Fair Play (56 page)

Chapter Twenty-five

River

It’s Wednesday night, the night before Angel is to leave for New York. We have spent every day and night together since she found out she was leaving.

There’s a small part of my brain, a very tiny, selfish part, that wishes I hadn’t used my amazing connections to bring Cammie Onyx and Angel together. I’m going to miss her warm body next to mine in my bed at night. I’m also going to miss having access to that body whenever and wherever I want.

If I had known last week just how much I was going to miss her, I wouldn’t have made dinner plans with my parents tonight. I would rather spend our last precious hours in my bed than in my mother’s dining room, but I promised Angel, and I keep my promises.

She needs a family that accepts and loves her for who she is, not who they want her to be, and I am happy to share mine with her. I just wish I could share her another time.

And to top it off, we haven’t been home all day today. Angel owns exactly one designer outfit, the one I bought for her last week. I want her to have more than leotards and athletic wear when she goes to New York, so we spent the afternoon shopping.

She was resistant at first, but it didn’t take long for her to come out of her shell. It was fun watching her figure out her taste. She has an excellent natural sense of fashion. She just needed the funds to make her wardrobe happen.

We are at her apartment now. She insisted on wearing her new suit and Louboutins shopping all day, and now she needs to change into something more comfortable.

I am giving myself the grand tour of her one-bedroom apartment. It took me less fewer than two minutes to complete. It’s small, but she has expressed her pride in paying for it herself without her parents’ help on more than one occasion, and that makes the small space special.

Five minutes after arriving, I’ve seen everything but her bedroom, so I make my way down the short hall to her open door. She’s standing in front of her dresser, admiring the shoes that she tortured her feet in all day.

I love watching her do anything, so I lean against the doorframe and cross my arm over my abdomen and prop my other one on top of it to cover my smile with my fist.

She is extraordinary, the way her hair falls in waves down her back to her ass, her curves and muscles in all the best places, her delicate yet powerful personality. I love it all.

She catches me staring at her in the mirror.

“What? Can’t a girl admire her new shoes?”

“Oh, yes, don’t mind me. Carry on. I’ll wait right here.” I gesture toward the shoes, revealing my smile.

“You hush. I love these shoes,” she says, laying her hands on the pointy toes.

“I’m glad you do. I’ll buy you a hundred pair if it makes you this giddy.”

She turns to face me and places her hand on her hip with a sassy look on her face.

“Too much of anything can get old, you know.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Oh, is that so? I’ll try and remember that when I’m spooning with you and my cock is pressing against your bare ass in the morning.”

She chews on the inside of her cheek and looks up at the ceiling.

“Okay, well maybe some things don’t get old.”

“I’m glad you agree. If you’re done ogling your shoes, we should get going.”

She takes one last glance at her shoes before we leave, and she sighs. I shake my head and smile. I will never understand women and their passionate love of shoes.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Angel

When we arrive at his parents’ house, it’s nothing like what I expected. I was envisioning something like the picture in the fairy tale books of the old woman who lived in the shoe and had so many children she didn’t know what to do.

I should have known River would have bought his parents a nice big house when he made his first million. That’s just the kind of guy he is, kind, generous, helpful—and the cherry on top of all that? He’s sexy as hell, and he doesn’t flaunt it. In fact, he’s about as humble as they come.

He opens my door and leads me up the path to the front door of a gorgeous colonial home with lights glowing in every window. The front door opens before River can even get his hand on the knob, and a beautiful woman steps out and reaches up to pull River down for a kiss.

It’s clear that River got his beautiful eyes from his mother. When she turns to me, they sparkle like Santa Clause’s on Christmas Eve.

“And you must be Angel. Oh my gosh, River, she’s more beautiful than you said. Come in. I’m so excited to have just the two of you for dinner. I don't usually cook for such a small group, but this way, there will be leftovers to send home with you.”

She bustles away into the kitchen with us in tow.

“That’s my mom, Katherine. She never stands still,” he says, pointing at her back.

“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop,” she calls over her shoulder.

River and I both shrug and smile. I’ve never actually heard anyone use that expression before, but I guess she’s right.

“Where’s Dad?” River asks.

“Oh, he’s up in the attic trying to fix some electrical thing a ma bobber. That’s why all the darn lights are on in here. Such a waste of electricity. I told him to have a professional look at it, but you know him.”

He holds out a chair at the kitchen table for me, and I sit. He sits down next to me. “My dad thinks he’s Mr. Fix It, but he’s more like Mr. Fu—”

“Oh now, River, no talking like that in my house. You know better.”

“I was going to say Mr. Fudge it up, Mom. Get your mind out of the gutter.”

