Las Vegas Sidewinders: Karl (Book 3) (9 page)

Shaking off thoughts of
Karl, she moved onto the field, staying close to Dante as reporters swarmed
him. Flashbulbs were going off, the crowd still roaring, and he was milking it
for all he was worth.

“Dante,” the reporter
from ESPN put a microphone in his face. “You’ve been absolutely on fire lately.
24 home runs so far this season—what’s your secret?”

Flashing his
million-dollar smile, he cut his eyes to Kate, who was watching him intently.
“My publicist—Kate Lansing. She kisses my bat for me before the games, and
every single time she does it I hit a home run.”

Kate’s eyes widened in
horror, and it took all of her self-control not to groan out loud. The crowd
was as entertained by him as ever, though, another frenzy of flashbulbs going
off as the media pressed him for more information.

“Dante, over here!” one
of the photographers called his name.

Dante turned, with his
million-dollar smile, and then snaked out his arm to pull Kate into the
picture. She laughed as he yanked her up against him, always amused by his
antics, even when she was annoyed with him.

Within hours, the
picture had gone viral, and Kate Lansing became a household name once again.

Kate stormed out of the
guest room of Dante’s house and downstairs to the kitchen, where Larissa and
Trey were having breakfast. She’d just seen her face all over every social
media outlet in the country, and she was furious.

“Where is he?!” she
demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

“I’m right here,” Dante
padded in wearing nothing but low-slung shorts. His bare chest was a sight to
behold, and Kate had to blink in order to focus on the problem at hand. He
wasn’t Karl, but he was definitely hot.

“What were you
thinking?” she cried, getting back on track. “My face is everywhere! They think
we’re a couple!”

“They sure do.” Larissa
didn’t look up from the newspaper, but her lips were pursed in a pout of
annoyance.

“Rissa, knock it off!”
Trey muttered.

“People think we’ve got
a ménage à trois
goin
’ on in this house!” Larissa
huffed.

Dante laughed. “But
look, here we are, with nothing going on, having breakfast like regular people.
It’s not true—so who cares what people think? Right now, I promise you, no one
thinks you’re fat, Kate.”

Kate scowled. “But it’s
not professional—what happens if everyone thinks I’m sleeping with you and I
don’t get any more clients?”

“That’s not going to
happen,” he said gently. “Trust me, Kate. I know what I’m doing. You don’t get
where I am without knowing what you’re doing.”

“Then why did you hire
me?” she demanded.

“Because I needed your
help. Just because I couldn’t do it myself doesn’t mean I didn’t know exactly
what I needed to do. And I know what I’m doing now, too.”

“You’re going to ruin
everything I’ve worked for!”

He smiled. “No, baby
girl, I’m not. I’m fixing everything—you wait and see.”

Karl had just gotten
home from the hospital when he saw the picture of Kate and Dante after the
game. The headlines were everywhere—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat. His
heart twisted painfully in his chest as he looked at the picture of Kate,
wearing a Phillies baseball cap, laughing up at Dante while he looked down at her
like he was going to eat her alive. Karl swallowed, trying not to think about
what they’d been doing the last time she’d looked at him like that. God, he
missed her.

Combing through Facebook,
he couldn’t believe the attention Kate was getting. The headlines were
mind-numbing:

Good Luck Publicist
Riding Dante
Lamonte’s
Wave

Dante
Lamonte’s
New Squeeze’s PR Genius

Is Dante
Lamonte
Going Out
With
#
NoMoreFatties
?

Karl cringed as he read
them, sick to his stomach as it dawned on him that this was his fault. He’d
done this to her; if she was sleeping with Dante, it was because he’d all but
thrown her at him. Drake told him she’d been devastated when she’d seen
Therese’s Twitter post, and cried until it made her sick; the story on Reddit
about him staying in Sweden had probably pushed her over the edge. Just
thinking about it made him want to hit something. He didn’t know what to do
anymore; he felt like he’d lost her and wasn’t sure he could ever get her back.

Kate had been thinking
about piercing her belly button since Karl had first mentioned it, and now that
she’d lost so much weight, she was going to do it. Her weight loss was not
anything she was proud of—she’d simply stopped eating. She drank coffee and ate
yogurt or a piece of fruit most days. Sometimes, she got so sick to her stomach
she thought she really might be pregnant, but every test she’d taken was
negative. She’d given in and gone to a doctor, who’d told her it was stress and
nerves. She needed to relax, go on vacation, figure out what was bothering her
and fix it.

That was a laugh, she’d
thought. Every day that went by simply reaffirmed the fact that Karl was gone
and never coming back; something told her it would be a long time before she
could fix
that
. The pain didn’t seem to lessen, she just learned to deal
with it, and living in Dante’s house left her very little time to feel sorry
for herself. Instead of going back to New York, she stayed in Philadelphia with
Dante, Larissa and Trey. It was an odd living situation, but she had her own
suite on the other end of the house, where she worked all day and then spent
evenings at the Phillies games if they were in town, or hanging out with Trey
if they weren’t.

If Dante had been right
about anything, it was that his behavior had not hurt her business. In fact,
she’d had to hire Lana full time and another part-time assistant as well.
Clients were crawling out of the woodwork, all interested in what she could do
for them, and some days she barely had time to think. Today, however, she had
some spare time and she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

She found Dante in his
media room watching the tapes from last night’s game. He’d scored two more home
runs, and because she’d been there, they’d put her face on the
Jumbotron
; she had to admit it was one of the only things
that made her laugh anymore.

“What’s up, beautiful?”
He smiled at her with his smoky eyes.

“I need a favor.”

“Anything.”

