“I gave five thousand dollars to the church’s building fund this afternoon. My mama acted like I gave her some diamonds. I also ordered them dinner from Lot No. 3 and told them they could watch whatever they wanted on pay-per-view,” Derrick said.
“Doesn’t your grandma like watching MMA?” Seth said.
A smile that could only be called calculating spread over Derrick’s mouth. “Why, yes. She does.”
“She seems like such a harmless, sweet little old lady,” Seth muttered. Derrick laughed out loud.
The Sharks had acquired middle linebacker Seth Taylor in a blockbuster trade with San Diego just before the start of the regular season, unloading a rookie who wasn’t cutting it at the same time. The defense kept improving, which Drew loved. Great defenses equaled championships. Seth wasn’t a bad guy, either. He’d been quickly accepted into the group of single Sharks that spent most of their free time gaming, clubbing, or both.
Derrick’s comments were punctuated by the chirping of an incoming text. Derrick grabbed it off of the coffee table and stabbed at the phone’s screen with one finger while continuing to play. “It’s my mama. She wants to know if we’re safe.” He tapped in a short message and put his phone back down on the table.
“It’s late. Don’t they sleep?” Seth said.
“Does your mama sleep when she thinks you’re up to no good?” Derrick said.
“I’m guessing all the pizza’s gone,” Drew said.
“There’s an entire extra pepperoni and sausage in the fridge,” Seth said.
Drew grabbed a cookie sheet, shoved a few slices of pizza on it to reheat them, and turned on the oven.
The TV set went blank. Drew heard groans and some choice obscenities from Seth and Derrick as they worked the game controllers.
“Goddammit, did Xbox Live crash?”
“What the fuck. I had the high score!”
Seth jumped up from the couch and tried rebooting the gaming system. It wasn’t coming back on. Drew could get upstairs, change, and rejoin them before they noticed what he was wearing. Maybe the late night, the storm (and three beers each) made them less observant.
He was wrong.
Derrick dropped the game controller onto the coffee table and whipped around on the couch to face the kitchen. Derrick looked, and then he stared at Drew.
“Hey, big guy. Did you go shopping in a dumpster earlier? What the hell is THAT?” He indicated Drew’s outfit with a nod in his direction and let out a booming laugh. “Does Coach know you’re wearing another team’s merchandise?”
Seth turned to look at Drew. “Dallas. You’re joking, aren’t you?” Seth said.
“My clothes were wet. I needed something to change into.”
“How wet were they, and what the hell were you doing earlier?” Derrick got up from the couch and moved closer. The grin bloomed over his face like a flower filmed in slow motion. “Nice logo. You were at the Westin, you dawg.”
“I was not—”
“Our boy got laid, Derrick,” Seth said.
“Doing the walk of shame, were you? This calls for a beer.” Derrick vaulted off of the couch and invaded the kitchen. “Do we know her?”
Telling them nothing happened would do no good. It was also a lie, but he knew they wouldn’t believe it. He tried it anyway. “I told you. My clothes were drenched. I borrowed these.”
“Borrowed, huh? Is that what it’s called now? I’m surprised you’re not in a better mood, McCoy,” Derrick said.
“What’s her name?” Seth said. “Are you going to see her again?”
Derrick strolled back into the family room gripping three cold and already opened beers. He handed them around. “Let’s drink to Drew’s love life.”
“Let’s not,” Seth said. “He gets more than the rest of us do.”
“Come on. Don’t you have a girlfriend?” Drew said to Seth.
“Bad topic,” Derrick warned.
“Yeah, I have a girlfriend.” Seth didn’t elaborate.
“And she’s why you’re here playing video games with two of your teammates on a Friday night,” Drew said.
“Uh huh. And I’m about to beat your ass at Madden again if we can find the game DVD.”
DREW TRUDGED INTO his bedroom after one AM. He’d made sure the guys were settled in guest rooms before hitting the sack himself. He should have been in bed hours ago. The storm raged on, though, and he couldn’t send Derrick and Seth out in it. Luckily, he had plenty of room for the guys at his place until things calmed down a bit outside. He pulled on clean, dry pajama pants and a T-shirt.
