Las Vegas Sidewinders: Karl (Book 3) (15 page)

“What kind of pass?”
Karl growled.

“I’m not going to tell
you if you’re going to go all cave man on me!”

He folded his arms
across his chest and glared.

She shook her head.
“Karl, seriously, you’re getting worked up over nothing. If I can forgive you
after seeing a
picture
of you half-asleep with your ex draped all over
you, you can get over another guy essentially
asking me out
while we
were broken up.”

“You said he made a
pass at you—that’s not the same as asking you out!”

She sighed. “Doesn’t
this trust thing go both ways?”

Now he sighed. “I trust
you
; it’s him I don’t trust. You know his reputation!”

“Babe. I was in a bad place
emotionally. He was there for me, creating this crazy bat-kissing bullshit that
the media ate up and that completely made the
#
nomorefatties
thing go away. One day I said something disparaging about myself and he leaned
over and kissed me. He told me I was being ridiculous and that if I ever gave
him the green light, he would show me just how
not
fat I was! And that
day, at that time, I needed that more than anything in the world—other than
you. So knock it off.”

He scowled, guilt
gnawing away at him once again. He knew she’d forgiven him, but it was his
fault she’d spiraled out of control with her weight, and his fault that he’d
nearly lost her to Dante
Lamonte
. God, he felt like a
moron. He finally found a woman that made him want to leave the single life,
and he’d made a total mess of it. It was amazing she still wanted to be with
him.

Kate noted the way his
jaw was working and the stiffness in his shoulders. She reached for his hand.
“Please tell me jealousy isn’t what’s making you so tense.”

“No.” He shook his
head. “I just keep thinking about how he could have snatched you up right out
from under me, and I was too caught up in my own shit to realize what I’d
done.”

“We were new,” she said
gently. “We still are. We’re figuring out this relationship stuff together;
let’s stop beating ourselves up over everything, okay?”

“Okay.” He slid his arm
around her shoulders. “So, we’re going to Philly this weekend?”

“Yup.” She grinned.
“And you’re going to behave, right?”

“Right.” He groaned.
Maybe
.

Sitting in the stadium
Friday night, Karl looked around with interest. He’d been to a few baseball
games over the years, but it wasn’t really his thing. Kind of boring compared
to hockey or soccer, and frankly, he didn’t have the patience. However, being
here with Kate, as the guest of someone like Dante, was kind of fun. They were
sitting with other friends and family members, and there was definitely a lot
of interest in him since he was with Kate. Her reputation as Dante’s good luck
charm was still in full bloom, and there was no shortage of whispering about
her being with someone. It was ironic, because Larissa was there too, sitting
with her friends, giving Karl a blatant once-over. No one seemed to care about
Larissa being Dante’s fiancée, but they were quite vocal about Kate’s supposed
influence on Dante’s game.

“Not a baseball fan?”
Kate asked, startling him.

“Not really,” he
shrugged. “Are you?”

“Not really,” she
admitted. “But it’s fun being here with Dante. Everyone thinks I’ve got some sort
of magical spell over him; it’s entertaining.”

“Baseball players are
ridiculously superstitious,” Karl noted.

She rolled her eyes.
“Oh, really, Mr. I-Can’t-Shave-Until-the-Playoffs-Are-Over?”

“I don’t make the
rules,” he laughed. “I just abide by them.”

“There’s Dante!” A
group of women started screaming as he stepped onto the field for his first at
bat. Dante didn’t even glance up, focused on the pitcher as he took a few
practice swings. He stepped up to the plate, bringing the bat over his right
shoulder. The pitcher wound up and sent a fast ball whizzing past Dante and
into the catcher’s glove.
Strike One
. Another ball came fast and hard;
Dante swung and missed.
Strike Two
.

“Hit it, Dante!” Kate
yelled out.

