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“The hell you will!” Riley rose quickly, knocking over his chair in the process.

The other customers in the small restaurant stared openmouthed, but he didn’t care. “You will not take my daughter from me.”

Ted tossed his napkin on the table and stood. “That isn’t going to happen. Lisa spoke without thinking. Nobody’s going to do anything rash. We…” He gestured to the three of them. “We are going to find a way to co-parent through the rocky adolescent years. And we’re going to do it like a family. Elizabeth’s family.”

Riley met Lisa’s gaze and nodded in agreement. For the first time, he actually agreed with the stuffed-shirt accountant. He’d better, if he didn’t want to find himself in court fighting for custody of the person he loved most.

S
OPHIE RUBBED
her eyes, exhaustion nearly overwhelming her. Although the tech guys had gotten the computer system up and running within twenty-four hours of the crash, the damage had been done. Despite the firewall, a nasty virus had infected the system via e-mail and Athletes Only’s form contract, one carefully negotiated and containing a confidentiality clause, had been distributed to everyone in the main computer’s database of e-mails. A.O.’s contract was no longer confidential and a week after the story about Spencer’s sexual orientation had broken, everyone had something else on their minds.

A knock sounded and she glanced at her office door. “Come in.”

Her sister Annabelle strode in and shut the door behind her. “How long were you going to wait before calling in reinforcements?”

“Where’s my nephew?” Sophie asked, ignoring work for the most important thing: family.

“He’s home with his grandparents. It’s way past time I came back to work. As much as I love him, I’m losing my mind,” Annabelle said.

Sophie rose, came around the desk and pulled her sister into a huge hug, then stepped back to check out the changes since she’d seen her last. Her always curvy sibling was even more so post-pregnancy. “Motherhood agrees with you. You look gorgeous. And I am so glad you’re here.”

“Believe me, I’m thrilled to be here. Now fill me in on the computer crash.” Annabelle pulled up a chair and settled in. “I thought our system was secure.”

Sophie seated herself on the corner of her desk. “Apparently nothing’s foolproof. This was a form of the Klez virus that comes in an e-mail attachment. Once a computer is infected, the virus automatically sends out copies of itself when the machine is connected to the Internet. And it’s usually without the user’s knowledge.”

“Somebody’s been researching again,” Annabelle said, teasing Sophie.

She shrugged. “How else could I understand what’s going on around here?”

“And try to control it?” Annabelle squeezed Sophie’s shoulder.

“It’s not like anything else around here is falling into place,” she muttered.

“We’ll fix things. How close is Spencer to signing Cashman?”

Sophie rolled her eyes upward. “Your guess is as good as mine. His father has this good-old-boy Southern attitude. He expects Spencer to take him at his word that he’s a client of Athletes Only. He says he operates on trust and Spencer should, too.”

“A little
Jerry Maguire
thing going on?” Annabelle asked.

“That’s what has Spence nervous. Add the computer crash, plus Cambias sniffing around courting Cindy—”

Annabelle’s eyes opened wide. “He’s what?”

Sophie shook her head. “There’s no other word for it. He sends her flowers, shows up to take her to lunch, that kind of thing.”

“Do you think he’s really interested in her?”

“I hope so, because she’s falling hard and fast. He’d better not want access to anything business related,” Sophie muttered.

Without warning, Frannie came storming through the door. “You have to see this. Come to the conference room quick.”

Sophie shot Annabelle a worried glance and together they followed Frannie out the door, down the long hall and into the conference room, where they had a fifty-inch LCD screen. To her surprise, there was a clip of Tom Arnold, special correspondent for Fox’s irreverent
Best Damn Sports Show Period,
talking to Uncle Yank at an airport.

“Where is that?” Annabelle asked.

“Kennedy,” Frannie said.

“I didn’t know he was coming back early from his cruise.” Sophie eased herself into an oversize chair, knowing that whatever happened next, she wouldn’t like it.

“Nobody knew.” Frannie clicked a few buttons and soon they were watching the beginning of the interview.

“Good flight, big guy?” Tom Arnold asked.

“The best,” Uncle Yank said in a voice as loud as his Hawaiian shirt and baggy Bermuda shorts.

“So what’s so important that we came out here to meet you instead of waiting until you could come on the show? Because I know Chris and John were looking forward to talking to you next week.”

“They were?” Sophie and Annabelle asked in unison.

Yank chuckled and slung an arm over Tom Arnold’s shoulder as if they were old buddies. Which they were, but that wasn’t the point. Uncle Yank had a gleam in his eye and Sophie leaned forward in her chair.