His teammates gave him shit on the regular for buying a 5800-square foot, five bedroom family house as a single guy. Whatever. They seemed to end up at his place a lot. He liked doing the yard work, and there was somewhere for his parents, three siblings, and their spouses and kids to stay when they visited. Truthfully, he bought the house because he could see his future wife and kids here. He’d like to think he could be lucky (and persuasive) enough to end up with a woman like Kendall.
She was beautiful, but that wasn’t the most attractive thing about her. She was sophisticated, intelligent, interesting, had a sense of humor, and she loved books. He also had to admit he wanted to spend some time in her bed; she pulled him toward her like metal to a magnet. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like he’d be spending any time at all with the lovely Ms. Tracy anytime soon.
He wanted to find someone he could spend the rest of his life getting to know, just like his parents had. His mom and dad had been happily married for thirty-five years now. His mom had dinner on the table every night at six. Her whole world was his dad and Drew’s brother and sisters, and he wanted the same thing: a woman who wanted to make his house a home.
If that made him old-fashioned, so be it. He loved the idea of coming home every day to a beaming woman, dinner on the table, and a few little rug rats to liven the place up.
He was used to hearing the house settle at night while he lay in bed, or the gentle patter of raindrops on the roof. The storm’s fury wasn’t letting up. Water slammed into the windows and broken tree branches thumped onto his house. He wondered if sleeping in a room with a gigantic clerestory window facing those trees was such a great idea tonight. Maybe he should move to another room, at least temporarily.
He wondered if Kendall was asleep yet. He needed to stop thinking about her, but he couldn’t think of anything (or anyone) else. He couldn’t stop remembering how she felt in his arms.
KENDALL PULLED ON a nightshirt a few minutes after Drew left and crawled into the bed. Normally, she didn’t mind sleeping alone, but tonight, she didn’t want to. She knew he couldn’t stay with her, but she wished he had. Even if they didn’t make love, she would have had someone to talk to while she tried to fall asleep. His house was only a couple of miles away, he’d said. He was probably already there, safe and warm in his own bed. She wondered if he slept with his hair in a ponytail, or did he let it fan out over the pillows? She sat up, adjusted her pillows once more, and sank into them. She heaved a long sigh.
He was incredibly sexy. Even more than that, he was interesting, funny, smart, and caring. And she’d kicked him out of her hotel room. She meant what she’d said to him about any involvement between them being career suicide for her, but she couldn’t believe she’d met a guy that had every possible quality she’d ever wanted and he was off-limits.
Again.
Maybe she’d get sleepy if she read a little. She reached out for the Kindle on her bedside table and reconsidered. She’d better check her e-mail one more time tonight. Who was she kidding—she wasn’t settling down any time soon. She was still thinking about Drew and how different her evening would have been if she’d asked him to stay. The wrapped condom he’d had in his wallet was still on the nightstand. He’d forgotten his slouchy knit hat; it was still lying on the floor in the corner of the room. It probably smelled like him too. At least she’d sent the books home with him . . .
“Oh,
shit,” she said to herself. “My dad’s book—and my phone!”
She remembered slipping the phone into the plastic bag with the new book she was giving to her dad and rolling up the top to seal the contents before they’d set out for the hotel from the coffee shop. She’d thought putting the phone in a plastic bag was better than carrying it in her pocket, and it was raining so hard she was afraid the things in her handbag would get wet. She jumped out of bed, hurried across the hotel room, and dug through her handbag.
The small paper bags containing the salted caramel bars were a little smashed, but the bars were still edible. Everything but her iPhone was in her handbag. Maybe she left the phone in her coat pocket after all. She grabbed the still-damp coat off the corner of the couch and went through the pockets. No phone.
