ROMANCE: SPORTS ROMANCE: Bad Boys of Sports: A Complete Collection (Alpha Male, Football, Hockey Secret Baby Romance) (Contemporary Sports Romance) (5 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Blaze

Sometimes, a man has to get over things. And last night, I had to get over being the selfish bastard that couldn’t put myself in another person’s shoes. I’d been an asshole to Emma when I’d dropped her off, but I was swirling with fury. My fists found walls to tear into.

Why hadn’t she told me?

It wasn’t until I saw my reflection in the mirror, a man with raging eyes and a nasty face, that I froze. Deep down, I knew that she was the only woman I ever loved–and maybe ever will. That’s why this was so damn hard. It meant either manning up and confessing this truth or spending years trying to hide it.

The drive to her apartment felt much longer than usual. There were hardly any people in the street. Nobody to passively wave to me now, to fill up my ego even just a little bit. When I arrived, I forced myself to take a deep breath.

It was the day of Caroline’s wedding. There was no way we were going to miss it. And there was no way Emma would be anything other than my date.

I marched up to her door with a determined step. She hadn’t been expecting me to come by, especially not after the other night. When she opened the door, her eyes widened and her mouth fell open.

“I know,” I told her plainly. “I look great in this penguin suit.”

She sputtered under her breath something about me being an asshole, but her eyes betrayed something else. “What are you doing here?”

Behind her, I spotted Chloe. With a wave, I beckoned her over, and the girl came scampering over with an excited beam, bouncing up to me.

“Chloe,” I told her carefully with a serious look. “I need you to put on your best princess outfit.”

The girl had gotten the message. “Princess outfit” was all she needed to hear. Emma, on the other hand, was less than amused. Her flabbergasted face stared up at me, trying to make sense of my arrival.

“I’m sorry for being an asshole that didn’t think about how hard it was for you to make your decision,” I told her, the words spilling out of my mouth like an idiot.

Tears were her thing lately. They came down in an instant as she sniffled into a handkerchief, muttering something about the other night. My heart seized with guilt, but I had to press forward as she brought her face up to question me.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Shouldn’t you be at the wedding?”

A grin crossed my face as Chloe came tumbling in wearing a frilly mess of lilac lace. Her hands wrapped around Emma’s legs as she shyly beamed up at me to show off her outfit.

When my eyes met Emma’s own, I made sure she understood me.

“I want us to go as a family.”

She cried even harder into her hands, but my arms were wrapping around her and kissed her temple as I struggled to keep my own tears from falling.

Chloe giggled, moving to cling to both of us by our legs.

“Family!” she yelled.

They were my family. Now, forever, and always.

Epilogue

“She wants to talk to you, Emma,” Blaze said as he returned to their seats at the wedding ceremony area.  “Why don’t you go to her while I watch our little girl.” He smiled down at Chloe, who beamed back at him.

“Is she okay?”

“As okay as can be for a runaway bride,” Blake said with one of his now-famous smirks. “I think she needs you.”

Emma heard crying coming from within Caroline’s room, and she knocked softly.  A disheveled Caroline flung the door wide open, revealing herself in her wedding gown and makeup running down her face.

“Emma!” she cried, throwing her arms around her friend. 

“Shh, it’s all right, sweetie,” Emma hugged her back, and led her back inside and closed the door behind them.

“I’ve made such a mess of things!”

“Why did you run from the altar like that, hun?” Emma asked gently, coaxing her to talk.

“It’s just that… when I heard that my brother refused to stand as a groomsman today–that he wanted to sit in the audience instead–I knew that he didn’t like Andrew after all, even though he’d never admitted it.  I thought he must actually hate him if he couldn’t bring himself to stand up there for half an hour!”

“He doesn’t hate him, Caroline.”

“It was upsetting me all day, thinking about how Blaze must’ve been warring inside about not wanting to be Andrew’s groomsman.  I mean, I suspected it all along. After all, Andrew’s been a total
douche
the whole time we’ve been here! You know I had to beg him to have our wedding at our parent’s house instead of some posh place in Hollywood? He acted so disdainful about having to stoop so low to have a wedding in a hick town in the middle of nowhere. Ugh!

“Then when I saw Blaze sitting next to you and your–oh and your little girl! I just knew there might’ve been something like going on in your life Em. Seeing you there with her explained everything! Why you’ve been avoiding me, and why you always seemed to be so busy. God!”

