Love on the Highlight Reel (Connecticut Kings Book 2) (12 page)

“Perhaps. But in any case… I didn’t care about his money, or who he was. I never did. But I won’t pretend that my feelings didn’t shift, at some point, from gratitude to… something else. I hadn’t dated, since my husband. Almost two years had passed since my divorce, I was lonely. I was
horny.
Eli rebuffed my advances, laughed me off. So one day, I invited him into my apartment to “see my new furniture”. Once we were inside, he got comfortable, and I took off all my clothes and showed him that I was very,
very
serious.”

I frowned. “Okay, I get it.”

“I’m just saying,” Mel, giggled. “Sometimes you have to drive your point home, so that’s what I did. And… it went on from there. It didn’t matter that he was almost twenty years older, because he never seemed that way to me. He was just… strong, and funny, and kind, and protective, and sexy, and… everything. Cole, I loved your father
well
before he ever brought me to meet you, and I truly believe he felt the same. He struggled with introducing me to his children, worried about what people would think. But ultimately, the fact that we loved each other outweighed everything else.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, even his kids’ feelings…”

“Girl, please,” Mel said, waving me off. “Y’all were damn near grown. It’s not like I was around you all the time. I wasn’t trying to be anybody’s momma, or interfere with his relationship with you. The age difference between me and Eli, and our relationship, period, was none of your business.”

Despite my reflexive scowl… that was actually true. It
wasn’t
my business.

I blew out a sigh. “Okay, so… I get it. The origin story isn’t the gross, old man and a cheerleader fantasy I initially imagined it being. What now?”

She raised her shoulders. “You tell me, Cole. I didn’t put the wall between us – you did.”

“Right,” I nodded, running my tongue over dry lips. “So… why now? I know my father has been campaigning for years for us to get to know each other better, and you talked him out of making it an issue. So why
now
?”

Mel reached for her water bottle again, turning it in her hands for a few moments before she looked up again and met my eyes. “Because I’m pregnant. We weren’t going to say anything yet, until we were past the three-month mark, but like I said… this has been bothering Eli. More so now that we’re bringing a baby into the world. He wants his family unified, and I want that for him.”

She was talking, but my mind was still stuck back on those first three words.

Pregnant?

“Wait…
already
?! It was barely two weeks ago that y’all were telling me you were “trying” to get pregnant!”

“We succeeded,” Mel said. “We weren’t expecting it to happen so soon either. We were at the doctor for the routine testing to start the process, and got a surprise. We just found out Monday, before the game.”

“Wow.” I lifted a hand, massaging the back of my neck as my brain struggled to reconcile the fact that at twenty-eight, I was going to be somebody’s big sister. “Okay. Um…”

“You don’t have to say anything right now,” Mel interrupted, raising her hands. “I know this is probably a lot to process all at once. I really hate to put you on the spot like this, but like I mentioned at first… there’s a time factor. I’d love for you to be involved in the pregnancy. Come to appointments, if you’d like. Be in your brother or sister’s life. But only if
you
want to. So just think about it, okay?”

Absently, I nodded, and it wasn’t until Mel was moving away from her chair that I realized she was leaving.

“Wait,” I said, jumping up from my seat. “I…”

Mel stopped, eyebrow lifted in curiosity. “Yes?”

Shit.

“We could have lunch or something,” I blurted, before I could mentally talk myself out of it. “Talk a little more.” I picked up my tablet and unlocked the screen as I rounded the desk to push it into her hands. “I’m not available this weekend, but next week… let me know if you’re available at one of the times in green.”

Mel’s eyes brightened first, and then her face transformed into a smile as she nodded. “Uh, yeah. I’d like that a lot.” She looked down at the tablet I’d pushed into her hands, and a moment later, glanced back up in confusion. “I don’t think this is your schedule…”

“Hmm?” I leaned toward her to see the screen, and…
holy shit
… “Oh, sorry!” I said, hurriedly taking it from her. “I forgot I was looking at something else. Here.” I handed it back, with the proper screen pulled up, and a few minutes later, we were scheduled.

“I’ll see you next Wednesday,” I said, leading her toward the door.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Just outside the door to the office, she hesitated, then turned to look back at me with an amused glint in her eyes. “You know… I know we’ve established that whatever relationship we institute won’t really be a mother-daughter type of arrangement, but… I want to tell you this little thing… just, woman to woman.”

I tilted my head. “Um… alright.”

She moved closer to me, taking one of my hands in hers. “When a man looks at you like he can’t keep his hands to himself, and makes you throb, and feel butterflies… those are pros, honey. Not cons.”

She patted my hand and walked off, leaving me with my mouth agape, mortified. A few moments later, Presley appeared in the hall.

“Cole? Is everything okay?”

I snapped my mouth shut and nodded.

“Yeah, Pres. I’m going to take my shower.”

Nine.

“Uh uh, Jordan. If you think you’re about to rope me into getting in trouble with you, you’ve got me messed up. I’m not trying to have Front Office pissed at me.”

I shook my head. “Right. Cause you make too much money snitching on me, huh?”

