Throwing Love #3 (The Throwing Love Romance Series - Book #3) (6 page)

Bennett's face had grown a bright red. “Sorry, Sir, I can
explain.”

“Well, I certainly hope so.”

My stomach churned not only for myself, but for Bennett. He
must be terribly embarrassed to have my father of all people show up at his
home and reprimand him. I also felt sick because I knew it was partly my fault.
It was because of me that Bennett was missing his practices and although I had
never asked him to, I never stopped spending time with him in the morning,
either. I was partly to blame and I hoped my father never found that out as he
would be so disappointed in me. He would be disappointed that my relationship
with Bennett was affecting Bennett's career, especially since my father was
interested in adding him to his own team.

“Look, Sir, I am very sorry, you are absolutely right. I
should have been at every practice, but I had some personal issues come up and
I had been under a lot of stress with the recent accusations. I was just trying
to take some time off to deal with it. I thought my hand was good enough to
keep me on top without the practices. But I intended on being there next week.”

“I can't tell you how disappointed I am in you. You should
know better than this, and here I am at the game to evaluate the team and the
star pitcher is nowhere to be found.”

Oh God,
Dad.
He was really laying it on thick, I felt terrible for Bennett. God, if he finds
me here not only will Bennett be dead, but so will I. I couldn't have been more
grateful that I didn't walk out there with him because my father would be
tearing me a new one, as well. My God, he was just praising me the other week
on my professionalism. That would go down the toilet for sure if he knew that I
was there. My heart was slamming in my chest as I listened to them out there.

I couldn't believe my father hadn't told me he was going to
be in town. Wasn't he planning on seeing me while he was there? He must have
come to evaluate the minor league players because I knew there were no major
league games to follow right now in the city. He must have gone to see Bennett,
and oh how mad he must have been not to see him at practice. One day was bad
enough, but then he had to find out that he missed four practices. I knew
Bennett shouldn't have been blowing off practices, it looked really poor to
people like my dad. I should have put more pressure on him to go.

“I can't express to you how sorry I am, Sir, that I was not
there to greet you today. All I can do at this point is assure you that it will
never happen again.”

The whole time, the coach had stood by silently. I think he
knew that my father pretty much had things under control. Leave it to my dad to
put the fear of God into people.

“I want to tell you one thing, kid. You do have huge
potential in this industry and you have the opportunity to go far. But if you
are unwilling to put in the hard work to get yourself there, then you are as
good as dead to me. I don't take lazy players. I don't care how much talent
they have, I won't do it, so I suggest you keep that in mind. You aren't signed
to a team yet and I don't imagine any manager would be too impressed with you
right now.”

Bennett was rendered speechless, and I couldn't blame him
after what my father said. My dad was hardcore and didn't pull any punches with
anyone. He was straight laced and always told it like it was, whether someone
liked it or not.

“Do you understand what I'm saying to you, Bennett?”

Bennett nodded.

“If you keep this behavior up, you are going to blow your
chances with the big leagues and most people don't get a second chance after
that.”

“I know that, Sir. It will not happen again, I promise you.”

My dad stared at Bennett hard, his gaze not wavering for a
minute. Steve could be terrifying when he wanted to be and he wanted Bennett to
know that he meant business.

“I suggest you start concentrating on baseball first and
foremost and that is it. The ladies have to come second in this business. There
will be plenty of ladies for you if you ever make it to the big leagues, I can
assure you of that much.”

Gee
thanks, Dad
, I thought as I shook my head. What a stupid
thing to say. It was the last thing he said before I saw him turn and leave
with the coach, slamming the door behind him.

I let out a deep breath, glad that they were gone. I
silently closed the door again and waited for Bennett to tell me the whole
story.

Chapter Twelve

The door opened, and Bennett came in looking sheepish. I
wanted to let him start telling me about my father because I was embarrassed to
tell him I had been eavesdropping on him.

I smiled awkwardly. “So, what was all the fuss about?”

“Oh, yeah big surprise – your dad came to visit me.
Cool, huh?” He chuckled softly.

I stared at him unsure of why he was joking around. Why
wasn't he explaining to me what had just happened out there?

I laughed nervously. “Oh, really? Why was he here? That's
kind of weird, isn't it?”

Bennett started laughing, and I couldn't figure out why. My
father had just ripped him a new one out there, and he was acting like Steve
had come over for a cup of tea.

“Oh, it was nothing. He just wanted to check up on me, see
how I was doing after the scandal, ya know? It was actually really nice of him
to take the time to do that.”

“What?” I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Was he really
not going to tell me what happened? Why not? Shame? Embarrassment? Either way,
it didn't matter he should be telling me the truth.

“Yeah, he wanted to make sure I was okay and that everyone
on the team was doing well.”

“Really? That was all he wanted?”

“Yup.”

I stared at him, more hurt than I could have imagined
feeling in that situation. Why was he lying to me, right to my face?

“Did you know that your father was in town? You should have
told me.”

“I actually had no idea he was in town. I'm just as
surprised as you are.” I was determined to have a talk with my father about all
of this, especially about being in town and not telling me about it. That was
pretty bad, in my opinion.

“I thought it was pretty cool of your dad,” he said again
without much enthusiasm.

“Oh yeah, super cool.”

I didn't have a choice but to pretend I believed him. I
couldn't possibly fathom was what going on at that moment, and I needed some
time to think about it. I would have to confront him at some point – he
was lying to me, after all, and seemingly for no reason. I thought we had the
kind of relationship that meant that we could talk about anything, tell each
other anything. But Bennett was hiding things from me and I didn't know why.

I was pissed. There was a large part of me that wanted to
tell him off right there. But now was not the time. I really needed to think
things through, plus I wanted the opportunity to talk to my dad.

I had no intention of letting Bennett get away with trying
to pull one over on me, but my confrontation would happen all in good time.

Unsure of what to do or what my next move would be, there
was an awkward silence between us.

“Everything okay, babe? Do you want something to eat?”

I looked at him willing him in my mind to say something, to
just tell me the truth. He just stared at me with worry on his face. Did he
wonder if I had heard anything? The way my father roared, I was surprised he
hadn't expected me to hear the whole thing.

I could barely stand to look at him at that moment. I needed
to get away from him, I was so angry. I couldn't understand why he couldn't
just be honest. Was he ashamed of admitting he made a mistake with the
practices? Was he afraid I would say, “I told you so?” Because I totally would.

“Look, I need to go. I don't have time to eat, I'm sorry. I
had no idea my father was in town and he's probably looking for me right now.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“Yes, Bennett, I have to go. I'm going to go look for him
before I go back home. I will talk to you later.”

I turned then before he could see the anger begin to show on
my face. I walked out of his bedroom and headed to the front door. I knew he
was probably wondering why I didn't kiss him goodbye or anything, but I was
pretty pissed. It would do him good to have something to worry about. I didn't
care how he felt because at that moment, he deserved it. I was falling in love
with Bennett and here he was lying to me. I didn't care why he didn't tell me
the truth – there was no excuse for that behavior. We were in a committed
relationship and he had lied to me. What else had he lied about in the past? It
was something I would wonder about.

He probably had the best intentions, but the bottom line was
he had lied. He was no different than any other guy I had dated and I had no
intention of going through that again.

Click here to read Throwing Love #1

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This
book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are
products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not
to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual
events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Copyright
© 2015 Nella Tyler