by Iris Morland
“I’m nothing without baseball and you know it,” he said bitterly. “I can’t do anything else.”
“Who says you can’t? Look, I get it. My company was everything to me. It defined me completely. When I had to let it go, I wasn’t sure I could.”
Carter shot his friend a wry look. “And you started another company right after. Doesn’t count, dude.”
“But I’m not the only one running it, and I actually take days off. It’s different. If it imploded, I wouldn’t implode with it.”
Since when had Anthony turned into some wise old man? He really was Dr. Phil now. He’d be disgusted, if Anthony’s advice weren’t spot-on.
By the time Anthony said goodbye, evening was closing in.
Carter wondered if Anthony was right. Maybe he could live without playing baseball. The thought of finding fulfillment in something else filled him with trepidation. When your entire life had been focused on one thing and that one thing suddenly disappeared, it was if you had no foundation to stand on. It was all shifting sands that were terrifyingly unstable.
What gave Carter hope was the thought that Lucy missed him. He hadn’t contacted her since she’d told him not to, and he’d been too angry to grovel. Now he regretted that he hadn’t begged her for her forgiveness weeks ago.
But if there was still a chance to get her back, he would. He had to. He realized in a flash that she was even more important to him than his career. She’d ransacked his very soul, breaking it open and revealing a side of himself he hadn’t thought existed. It was humbling, that realization, and Carter wasn’t exactly great friends with humility.
He knew what he had to do now; he just hoped that Lucy would give him a second chance.
Chapter Twenty
Hayden tightened his arm around Lucy’s waist. “At least act like you’re enjoying yourself,” he hissed in her ear.
He smiled his golden smile at the photographers, the constant flash of bulbs making Lucy a little dizzy. It could have also been that the multiple layers of shapewear she’d put on to fit into her dress were making her lightheaded. She felt like a stuffed sausage about to explode.
She’d decided to wear a backless red dress that showed off the light tan she’d gotten while on Hazel Island, her hair pulled back into a pretty chignon. The dress hadn’t cost more than five hundred dollars, and Lucy had gotten it on sale two years ago. When Hayden had asked her who she was wearing, she’d lied and said it was the latest Versace, trying to bite back a giggle the entire time.
“I am enjoying myself,” she hissed back. She pinched him hard on his lower back, and because they were in front of a huge crowd of photographers and fans, Hayden could only keep smiling.
This is for your career, Lucy kept telling herself. It had become her mantra for the evening to put up with Hayden’s constant complaints and demands. When she’d met him at his mansion in Malibu, he’d barely said hello before he’d returned to his room to continue dressing. They’d ended up being two hours late to his premiere, although Hayden had blamed the traffic. Since when is the 101 this bad this time of day? he’d said over and over again.
Lucy had almost stuffed his tie into his mouth to shut him up. He’d also made snide remarks about her dress, her hair, and her person in general. Her dress didn’t go with his tuxedo; her hair looked like she’d done it herself (she had done it herself). She didn’t know why he was being this insufferable tonight, but she’d about had enough.
“You do that again and I’m tossing you out of here,” Hayden said in a low breath as they entered the theater for the premiere.
Lucy rolled her eyes. If she could make it to the after-party at the hotel, she could get away from Hayden and hopefully introduce herself to other actors and industry people. As Wendy had reminded Lucy, it was all part of the game you played when you wanted a piece of the Hollywood pie.
As Lucy sat and watched the movie, she couldn’t help but let her thoughts wander to Carter. She knew it was pointless, but he was like some kind of addiction. She couldn’t purge him from her heart no matter how hard she tried to distract herself. Was he thinking about her? Or had he already moved on?
Of course he’s moved on. If he really loved you, he would’ve tried to contact you by now.
She couldn’t forget his betrayal, either. He’d used her like Glen had tried to use her, and although the initial rage had faded, the hurt remained because she’d trusted him. She’d given him her heart and he’d tossed it away without a second thought.
