by Celya Bowers
Ben smiled. “Oh, I know that. He called the house earlier looking for you.”
Oh, no. Was Darnell really trying to weasel his way back into her life through her father? “What did you tell him?”
“I told him to piss off,” he said calmly. “And that if I knew where you were, I still wouldn’t tell him. But that’s not the phone call I want to talk about.”
“Daddy, what exactly are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Aidan Coles from the Dallas Cowboys calling here today.”
Oh no. “What did he want?”
“To tell you that you left your cell phone at his house today and he’d drop it by your place later. Now do you care to tell me why this man is calling all over Dallas looking for you? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“Of course not. I’m giving him cooking lessons, that’s all.” It was the first time in her life she hadn’t told her father the entire truth.
“Baby girl, don’t you lie to me. It’s written all over your face that you’re not being completely honest with me. I just need to know if I need to sell my season tickets or not.”
“No, Daddy. Keep your tickets, everything is fine.” Her father had had season tickets to the Dallas Cowboys football games since she could remember.
“All right. So what are you teaching him?”
“Gourmet cooking. He says he never cooks at home. I think it’s true. All his cookware looked brand new and he didn’t seem at home in his own kitchen.”
“I’m sure that will change,” her father assured her. “It’ll just take time. I’m sure he’s used to eating out constantly. How are your friends going to handle you dating a football player, especially that little skinny one?”
“I’m not telling them. At least not yet.”
“Baby, this will let you know who your real friends are. A true friend will be happy for you. An untrue friend will want to be in your shoes. You’ll find out which is which.”
Madisyn didn’t need to find out. She already knew who were her real friends and who weren’t. Unfortunately, Keisha fell into the latter category. “I know. That’s why this has to stay our secret. Well, after you tell Mom, it really has to be our secret. You can’t even tell the boys.” Her brothers would hit the roof when they found out.
“That will be tough, but all right.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “Ready for dinner?”
“Always.” Madisyn rose and headed for the kitchen with her father following behind her.
He chuckled as he took a seat at the small kitchen table and Madisyn prepared to microwave their dinner. She placed the food on the table and took a seat across from him. “I’m just too smart for my own good,” he told his daughter.
Madisyn speared a steak and placed it on her plate. “What is it now?”
Ben cut his steak in half and placed the smaller portion on his plate. “Cholesterol,” he explained. “Your mother would kill me if I ate a whole steak.”
“Daddy?”
“Oh, I told you a man would be in the last place you looked and he was. You never thought volunteering would land you in spitting range of a Dallas Cowboy, did you? Good thing you were raised on football. You’ll always have something to talk about.”
Madisyn recalled all those summers when she was the water girl to the varsity football team and laughed at the memory. “Yeah, I don’t know many people who lived and breathed football like the O’Riley clan. I think I was the only girl in school that knew more about football plays than about makeup. I wouldn’t change a thing, Daddy.”
“Me either.”
They finished their meal with conversation about the upcoming football season. Most fathers and daughters would have discussed politics or the news, but Ben O’Riley talked about the Cowboys.
* * *
Aidan paced his living room, wondering about his next move. The movie had gone went better than he had hoped for. However, pretending to be a gentleman when all he wanted to do was make Madisyn his was a pretty difficult game to keep up.
Everything about her was starting to get to him. Granted, this was only the first lesson, but there would be many other times they would be alone. He had to find a way to channel that frustration somewhere else or both he and Madisyn would be done for.
He needed her administrative experience to keep the charity running smoothly. But something about her made him want to keep her close to him. Not as boss and employee, but as a man and a woman. Like right now. He wanted to see her, even though he’d just been with her most of the day. Yeah, she’d left her cell phone, and he could have just had someone drop it off on his behalf, but he had called her parents’ home and talked to her father. Was he really losing it like that after one semi-date?
The phone rang, interrupting his chastising of himself. He picked it up on the second ring. Not many people had his home number, so he had a sneaking suspicion it might be Madisyn. “Hello,” he said, trying to sound relax and cool.
“Hey man, what’s up?” Kameron Drews asked.
“Not much,” Aidan said, sorry he had picked up the phone. Kameron was a former college buddy and also one of the Cowboys’ latest acquisitions. Trouble and the media had a way of following Kameron, so Aidan made sure he was always as far away from him as possible.
“Let’s go out.”
Aidan sighed. “Where’s your wife? You know how she hates you going out to the club. The media always seems to find you and you end up on the front page of the Dallas Morning News claiming you’ve been framed or some nonsense.”
“True dat. She’s out of town for a long minute. We had a little disagreement yesterday. She found out about the club.”
“You mean you decided to open a nightclub and didn’t tell your wife of thirteen years? Man, what are you using for brains?”
Kameron was defensive. “Hey, it’s my money. I can do what I want with it. I don’t see her out there running down the field for a touchdown on Sundays. Anyway, she got in a huff, took the kids and headed to her mom’s in Tulsa.”
“Isn’t the club about to open?”
“That’s kind of why I was calling. I want you to be there at the grand opening, so she can get out of my ass. If you’re there she’ll know I’m not trying to push up on any chick.”
