Worth the Trade (More Than A Game) (31 page)

“Marco.” She smiled at him, waiting for his interview to wrap up. His eyes lit up and she didn’t care if everyone knew they were going to end up in bed together tonight. She walked over and kissed him the second the camera stopped rolling. She put her arms around his shoulders and was surprised at how tense he was. Almost as tense as their first night together.

“Let’s go back to your room,” she whispered in his ear. “I think you could use a rubdown.”

“I can’t.” He tensed even more. “I promised my mother I’d meet her for dinner.”

“Oh.” Hunter couldn’t hide her disappointment as she stepped back. “I guess I’ll catch up with you later.”

“No. Wait.” He reached for her hand. “Join us. I’d like you to meet her.”

“Sure.” She would have liked a little more time to prepare, but she’d already met his father today, so she figured this would be much easier.

“Great.” He ran his hand through his damp hair. “I’m sorry for how I reacted earlier. I should have given you a heads up. I just didn’t expect him to use you to get to me.”

“Why do you think that?” Hunter knew she’d have to tread carefully. “He was just making sure I was well taken care of. As a representative of the ballpark.”

“Right.” Marco clenched his jaw. “He knew exactly who you are and what you mean to me. He was trying to get on your good side. Trying to charm you into…something.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were worried. You thought he was flirting with me.” She squeezed his hand to let him know she was joking.

“He was flirting with you?” Marco dropped her hand and glared at her. All the fury he’d had before the game returned.

“No. I don’t think so. But now you know how I feel when I see women of all ages falling at your feet.”

He was not amused.

“Marco, please…” She put her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. “Are you sure you don’t want to meet your mother for breakfast?”

“Damn woman, you are very tempting.” Marco untangled her arms from around his shoulders. “If we hadn’t gone extra innings, maybe…”

“I guess we’ll just have to eat quickly.” She ran her hands across his chest. Damn, he was one sexy man. She was going to miss him.

They took a car to the restaurant and did a little making out in the back of the limo. Hunter was disappointed when the car pulled to a stop. Now she’d have to meet Marco’s mother with the flush of arousal on her face. Nice.

Marco checked in with the hostess and found out his mother was already seated. They were led to a table near the back, out of the way, and Marco stopped short.

“Son of a bitch.” He dropped Hunter’s hand and glared at the man she’d met earlier nuzzling the neck of a beautiful dark-haired woman who blushed and giggled like a teenager.

“Marco. There you are.” She smiled and Hunter could see some of her features in Marco. He was a perfect blend of the two of them. His father’s blue eyes and his mother’s dark hair. His mother’s flawless skin and his father’s strong jaw. “And this must be your special lady.”

She stood and offered her hand.

“Isadora Santiago, but my friends…” She blushed and smiled at Marco’s father. “My friends call me Izzy.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Hunter Collins.” She shook hands with the woman who’d raised Marco all on her own.

“What is he doing here?” Marco just glared at the man, rage radiating off him in waves.

“Marco. Please. Calm down.” Izzy put her arms around her son, but he stood stiff. “I thought it would be good if we all had a nice talk.”

“No. I won’t sit at the same table with him.”

“Marco. Sit down.” Her voice was soft, yet commanding. The kind of voice no son would dare disobey.

He held a chair for Hunter before taking the seat next to her. He never took his eyes off the man across from him. His father.

“I’m sorry, where are my manners.” Izzy smiled at Hunter. “Have you met Denny? Marco’s father?”

“We met earlier tonight. At the ballpark.” She gave Whittaker a polite nod.

“I hope you enjoyed the game.” He smiled, and it almost reached his blue eyes.

“Yes. I did. I enjoyed all eleven innings. Especially the last one.” She placed a hand on Marco’s thigh. His muscles were tight, tense with agitation.

“Yes. We watched the game together.” Izzy smiled at Marco’s father. “Denny invited me to his luxury box, and we had a chance to catch up.”

Marco grunted. His displeasure with their way of catching up was more than obvious.

“I’ve been trying to win her back for thirty years.” Whittaker ran his hand up her arm and draped his arm around her shoulder.

“We’ve been corresponding for a couple of years now.” Marco’s mother spoke directly to Hunter. “Well, he’s been corresponding for a couple of years. E-mails, telephone calls, that kind of thing. But I kept putting him off. I was too afraid I’d be unable to resist his charm.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder.

“I was right. I couldn’t.” Izzy smiled at Hunter, like they were two old friends, talking about boys. “Marco is just like his father that way.”

“I’m nothing like him.” Marco set his fists on the table. “I would never abandon a woman and her child. Ever.”

“I didn’t want to abandon you.” Whittaker leaned forward, with enough regret in his voice that Hunter felt sorry for the man. “I wanted to marry her. Wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. But we weren’t given the chance.”

He reached out and took Izzy’s hand.

“When my parents found out we were seeing each other, they sent me away. To California.”

“I didn’t know I was pregnant at the time.” Izzy added, as if it made a difference.

“If I had known, I would have done anything.” Whittaker sounded truly sorry, but the damage had been done. “Anything.”

“When I found out I was going to have a baby I went to his mother, hoping she would send him a letter, letting him know. But she never sent it.” Izzy wiped tears from her eyes. “She offered me ten thousand dollars to make my problem go away.”

