Sinners Football 01- Goals for a Sinner (21 page)

“She’s not here. I told you so,” he said glumly.

“Maybe she went for groceries. Remember how little stuff she had in the refrigerator when we brought her home from the hospital?” Joe relied on the memory to lighten the situation.

Connor did smile slightly. “I don’t think Stevie is much of a cook. She probably picked up her car and headed out of town again. Her coming home had nothing to do with me.” He slouched into the shotgun seat of the low-slung, red Porsche.

“Hey, watch the sandwiches. I don’t want olive juice all over my leather upholstery. We’ll try again later after lunch and a light workout.”

“Yeah, sure.” Connor remained surly all the way across the lake causeway.

****

Stevie Dowd headed out of town. She crossed the causeway and drove through the piney woods to the cypress-studded lakeshore where the rich and sometimes famous lived. She had dredged the key to Connor’s house from the desk drawer where she’d thrown it before joining the LPGA tour. She’d meant to mail it back to him. At least, she thought she had, but she never did. Here the key lay in her hand, ready to use again if she could work up the courage.

She’d always regarded Jackie as an amusing friend, not particularly deep, same as Joe Dean, until that dinner in Las Vegas. Jackie had been hurt by her Darlene but moved on to have a great career.

Maybe Connor had moved on, too. No, she knew his career was tanking. Worst of all, Stevie knew she was his Darlene, a person who had dumped him because of her own fears and desires. Connor might not want her back.

She would admit to being wrong about not supporting his dream to play again. She would stay with him no matter what. He didn’t have to say he loved her or repeat his proposal. This time Stevie Dowd would stick to a relationship and make it work…if she got a second chance. And, she would not try anything underhanded like pulling a Merrilee and getting pregnant to keep him. She needed to talk with Connor long and hard and now.

The gate to the house was sealed tight of course.

No telling if Connor was home. She cringed at using the call box. Disgusted with the way her hands sweat and her heart pumped faster, she sat in her idling car like some kind of groupie waiting for her hero to appear. She should have called first to see if she was welcome. Courage draining, Stevie backed up her car, swung it around, and prepared to return to New Orleans.

Once she got across the lake, she’d call instead of lurking outside his gate like a stalker. If he hung up, she’d try again—the way Connor had over and over. Remorse engulfed her like water from a broken levee. Stevie put her foot on the brake and covered her face with her hands to hold in the tears. A red Porsche tearing down the center of the road as if it were pursuing her in a high-speed chase nearly hit her car. Joe Dean braked his expensive ride diagonally across the road.

“Get out and don’t come back until—what’s the word—you two have a breakthrough,” Joe ordered his passenger, but Connor was already in the street approaching Stevie.

She felt as nervous and guilty as a criminal and Joe Dean probably thought of her that way. She’d committed a crime against his team, his friend.

Connor opened her door, drew Stevie to him, and kissed her so hard her back bent across the hood. He waved to Joe for a little privacy.

Joe Dean flipped down his sun visor. He slumped into a “they’re going to be awhile position”, unwrapped a muffuletta, took a bite from a wedge and sucked the olive oil off his fingers. Coming out of the clutch, Stevie stared his way. He gave her a friendly salute with his sandwich as Connor led her home. That jerk, always around when she needed to be alone with the man she loved.

Connor opened the gate and the couple walked slowly down drive, around the house, and across the deck to the dock. They did not say a word as they watched the light chop of the water, the boats swaying, a blue heron passing on the wing. Neither seemed able to speak.

Finally heeding Joe Dean’s orders, Connor began. “Stevie, I haven’t been playing fair. I treated you like some bonus I deserved because I had a great season and did the celibacy thing last year. I wasn’t honest with you. I used you cover up my real problem.”

She closed her eyes against the glare on the water and kept them closed. It was going to happen again. This man was going to hurt her more deeply than any of the others because she loved him heart and soul.

