Most Valuable Playboy
I nod. Of all people, I understand how sometimes—even most of the time—business has to come first. “We’ll talk later?”
She offers a smile, but it feels forced. Or maybe confused is the better term. Because fuck, I am, too. This offer should be the greatest moment on the business side of my career. The chance to step into my own. To have security and a bright, bold future. But as I look at Violet, suddenly the contract isn’t the most important thing. I want the girl, too. I want a future with her. She’s the thing I can’t live without.
I grab her hand. “I’ll call you later. I promise.”
She swallows and nods tightly. But she says nothing, almost as if she doesn’t want to chance speaking. She turns on her heel, walks down my steps, and leaves. I don’t look away, not yet. Finally, when she’s in her car, I turn around to see the smiling face of my agent. I want to ask him how I can negotiate my way back into her heart.
But he’s not the guy who knows those answers.
Instead, we spend the next few hours reviewing the deal over a fantastic steak dinner, and he offers to take me to the team hotel, but I have sixty minutes before I’m due there, so I ask him to drop me off at Trent’s bar instead.
Trent nods at me from his spot behind the bar. “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the king of San Francisco.”
I wave him off, like the adulation is all too much. “Please. I insist on a parade now everyplace I go.”
He tosses a dish towel in my direction. It lands on the wooden counter. “You came to the wrong place. In fact, you might have to pay for drinks now.”
I feign a look of shock. “Money for food and drinks? Never heard of such a thing. By the way, what are you doing behind the bar?”
“I like to help out now and then. What the hell are you doing here?” He looks at an imaginary watch. “Don’t you have to go to your nun cloisters and put on blinders like a horse before the Kentucky Derby, so no one can see you?”
“Something like that. I have thirty minutes before I have to be at the hotel. If I’m not there, it’ll be lights out,” I say, slicing a finger across my neck.
“Really?”
“No. But yes, I need to follow the rules.” I slap my palms on the counter as if it’s a drum. “But also, the team offered,” I say, then tell him the amount, and he blinks about five million times.
“That’s insane.”
“I know. It’s ridiculous. It hardly feels real.”
He grabs a glass and pours from the tap. “So you came here for a celebratory drink before your last game of the season?”
I shake my head and draw a deep breath. “I don’t drink before games. I came here for something else.”
He sets the glass down. “My potato skins recipe is under lock and key.”
“Dude, you told me years ago the secret was how long you bake the cheese.”
“Dammit.”
I glance behind me. His bar is full of too many ears. “Can we go to a table in the corner?”
“Ooh baby, I thought you’d never ask.”
I roll my eyes. Trent waves over another bartender to cover for him, and we head to a quiet table. Funny, the last time I was here he told me the notion of me being with his sister was absurd on account of my supposedly straying eyes.
Looking back on this last season, I can say with certainty I’m not a playboy at all. I’ve been with one person, and she’s the only person I want to be with ever again. I stroke my chin, like I need to steel myself for a tough conversation. But honestly, there’s nothing hard about what I have to tell him. When you speak from the heart, you don’t need a dose of courage to get the words out. You just need to open your mouth.
“A funny thing happened while I was pretending to be involved with Violet.”
He cocks his head to the side. “Yeah?”
I nod. “It’s not pretend.”
“It’s not?” he asks hesitantly.
I lean back in the chair, hold my arms out wide. “I’m in love with her.”
He knits his brow and rubs his ear like he has water in it. “What did you just say?”
“I’m crazy fucking in love with her. Like, to-the-moon-and-back shit. Like rest of my life, no one else, she’s the one. The sun and all the stars in the sky.”
“Wow. Did you just have a brain transplant with a poet or something? Because this is not you.”
I rub my hand over the back of my neck. “I know. But now it is me. Because that’s what happened. And the truth is, I think I’ve been falling in love with her for a long time, and this pretend deal brought it all to the surface.”
He blows out a long stream of air. “Does she know?”
That’s the biggest issue. “She knows I like her. I’m not sure she knows I’m in love with her.”
He frowns as if he’s still trying to make sense of this. “Are you looking for my blessing, or something?”
I laugh and shake my head. “Actually, I’m not. And I hope you can respect that. I love you, man, and I don’t want to lose your friendship, but I can’t take a chance on her slipping through my fingers. So, I hope you approve, and I’m telling you first, but I want to let her know, and I’m planning on making it crystal clear.”
He takes a deep breath. “What’s your plan?”
“That’s where I need you most. There are a few details I need you to oversee. Maybe Holly, too.” I quickly outline what I have in mind. “I want her to know how much she means to me. Will you help me?”
He stares at me with intense brown eyes, as if he’s hunting for the truth in my face. “You’ll treat her right?”
I nod. “Like a queen.”
“You’ll be good to her?”
“Every day.”
“You love her?”
“More than I love football.”
He shakes his head, amused. “I never thought the day would come.”
But that day is here. “I was bracing for you to give me a hard time,” I say with a relieved sigh. “You were pretty pissed after the auction.”
He holds up a finger. “Correction. I was pissed when I thought you hadn’t told me what was going on. Now you’re telling me, and I appreciate it.”
“So you don’t think I’m just your dickhead, playboy, asshole friend who doesn’t deserve your sister?”
He laughs as he scrubs a hand over his jaw. “You’ll always be a dickhead and an asshole, but you’re my friend, and you’re a good guy. If you’re telling me that the sun rises and sets with my sister, then you damn well better go get your woman.” He shoos me off. “Get out of here and take care of that phone call.”
When I arrive at the hotel, I call Violet and invite her to the game tomorrow. “Please tell me you can make it.”
Her voice is cool, like she’s holding back emotion. “You want me there? As your fake girlfriend? I don’t understand why when Ford made it clear we were over.”
“Ford handles my business. He doesn’t handle my heart. There are things he doesn’t know.”
“And you don’t want to tell me those things now?”
I move the phone away from my ear and stare at the picture of her on the screen. “No. I want to see your face. I want to see you in person. I want to tell you in person. The whole truth. Like I told the coach.”