By the time she and Hayden arrived at the after-party almost three hours later, Lucy was desperate for a drink. Luckily she was able to slip away from Hayden easily, even though the party was absolutely packed. The room was a huge bar that had been decked out for the party, and Lucy had to remind herself to keep her mouth shut every time she recognized someone famous. After she got her drink, she was pretty sure she’d seen Leonardo DiCaprio walking toward the exit.
Lucy sat down at the bar, mostly because the party was so crowded she didn’t have the energy to wade through the crowd of people. A man sat down next to her; when she saw that his suit was rumpled and his wallet was falling apart at the seams, she knew he wasn’t anyone important. She wondered if he worked at the hotel and managed to sneak inside the party.
“You look familiar,” the man said to her. “Do I know you from somewhere?”
“I doubt it. I’m not an A-lister.”
“You were with Hayden Masterson tonight at the premiere.” The man’s eyes widened slightly in recognition. “You’re Lucy Younger, aren’t you? The up-and-comer.”
Her lips lifted in a tight smile. “I guess that’s me.” She contemplated giving this guy an excuse that she needed to leave; she wasn’t in the mood for him to try to hit on her.
“Can I buy you a drink? After you finish that one, of course,” he said.
Lucy sighed. “Look, you seem like a nice guy, but I’m not on the market. Let’s just put that out there, okay?”
The man didn’t seem the least bit flustered. “Well, that’s good to know, because I’m married and not looking to hit on anyone.” He flashed his left hand, where a gold band rested on his finger. “I’m Silas Martin, by the way.”
Lucy’s heart stopped. Silas Martin was one of the best directors in Hollywood right now. His latest film had been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars two years ago. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” she stuttered.
“No harm done.” Silas pulled out a card from his jacket and handed it to her. “If you feel like talking, give me a call. I promise not to ask if you want me to buy you a drink, either.”
Lucy let out a laugh right after Silas left. She couldn’t believe her good luck. She couldn’t help but think of how she’d put her foot in her mouth a second time in a month: Carter sure would’ve loved to hear about this second instance.
“Who was that?” said Hayden. He pointed to Silas’s retreating figure.
“Silas Martin.”
Hayden’s eyes widened. “Seriously? I wanted to meet him.” Hayden lurched forward into the crowd, clearly already inebriated.
After another hour, Lucy decided she needed some fresh air. When she got through the crowd into the hotel lobby, she let out a sigh of relief. It had been stiflingly hot in that room, even with the air conditioning blowing at full speed. She fanned herself and wandered until she reached a large room on the second floor where only a half dozen or so people were gathered.
She sat down and took off her stilettos, not caring if people were watching. Her feet ached and she was exhausted and starving. She was considering calling an Uber and getting some In-N-Out Burger when Hayden came stumbling toward her.
“There you are.” He collapsed into the chair next to her, chuckling. “I can see your boobs down your dress when you bend over.”
“Then don’t look,” she snapped.
“Then don’t bend over.” He shrugged, swirling his drink in his glass. “I bet Carter looked down your shirt all the time.”
Lucy froze. Hayden hadn’t mentioned Carter since that day he’d revealed that Carter was using her. Why bring him up now?
“He was disgusting about you,” continued Hayden, his expression sneering. “Did you know he threatened me over you? I shoulda had him arrested.” Hayden let out a belch.
Lucy couldn’t breathe. “He threatened you? Why?”
“Because I knew you’d be an easy fuck and he got mad about it.” Hayden’s smile was lazy now. “I’d heard through the grapevine that you’d been fucking your way up the ladder. No judgment, you know. A girl has to do what she has to do. I was just surprised you decided to pick Carter over me.”
“You didn’t answer my question. What did Carter say to you?”
