Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance (42 page)

If only.

As she stared into those deep brown eyes on
the most magical night of the year, she believed they could make it
happen. They could take this fragile trust poking itself up through
the wet earth, nurture it and turn it into a beautiful rose.

* * * * *

Zach ignored the curious stares of his
teammates as he sat down at the table with Kelsie. True to form,
the guys pretty much accepted her appearance and turned their
attention back to consuming mass quantities of prime rib, garlic
mashed potatoes, and veggies.

Tyler and Derek weren’t present as they had
family in town, but the small group of teammates that were there,
enjoyed themselves.

Bruiser entertained the group with
outrageous stories of his exploits. If they were true, the guy
would have done everything from surfing in a hurricane to ice
fishing in Antarctica. He might be full of shit, but his
storytelling abilities kept the group laughing through the
meal.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Brett,
the backup quarterback, sat quietly and listened to the
conversations. He laughed along with the guys, yet with an
underlying sadness Zach recognized. He used to be that lonely guy
until Kelsie came along.

Zach rarely saw Brett with a date and
wondered more than once if the guy was gay. Not that he gave a
shit, a guy’s sex life was his business. Brett was more private
than even Zach was, and in his role as perpetual backup, no one
paid much attention to him. The ultimate team player, he never
complained, always participated in team charity functions, visited
schools and hospitals, and kept out of trouble. A local guy, Harris
wondered why he didn’t spend the evening with family and childhood
friends, instead of hanging out with teammates. Zach guessed it
beat spending Christmas Eve alone. No one should have to do
that.

His thoughts slipped to his brother Wade. He
imagined Wade would be spending tonight with some tall, buxom
blonde, just the kind Wade liked.

In some unexplainable way, he missed trading
barbs with Harris. Who’d have ever guessed?

As if sensing Brett’s quiet depression,
Kelsie engaged him in conversation, asking him questions with such
interest and caring the guy slowly opened up. Zach burst with pride
at the kindness she displayed to his lonely teammate and earlier
tonight at the shelter. He’d had no idea she’d been the one they
called their angel.

Mean, selfish Kelsie didn’t exist anymore.
She’d been replaced by sweet, strong, caring Kelsie, his wife, the
woman he loved more than life itself, his rock in a storm, his kick
in the butt when he needed it. And he planned to need it for a long
time.

Now if he could find a way to convince
her.

CHAPTER 28

Almost a week later, Kelsie
Carrington-Richmond-Murphy sat in the owner’s box with Rachel and
Lavender on one side and Veronica on the other.

This past week, she and Zach didn’t talk out
their feelings. Instead, they’d talked with their bodies. If Zach’s
body told the truth, he didn’t want out of the marriage either. But
not wanting out and believing he should get out were too different
things. If he didn’t trust her then they had no future to build
upon.

She glanced over at Veronica, who was so
focused on the field she didn’t seem to realize the rest of them
existed. For reasons Kelsie couldn’t fathom the woman had invited
her, along with Rachel and Lavender to watch the last game of the
season in the warmth and luxury of the owner’s suite. Kelsie had
wanted to say no, but she didn’t. She’d decided to be a bigger
woman than that. Oh, yes, gracious to a fault.

On the field below, a miserable Monday Night
Football game played out, the last game of the regular season. Win
or go home for the Jacks. Extend the season or finish it
tonight.

Freezing rain blew in vertical sheets across
the field, sometimes making it impossible to see a thing. The
players on the bench huddled in hooded parkas, though Kelsie
doubted even the thick, waterproof material kept out all the
rain.

The coach called a time out and Veronica
bolted for the bar. Kelsie focused on the players huddled on the
bench.

After the loss a week before, the Jacks
needed this one desperately. A win coupled with a loss by the Rams,
who were currently getting stomped with a minute to go, and the
Jacks were in the playoffs. A Jacks loss and they were done for the
season. Simple as that.

Well, not exactly simple from where she sat.
If they lost, Kelsie’s marriage agreement with Zach could be null
and void. They’d be free to divorce and go their separate ways. She
didn’t want to be free.

