Blindsided: A Sports Romance (13 page)

Maybe she’s right, I think as I push through the doors of the Grizzlies facility. Things have been going so well these past few weeks. I really don’t want to test Coach’s patience. Or Charlie’s. But I promised Rose.

I don’t like the way we left things last night, but we can work that out later. I’ll ask Jax, the team fixer, to sort out a babysitter on short notice. It’s about time we were seen in public together—I thought this whole thing would have gone faster.

Honestly? I’m just dying to show her off in public.

Sappy, right?

I grin at the thought of Coach and Charlie knowing what was going through my head. They think this is one of those ‘doing it for the team’ sacrifices that you gotta just suck up sometimes.

The smile immediately wipes off my face when I see Coach Fox. This is no time for daydreaming about how things are going to be with my new girl. This is serious.

“Coach, can I talk to you a minute?” He grunts. Warmup isn’t due to start for another fifteen minutes. I came early on purpose so I’d be able to speak to him. Also because I can’t wait to get it out of the way now that I’ve decided to do it.

“What is it?”

He looks wary, like he knows this is something serious. I swallow my nerves and follow him to his office.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” I say nervously as we take our seats on either side of his desk.

“Oh?”

I nod. I know what I need to do—there’s no sense in holding back, especially when one of the coaching assistants could burst in at any moment and drag him away.

Still, I’m struggling to get the words out.

“Coach, it’s about this whole thing with Jackson,” I finally say.

He leans forward, suddenly a lot more interested in what I’m about to say.

I exhale long and slow. I’m not afraid of a lot of things, but I’m afraid now. It’s not of Coach himself, but of what he’ll do when he hears this. This man holds the future of my career in his hands.

But I don’t have a choice. I think back to the text message I got from Darla this morning. She’s not going to go away—I know that now. I was naive to think that I could make her see reason, maybe make her see that her plan was nothing more than blackmail. Turns out she doesn’t care about that. She knows what she is.

“Do I have to guess?” Coach Fox tilts his head to one side. “Like charades?”

I shake my head. It’s time. I can’t stall any longer. It’ll all be over soon, I tell myself. Then I can go back to Rose with my tail between my legs. We’ll work out a new plan. I’ll do anything the team asks of me. I have to let him know that.

“There’s no easy way to say this. I should have told you guys when it happened. I’m already married.”

His eyes widen and his back straightens. He doesn’t say a word and he doesn’t need to—his face and posture radiate silent fury. I was wrong—I’m not usually afraid of Coach but I’ve never seen him like this.

“I’m sorry,” I say quickly. “Really I am. It all happened so quickly and then it was too late to admit it.”

“When did it happen?” Coach growls.

“Back in February. When me and the boys went to Vegas. I met a dancer there and one thing led to another. I don’t know how it happened, but we must have been walking past one of the chapels and…” I shrug. The rest is obvious.

He watches me silently.

“Coach, I’ll do whatever it takes to make this good.”

“Oh, I know that, Jake. I know that. Where’s your lovely wife now? She can’t be impressed that you’re shacked up with another woman.”

I roll my eyes. “Still in Vegas. It was a one-night thing. We just…”

He waits for me to continue.

I sigh. “She’s been threatening me. Says she’s entitled to half my earnings. I’ve asked her for an annulment but she’s refusing to see reason. The only reason I didn’t tell her about my debts is I swore to you guys that I wouldn’t tell anyone.”

Coach rolls his eyes like he’s heard it all before. “Good. Because you signed a confidentiality agreement. Jake, I’m sure this woman sees reason alright. Her reason is financially motivated. Tell me, whose idea was it to get married?”

I shrug. I told him the story like I remember it clearly, but that night to me is just a handful of memories. Snippets. Doing shots of tequila from her cleavage. Going for a walk down the strip. Late night poker. The Jacuzzi in my suite. Running through the fountain at the hotel and being chased off by security guards. I can’t even remember her face.

“I don’t know. It could have been either of us.”

