Some Guys Have All the Luck

by Deborah Cooke

  “So, that’s why you never came back to town,” he said, fighting to keep his tone level.

  Cassie nodded, then wiped her eyes. She turned to meet his gaze, her own clear. “And I never will again.”

  “You came for Tori.”

  “I did it for Emily,” she corrected savagely. “She’ll have someone to call if she ever needs anything.” She heaved another ragged sigh. “I must look like a wreck.” She pulled down the visor and winced at her reflection in the mirror, then opened her purse.

  They sat for a few moments in silence as Reid considered the ramifications of this new information and Cassie repaired her make-up. “Does anyone know?”

  Cassie shook her head.

  “No, not after that threat,” Reid said.

  She nodded and took a deep breath.

  “Thank you for trusting me.” He reached over and took her hand in his.

  “You don’t share gossip.”

  “Never.” Reid wondered how much Marty had known about this incident.

  Cassie turned her hand over, letting her fingers curl around his, drawing strength from him. “This is the part where you call me a slut,” she whispered. “Or a baby killer.”

  Reid wrapped his arm around her shoulders and drew her closer, holding her tightly against his chest. “This is the part when I chew you out for not telling me sooner, so I could smash in Ryan’s face in front of everybody.” He was shaken by the power of his anger and his desire to do physical injury to the other man.

  That would have been his father’s solution and it worried him to feel any commonality with that man.

  “That’s not the part of his anatomy that I want to see damaged,” Cassie said grimly.

  Reid smiled despite himself. “Good thing there were no big knives at the buffet.

  “Good thing.”

  “When’s he leaving town anyway?”

  “Reid!” She pulled back to look at him. “Don’t. You don’t need to avenge my honor. You don’t need to get involved.”

  “Maybe I want to.”

  Cassie grimaced. “Maybe you’d be avenging your own, too.”

  He frowned in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

  She winced. “I think my mom always thought you were the father.”

  Reid was shocked, then pushed a hand through his hair. “Well, that explains a lot, actually.”

  “It does, doesn’t it?” She leaned on his shoulder, still hanging on to his hand. “Oh, Reid, I’m sorry. She’s so awful to you.”

  “I’m used to it. She’s not the only one, so I have a pretty thick skin.” He pressed a kiss into her hair, unable to imagine how alone she’d felt that summer. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that, Cassie.” He shook his head in wonder. “Yet you wanted to have a baby for Ally.”

  “She hates me, because she knows about the abortion. She thinks I threw away what she wanted most.”

  “Because she doesn’t know more than that,” Reid guessed.

  Cassie shook her head. “She never will.”

  Reid was silent. He could understand that.

  He also understood that Cassie was confiding in him because he was almost as good as a stranger. She was sharing her secret because there was no risk of them seeing each other again. She’d never be back in Montrose River.

  And that troubled him a lot more than he knew it should.

  “Maybe you should tell her.”

  “Maybe I will, in fifty years or sixty years. Thank you.” She took a shaking breath and checked her reflection again. After a bit of touch-up, she turned to face him and he nodded approval.

  “Picture perfect.” Because she was. Always.

  “Why does everyone think you’re bad?” Cassie asked, stealing a quick kiss. “You’re the nicest guy I’ve ever known.”

  “I’m not sure how much of a compliment that is, given what you just told me,” he teased and she laughed.

  “Now you’re officially the person who knows the most about me,” she said lightly.

  Reid knew she didn’t mean anything by that. She couldn’t. He put the car back into gear. “And I still like you. There’s proof positive that you can share your secrets and not end up alone.”

  “Wait a minute,” Cassie said as he merged into traffic. “What secret do I get in exchange? You’re the one who said everything was a negotiation.”

  “And you’re getting a ride to the airport. We made a deal.”

  “Not fair,” she protested, sounding like her usual self. “I want one of your secrets.”

  “Maybe I don’t have any.”

  She laughed. “You could tell me about the woman who betrayed you.”

  Reid almost missed a gear. “Not a chance,” he replied.

  Cassie didn’t say anything. He stole a glance at her and saw that she was looking out the window. He couldn’t read her mood at all. After the intimacy of her sharing that story, he felt shut out and isolated, even in the small confines of the car.

  But then, that was familiar. And what else could he expect? Reid was keenly aware that he was from the wrong side of the tracks and had no business being with Cassie at all, and it wasn’t just because of her mom’s reaction to his presence.

  They rode the rest of the way in silence. He parked at the curb by her airline’s check-in. It was just a small regional airport, but quite busy on this afternoon. He found a determined gleam in Cassie’s eyes, one that sent an increasingly familiar surge of need through him.

  It was official. He was never going to get enough of her.

  Good thing for his principles that she was leaving forever. Otherwise, he might make a mistake and promise more than he could deliver.

  “You’re not going to say that you’ll call me, are you?” she asked, her gaze knowing.

  Reid shook his head. “I like the honesty between us.”

  “Maybe it’s time someone surprised you, Reid Jackson,” she said with unexpected heat.

  “People surprise me all the time.”

  “Maybe it’s time someone gave a shit about you, then.”

