Save My Soul (23 page)

“No. He's quitting.”

“Who's quitting what?” Maggie gripped him by the upper arms, like Jordon had done so many times to her.

“Beckett.” Carlos's body shook with fresh sobs. “He's quitting baseball. He wants me to quit, too. He says that's the only way we can be together.” Sounds of sorrow bounced off the walls.

Maggie squeezed her eyes together, mouthing a quick prayer for guidance. “What do
you
want, Carlos?”

“I don't know.” He sobbed, and Maggie held him tight. She smoothed his hair and patted his back as she guided him to the living room.

Hard as she tried to come up with one, there was no easy answer.

• • •

Jordon opened the front door and locked eyes on Maggie wrapped around a teary-eyed Carlos. All the joy he held in his heart at the top of the cul-de-sac dropped to his feet.

“Who jumped in the lake this time?”

It was a bad joke. He admitted it, but he didn't know how else to face the dire expressions.

Carlos blinked and leaped off the couch. He scrambled past Jordon without a word.

“Hey, I was kidding.”

Stomping up the stairs over Jordon's head was Carlos's answer.

Jordon released a huffy breath, dropped his carry-on and leveled tired eyes on Maggie. “I thought we were past this.”

She rolled her watery eyes and drew her knees to her chest. “We are so not past this.”

“Past what?” Honestly, he didn't care. It was selfish, but true. He wanted to pull Maggie into his lap and give her what was pressing against his pants pocket, not deal with more drama.

“Sit.” She patted the sofa, but instead of encouraging warmth, the half-hearted gesture and the solemn look on her face colored his mood even colder.

Jordon sat and searched her face for clarity.

She smoothed a hand over his tightening thigh. “Jordon, Carlos is going through … ”

“I'm gay,” a voice wailed from the loft above Jordon's head.

Jordon looked up to see Carlos leaning over the railing, his face twisted with agony.

“Don't bother throwing me out,” Carlos continued through tears. “I'll pack right now. Because I quit!” He disappeared again.

Jordon stared at the empty space as he tried to make sense of the outrageous scene.

“Carlos loves another baseball player named Beckett, and Beckett is quitting baseball. He wants Carlos to quit, too.”

The fact that Maggie knew more about this than Jordon shouldn't have come as a surprise. After all, Jordon was paying her to keep the kid's confidence. But Jordon couldn't help wonder if things would've gotten so out of control had he been in the loop sooner.

Anger topped with fear brought him to his feet. “Nobody's quitting anything. Carlos, get down here.” He might have roared. At the moment, keeping emotions in check wasn't his top priority.

“Jordan, let him go. He's upset. You're upset. If you talk to him now, you'll say things you'll regret.”

Jordon turned toward the lake, afraid that if he turned toward Maggie he would lash out at her. His reflection bounced off the glass. A miserable, twisted face. A furrowed brow. He looked like his old man, someone who refused to see both sides of any situation.

A long, low exhale erased the signs of stress, and Jordon could once again see himself in the reflection. He closed his hand around the turquoise box in his pant pocket, and sighed. All he wanted was five minutes of peace to get down on one knee and ask Maggie to be his wife.

But first, he had to make peace with Carlos.

Jordon turned to Maggie. “You know I can't blindly accept his choice.”

Maggie closed the gap between them and wrapped a warm hand around his elbow. “Jordon, he's devastated. Now is not the time to debate whether or not homosexuality is a choice.”

“That's not what I'm talking about. I don't care if he's gay. I care if he's quitting. He's twenty. He's too young to throw away his future.”

Maggie seemed surprised. She studied him with wide eyes and opened her mouth to speak, but then she pressed her lips together and shook her head.

Maybe Jordon was surprised, too. Carlos was gay. Jordon would've never guessed. Then again, Jordon didn't pry into his players' personal lives. If they asked for advice, he talked. If they supplied information, he listened. Otherwise, what they did off the field was their own damn business. But when what they did off the field threatened what they did on the field, Jordon needed to know.