Now he looks pissed. “That’s bullshit and we both know it. You’re telling me you went from confirmed bachelor to willing husband. No, more likely she looked at you and saw an ATM. And you played straight into her hands.”

This isn’t the time to argue with him, not when my position in the team is hanging on by a thread. Besides, I can’t exactly argue with him—what he’s saying is true. I fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

“Coach,” I say, holding my hands up. “I know. I was dumb and it’s all my fault. But I need your help to make this go away. I’ll do anything. I don’t want her to ruin the plan.”

What I really mean is I don’t want her to ruin things for me and Rose, but I don’t say that.

He considers my words. “Okay, Jake. You get to practice. I’ll have a chat with our attorneys and see what we can come up with. Come see me after.”

I leave feeling hopeful.

***

It really was that simple, I think as I jog to the field to join the others. One minute we were fucking in my hotel room, the next we were stumbling out of the chapel. I only knew her second name because she had emailed me a copy of the marriage certificate along with one sentence.

This isn’t going to go away.

Dearest Darla.

My soon to be ex-wife.

I puff out a breath. It’s a relief to finally have the truth out in the open. I’d forgotten everything for the first couple of weeks after that Vegas trip. And then her messages had started. At first, I’d assumed it was a deranged fan. But then she’d started sending pictures. And then that email—the proof that I’d done something incredibly stupid. I hadn’t even believed that at first until I’d checked the marriage records online and found I was indeed hitched to one Darla Danza.

But the Grizzlies attorneys are cutthroat. Now that I’ve admitted the truth, I’m struggling to figure out why I didn’t just tell Coach Fox. He’s a lot more relaxed about the whole thing than I expected him to be. I could have spared myself months of stress by just going to him in the first place.

Darla is a dancer at one of the clubs in Vegas. My guess is the team will offer her some hush money in return for her silence and an annulment. A couple million? It’s nothing compared to what she could squeeze out of me eventually, but it’s still a hell of a lot of money for somebody who earns not much more than minimum wage. I have no doubt she’d go for it.

Now all I need to do is convince Rose that there are no more secrets.

I run onto the field feeling lighter than I have in a long time.

***

By the time I’ve showered and changed, I’m feeling on top of the world. I’m going to call Jax and arrange a babysitter. I’ve already decided where I’m going to take Rose for dinner. I’ll just need to clear it with Coach because he might not want us out together in public until they’ve swept the details of my sham marriage under the carpet.

That doesn’t matter, though. I have a backup plan if we can’t leave the house. James Bond movies and beer. She told me once that she’d seen every single one. So I figure we can work through them in order.

I reach Coach’s office and barge in without knocking, just like all of the other players do. It’s only when I’m standing in the open doorway that I see the looks on their faces. They’re all there—Coach Fox, Charlie, and Jackson the PR guy who I’ve actually come to like, if only because he brought Rose into my life.

They don’t look pleased.

“Sorry, guys. I didn’t realize you had a meeting. Coach, I’ll come back another time.”

He shakes his head slowly. “No, Jake. We’ve actually been talking about you. Take a seat.”

I look around the room. I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seems like there’s something going on. Like they’re not meeting my eyes.

“Guys,” I say quickly to fill the silence. “Now that I’ve got you all here together, I was wondering if tonight might be the right time to take Rose out on the town. You know, get that first mention in the papers like we talked about. It’s been weeks.”

Coach’s cheeks puff full of air just like they always do when he’s about to bawl one of the guys out. I know immediately that I’ve said the wrong thing.

“Look, this marriage thing,” I say, holding my hands up. “I know it was stupid of me to keep it a secret. I was just hoping it would go away. But it didn’t. I want you all to know that I’ll do everything in my power to fix this problem. Just tell me how.”

A slow smile creeps across Jackson’s pinched face. He glances at Charlie.

“That’s good, Jake. That’s exactly the kind of attitude that goes far at the Grizzlies,” Charlie says.

I smile and begin to relax. “So you guys have a plan?”