“I’m so sorry for not telling you about her sooner. I just couldn’t bring myself–”

“No. You don’t have to explain,” Caroline interrupted. “I can only imagine what it must’ve been like as a single mother. I mean, I’m just assuming you’re single since you haven’t ever mentioned a father. You must be working so much to support her! It takes a lot to be a mother, and realizing what you must’ve been through…it hit me like a ton of bricks as soon as I saw you when I was walking down the aisle.” She was sobbing loudly now.

“I’m not ready to start a family! Not with Andrew; not with anybody.”

“Shh, hun, it’s okay,” Emma tried to comfort her.  “It’s so great that you realized what was truly important to you before you tied the knot. It would’ve been much harder if you’d gone through with it, even with your doubts.”

“I just have one question Em,” Caroline said through her sniffles. “Is she–your daughter I mean–is she Blaze’s?”

Emma’s throat hitched. “Is it that obvious?”

Caroline pulled away to look at her friend; her jaw dropped open in shock.

“I’ve been such a coward Caroline,” Emma said through a shaky voice. “I didn’t know how to tell you, or Blaze. It just kind of ballooned into a deep dark secret that I never meant to keep. But time was speeding by so fast while working two jobs and raising Chloe, and the longer I kept the secret, the harder it became for me to confess.” She was in tears now too.

“Honey!” Caroline hugged Emma tight. “I had no idea that you and my brother even–oh no! Did he break your heart all those years ago?” She broke away from her again to look at her seriously.

“No, he didn’t. As it turns out, I’m the one who did all the heartbreaking. Your brother–he was the one who put the broken pieces back together again.” Emma’s smiled brilliantly at her best friend.

“You mean you guys are–is that why he wanted to sit in the audience today? So that he can sit with you and–Chloe?”

Emma nodded her head, smiling ear to ear.

Caroline hid her face in her hands. “Oh God, I thought he couldn’t stand to be near Andrew.”

Emma took her hand. “No, Blaze doesn’t dislike Andrew–at least I don’t think so. You told me last week that you loved him. I think the best thing for you to do now is to talk to him honestly, from your heart, about what you do or don’t want and go from there.”

As if on queue, there was a knock at the door. An ashen-faced Andrew poked his neck in the door with uncertainty. 

“Caroline?”

“Andrew,” she whispered in response.

“Can we talk?”

Emma kissed Caroline on the cheek. “I need to check on Chloe. I can’t wait for you to meet your niece.” She slipped out of the room, closing the door gently behind her.

THE END

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Power Player: A Sports Romance

CHAPTER ONE

Andrew tried to stop her. When she was packing, shoving and cramming the things she’d once happily decorated their house with into cardboard boxes from work, not caring if any of it broke. She loaded up her car, frustrated and angry that she couldn’t fit the nightstand into the backseat on the first try. When she was making her eighth and final trip, tired from all the lifting and stretching and bending that is moving. He tried to stop her, but she was at the point where she would’ve taken all this stuff to a dumpster without shedding a tear, let alone for
him
.

“Janie Elizabeth Nelson!”

He tried shouting at her, tried using her full name in a scandalizing tone to get her attention (a habit he’d picked up from her). Janie ignored him. It wasn’t that she was doing it on purpose, hoping to rile him up further, but she just didn’t have anything to say. Oh sure, usually they’d fight anyway, yelling and defending–honestly, they’d fought enough in the past five years to last her a hundred–but that last argument had left her mute, and completely done with him. 

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I’ve already told you; I didn’t mean it. It didn’t mean anything.  Nothing even happened. You have to believe me. I’m sorry, Janie. I love you. I love
you
.”

Andrew always had been good at apologies. When he forgot their anniversary or the one after that, and her birthday, and a date or two. No matter the sin, he always managed to sucker her back in, promising the moon in one breath–and asking for something in the very next.  He was always good at lying too, but he must have realized that this time was different because he kept going back and forth from denying it ever happened, and apologizing for it. This time, Janie didn’t care, so she didn’t listen. 

It wasn’t until she’d packed herself into her jeep for the last time, buckling her seatbelt with a resounding
click
, that she realized she did have something to say. She turned her head to meet Andrew’s eyes with her dead ones and said, “Don’t call me.”

She could hear him cussing after her as she drove away.