“But that’s a lie, isn’t it? I don’t think I can make it anyway.” Aidan was used to his morally challenged teammates using him as shield. Kameron was the worst and had the most to lose. When he’d married his college sweetheart thirteen years ago, she hadn’t signed a prenuptial agreement. She could end up with most of Kameron’s money.
“Don’t tell me you’re seeing someone? What a time for you to try to get your groove on,” Kameron laughed. “Bring her.”
Aidan instantly thought of Madisyn and how uncomfortable she’d be at a nightclub around his rowdy teammates and the scantily clad women hoping to hook up with an athlete. “I don’t think she’s the club type.” He knew Kameron wouldn’t stop until Aidan agreed, and he wanted to call Madisyn. “Look, I’ll try my best to make it.”
Kameron decided not to press his luck. “So are we gonna hit the streets tonight?”
“No,” Aidan said. “I’ve got a date.” Aidan ended the call. Kameron was going to be trouble. Hopefully not the front page headlines kind.
CHAPTER 8
When Madisyn arrived home later that evening, she had a message waiting. She guessed it was her dad wanting to make sure she got home all right. Normally, he’d talk to her all the way home on her cell phone, but since she’d left it at Aidan’s, the ritual had gone unfulfilled. She retrieved her message and listened in surprise. It was Aidan, and he wanted her to call him back.
She engaged the caller ID option and redialed his number. He was most likely out, since it was Saturday night, she reasoned as she listened to the phone ring.
“Hello?”
“A-Aidan, this is Madisyn. Is something wrong? I haven’t had a chance to go shopping for supplies yet.”
He ch
uckled. “Madisyn, I didn’t call you about the center. I called because I wanted to talk to you. Why can’t you see that?”
“Sorry,” she apologized. “It’s just that I think of you kind of like my boss, and my boss would call only if there was something wrong.”
“Well, I’m not your boss. I’m your friend. Remember, we agreed on the friend thing and we sealed it with a kiss. Friends call each other, you know.”
Not when one of them is a multimillionaire professional football player for the Dallas Cowboys. Madisyn was still trying to get used to the idea this man was attracted to her. “Yes, I remember. It’s just that it’s Saturday night and I thought maybe you’d be out clubbing or something.”
“I’m not really the club type,” he said. “I’m more the movies at home kind of guy. I treasure my private time, Madisyn. I know you have a bad image of professional athletes, mostly because of the media, but most of us are just average guys who like to do average things.”
She knew that was true as well. “Yeah, the media does barbeque you guys if you sneeze. I know you’re not all like that Kameron Drews. You’d think a camera crew followed him around twenty-four/seven, he’s on the news so much. Do you know him?”
“We’re on the same team,” he said. “Of course I know him. Whether I’d call him a friend would be the bigger question.”
Madisyn easily understood. “Would you?”
“Sometimes. But on the whole, no. You know, he’s like the bad kid you knew in school. He’s not so bad until he does something horrid, then you’re like, I should cut my ties now.”
“Been there, done that.”
“Really? Who’s your Kameron?”
“My friend Keisha. She was at the party. She’s medium height, kind of slender, very pretty.” Madisyn wished she could have lied about Keisha’s looks, but it would have been pointless.
“Oh yeah, I remember. She’s not as pretty as you. And she doesn’t have your kind heart.”
Madisyn laughed. “Good answer. You get ten points for compliments.”
“Hey, I meant that. You do have a kind heart and you’re patient.”
Madisyn tried to decipher his words. Was he just trying to gauge her mush factor or was he genuine? “Well, thank you for the compliment and I accept it in the spirit it was given.”
“Finally. Hey, how about we continue this conversation face-to-face?”
Surely he didn’t mean now? And if they did would that constitute a date? “W-when?”
“I’d say right now, but you sound a little nervous about that. How about tomorrow for lunch?”
If she missed church tomorrow her father would never forgive her, and her church since childhood was located in South Dallas. “W-where?”
“You already have plans,” he guessed.
Madisyn sighed. “It’s just like a family tradition. We attend church together. I could meet you after.”
“Why don’t I join you?”
“W-what?”
“Do you have some kind of speech impediment?” He chuckled. “You haven’t given me a straight answer yet. I’m asking if it’s okay if I attend church with you tomorrow?”
He made it sound like a reasonable request. It would be if he wasn’t who he was. Her church was small by today’s megachurch standards, but enough people went there to cause a slight riot if Aidan made an appearance.
“Madisyn?”
“Aidan, I don’t know about that. I mean, it’s a small church and my mom would want you to eat dinner with us.”
“Are your brothers going to give me grief or something?”
“No, they’ll probably give me grief.”
“Good. How about I attend church with you and drop you at your parents. What time shall I pick you up?”
It sounded simple. “Why don’t you stay for dinner? I mean, you’re going to drop me off anyway, you might as well stay for dinner.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to impose on your family time.”
