by King,Imani
“Hey, if you wanted to get me alone you just had to say so,” I said in a low joking tone.
Her eyes showed a faint sparkle, but she shook her head at me like a schoolmarm. ”Shane, I work here. Please don’t embarrass me like this.”
“You have to lighten up. And if you think that I’m going to listen to all my teammates talk about how fine your ass is and not tell them what’s up, you’ve got another thing coming,” I said.
Maddy ran a hand over her face. “My ass is my own property. We still have a lot to talk about when it comes to how things stand between us. “
“I’m all for talking or whatever. My place or yours?” I said as I waggled my eyebrows suggestively at her.
I didn’t expect it, but when the burst of laughter erupted out of her lungs, I couldn’t help but grin wider.
“You are impossible,” she said.
I tucked my hand under her elbow and moved closer to her ear. “Get used to it, babe.”
As I straightened, I heard a muffled gasp from across the room. We both swung our heads toward the noise. My mind immediately went blank. Standing there was Olivia Watson. Olivia was in charge of the team’s social media presence and also happened to be the daughter of the team manager. Over the years, she’d gotten the reputation of being the ‘team’s girl’ and not in a flattering way. I’d slept with her a handful of times over the past year after she had finally worn me down after an endless pursuit.
I saw the way her spine straightened and her upper lip stiffened as she read our body language. Olivia was beautiful, but that beauty covered a thin skin and venomous demeanor. That was the biggest reason why nothing else had ever developed between us, no matter how hard she had pushed me on the subject.
“Shit,” I said under my breath.
Madeleine looked at me in surprise. “Is that your girlfriend?” she asked in a stunned voice.
“No, definitely not,” I said very slowly and deliberately.
“Shane? I have something I’d like to discuss with you.” Olivia crossed her arms and stared at me.
Shit, I thought again. It wasn’t as if I had any ties to Olivia officially, but it was more that Olivia thought she had ties—or hooks more accurately—into me. She had alluded to this several times in our last encounters, which is why I had kind of tried to give her the shake the last couple of times she had shown up at my condo unannounced. I was ashamed to admit that I was a guy with needs, and until Maddy had appeared in my life the day before, sometimes I needed a quick lay to scratch the itch. Olivia had been…convenient.
“I’ll be back,” I said to Maddy. I could see the look of hurt on her face, and I hated that I had been so lax on dealing with this particular situation. Until last week, I had no idea Maddy even lived in the city. I’d had no inkling I needed to deal with Olivia until this very moment.
I crossed the room again, and Olivia escorted me out into the hallway. “What can I do for the marketing department today?” I wasn’t sure that she was all that talented or capable when it came to her job, but I knew that wasn’t really a requirement when you were the daughter of the general manager.
In fact, she often used her job as a ruse to coerce me several times into showing up at different events that eventually led to us being alone and naked in her apartment. I needed to finally clear the air now just to make sure she didn’t cause any waves between me and Maddy.
“You were looking pretty cozy just now with the new doctor,” she said with a slight snarl in her voice.
The last thing I needed was a catfight. I wasn’t even sure what the status was between me and Maddy yet, and I didn’t want Olivia sticking her nose into it.
“We go way back. Went to high school and college together. Well, a little college. Besides, that’s none of your business,” I said.
Olivia’s face fell for just a moment before she regained her composure. I was terrified that I was going to have a crying woman on my hands. But that wasn’t Olivia’s style.
“We’ve got something here, Shane, between you and me. It’s silly for you to keep trying to deny it. We both know you want it too,” she said as she settled her hand on my shoulder.
I pushed her hand away quickly and glanced back at the door where I knew Maddy waited on just the other side. The last thing I needed was for her to come out and see something that could be easily misinterpreted for what it really was.
“We don’t have anything between us, and I don’t want anything from you. That’s what I told you the last time. And I’ll keep saying it to you until you figure it out,” I said. I didn’t like being cruel, but this was one conversation that I’d had too many times already. The problem was that I had confused the situation by giving in on far too many occasions after I’d said it. But this time, it was going to stick.
She straightened and gave me a sultry smile that brimmed with unspoken promises. She was the kind of woman who always manipulated situations to get her way. I still couldn’t believe that I let myself fall for that act as many times as I had.
“You have to give us a chance. We have something whether you want to admit it or not,” she said.
I shook my head. “We had enough chemistry to result in some completely unmemorable quickies. That’s it.” Now I was being a deliberate dick, but I had to get this message through to her.
I saw what looked like tears in the corner of her eyes, but I wasn’t sure if it was from sadness or anger. More than likely, knowing Olivia, it was the latter.
“If you walk away from me, I can make your life a living hell. Remember who I am.”
Now this got my attention and not in a good way. I wasn’t about to be threatened by some little bitch who thought she had more pull than she did. “If you breathe a word of any bullshit to your daddy, I will make sure he knows exactly how you manipulate the men on this team.”
The color drained from her face, but the lines around her mouth tightened. “You wouldn’t.”
