Ball Buster

by Kara Sheridan

  “No you don’t, Sadie. You just think you do. Why don’t you climb out of bed and get dressed? There’s a bar full of eligible professionals downstairs, just waiting to meet someone as talented and beautiful as you. Change starts here.” Barbi tapped her fingers against her temple. “Please?”

  “Nope. I’m going to stay here and watch a movie after I call Leonard on the hotel phone.”

  “Fine.” Barbi crossed the room and dug her cell out of her purse. She tossed it on the end of the queen-sized bed. “Keep it. I won’t need it tonight.” She winked at Sadie.

  Sadie tossed one of the fluffy pillows off her bed at her. “Have fun, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  Barbi turned on her way out of the room. “You mean do everything you wouldn’t do.”

  As the automatic lock clicked on her door, she wondered if Barbi was right. Everyone but Sadie was having a great time. Shrugging it off, she immediately dialed Leonard’s number and got him on the second ring.

  “Hello,” he said.

  “Lenny, it’s Sadie.”

  “Thank God.” He sighed. “I’ve been trying to reach you for two hours.”

  “Yeah, I’ll tell you about my little adventure later. What’s going on?”

  “We have an emergency in Mobile.”

  “Alabama?”

  He chuckled. “Where else?”

  “I’m listening.”

  “It involves the Warriors. And from what I’ve been told, their PR nightmare has reached critical level.” As he explained the situation, Sadie could hardly believe her ears.

  “Let me get this right,” she said, finding it hard to breathe all of a sudden. “You want me to fly to Mobile because the owner of the Warriors is having a meltdown and a couple overpaid jockstraps got caught posting lewd content on social media? Tell me a better story, Leonard. Give me a real reason to care.”

  “Sadie…It’s the NFL.”

  “I know.”

  She gazed out the closest window. “I can’t blow off Barbi and Erika. I haven’t seen them in ten months. What will I tell them?”

  “The same thing I just told you. Charles made it abundantly clear what I would be forced to do if you refuse to go.”

  “Really?” She arched a brow, always ready to counter her boss, the stubborn owner of Longley Publicity. “What did he say this time?”

  “I’d rather not repeat it.”

  “Why not?”

  “It involved shoving something in a few orifices.”

  She couldn’t resist laughing. Charles had a way with words—filthy ones, anyway. “So he’s on the rampage, again? Singling me out because I refused to work with the most well-known misogynist on the east coast last week? I don’t have to succumb to that kind of pressure to keep my job. I have a proven record…”

  She had a successful work history in South Carolina, but a pathetic past in Alabama. The kind you kept hidden away in a locked diary. The last thing Sadie wanted to do was go home. She’d do whatever it took to avoid the situation. “This is a job better suited for someone who has experience with professional athletes.”

  “I know.” Leonard sounded genuinely sympathetic. “But Charles has certain expectations for this new account and he thinks his best bet is sending you to take care of things.”

  Disappointment flooded her mind. “I won’t let Charles bully me.”

  “This isn’t personal, Sadie, it’s about money.”

  She huffed out a frustrated breath. “How much money?”

  “I don’t have exact figures, but if you nail this assignment, we could get a long-term contract with the NFL. With all the PR nightmares going on in the league over social justice, domestic violence, substance abuse, and traumatic brain injuries, this is our chance to show them what a company like ours can do to improve public relations.”

  “You mean exploit an unfortunate situation for money?” she whispered.

  “On Charles’s terms, yeah. But for you, Sadie, I can’t think of a better image consultant to entrust this account to. You care about our clients. And these guys need real guidance, possibly a miracle to turn the team’s reputation around.”

  “Damn.” She liked to make a comfortable living as much as the next person. But Lenny was right. She put her heart and soul behind every project, actually kept in touch with many of her past customers, loving to hear their happily-ever-after stories once they completed training with her.

