“I love it.”
“So we can move this to the maybe list?” He couldn’t make out her features in the low lighting, but her voice sounded breathier than it had before.
“We can more than put this on the maybe list,” Wyatt agreed, taking a step back. “I want to make an offer. All cash with a quick closing.”
This wasn’t happening. He couldn’t be attracted to Tamera, the girl who’d begged him at three a.m. for a photo to share online. The girl who went on a date with a celebrity and ended up as an internet meme—and not in a good way. The girl who was friends with Drew Dempsey.
“Okay then,” Tamera said. “Let’s make it happen.”
Wyatt nodded and left the theater room with one last, longing look. There was a magic in this room he definitely wanted to keep for himself.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tamera stayed up late writing the offer for Wyatt’s house, then collapsed into bed and dreamed about him all night. When she awoke the next morning, she stretched languidly, feeling more relaxed than she had in months.
Wyatt was getting under her skin. For the first time since meeting him, that didn’t seem like such a bad thing.
She went for a run, then showered and dressed before sitting down to read over the offer letter one last time. This was one of the biggest sales of her career, and only the third time she’d written an all-cash offer. It was definitely her first time working with a celebrity. She didn’t want to make a mistake.
After only two small corrections, she deemed the letter perfect. Time to call Wyatt. Her fingers thrummed against her desk as the phone rang, the butterflies beating their wings in her stomach with every buzz.
“Hello?” Wyatt’s deep, rich voice sent shivers down her spine, and Tamera’s hand involuntarily curled into a fist.
“Hey. I just sent the offer letter to your email. Can you sign it electronically when you get a minute so I can submit it to the agent?”
“I’ve got time right now. Let me get to my computer.” She heard the soft pad of feet, then a creak as he sat down in a chair. “Just booting up my laptop.”
“I can wait.” She twirled a lock of hair around one finger, unable to hide a grin. He could’ve said he’d get to it and hung up, but instead he kept her on the line.
“So, uh, were you serious about helping me out with the ad spots?”
“Yeah.” Tamera ran a hand along the desk, telling herself to be cool.
“I think I’ll take you up on your offer, then, if that’s okay.”
“Absolutely. Let’s figure out a time that works for both of us.” She wanted to beg him to come over right now. Go all fan-girl over Wyatt James. But it was more than the football player she was interested in. It was how his face lit up when he talked about a film he loved. The shy way he brushed off the spotlight. His uncanny ability to make her forget about everything except how much she enjoyed being around him.
“As long as it doesn’t interfere with practice, I’ll make anytime that’s convenient for you work,” Wyatt said.
She wanted to invite him over right now, but that might seem too eager. And she wasn’t eager. Okay, maybe a little. “How about tomorrow night? Say, seven o’clock?”
“That’s perfect.”
“I’ll text you my address.”
“I really appreciate this, Tamera.”
Was it her imagination, or did he linger over her name? Caress each vowel with his rough voice? She put a hand to her cheek and realized it was a few degrees warmer than typical.
Her emotions were getting out of hand.
“Okay, I’ve got the email. And … signed. Emailing it back now.”
“You don’t want to read it over first?” Tamera asked.
“I trust you.”
She shivered, her heart picking up its pace. She wanted to trust him, too. Drew’s warnings seemed more and more ludicrous after each encounter with Wyatt.
A ping alerted her to a new email and she saw that Wyatt had indeed signed the offer. “Got it. I’ll send this to the listing agent right now. Hopefully they except without a counter-offer.”
“Do you think it’s likely they’ll counter?”
“If it were me, I wouldn’t counter. They’re crazy if they think they’ll get a better offer than full price and all cash. But it’s really all up to the seller. We’ll know soon enough.”
“Yeah, I guess so. You’ll let me know when you hear?”
“The very second,” she promised him.
“Thanks.”
A prolonged pause filled the line. Tamera pressed the phone closer to her ear, wishing she could see his expression right now. The silence zinged with emotions left unsaid. Whatever Drew had against Wyatt, it had to be an anomaly and not a character flaw. Because from where she was standing, Wyatt seemed Mary Poppins perfect.
“I guess I should let you go,” Wyatt said finally. “You probably have work to do and I should get ready for practice.”
“Yeah.”
“Have a good day.”
“You too,” Tamera said.
Neither of them hung up. Could phones spontaneously ignite from heat? If so, hers was definitely in danger of going up in flames.
“Goodbye,” Wyatt whispered. And then he finally hung up the phone.
“You’re adorable,” Tamera said to the empty line. She flung her phone onto the desk. “I’m insane to be thinking about you like this. You’re severely testing my desire to remain forever single.”
Her phone buzzed, skittering across the desk. Tamera nearly fell off her chair, but managed to save herself at the last moment and grabbed the phone. Had Wyatt somehow heard all of that? She would die of humiliatio—
Why was Katie calling her?
She stared at the picture blazing across the call screen. It was from one of the last good days she’d had with Katie before finding out about the breakup. They’d gone to the beach, just the two of them, and spent the day working on their tans and laughing at the tourists. Tamera had gone to bed that night feeling better about their relationship than she had in years.