“But you never took the money.” Whittaker reached for her hand.

“No. I didn’t take the money. I couldn’t. Even if I hadn’t been raised with strict religious convictions, there was no way I could…” She placed her hand over her abdomen, protective of the baby who had grown there. “But then she told me if I tried to contact you, she would send me and my entire family back to Mexico.

“She was here legally.” Marco stared the other man down. “There was no reason for them to send her back.”

“Yes, I was here legally.” She gave Marco a sad little smile. “But my brothers, my cousins… I couldn’t risk my family. I figured they’d take care of me. Take care of us.”

“But they didn’t, did they?” Marco was so angry. So bitter. “We took care of ourselves.”

“Yes, you did. Despite the way my family,
my mother
, continued to meddle in your lives.” Marco’s father pulled Izzy closer. He spoke directly to her now. “Every time you started to get settled somewhere, they worried I’d find you. So she’d get you fired. And then my father would make sure you heard of a job somewhere else. Somewhere just out of my reach.”

“You had money. You could have kept looking.” Marco wasn’t buying it. Hunter wasn’t sure if she was either.

“You don’t know what my mother was like. She had plans for me. Big plans. She wanted a Whittaker in the Governor’s mansion, maybe even the White House. She sent me to California. Even picked out a wife for me.” He bowed his head in shame. “It didn’t last a year. I couldn’t forget about Izzy. I couldn’t ever love anyone like I loved her. Still love her.”

“Nice story. Too bad it’s all lies.” Marco pushed back from the table and spoke to his mother, looking at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. His eyes glistened, the tears turning them an even more startling blue. “I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were stronger than that.”

He shook his head and walked out of the restaurant.

“Please, excuse us.” Hunter rose and followed him out.

“Hunter, wait.” Marco’s mother stopped her before she could leave. “I’m so sorry. For everything. If I’d known he was bringing you here tonight… He’s never introduced me to a woman he was dating. You must be very special.”

Hunter didn’t know what to say. The whole situation was beyond her experience.

“I shouldn’t have tried to force this on Marco. He’s always been such a sensitive boy.” Izzy shook her head. “But a good boy, just the same. He’s worked so hard, his whole life, trying to take care of me. You have no idea how hard it was to convince him to go to college instead of signing with the first team who drafted him. He wanted to take care of me. To make sure I didn’t have to work so hard.”

Pride shone in the woman’s eyes.

“He went to college, though. And he graduated. That’s something I’m so proud of.”

“I can see why you would be proud of him.” Hunter wished she could embrace this woman. Be the daughter she’d never been able to be. “He’s a good man. And a hell of a ballplayer.”

“He is good.” Izzy beamed with admiration for her son. “Very good. But I’m afraid he doesn’t know the first thing about love. About the kind of love between a man and a woman. I am sorry for that.”

He wasn’t completely ignorant, but Hunter wasn’t going to discuss their tenuous relationship. Not when she was still trying to figure it out for herself.

“I know Marco thinks I’m foolish.” Izzy sighed. “But I’ve only been foolish once in my life. It brought me the greatest heartache I’ve ever known. And the greatest joy.”

Hunter was still at a loss for words. So she nodded and smiled, encouraging the other woman to go on.

“Try to talk to him. Get him to listen. I’ve been given another chance at love. And I’m going to take it.”

“Good for you.”

“If Marco can’t accept us together…” Izzy’s voice cracked. But then she took a deep breath and looked Hunter square in the eye. “I’ll be heartbroken. But I’m not going to let anyone come between us. Not even my son.”

* * * *

Marco made it almost to the curb before he was approached by a couple of fans. He signed autographs and did his best to pretend he wanted nothing more than to take a picture with his biggest fans from Yreka, California.

He sent them off with a souvenir and a smile. They laughed and commented on what a nice young man he was before disappearing into the restaurant. Guilt slammed into him as the doors closed. He’d left Hunter back there to deal with his parents. Both of them. Together. What the hell was up with that?

He leaned against the wall just outside the door. The thought of that man putting his hands on his mother made him sick. But then again, he wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t gotten together in the first place.

Still, he could never, ever, forgive the man for abandoning them. When he finally found out who his father was, and the kind of money he’d come from, Marco had been even more furious than when his father was just a nameless, faceless,
gutless
sperm donor.

There were so many things he wanted to say to the man, but none he could say in the presence of a lady. So he walked away.

“Marco.” Hunter caught up with him just as the car pulled up to the curb. “Wait. Please.”

One little word and he’d do anything for her. Except apologize to the man who’d made his childhood one struggle after another. One move after another. And while his baseball career had hardly been a struggle, he had moved around far more than he’d liked.

He wanted stability. Roots. A family.

“Hunter. I’m sorry. I couldn’t spend one more minute with that man.” Not when he reminded him of everything he’d never had.

“You didn’t even give him a chance to explain.”

“What’s to explain? He abandoned us. Went on with his life.”

“She loves him.”

“It’s not enough.”

“No. I guess it isn’t.” Hunter stepped back as the driver opened the door, waiting for them to get in.

“We’ve got a game tomorrow.” Marco motioned for her to get in the limo. He hoped with all his heart she’d come back to the hotel with him. “Could be our last one.”