She’d had every intention of having it out
with him, laying it all on the line. Only life had a way of
postponing even the most important things. Zach hadn’t needed the
added drama in his life with the team’s playoff hopes hanging by a
shoe lace. After all, Kelsie was a football player’s wife. During
the season, it was all about the game. Any NFL wife worth her salt
understood that harsh reality. Kelsie prided herself on being the
best NFL wife her current situation allowed her to be, even going
as far as joining Veronica for the game.

Speaking of the devil, Veronica returned and
plopped back into the plush chair next to her, glass of wine in
hand. Kelsie could do with her own glass of wine to calm her
jangling nerves and woozy stomach. Game days did that to her,
especially one as important as this. Zach’s last chance at a ring.
She wanted this for him as badly as he wanted it.

“I bet you’re curious why I invited you to
join me?” Veronica studied her over the rim of her glass, her red
lips pursed in a severe, uncompromising line.

“You could start by apologizing for having a
PI stalk me.” Kelsie lifted the binoculars and followed Zach off
the field as he headed for the bench. His uniform had already
soaked completely through, and when he pulled off his helmet, his
hair was matted to his head. Yet the grim determination on his face
defied the weather.

“Oh, that.” Veronica’s tone blew it off as
if of no consequence.

“You scared me to death.”

“I didn’t realize the PI was so inept that
you knew he was there.” She snorted as if her deception was of no
consequence. “I think maybe we’re two of a kind.”

Kelsie lowered the binoculars and frowned.
“No, we’re not. I was like you once. I’m not anymore.”

Veronica scowled, but Kelsie didn’t care.
Instead, she drove home her point. “In case there’s any question,
that’s not a compliment.”

“You’ve been around that cave man too long.
Now you’re sounding like him.”

Kelsie sat up straighter and smiled her
beauty queen fake smile. “Thank you. I do take that as a
compliment. You could learn a few lessons in kindness and humility
from him.”

“And I was going to offer you a second
chance working with some of our more challenging players. Of
course, none as challenging as Zach.”

“I won’t work for you.”

Veronica sat back and shook her head as if
she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You’d pick Zach over a
lucrative career opportunity?”

“Of course I would. Apparently you have no
idea what it means to love someone.” Kelsie rose to her feet, while
Rachel and Lavender stared up at her open-mouthed and wide-eyed.
They may not have heard any of the conversation, but they could see
her face.

“I think it best if I sit elsewhere.” Kelsie
nodded at her friends and left the suite.

Not having a ticket for another seat in the
sold-out stadium, she wandered to a bar area and sat at the only
empty bar stool. Only then did she realize her hands were shaking
as the enormity of what she’d done hit her. She’d set a torch to
that last bridge and burned it until it sank with a pitiful sizzle
into the river.

Kelsie had done the right thing but at a
huge personal sacrifice. When given a lucrative opportunity to be
an opportunistic bitch, she’d turned nice girl, and in effect,
achieved the goal she’d set for herself when she’d moved to Seattle
months ago. She’d wanted to change, and she had. She’d supported
Zach. Even if they parted ways, and he left her with a broken
heart, she’d survive.

Maybe her business working with high-end
athletes was going nowhere fast and her work with homeless people
didn’t exactly rake in the bucks, but she wouldn’t have it any
other way.

She liked her life as it was. A lot.

There were other sports teams in town. Of
course, as Veronica had pointed out a while ago, her father
happened to own a share in every one of them. She was so screwed.
No paying job. Possibly no husband. No home. No nothing. But the
only part of that she really cared about was Zach.

She sipped on a glass of red wine poured
from a box and realized she quite liked it. She smiled, then
grinned, then threw her head back and laughed loud and long, not
minding a bit that everyone in the bar stared at her.

“Are you okay, ma’am?” The bartender kept
his distance and regarded her warily.

Kelsie dabbed at her eyes with a napkin.
“I’ve never been better.” She set her glass down on the bar. She
had her pride and her integrity. Things money couldn’t buy. That
meant more than all the gold bars in her father’s Swiss bank
account. And she wanted to share her newfound self with Zach.

She stood up with a new sense of resolve.
She was a fighter, and fighters didn’t give up. She’d throw one
last Hail Mary and hope he caught it.