“What did he say? He said he’d fucking kill me, that’s what he said.” Hayden raised his arm, almost spilling his drink. “Then he fucking punched me. Piece of shit. If I ever see him again…”
Lucy didn’t hear the rest of Hayden’s diatribe. All she could think about was that Carter had defended her against the man he hated. If he’d wanted revenge against Hayden, wouldn’t he have let Hayden screw with her instead? Her heart started pounding like mad.
“Did you hear me?” demanded Hayden, his voice rising. “Wanna go back to my place?”
Lucy realized right then that she didn’t care about her career anymore, not if it meant she didn’t have Carter in her life. Grabbing Hayden’s drink from his hand, she dashed it into his face and said, “Go fuck yourself, Hayden. I’m done.”
Hayden sputtered and swore, vowing revenge as Lucy ran downstairs. She pulled out her phone, almost dropping it in surprise when she saw the alert on her screen: Orcas pitcher Carter Roberts out for good. What’s next for the Seattle team?
She wasted no time in clicking on the article, pulling up the video of the press conference. Carter sat in the middle, his expression more subdued than she’d ever seen it, and he announced that, due to his injury, he was retiring.
Lucy felt like water was rushing into her ears. He must’ve known he was out when he’d come back to Hazel Island, but he hadn’t said a word. And she’d just yelled at him and treated him like he was the scum of the earth. She choked back a horrified sob.
After she’d gotten into the backseat of her Uber, she kept watching the video. The tears came with a vengeance when Carter leaned forward toward the microphone and said, “I have one last announcement.” His gaze looked straight into the camera. “I want a certain someone to know that I’m sorry for everything, and that I love you. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, little spitfire. I’m nothing without you.”
She was hallucinating. Surely Carter hadn’t said those things at his press conference? She didn’t understand. Was he messing with her? Was it some elaborate joke?
But, no, she realized as she started crying harder. There was no reason for him to say such things unless he meant them. He’d gone before the world and declared his love for her without any hope that she’d reciprocate a second time. It amazed her; it broke her, in the best way possible.
Lucy was bawling by the time her driver reached her apartment. He asked her tentatively if she was all right. It took her a moment to say, “Take me to the airport. I just remembered I have a flight to catch.”
Within three hours, she was on a plane going to Seattle.
Chapter Twenty-One
After hours of his phone blowing up, Carter finally turned it off. He didn’t need to explain himself to anyone. He didn’t care that his manager was pissed at him or that his now former coach thought he was a complete idiot. This was a press conference to talk about your career, not your fucking love life! he’d bellowed in Carter’s face.
Carter didn’t give a shit. He’d never felt freer than when he’d uttered those words on live television. He hadn’t even done it so that Lucy herself would hear them, although a part of him hoped she would. At the very least, he needed to find her and tell her how he felt, even if he took him saying the words until he was blue in the face. He had more than enough time now.
It was close to one a.m. when Carter heard a pounding on his front door. Frowning, he wondered if Anthony had come to berate him a second time. Carter threw open the door with angry words on his tongue that promptly died out when he saw it wasn’t Anthony.
It was Lucy, wearing a red dress and soaked to the skin.
“Jesus Christ, get inside.” Carter practically pushed her inside and grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch, wrapping her up in it.
“Carter,” she said, her teeth chattering so badly that Carter could barely understand her. “Carter, I have to tell you something—”
“Not if you die of hypothermia first. Take off your dress.” At Lucy’s glare, he snorted. “Little spitfire, you know I love you naked, but you can’t stay in that dress. Strip.”
In the end, Lucy’s hands were shaking too much, and she wore some ridiculous contraption that was like superglued to her body from getting wet. By the time Carter managed to get her naked, he’d felt like he’d run a marathon. He went and got some towels and more blankets until Lucy was so wrapped up only her face was exposed. Before she could protest, he pulled her into his lap and rubbed her arms until the shivering abated. She sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder.
“Now tell me why you came to my front door soaked like a drowned rat,” said Carter.
