To Win Her Trust (33 page)

“Press the red button first, then pull the trigger and speak.”

“Oh, thank you.” God, what the hell was she doing? She followed his instructions and spoke into the mouthpiece. “Kevin Tucker.”

Close to sixty men turned at the sound of her voice. Panic exploded in her chest, and she staggered back a step.
Suck it up, CC. Tuck is out there somewhere. If you want him, you’ll have to stand your ground.
Dragging in a calming breath, she raised her chin and stepped back to the rail.

“Hot damn. I think somebody wants you, Tuck,” a male voice called out, causing a round of laughter.

“Son of a bitch.”

She couldn’t tell which uniformed body was his, but that angry voice was Tuck’s. She stared at the crowd looking her way, and her heart lodged in her throat as one big body pushed his way through the others to stalk toward the sideline. As he ripped the helmet from his head, Tuck’s sweaty blond hair gleamed in the sunlight, and her racing heart did a summersault in her chest.

He didn’t even look her way, stomping up to Gracie with a snarl. “Get her the hell out of here, Gracie.”

CC cued the trigger, and the returning squeal made her, and everyone else, wince, including Tuck. She scrambled to press the red button, then held the machine to her lips. “I’m not going anywhere until you answer a question.”

His furious gaze switched to Jake. “Can’t you control your wife?”

Gracie smiled serenely. Jake looped an arm over her shoulders and shrugged. “My wife doesn’t seem to be the problem.”

Disbelief hardened his face when he looked up, but he still didn’t look at her. He glared at Timmons. “What the hell’s going on, Coach?”

“The girl has something to say.” Timmons spread his hands wide as if to say, what am I supposed to do?

“Not to me, she doesn’t.”

CC’s heart dropped to her stomach as he jammed the helmet back onto his head and spun around to jog back onto the field. Righteous anger fired her temper. From the beginning, she’d tried to avoid him, but would he let her? No. He’d pushed, cajoled, and seduced her into losing her heart, so he’d just have to suck it up, the same way she was. She slammed her finger to the red button, cued the trigger, and held mouthpiece to her lips. “Stop right there, stud.”

He stumbled to a stop and turned slowly. Even through his helmet, the stunned disbelief shone in his blue eyes.

She swallowed, but this was her one chance. Gracie was right. She wasn’t about to give up without a fight. “You heard me, Kevin Tucker. I said I have a question to ask you.”

He turned his back and continued on at a more leisurely pace.

His teammates shuffled their feet until someone called out, “I’ll answer your question, darlin’.” Snickers and outright laughter rose from the men.

She poked the button and cued the trigger. “Thanks, but my question is for Tuck, and Tuck only.”

He ignored her, shouldering his way through the scattered men as he continued toward the middle of the field.

She dragged in a breath and took a chance. “Twice, I asked you what you wanted, but you didn’t answer.”

That stopped him cold, though he kept his back to her.

“So, I’ll tell you what
I
want.”

Catcalls and whistles filled the air, and she squeezed the trigger. The nasty squeal brought blessed silence.

She held the megaphone to her mouth. “I want
you
, Tuck, and not just for old time’s sake.”

The silence on the field was complete. He turned slowly and, at last, his blue gaze gleamed at her from beneath his helmet. When he took the first step in her direction, the breath lodged in her throat. When he tore the helmet from his head and started to run, tears stung her eyes. She leaned over the railing as he started to climb. A smile curled her lips, and when he vaulted onto the platform and swept her into his arms, her heart beat so hard she was afraid it would burst from her chest.

He held her tight as the cheers and laughter from his teammates sounded from below. He dipped his head and pressed his forehead to hers. “
Now
I’ll tell you what I want. I want you to love me, the way I love you.”

A tear tumbled from her lashes, and she pulled back to look into his eyes. “I do.”

Dimples popped in his blinding grin. “There. That wasn’t so hard. Was it, sunshine?”

Epilogue

“It’s time!” Jessi Tucker’s face beamed with excitement as she skidded in through the doorway. The staggered hem of her raspberry haltered bridesmaid’s dress swished around her lower thighs.

CC swallowed and turned from the mirror, a hand pressed to her belly. Kris gulped her champagne as CC’s mother fussed with the fall of CC’s ankle-length wedding dress of cream crinkle chiffon and lace. Gracie handed each of the twins a small basket, and they danced from foot to foot, unable to contain their excitement at being a part of Uncle Tuck and Aunt CC’s big day.

Exactly one month had passed since that day at training camp when she’d crossed the last item from her fears list and proclaimed her love for Tuck. To her surprise, he’d ignored his teammates’ catcalls by dropping to a knee right there on the high platform to demand she marry him.

Twenty minutes later, Coach Timmons had regained control of his training camp, and Gracie led a stunned CC back to the SUV with Tuck’s Super Bowl ring hanging by a chain on her neck with his promise to replace it with a proper engagement ring the day he got back.

She glanced at the sparkling solitaire on her left hand and smiled. If she’d been dreaming of a long, leisurely engagement, she quickly discovered that wasn’t the case. Despite Coach Timmons’s rule, Tuck must have gotten his hands on a phone somehow because hers began ringing off the hook the next morning.

His mother, Maryanne, woke CC before the sun had finished rising, and after apologizing for the early wake-up call, explained they needed to get to work immediately if they were going to have everything ready for her son and new daughter-in-law’s wedding in thirty days. Considering Timmons’s scowl as he attempted to bring order back to his team, CC dismissed the idea of returning to Syracuse to set Tuck straight on the concept of mutual decision making, but they’d had that conversation before she consented to let him slip his ring on her finger at last.