Dante glanced over his
shoulder, meeting her eyes through the sea of people. A tiny smiled played on
his lips before he winked at her. Then he turned and swung the bat. It
connected with the ball with a loud crack. He dropped the bat and took off for
first base. Kate watched in fascination as the ball sailed over the center
fielder’s glove and into the crowd, while the fans went nuts.

“Damn, girl, you really
are his good luck charm!” someone yelled out.

“You’ve got to be
kidding me,” Karl muttered, putting his head in his hands.

“Fuck.” Larissa’s voice
was low, but everyone heard it and a series of low
oohs
filled their
section.

Kate tried not to
laugh, but she couldn’t help it. “This was my
whole life
while you were
gone.”

A grunt of frustration
escaped him and he draped an arm across Kate’s shoulders before pulling her in
for a deep kiss. He got a round of catcalls and whistles for his efforts, and
Kate just grinned at him.

The Phillies won with
little effort after that, and Karl watched in irritation as Kate stood on the
field with Dante, guiding some of the conversation with reporters but keeping
enough of a distance to keep from distracting anyone. Eventually, someone asked
the inevitable.

“So your good luck
charm is back—and you had two homers tonight. Is it true she’s dating a hockey
player?”

Dante smiled, meeting
Kate’s eyes through the mass of reporters. “She’s my publicist, and damn good
at what she does. I don’t get involved in who she’s dating—unless he hurts her.
That
would be a problem.”

Kate felt her cheeks
grow warm as several photographers turned and took pictures of her. She was
never going to get used to this. With Dom and the other hockey players she
represented, she’d never had this kind of attention or spent so much time in
the spotlight. The only other experience she’d had with the media had been
Karl’s unfortunate Tweet, and Dante had managed to redirect even that debacle.
She owed him a lot, she thought, looking over at him. He was so perfectly at
ease in any situation, yet she knew that he harbored demons just like everyone
else.

For a moment she
wondered who the other woman was that he couldn’t have, and it occurred to her
that Larissa would have noticed that he was distracted. Larissa had gone from
perfectly sweet and polite when they’d first met to a little sarcastic and snippy
in recent weeks. Kate had to admit she didn’t like the woman and she wondered
why Dante had agreed to let her have his baby. He was an enigma, but she
couldn’t deny she loved working for him. He made her nervous sometimes, and she
knew Karl wasn’t comfortable with their relationship, but she had come to
appreciate Dante. She just hoped this game he was playing with Larissa didn’t
blow up in all of their faces.

She and Karl were
invited to join Dante and some of the others for a get-together after the game
at a local restaurant the team frequented. They arrived a little later than the
others, having stopped at their hotel room to freshen up and getting delayed by
an intense quickie that left her feeling ravaged.

Kate hid a private
smile as she recognized Karl’s need to possess her after watching Dante
blatantly flirt with her during the game. God, she loved it when he got jealous
and acted like a Neanderthal, but she didn’t think he needed to know that.

“Join us!” Dante called
out when they got to the restaurant. He’d saved them seats with him, Larissa
and Trey. A few of the other players eyed Karl curiously, but Kate managed to
sink into a chair without too much fanfare.

“Good game,” she
quipped, looking at Dante.

“Thanks.” He looked
over at Karl. “I’m glad you came, Karl. It’s good to see you.” He proffered his
hand and Karl shook it.

“It was good to see you
play. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you play in person before.”

“Not a baseball fan?”

“I’m busy with hockey
all winter and in the summer I’m usually in Europe, so I miss a lot.” Karl
ordered a beer for himself and a glass of wine for Kate.

“What’s Sweden like?”
Larissa asked casually, her hand on Dante’s thigh. Tonight there was no
mistaking her pregnancy, in a tight-fitting T-shirt that hugged her baby bump
and low-slung jeans. Her hair was teased up high and deep red lipstick accented
her lips.

“Cold,” Karl smiled.

Kate had never seen
Larissa quite so overstated before, and wondered if it was because she was in town;
something felt different about her these days.