Lucy scowled, which meant she was feeling more like herself. Taking off some of the blankets, she said, “I didn’t think it would be raining. It never rains in July. We were under a drought warning!”
“As fascinating as discussing the summer weather in Washington is, I doubt that’s why you came here. Or why you were wearing a dress like that.”
“I was in LA for a movie premiere.” She wouldn’t look at him as she said the next words. “Hayden invited me as his date.”
Carter barely stopped himself from dumping her from his lap. “So is that how it is now? You came here to, what, ask for my blessing?”
“Don’t be stupid. Of course not.” Lucy stuck her pointy little chin out, which Carter found annoyingly endearing. “I would never date Hayden. He’s an asshole.” Her bravado faded as soon as it had appeared. “I saw the press conference.” Her words were a whisper.
Carter closed his eyes. He’d wanted her to see that…hadn’t he? Yet right that moment, he wished he’d kept his mouth shut. Especially if she was here to tell him there wasn’t any hope for them.
“I wasn’t thinking when I said that,” he said, his voice like gravel. “But I meant every word.”
Lucy’s eyes shimmered with tears. “You still love me?”
“Is that what you came here to hear? Fucking hell, yes, I love you. It’s eating me up inside. I can’t forget you, and it’s driving me insane.” He gripped her arms as if he could keep her from disappearing again. “I love you, little spitfire. No matter what happens.”
“Oh God.” She burst into noisy tears. “I—love—you—too,” she hiccupped. “I’m so sorry for what I said to you. Hayden told me that you defended me, and I knew he was the one who would’ve tried to use me. Not you.”
Carter could only make out every other word Lucy said, but he didn’t care. He’d heard “love” and “you” and those were the two most important words to him right now. He tangled his fingers in her wet hair.
“You love me,” he repeated. “Say it again.”
She smiled. “I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.” She giggled. “Isn’t English fascinating? Different emphases on words can create completely different sentences—”
Carter shut her up with a kiss. Based on how she threw her arms around him, she wasn’t offended in the least. He kissed her until he believed her, like he could taste the truth on her tongue.
“Wait,” he said, looking at Lucy’s dress on the floor, “did you come straight here from the premiere?”
“I got on the first flight out of LA.” She beamed up at him.
/> “God, you must’ve made quite a scene at LAX in that dress. You probably made a few TSA agents’ brains explode.”
“Don’t worry, I asked for a woman when they wanted to pat me down.”
“Oh, that makes me feel better.”
His attention was thoroughly diverted when Lucy shrugged out of the blankets, her skin now pink. She hadn’t worn a bra with her dress, and Carter thanked whatever powers that be for that. He kissed her throat, loving the vibration of her moans against his tongue, before taking one of her breasts into his mouth. She shivered, especially when he bit down lightly on one hardened peak.
“You have the best tits I’ve ever seen,” he groaned.
She laughed. “What a compliment.” The laugh turned into a sigh when he pinched her other nipple and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger.
Carter wanted to savor her, but it’d been so long that he was already desperate to be inside her. When he found her soaking between her thighs, he knew she felt the same way. She arched into his touch like a flower seeking the sun.
He pushed the blankets off of her, tossing them into the pile of her clothes, and he palmed her ass with one hand and played with her sex with the other. She said his name, moving with his hand, and soon he felt her release slam into her. She tightened around his finger like she never wanted him to leave.
“I need all of you,” she said. She undid his belt and freed his cock, and it pressed against her belly as he kissed her again.
“Take me, then.” He sat back and watched her grasp his cock and notch it at her entrance. His eyes rolled back inside his head as she sheathed herself around him. It was pure ecstasy. It took everything in him not to lose it right then and there.
“I love you.” She began to ride him, and Carter was reminded of the first time they’d slept together. Now, though, it wasn’t pitch dark and he could see the flush in her cheeks, the bounce of her tits, the way she rolled her hips with every downstroke. She was a marvel. If he hadn’t already known he loved her, he certainly knew it now.