“A man can’t wait to brag about his honeymoon, Tom.”

“Yeah, I’ve had a few of those myself.” Tom grinned.

Sophie figured Lola was standing in the background, waiting to throttle her husband.

“So you return to pure chaos at home.”

“Nothing we can’t handle. The draft is all ours next week.”

As far as Sophie knew, nobody had been in contact with Uncle Yank, but obviously she was wrong. “Who’s spoken to him?”

“It must have been Spencer,” Frannie whispered. “Unfortunately, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

Tom raised an eyebrow. “Your firm’s signed Cashman? Because Miguel Cambias has also mentioned some serious talks with the first-round draft pick.”

“Anybody with half a brain knows there’s no contest between Cambias and Athletes Only. It’s like choosing between a prostate exam and a blow job. What’s an intelligent man gonna pick?”

“Oh God,” Annabelle muttered, covering her face with her hands.

“Why doesn’t he just wave a red flag in Cambias’s face?” Sophie asked.

Once he stopped laughing, Tom leaned in closer to Yank. “Now I have to ask the question everyone’s wondering about. You lose any clients after Spencer got pushed out of the closet?”

“Spencer Atkins is the
best damn sports agent, period.
Besides me, of course. No fool’s going to leave A.O. because the man prefers receiving to passing.”

“Fair enough. Are you ready to return to work?”

“Damn straight. Get it?
Straight.
” He belted Tom on the back. “With the draft in a few weeks, I’ve got a boatload of work ahead of me. Not to mention my personal mission.”

“Could that personal mission have something to do with your gorgeous nieces?” Tom asked, as if he’d planned to make this transition.

Goose bumps like warning signals prickled along Sophie’s skin.

“It just so happens it does. You know I’m just coming home from my honeymoon. I waited too long to get hitched, but now that I have, I’m a spokesperson for commitment.”

“Oh, brother.” Annabelle, who’d taken a chair beside Sophie, reached over and grabbed her sister’s hand.

“Two of my nieces, Annabelle and Micki, have also gotten themselves shackled.”

“And that leaves Sophie,” Tom said, nodding slowly as if just catching on.

Sophie’s stomach cramped and she closed her eyes for a brief moment. Of all the harebrained, half-cocked, stupid ideas…

Yank abruptly turned and began waving his arms. “Hey, honey, come on over here and hand me my bag.”

The camera panned to Lola, who looked fit to be tied, as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her husband. “I will not be a party to this spectacle, Yank Morgan. And it’s not too late for you to leave now before more damage is done.”

“Poor Lola,” Sophie said.

Annabelle turned to her, her expression incredulous. “Poor Lola? Poor
you!
”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “I’ll survive. I can’t do anything now anyway. What’s done is done. Besides, the man raised all three of us. We’re used to his humiliating comments.”

And it was inadvertent. Everything Uncle Yank did, he did out of love. Unfortunately, he didn’t think before he spoke, which often landed him in the doghouse with those he cared about most.

They turned back to the screen. The camera had panned away from Lola while Yank pawed through his duffel bag, then to Sophie’s complete mortification, he pulled out a photo. Of her.

“She’s sexy, smart and single,” Uncle Yank was saying.

“He’s making me sound desperate!” Sophie’s cheeks burned with humiliation. “And I’m going to kill him.”

“I thought you said, what’s done is done,” Annabelle reminding her, trying to suppress a laugh.

“
He’s
done. And if he’s smart, he won’t show his face around here anytime soon.” Sophie rose and headed for the door, passing a silently sympathetic Frannie as she departed in search of a brown paper bag to put over her head.

In fact, maybe she’d wear it for the rest of her life.

A
FTER HER HUMILIATION
on TV, Sophie had taken a mental step back and decided to cool down before confronting her uncle. The difficult thing about getting angry at Uncle Yank was that he always had good intentions. His way of going about things was much more questionable.

She’d decided to stop at the gym for the early-evening yoga class in order to relieve stress, before heading to his apartment for a long talk. Now as she stepped off the elevator onto Yank’s floor she heard Noodle’s high-pitched bark. Apparently her uncle and Lola had already picked up the pooch from Cindy, who’d taken over doggie duty.

She rang the doorbell and immediately smacked her hands over her ears in time to block out the worst of his extraloud chimes. Uncle Yank had installed them before he’d married Lola. He hadn’t wanted to miss a visitor. After almost going deaf the first time she’d visited and heard the noise, Sophie had learned her lesson and protected her hearing.