Sure, she’d thought maybe Kevin was the one when she’d been young and stupid. Close call there.

Then, she’d rebounded with the slick Marcello. How surprised had she been when Marcello left with his completed portfolio before she finished her studies in Italy? Not much. As for Dex, he turned out to be more of a convenient business and sexual partner than anything else. Her fury at his duplicity had driven Dex out of her mind completely. But this one, this one would to destroy her.

“I’m afraid when I play, afraid of another injury.

I covered it up well early in the season when we were playing weak teams and no one could catch me.

When I recovered that fumble, they piled on top of me. My helmet was torn off. I thought for a moment I couldn’t feel my toes. Anger, I used anger so no one would know how scared I was. Worse, I let everyone think you were to blame for my temper, my slump.” Connor stared into the water of the lake sloshing beneath his shoes, not looking at Stevie. His long hair fell across his cheeks shielding him from her gaze.

His pose was so like the one she had witnessed when he sat on the bench during the last game that Stevie reached out and pushed back his hair as she had been longing to do for months. The golden strands were clean now but needed a trim badly. Her fingers smoothed the blond locks behind his ears and followed the strands down his neck, lightly touching the scars from his surgery until they came to rest warmly on his shoulders. He shivered beneath her hands.

“You could have told me. I would have understood.”

“And said what?”

“Quit playing.”

“Right. If I quit, then I was admitting I was afraid. You have to play strong if you are going to play the game. I let you go rather than confess the real problem.”

“I should have known. I should have stayed.” She hated herself for not seeing this. She was even more ashamed for thinking of herself as the sole reason for Connor’s problems, so certain of his love that when she looked into his eyes, she saw only her reflection and nothing more.

“You would have stayed with me if I was paralyzed, right?”

“Yes, you couldn’t drive me away.”

“But I tried to because I wasn’t the man you fell in love with. I’m still not.”

“I’ll stay with you now if you want me to. If it’s not too late for us.”

“Last night, I thought so. Coach benched me last game, and I was relieved I didn’t have to play. I thought my career had ended. No one would ever know how scared I was because they could only see the anger I used to cover up.”

“If you came back to me, you might see what the others had missed—that I wasn’t the big, brave jock anymore, but an impostor. You were better gone. My career is over. I should have been home free with no one the wiser. Then it hit me: I had nothing worth living for. I passed the worst night of my life yesterday. Joe stayed by me. Today, I told Dr. Funk what was eating me. I’m doing a little better.”

“Joe is a good friend…a jerk, but a good friend.” Stevie wiped a tear, pretending the wind troubled her eyes. “The stunt he pulled to get me back here even when he blamed me for your condition you wouldn’t believe. Sure, it ran in the tabloids, but you had to be there. Jackie did her best, too. She finally made me see I had to stand by you, no matter what—that is if you still want me.”

“I need to finish the season or the fear will win.

Can you bear it?”

“I will for as long as you need me. Can’t they give you any extra protection? Can’t the trainers do anything for you?”

“They tried at the beginning of the season. I had a neck guard, but it was uncomfortable. I couldn’t turn my head the way I wanted. Besides, I considered it a sissy thing. Made me look weak, so I refused to wear it because I’m big, tough Connor Riley.” He gave Stevie a sad smile.

“Could you try it again? Work with it until it’s comfortable?”

“Yeah. I’ll do that.”

“And Connor, I think I’d like to talk to Dr. Funk myself if you could arrange it.”

“We’ll go together.”

“I can think of another place we can go together.

Right now. If the back door is open.”

“You have the key, Stevie.”

****

Eula Mae, her big arms filled with sheets, padded down the hall toward Mr. Connor’s suite. For the first time in a month she had beard stubble to clean out of the sink and long blond hair to pluck from the shower drain. She pulled up when she saw the bedroom door closed. The breathing and moaning going on in there was so heavy she could hear it through the cracks. She did a U-turn and headed back toward the kitchen where she tossed the sheets on a counter and poured herself an iced tea from the pitcher her mother set on kitchen table along with a light lunch of chicken salad sandwiches and cantaloupe slices.

