Everybody in the country knew his yardage, his college grades, his weight. They’d even done a spread on his new haircut last fall.
“You got home at 4:00 a.m.”
Mitch stilled, and his voice lowered to a warning growl. He did not need to defend himself to Cole. “Last time I checked, I was over twenty-one.”
“You were with Jenny.” Cole’s tone wasn’t exactly judgmental, but there was a steadiness in his eyes that made Mitch feel like he was under interrogation.
Mitch didn’t want to lie, but he wasn’t about to tarnish Jenny’s reputation, either. So, he didn’t respond.
“Are you sure that was such a good idea?” asked Cole.
Mitch felt his heartbeat deepen, while adrenaline trickled into his system. “You might want to think about exiting this conversation along about now.”
“I’m worried about Jenny.”
“Jenny’s fine.”
“How would you know that?”
Mitch forced in a calming breath and took a long pull on his beer. He knew he should never have kissed her. And after she’d made his blood pressure skyrocket there in the car, he should never have walked her to the door.
But it was done. And he couldn’t change it. And it was none of anybody else’s damn business.
“What are your intentions?” ask Cole, his gaze steely.
“Is this a joke?”
“I’m dead serious. I’ve known Jenny since she was a little girl-”
“And I haven’t?”
“I didn’t sleep with her.”
Mitch came instantly to his feet, pain throbbing through his shoulder. He hated mounting an argument when he was in the wrong. Oh, he could do it. But he sure hated it. “Jenny is an adult. We talked this morning and-”
“And she told you she was fine?” Cole asked, brow arched.
Mitch came clean. “She said ‘we slipped up’ and ‘hey, it happens.’”
“Does that sound like Jenny to you?”
And that was where Mitch’s logic fell off the rails. It didn’t sound remotely like Jenny.
The accusation went out of Cole’s eyes, and Mitch felt his guard slip a notch.
Both men were silent for a few minutes, while the wind picked up, and the golf games continued on the course.
“What were you
Mitch eased back down in his seat. “You saw her last night.”
“Yet I didn’t sleep with her.” Then Cole’s gaze grew contemplative, as if he was questioning his own judgment on that front.
Something dark burst to life inside Mitch, and he reflexively jerked forward. “Don’t you dare even think about sleeping with Jenny.”
Cole looked amused now. He obviously saw some kind of twisted humor in Mitch’s predicament. “That sounded a whole lot like jealousy. Why don’t you tell me again how you have no intentions toward her?”
Mitch could tell where Cole was going. But there was absolutely no future for him and Jenny. Jenny was a great girl, and Mitch was only human. “You know what I’m like.”
He and Cole had been friends since elementary school. Cole had played baseball instead of football, his smaller stature making that game a better fit. But he was fully aware of the perks available to elite athletes. And he was under no illusions about Mitch’s lifestyle.
“You’re not the guy I’d pick for my sister, that’s for sure,” Cole agreed.
“You don’t have a sister.”
“If I had one.”
“I’ll be leaving town after the election, or as soon as my shoulder heals,” Mitch added to the discussion. There was absolutely no future for the two of them. And Jenny deserved a guy who could give her a future.
Nipping things in the bud was the only way to keep from hurting her even more.
“I talked with Jeffrey Porter last night,” he put in, knowing it was a way to further emphasis his undesirability as a match for Jenny. Cole was well aware of Jeffrey’s many indiscretions.
Cole lifted his beer bottle in a mock toast. “Is he serving as your cautionary tale?”
“His girlfriend caught him cheating. You know,” Mitch mused aloud, “I honestly think Jeffrey said ‘no’ to the first hundred propositions. Then maybe one night he was alone. Maybe we’d lost the game. Maybe he got hurt on the field. Maybe the coach had reamed him out for something, and maybe he’d had a fight over the phone with Celeste. And there she was, a fresh, pretty, willing little sweet thing that would make all his problems go away. At least for a while. And so, he stumbled. And once he’d done it the first time, well…”
Mitch had watched the same scenario play out with dozens of players. His teammates tried to make relationships work, yet, inevitably, they were spectacular failures.
“You don’t have to sell me on the general sleaziness of professional athletes,” said Cole.
“I’m trying to sell you on the general sleaziness of
“Then you had no business sleeping with Jenny.”
Mitch grunted out a cold laugh.
He ought to be drawn and quartered for what he’d done to Jenny. Guys like him had no business sniffing around caring, wholesome, defenseless girls like her.
Jenny was keeping a sinful secret. It had to do with her updated wardrobe. Though she’d worn her usual Friday outfit of gray linen slacks, matching blazer and her favorite aqua silk blouse to the office this morning, underneath it all, she wore skimpy purple lace panties and a matching push-up bra.
She and Emily had spent every evening this week shopping for new clothes. They’d started Tuesday at Harper’s Boutique. Then, they’d moved on to every high-fashion store within a fifty-mile radius.
Even if nobody had a clue, Jenny felt a little bit sexy. It was good for her bruised ego. As Emily had said on the drive home last night, Mitch had no idea what he was missing.
The outer office door opened with a rattle, and a uniformed courier entered, a white cardboard envelope in one hand and his electronic tracking device in the other.
“Delivery for Mr. Hayward,” the young man announced. He crossed the room and perched the envelope against her upright in-basket, holding out the tracking device.
Jenny took it and scrolled her signature across the grayed window. “Thanks.”
“Have a good day.” He gave her a salute of acknowledgment while he turned to leave.
As the door swung shut behind him, she ripped the perforated tab and reached into the depths of the cardboard pouch, extracting a smaller manila envelope. She retrieved a letter opener and sliced through the paper. Inside, she discovered four VIP tickets to tonight’s football game in Houston. The Texas Tigers versus the Chicago Crushers.
Her mood slipped another notch.
Like any good Texan, she loved football. And the last three times Mitch had been sent complimentary tickets to a nearby game, he’d invited her to join the group. But those days were obviously over.
A folded note slipped out of the envelope, and she opened it up.
“Jenny, can you please look up-” Mitch stopped short.
A jolt of guilt hit her. Which was ridiculous. She opened Mitch’s mail all the time. There was nothing on this package to indicate it was personal. And it wasn’t. He was a football player. He received packages from his team with some regularity.
“The tickets?” he asked, moving forward.
She nodded. Bundling them along with the note back into the manila envelope, pretending everything was perfectly normal in her world. “They say the jet will be at the airport at four.” For a split second, she wondered who
