into a corner.
“You’re a hanger-on. You must have some fixation with the game of basketball. You would never have been interested in Daniel had he not been involved—”
“That’s a lie! You have no idea what you’re saying!” Nia felt her insides beginning to tremble and tipped her chin higher.
Harlan’s voice suddenly lowered to a dangerously soft note. “Oh, I know precisely what I’m saying. And that is that if you help me, I’m prepared to help you.”
Totally uncomprehending, she frowned in disbelief. “You’re crazy.”
“Is Jimmy Mahoney crazy, Mrs. Phillips?” That was the bombshell she had been subconsciously awaiting. Its force knocked the wind from her lungs and it took her a minute to find her voice again.
“Jimmy Mahoney?”
His eyes opened wider in pleasure at her anxiety. “The mayor of Boston …?”
“I know who Jimmy Mahoney is, Mr. McKay. Please tell me where he fits into this scenario.”
“I understand that you’ve had some trouble with him.”
She stiffened. “That’s on the record.”
“So it is,” he drawled. “An outstanding libel suit for shoddy reporting—not a very good reference.”
“Now that’s a slight distortion of the facts.” She stood up to him indignantly.
“Whatever.” He shrugged as though it didn’t matter in the least. “You’re still in trouble. It could mean an ugly lawsuit and when you lose—”
“If I lose.”
“You will. Mahoney has power. And you will find yourself out of a job and without hope of finding another.”
Nia lowered her head, put her fingertips to her forehead, and studied the floor. Though the relevance of this all to the present situation was still lost on her, she felt a rising sense of anger and made no effort to stem it. When she looked up, her eyes held dark, violet rage.
“I smell blackmail, Mr. McKay, but I don’t understand the details. Exactly what are you getting at?”
“Hmmmm, maybe you’re bright after all.” His smile was deceptive and faded on command. “We’ll see…if you accept my offer.”
“And what is your offer?” she demanded.
“I said it before. You help me. I help you.”
Nia put a hand on her hip. “Elaborate. I guess I’m not all that bright after all. I want to hear you explain it so that I understand completely.”
Harlan’s gaze narrowed. “You help me by disappearing from Daniel’s life. I help you by swinging my weight with Mahoney.”
“So that’s it,” she whispered as comprehension finally dawned. “You know Jimmy Mahoney.”
“Very well.”
“And you’d actually go to bat on my behalf if I cooperate with you?”
“Or against you…if you refuse.”
Nia threw up her hands in exasperation and paced to the far side of the room before turning. “And you really think that my simply…disappearing…would be the best thing for Daniel?”
“I know it would. You’ve been taking up too much of his time. He used to put basketball first. He used to be there whenever I needed him. He used to answer my calls at any hour. Now he rushes me off the phone…to be with you!”
As Nia stared at Harlan in disbelief at his tirade she recalled Daniel’s words. Harlan did appear to be jealous. He sounded almost hurt that Daniel had chosen her over him. But did he have the power to swing that libel suit one way or the other, particularly since she trusted Bill’s feeling that any danger of an actual suit was past? This was no pouting child who confronted her. This was a grown man who wielded more than his share of power. And though there was no way she wanted that power directed against her, she could no more grant his wish than she could deny her love for Daniel.
“I’m sorry, Mr. McKay.” She spoke softly but firmly, tautly controlling her anger. “I can’t help you.”
“Can’t? What kind of a fool are you? You’d throw away your life, your career, to chase an…an elusive dream?”
Nia’s voice held the force of conviction. “When the dream is of love, I’d chase it anywhere.”
“Hmmph!” he sneered. “What kind of an answer is that? It’s purely feminine and totally absurd!”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Harlan,” a deep voice cut in sharply. Both heads whipped toward it.
Nia was the first to recover. “Daniel!” she whispered, eyes wide, unsure of what he’d heard, what he’d thought. He was very obviously furious. Had she been wrong to speak up to Harlan? Had she presumed too much?
Daniel straightened from the doorjamb and walked toward her. In those moments she felt that her future was at center court, up for grabs. His body was tall and taut, his eyes
dark brown, nearly black in the throes of emotion.