“He can't make an emotional decision,” Jordon continued. “He can't afford to lose his income. He'll be devastated at the loss of reputation. He's … confused, and I won't let him quit.”

“But you quit.” Maggie's earlier shock was replaced by an eerie calm, as if she saw the end result and was simply waiting for Jordon to get there.

“Yeah, but I had a plan, a career goal. I didn't give up everything for something stupid like love.”

She dropped her chin to her chest and her hand from his arm. “So love is stupid?”

Jordon reached a hand behind his neck and squeezed. “No. I didn't mean it like that … and this isn't about us.”

“No. It's not, but let's just say Carlos feels for Beckett what you feel for me. Would you give up everything to be with me?”

“Why are you making this about us?”

She leveled him with dark eyes. “Because I'm trying to get you to relate.”

Jordon threw both hands into the air and then pounded them on the top of his head. “Yes! Yes, I would quit for you. I spent the last week shifting clients to associates I know can't do the job as well as me, but I'm cutting back, so I can be with you.” Before he knew what he was doing, he'd reached into his pocket and pulled out the box. “Do you want proof? Here's the proof.”

She clamped her fingers around his hand before he could open the lid. “Not yet. Wait. Please.” She rubbed his knuckles, and his bunching muscles relaxed. “You're right. I'm sorry. This isn't about us. This is about Carlos being stuck between what the world wants him to be and who he wants to be, and we need to help him choose.”

Jordon was too upset about Carlos to feel dejected by her brush off, so he stuffed the box back into his pocket with a grind of his teeth. “He's going to lose everything. Do you know how ugly this could get? I can't be a part of that.”

The red rims circling her eyes squished until they formed long ovals. “You can't be a part of what? Standing up for a gay man?”

“No! Ruining a career. What if he wakes up one day and decides I failed him? What if he blames me for everything?”

“I won't.” Carlos reappeared at the loft railing.

Jordon looked at the miserable kid who was barely a man and tried not to let the frown filling his heart slip onto his face. “It'll be okay, buddy. We'll figure things out.”

He didn't know how at first, but then Maggie slid her hand into his, and the minute they touched, he knew …

Now and forever more, they would figure things out together.

Jordon stepped clear of the revolving doors and onto the crowded sidewalk. He darted eyes between hurried commuters to the café across the street.

“Thank you.”

Jordon looked at the man by his side. Six months had changed Carlos from a tormented kid to an adult with direction. The extra fifteen pounds of muscle and facial hair didn't hurt either.

Smacking Carlos on the back with a manila folder that held the key to the young man's happiness, Jordon smiled. “You're welcome. Now, show me how thankful you are by throwing a no-hitter tonight.”

The men laughed as they dodged traffic to cross the street. Maggie waited for them somewhere along this stretch of sidewalk, and Jordon wouldn't relax completely until she was safe by his side. Not that there was anything to worry about. The doctor said her pregnancy was progressing “beautifully.”

Jordon saw her then, chin propped on her hand, eyes focused on her laptop. He didn't know a thing about pregnancies, but he knew beauty. When she looked over the top of her screen, she smiled with her eyes. Rising from her chair, she laid her left hand on the six-month-old bump stretching the material of her blouse. Her large diamond glistened in the sun.

God, how he loved that bump and the woman behind it.

“How'd it go?” she asked.

Jordon pulled her to him before he answered, planting a soft kiss to her neck and breathing in her sweet smell. His hands lingered a little too long on the small of her back, and he found himself counting blocks back to his apartment. It was too far for a pregnant woman to walk. He pulled her closer. They'd call a car.

“It went good. Right, Jordon? Done deal.”

Carlos. Jordon forgot. Maggie had that effect on him.

She leaned back and patted him on the shoulder but not before whispering a sultry ‘later' in his ear.

Jordon released her, rubbing a possessive hand over the curve of her stomach. “All good. Done deal. May I present to you the newest co-owner of the Morgantown Minors Single-A baseball team, Carlos Nunez.”

Maggie squealed and enveloped Carlos in a hug.

“Watch the belly,” Jordon warned.