***

“Janie, it’s so amazing we’re roommates!”

The uncommonly beautiful and statuesque Alyssa Halliday was a whirlwind of fresh air. Now that her modeling days were over and she’d filled in all the right places, you could describe her quite accurately as a blond bombshell. People were always comparing her to Charlize Theron, to which Alyssa would demurely shrug and blow a kiss as a way of thanks. 

Janie was a natural blond too–not that she was sure Alyssa was naturally blond.  But Janie’s hair always seemed to look drab in comparison to Alyssa’s.

She tugged on Janie’s hand, leading her on a tour around the condo. As she excitedly chatted away about the view and the new glamorous and girly furniture she’d already stuffed the place with, Janie couldn’t help but smile. It appeared her friend hadn’t changed very much since college.

“So,” Alyssa grinned, finally stopping in the living room to flop into a bright fuchsia chesterfield sofa. “What do you think?  I had the whole place redecorated for us.”

“I think you should really let me pay rent,” Janie sat in the white high back chair opposite her, or one might better describe it as a rocker queen’s throne.

“Oh no,” Alyssa waved her off, laughing. “Honestly, you’re doing me a favor. After living here with another person for a year, well, it gets kind of lonely when it’s just you. I mean, it’s meant for two people.  And,
God
, you wouldn’t believe the boring furniture Connor had filled the place with.”

“It is huge,” Janie nodded, politely pretending that the physical absence was obviously all one would suffer after a breakup.

“I picked it,” Alyssa sat up straighter, leaning forward. “You know Connor wanted to live somewhere in the historic district? I was like, ‘I am living downtown!’ I mean, can you imagine? And the wallpaper he wanted to put up in our bathroom!”

Watching Alyssa, Janie wondered if Connor Wright ever thought he honestly had a chance. Sure, Connor had been Alyssa’s best friend since high school, but he followed her to college and sobbed when she agreed to marry him. Just watching afar from social media, Janie could tell their relationship wasn’t exactly a partnership. The divorce no doubt devastated him.

“But enough about Connor,” Alyssa said, “What happened with you and Andrew? You guys have been dating since you started working at that private school.”  Alyssa was already busy pouring them a couple glasses of pinot grigio.

Janie stared at her, silently scrambling for something to say, something this old friend wouldn’t judge her for. 

“I…he…”  Janie gulped down a sob in her throat.  “Let’s just say you were right about him.”  Alyssa frowned and nodded sympathetically, making Janie want to die.  She was so insulted–so
annoyed
–when Alyssa pegged Andrew as a “loser” when she first met him.  She hadn’t even given him a chance; just one look, and she was convinced.  Janie had badly wanted to prove her wrong–that she knew more about love and men than Janie.  She took a big gulp of her wine.  In her twenties, Janie was never much of a drinker. As her relationship with Andrew had unraveled, however, so did her inhibitions.

“Here have some more wine.”  Alyssa got up abruptly and went to open the fridge.  Her definition of ‘some’ turned out to be three bottles. She adeptly juggled all three in one trip from the kitchen to the living room, neatly placing them onto the sleek, acrylic coffee table.

“So,” she said, handing her a cocktail napkin that said ‘Classy Betch’ and gestured for Janie to take it. “That bad?” she began filling her own glass.

Janie took her glass and rested it on her lap between her legs, staring at the clear light yellow liquid framed between her cupped hands. “He cheated on me,” she admitted quietly.

Alyssa shook her head knowingly.  “I knew it.”

“It didn’t even matter,” Janie closed her eyes. “The girl, she didn’t even matter. She was just someone at a bar. Someone who made it easy. But he did it, because…” She shrugged. “Because
I
guess I didn’t matter, either.”

“Don’t say that! You do matter!” Alyssa fumed. “You’re smart, cute, and just so… so damn nice! I bet those kids–what do you teach? Kindergarten? I bet they adore you!”

Janie had to laugh at that. “I teach the first grade. And they’re kids; they love everybody.” Taking a sip from her glass, she realized Alyssa was already pouring herself another.

“Please, that’s just not true. Kids
hate
everybody–everyone’s a target.” She paused to for a long pull. “And they aren’t scared of anything. They’ll pick up the nastiest bugs–”

“That’s true. I caught some boys trying to find a snake at recess yesterday.”