She turned and shot a covert glance at the door across the hall, expecting his neighbor to stick her head out and complain about the racket as she always did.

“She’s off visiting her daughter,” Uncle Yank said from behind her, tapping her on the shoulder at the same time.

Sophie swirled around. She hadn’t heard him open his apartment door. “You drove her away, huh?”

He shook his head. “Don’t go giving your uncle a hard time. Give me a big hug instead.”

Despite her anger and frustration with him, Sophie loved the man and wrapped her arms around him tight. “I missed you, you old coot.” She stepped back. “But I’m still going to kill you,” she told him.

“Hey, it’s my job to see you’re taken care of.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And you think prostituting me to every man with a TV set is taking care of me?”

“If you’d just settle down like your sisters, I wouldn’t have to worry about what’ll happen to you when I’m gone.”

Sophie grabbed her uncle’s weathered hand, a knifelike pain settling in her heart. “Nothing’s going to happen to you. Unless you trip over Noodle or fall off another chair,” she said, making light of the serious fact that he was getting up there in years, though still only in his late sixties.

He chuckled. “It’s something I can’t help thinkin’ about. I want to know if I kick off, I won’t have to worry about you.”

“There’s not going to be any kicking going on unless it’s me kicking some sense into your thick skull.” Lola stepped into the hall. “Apologize to Sophie right now.”

Sophie pulled the woman who’d raised her along with Uncle Yank into a hug. “You always were his conscience,” Sophie said, laughing.

“I may be blind but I’m not deaf, and I can hear you just fine. I don’t need a conscience. There’s nothing wrong with taking care of my own,” her uncle insisted.

Sophie sighed. “There’s no getting through to him.”

“Amen.” Lola shook her head. “Why don’t we take this inside?”

As they settled into seats in the living room, Uncle Yank said, “So Spencer tells me you’ve been spending time with Riley Nash.”

At the mention of Riley’s name, Sophie’s heart did a little leap inside her chest. She knew better than to share the truth about her relationship, or whatever it had been, with her uncle. He’d rip Riley’s head off, and Sophie still cared about him too much to subject him to Uncle Yank’s wrath.

She swallowed hard. “Riley came to Florida with me when I was looking for Spencer.” So much more had happened between them and she hoped her fair skin didn’t show a blush.

“So he finally decided to go looking for his old man.” Her uncle nodded approvingly.

Apparently Uncle Yank was focused on Riley and Spencer’s relationship, not Sophie and Riley’s. Knowing she’d escaped, she jumped on the topic at hand and leaned forward in her seat. “You knew Spencer was Riley’s father?”

Uncle Yank shook his head. “Until last month, all I knew was that in Riley’s senior year Spencer called me and said he wouldn’t be taking on Riley Nash as a client. He asked me to represent him before some other shark could step in.”

“Didn’t you wonder why Spencer would give up a prime athlete?” Sophie asked, confused.

“A man doesn’t always have to explain himself. That’s the way it was between Spencer and me.”

Lola let out a sigh. “We found out Spencer’s motives last month after the big revelation. He just wanted to protect Riley from the pain of having a gay father, so he called Yank and asked him to represent Riley. To take care of him the way Spencer couldn’t.”

Sophie rubbed her aching temples. Suddenly she had a better understanding of Spencer. She no longer considered him the man she didn’t understand, or the dear friend who’d let her down. Instead she saw a terrified human being who’d done what he thought was necessary for his child, no matter how misguided his actions had turned out to be.

“Riley doesn’t know this,” she murmured, her heart with the man who thought himself unworthy of his biological father’s love.

“I wouldn’t think that he did,” Uncle Yank said. “Spencer told me that there was an ugly confrontation in Florida and Riley wants nothing to do with him.”

“It’s confusing, but that’s about the gist of it.”

Lola rose from her seat, smoothing the creases in her slacks. “Sophie, honey, would you stay for dinner?”

Sophie nodded. She didn’t have any other plans and she’d missed her uncle and Lola.

As she helped Lola chop a salad and put dinner together, Sophie’s mind whirled with what she’d learned. She couldn’t stop wondering how Riley would feel when he found out that Spencer had looked after him from behind the scenes, taking care of his career through Uncle Yank.

Knowing Riley’s defiance when it came to Spencer, she doubted the truth would change much, especially the betrayal Riley still felt to this day. Spencer’s deliberate absence had affected Riley’s life in a profound way, from how he raised his daughter to how he maintained his distance from anyone who lived by rules and order.