I stared at her with hard eyes. “Don’t fuck with me, Olivia. I’m not one of these other dumbasses you’re used to dealing with who will sit up like a dog and beg when you threaten them with your daddy’s name. I don’t put up with that kind of bullshit. Whatever we had is done. If you want to salvage some type of professional working relationship, I would turn around and take that attitude somewhere else.”
I could tell that it took everything inside of her to turn on her heel and stomp away without another word. I wanted to go back to explain things to Maddy, but then I looked at my watch and realized I was going to be late for practice if I didn’t get my ass on the practice field in the next few minutes.
Coach Shaw didn’t like players being late. I would have to run five extra laps and then be labeled as the prima donna of the squad for the day, which meant endless rounds of smack talking from the rest of the team. I hated every second of the few times I had earned that punishment, but it proved to be an effective tool for ensuring that players were rarely late to practice.
Making a mental note to talk to Maddy as soon as I could, I started to head for the locker room to grab my gear. All thoughts of Olivia and the snarky conversation we had just had, I wiped out of my mind. I had a job to do and a game to focus on. Sunday would be here before I knew it.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It turned out that even as I trudged out onto the field, all I could think about was Maddy. That wasn’t a good thing at all. I could hear Coach yelling already at some of the players further on down the field. I barely had time to get my hands up before a football hit me squarely in the chest.
“Man, you’re really daydreaming today. You barely caught that, and I put it right in your hands. You’re going to be running extra laps today for sure,” Marvin called out to me with a smartass wave.
I gave him a death look but found it difficult to be angry at him. Marvin knew me almost better than I knew myself, at least on the field and especially during game days. If I was anxious or off my game, Marvin used an imaginative blend of tou
gh love and an uncanny paternal instinct to shift my mindset back to where I needed to be. I owed him a lot, and any shit he threw my way was always in good fun. He had never deliberately tried to demean me, which was more than I could say for my own blood relation of a father.
He trudged up next to me. “I saw Olivia in the hallway just now. She looked pissed off enough to spit tacks.”
Marvin’s unusual euphemism was still fairly accurate. I was currently the target of those tackles. I shrugged my shoulders. “Olivia always has her panties in a bunch about something.”
Marvin shook his head at me. “If she has her panties in a bunch, it most likely has something to do with you. You know she thinks there something more going on between the two of you. Shit, the whole team knows that too. Are you sure there’s something you’re not telling me?”
I tossed the football back at Marvin. “There’s nothing going on between me and Olivia. It’s nothing different than what she’s pulled with countless other guys on the team. I never should’ve gotten involved with her to begin with. I should have known better. She’s used goods.”
Marvin looked a bit affronted at this thought. “Maybe she just keeps picking the wrong guys who treat her like shit.”
I didn’t understand what Marvin saw in Olivia that he always jumped to her defense. Marvin was one of the few guys on the team Olivia hadn’t pursued at one time or another. To me, there was little beyond the surface with her at all. The one time I had gone along with her suggestion and attempted a regular date had been a disaster. After that, it was strictly kept to apartments and bedrooms. Not that we’d even done that much of that.
That got me thinking about the previous evening with Maddy. I had been with my fair share of women in the last nine years since we had broken up, but that experience with her blew them all out of the water. I knew it likely had something to do with the fact that I still had feelings for her. They went far deeper than I had ever imagined.
“Are you thinking about Olivia right now?” Marvin asked. Then a sly grin spread across his face. “Or are you thinking about that pretty doctor that you decided to give an office call to when we both know you are as healthy as a horse?”
Damn Marvin. He was too astute for his own good. “I knew her back in high school,” I admitted.
Marvin looked surprised. “Knew her, knew her?”
I got his obvious hint. “Could you be more juvenile?” I asked. “She lived in my hometown. So we go back a ways. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her, though. It was a big surprise to find out she’s the new team doctor.”
“Such a surprise that you had to take her out for a drink later to catch up on old times?”
“How did you know about that?” I asked. It was crazy how much my movements were tracked. I wondered if my appearance at the bar the night before had been noted in some kind of news article or celebrity happenings around town. I hadn’t even thought about that. I've just been so eager to get Maddy alone.
“Nothing like that,” Marvin said waving his hand as he read my worried expression. “I stopped by the bar right after you guys left. Bartender said you were there with a woman he hadn’t ever seen before, so I put two and two together now seeing you with her. So, rekindling an old flame are we?” He tossed the football back to me with a quick glance in Coach’s direction. We had to appear like we were doing something, otherwise, Coach would send us off to do some drills.
“Let’s just say that Maddy is special,” I said. “I am enjoying the chance to get to know her again. Back when I was a kid, I thought that she could have been the one. But then, something happened right after graduation, and she went all cold on me. So, I went to college, and when I tried to get back in contact with her, it was a no go. She went off to medical school, and I guess that was that.”
“Unrequited love,” Marvin said.
I furled my eyebrows. “I don’t know. Can we stop now? I feel like a chick talking about my feelings right now.”
