Janelle said nothing as she disappeared into her bedroom.
Gideon had to lighten the mood. “You can blame me. I told you to let it out. I didn’t know it would scare your neighbors.”
He didn’t expect to see Janelle carrying his shirt, socks, and shoes.
“Thank you for the plants and dinner. But I think you should go.” She looked at him in his eyes before dropping her gaze.
“Okay. I’ll go.” He took the items from her. “But you’re coming with me. Get dressed and pack a bag.”
She shook her head. “No. Those cops are going to run to a news outlet and tell them what happened here. I’m ruining your career.”
He dropped his items and held her arms to make her look him in the eyes. “You’ve done nothing but make me the happiest man during a time I thought would be the worst time of my life. Between my mother and brother and—” He stopped before rehashing the news about his knee and his future with his team.
“What?” She brought her gaze up to his.
Looking into her soft brown eyes, he couldn’t lie to her. “I’m my happiest when I’m with you. Don’t you feel the same way?”
She returned his stare without answering for a while before she turned her head. “Please go home.”
“I’m not running away. Not from those cops and not from you. If I leave, I want you to come with me.”
She shook her head.
“I can protect you in my home. We can finish talking.”
She took a deep breath. “Before you, I didn’t need protection. I didn’t have people wanting my picture because of who I was sleeping with. I was a simple flower store owner with a dream.”
“I’m also a man with a dream. Why can’t we do this together so we can support one another? Why are you so afraid?”
She wriggled out of his grip. “This isn’t my life. Cameras and questions and police.”
“Those are all temporary. As soon as the game hype dies down, it’ll all go away.”
“Yeah, then start up again when you go train. Then you’ll leave. And I’m here. My business is here. I’ll stay.”
He sighed. “Rooted.”
She paced. Each time she stole a peek at him, she averted her gaze like the look would turn her into stone.
Gideon watched the fear etch across her face but didn’t know how to erase it. “Please come to my house so we can talk.”
“Why can’t we talk here?”
“Privacy. If your neighbors hear us talking passionately—”
“Arguing.”
“Talking with enthusiasm, I’m afraid they’ll call the police on us again.” He took a step closer to her, and she took two steps back, almost into a corner.
With the shadow covering a portion of her face, she reminded him so much of that nervous young girl hiding by a set of bleachers so many years ago.
“No sex.”
Janelle blinked.
“Tonight. No sex tonight. We’ll talk. When you get sleepy, you can sleep in a spare bedroom.”
Janelle remained pensive as though tumbling the possibilities over in her mind. She shook her head again. “I need time to think. You have a lot going on in your life. Maybe adding me to it is one complication you don’t need.”
Gideon regarded her for a moment in silence. “Okay.” He picked up his belongings from the floor and slipped them back on while she watched him. Now dressed, he picked up his jacket and put that on while he stared at her. Before leaving, he approached her. “Do not think for one second that me leaving means I’ve given up on you, on us. I haven’t. If I have to fill your whole apartment with flowers and turn it to a greenhouse for you to see what you mean to me, I will. I can’t do anything about the paparazzi following me. I have the house that I have for privacy, not flash. I know what I want. I know what I like.” He held her small face in his hands. “Don’t be so afraid.”
She remained silent while a single tear rolled down her cheek. “Take that same advice, okay?”
He knew exactly what she meant. His knee. Maybe to prove something to her he would have to prove something to himself. “Will you still go with me when I have my surgery? I’ll need all the support I can get.”
Janelle didn’t answer. She kept her stare to the floor.
Before leaving, he had to kiss her. When he did, he saw fireworks in his head as he always did. It made him wonder if she experienced the same thing. Did she see a future with him like he saw with her?
He pulled back from her and ached to tell her what had been plaguing his heart for a while. He loved her. With her fear and this dismissal, he couldn’t take the rejection. Once he made himself whole, he could try to get her again.
Going home to an empty house felt worse than ever before. He’d found someone. She completed him in every way. Yet he stood alone.
After a night of tossing and turning, Gideon went to the hospital before going to his mother’s flower shop. He found her awake and eating lunch.
“Darling.” Her breathy salutation had a different connotation now that she’d gone through surgery.
“Are you doing your breathing exercises?” He picked up the tubular contraption that the doctor had told her to use throughout the day to strengthen her lungs and prevent pneumonia.
“I’m fine, dear.”
He heard the line he’d so famously used for the last few years, since starting professional football. Gideon sat down next to her bed. “When are you getting discharged?”
“If all goes well, maybe in the next couple of days.” She pushed her tray away and adjusted her bed to recline a bit more.
“Good. When you’re discharged, you’re coming home with me.”
His mother blinked and raised her head again. “We’ve discussed this. I’m going back to my home.”
He shook his head. “No. You can’t go up the stairs, and you have no bedrooms downstairs. I have a whole suite where you can stay. I’ll hire a nurse who can stay there.”
“Oh, so that’s what it is. You want some at-home entertainment at my expense.” She giggled.
