Page 80

I texted her before her interview, waited an hour, and then texted her again, but I haven’t heard back yet.

I glance at my messages just to double check I haven’t missed one from her.

Me: Good luck at the interview. You’re going to kill it.

Me: How did it go?

Nope. Me, me, and that’s it.

Maybe she’s still in the interview.

I try to convince myself of that all the way until nine o’clock after I get Harper down to bed.

She isn’t answering me, so I decide to give her a call. I almost think it’s going to hit voicemail when she picks up.

“Hi.”

“Hey. How was the interview?” I fight the instinct to question why she didn’t text me.

“Fine.” She sounds far away, and suddenly I’m worried I’ve done something wrong. I can’t imagine what, but it’s par for the course where I’m concerned.

“Just fine?” I ask.

She sighs. “I was distracted, so I’m not really sure how I came off.”

“Why were you distracted?”

“What’s Coax?” she asks, and a frisson of guilt travels along my spine. What the fuck is that? I have no reason to feel guilty, particularly given the fact that I haven’t been there in a long time.

Still, something strange hits my chest. She’s not supposed to know about Coax, yet she does.

“Coax?” I repeat.

“Yeah. What is it?”

I clear my throat. “It’s a club with an exorbitant membership fee.”

“What happens at this club ?”

“Lots of things. The first floor is part night club, part business lounge. The second floor is essentially a strip club.”

“And that’s it?” she presses. “No other floors?”

“No, there’s a third floor.”

“What happens there?” she whispers.

“I feel like you already know if you’re asking me.”

“That’s what I thought,” she says, and she sounds…disappointed.

“I, uh…I haven’t been there in a long time.”

“Mm-hm,” she murmurs. “But you’re a member?”

“I am.”

“And you’ve had sex there?” she asks.

“I have. But I’ve also… not had sex there. I’ve gone and had a few drinks. I’ve gone to hang out. It’s a great club, and if you’re mad I didn’t tell you about it, I’d be happy to take you there and let you check it out for your—”

“No,” she says, interrupting me. “I’m not mad . I guess it’s just…” She sighs. “I can’t be angry about the things you did before we got together, and maybe we haven’t even been together long enough for you to have had a chance to tell me about this club. But it just confirms that you’re who I was afraid you were.”

“Who I was ,” I correct her. “I’m not that guy anymore. I’m a father now.”

“And yet you’re still a member.”

“Because I haven’t had time to fucking cancel,” I say, my voice rising as I feel anger starting to pulse. “Are you seriously mad at me over something I did before we got together?”

“No. I’m not mad. I was just totally blindsided today when my sister was the one who told me she has a friend who knows somebody who slept with you at a sex club.”

“Oh, Jesus,” I mutter. “I’m sorry. I was…an asshole before. Admittedly. But I’m not that guy with you.”

“All that sit on my face business…have you done that with other women?”

Does she really want the answer to that question? I’m silent as I contemplate what to say.

“And that thing you said yesterday was the hottest thing you’ve ever seen…was it really? I can’t possibly measure up to women who are members of your club.”

Ah, so it’s the insecurities causing this entire conversation.

I start to get it…and I’m not going to let her get away with it.

“There’s a reason I want to be with you and not them,” I say softly. “There’s a reason I stopped going to the club. A woman wanted more, and I didn’t. It’s as simple as that. You’re the first woman I’ve ever wanted more with. Ever. You’re the first woman I’ve ever wanted to call and ask about a job interview. You’re the first woman I’ve ever cared about, Hartley. And you’re the first woman who frustrates me to no fucking end.”

She’s silent, and I let her be. I let her take that in and I wait for her response.

And when it comes, it doesn’t disappoint.

“God, you make me crazy. One minute I want to rip your head off, and the next minute I want to rip your clothes off.”

I laugh. “Then get your ass over here and let’s celebrate the job interview. And if you really want to see it, I’ll take you to Coax this Thursday.”

