by Casey Hagen
“Why would she be doing this, then? What could she possibly get out of it?”
“You’d be amazed. A little fame, some money for interviews while the paternity is in question, that kind of thing. It happens a lot, and it’s hard for me to even get mad because it’s more pathetic than anything.”
Yeah, well, she still wanted to drop-kick the bitch. “And what about us? Where do we stand?”
“I guess that depends after I give you the other part of the news.”
“There’s more?”
“Just a bit. With the story, they ran a grainy picture of us from Ten Spot the other night. They haven’t identified you yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”
“Great. Knowing my luck, they’ll discover my identity and find me out here with William’s ashes.” She pushed off the sand. “It’s stupid. I need to just honor his wishes.”
Dominic caught her hand and stood up next to her. “Hey, don’t rush this on my account.” He smoothed his fingers over her cheek, curling his palm along her jaw and staring into her eyes.
“You keep William as long as you need to. You’ll know when the time is right.” He cupped her neck and pulled her in for a scorching kiss that singed her toes. His tongue searched for hers and glided alongside it in a silken movement. She recognized the motion from the other night, the way he had used that same tongue to part her and caress her, bringing her to a blood-boiling climax. Her body had sprung to life, and she’d clenched his sheets so hard she tore a hole in them.
He pulled back and smudged the moisture away from her bottom lip with the pad of his thumb.
“Why are you so understanding about this?” she asked, squinting up at him. Her hair whipped up around her face, and he reached in to tuck it behind her ear.
He shrugged and linked hands with hers. “Because I want you and he’s part of the deal.”
“You know how that sounds, right?”
“Like I’m in love with you,” he said quietly.
She tried to step back, but he held her there. “No one said anything about love,” she whispered.
“I just did… and at some point, we’ll need to discuss it.”
“Dominic—”
He shook his head and shut down whatever she was about to say. “Look, I have to drive to Miami tonight to meet with management and team attorneys to get the test done. Come with me?”
Being seen by his team and bosses was as much of a declaration to her as the words, and much more serious than his flirtatious demands to marry him from a couple nights before. Despite the dozen ways this could all go terribly wrong, she desperately wanted to take him up on it. “I can’t. I promised my sister I’d babysit tomorrow night. She’s pregnant with twins, so they’re limited in how many times they’ll get to go out before their life turns into one giant bounce house.”
He kissed her forehead. “I understand. Let’s get together when I get back. What are you doing Sunday afternoon?”
“I will have just had brunch with my parents, so I’ll be shit company,” she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. It’s like her psyche knew just what Sunday morning would bring and the headache decided to ramp up and torture her early.
“Perfect.”
“You’re twisted,” she said with a laugh.
“You don’t know the half of it.” He swatted her ass again, something she was beginning to like, and headed back to his condo.
***
He thought he’d lost her. Relief settled in his heart when he spotted her on the beach. Was it normal to fall hard and fast like this?
He’d never really been in love, so he had no idea how it all really went, but from what he’d watched, he and Maureen should have at least dated for a few months for her to have crawled so cleanly into his heart and taken up residence there.
Since her, for the first time since his injury he didn’t worry so much about the prognosis. Oh, he wanted his career. He loved baseball. He’d lived and breathed it since he was four and his dad started him in T-ball. The minute he’s gotten that bat in his hands, there was no going back.
Baseball life was hard, though, despite the huge paycheck. He had to give up privacy, some friendships, and relationships along the way. He had to be on guard daily for scams, like what had jumped out at him now, and anyone in a relationship with him had to commit to the same.
It was a lot to ask.
Almost impossible.
And why he had put off serious relationships indefinitely.
But now he had Maureen, and for once he could see himself compromising on his belief that marriage and a family should wait until after his contracts were done. He’d figured a serious relationship might well be on the back burner until he was at least thirty-five, if not forty.
He smiled as he rinsed the last of the shaving cream off his face.
Well, not anymore.
He called his closest teammate, third baseman Randy Carver.
“Hey, man, where the hell have you been?” Randy asked. “It’s like you fell off the face of the planet.”
He sat on the bed and put on his pants. “In a way I did. I needed a break and I needed to see a new team of doctors so I know my real prognosis.”
“And?”
Pinning the phone between his ear and shoulder, he buttoned his pants. “I’m cautiously optimistic.”
“Excellent. So where have you been?”
He slid his arm in his shirt. “I’m on Mimosa Key. I’ll be back in town for a couple nights to straighten out some business.”
“The thing with Callie Sandville’s claim?”
“That’d be the one.”
“Yeah, just a warning, guy: there’s a few of us preparing to go through it. This group of bloodsuckers hanging around for the past couple months has gotten out of hand. We were at Rex’s the other night, and they stalked our table the until closing time. We made a pact that we’re only dating older women now. Thirty at the bare minimum.”
Dominic laughed, and wondered what Maureen would think of the deal the guys had made. “Good call. I’ve found one of those myself.”