* * * * *

Zach lay flat out on the field. He blinked
the sweat from his eyes. Or was it rain? A big hand extended into
his line of vision. He followed the hand up to the shoulders, neck,
then the face. Tyler Harris towered above him, holding his hand
out. Zach took it, and Tyler hauled him to his feet. After which
the quarterback turned and trotted off to the huddle. Zach still
cradled the ball he’d intercepted on the Jacks’ twenty. He flipped
it to a referee and jogged to the sidelines.

The seconds ticked off the clock. They were
down by six. A field goal wouldn’t do it. Harris marched them down
the field until only twenty yards stood between the Jacks and a
spot as a wildcard team in the playoffs, twenty long yards. It
might as well been twenty miles. Zach paced the sidelines, sick to
his stomach, shouting until he was hoarse, along with the rabid
sold-out crowd.

These moments were what Harris was famous
for. He’d come through. He always had. They didn’t call him Mr.
Heroic for nothing.

Zach stopped and waited. The crowd quieted,
sensing this was
it
. The final moment of truth in an
up-and-down season Zach accepted partial responsibility for
creating. Fourth down. Three seconds on the clock. No timeouts. The
final play in a season where Zach had learned more about himself
than he had in all the other years he’d played football
combined.

Harris called the play. It should’ve been a
bootleg to Bruiser. Only Bruiser slipped and skidded on his ass
across several yards of water-logged artificial turf. Harris didn’t
get to be the best for nothing. He looked for a receiver. Once.
Twice. He stayed in the pocket until the last possible moment. They
were all covered. He tucked the ball under his arm, put his head
down, and forged ahead. There was a hole, a small one. Zach watched
him power toward it, shoving defensive players off his body left
and right. Zach yelled encouragement from the sidelines, not caring
that the offense couldn’t hear over the fan noise. Cold, freezing
rain dripped in Zach’s eyes, but he didn’t give a shit.

Harris’s helmet popped off as he barreled
into the stomach of a three-hundred pound lineman. He went down,
buried under a couple tons of human muscle. Referees waved their
arms and started pulling bodies off the pile. Zach stared at the
big television and saw it.

Short by inches.

His heart stopped. His lungs constricted.
His body slumped. This year was supposed to be his last shot at a
Super Bowl. Now it was gone. Down the tubes. Over before it even
started. No playoffs for this team.

Out on the field the last tackler stood, and
only Harris still lay on the field. The quarterback didn’t move.
Not one toe or one finger. The crowd hushed as they realized their
beloved quarterback wasn’t getting up. Even the opposing team
halted their celebration to gaze at the field with concern. Several
players knelt down in a circle and bowed their heads. Zach ran onto
the field in a panic. He’d only felt such overwhelming fear once in
his life, when his brother was put in the hospital. Zach never put
much stock into praying, but he sent up a silent plea to the man
above.

God, please make him be okay.

Several seconds ticked by, though it seemed
like hours. Finally Harris opened one eye then the other. He
wriggled his fingers, rotated his ankles.

HughJack held up three fingers in front of
Harris’s face. “How many?”

“Is this a fucking trick question?” Harris
managed a lopsided grin.

HughJack breathed a sigh of relief. So did
the rest of the team and staff standing around. Harris was okay if
he was being a smart ass. They did a few more tests and then helped
him to his feet. Zach rushed forward and grabbed his arm and slung
it over his shoulder. Hoss, the Jacks’ mountain of a center, did
the same on the other side as Harris limped off the field.

Zach kept an eye on Harris in the locker
room. The team trainers and doctors had cleared him as good to go,
despite how rough the guy looked. He was one tough cookie, Zach had
to admit with a newfound respect.

Harris sat on the bench, holding an icepack
on his knee.

“You let it all out on the field today.”

Harris looked up and smiled. Blood trickled
from his mouth and from a gash on his head from a cleat. Bruised
and bloody, Tyler met Zach’s gaze. “And it felt damn good to play
like that. All out. Balls to the wall. We just didn’t have it
today. Too many young inexperienced guys. But next year.”