Marvin laughed as we continue to toss the ball between us. He nodded at me, and we both started to jog onto the track. It was another way to get warmed up before the hard drills that we both knew were coming. “I just want to see you happy,” Marvin said. “Lord knows for the longest time it seemed like you were more interested in chasing every skirt in town than just one in particular. You had to grow up sometime.”
That thought made me angry, more than anything because I knew it was the truth. I hadn’t exactly been discreet in my love life over the last couple of years, and now I wondered if Maddy had read about that too. I was always being linked to some new hot supermodel, even if it wasn’t true. That was another thing I had learned. The more attention I got from the press, the hungrier they always seemed for a story. The last thing that I wanted to do was drag Maddy into any of that. I needed to be more careful.
“Let’s just say I’ve got it all worked out of my system now. That includes Olivia too. I’ve been trying to end it for months.”
Marvin shrugged. “The thing is, if she’s not done with you, then I don’t think that girl is going to be an easy one to shake loose. She’s used to getting her way in just about everything.”
“Well, she’s not gonna get her way with me. I’m not interested. Maybe you should take her out,” I suggested. Then I laughed. I wouldn’t wish Olivia on my worst enemy, much less my best friend.
“I am too old for that girl, even if she ever looked in my direction for more than a few seconds anyways. You’re not the only one looking for a nice girl to settle down with,” Marvin said.
As we approached the rest of the team, I could hear Coach calling out for everyone to get settled in their squads. I knocked Marvin on the shoulder. “Give it some time. I’m sure that girl is just around the corner.”
“Easy for you to say. You still have all your hair,” Marvin said as we both laughed. We both knew that despite whatever Marvin said, he was the number one right tackle in the league. He could have any woman that he wanted. It just seemed that he didn’t want any of them.
“We better get to it,” I said. “The last thing I want to do is run extra laps tonight. I’ve got big plans.”
Marvin winked at me. “I have a feeling those big plans involve one pretty doctor.”
I shrugged with a sly smile. Maybe being a little distracted today wouldn’t be so bad after all. Especially if my day ended with Maddy in my arms once again. I whistled a happy tune as we crossed the field.
CHAPTER NINE
I was packing up my things after seeing another one of Shane’s teammates. A regular end of the day for a not so regular day.
The lead doc had given me an office off of the gym floor to use. It was small but tidy, and I was glad for a place to keep my things. Soon, I wanted to leave a picture of Scarlet on the desk. But I wouldn’t be able to do that until I figured out how to tell Shane that Scarlet existed. That was proving to be a lot harder than I had anticipated. All of the old feelings that I had for him had thrown a monkey wrench into my plans.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t think of the best way to say, “Shane, you have a daughter.” All of the scenarios that I ran through in my head and tried to practice in front of the mirror were never right. That was what I was starting to understand. None of it was ever going to be right. This was the guilt that had wracked me daily since I got on that plane.
I thought he wouldn’t want to be bothered with me, that his lawyer or agent would tell him I was trying to bleed him for money. That was part of what had motivated me to become a doctor—I’d always wanted enough money to take care of Scarlet on my own. When I was in school with Shane, I was studying in their nursing program. When I came home to Rosewood and eventually got into the University of Virginia, there was a little voice inside of me that said, Why not a doctor, Maddy?
As my belly swelled and I grew big and unwieldy, driving from Rosewood to Charlottesville every week, I gave it more thought. When I found out the baby was a girl, the deal was sealed. A
nurse was a fantastic profession—but I’d prove to myself, the world, and my daughter that I could ace organic chemistry with the best of them. And to every damn person in the entirety of the South that a black woman could be a doctor, a single mother, and a total badass.
When I arrived in DC, I thought it would be a breeze to tell Shane about Scarlet. Well, not a breeze. But easy enough, anyway. After all, I’d been through the hard part of my life. I’d gone to college and med school on my own while taking care of a colicky—and oh so beautiful—little girl. I’d built up my career while going to American Girl tea parties and selling girl scout cookies.
I’d done it all with flair and style. And I’ve never regretted a moment of it.
Until I saw Shane leaning over Sylvia’s desk, that is. Asking about me. Wondering where I was. Had he been wondering all these years?
He’d never tried to call. He’d just gone on through his football career at Brooks, gaining more and more notoriety.
And then Washington had hired him. Just like I’d always told him they would. His favorite team. Our home team.
I had been so certain back I was doing the right thing. Shane was born to be a star. Hadn’t the last nine years proved me correct on that front? He had blown all of the school records away. He’d been recruited by Washington when he was still a junior. He had admirably decided to finish out his senior year before moving up to the pros. Since then, he just got better with every passing year.
I knew based on my medical training, though, that it was only going to last for so long. At some point, the continual pressure and stress that he put on his body would take its toll. He only had a short time to be at the top of his game. When he looked at the rest of his life, I never wanted him to feel any kind of regret or feeling of loss of a life unfulfilled.