She groaned, putting her head on her arms, wondering what she was going to do now.
* * *
When a man couldn’t even kiss a woman in the privacy of his own driveway, something was really wrong with the world in general. Fucking paps. Social media. People who lived to see what famous people did in their spare time. They all needed to get a life of their own and stop fucking up his. This time they’d captured a nice girl in their clutches, and that pissed Jaxon off even more. Macy hadn’t signed up for his kind of life. Not the way the groupies who followed him from game to game and bar to bar did.
He didn’t have a chance to check on her, and even if he had the time, he didn’t have her number, which meant he was going to have to beg his sister to share it. That was the only good thing about him being summoned to Dare Nation.
He walked into the building and headed straight for Austin’s office, smiling at the main receptionist on his way to his brother’s corner office, where Quinn, Austin’s personal assistant and wife, had a desk right outside.
“Hi, Jaxon,” Quinn said, greeting Jaxon not with her usual happy smile but a pitying grimace.
“I take it they’re waiting for me?” he asked.
She nodded.
“How’s my adorable niece?” he asked about the baby, not only because he cared but because the longer he avoided the firing squad inside that office, the better. His brother Austin had found baby Jenny on his doorstep, moved Quinn in to help him navigate being a dad, and the two had fallen in love. Despite Jaxon’s cynicism on the subject of love, he was happy for his sibling.
Eyes lighting up at the topic, Quinn went on to tell him all the things the six-month-old baby was learning to do. “And she stands up and bounces on her chubby little legs and she’s scooting backwards. Pretty soon she’ll be crawling!”
“Said like a proud mama.” Jaxon folded his arms across his chest and grinned. His brother was a lucky man—if Jaxon were to consider settling down with a wife and a baby lucky. Which he most certainly did not.
“Jaxon, stop stalling and get your ass in here!” Austin bellowed from the open door behind Quinn.
Quinn winced. “Guess you better move it.”
“It’s times like these when it sucks to have family as your agent and publicist.”
Quinn’s laughter followed him as he headed around her and through the door to face his siblings.
Austin stood behind his desk, arms folded, eyes narrowed, wearing a suit that demanded respect. Beside him, leaning against the floor-to-ceiling dark mahogany bookshelf, waited Bri. High-heeled foot tapping, lips pursed, and also dressed up in her finest suit, she met his gaze.
“Okay, let’s have it.” Jaxon didn’t mean to sound glib but realized, based on his brother’s and sister’s expressions, that’s exactly how his statement had come out.
“Despite the fact that we discussed this at the party, let’s start with the obvious. What part of lie low do you not understand?” Austin asked.
“Oh, excuse me. Walking out onto my own driveway is a crime now,” he said, well and truly pissed off.
Austin closed his eyes and groaned. “You’re right. It’s not your fault, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a staple online, in the papers, and everywhere else. Not to mention you’ve now made Macy a target for unsavory gossip.”
Jaxon winced at that because it was true. Online celebrity sites had jumped all over the photos and were more interested in finding out who the woman he’d been with was, which put Macy directly in the spotlight. Something she probably didn’t need or want.
“Sit,” Bri said, glancing between her brothers.
Not wanting to piss his sister off further, Jaxon sat.
Leaning back against the sofa, he glanced at his brother and braced himself for whatever came next, but Austin had obviously calmed down. He walked over to the seat beside him and lowered himself onto the cushion, placing one arm on the back of the sofa.
“As your brother, I understand who you are and why you act the way you do.” Austin was fully aware of Jaxon’s past with Katie and always coming in behind both Austin and Damon because of his choice to play baseball, not football, and disappointing their father.
“But dammit, Jax, you have to grow up.” He held up a hand. “I’m not talking about getting caught on your driveway but brawling? You’re twenty-eight. Old enough to understand you’re nearing the end of your pitching career.”
Jaxon’s heart squeezed in his chest. “Ouch.”
His sibling was hitting on every insecurity he had about his past, old relationships, his job, his career, and his future. The things he partied and drank to avoid dwelling on.
He knew why he’d fallen into this lifestyle, and it wasn’t just the woman who’d walked out on him.
Though Jaxon had been fifteen when his father died, Jesse Prescott had been around long enough to have an impact. His asshole father had let him know in no uncertain terms, if he didn’t play football, he was useless and no woman would want him. After losing Katie, Jaxon had gone about proving his deceased old man wrong by letting any cleat chaser available into his bed.
Austin didn’t flinch at Jaxon’s reaction. “It’s my job to tell you the hard facts. I know you’re in the off-season, but if you want to retire in disgrace, you’re well on your way, because if the Eagles want you gone, no team is going to want to pay what’s left on your contract, and they’re not going to trade for a twenty-eight-year-old with Tommy John surgery