“No. I’ve decided to have the knee surgery.” He kept his gaze down to the floor. “It’s for the best. It’ll take half of a year or more to heal, but it’ll be fine.” When he didn’t hear a response from his mother, he looked up.
“What happened with you and Janelle?”
He stood. “Nothing.” He gave Elizabeth a kiss on her forehead. “Absolutely nothing.”
Queen took his hand before he could go. “I’ve never known you to quit anything.”
“I’m not quitting. You were right. I need the surgery. So I’ll get it done and stay at home. You’ll be there with me. Like you said. We can rehab together.” He tried putting on a brave face, but his insides crumbled. “My surgery is in a couple of days. Gunnar and Eboni will bring you back to my house.”
“Son—”
“If you’ll excuse me, I have some details to take care of before I have surgery.” He strolled out of the room when he couldn’t take seeing the look of concern on his mother’s face.
He found a quiet room at the hospital meant for doctor and family consultations. He closed the door and dialed his agent first.
“Gid is god. How are you?” Scot sounded like he talked to Gideon from the back of a yacht.
Gideon heard a ship’s air horn and seagulls squawking in the background. “I’m having the surgery for my ACL. I’ll be laid up for a while. I can’t take the pain.”
His agent didn’t need to know what type of pain he meant.
“Oh, wow. Heavy. Do the Wolves know?”
Gideon marched in place. “That’ll be my next call.”
“Good. You haven’t called them. Don’t.”
He felt his brows rut together. “Why not?”
“Let me work some magic with the Coyotes first before they get wind of you having this surgery. I don’t want the Wolves tainting your image before you get an offer. Is
that what you want? Do you still want to play football?”
At this point, Gideon had nothing left. “Yeah. Sure. Sounds good.”
“Awesome. They’re willing to offer you twice what the Wolves gave you, and that already was the highest deal in pro football history. You’ll be making money hand over fist.”
Gideon sighed. “Yep, sounds like what I want.” He disconnected the call.
He had somewhere to go. What he had to do couldn’t be done over the phone.
Gideon drove to Chesapeake to an area close to the North Carolina state line. Off the main road and down a two-mile stretch on a paved road surrounded by woods sat a large house. A black, high fence circled the property. As he looked through the fencing, he saw a trail of expensive cars parked along the circular aggregate driveway. He saw a black Bentley and knew the owner of the house would be home.
Gideon pressed the call button on the box at the gate. He peered up at the camera. After a beat, a voice came out over the speaker.
“Dennis the Menace is not signing autographs.”
Gideon couldn’t mistake his friend’s voice or the anger in his tone. “Come on, Dennis. We need to talk.”
He didn’t hear anything through the box. Had Dennis dismissed him completely? Gideon started to back up his car to leave when the gate started to open. He waited for it to open completely before driving through and parking behind the row of expensive rides.
He got out of the car with one battle down. Whether Dennis would allow him into his home would be a different story.
Gideon got up to the front door and raised his finger to ring the bell. Before he could touch it, the door opened. Dennis stood on the other side wearing a red tank top, black track pants, and his own line of sneakers that gave the Michael Jordan sneakers a run for their money in popularity.
“You got a lot of nerve coming up here.” Dennis shook his head as he stood in the doorway.
“Can I come in?” Gideon waited for a response.
After a terse thirty-second stare down, Dennis took a step to the side.
“Thanks, man.” Gideon walked in but didn’t remove his jacket. Knowing Dennis, he wouldn’t allow him to stay very long.
Gideon heard loud voices coming from the game room area of Dennis’s house. Unless Dennis had rearranged the place, Gideon remembered the layout.
“Still having your weekly poker games?” Gideon stared at Dennis and hoped his friend saw that he didn’t mind that an invitation to the games hadn’t been extended to him.
“Let’s cut the small talk.” Dennis waved his hand back and forth between them. “What’s on your mind? Make it quick. I’ve got a good hand going.”
Damn, Dennis wouldn’t be making this easy.
“Fine. Was hoping we could sit down like friends to talk again, but since that’s off the table, I’ll say it here. My ACL is bad. I got it checked after the game not too long ago.”
Dennis snickered. “Dude, you’re not telling me anything I didn’t already know. You don’t call the kind of play that you called unless you’re hurting.” He headed to the door. “If that’s all you have to say, you can bounce so I can get back to my friends.”
Gideon took a deep breath. “I’m having surgery to repair it. I’ll be out for a while.”
Dennis rested his hand on the doorknob but didn’t move. Gideon watched him standing with his back to him. He noticed the boisterous conversations from the other room had stopped. When he turned, he saw a group of about five men standing behind him. A couple had cigars in their mouths and the others held bottles of beer.
Gideon didn’t recognize any of them. No one came from their team. These must be Dennis’s childhood friends.
“Den, this dude bothering you?” a tall Asian man asked.
Gideon didn’t need a fight, but he would if he had to if it came down to it.