“See?” Alyssa demanded. “That right there is exactly what I’m talking about. That’s crazy! They’re crazy!”

Janie laughed at her friend. “I take it you still don’t plan on having any?”

Alyssa, for once, didn’t say anything. She froze, glass brought up to her lips, just waiting to be tilted back. Janie realized she’d probably said the wrong thing, and she hurriedly drank her own wine, trying to think of a safe subject to talk about. “You know, the fabric on these chairs are just so chic–”

“Connor wanted to have kids,” Alyssa blurted, bringing her drink down to rest on the coffee table. “Three, actually. But I mean, could you imagine?” Alyssa raised her voice. “My stomach–not to mention my breasts, and my legs. It would’ve been a nightmare! Okay, the breasts wouldn’t have been so bad. But my point is, in the modeling world it’s an end to a career, and–oh Janie, I haven’t seen you in ages, but I finally did it! I left my modeling gig for bigger and better things. I’m going to be an actress!”

“I saw you posted about that not too long ago. That’s amazing!” she smiled, lifting her glass to Alyssa and then kicking it back. As she savored the hints of peach, Janie wondered if maybe it wasn’t wrong, not for Alyssa to know what she wanted. Janie herself had given up so much for her job, for Andrew, and where had it gotten her?

“Right?  You know that it’s been my life-long dream. I mean, modeling does pay the bills, it’s true. But it wasn’t what I wanted. I don’t want to stand still in front of the camera anymore, you know? I’ve got a reputation for being chatty, and I just view it as a positive thing. After all, that’s what acting is, isn’t it? In fact, I’ve got an audition next week, and my agent says I’m almost guaranteed the role!”

“What’s the role?” Janie asked, genuinely intrigued.

“Okay, picture this: girl has bad luck all her life, girl meets boy who has equally terrible luck. Boy turns out to be a
dragon
, runs away with girl. Girl turns out to be a—well, I don’t remember what they call her, but she’s some weird creature that dragons guard like gold, so it’s some weird supernatural love story.”

“And you’d be the girl?”

“Damn right! I’d get all the face time!” They both laughed, and drank to that.

“So what about you?” Alyssa asked.

Janie blinked. “What about me?”

“You know, do you want kids?”

Janie sighed and crossed her arms. “I mean, yeah. I’ve always wanted kids. I told Andrew the third month we were dating, and he made it sound like he wanted them, too. But then…”

“He never proposed?”

“Never,” Janie said with a wry smile. “I kept waiting. I thought for sure, the third year we were dating, that it was just around the corner. It’d be the next restaurant we went to or the next family function. But it just…didn’t happen.”

“I bet he’s regretting it now,” Alyssa winked.

“You’re probably right about that,” Janie admitted.

They sat there for a moment grinning at each other in comfortable camaraderie.   Several hours passed quickly while they drank. They talked about college and all the crazy parties Alyssa had attended. Janie had forgotten the story about the school mascot, Darren the Knight. If the story were true, that costume would never smell sober again.

“Hey, you know what?”

“Hmm?” Janie hummed, feeling a little sleepy.

“We should go out.”

“Wait, what?” Janie opened her eyes properly, shooting a dubious look at Alyssa.

“Oh, come on! You never went out with me in college!”

“Yeah, cause I had—”

“I know, I know! You had to study.  You were
always
studying.  Well, you’re not a student anymore, and haven’t been for what, a
century
.”

“But it’s a school night and—”

“Give me one good reason, Janie,” Alyssa said. “Just one.”  She was dancing around the room now, throwing her arms up and spilling her wine on the carpet as it sloshed in its cup.

Janie wanted to say that she just did give her one very good reason, but she pushed down the next ‘no’ on her lips and thought about it. Alyssa was right. Janie could just call tomorrow a movie day and play something for the kids while she recovered in the dark.  After all, Alyssa was right. She was newly single. She desperately did not want to think about Andrew while trying to fall asleep, and she had her best friend, the party queen who knew all the best clubs in the area. Hell, she was already drunk. What did she have to lose? This was exactly what Janie needed—to go out and get wild for the first time in her life with her party queen friend. After all, that was the whole reason she decided to move in with her in the first place—to spice up her life. She refused to be boring Janie anymore.

“C’mon, Janie!” Alyssa squealed, realizing she had, for once, won the age-old argument. “Let’s go make Andrew have certain regrets, shall we?”