  But this assignment wasn’t worth the cost of her pride and confidence. Her job required getting personal on every level, invading a client’s professional and private life, dissecting everything about them, from the way they dressed to who they socialized with. Though her official title was a marketing and image consultant she was really a marketing spin doctor.

  But even the temptation of working with an NFL team—which would definitely boost her resume to the next level—didn’t negate the negative history she had in Alabama. Though she visited her parents every Christmas, they’d moved to Huntsville five years ago, hundreds of miles away from her hometown, she still avoided the place like the plague. “What do I get out of it?”

  “Bonus potential.”

  All right, she’d play along just to see how much Charles was willing to pay. “What percentage?”

  “One percent.”

  “Not worth the energy to pack my suitcase.”

  “Come on, Sadie.”

  “I’m one of the best in the business, Leonard, not a babysitter,” she said, knowing how hard it would be to get a team of egomaniacs to cooperate.

  “That’s what we want you to do.”

  “Really? Playing mom isn’t in my job description. And if you don’t already know, the reason I’ve had such success in the past is because our clients actually wanted to change.”

  “I get it. You don’t like wasting time on ungracious people. But this is the NFL. Think about it. Let that sink in for a moment.”

  She already had. Carson Savage would be her client. And that scared her.

  “Seriously, Sadie. I ran some analytics on the team, it’s not good. We’re talking a complete makeover.”

  “Are you telling me the Warriors don’t have an in-house staff capable of launching new brand campaigns?”

  Leonard snorted. “Haven’t you heard the latest news? All the major networks are talking about it. The owner of the Warriors, Jack Menzies, fired half his front office today. Several people walked out, too. If the staff had even been doing a half-ass job before, the team wouldn’t be where it is now.”

  “And where is that exactly?” She meant it more as an afterthought, but said it out loud.

  “In the goddamned toilet.”

  She sighed. Why now? Why here, on the one holiday she’d taken with her best friends—the very trip meant to help her forget Carson? She laughed—karma. Maybe she’d thought about Carson a little too much and denied her unresolved feelings for him a little too often. This was the universe’s way of getting back at her for lying.

  “I don’t want to miss out on time with my friends,” she said.

  “Reschedule.”

  Not what she wanted to hear. Leonard should know better. “You know my history.”

  “I do,” Lenny admitted. “So does Charles.”

  “What? How?” Only a handful of people in the office were privy to her relationship with Carson, and none of them would discuss it with Charles.

  “Leslie.”

  “Oh, God.” She gritted her teeth. Leslie Callahan hated Sadie. They’d competed for a promotion last year and Sadie landed it. Apparently, Leslie had waited for the right moment to pay her back.

  “Charles wants you to reconnect with Carson. We believe he’s the key to reaching the rest of the team. I have paperwork waiting for you at the office. A file as thick as a technical manual covering the demographics of all the players.”

  “I’m not crazy about the idea.”

  “I know you’re a football fan,” Lenny said.

  “A lo
ng time ago,” she lied, fantasizing about a certain broad-shouldered, quarterback with a devastatingly handsome face. Carson’s smile alone could make her forget her own name.

  How could she ever top that first kiss behind the bleachers their sophomore year? The only reason she waited for him after the Friday night game was to prove her best friend wrong—that she, indeed, had the courage to confess how hot she thought Carson was to his face.

  And how did that turn out for you? she asked herself.

  It turned into a three-year relationship full of ups and downs, unbelievable passion, and the pressure associated with being the darlings of a small Southern town. When she broke off their engagement after graduation, half of Fairhope turned their backs on her. She even received death threats. That’s how seriously some people took their football in Alabama.

  She’d secretly followed Carson’s professional career, though. He’d won the Heisman Trophy and was the number one draft pick four years ago. Time had been generous to Carson, that boyish face had grown more rugged and savage, just like his name. They should stay as far away from each other as possible, because their insatiable attraction would just get them in trouble. Big trouble.