“I want to pierce my
belly button, but I don’t want to go to some random place—I need to make sure
it’s clean and safe.”

His eyes moved down her
body, pausing at her waist, and he looked up again. “You still losing weight,
Kate? You
needa
stop.”

“Will you help me or
not?” she demanded, folding her arms across her chest.

He stood up and padded
across the room, using his finger to lift her chin. “I said I would do anything
for you, but you
needa
stop losing weight.”

“I’m not doing it on
purpose,” she said quietly. “I’m just…”

“Not eating?”

“Every bite of food I
put in my mouth makes me sick. And no, I’m not pregnant—I’ve checked more than
once.”

“I’ve never been in
love,” he said after a moment. “So I’ve never had a broken heart. Is that what
it’s like, makes you physically ill?”

“If you loved them so
much you thought you were going to be with them forever.” Her eyes glistened
with tears, and she swiped at them angrily. “Dammit, I can’t keep crying over
him.”

Dante wiped her cheeks
with his thumbs, staring down at her. “I’ve never wanted a woman I couldn’t
have before,” he said. “But I can’t have you, can I?”

“No,” she whispered,
shaking her head. “I can’t—I can’t even breathe sometimes; I miss him so much.”

“I’m sorry, baby girl.”
He wrapped his arms around her and let her cry, her fingers gripping his arms
as her tears soaked his shirt. His strong body reminded her of what she’d lost
in Karl, making her cry even harder. Dante simply held her, stroking her hair
and waiting for her to get it out of her system.

Finally, she moved
away, embarrassed and drained. He pulled his phone out of his pocket as if she
hadn’t just been in his arms, and put it up to his ear.

“
Yo
,
Randall—it’s Dante. Yeah, man, listen, I need a favor… I got a friend who wants
a piercing—can you fit us in? Yeah, we’ll be there.” He hung up and smiled.
“Okay, go get dressed or whatever. We
gotta
leave in
about 20 minutes if we’re
gonna
do this.”

She looked at him in
surprise. “Just like that? You know someone?”

He winked at her. “I’d
show you mine, but I don’t think you’re ready for that.”

Her mouth fell open and
she snapped it shut, something that happened a lot around him. “No, definitely
not.”

He laughed. “It hurts
when they do it, you know? You want something to take the edge off?”

She looked back at him.
“Like what?”

“
Nothin
’
big, just a Valium.”

She paused, unsure. She
was never big on taking medicine of any kind, but she’d also read that it would
probably hurt a lot, and she was already hurting so bad on the inside anything
that would save her a little pain sounded good. She finally nodded. “Yeah,
maybe that would be good.”

“Okay, I’ll wait for
you downstairs.”

Lying on a special
chair, Kate could barely remember her name, much less anything else about the evening.
Whatever Dante had given her left her feeling like a zombie, and by the time
Randall was done with her, she just wanted to sleep. She remembered Dante
putting her in the car and the next thing she knew it was morning.

Her navel throbbed and
her head was pounding, so she went in search of an aspirin. Dante was in the
kitchen and he glanced up when she came in.

“How you
feelin
’ this morning?” he asked.

“Sore,” she admitted.
“How long is this going to take to heal?”

“Completely, it can
take months, but it should only be sore a day or two. Wear loose clothes so it
doesn’t rub on anything and make sure you clean it with the stuff he gave you.”

She nodded. “Thanks for
taking me last night.”

“You’re welcome.” He
met her gaze. “It’s fuckin’ hot.”

She felt her cheeks
burn. “Dante…”

“Look, you
gotta
know, Larissa and me, we’re not together like that.
I’ve known her for years, and she wanted a baby, so I gave it to her. Not in
the most practical way, but I’d like a couple kids, too. So it works out. She
gets a nice house, money to spend and kids. I get the kids and a traditional
family for the public eye.”

“And what happens when
you need to get laid? You think the girls you screw aren’t going to go to the
tabloids? Eventually, you’re going to get caught, even if it’s not Larissa
doing the catching.”

He shrugged. “That’s
why I have you—you’ll take care of that stuff.”

“Is that what you
want?” she asked finally. “Don’t you want to find someone special? Wouldn’t you
like to spend your life with the person that makes you feel whole?”

He shook his head. “I
don’t know about that, baby girl. I think maybe I’d give it a try with you,
because I want you so bad I can taste it—but in general, nah. I got baseball,
money, women… Love seems like way too much work
lookin
’
at how you’re handling it.”

Kate looked up at him
sadly. “You’re probably right.”

“Eventually, either
you’re going to find your way back to each other, or you’re going to move on.”
He held up his phone. “You know, he’s on Twitter every day
sayin
’
he’s sorry.”

Her eyes snapped up to
his. “Don’t,” she said evenly. “Do not try to make me feel bad.”

“I’m not trying to make
you feel bad—I’m trying to get you in bed!” He laughed. “But that’s not
gonna
happen so you might as well have all the information.
He’s on Twitter every day talking about you. He doesn’t use your name, but
everyone knows who he’s talking about.”

She pursed her lips.
“Okay, well, I have clients to get to. Thanks again for last night.” She turned
and hurried out of the room. She had a million things to do, but she knew she
wouldn’t get anything done until she knew what Dante was talking about. She
pulled up her computer and before she could stop herself, she found Karl’s
Twitter feed.

Another rough night for
Mom. Thanks for your well wishes.

Broken hearts suck;
miss you every day. Xoxoxo

Three hours at the gym
isn’t enough to work you out of my heart.

Mom is finally healing;
clear bill of health from the cardiologist.

A day doesn’t go by
that I don’t miss you.