“Daniel?” she whispered again, pleading the case for her love in the cry of his name.
“It’s all right, babe,” he murmured, smiling wanly as he put an arm around her, then turned to face Harlan, who seemed suddenly nervous.
“How long were you standing there?” the older man asked.
“Long enough to hear your threat.”
Harlan put out a hand in a pacifying gesture. “Now, listen, Dan—”
“No, Harlan, you listen to me!” Daniel exploded with an anger that sent shudders through Nia. Had his arm not been around her, holding her close, she might have shied away herself. “You listen to me, because I’m only going to say this once. If you ever, ever make a threat like that again I’ll personally take you to court. It so happens that I love this woman and if she’ll have me I intend to marry her.” Nia’s heart soared skyward, but Daniel wasn’t done. “I’ve given the Breakers more than fourteen years of my life and in that time I have never given you cause for disappointment. If you think that my relationship with Antonia is affecting my ability to coach, you can fire me. It’s as simple as that!” He softened as he looked sideways. “Let’s go, Nia. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
Harlan McKay was left standing with his jaw hanging, but Nia had already pushed him from her mind. Daniel was beside her, leading her through the last of the lingering Breaker fans, out of the arena and into the late afternoon sunshine. He said nothing, simply held her hand with a fierce possessiveness, releasing it only after he had tucked her into the Datsun.
“Daniel… ?” she began when he slid behind the wheel, but he held out a hand to silence her.
“Let’s go home first, babe. Give me a minute to cool off.”
She would give him as much time as he needed, providing he repeated to her what he had told Harlan in anger short moments before. Had it been an idle threat? Had he simply spoken out in anger? Had he exaggerated his feelings to make his point with Harlan?
The drive to his house took an eternity as Nia’s heart and future hung in the balance. When they finally arrived Daniel took her hand again and led her away from the house, out toward the woods in back. He said nothing until they had wandered far enough for the trees to obliterate any intruding signs of humanity. Then he dropped her hand, buried his own in the pockets of his slacks, and turned to face her. His eyes were rich with a feeling that didn’t quite spill to his face, which held a look of deep, dark tension. Nia was convinced, in that instant, that he was going to confess that he’d lied to Harlan after all. When he didn’t speak, she could stand the suspense no longer.
“Well?” she asked falteringly. “Do you love me…or,” she looked around at the encompassing solitude and grinned cynically, “are you going to murder me, chop me in little pieces, and bury them with no witnesses?”
The first of the tension flowed helplessly from him as he smiled. “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?”
“Actually…no. I’ve been pretty dumb about all this.”
“About what?”
“About not telling you how I feel.”
Not sure just how to take her words, Daniel simply continued to stare at her. She thought she saw fear and regret and longing, but she was so emotionally involved that it was hard to decipher fact from fancy. She wanted him to love her so badly.
“I love you, Daniel.” It was a confession long overdue. His eyes widened and brightened; his features seemed to relax. But still he didn’t speak. “Do you love me?”
Very, very slowly, the manly lips she adored curved into a smile. And he nodded. “You heard me say it.”
“Did you mean it? Or was it said in the heat of anger?”
“It was said in the heat of anger, but I meant every word.”
“About wanting to marry me, too?”
“That, too.”
“Oh, Dan…” was all she had time to say before he had wiped out the distance between them once and for all, and swept her into his embrace as though she were the greatest prize of all.
His kiss was deep and loving, just as it had been for so very long without her daring to accept it as such. “I do love you, Nia, and I do want you to marry me.”
She couldn’t have heard more beautiful words, yet she had to know now, to ask everything. “You once said you would never ask a woman to share your kind of existence. Have you really changed your mind?”
“Uh-huh.” His confident smile left no doubt.
“Why? What made you change it?”
The thinking had all been done in those lonely hours away from her, or in the middle of the night when he’d awoken and lain beside her, fearing that one day she’d be gone. He knew his mind now, and was ready to speak it. “You made the change, Nia. From the first I knew you were special. More than special. You were everything I wanted in a woman. Every attempt to keep you at arm’s length failed. Even though I knew how badly you’d been hurt once, I just couldn’t picture my life without you. Then, because of you and what I wanted to do with you, I discovered that basketball was only a job. I was very happy to leave it after a game, having found something that meant so much more to me.”
