Maggie swatted him on the head. “Cash had five pounds of bacon in there. He plays dirty! Next week, I’m giving them enough sugar to make thirty pies.”
Jayson slid the last of the pancakes onto the platter and set the stack on the table. “What’s this about sprouts?”
“My aunt and uncle are insane,” Reid said.
Maggie dug her fork into the stack of pancakes. How he loved a woman who actually ate.
“It’s more my dad. He’s a major foodie. When we were growing up, he’d quiz us on spices at the dinner table. Somehow that morphed into us having family dinners where everyone makes something. Whoever has the best dish wins. To keep it fair, we all vote. Cash sandbagged me.” She snatched a slice of bacon from the plate Miss Joan pulled from the microwave and held it up. “We love bacon.”
Who the hell were these people who had family dinners and actually enjoyed it? The idea of it sent Jayson and Sam into convulsions. Family dinners in the Tucker household meant silence. Silence guaranteed you wouldn’t get a slap or a punch or a whipping with grandad’s old belt.
When the house phone rang, everyone’s head snapped up.
Miss Joan reached for the cordless mounted on the wall. “Who on earth is calling so early?” She checked the ID and punched the keypad. “Grif? Are you okay? What’s wrong?” A brief pause ensued until she glanced at Jayson. “Oh. Okay. You scared me, calling so early. You all right otherwise?…And Carlie Beth and the girls? Good. I love you. Come see me.”
She passed the phone to Jayson. “It’s Grif. For you.”
“Morning, boss,” Jay said into the phone. “What’s up?”
“Where’s your damned phone? I’ve been calling for an hour.”
Jayson checked the counter, then the table. Nothing. Patted the pockets of his track pants. Nothing. Christ sakes, he left it upstairs. Yeah, way out of routine here. “Sorry. I left it upstairs.”
“Dude, you’re killing me.”
“I know. Shocking. What’s up?”
“Get somewhere private. We’ve got a problem.”
* * *
While the others chowed down on his pancakes, Jay excused himself and stepped out onto the porch, settling into one of Miss Joan’s Adirondack chairs.
If Grif sent him in search of privacy, this couldn’t be good. “Go,” he said, steeling himself for whatever news his agent had.
“I just got a call from a reporter. It’s a small paper in the Village, but…”
“If he has it, someone else does. What is it?”
“Christine Webb.”
The Golden Boy’s wife. Maybe she’d finally talked him into getting help.
“What about her?”
“What happened at that party two weeks ago?”
That fucking party. Jay hadn’t even wanted to go, but since one of his receivers was hosting, he’d put in an appearance, intending to stay only a short while.
“That’s where all this shit started. I told you that.”
“Well, tell me again because this reporter thinks you’re having an affair with her.”
With all the crap that had gone on in the last week, it shouldn’t have surprised him. Still, Jay gawked as a bird dipped and looped in the morning sun. Obviously, the bird wasn’t dealing with half the bullshit Jay was. “Is she saying that?”
“I don’t know, but it’s coming from somewhere.”
“They’re making like this is why I beat his ass in the locker room? Because I’m fucking his wife?”
“That’s the gist of it.” A brief silence ensued. “Jay, look, I have to ask.”
Great. Now Grif was doubting him. Well, he could ask all the goddamned questions he wanted. Jay had nothing to hide. “Go ahead, Grif. I want this cleared up. It’s one thing for my team to release me and lose endorsement deals. That’s only money. This is my reputation they’re screwing with.”
“I know,” Grif said, “which is why we’re having this conversation. I’ll get this settled. At that party, were you drinking?”
“Not a drop. I was tired and had an early workout the next day.”
“Good. Did you come on to her at all?”
Jay rolled his eyes. The idea of it, that after years of working together, Grif needed to confirm Jay hadn’t been hitting on a teammate’s wife, well, what did that say? It said that his agent didn’t know him well enough. Which was partly Jay’s fault. With his family history, he kept certain things close. In doing so, it created a vast space between friend and acquaintance. Grif fell somewhere in between.
“Tuck?”
“I’m here. Thinking.”
“Shit.”
“Not about that. About the fact that I haven’t let you know me well enough to know I wouldn’t screw a teammate’s wife. So, the answer is no, I didn’t hit on her. At all. We did talk at that party. She asked me about him. What his mood was, how he behaved in the locker room. I knew something was up. I asked her if everything was okay and then she hit me with him abusing her.”
“Shit. And then what?”
“Obviously, I wasn’t comfortable. I suggested she talk him into getting help. Therapy or whatever. Discreet places. Someone interrupted us and she walked off. That was the only time I spent with her. I left right after. There were half a dozen guys outside when I left. They saw me go. End of it. The next day, Eric came to me. She’d told him what I said about them getting help. He told me to stay out of it. The following week, I almost got my head taken off by his former roommate.”
“Okay,” Grif said. “That’s all I needed. I’m gonna get with your PR people and see what we can do. And, I hate to tell you this.”
“What now?”
“Your mom.”
“What about her?”
“She gave a statement.”
His mother. Of course. She couldn’t resist piling on. “How bad?”