“Exactly.” Cin smiled, then winked at me as she closed her mouth over the bright green straw in her clear plastic cup, and moved to the next counter. “I like this one for you,” she said, pointing at an alligator leather and rose gold Audemars Piguet watch. “He wants to look at this one,” she told the sales clerk.

“No I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.” She nodded at the clerk, who moved to take the watch from the glass case, placing it in a cushioned box before handing it to us to inspect. “Look at this. It’s hot. You see how the chronograph dials are done?”

“I don’t want the watch Cin, damn,” I laughed. “Are you about to get a commission or something?”

“
Excuse me
for trying to improve your swag.”

I frowned. “I don’t need swag improvements girl. If the watch is so hot, tell them to box it up. You can have it.”

“Ewww,” she said, wrinkling her nose at the watch, and handing it back to the sales clerk before she started walking again. “I don’t want it.”

I chuckled. “So look around. Pick something you
do
want.”

“I don’t want anything in here.”

“Bullshit,” I scoffed. “It’s a jewelry store, and you’re a woman. You could find
something
.”

“Nope.” She took another sip from her iced coffee, and shook her head. “All baby girl does is tug and pull on anything within her reach. I’m not giving her anything extra to hold on to.”

I grinned. “Leave her alone. How is my daughter doing anyway? I told you to bring her.”

Cin’s nostrils flared as she glanced around the empty store, then at the sales clerk, who was several counters away. “I’ve told you, Jordan,” she hissed, keeping her voice low. “Stop playing like that! You’re gonna have that bullshit all over the news!”

I shrugged. “And? Big whoop, people pin kids on ballers all the time.”

“It ain’t about
you
,” she said, stabbing me in the chest with a manicured nail. “I don’t want my name and face getting blasted everywhere, people digging into my business. Those pictures of us at breakfast together were bad enough. The media will eat me alive if they think you’re Yara’s father. Cut it out, I’m serious.”

Cin looked at me, waiting for a response, and all I could really do was nod my assent to her demand. I hadn’t thought about it from that angle. She was the only woman I’d dealt with on any level since going pro that didn’t thrive on the attention that came from being seen with me – just one of the reasons I kept her close.

“Thank you,” she said, then sighed as she looked at last two inches of coffee left in her cup. When she brought her gaze back to me, her expression was still serious. “I’m like… two months away from graduation, and then I’m done with Connecticut. Done taking off my clothes for disgusting men.”

“Excuse
you
.”

She grinned, displaying pretty white teeth against her copper skin. “No offense Jordan. But… you
were
pretty disgusting when we first met.”

I smacked my teeth. “How?!”

Cin wrinkled her brow. “You don’t remember putting money in my g-string with your teeth? Vodka body shots? Letting Cedes give you a lap dance?”

“Come on,” I laughed. “Those first two are tame, and you’re just a hater when it comes to Cedes.”

“You don’t know where that money, my G-string, my bellybutton,
or
Cedes had been, so I call it disgusting.”

I shrugged. “I’ve seen rookies take turns tonguing between ol’ girl’s ass cheeks. Body shots ain’t
shit.
”

“And neither are your teammates,
eww.
”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “Back to you being done with Connecticut… you’re like,
leaving
? I knew you were retiring the nipple tassels, but damn.”

She nodded. “Sorry to leave you, but I’ve gotta get out of here. I’ll have my degree, my nice little savings, my baby, and my mother. I’m moving somewhere with a low cost of living, men with sexy accents, and where nobody has seen my vulva except the people who live in my house.” I threw my head back to laugh, but Cin shook her head, draining the last of her coffee. “I’m being silly about it, but I’m serious. Arch & Point paid for this degree, and kept me on my feet, but I’m ready for a fresh start.”

“I can feel that,” I said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as we headed out of the store. I snickered a little when she pulled the hat she was wearing a little lower on her head, and slapped her shades back on, even though we were indoors, and it was a gloomy fall day. “You can’t be telling me shit like this right before I get on the plane for this game though. Gonna have me all emotional and shit, can’t see the ball cause I’m crying.”

She laughed. “Oh, whatever. I know you aren’t acting like you’re gonna be lonely or something.”

“Hell yeah I’m gonna be lonely,” I said, pulling her into the Jimmy Choo boutique as we passed. “Come pick out a graduation gift.”

“Stop trying to buy me shit,” she hissed, keeping her voice low. The jewelry store had been empty, but the boutique wasn’t, and Cin made a beeline for an empty corner of the store. My security hung behind us, keeping anybody from getting close. “And kill the “lonely” crap. Cole should be able to keep you company, right?”

I groaned. “Not when she’s tripping. She’s not checking for me like that. I mean, she
is
, but she’s…”

“Not ready to admit it?” Cin asked, picking up a sparkly black heeled sandal. “Sounds about right. When she
does
admit it , you should bring her to the club. Or hell, bring her anyway. Bet I could twerk it out of her,” she giggled.