She flipped on every light in her hotel room and looked everywhere. No phone. It wasn’t worth calling the front desk to ask if she’d dropped the phone outside or in the lobby on the way up to her room. She knew where it was, and she also knew she had no way of getting it back: It wasn’t like she could walk across the field on Sunday afternoon and ask Drew McCoy if he’d seen it.
She’d have to make do until she could get another one. She couldn’t imagine how she was going to explain this to the Miners’ front office, either.
THIRTY-SEVEN HOURS LATER, the Sharks were playing the Miners in Sharks Stadium. Sharks players and fans had been anticipating this game since the season started. The winner would have first place in the division and an easy path to the postseason, which was always a great place to be in early October. It was a perfect day for football: Cotton-candy quality clouds dotted an impossibly blue sky while the sun warmed the sold-out stadium.
Drew spotted Kendall standing on the sidelines. She’d evidently abandoned the team suite to enjoy the crisp fall day with her colleagues and was having an animated discussion with a few of them while the teams lined up on the field for the kickoff.
He saw her laugh at something someone said to her. The guys standing with her were in suits and ties. She wore black pants, a team logo jacket, and a silver-colored silky-looking scarf tucked into her neckline. The rain-washed air put color into her cheeks. She brushed the bangs out of her eyes with one gloved hand. She was gorgeous, and it took everything he had to not run across the field and kiss her again.
There were a hundred women in the stadium right now that would love to have a cup of coffee with him, see a movie, have dinner, or anything else he could possibly dream up. He couldn’t stop staring at Kendall on the opposite side of the field, though. If he didn’t knock it off, one of his teammates or the coach was going to notice, and he’d be in deep shit.
She’d told him “no,” and he should accept that. She wasn’t the first woman he’d ever met, and she wouldn’t be the last. His eyeballs didn’t seem to get that memo, though. He kept glancing over to stare at her. He forced himself to pay attention to the game instead.
The first two quarters of the game went faster than usual. The Sharks’ defense wasn’t allowing the Miners to advance the ball, which was always a plus. He’d sacked the Miners’ quarterback twice. He wanted their unprotected quarterback to remember his name as the kid limped off of the field. Maybe the Miners should have spent some of the money they forked out for his overpaid ass on some decent offensive linemen instead. The Sharks’ defense was manhandling them; the score was 14–3. The halftime whistle blew, and he joined his teammates and coaches for the jog into the Sharks’ locker room.
He snagged a few orange sections and a cold bottle of Gatorade off of the cart that sat on one side of the room. If he could manage to get a few calories down while he listened to the coach, he was always better off during the second half.
Seth plunked himself down on the bench next to Drew and elbowed him in the side. “Trying to burn a hole through the Miners’ GM with your eyes or something, McCoy?”
Drew had crammed an orange section into his mouth. “Mhmm?” Shit. This would teach him.
Seth leaned closer. “You stared at her after every play. She’s staring at you too. Is there something you’d like to share with the class?”
“Fuck, no.”
“At least you have something to look at. Damn, this game’s boring. I could be jerking off out there and they still wouldn’t get a first down,” Seth said.
Derrick choked on what looked like half a bottle of Gatorade. Drew pounded him on the back until he quit coughing.
Seth shook his head.
“The Miners will make second half adjustments,” Derrick warned Drew. “We both might have something to do. Stick with us, will ya?”
Drew was saved from a response by the coach’s beginning his typical halftime instructions and two minute motivational speech. Twenty minutes later, he’d managed to down a few more orange sections, drink the Gatorade, hit the bathroom, and jog back out onto the field with the team.
Kendall was gone from her spot on the sidelines. Maybe she was getting a bite to eat or taking care of some business. He’d liked the idea she wasn’t hiding in the suite, and he was oddly agitated that she wasn’t on the sidelines right now. For a woman he was determined to ignore, she was sure taking up a lot of space in his head. He took his place for the warm-up exercises and put himself through the stretching routines he could do in his sleep. He glanced over at the Miners’ sideline again just before the second half kickoff. She wasn’t there.