Jackson nods. “I’m not sure you’re gonna like it.”

I shrug. “I have no attachment to the woman I married. I don’t feel guilty about buying her silence with less than she wants if that’s what you mean. She’s not entitled to any money as far as I’m concerned. I mean, it’s not as if we even dated or lived to—”

Charlie holds him hand up, frowning. “Woah, Jake. Let’s backtrack a little, shall we?”

Coach interrupts. “First off, you need to forget about Rose.”

That gets my attention. “Whaddya mean? You’re the one who set me up in a house with her and told me to act as if she was the only woman in the world for me.”

“That was before you dropped the bombshell that you were already married.”

“So?” I hold my hands out. “We can pay her off, right? Obviously from my salary.”

Coach and Charlie exchange glances. “Yes,” Charlie says eventually. “We’ll pay her off.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. Obviously I’ve misunderstood what they were talking about.

“Just so we’re all on the same page,” Coach says, eyes boring into me. “It’s Rose we’ll be paying off.”

My eyes swim with confusion. “What? But you said she had a contract. We have to pretend to be together for six months, and then she’ll get the rest of her money.”

He rolls his eyes. “Jackson, I gotta hand it to you. You were right about the hotel girl.” He turns back to me. “Forget about her, we said. Her contract contained a clause that allowed us to change the agreement at any time.”

This jolts me. I think back to all the conversations we’ve had about how she’s doing this for Sam. I know how hard it was for her to agree to do something that meant she had to lie to everybody.

“Please tell me you’re not fucking her around.”

Charlie sighs. “Of course not, Jake. That’s not a good way to operate a pro football team. No, your girl Rose will keep her million dollars plus a five hundred thou’ termination fee. And if she walks away and keeps her mouth shut, our attorneys won’t pursue her for breach of contract.”

“Walks away…”

“Yes, Jake. This afternoon we invoked that clause in her contract. She’ll be out of the house by the time you get back. And if you attempt to see her again, she loses everything. Not to mention that your own contract will go up in smoke and you can forget about ever playing in this league again.”

I close my eyes. There’s no way out of this. Without my place in the team, I’m as good as broke myself. I have no choice but to go along with their demands—if I go after her, then they’ll take that money away. I won’t make her homeless, no matter how much I want her.

“Why, Coach?” I ask quietly, trying to keep the emotion from my voice. “What’s the point in setting us up and then changing the plan? I thought you wanted my home life to seem stable and domestic.”

“We do,” Coach says brightly. “But after speaking to your blushing bride, we’ve determined that the best course of action is to have you two patch up your differences.”

“You’ve… what?”

“Yes,” he says, looking around the room. “Manny spoke at length with your wife. Turns out an annulment is out of the question. He also has grave concerns about her ability to keep quiet if we were to pay her off. See, Jake, we’ve met this type before. The sports world is full of girls like that. She’s not just going to go away silently. We’ll need to keep her close until such time as we can legitimately end the marriage.”

I throw my head back. I’m actually speechless this time. “You know she’s untrustworthy and you want me to marry her? She’s a dancer from Vegas.”

“You should have thought about that before you married her, Jakey boy.” Coach says with a helpless shrug.

I look around the kitchen. I think that’s the last of my stuff—let’s face it, it’s not like I have much.

It kills me that I need to walk out of here and never see him again. Will he come after me? I shake my head and pack up the remaining food boxes. Part of me wants that, but I also know what the consequences are.

I try to picture the conversation between Jake and the Grizzlies management. What will he say when they tell him?

I know for a fact that he’s not going to take this lying down. His reaction has the potential to run us both.

And all of a sudden it hits me. I know what I need to do.

I rummage in the box on the benchtop for a pen, trying not to think of the many times he’s sat up there, legs dangling like a big kid.

I scan the contents of the box and select a pack of Sam’s cereal. I tear off a piece of paper from the memo pad beside the phone and stare at it.

It kills me to do this.

But I have no choice.