To Win Her Trust (13 page)

She tossed a smirk over her shoulder, then ruined the effect by squealing and dancing from foot to foot. “I hit it! Did you see?”

Hands propped on his hips, he grinned. “You didn’t just hit it, you crushed it.”

“I did, didn’t I? How many more balls do I get?”

She caught a piece of the next one, sending it foul to the right. The next three were clean strikes, and he had to laugh at the grim determination of her compressed lips. Six fouls followed, but she finally found her rhythm and connected for two singles and a double. Her bright smile, as the last ball sailed to the far net, was worthy of a home run.

He shook his head as she exited the cage. “I think I’ve been had. Are you sure you’ve never done this before?”

She shrugged. “It’s physics. Trajectory and angles combined with timing.”

“An artist with an understanding of physics?”

“You’d be surprised how much an understanding of physics helps when dealing with shapes and metals.”

“Huh. The way the Red Sox are hitting this season, you could give them some tips.”

Her laughter, carefree and easy, called to his libido like a red-tipped fingernail crooking in a come-hither invitation. Because he could, he dipped his head to brush his lips over hers and savored the slight catch of her breath. When he forced himself to step back, the languid softness of her eyes and breathiness of her voice nearly made him groan.

“You’re a baseball fan I take it?”

He took her hand and led her toward the door on a quickened pace. So far, the hat and dark glasses had proven a great disguise, but that was bound to change if he kissed her senseless in the middle of the crowded arcade.

He led her outside and struggled to remember her question. “I’m a
sports
fan. If it’s played with a ball, I’m in, and I come by my interest honestly. Dad’s a lifelong Sox fan.”

“Didn’t he want you to play?”

He tucked her hand into the crook of his arm as they joined the throng of pedestrians on the busy sidewalk. “Sure he did. He took my brother and me to our first T-ball lessons. My sister played, too. I rose through the ranks of little league and played on my high school team. Understanding if I wanted college, I’d get there through athletics, I played every sport I could, but the day I picked up a football, my fate was sealed. Baseball and basketball gained me the offer of partial scholarships. Football bought me a free ride.”

“Wow. Scholarships in three sports programs. That takes skills.”

“Oh, I have skills, sunshine.” He shot her a lecherous grin.

She rolled her eyes. “Sports, Tucker. Try to stay on subject.”

He chuckled at her prim tone and guided her around the stalled crowd enjoying a juggling street performer.

“You went to Florida State?”

“Yep. Football, sunshine, and bikinis on the beach.” His chest lifted on an exaggerated sigh. “I didn’t think life could get any better.”

She snorted. “Did you ever open a book?”

He arched a brow. “Of course. In fact, I know all the words to
Green Eggs and Ham
.”

Instant color flagged her cheeks. “I’m serious.”

“So am I. Want me to recite them?”

She looked away. “I wasn’t commenting on the course loads of collegiate athletes. I’m just curious.”

He laughed and pulled her out of the way of a woman barreling down the sidewalk with her eyes on the screen of her phone. He rested his free hand over the one on his arm and squeezed. “Relax. I was kidding. I maintained a three point eight grade point average and have a degree in business tucked away for the day I hang up my cleats.” He’d also gotten a jump on retirement by dabbling in a few lucrative concerns in the meantime.

A wrinkle creased her brow, and she cocked her head to study him as if she wasn’t sure how to take him. “Hmm.”

“What?”

“A gigolo with a business degree who knows the words to
Green Eggs and Ham
. I guess you
do
have skills.”

Curious stares shot their way at his hearty laugh. Tempted to pull her to a stop and kiss her sweet lips, he settled for draping his arm over her shoulders and tucking her close to his side. “Smartass.”

“Look who’s talking.”

He caught her pleased smile out of the corner of his eye. They traveled in silence for several minutes until her condo came into view.

“Has it?”

He twisted his head to look down at her. “Has it what?”

“Has life gotten better? I mean, a pro career is something millions of people dream of.” Beneath his arm, her shoulders jerked in a slight shrug, and she eyed the ball cap pulled low on his forehead. A brief shadow flitted in her eyes, there and gone, and took the light of laughter with it. “But fame and fortune come with a price.”