I laugh at the two of them bickering. Being here is so much different from being with my family. If my parents have anyone over for dinner, it’s black tie, and they all have a dry martini before a sit down formal dinner catered by some fancy place downtown.

“So what do I owe this unexpected visit to, Son?”

“We were going to celebrate, but we decided to come here instead.”

“River!” his mother and I say in unison. I can’t believe he would insult her like that.

“She knows I’m kidding, don’t ya, Ma?”

“Yes, yes, but Angel doesn’t. I don’t want her thinking you’re disrespectful to your mother.”

“Katydid, do we have any double D batteries? My flashlight died up there.”

A tall man with River’s broad shoulders and strong jaw line enters the kitchen, examining and shaking his dead flashlight.

When he looks up, he seems surprised to see us sitting at the kitchen table.

“Well, nobody told me we had company, now did they?”

“No, Dad, we didn’t ring the bell, and I’m not exactly company. This is my girlfriend, Angel Williams. Angel, this is my dad, Frank.”

“You have a girlfriend?” he asks, looking perplexed like he’s been missing out on an important piece of his son’s life.

“Yeah, Pops, we just met this week, but I kinda like her.”

“Must, I’ve never seen you bring a girl home before.”

He stops fiddling with his flashlight for a few seconds to look hard at me, and about the time I’m feeling uncomfortable, he walks across the kitchen and starts rummaging through a drawer, looking for batteries.

“Dad’s a little forgetful,” River murmurs.

“Yeah, but I ain’t deaf there, Pretty Boy.”

A laugh bursts from me like a cannon ball being launched from a cannon. I guess his teammates aren’t the only ones who refer to him that way.

I brace my sore belly muscles when I laugh, and all three of them look at me like I’m a little loony.

“Sorry, it’s just that his teammates call him that too.”

“I’m not pretty?” he asks.

“Yes, of course. You’re very pretty,” I say, still chuckling.

“River has always been the most handsome. I’ll admit that while your brothers and sisters aren’t here, but ask me in front of them, and I’ll deny it,” his mom says while she takes something that smells delicious off the stove.

“Are you making Chicken Marsala, Mom?”

“Yes, it’s still your favorite, isn’t it?”

I take note of his favorite dish. I’m no chef, but I can handle myself in the kitchen when I’m required to.

“Yep. I’m going to show Angel around the house—that okay?”

“Yes, stay outta my sewing room, though. It’s a mess in there.”

A phone rings—an actual telephone ring—and I hear Frank pick up an actual telephone receiver. Who has those anymore? I thought the house phone was extinct.

“They have cellphones, but they will never give up that damn landline,” River says as he leads me through the house, giving me a grand tour.

“None of us grew up here, but they still wanted a five-bedroom house, so that’s what they got. All of the bedrooms are upstairs except for one off the kitchen. I think that one was originally made for a live-in cook. Mom uses it for a sewing room.”

“River, come quick!” his mom yells from the kitchen.

He stills and avoids eye contact with me when he calls out to her.

“What’s wrong, Mom?”

Frank answers in a strangled voice, “It’s David. Someone from Memorial hospital says he was beaten up, and he had brain surgery, he’s in the ICU, and he woke up asking for us tonight.”

Frank is holding his hand over his heart when River and I enter the kitchen, and his mother is turning off the stove and quietly covering up the food. It seems odd that she is acting less concerned than Frank.

“Dad, take it easy. Do you need a Nitro? Mom, get his medicine. Dad’s having chest pain.”

She glances over her shoulder at Frank as River lowers him into a chair and grabs a prescription bottle from a ledge over the sink.

I watch in shock as she opens the bottle and he opens his mouth like a child to let her place the medication under his tongue. I’ve heard of people taking Nitroglycerine for chest pain and heart attacks, but I’ve never witnessed it firsthand.

“Is he going to be okay? Should I call 911?” I ask.

“No, no, don’t go calling the ambulance,” Frank says, holding up his hand, palm up. “I’ll be fine. We need to get to the hospital.”

“I’ll second that,” Katherine says, gathering her purse from a hook near the back door.

“Are you sure you're able to walk, Dad?” River asks as his father stands up.

“Yes, now quit fussing over me and let's get to the hospital. Call your brothers and sisters so they can meet us there.”

River’s lips press in a straight line and his face turns an ashy shade of green as he helps him to the front door. Frank complains and tries to shove River away all the way to the car, but he never leaves his side.

When his mother is behind the wheel of their BMW SUV and his dad is buckled in next to her, he runs to lock their front door. He returns in a flash and opens my door to help me into the car.

“You don’t have to do this,” I say, sitting down.