“I would die a happy man.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Calm your balls, Jordan. Cole doesn’t seem like the girl on girl action type. But, I’ve seen a lap dance get
plenty
of straight girls turned all the way up. And you can thank me in tips.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I chuckled, imagining how Nicki would react to a date night at Arch & Point.

Cin put the heel down, then gave me a pointed look. “I’m serious! And that puts you on a timeline. I’m leaving in January, so you’ve got like two and a half months to get your shit together.”

“I’m already working on that. Hey, can you bring her those in a seven?” I asked the sales associate who walked up.

“I don’t want them.”

I met the associate’s eyes, and nodded as I dropped onto one of the plush white couches that anchored the area. “Bring them.”

“Your ass doesn’t listen,” Cin muttered as she sat down beside me, then nudged my shoulder. “Tell me about your new publicist. What magic is she working on you?”

I scoffed. “Magic? You make it sound like I’m a hopeless case.”

Cin’s eyes went wide as she shifted her gaze away from me. “Well…”

“Damn, it’s like that?” I stretched out my legs as Cin accepted the white shoebox from the salesperson, then took off her shades before she bent to untie the floral combat boots she wore. She looked up at me as she pulled one of them off.

“I mean, you
do
kinda just say whatever in interviews and stuff. And you
do
come to the club a lot. And you
do
get a little rowdy if you have too much to drink. And you
do—
”

“Thanks, Cin, I think I get it.”

She shrugged as she pulled off her sock, then moved to the other boot. “Just saying, bruh.”

“I know. And… that’s the same thing that Chloe mentioned. But she’s not like, trying to make me over into Mr. Ivy League or anything like that. Her thing is, just cutting back on the over the top shit. Speaking more carefully when there’s a mic in my face. Scaling back on the partying.
Not
talking about my dick.”

Cin laughed as she slid the heel onto her foot, then stretched her leg out to look at it. “You
do
talk about that thing a lot. And though it
was
impressive that time you got a lil too turned up and got on stage and swang your tallywacker around to the tune of
Throw Sum Mo
… nobody really wants to hear about it. Especially women.”

“Well
that
shit isn’t true.”

She lifted an eyebrow, and put on the other shoe. “It’s
definitely
true.” She stood up, walking over to the mirror to survey her reflection before she turned to face me. “Women like to lust over your accidental dick print if the paps catch you in gray sweats. Or swinging around in your basketball shorts. When it’s a “mystery” bulge that you had to tuck down the leg of your dress pants. We like thinking about a man’s dick on
our
terms. Not listening to him talk about it. Because, in my experience, the more a man
talks
about it, the less he can back it up.”

“Well that ain’t the case over here,” I said, sitting up, and Cin rolled her eyes.

“Whatever. Back to what Chloe has you doing, please.”

I chuckled, sitting back as Cin came back to the couch to take the shoes off. “It’s actually not anything outside the box. Basically, she said I should chill more. That’s step one. From there, she talked about connecting with a charity that mattered to me, but not just… shoving money at it. Actually being involved. Going to events, making it relevant to my life, researching, learning about it.”

“All of that sounds good,” she said as she unstrapped the shoes. “That’s it?”

“Pretty much. She’s gonna work with my new agent, Margo, about lining up some relevant endorsements. And I’ve gotta work on my game. Get faster, stronger, better.”

Cin nodded. “I like it. Don’t give anybody anything else to really think about, other than your game, the good things you’re doing for your community. And if you buy out the bar at the club occasionally, no big deal. You’re America’s favorite wide receiver.”

“Exactly.”

“And a certain tall, gorgeous, front office exec’s favorite wide receiver too,” she teased, shimmying her shoulder into my side.

“Come on, Cin. Kill that shit,” I said, trying not to laugh as I gently pushed her away.

She grinned. “What? I’m saying, you prove that you’ve grown up, and she won’t be able to resist you. I mean, with these dimples,” – she reached up, pinching my cheeks – “and this handsome face, how could she possibly?” she finished, in a high pitched voice like she was talking to a baby.

“
Chill
,” I laughed. “Acting like Jess.”

Cin wrinkled her nose. “I know our friendship is “unconventional”, but I’ve twerked in your lap with nothing on but a thong, Jordan. Please don’t compare me to your sister. That’s just weird.”

“Stop acting like her then. She’ll take them,” I told the salesperson, ignoring Cin’s objection. “I’ll have them sent to your house, so you’re not walking out with the box, calm down. Happy graduation.”

She pushed out a sigh. “Your hard-headed ass.”

“Yeah, yeah. If you hate that, you’re gonna
really
hate this.”

I reached into the front pocket of my hoodie, pulling out the card that was one of the main reasons for this whole outing with Cin. When I held it out to her, she just stared at it for a few seconds before I pushed it into her hands.

“Open it.”

She cut her eyes up to my face, and then looked back down at the card. She blew out a long sigh, then opened it with shaking fingers. “The sheer magnitude of that wagon you carry around was an
asset
—get it – to
Arch & Point
. It, and you, will be missed. Jordan. P.S, I’m not saying any corny personal shit about our friendship, because it’s not contingent on me getting to see the aforementioned wagon. You’re still my home girl. Jordan.”