“Nice—who is she?”
“Her name is Maureen. She’s got a smart mouth and adventurous spirit. And her legs… perfection.”
“Damn, can’t wait to meet her. She got friends, a sister maybe?”’
“A sister pregnant with twins, so cool your nuts, dude.”
“Maybe I can convince her to stop slumming with you and come my way,” Randy joked.
“Only if you want me to use your balls for batting practice,” Dominic returned with little heat.
“I hear you loud and clear.”
“Good. Look, I’ll call you when I get into town,” Dominic said.
“Sounds good, man.”
Fully dressed, Dominic grabbed his bag and headed for Miami.
Chapter 7
Maureen met Laura, Jack, their kids, and her mom and dad at Junonia at the Casa Blanca Resort on the southern tip of Mimosa Key, for their traditional bimonthly brunch. Her parents started the family tradition when they moved to town, in an effort to wrangle time with their daughters. Or to torture them.
Jury was still out on that.
Ordinarily, Maureen would have spent the morning sneaking treats to her niece and nephew, while dodging questions from her nagging mother about when she was going to settle down.
Like she hadn’t already settled down.
Twice.
One would think her mother had gotten the message that Maureen wasn’t good at it. Or at least that maybe the two husbands in the ground were some sort of cosmic sign that Maureen should find other companionship.
Like a cat.
She could be old Aunt Maureen. Crazy Cat Lady.
“So, what’s new in your life, Maureen, dear?” her mother asked around a bite of cantaloupe she had cut into pieces small enough for a toddler. Maureen didn’t know why. It’s not like Amelia would eat it. All she had ever done with cantaloupe was shoot it across the ro
om with an amazingly good throwing arm.
She should tell Dominic about that. Maybe it was a sign.
Maureen wished she could get away with throwing food and everyone still found her cute after.
It wasn’t cute at almost forty.
Laura kicked Maureen under the table when she didn’t answer. Maureen decided that today she might as well go for honesty. Maybe then her mother would leave the pamphlets about fertility in her purse.
“I’m diddling pro baseball player Dominic Centore. He’s in his twenties,” she said before taking a sip of her mimosa.
Laura’s mouth fell open.
Jack hid a smile behind his hand.
Her mother choked on a pea-sized piece of cantaloupe.
Her father’s skin went bright red, and that vein in his temple started throbbing.
But Amelia took the cake when she said, “What’s diddling mean?”
The table broke out in chaos with everyone talking over one another. Jack lifted Amelia into his lap and distracted her from the fray.
“I’m going to go to the ladies’,” Maureen said, making her escape.
Call her a coward, but her mother had been pressuring her to move on.
She finally had.
She pushed her way into the bathroom and clutched the counter.
But had she?
Could she really claim she had moved on, when William still sat in that damn urn?
The events of the past week cast a haze over her memories with William. Before Dominic, when she’d remember, everything seemed so clear. The pieces fit.
Now, everything was a bit hazy and she couldn’t find a place for her in the memories.
Because she was still alive.
And William was never coming back.
She needed to let him go.
A tear slipped down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away. She’d spent two years grieving. No more. She was moving on.
A petite blonde in a teal bandage dress sidled up next to her and pulled out a compact.
Maureen glanced down at her own sleeveless hunter-green blouse and ivory silk pants, and resisted rolling her eyes, just barely.
Where did this woman think she was, at a nightclub?
The woman leaned forward, thrusting her breasts out, and swiped on a fresh coat of pink lipstick. “Did I hear you say you were seeing Dominic Centore?” she chirped, never taking her eyes off of her own reflection.
“Maybe.” Maureen had no idea where this was going, but hey, she could be a good sport.
The woman looked her up and down. The top corner of her upper lip lifted slightly, as if she just found used toilet paper stuck to her brand-new Manolo Blahniks. “I just hope you don’t actually think it’s serious. I mean, he’s part of that circle of ballplayers, the ones who’ve made a pact to only date old women.”
Maureen froze. Her ears buzzed. She clenched her hands into fists and then forced them to relax.
She. Was. Not. Old.
Maureen turned and stepped up to the fetus in heels. She took pleasure in watching the little bimbo topple on her four-inch spikes and catch herself on the paper towel holder.
“Excuse me?” Maureen said, her voice low with fury.
Who the fuck was this little shit to come in here and try to put her in her place, like Maureen was some pathetic wannabe?
“No need to get upset. It’s just one of those little games the guys play, you know? This month is finding the hottest cougar. Next month it will be finding the best body.” She looked Maureen up and down again.
If she didn’t stop doing that, Maureen was going to make her eat the paper towel dispenser.
“How do you know this?”
“Oh, that? Well, the guys, Dominic’s friends, were at the bar the other night and they were talking about it. They said they were coming out here to check out the cougar Dominic landed this month.”
Maureen locked her jaw, and sucked in a breath through her nose.