He glanced up at the visiting team’s suite a few times during the second half as well. He didn’t see her.
Derrick sidled up next to him while the second-string offense was schooling the Miners’ defense in the fourth quarter. Coach wasn’t going to play his starters when the score was 28–3 and the Miners hadn’t succeeded in getting a first down since the second quarter.
“So, you’ve been looking for someone the entire game. Want to tell me about it?”
“No.” Drew concentrated on the field once more.
“I will find out who she is, dawg,” Derrick said.
Drew continued to ignore him. Derrick chuckled and moved away.
The final score remained Sharks 28, Miners 3. Drew had showered and dressed in his street clothes. He’d made a short appearance in front of the media to address the two sacks and eight tackles he’d made during the game, and he signed some Sharks merchandise that would be taken to the Miners’ locker room by request. Someone’s son, daughter, niece, or nephew would end up with a team-autographed T-shirt or football. All teams did it; the Sharks had already received the bag of autographed Miners merchandise for distribution a few minutes ago.
Typically, Drew would be joining the group of players making their way to a local restaurant for dinner after a win. He enjoyed celebrating as much as the next guy, but right now, he wasn’t in the mood. He was happy about the win. He was always happy after a win. He was frustrated over his inability to be a little less obvious with the staring at Kendall for starters. No matter how intrigued he was by her, nothing was happening between them until he was out of the league.
Maybe he’d feel better after a good night’s sleep. After tomorrow morning’s post-game medical checks for injuries, he could burn off some of his frustration by cleaning up the storm damage in his backyard. He had other things to do with his time than moon over an unattainable woman.
Zach Anderson stopped by his locker as Drew picked up the overnight bag he brought to home games.
“Hey, come on out with us. We’re going to Jak’s Grill in Laurelhurst. Cameron’s meeting us there too,” Zach said. He grinned at Drew. “You know you want a big, juicy steak and a beer.”
“It sounds great, but I think I’m going to have to pass this time.”
“Other plans, huh?”
“You could say that. Give your woman a hug from me.” Drew got to his feet and gave Zach an elaborate handshake. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
Drew stopped on the way home and picked up a to-go dinner. He’d watch some mindless TV, have a beer, and go to
bed early with the book Kendall had given him.
He pulled into his garage, disabled the alarm system, and walked into his house. He dropped the overnight bag in his laundry room. He’d unpack it later. He moved through the kitchen and turned into the hallway by his front door to scoop up the book he wanted to start reading.
As he picked up the plastic bag with the two books, he heard a phone ringing. He unfurled the top of the bag, pulled the phone out, hit “talk,” and said, “Hello?”
“Is this Drew? It’s Kendall Tracy. You have my phone.”
Chapter Four
* * *
DESPITE HIS EARLIER resolve to forget her and move on with his life, Drew’s heart skipped a beat as she continued talking.
“I put the phone in the bag before we left the coffee shop. I’ve tried to call a few times, and I wondered if it maybe fell out or something on your way home the other night.” He heard her laugh a little. “It’s like losing an appendage, isn’t it?”
“I left the bag in the entryway of my house the other night. I didn’t hear it ringing before now,” he said.
“Don’t worry about it. How could you know I stupidly stuck my phone in there?”
“It wasn’t stupid. You wanted it to stay dry,” he assured her. “I hoped I wouldn’t have to buy a new phone,” she said. “Plus, I was worried about losing my contacts list.”
The conversation was polite, between two people that had met before but weren’t planning on a further relationship. He noted that the phone was almost out of charge and turned back toward his kitchen to plug it in before it died.
“Your contacts are safe, but I’d better get this on a charger before it shuts off. Are you still in Seattle?”
“We’re at the airport. The players are boarding right now. I’m using my assistant’s phone.” He heard something read over the PA in the background, and she said, “May I call you back when we arrive?”
“Of course. Would you like me to overnight the phone to the Miners’ headquarters? It’ll get there on Tuesday.”
Covering Kendall Page 4