But Katie had been sleeping with Caleb for almost nine months by that point. And Tamera hadn’t suspected a thing.
The phone went silent, then started ringing again almost immediately. Tamera picked it up with a growl. “What?”
“Hey,” Katie said, her tone so sweet that Tamera felt her teeth spontaneously start to decay. “How are you doing?”
“How am I doing?” Tamera parroted back. Did Katie want to hear that she was still crying over the wedding?
Katie seemed to not even heard Tamera’s response. “Things are so amazing here. I’m so not ready to go home tomorrow.”
Tamera stayed silent. Because seriously, what was she supposed to say?
“You would absolutely adore the beaches,” Katie continued. “I’ve never seen sand so white. It’s so incredibly fine and soft, and the water is the bluest I’ve ever seen. We’ll have to come back together someday. Caleb rented the cutest little bungalow you’ve ever seen. It’s suspended on stilts over the water. Can you believe that? It’s just crazy how picturesque everything is.”
“Unbelievable,” Tamera muttered.
“Excuse me?”
She pulled the phone away from her ear and spoke loudly directly into the receiver. “I said, you’re unbelievable.”
“I—”
But Tamera didn’t let Katie speak. “You stole my groom, my wedding, and my honeymoon. The Bahamas is my dream destination—not yours. But that didn’t stop you from taking it.”
Katie’s voice went from sugary to sour in an instant. “It’s not like you have a monopoly on honeymoon destinations. We just wanted to get out of the cold for a while and enjoy warm sands.”
“You live in Texas!” Tamera practically screamed into the phone. “It’s May. The temperature was eighty-five degrees on your wedding day.”
“Why can’t you be happy for me?” Katie demanded, and she had the pout in her voice that had
always turned their parents to spineless jellyfish. “I just got married—married, Tamera. I made the biggest commitment of my life. And you’ve been nothing but negative and unsupportive from the very beginning.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have made that commitment because of some ridiculous vendetta you have against me.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have always taken what was mine!” Katie screamed.
Tamera yanked the phone away, her ear ringing with the intensity of the words. Silence fell between them, thick and uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry I’ve made you so miserable,” Tamera said finally, bitterness edging each word. “I’m sorry I let you be that obnoxious little sister who always hung out with me and my friends. I’m sorry I taught you how to put on makeup and do your hair. I’m sorry for trying to be a good sister, because all that got me was a very large knife right in my back.”
“I was constantly competing against you,” Katie said. “It didn’t matter what I did, because you’d already done it better. Grades. Extracurriculars. Guys.”
“So your solution was to sleep with my boyfriend behind my back, then marry him?”
Silence stretched across the line and Tamera blinked, forcing the tears to finally spill down her cheeks. “Have a nice life, Katie.”
“Tamera—”
She hung up the phone, then dropped her head to her arms and cried.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“She’s in my head, Nat.” Wyatt lay on the creaky hotel bed and tossed the football straight into the air, then caught it with one hand. His other loosely held the telephone to one ear. “Asking for her help with the commercial was a very bad idea.”
“Why?” Natalie asked. “You suck at acting. Without her help, you’ll probably hurt the team more than you help it. People will be like, ‘Wow, that Wyatt James is a total drag. No way I’m going to see him play.’”
“Thanks,” Wyatt said dryly. “What would I do without your undying support?”
“You know I’m right. You’re a train wreck on camera. Makes me seriously question if Luke Ryder really is as business savvy as everyone claims. Maybe the conspiracy theorists are right—his father really was crygenically preserved and is leading the company from the grave.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Wyatt.” Natalie was using her mother hen tone now—the one that had always driven Wyatt insane, especially since she was the younger sister. “There is no denying that Becky was a completely selfish harpy. But that doesn’t mean all women are like her. If you like Tamera, ask her out. Maybe, after a few dates, you’ll decide she’s not someone you want a relationship with. But maybe you’ll finally discover everything you’ve always wanted.”
“Wow. That was cheesy, even for you.”
“Maybe it’s cheesy, but it’s also the truth. What is it about Tamera that has you running away with your tail between your legs?”
There was a pull between the two of them that Wyatt couldn’t describe, and it was that something he couldn’t put into words that freaked him out more than anything. “She’s an actress, for starters.”
“Yeah, I watched Eye in the Sky.”
“Actresses are shallow and vain.”
“So are football players, and yet somehow you’re still a pretty decent guy.”
Wyatt tossed the football into the air again and let out a frustrated sigh. “She’s friends with Drew. And if she thinks he’s a good guy, that pretty much tells me all I need to know.”
“You’re being an idiot.”
Wyatt flinched. “Ouch.”
“Well, it’s true. Sometimes people are poor judges of character. Look at you and Becky. She turned out to be a total Medusa, but that doesn’t make you a bad person for dating her.”
It didn’t make him a good person, either. He ran his finger along the stitching of the football, feeling like such a girl for talking to his sister about his relationship problems. “Tamera can help me with my acting, we’ll close on the house, and then I never have to see her again.”