Both Gracie and Jake had insisted their home’s sweeping back lawn was the perfect location for a late summer wedding. CC agreed, and though she didn’t share why, suggested the vows should be exchanged at the edge of the magical wooded path. She couldn’t think of a better place to publicly declare their love than where she’d officially lost her heart.

Kris linked her arm with CC’s as they followed the others downstairs to pause inside the open kitchen doorway. Music swelled, as if on cue, and Jessi stepped out into the sunlight to begin her march. Through the window, CC scanned the wedding guests seated near the edge of the woods for the short ceremony.

At least a dozen of Tuck’s teammates were peppered throughout the crowd of fifty guests, their superior height and broad shoulders drawing the eye. At the end of the grass aisle, Tuck stood with his back to her, strong and straight in his dark tux, with Jake and Max by his side. Tuck’s parents, his brother, sister, and multiple family members sat several feet away in the front row.

A joyful sigh eased from her lungs. So much had happened since that day in the coffee shop. Beyond losing her heart to her very own
player
, she’d been embraced by a large, raucous, and sometimes crazy, extended family. Her heart pulsed with more happiness than she’d ever dreamed was possible.

Tears pricked CC’s eyes as Gracie bent to give the twins last minute instructions.

“Stop that right now.” Kris squeezed CC’s arm. “You’ll make me cry, and a bunch of Tuck’s friends are out there. How can I bag my own hunky player if I have raccoon eyes?”

“I’ll put in a good word for you,” Gracie promised with a wink as she stepped outside to follow Jessi and gave them a clear view of the yard.

“Oh my God.” Kris released a shivering sigh. “It’s a warrior hunk convention.”

CC laughed as her mother stepped to her side to take her free arm. There had been tears and smiles when she’d asked both her mother and Kris to walk with her, even before Curt had sent his condolences, saying he wished her happiness and didn’t want to intrude on such a day. They’d been there, loving her and walking beside her, as she fought to find her way back from the darkness. She wanted them at her side as she finally arrived.

Her mother nodded at the twins. “Now remember, girls, walk slowly and take a pinch between your fingers, like I showed you, then sprinkle the dust to the ground before taking another. All the way to Uncle Tuck, okay?”

Twin heads of jet black curls nodded as they moved outside together.

CC arched a brow as a light, powdery substance floated to the grass from the twins’ fingers. “What are they sprinkling?”

“Sawdust, of course.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You’ve got to be kidding?” She turned her head to meet her cousin’s laughing gaze.

Her mother’s smile was smug as she tugged CC and Kris out onto the deck. “Dreams are nothing to trifle with, baby. I’m just making sure yours come true.”

Kris snickered and rolled her eyes.

“Scoff all you want, but Tuck agrees with me.” Her mother patted CC’s hand. “Where do you think I got the sawdust?”

CC’s head snapped forward, and her gaze locked on her groom’s. His grin stretched, as if he knew exactly what was being said, and love gleamed in his eyes. She answered back silently with a grin of her own and hurried her steps toward him and their future.

Her mother was right. Dreams were nothing to be ignored, especially when they were about to come true.

THE END

Meet the Author

Wife, mother and
really young
grandmother,
Mackenzie Crowne
shares her home with her high school sweetheart husband, a neurotic Pomeranian, and a blind cat. She calls Arizona home because the southwest feeds her soul. Her love of the romance genre has been a lifelong affair, both as a reader and a writer. A bout with breast cancer sharpened her resolve to see her stories shared with others. Today, she’s an eight-year survivor, living the dream. Her friends call her Mac. She hopes you will too. Visit her website at mackenziecrowne.com, find her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/MacCrowne.

Keep reading for a sneak peek at Book Three in the Players Series

To Win Her Heart

In order to protect her, they’ll both have their guards down…

Country music’s It Girl Jessi Tucker is fed up with her family’s stifling security measures. The threat of a dangerous stalker has gotten the men in her life—including her football star cousin, Tuck Tucker—monitoring her every move. To get the freedom she yearns for, Jessi hatches a plan to recruit Max Grayson, Tuck’s sexy brawler best friend, to play the role of her new boyfriend. But if her scheme works, will she be forced to hide her true romantic feelings for the sake of her independence? Or will she finally steal the heart of her dream man?...

Max has been pining for Jessi for years and would do anything to protect her, but a professional cage fighter with too many skeletons in his closet has no business being with one of America’s sweethearts. Yet while Max does his best to keep Jessi at arm’s length, the Tucker family persuades him to accept her offer.

Max believes he can keep Jessi safe from danger, but can he shelter her from his own dark secrets, the media’s unforgiving spotlight—and a mutual desire that’s harder to resist each day…

Available April 2016

Learn more about Mackenzie Crowe at

http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/author.aspx/31681

Chapter 1

Jessi Tucker needed a man. One with sharp edges. Some bite. Someone who projected the perfect mix of toughness and respectability—with a little bad boy thrown in for good measure.

Lucky for her, she knew right where to find him.

Slipping the designer sunglasses from her eyes, she scanned the half dozen occupants of the brightly lit fight center. A pair of men squared off on one of three large mats while several others called out encouragement to the combatants inside the netted octagon ring in the back corner. Bare, well-developed male chests seemed to be part of the dress code, but Max Grayson’s muscled body was nowhere in sight. A hum of feminine disappointment vibrated in her throat.

“Can I help you?”