“The usual. How disappointed she is and such. Ignore it. Don’t answer your phone. After your workout, come to my office.”
“I’ll come now so we can deal with this.”
“No. We want this to be business as usual. You’re focused on staying in shape. Your career is the priority, blah, blah. If we do that, this other stuff will look like a minor distraction. It’s a blip, Tuck. I’m out.”
Jay hit the button on the cordless and rested his head back. “Hell of a fucking blip.”
* * *
After putting Aunt Joanie in charge of guarding the last three pancakes, Maggie stepped onto the porch, ready to warn Jay his breakfast might soon be gone if he didn’t hurry up. One look at the throbbing muscle in his jaw suggested breakfast was the last thing on his mind.
“Sorry to interrupt.” She held up her keys. “I’m taking off, but your pancakes were amazing and Reid is about to eat your share.”
Jay held the phone up. “I just hung up.”
“Is everything okay there? Anything I need to know about?”
“Professionally? No.”
“What does that mean?”
He sat forward, rested his hands on his knees and squeezed. Whatever Grif had said to him, it had sent his mood plummeting.
He stood, stared out at the trees swaying in the light wind, and after a minute walked toward her, leaving a good two feet between them.
Where oh where did playful Jayson go?
“Maggie, you’re, uh, probably gonna hear some stuff today.”
“About?”
“Me.”
What else was new these last few days? Jayson Tucker was all anyone could talk about. “All right. What will I hear?”
He met her gaze straight on. She liked that about him. His direct manner, his willingness to be honest. In her line of work, people lied to her on the daily. As a result, she’d developed a lack of trust with strangers. With him, she sensed something different, something that put her at ease.
“Ah, dammit.” He shook his head, hesitated and then forced it out. “You’ll hear that I’m having an affair with a teammate’s wife.”
<
br /> Ah, dammit, was right.
Finally a man came into her life that she wanted to get to know a whole lot better and he turned out to be an adulterer. I sure can pick ’em.
“I’m not,” he added. “Crap. I should have said that straight away. I’d never do that. Ever.”
She eyed him a good long time, waiting for the flinch. For the look away, but…nothing. No sign of deception. “Good answer, Jayson. For many reasons. Why tell me?”
Tentatively, he reached out, tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Because I like you. Because I might be here a few weeks and I’d like to take you to dinner and I don’t want you thinking I’m that guy. I’m not.”
He might not be having an affair, but obviously the rumor was out there and that begged questions. “Why this rumor? Why this woman?”
“She’s the wife of the guy I socked in the locker room.”
“Oh, boy. That’s messy.”
“Yeah. I think it’s spin control. The team will say I’m having an affair and that’s what started the fight.”
Which left her once again wondering what exactly happened in that locker room. “What did start the fight?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Summarize.”
He smiled. “See, that’s what I like about you. No bullshit. Just…wham.”
“Call me cautious. You just said you’d like to take me to dinner. What I hear in the press might impact my decision and I want to hear your side first.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll tell you everything.”
It took less than two minutes to share the whole stinking mess about Eric Webb smacking his wife around and the woman confiding in Jayson.
When he finished, Maggie nodded. “That’s why the two of you got into it in the locker room? He told you to stay out of it?”
“Not totally. Prior to his wife talking to me, I’d been sidelined for two weeks with a banged-up knee. Eric played in my absence. I was due to have one more week of rest, but after Eric found out his wife talked to me, he spent two days blowing passes in practice. The night before last week’s game, the coach benched him and told me I was cleared. During the game, Eric Webb’s former college roommate almost shredded me with an illegal hit. That was no coincidence.”
“Oh my God. That’s why you attacked him. You thought he set you up.”
“I lost my shit. I mean, it’s one thing to be pissed at me, but he could have ended my career. Or left me in a wheelchair.”
“Maybe that’s what he wanted.”
“Which sucks, considering the time I’ve put into mentoring him. I know I’m aging out. I get it. My goal was to finish my career with my team. To be remembered as the guy who helped the younger one along. That’s what I wanted.”
Squeaky clean Jayson Tucker. After all of this nonsense, he had nothing to lose by telling the truth to anyone who would listen. Including the media. Something’s missing. “Why haven’t you told anyone?”
“And look like a shit for putting his private business out there? They have kids and I’ve—”
He broke off. Shook his head.
“You’ve what?”
He waved it away. “Nothing. But, my mom decided to weigh in. I haven’t seen the article, but the reporter must have called her and apparently she wasted no time telling him how disappointed she is. She couldn’t resist, I guess.”
“Oh, Jayson. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all right. I should be used to this by now. She doesn’t usually go to the press, but I’ve been ignoring most of her calls. This is her way of getting to me. She never takes a break.”
The door came open and Reid stuck his head out. “Hey,” he said to Maggie. “I thought you bolted.”
“I’m going,” she said. “Was discussing security with Jay.”
Reid’s gaze passed to Jay, back to Maggie, and then to Jay again. He wasn’t buying any of it.
“Superstar, you done sitting around?”
Jay held his palm up and looked at Maggie. “Am I done sitting around?”