“Do you want to go
back?” Larissa asked, her lips closing around a strawberry that had come in her
virgin strawberry daiquiri.

Kate glanced at Karl
curiously, but he simply shook his head. “My career is here in the U.S.—and my
home is wherever Kate is.” He slid his arm around Kate’s shoulders, aware that
something had shifted in the air, but unsure what.

“What about all that
stuff on Twitter about you playing for the Swedish league?” Larissa had a very
innocent look on her face but Kate noticed that Dante’s eyes were narrowing
slightly.

“Gossip,” Karl
shrugged. “I think my brother said something to one of my old hockey buddies
and it spread like wildfire. It happens, but it’s not true.”

“So you’re going to be
the back-up in Las Vegas just like you were in Montreal?”

“Rissa.” Dante’s voice
was quiet but held a warning.

“What?” She looked at
him, wide-eyed. “I’m just asking.”

“It’s okay.” Karl
leaned back in his chair, his fingers absently toying with a lock of Kate’s
hair. “At the end of the day, being the back-up to a legend like Marco
Rousch
in the NHL is better than almost any day in the SHL.
The best of the best play here.” He didn’t know what Larissa’s game was, but he
hadn’t missed the look of annoyance on her face when Dante had winked at Kate
during the game.

“So all that stuff
about you and that model wasn’t true?”

“Rissa, shut up.” Dante
scowled at her.

“Why? You were the
one—” She stopped abruptly as he lifted a finger in front of her face.

“I said to be quiet.
You’re being rude.”

Kate’s fingers dug into
Karl’s thigh as she watched the interchange between them. She had no idea what
was going on, but she had no doubt Larissa was trying to start something; she just
didn’t understand why. She seemed jealous one minute, but the next she acted
like she wanted to cause trouble for her and Karl. That made no sense; wouldn’t
it be better for Kate to have a boyfriend if Larissa was jealous?

Karl squeezed her hand.
He was also confused about the power play that was going on, and was relieved
when Larissa excused herself to the ladies’ room.

“I’m sorry,” Dante said
when she was gone. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with her tonight.”

“She’s jealous,” Trey
said, giving Dante a look.

“Of what? Kate’s back
with her boyfriend—where was the jealousy when they were broken up and she was
living with us? It’s ridiculous.”

“She was trying pretty
hard to get a rise out of me,” Karl said, meeting Dante’s gaze darkly. “I don’t
appreciate the setup here.”

“No setup,” Dante shook
his head. “I have no idea what she’s going on about, but I’ll have a talk with
her. The last thing in the world I would do is something that would hurt Kate
again.”

“You antagonized her
with that wink, Dante,” Kate said, pursing her lips. “Women don’t like that.”

“I’ve been doing shit
like that since you first came on as my publicist—she knows it’s a game we
started playing with the press from the get-go! And I did it right in front of
your boyfriend! What changed?”

“That’s probably what
you need to figure out.”

Dante grunted, a look
crossing his face that Kate had never seen before. Resignation? Sadness? She
wasn’t sure, but the look disappeared as quickly as it had come. She couldn’t
help but wonder if she was the cause of his distress. She hated the thought
that he might have feelings for her that she didn’t return. He’d known that she
was taken all along, and though she and Karl had gone through a rough patch,
she’d told him that she didn’t return his feelings.

“I think maybe we
should duck out early,” Kate said quietly. “It doesn’t seem necessary to poke
the bear.”

“Maybe you’re right.”
Dante glanced in the direction Larissa had gone. “I’ll see you at the game
tomorrow?”

“Yes, of course.” Kate
got up with Karl at her heels and they got in a cab to go back to the hotel.

“I have a bad feeling
about this,” Karl said once they were alone.

“You think she’s going
to stir up trouble for us?”

“There is no doubt in my
mind.” He looked at her. “Kate, I believe you when you tell me that you don’t
have feelings for him, but are you sure he doesn’t have feelings for
you
?”