She shot him a teasing glance and settled back into his arms. “It's getting too big to miss.”

“And it'll get much bigger. There's a centerfielder growing in there.” Jordon waggled his brows at Carlos.

Maggie waved a hand into the space between them. “This child might hate baseball.”

The men gasped.

“Well, maybe not hate it, but
she
may turn out to be just like her mother.”

Jordon liked the sound of that.

“I've gotta run. Thanks again.” Carlos squeezed Jordon's upper arm. “Keep your eyes out for a no-hitter.” Carlos winked.

Jordon liked the sound of that too. He watched Carlos flag a taxi and filled with something he imagined was a lot like fatherly pride.

“Do you think anyone suspects anything?” Maggie asked.

“Nope. A lot of team owners are player owners, so nobody suspects Beckett's motives. He was older, on his way out. Retiring and playing minor league ball is a way to lengthen a career.” Jordon leaned closer. “And in this case, it's a way for two guys to stay involved without raising suspicions. I'd call that a win-win.”

Maggie leaned up and planted a kiss on his cheek, her belly bumping his hip. “You did good, Jordon. I'm proud of you.”

He wrapped an arm around her waist. “How proud? Proud enough to race back to the apartment for a quickie before the game?”

Her eyes sparkled. “Who needs an apartment when we have a car with tinted windows?”

She was definitely his soul mate.

• • •

Carlos didn't throw a no-hitter, but according to Jordon, a one-hitter was sufficient. Maggie had fallen asleep on Jordon's shoulder sometime during the seventh inning and woke with a crick in her neck in time to go home.

Home. In the last six months she'd traveled with Jordon from Charlotte to Tampa to New York and back again. They even managed a house-hunting trip to Idaho. By the end of the year, she could have four houses to call home. To think all she ever wanted was one.

“Why are you still awake?” He wrapped his warm arms around her and pulled her close.

“Why are
you
still awake?” She waited to be chastised with a smile on her face.

Jordon roughed up her shoulder with the scruff on his face. “Oh, no, you don't. I'm on to you. Answering a question with a question is a diversion.” He turned his lips to the crook of her neck. “If you want a diversion, I'll give you a diversion.”

Maggie laughed and wrapped her arm around his broad shoulder, running her fingernails over his back. “I love you.”

He propped on an elbow and traced a fingertip over her jaw. “Say it again.”

“I love you.” She slid her fingers into the fine hair at the base of his skull and pulled him toward her, brushing her lips over his.

“I love you, too.” Jordon smoothed a palm over her sensitive breast, rode the curve of her belly and played along her inner thigh while their mouths sealed their words with a scorching kiss.

He grabbed her around what was left of her waist and urged her into position on top of him. “You are a goddess.” His hands roved her swollen body, lighting sparks in the wake of his touch.

She felt like a goddess too, filled with life, filled with him.

The once-empty spaces in Maggie's heart swelled until she thought the muscle might burst from too much happiness. Edging forward to compensate for the heaviness in her chest and belly, Maggie wound arms around Jordon's neck. “You saved me,” she whispered.

He chuckled against her cheek. “I think you got that backward, babe.”

Nose to nose, Maggie stared into his sparkling eyes. “We saved each other.”

Pressing her lips to his, she claimed her future.

Elley Arden is a proud Pennsylvania girl who drinks wine like it's water (a slight exaggeration), prefers a night at the ballpark to a night on the town, and believes almond English toffee is the key to happiness. Learn more at
www.elleyarden.com
.

Thursday, August 25th

Jacey Vaughn clutched a pile of flattened boxes and glanced around the mirrored interior of the elevator. She looked nervous, even to herself, and she swallowed, trying to wipe her slick palms on the cardboard. It felt like waiting to see the dentist. It was late August, which in Las Vegas meant temperatures in the low 90s. Even though the air conditioning hit her full blast, a bead of sweat slid down the back of her neck. When the doors opened, she took a deep breath and stepped off. Twenty pairs of eyes peered at her around cubicles, and she pasted on a weak smile. The glances followed her as she walked down the corridor to her father's office.