She gasps. “Uh, no. I need to not know what Mandy’s doing there with Jaxon.”

I laugh. “Fair enough. But the open invitation is on the table. And I’ll cancel my membership, but I paid the fee for the year up front, so I’ve got a few months left.”

“I mean…don’t make any rash decisions.”

I chuckle. So maybe it’s not entirely off the table, and the thought of taking her there and banging her into oblivion in one of the classy private rooms on the third floor definitely gets me all hot and raring to go.

She tells me more about the interview, and then she needs to head to bed since she has an early parent meeting in the morning.

I call Josh to check in, and we reschedule our original playbook meeting for this Thursday at the Gridiron. I cross my fingers Hartley can come spend the night afterward, and I figure I’ll issue that invitation sometime tomorrow.

As it turns out, she agrees, and I drop Harper at Evan’s for her weekly sleepover on Thursday at five before heading over to the barbecue joint.

When I get to the Gridiron, Josh is already there with Cory. Tristan is still in Iowa, and Damon’s out of town, too, but Cason shows up just after me.

We start with a beer and some appetizers and go over the first few pages of the book while we wait for the others to join us. After my second beer and our second round of hot wings, I get up to use the restroom.

And that’s when I run into her.

I refer to her as her because I have no idea what her name is. She’s the last girl I slept with at Coax, the one that kept me away the night I got the call from my parents when the others went. She’s the one who wanted more…the more I found with a woman named Victoria.

“Funny running into you here,” she says.

Not really , I think to myself. I hang out here a lot, and so do a lot of the players on my team considering it’s directly across the street from our practice facility. Instead of saying that, though, I say, “Hey. How’ve you been?”

She leans in a little too close for comfort. “I’ve been thinking about you. You haven’t been to Coax in a while, and I’ve been going every Thursday hoping I’ll run into you again.”

“I’m flattered,” I say, glancing around for an escape route and not finding one. The men who call themselves my friends are now over by the pool tables and totally ignoring the fact that I’m in trouble over here and I have yet to return from the restroom.

She moves in even closer. “I’d love another night at Coax with you.”

I debate what to say in order to make myself as clear as I possibly can while still letting her down gently. Nobody likes to be rejected. I lean in a little closer to her, and I say, “I’m so sorry, but I’m with somebody now and I’m not willing to fuck it up even though we had a great time together.”

At least I assume we had a great time together. I don’t actually remember it. I was pretty wasted, which is likely why I can’t seem to recall her name.

“You know, that hasn’t stopped a lot of the guys on your team who are members of the club,” she murmurs.

I wrinkle my nose. “You’ve been with my teammates?”

She shrugs and runs a pointy red fingernail down my bicep.

I shake my head. “That’s like being with one of my brothers. It’s off limits.”

She offers a sultry grin and leans in close enough that she’s practically kissing my neck. “Why does that make it even hotter? It didn’t seem to bother you before…”

“Well, I guess I’m a new guy.” And it’s true. I am a new guy. Acquiring a child and a girlfriend in the span of a few weeks will do that to somebody, I guess.

She’s already taken up more time than I wanted to give her, and I try to draw the conversation to a close, but she tosses her arms around my neck.

“I’m sorry, babe, but it’s just not going to happen.”

“You sure about that?” She presses her lips to my neck.

“I’m sure.” I manage to extract myself from her embrace, and when I turn around, I spot Victoria Hartley with a devastated look on her face as she watches what she suspected all along unfold right before her eyes.

Fuck.

“Victoria!” I yell. “Wait!”

She spins on her heel and runs toward the front of the bar. And wouldn’t you know it? Her stupid ass ex is standing by the bar. He grabs onto her to run interference, and I catch up in time to hear him ask, “Are you okay?”

She glances at me and then she looks at him. She bursts into tears and rips her arm from his grip before she bolts for the front of the bar to get the hell out of here.

I give him a venomous look that clearly tells him not to follow her, but he does.

And I do, too.