“Yeah, that sounds like an incredibly mature way to deal with this whole thing. Just shove your feelings down and pretend they don’t exist. That’ll show Becky.”
“Low blow,” Wyatt grumbled.
“I call it like I see it.”
Wyatt knew she was right, which bothered him more than anything else. He’d been unfair to Tamera since the very beginning, judging her based on a criteria she’d had no part in creating.
“Nothing stings as bad as regret,” Natalie said.
“You sound like Dad.”
“He’s a smart guy.”
Wyatt said nothing.
Natalie sighed dramatically. “Sheesh, Wyatt. This isn’t rocket science. Just ask Tamera out. No matter how the date ends, at least you won’t wonder what could’ve happened if you’d stopped being a pansy and actually tried.”
“I’m not being a pansy.” But the protest sounded half-hearted, even to him. Wyatt glanced at his watch, then sat up. “I’ve got to go, Nat. Don’t want to be late for practice.”
“Man up and take her out, okay? For me, if for no one else. I can’t listen to you whine about this for too much longer before I lose my mind.”
“Thanks for the support.”
She laughed. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Wyatt couldn’t stop thinking about his conversation with Natalie as he drove to the stadium. Maybe she was right, and he should ask Tamera out. They’d never really spent time together outside of house hunting and that one awkward first meeting at the gym. Maybe if they hung out more outside of work, he’d discover she wasn’t all that interesting after all.
Yeah. Maybe he’d be traded back to the Vigilantes next season, too.
In the locker room, Wyatt chatted with Tyrone while they got ready for practice. When they headed onto the field, they were surprised to see Luke waiting with McKinley for them.
“Think this is good?” Tyrone muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
Wyatt stared at Luke. The man’s posture was relaxed, his hands in his pockets and a lazy smile on his lips. “Doesn’t look bad at least.”
A few minutes later, the rest of the team was on the field and McKinley raised his hand. The players quickly quieted down and gave the couch their full attention.
“Our owner, Mr. Ryder, has asked to speak with us all for a few minutes before practice,” McKinley said. “Whenever you’re ready, Mr. Ryder.”
Luke stepped forward. “I’ll just take a minute of your time,” he said. “Ryder Communications, in partnership with Footsteps for Change, a community outreach program we frequently work with, is doing a special one-day event at Universal Studios a week from Saturday. We’re giving free tickets to at risk youth and their families so they can enjoy a day bonding with each other, away from their problems. McKinley and I discussed it, and we think this is a great opportunity for the team to give back. We’d like to invite all players and their families to join us for the event. Footsteps for Change will organize meet and greets around the park where the kids can get autographs and photos with the players. We’ll get the specifics out to you soon, but I’d like to personally encourage all of you to attend this event with your families. We can do some good for the community and wrack up some positive press for the team in the process.”
“Everyone will be there,” McKinley said, clapping Luke on the back. “We really appreciate the opportunity.”
“It’ll be a fun day, I think,” Luke said. “My wife is also organizing a gender reveal party for the press. It’ll be another good PR opportunity for the team.”
Gender reveal? Wyatt scratched the back of his neck. Like a floofy party to say whether the baby was a boy or girl?
Luke raised a hand in farewell. “I’m heading back to the office. Any questions can be directed to the team press liaison. She knows where to find me.”
McKinley folded his arms across his massive chest and watched Mr. Ryder leave the stadium
. The team stayed quiet, watching the coach watch Luke leave.
“Right,” McKinley said once Luke had disappeared around the corner. “I know Mr. Ryder said this was an invitation, but I’m making it mandatory for all players to attend. Anyone who doesn’t show up will be doing sprints up the bleachers during every practice for a solid week. Understood?”
A rumble of assent echoed back. It wasn’t like this event would cut into Wyatt’s social schedule any. It sounded fun. He’d never been to Universal Studios, and he’d always enjoyed meet and greets with younger fans the best.
Maybe he’d invite Tamera to join him for the day. With her interest in acting, she probably enjoyed Universal Studios. Maybe, like him, she’d never been there before.
He’d ask her when they met tonight.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Tamera hung up with the listing agent, a big grin on her face. They’d accepted Wyatt’s offer on the house and she couldn’t wait to tell him.
Her fingers fumbled to bring up his contact information. He’d be at her house in just a few hours so they could work on his camera presence, but this was the kind of information that she couldn’t hold onto for even a minute.
“Hey, Tamera.” Wyatt’s deep voice had the hair on her arms standing on end, even across the phone line.
“I’ve got some exciting news for you,” she said, unable to keep a squeal from her voice. “They accepted your offer on the house! We close in two weeks as long as nothing unexpected shows up in the inspection.”
“That’s awesome.” The enthusiasm in his voice was contagious. “You have no idea how happy this makes me.”
“Sick of the hotel?” she teased.
“That’s the understatement of the century. I can’t wait to finally get settled.”
A warm silence filtered through the line, crackling with chemistry. Tamera clutched the phone tight, her stomach swarming with butterflies she could no longer even attempt to squelch.
“We’ll have to celebrate when you come over tonight,” she ventured. “Let me feed you dinner.”
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