She ducked from beneath his arm, and he followed her up the path to her stoop. Digging the key from her pocket, she turned and met his gaze. He didn’t have a fucking clue what to say. She, better than most, understood the cost of fame.

He tucked a curl behind her ear. “I love what I do, so, yes. In a lot of ways, life couldn’t be better. In others, not so much.”

“Like?”

“Like the constant interest of the fans. It gets old.” He tugged the hat from his head and shoved a hand through his hair. “There are times I’d give anything just to be left alone.”

The moment the words left his mouth, he wished he could take them back. The stark understanding in her eyes squeezed his chest.

“You handle the attention so much better than I ever have.”

Shit
.

“Damn, sunshine. Don’t.” He rubbed a hand down her arm. “Don’t cut yourself short. You survived what would have crushed a lot of people.”

“Survived.” She spoke the word softly, derisively. “Surviving is exactly what I’ve been doing instead of living, and I’m sick of it.” As she had several times before, she shook off the mantel of gloom weighing down her shoulders and straightened. “Speaking of surviving, I had fun today, but I think it’s time to ramp our dates up to something a little more challenging. Something a little less anonymous.”

Afternoon bristle rasped against the palm he rubbed over his jaw as he considered his options. An evening with his friends didn’t quite qualify for what she was suggesting, but what the hell. Max and Gracie already knew about her, which meant Jake did as well. The ribbing he’d no doubt take would be worth keeping their dating status from the general public for a little while longer. Their agreement was only for three weeks, and while he fully intended to help her overcome her fears, he wasn’t quite ready to share her with the masses yet. He had his own agenda. One keeping him up, literally, and not just at night.

“How about a barbeque? Nothing huge but I guarantee, with this crowd, you’ll definitely be challenged.”

Her chest rose on a shaky breath. “Sounds perfect. When?”

“Tomorrow. Six o’clock.”

She nodded. “I’ll be ready. Thanks for today.”

“My pleasure.”

She rose onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. As victories went, the chaste kiss was a disappointment, but as this was the first time she’d initiated any kind of intimacy, he’d take it. She pressed her key in the lock, swung open the door, and slipped inside.

Chapter 10

The next evening, CC sat at a table beneath a tall oak in the sprawling backyard of Jake and Gracie Malone’s rural Long Island farmhouse. According to the articles she’d read about the family’s convoluted relationships, Jake had met and fallen in love with Gracie while competing with her for custody of his six-year-old twin half-sisters, who also happened to be her nieces. Tales of the couple’s very public battle and subsequent romance had filled the airwaves and tabloids several months back, trumped only by the scandalous revelations of Gracie’s parentage.

CC eyed Gracie’s father, where he stood with his wife, Sharon, and Jake at the long, built-in grill. Tom Walden appeared no worse for wear after having his life and sterling career sullied by sly innuendo and off-color jokes simply because he’d fathered a child he didn’t know existed while little more than a teenager. Contrary to the speculation still popping up in the press occasionally, Tom and Sharon Walden’s relationship appeared solid and loving, and the love between Tom and his daughter, Gracie, unmistakable.

Sizzling meat scented the air while the shrieks of little girls and barking dogs competed with deep male voices and the rock ‘n’ roll music flowing from outdoor speakers. Laughter drew her gaze to the back door. Tuck, his arm draped over Gracie’s shoulders, stepped through the doorway. They stopped at the edge of the patio, and he grinned at Max Grayson. Two of Tuck’s teammates, Mario Davis and Jamal Knight, along with their dates, laughed at whatever Max was saying.

CC rubbed a damp palm along the hem of her shorts. How the heck had she come to be here, included in an impromptu gathering of strangers representing close to forty years of pro football talent? Less than a week ago her reclusive life had been simple, if a bit boring, and, for the most part, predictable. However, predictability had flown out the window the moment Kevin Tucker turned around and flashed his killer smile.

Walter, followed by Murphy, the Malone’s rangy Border collie, burst into the circle of close friends and nearly toppled the tall blonde on Max’s arm. He pulled his date close as the Malone twins followed in a game of chase.