“But what about your doctorate?”
“That was—is—more a profession than a passion. Yes, it means a lot to me, but it, too, has its place. I always knew that it would have to wait until my basketball days were over.”
“But they’re not—”
“Not yet. I doubt that Harlan will can me at this stage. But I do think I’d like to retire within another year or two.”
“To be a psychologist?”
“That. And…to be a husband, or more than a husband, perhaps even a father.”
Nia caught her breath. “You really think it would work?”
“It has worked! That’s the point!” Hadn’t her mother said as much? Hadn’t she herself come to agree? But to hear it from Daniel—that was something else! He spoke on, and she listened in silent ecstasy. “When I wanted to be here with you after the fire I decided to join the team a day late. It would never have occurred to me to do that before, but, you know,” he grinned in self-mockery, “they survived without me. Then, when I needed you so badly during that road trip, there you were. I know that things may not always be as convenient; there may be times when we have to be apart. But I want to help you settle the house, to be by your side if Mahoney opens his mouth again. I want to take you on the road with me whenever you can work it around your assignments. You’re as stubborn as I am; if we decide to make it work, it will!” He paused, took a breath. “That’s what changed my mind. For the first time I found someone who mattered enough to make it worthwhile to try!”
“Oh, Daniel, I love you,” she murmured, knowing then that everything would be all right, that her future was secure. Her cheek pressed against his shirt, she coiled her arms tightly around his waist. “I love you.”
“But will you marry me?” he drawled, half in earnest.
“Did you have any doubt that I would?” she returned, drawing back to gaze up at his handsome face.
“You did have a bad experience once before,” he confronted her softly. “It’s possible that you wouldn’t want to try.”
“If I don’t try,” her violet eyes flooded, “I condemn myself to a life of emptiness. You make everything so much richer.” She raised a finger to blot her lower lashes. “And besides,” she sniffled, then grinned, “now you’ve appealed to my streak of determination. We’ll make it work. I know we will!”
“That’s it, babe,” he crooned, hugging her soundly. “That’s the spunky woman I love! I don’t care if she tells me where to get off every once in a while as long as she tells me she loves me here and there along the way.”
Nia tipped her head back with a blinding smile. “You, Mr. Strahan, have got yourself a deal!”
It was much, much later that night, after they’d sated the needs of the flesh to their mutual, albeit temporary, satisfaction, that they s
poke of the immediate future. “The team will be back and forth to Washington for the first-round playoffs, Nia. Can we be married by Wednesday, before the series begins?”
“I don’t see why not,” she answered, drunk enough on his love to agree to almost anything he said.
“Will you come down for the games there?”
“I don’t see why not.” She sighed her contentment and stretched against his naked length.
“You can do the researching for your article then?”
“I don’t see why not.”
He pinched her middle playfully. “Is there anything you’d object to right now?”
“You bet!” she snapped. “I’d violently object if you left this bed to do anything but—”
“What about the TV? Would you mind if I watched a rerun of the game?”
Nia regarded him indulgently, knowing she’d be unable to deny him anything he truly wanted. “You really want to watch a rerun of the game?”
“I might,” he tested her.
“OK.” She grinned. “You can turn it on…on one condition.”
“Uh-oh.” He rolled his eyes. “One condition. What is it?”
“You’ve got to watch in here.”
“In the bedroom?”
“That is where we are.”
He shammed dismay. “But the recorder is in the other room.” It was. And the last thing that would suit her purposes would be for him to risk a hernia carting the large set around.
“Then…let’s go in there…like this.”
“We’re not dressed!”
“Since when does that bother you?” Her eyes sparkled with humor.
Daniel was adorable in his feigned innocence. “Nia, I’m the coach. Coaches don’t go to games nude!”
A ripple of laughter shot through her before she could contain it. “That’s terrific! Then, let’s take this blanket. Stand up.”
He stood obediently as she hauled the blanket from the bed, tossed one end up over his shoulders, and draped them together with the makeshift shawl.
Fast Courting Page 20