She stepped off the porch and gave him a backward wave. “Call me later about that other thing we discussed and we’ll set up a time.”
Dinner.
She wanted to go to dinner. For the company and to figure out just what Jayson was hiding.
* * *
At dawn Monday morning, Jay finished Reid’s torture session with a few laps around the outside of the obstacle course to clear his mind and flush the lactic acid from his body. Mind-body maintenance in one shot. Couldn’t beat it. He made the final turn thinking ahead to stretching, a shower, and food before another meeting with Grif.
And that would be his day. Quite a change from the over-packed schedule—and zero downtime—he’d had barely a week ago.
He needed work. Anything to get him back on the field and mentally active. Then again, he’d been the asshole who blew up his career, why would any team want him?
“Going down in flames, dumb-ass,” he muttered.
He shook his head and contemplated the mess known as his life. Adding to the drama was the crazy-assed voice mail he’d received from Eli Paskins. Apparently, his former boss was outraged over the cheating scandal. Fighting in the locker room was one thing, Eli had said, spreading rumors about marital infidelity crossed the line and Eli wanted to make sure Jay knew he would do whatever he could to squash that nastiness.
Now Jay didn’t know what the hell to think. If the team had started that rumor, Eli was playing him. If they hadn’t started it, Eric Webb’s management must have. But how could Jay know?
Complicated situation all around.
One he couldn’t obsess over too much or he’d lose his mind.
He stopped at the picnic table where Reid left him a jug of water to finish. Next to that sat his phone and keys. If he got really lucky, he’d see a missed call or text from Maggie. He’d spoken to her briefly the night before to inquire about the lab results on the cigarette butt. Yeah. Results. That’s why he’d called.
Using her all-business voice, she’d informed him favors had been called in to rush the results, but even with those favors, it would take a few days.
Now he was left anticipating that moment when he’d see her name light up his screen. A feeling somewhat foreign to a guy who generally had his pick of women. Some of whom were damned pleasant to be around, but none of whom turned him into a horny teenager again.
At least until Maggie.
He tapped the phone.
Damn.
Nada. Zilch.
Yep. Going. Down. In flames.
He should have asked her to dinner the night before. Even if going out in public wasn’t possible, he could have run over to her place and whipped up a meal. Or found somewhere private for them.
Because one thing was for sure, he wanted her clothes off and that tight body tucked under him. The two kisses they’d shared told him she wouldn’t be shy in bed. Maggie, he imagined, would rock his world when the stress of life got to him and he wanted hard, active sex with someone he wouldn’t break in half.
And Maggie Kingston with her toned body and aggressiveness fit the bill.
God knew he could use it right now. A change from the docile, moldable women he surrounded himself with. Easy on the eyes and zero flak about his schedule. But with all that accommodating came the flip side. The too quiet side of a woman who wouldn’t tell him what she wanted in bed.
His phone rang. Ha. Maybe he’d willed her to call.
Sam.
Definitely not the female he’d hoped for, but he’d always take a call from his sister. She’d left the night before, heading back to South Carolina with a promise to check in during the week and set up another visit for the following weekend.
He tapped the video button and her face filled the screen. Her puffy, glazed eyes did nothing to hide the fact that she’d been crying. He knew his sister. And her cues.
He straightened up, pushing his shoulders back, readying himself for Drunk
Marlene’s latest antics. Their mother seemed to be the only person capable of reducing Sam to tears. If nothing else, the Tucker kids were a tough pair.
“Hey,” he said. “What’s up?”
“I…” She paused and turned her head, revealing the headrest behind her.
By now, she’d usually be in the office. “Why aren’t you at work?”
She peered out the window for a few seconds, drew a long breath, and faced the phone again. “I got fired.”
Fired.
Well, shit. That lying weasel Will Burns had assured him Sam wouldn’t take a hit. What the fuck?
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m not letting them fire you because of me. I’ll call him.”
“No,” she said. “It’s not…the scandal.”
He didn’t believe that. At all. “They’re lying then, because he told me you were great at your job.”
“You won’t believe this.”
After the last week? Not a lot would shock him. “Try me.”
“The board thinks I’m embezzling. That I helped Jack siphon money.”
What. The fuck? “You’re the one who told them about the funky accounting.”
“They’re saying I was covering myself. You know, trying to make them think I wasn’t involved by coming to them first. It has to be coming from the board.”
The board. Will Burns should man-up and stop hiding behind his board. “Sam, it’s crap. I’ll call him.”
“No. Jay, I’m not twelve. I can fight my own battles. Besides, it’s too late. I’m out.”
Just like that. Disposed of. Seemed to be a trend with the Tuckers. This wasn’t him slugging a teammate, though. They were accusing his sister of a crime. If convicted, she’d do jail time. A dull throb thumped against the back of his eyes. “I won’t call, but we need a lawyer. I’ll line someone up.”
Sam shook her head. How could she even argue this one? “Sam, I’m not fighting your battles. I’m finding a good lawyer to defend you against serious allegations.”
“You don’t think I realize that? It’s my butt on the line, Jay. But Will said considering you’re my brother, and with all the press, they wouldn’t press charges.”
Craving Heat Page 14