CC lowered her lashes and pretended not to study Tuck and Gracie. According to him, they were simply friends, but their body language spoke of something deeper. Despite the Malones’ recent marriage, from what CC had seen so far, the claim of simple friendship between Tuck and his best friend’s bride strained the bounds of believability. Through her research, CC had read the snarky stories alluding to the competition between Tuck and Jake as they competed for the same women over the years. Had Gracie been one of them?

Tuck dipped his head to speak into Gracie’s ear, and her low laugh danced across the distance. The tensing muscles of CC’s stomach announced the addition of yet another new emotion to the healthy dose of lust she’d been suffering since meeting Tuck. Linguists around the world had screwed up when they assigned the color green to jealousy. In her opinion,
red
was more accurate.

Don’t even go there. You’re not jealous. You’re only using him to cure your neuroses, remember?

At that moment, Tuck turned his head, and his laughing gaze tangled with hers. He bumped up his chin, winked, and graced her with a dimpled smile. Her heartbeat took off in a manic gallop, and the red haze of jealousy fizzled beneath the liquid heat that flooded her body. A helpless shiver pebbled her skin. God, she was so screwed. With each passing encounter with her
test stud
, it became increasingly difficult to cling to her crumbling aversion to his stated agenda.

Gracie slipped from under his arm to cross the patio. She dipped into the chair across from CC. “I’m so glad Tuck convinced you to come along today. I’ve been dying to meet you.”

She blinked. “You have?”

An open and friendly smile curved Gracie’s lips and she nodded.

“Why?” Fire bloomed on CC’s cheeks at her own bluntness.

Gracie laughed. “Are you kidding? Tuck looked like he’d been hit over the head with a hammer after meeting you the other day. Any woman who can pull that off is someone I just had to meet.”

“Oh.” Her gaze jumped in Tuck’s direction and landed on Walter, fleeing from Murphy and the twins with a floppy stuffed animal clenched in his jaws. She started to rise to go save the toy.

Gracie waved her off. “Relax, they’re fine.”

She settled back into her chair. “He…uh, told you how we met?”

“Yes, he did.”

She was going to kill him, right after she convinced Walter to bite him.

The pretty blonde arched a brow above an easy smile. “From the darting looks you’ve been shooting at us since you arrived, you may not believe this, but Tuck is just a friend. A good friend, I admit, but nothing more. He tells me pretty much everything.” She shook her head in bemusement. “I can’t seem to get him to stop.”

CC flattened her lips in an embarrassed line.

“I am, however, among that choice group of women who have
seen him naked.”

CC’s spine straightened away from the chair as she stiffened. Obviously, his
friend’s
claim that he told her everything was true. The jerk. How dare he discuss their private conversations.

Gracie chuckled and leaned her elbows on the table between them. “It’s a long story, but an innocent one. He played babysitter one night shortly before Jake and I married. After the girls were asleep, he wandered out to the pool. We arrived home earlier than expected. Apparently, swim trunks are optional in his mind but, for the record, we’ve never kissed, much less slept together. Like Max, I see Tuck as a brother I never had.”

CC shrugged to cover her embarrassment. “Who he sleeps with is none of my concern.”

Gracie’s teeth flashed with her delighted laugh. “Oh, sweetie. You’re a terrible liar. A definite disadvantage around a guy like Tuck. We’re going to have to work on that.” She folded her hands under her chin, turning her head to smile at her husband when he called out to announce the steaks would be done in ten minutes.

“We?” Resisting the urge to squirm in her seat, CC swallowed.

Gracie glanced over at Tuck and his friends. “We’ll discuss it later, I’m sure. Hello, Walter.” She bent to scratch beneath the dog’s chin as he and Murphy trotted up to the table. Gently removing the tattered bunny from his mouth, she cooed. “You’re a sweet boy, aren’t you?” Murphy shoved his long nose beneath her palm and she laughed. “And so are you, Mr. Jealous.”

Walter rounded the table to lean against CC’s side. She dropped her hand to his head.

With a last pat to Murphy’s side, Gracie rose. “I have a few things to do in the kitchen.”

CC stood to follow. “Can I help?”

“No need.”

On the other side of the patio, Tuck looked up and excused himself from the group to cross the flagstone.