“Mama, Mr. Connor got someone in his bedroom.”

“Way things is going around here, let’s hope it ain’t Mr. Joe.”

“Mama! I was thinking they found Miss Stevie.”

“It’s them trashy tabloids you always reading, child, that puts ideas into my head. Miss Stevie would be good. I liked her. She stayed out of my kitchen and never complained about the food. But could be Mr. Joe ordered him to pick up a woman downtown if she wasn’t around. He was mighty bossy this morning. Seemed to know just what Mr. Connor needed.”

“Amen,” answered Eula Mae, settling her large behind into a seat and getting ready for an early lunch before she tackled the bathroom.

****

Stevie was half way through a full body kiss when she heard footsteps in the hall. She’d started with Connor’s forehead, brushed her lips down his hollowed cheeks, lingered on his full lips, inhaled the scent of aftershave on his clean-shaven chin. She slid down his neck into the golden chest hair, tongued each of his nipples and continued on down his torso, skirting an erection so hard and purposeful it tilted in her direction when she began kissing the inside of his thigh. Every scar, every bruise, received extra attention from her lips. She was making her way up Connor’s left calf muscle, hard as quick-set concrete, when she heard the sounds and paused.

Connor let out a groan that seemed to shake the bedroom door. He raised her up and set her on the erection that had followed her pathway toward the other side of his body like a sexual magnet. Stevie heaved an enormous sigh. He turned them over accompanied by a symphony of bedspring squeaks.

The footsteps in the hall receded.

Stevie expected the sex to go quickly, not that it mattered a bit. She had aroused herself paying court to every inch of his body and she was ready, but Connor took his time. He circled her ears with his tongue, lingered on her lips, plundered her mouth, then moved down the long sweep of her neck to the adoration of her breasts, one at a time, sucking each pink nipple until Stevie began the restless motion herself. She crossed her long legs at the top of his thighs and pushed hard. Smiling, Connor picked up the rhythm of love and mighty good sex.

****

Joe Dean got cramped in the Porsche. How long did it take to say ‘I love you’ and jump in the sack?

He had no idea, never having said those three words to any of his women. He was mopping the olive juice from the leather seat with a paper napkin when the Rev pulled up in his Escalade.

“What’s going down, bro? I been looking for you since team meeting. Want me to spend the night here?”

“About time you showed up. Mintay let you off the leash? You don’t have to rush back to Chapelle and pick out china patterns or something?” Joe growled.

“She’s a doctor, Joe Dean. She’s cool with it. If Connor needs me here, I’m here. Say, that a muffuletta from Central Grocery? I missed my feed searching for y’all.”

The Rev’s brawny, brown arm shot out to snag the second sandwich off the front seat. He pulled the paper back from the bread and took a big mouthful.

“Best in town,” he said, his lips shiny with oil. “So where’s Connor. Shouldn’t we be with him?”

“If we’re lucky, Stevie will be spending the night. She’s in there right now restoring Connor’s confidence. Tonight, you and me can go some place restful—like a jazz club.”

“Fine by me, but no titty bars. Mintay would smell it on me and cancel the nuptials in a flash. So, Stevie Dowd is back. Guess I’m glad—though that woman sure was a disappointment, abandoning Connor in his time of need.”

“Look, it took Jackie and me months to get her back here. Don’t fuck it up by getting in her face the next time you see her. I got everything fixed up fine now between Stevie and Connor.” The Rev raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I think it’s gonna take more than an afternoon of sex to repair this mess. They got issues to discuss. Might need a long time to sort things out.”

“If they need more help, I can sic St. Jude on

’em. He sure came through for me. I stay celibate for the season. Connor gets well and plays again. Maybe I can work another deal for them.”