  “No.” Reid shook his head with resolve. “Don’t go there, Cassie. I’m no knight and I’m no hero. You know better than to get involved with a guy like me.”

  There was a defiant light in her eyes. “But I already did.”

  “You just had sex with me, multiple times,” he corrected. “It’s not the same thing and it’s not going to become the same thing.”

  “Unless I open another negotiation.”

  “You do not need to be mooning after another guy who doesn’t reciprocate your feelings,” he said, surprised by how much her suggestion annoyed him. He wasn’t going to hurt her. And that meant staying away from her. “It was an interval. A fling. And it’s never going to be anything more.”

  Rather than wait for her inevitable rebuttal—because he knew she wouldn’t easily abandon any disagreement—Reid got out of the car and lifted Cassie’s bag out of the trunk, setting it on the sidewalk. He didn’t want to encourage any ideas of them having a future, because he knew they didn’t.

  Having to be the one to insist on it made him feel irritable, though.

  “I know you’re right,” she said when she was standing beside him. “It was just so good.”

  “It was,” he admitted warily.

  “I’m not ready for it to end,” she whispered, a hundred lights in her eyes.

  “Better to quit when you’re ahead,” he said gruffly.

  “When the glass is half full?”

  “Something like that.”

  Their gazes clung for a long potent moment and Reid wished that he wasn’t the man he was. He wished he could be the man she wanted him to be, but he was enough of a realist to know his limitations.

  The rage that had flooded through him was a potent reminder that his history wouldn’t ever be left behind.

  “Thank you, Reid,” Cassie said finally. She reached up and Reid knew he should have stepped away, but he couldn’t. She kisse
d him sweetly, pushing her fingers through his hair with a proprietary affection that made him want her all over again. “You made my weekend awesome,” she whispered when she lifted her lips from his.

  He was sizzling to his toes. “You had a major impact on mine, too.”

  “And thanks for listening.”

  “Feel better?”

  She considered that. “I do, actually. I didn’t realize how awful it was to be carrying that secret around.” Her gaze flicked to him with concern.

  “Your secret’s safe with me,” Reid said. “Marty taught me that, after all.”

  “Thank you.” They smiled at each other and probably everyone around thought they were besotted with each other. Someone honked but Reid didn’t hurry to move his car.

  “Have good flights,” he said finally. “And don’t work too hard.”

  “Be nice to Lionel,” she said then kissed him again, kissed him as if she really meant it, kissed him as if she wanted her touch to keep him warm for the rest of his life.

  Maybe it would.

  Reid lifted his hands away from her, choosing to be the one to break their kiss. He knew better than to want more than he’d ever had. He’d been with Cassie and more than once. He told himself it should be enough. They eyed each other for a moment, then she smiled and grabbed her bag.

  “Be good,” she said lightly. “Or at least be careful.”

  “I’m not going to start now,” he joked. “Think of the damage to my reputation.”

  Cassie laughed lightly, but the laughter didn’t reach her eyes. Her gaze clung to his for a moment and Reid knew he could have made an offer or a promise, and she might have agreed. Instead, he held her gaze and kept his mouth shut.

  No lies. No false promises. It had been really good and he knew better than to hope for more.

  He watched her go, knowing he’d miss more than those boots, and felt the roil of anger inside him. He should leave it be. He should forget her and continue with his life.

  He shouldn’t wish for what could never be.

  That path never led anywhere good and Reid had learned that lesson well.

  Then he wondered when Ryan Foster intended to leave town.

  If Reid Jackson ever decided to steal Cassie’s heart, she’d end up presenting it to him on a silver platter. She felt so much better after talking to him—never mind after such great sex. It would be easy to get used to having Reid around. He listened. He sympathized. He made her smile.

  But Reid was direct. He’d said it was just about sex. He hadn’t made any promises, said he’d call, or even suggested they get together again.

  Cassie knew they wouldn’t.

  Maybe it was a good thing there was no chance of him pursuing her because she was just as sure that sooner or later, he’d break her heart in two.

  They weren’t meant for each other. They just had great sex.

  Even knowing all of that, she couldn’t stop thinking about Reid. She almost called him from the airport in Chicago, then again when she got home. But that was just stupid. She wasn’t going to be the next woman in line wanting more from Reid Jackson, and she wasn’t going to moon over another man who wouldn’t make her happy.

  That those were his own words should have been warning enough.

  She told herself that she was worried about what he was going to do, but she knew that wasn’t true. Reid would think it through and make a plan—or not. She doubted he would really wade in to try to make anything right from her past. He’d always stayed outside any fray, watching from the sidelines.

  Except when he played football, but those days were behind him.

  She felt a wave of sympathy for him, then a rush of desire, and told herself it was good she’d only spent a few days in Montrose River. She’d confided so much in him so fast. If she’d been there a week, she would have lost all discretion.

  Her tattoo was itching in the worst way, and she hoped it hadn’t somehow gotten infected. It seemed unlikely so many months later, but she resisted the urge to scratch it.

  In fact, she felt generally irritable. Her flights seemed to take forever.