  “You there, Sadie? What just happened?”

  “Sorry, I can’t do it,” she said, feeling unpredictable. “I didn’t part on good terms with Carson. I can’t go back there, Lenny.”

  Not parting on good terms was an understatement. She broke their engagement because Carson actually believed that she’d give up her dreams, marry him, and have half a dozen kids. Another symptom of growing up in the South. Sadie had ambition and a need to get away from outdated traditions.

  “You were kids.”

  “I was eighteen,” she said. “That’s not really a kid.”

  “For you, maybe not, Sadie. But Carson has moved on, trust me.”

  Yeah, she didn’t like being reminded about his womanizing. All the media outlets covered his activities on and off the field. The very areas of concern she’d be expected to fix. “Revisiting the past isn’t something I’m good at, Leonard. Pick someone else.”

  “Damn it, Sadie…”

  “What?” she asked.

  “I don’t want to fire you.”

  “Fire me?”

  She heard Lenny suck in a frustrated breath. “Charles’s words, not mine.”

  “I’m that replaceable?”

  “I believe his exact words were, ‘she’s replaceable, don’t forget it.’”

  “Which makes me replaceable and predictable. Not sure which is worse.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” he said. “And as for Carson, show him how far you’ve come, girlie. I’m taking off my managerial hat. This is Teddy Bear Lenny talking now, okay?”

  She couldn’t hold in the laughter. Leonard meant the world to her. “You make everything sound so easy.”

  “Well…” He started. “Stop overthinking everything. You are a control freak. Self-admitted, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is uncomfortable territory for you. I get that. Your fight-or-flight instinct probably kicked in a few minutes ago.”

  It had.

  “Fight this time, Sadie. Don’t let a guy keep you from fulfilling your potential. The Warriors would be lucky to get you. I know it. You know it. And obviously douchebag Charles knows it, or he wouldn’t have tapped you for the job.”

  “He’s taking advantage of my past.”

  “Yes. But spin it back on him. Take advantage of Charles.”

  “How?” she asked. Sadie was a black and white person—everything had a proper place and a logical explanation. She didn’t do gray area well—not at all, really.

  “Accept the assignment and go down to Alabama and blow everyone away. Earn that bonus and then some. Show Charles you don’t need him, but that his company sure as hell needs you.”

  Sadie rubbed the back of her neck, in deep thought. Leonard had a way with words, a way of making a shit-covered stick look appetizing. “Fine.”

  “Excuse me?” he asked. “I didn’t hear you clearly.”

  “I’ll go. On one condition.”

  “Name it.”

  “If I need help…”

  “I’m your man. Promise.”

  “I’ll hold you to that, Lenny.”

  “Good. I’ll be waiting for your arrival tonight.” The trace of desperation in his voice suggested he’d say anything to get her to leave right away.

  “Remember what it’s like in the field?” she asked.

  She could hear him smile. “I miss it.”

  “We’re a fantastic team,” she said.

  “Someone has to stay here, Sadie. Charles has been in and out lately, he’s unreliable. And besides…you don’t need a security blanket to face Carson. Just walk in there Monday morning and do what you do best. Seize control of the situation. Make those guys beg for mercy like you always do.”

  “Yeah…” Sadie typically worked with corporate types, vice presidents of accounting firms, the occasional Wall Street outfit, and maybe some engineers. Not football players. “Two percent,” she blurted.

  “For what?”

  “My bonus.”

  “Are you worth it, Sadie girl?”

  She tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Every zero.”

  “If you can turn the Warriors around and get a long-term contract, I’ll give you three percent of the signing fee.”

  Sadie considered it compensation for pain and suffering, because it wasn’t going to be easy facing that old heartbreak again. “I’ll catch a flight back to home tonight.” She disconnected, hoping she’d made the right choice.