“It’s nothing to get worked up over. These guys are like this. New flavor of the month every time you turn around. Some of us get lucky and get the ring,” she said, a big smile on her face. “Some of us don’t,” she said, directing a pointed look at Maureen before ducking out of the bathroom.
She hoped the twit tripped on her heels in just the right way that she fell on them and gave herself a new hole.
In a really painful place.
Dominic.
How could he? All that crap about not wanting to date a fetus and being tired of the women who threw themselves at players daily for years.
It was all just bullshit.
Marry me.
The way he’d said the words, she’d almost convinced herself they were genuine and he was around to stay. She hadn’t said yes, but she had wanted to see where they went.
Well, not now. Fuck him.
Her heart squeezed, letting her know that the hard line she took was more her way of convincing herself that she didn’t need him, when the truth was the piece she had found to fill the hole inside her had just disappeared.
All those times she’d agonized over her age and told him. She groaned. What had she been thinking telling him all that?
Despite the trust she had put in him, he’d played her anyway.
He’d hurt her, and she’d let him into her heart to do it.
She was the idiot.
She rushed back to their table, where order was restored, and grabbed her purse. “I’m sorry to take off on you, but something came up and I have to go.”
“But, honey, you hardly ate,” her mother said.
“I’ll grab something in a bit.”
“What happened?” Laura asked.
She looked her sister in the eye and tears welled up. Unable to say a word, she shook her head and headed for the door.
Laura caught up with her at her convertible, slapping her hand over the handle before Maureen could open the door.
Laura grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. “Hey, what the hell happened in there?”
A sob broke free, much to Maureen’s mortification. “I just found out that Dominic and his buddies all make it their goal to hunt down older women for a good time before dumping them for whatever flavor they all go for the next month. Nice, huh?” Tears streamed down her cheeks. Angry, hot tracks that pissed her off even more, because she had given him enough power to make her cry.
She’d buried two husbands, dammit. She didn’t cry over guys. She especially didn’t cry over them after one crazy fling.
“Oh, honey. Are you sure?”
“Yes, they were overheard having a conversation about it. Apparently, all his ballplayer buddies are here to meet his cougar of the month.”
“Oh, Maureen. I’m sorry. Jesus. What the hell was he thinking, playing with you that way?”
“It was all a game. Life is just one big game to guys like him.” She shook her head and wiped her tears. “I have to go. Please, cover for me with Mom and Dad. I don’t care what you tell them. Just make them understand.”
“I can tell them you were struck with instantaneous diarrhea?”
Maureen burst out laughing through her tears. “Hitting me when I’m vulnerable… sure, why not? The next pamphlet will be all about rotaviruses. Maybe we’ll do brunch at home next time to spare the public the gruesome details.”
Laura smoothed a hand over Maureen’s hair. “You got it.” She pulled her in for a tight hug. “I love you, Maureen. I’m always here.”
Maureen nodded, and pulled open the door when Laura stepped back. “Thanks, kid.”
***
Dominic watched for her on Sunday afternoon, but she never showed. He sat on his balcony every day for the following three days, but no Maureen.
Worried something happened to her he went to Mimosa Key Dental, the office he thought he recalled her saying her sister worked at.
He pushed through the door, causing the bell to jingle. Three people in the waiting room turned to him, one of the me
n’s eyes lighting up, but Dominic made a beeline for the front desk. Normally he wouldn’t snub a fan, but this was an emergency.
“I’m looking for Laura. Is she here?” he asked the young lady behind the counter. With her fiery red hair and freckles, she looked twelve.
“Uh, yes. Give me just a minute and I’ll go get her.” She hurried off into a back room, and moments later returned with a trim woman with cinnamon-colored hair who was wearing scrubs with molars all over them.
When she spotted him her smile slipped, and she glared athim. “You,” she said.
“I guess you’re Laura.”
“You think? What the hell do you want?”
“Why are you mad at me?”
She glanced around, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to the side. “You played games with her, and worse, she had to hear it from some bimbo who was all too eager to fill her in on how you were just using her to pass some time.”
“What?” His voice shot up to a pitch he was almost certain he hadn’t hit since before puberty. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Some nitwit overheard your baseball buddies taking about how the goal for you guys this month is finding cougars to nail. Next month, it’ll be something new. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for her?”
“We never made a deal like that,” he said. But he had talked to Randy, who was in a bar at the time, and if someone was listening in, like groupies, the message could have been misconstrued. Since the guys had arrived in town early Sunday morning, it was quite possible groupies had followed.
“Right! You athletes are all the same. Users.” She crossed her arms. “Now, leave.”
“Oh, no. Not until we get something straight. That conversation was one I had with my friend, Randy, over the phone no less, so whoever overheard him heard only the one side because I was in my condo here in Mimosa Key.”
“So what?”
“So, we never said anything about finding cougars. We did say that from here on out none of us was interested in dating anyone under thirty. That would have been right before I told them about your sister, and made plans for them to meet her Sunday afternoon. She never showed. Where did she hear this tidbit?”