“Yes, I’m quite sure.” She sighed. Tomorrow was going be a long day. When she showed up at her tiny church with Aidan Coles, it was going to be a day of explanations. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
* * *
Aidan hung up the phone confident he was making the right move. Going to church with Madisyn’s family was going to be a first for him. He hadn’t attended a place of worship in fifteen years. What was it about this woman that had him jumping all kinds of hurdles?
The next morning, Aidan dressed in his best dark suit and headed to Madisyn’s house. His normal off-season routine on Sunday mornings was to eat a late breakfast and read the paper. Funny how a woman can make you change your entire schedule, he told himself. But it would only be this one time.
He rang the doorbell at the small house, instantly liking the cozy neighborhood. The huge trees in her front yard gave her porch shade from the Texas sun. He heard the door open and he had to do a double take. He’d expected Madisyn to be dressed in traditional Sunday clothing. Instead, she was dressed in a suit that seemed welded to her curvy body. Not that he was complaining.
“Good morning, Aidan,” Madisyn said softly as she motioned him inside. “You look very handsome.”
He looked her over again as she closed the door. “And you look like a goddess.” He kissed her on the cheek, inhaling her fresh scent. Giving in to the urge, he kissed her softly on the lips. “Are you ready?”
She licked her lips and nodded. “I just have to get my purse from the bedroom. Have a seat.”
He walked into the living room and took a seat on her couch. The denim sofa was comfortable. Instantly he reached for the remote, but stopped mid-grab. He didn’t want Madisyn to think he had to be entertained every minute. He decided to check out the photos on her fireplace mantel. Madisyn appeared before he could really inspect them.
“Okay, I’m ready,” she announced, standing in the doorway.
He nodded and joined her. He took her hand, led her outside and helped her inside the Escalade. After he was seated behind the steering wheel, he looked at her. “Hey, maybe you’d like to drive since I don’t know where I’m going?”
Madisyn’s head snapped in his direction. “Oh no, I couldn’t.”
“Oh, come on. You know you want to,” he teased. Never in his life had he ever let a female drive his ride. The SUV was his baby.
“I don’t know, Aidan.”
Her hesitation was beginning to eat at him. Why hadn’t she jumped at his offer? “Why not?”
She sighed. “You forget I grew up around men. I know what you guys do. You have to be in control every second and you can’t have that in the passenger seat. I know you mean well, but you’d have a heart attack by the time we got to church.”
How did she know him so well? He had to prove her wrong, even if it killed him. “I promise I’ll sit in the passenger seat and won’t say a word.”
Still she hesitated for what seemed liked forever. When finally he heard her release her seat belt, he sighed in relief.
Madisyn walked around to the driver’s side and he opened the door and slid out. He waited until she was seated and showed her the controls to move the seat to her liking. She snapped her belt in place and smiled at him. “One word of dismay from you and I’m pulling over.”
“You got it.” He closed the door and walked to the passenger side and slid in. She started the SUV and they were off. It was different not being in the driver’s seat and she was right, it was driving him nuts. But he’d promised to be good. He thought a little conversation would ease his jangled nerves, so he took a deep breath and received a hard, mind-zapping stare from Madisyn. “So how long have you attended this church?”
She eased onto the freeway, just as the navigational operator came on and announced it was time for a tune-up. Madisyn laughed. “You know, you could have just called OnStar and asked for driving directions. I didn’t have to drive.”
“Yeah, but where was the fun in that? How long have you been going to chu
rch?”
“All my life,” she said simply. “My great-grandfather helped build this church in the ’40s. My dad is on the church advisory board. Two of my brothers are on the deacon board. My family is real involved in the church.”
“No kidding,” Aidan said. “So what do you do at church?”
“I teach Sunday school to first and second graders. My sister-in-law Rasheeda and I share the duties. Next Sunday is my turn.”
He heard the pride in her voice. It was the same as her voice when she talked about the center. She was definitely a people person. “I guess I’ll have to come back next Sunday to see you in action.” Had he really just said that? Where was his brain?
A smile quickly formed on her round race. “Only if you want to. I know that might be boring for you. But I appreciate the thought. You might want to see if you survive Sunday dinner at my parents’ before you commit to another Sunday.”
She had his curiosity piqued. Her family couldn’t be that bad. After all, he was used to being chased by football groupies, so he felt certain he could handle a small family gathering. “It’ll be fine, I’m sure.”
She pulled into the parking lot of a small church. He guessed there were about fifty to seventy-five cars there. They ranged from the old to the very new. She parked next to a black Lincoln Navigator. He’d gotten out and gone around to help with her door when he heard a tiny voice exclaim, “Aunt Maddie!”
He closed the door as Madisyn walked up to the little girl and picked her up. The small girl had two ponytails and hugged Madisyn fiercely. “I miss you. Can we go movies?”
Madisyn looked at Aidan, smiling. “I told you.” Then she turned her attention back to the little girl. “Yes, we’ll go next weekend as long your parents say it’s okay.”
The little girl grinned as if Madisyn had just said yes. Then she realized Aidan was standing too close to Madisyn. She pointed a tiny finger at Aidan and hugged Madisyn closer.
He smiled at the child. “Hi, I’m Aidan. I’m a friend of Aunt Maddie.”