  Instead of being glad to be back on her home turf, she found New York crowded, noisy, and smelly. It wasn’t even summer yet, but the sidewalks were radiating heat after a scorcher of a day, and her apartment was stuffy. She opened the windows, heard the horns and the sirens, and acknowledged that she was discontent.

  It was a small space.

  It was her space, and real estate was expensive in a big city, but still. Her whole apartment would fit in Reid’s master bedroom. That closet was bigger than her living room. She felt a sudden sharp urge for more.

  Her apartment was also full of stuff, another comparison that was striking after the vast emptiness of Reid’s place. Her closet and her bookshelves were full and the furniture was kind of packed in. There were boxes of shoes stacked on the bedroom floor because they didn’t fit in the closet.

  Maybe she should get rid of some things, simplify her life and possessions a bit. There was something to be said for the uncluttered simplicity of Reid’s place. It didn’t feel welcoming or homey, but it had to be a lot easier to keep clean.

  The brochures from the new condos at F5 were still on the coffee table, left open to the biggest model instead of the small one that Cassie could realistically afford. Real estate. That was another reason to have a partner. A second income would allow for a larger chunk of Manhattan to call home.

  Assuming her partner of choice had a job.

  There was nothing in the fridge but yogurt and she couldn’t be bothered to go shopping on a Sunday night. Cassie unpacked, started a load of laundry, glad once again that she had a small stackable washer and dryer in her apartment. She’d take the kimono to the dry cleaners on the way to F5 in the morning. She put on her nightgown, opened a can of tuna, then piled it on thin bread. She had olives, so dinner was a feast.

  What did it say about Cassie’s ability to be intimate with others that the person she felt closest to emotionally was a self-confessed manwhore with no interest in ever making a commitment to a woman, or anyone else?

  Nothing good, she had to think.

  Her infatuation with Reid would pass. Cassie was sure of it. They’d had great sex and she’d enjoyed it. The thing was that if it had been only great sex, she would have forgotten him already.

  No, it was the conversations with Reid that made him hard to forget. He was interesting.

  Was he really as independent and solitary as he wanted her to believe?

  Cassie found herself turning on her laptop again, not to work but to research Reid. She knew already that if she asked him any questions, Reid would never share the truth with her. After all, she’d probably never talk to him again.

  Fortunately, there were other ways to satisfy her curiosity.

  It was easy to find the story of his injury, even years later. The incident had shocked college football circles. She found pictures of Reid before it happened, looking cocky yet wary, so very young. He’d been gorgeous but she liked the look of him better now. Maybe that was a function of her not being a teenager anymore either. She found an amateur video of him playing football and felt a lump rise in her throat as she watched. She’d thought for a long time that there was no sight more perfect than a young male athlete in motion, and Reid had been beautiful.

  There was no other word for it. He’d had strength and grace, agility and power. And he’d had a gift for anticipating his team members, being able to spin on a dime, target one and throw the football right into that player’s hands.

  He’d been a hero. The college that had plucked him out of Montrose High had been on a losing streak before Reid, and he’d turned the team’s stats around. There were pictures of him being carried on the shoulders of his teammates after a win, and of him being surrounded by fans and teammates when they triumphed at the end of their first season. Cassie leaned closer, noting how the wariness had faded from his smile.

  She’
d seen him play once, when his team had come to her college. She only knew a bit about football but she remembered watching him that day, the charisma and confidence he’d exuded, the rabid fans from his college who’d followed to cheer the team on. She remembered feeling awed that she’d known him, even a little bit, and felt a strange commonality with him then that they’d both escaped Montrose River.

  There were women, of course, hanging all over him in picture after picture. Pretty girls with perfect teeth. There was a shot of him kissing one, then more pictures of them together. She had dark hair and looked sleek and pampered, the way women raised with money often do. Cassie couldn’t find her name, but didn’t look very hard either.

  And then there was the ‘incident’, as it had come to be called. Halfway through Reid’s third season, a play had gone badly wrong. She remembered it well. Reid, she was sure, would never forget it. She found another video of it, this time from a television station that had been broadcasting the game. Reid had attracted attention by then, and had offers to go pro. He’d been determined to finish his college degree first.

  Cassie sat back, her arms wrapped around herself as she watched. She knew what would happen but it was still horrifying to see it again. She turned down the sound, impatient with the commentator’s babble. There was a feint, an end-around, and one of Reid’s teammates was viciously tripped. She heard the ref’s whistle, but that didn’t stop Reid from being tackled. The players of the opposing team piled on him with what looked like glee, ignoring the refs, and the sight of Reid was obscured.

  It took a long time for the players to disentangle themselves and stand up, or maybe it felt longer to Cassie. They got up and brushed themselves off, clapping each other on the back with satisfaction even though they hadn’t apparently accomplished anything. Reid was alone on the turf, and he didn’t get up.

  A moment later, the coach ran onto the field, followed by the medics. Reid got to his feet with assistance, though Cassie could see how much it cost him to walk off that field. She turned up the sound in time to hear the opposing team’s fans cheer. She saw more than one of their players smirk before they turned away.

  And that had been it. The end of Reid’s football career.