“We need to get Dad to the hospital. He thinks he’s tough, but he has had two bypass surgeries and three heart attacks over the years.”

“What about your brother?”

“I couldn’t care less about David, but I told them I’d call everybody, so I should.” He takes his phone from his breast pocket, and I take it from him.

“You drive, I’ll text. Who am I sending this to?”

“There should be a group chat open with my whole family on it. Just text ‘Going to Memorial Hospital. David’s in the ICU and the news has given Dad chest pain. Taking him there too.’”

I quickly tap out the text as we follow his parents down the driveway and onto the street.

“Here,” I say and hand him the phone.

“Thanks.”

“So he was beaten up? What do you think he did?” I ask.

“He probably pissed off the wrong person.”

“Your mom didn’t seem too worried about it.”

“She knows my brother is a loser.

“Wow, he must be a total ass for his own mother not to care about him.”

He takes his eyes off the road for a second to glance at me.

“He’s a total douche. I hope you never have to meet him.”

I’ve had a few people in my life that I didn’t care for —a few I even thought I hated—but none of those feelings rival the disgust and anger billowing off River’s body. I honestly believe that he hates his brother. I don’t even think he would bat an eye if we got to the hospital and learned that he had died.

His phone begins vibrating and chiming like crazy in his pocket. His family is responding.

He slides the phone out of his pocket again and hands it to me.

“Will you just read these for me?”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to get all up in your family’s business.”

“You’re already all up in my business, Angel, right where I want you. Now read, please.”

“Okay. Um, first one is from Olivia. She says, ‘How’s Dad? Did you get him in an ambulance or is Mom driving him? I’m still in Iowa. Please keep me posted.’

“Keep going.”

“She didn’t even mention David.” The phone rings several more times.

“Noah says he’s on his way, and he will meet you there. James says Mark is already at the hospital after a run, but he will be right there as soon as he closes the salon. Um, just a second,” I say and scroll down through the texts, none of which are showing any concern for David.

“Abel says, “What the hell did that dumbass do now? How’s Dad? Keep me posted.”

“That’s everybody except Abigail, and she’s probably with a client. She never keeps her phone on her at MBS,” he says more to himself than to me.

“Now what? Do you want me to respond to these?” I say and hold the phone up in the air between us.

“Yeah, just say Dad took some Nitro, Mom’s driving him to the hospital, we are following, and David got his ass beat and had brain surgery.”

“In those exact words?”

“Yes.”

I type the text just as he said it and press
Send
. We drive in silence to the hospital, right behind his parents all the way.

River is white- knuckling the wheel. I put my hand on top of his hand that’s in hopes of giving him comfort, but he sits stiffly, staring straight ahead as if he can’t even feel my hand.

We park in a circle drive right outside the Emergency Room, and River helps his father inside and into a wheelchair. The admitting woman hears chest pain, and he is wheeled into the back immediately.

Katherine surprises me when she stays in the waiting room with me and allows River to go back with his dad.

“You don’t have to stay with me. I’ll be fine. Go with your husband,” I say, but she sits down in one of the uncomfortable folding chairs they have lined up for times like these when the ER is overflowing with people.

“I don’t like hospitals, honey. River will take good care of him. He knows all of his medications and his medical histories as well as I do. Besides, that old man is too stubborn to die.”

“What about David? Shouldn’t we check on him?”

“Now that boy is the opposite of his daddy. He’s too damn stubborn to live. Trouble follows him around like a lost puppy, and he deserves most of what he gets. So no, I’m not checking on him. I’ll wait right here for my husband and my son.”

I sit with her and look around at all of the sick and injured people who are waiting to be seen by a doctor.

I feel the same way Katherine does about hospitals. I’ve never liked them either. All of their sterile smells and thick, recycled oxygen remind me of my grandma dying.

Fifteen minutes later, Katherine shoots out of her chair and launches herself into the arms of an incredibly handsome, muscular black man.

“Oh, Mark, I’m so glad you’re here. Have you seen my Frank?”

Mark hugs her tightly and smiles at me. Then he pulls away and holds Katherine at arm’s length to speak to her.

“Yes, Mom, that’s what I’m coming out to tell you. His EKG was fine. He’s just having an attack of angina.”

“Oh, thank heavens. That’s what I thought, but you never know.”

“They are doing some blood work to be sure, but I think he will be able to go and see David in a little while. Have you been to the ICU yet? He’s in pretty bad shape. He’s been here almost a week. He was brought in with no ID, and he just woke up a couple of hours ago and asked for Dad.”

“A week? That’s terrible. He’s been here all that time with no family?” I say.

Mark smiles and me and holds out his hand.