Dennis turned around. He stared at Gideon for a beat before he turned his attention to his posse. “Nah, it’s cool. Hey, y’all go on without me. I’ll be down in a minute.”
Dennis waited for his friends to vacate the area before he walked by Gideon. “Come on to my office.”
Gideon knew the location of the office but followed Dennis. When he entered it, the place looked exactly like he remembered it, full of memorabilia from Dennis’s sports accomplishments from childhood on up to his professional career. He saw an empty pedestal sitting next to his desk.
“That’s the spot where my MVP trophy should have been, but you got that.” Dennis plopped down in a chair behind his desk like he had called this meeting.
Gideon sat in a chair in front of the desk. If Dennis wanted to treat him like this, he wouldn’t be here for very long. “Look, I know you’re pissed at me for what I did at the Super Bowl.”
“Damn right. I thought we were boys.”
“We are. I thought I knew what was best for the team. I was wrong. I’m used to thinking I can take care of everything around me. I should have listened to you.”
Dennis regarded him for a while before he snickered. “What? Do you think you’re going to die under the knife or something? Why are you doing all this confessing now?”
“Because I realize that by not being open, I’m losing a lot of important people in my life. I have to be honest.” With each word Gideon spoke, he felt lighter.
“Okay. So since you’re feeling so honest, tell me. What do you think about me leaving the team if you stay?”
Gideon didn’t pause in his answer. “You’re a fast man. You can rally the team together. And you’re smart.”
“You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know.”
“But you don’t think things through. You’re a hothead. That attitude will get you in trouble.” Gideon sat taller. He wanted to prepare himself if Dennis kicked him out of the house. “What we have as friends, well, as teammates, is gold. We know how to read each other. That kind of chemistry is hard to build.”
“Chemistry? It’s not rocket science. It’s game play.” Dennis rocked in his chair. “Good to know how you really feel. I guess you’ll see from your couch the next time I play.”
Gideon smiled. “I guess I will.”
“So with this surgery, are you nervous?”
“Little bit, but the thought of not being able to run around with my kids later on in life scares me more.” Janelle’s words had hit home for him. Too bad she wouldn’t know her effect on him.
“Kids? Are you trying to tell me something? Did you decide to take Candy up on her offer?”
“Who?”
“The cheerleader. You know.” Dennis nodded and gave Gideon a knowing look.
“No, man. I—”
“Because I told her that you would like it if she surprised you at your house.”
Gideon felt a thud to his gut like he’d been stabbed. “You sent that woman to my home?”
“Yeah.” He clapped his hands and laughed. “You’re welcome.”
“She convinced the guard at the gate and my cleaning staff to let her in. She was naked in my bed.”
“Really?” Dennis rubbed his hands together like Gideon would be telling him a perverted bedtime story.
“She had her phone recording everything when I kicked her out of my house. I told you she is not my type. Why would you send her to my house?”
“You looked a little wound up. I thought you would like some relaxation.”
“It’s not my thing to use women like that. It’s degrading.” Gideon shook his head. “I may have given out your phone number to fans, but I would never tell them where you live or how to get to you.” As he stared at Dennis, he got the full picture of his life. “I don’t know why I’m surprised about you with the cheerleader or your decision with the team. I have always had your back, even at the expense of my health.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? I ran that shitty play you called.” Dennis pointed at Gideon. “I ran it and you ran for the touchdown
. Gid is fucking god.” He snickered.
Gideon struggled to his feet. “When you’re done with your pity party, one day sit down and look at that final play. Don’t look at me this time. Look at your damn self.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dennis didn’t stand.
Gideon had a feeling that as soon as he left, Dennis would be cuing up the video in his office to check out what he meant. “Put yourself in the quarterback’s position and you decide if you would have thrown the ball.” He remembered the play and recalled Dennis showboating to the crowd before he’d acknowledged Gideon. By that time, Gideon had started off in a run for the final play of the night. “Good luck with everything. I truly mean that.”
Dennis stood. “So what happens now?”
“I’m going to have my surgery and then take some time to figure things out.” Gideon shook Dennis’s hand and pulled him in for a half hug. “Remember. Think before you act, okay?”
“Whatever, man. I got this.”
Gideon nodded. He had a lot to think about.
Chapter 21
The last couple of days had Janelle feeling down. She’d missed Gideon but felt her decision to break ties with him would be beneficial to him in the long run. Too bad her heart suffered for it.
After getting dressed, watering her forest of plants, and forgoing breakfast for the second day in a row, she threw on her coat, grabbed her purse, and headed to the door. On the kitchen counter sat Gideon’s watch. He’d left it his last night at her apartment. She should have called him to let him know or at least gone to his business to give it back.
As she brushed her fingertips over the pricey jewelry, she didn’t think about selling it to save herself, save her business. She slipped the watch onto her wrist. Even after closing the clasp, it dangled off her hand. It reminded her of Gideon’s size.
For such a nice piece, why hadn’t he contacted her to get it back? Why hadn’t he come to see her?
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