  Chapter Three

  Carson reported for the usual team meeting on Monday morning. Dressed in jeans and a team T-shirt, he rubbed his eyes and took a swig of coffee. He’d spent a contemplative weekend alone, preparing for today, knowing he’d have to bust some heads to get things done the right way. Unwilling to sacrifice his career for the actions of a few careless players, he’d decided late last night to do as Coach had insisted, separate himself from the clowns.

  It might not make him the most popular player in the locker room, but it would ensure his future with the team, the one thing he loved almost as much as his family.

  “Mornin’,” Tyrone croaked, looking like he hadn’t slept all weekend.

  “Hey.” Carson eyeballed him. “What the hell, Ty? Your eyes are swollen and bloodshot. Can you see two feet in front of yourself?”

  “I could catch one of your balls blindfolded.”

  “Really?”

  “Maybe not today.”

  “While I have you cornered,” Carson started.

  Ty pursed his lips and tried to kiss him. “Come here, baby.”

  Carson rolled his eyes. “Joking aside,” he said. “I really need you to follow through on what you promised Friday. Did you deliver my message?”

  “Yeah.” Ty instantly sobered. “There won’t be any more unauthorized photographs posted.”

  “I want to believe that, Ty.”

  “Short of beating the guy senseless, I made it clear that if anything else shows up on social media that damages the team’s reputation, he’ll answer to me first, you, then Coach.”

  Carson nodded. “I appreciate the effort.”

  “If things are as bad as you say…”

  “It is.” Coach hadn’t given Carson permission to share the details about the marketing expert coming in, but Ty and his other teammates would find out soon enough. As if coming to an early camp wasn’t punishment enough, Carson could only guess what the front office had in store for the team.

  “One good thing did come from that ass shot, though.”

  “What?”

  Ty waggled his eyebrows. “Did you read some of the comments? I counted thirty-six marriage proposals on Twitter alone. Not a bad thing, bro. Variety is the…”

  Before Carson could respond, the media room door opened and Coach Rangall stepped into the hallwa
y. “Listen up. Check the list on the far wall. If your name is there, grab a seat inside. If not, report for drills outside.”

  Carson scanned the paper, he was number five on the list of twenty-some players. Reluctantly, he entered the media room and chose a seat in the back. Once the space filled up, Coach closed the door and walked to the front.

  “I’m going to make this short,” Rangall said. “The fact that we’re even here makes me sick.” His penetrating stare zigzagged across the room. “After thirteen arrests, two suspensions, and over four hundred thousand dollars in personal fines last season, the commissioner gave us an ultimatum. If you don’t cooperate, you’ll spend the season on the bench, be cut from the roster, or even traded. Understand? We’ve hired the best marketing firm in the country to help clean this franchise up. I’m ashamed of all of you. Jack’s too embarrassed to even come downstairs and be spotted with you asshats.”

  A few murmurs sounded from the tables in front of Carson. He could only guess what his teammates were thinking and saying. Accountability would now be the name of the game, since Coach threatened to take away their million-dollar paychecks.

  Coach opened the door and made gestured for someone on the other side to come in. “Welcome Ms. Sadie Reynolds from Charles Longley Publicity.”

  Time seemed to stop after Carson heard Sadie Reynolds. The name triggered a chemical reaction, because his mouth immediately went dry and he got hard. But how could it happen if he hadn’t seen her in seven years? He didn’t even know what she looked like or sounded like anymore. Apparently, it didn’t matter. The beast inside him still wanted to touch and taste her—to remember her the way she’d always been…his.

  He closed his eyes, the image in his mind as real as anything. A hint of her delicate perfume made him smile. Was that part fantasy or reality? He opened his eyes just in time…

  She entered the room from the side door, wearing a fitted black skirt suit and three-inch heels.

  Holy shit. Seven years had aged her like a fine wine—softening her features, giving her time to fill out a skirt like a supermodel. She wore her silky hair mid-length now, just over the shoulders. In high school, her braid almost reached the top of her butt.