Deep End: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (38 page)

“Katy, how are you?” said my lawyer, coming out of his office. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“No problem,” I said. “How are you, Bill?” His name was Bill
Abor
, but he always was insisting that I call him by his first name. So I finally started doing it, although I never felt totally comfortable with it…given that it was a professional relationship.

Bill led me into his office, and sat down behind his big desk.

“So let’s get right into it,” he said. “
Sara’s suing
you for a lot of money. It’s a mess.”

“I don’t understand why she’s doing it,” I said, already beginning to choke up, some small tears welling in my eyes.

Bill waved his hand in the air. “I’m sorry, Sara, but you know how expensive it is to see me…frankly, I always advise my clients that paying for a therapist is going to be a lot cheaper than talking to me…and frankly, a better use of money. I really don’t know what I’m talking about if it’s not the law…”

I nodded my head. “That makes sense,” I said, reaching out for a tissue that was on his desk, and using it to blow my nose, and surreptitiously wipe my eyes.

“Well this whole thing is pretty ugly, I’ll give you that.” He held a paper in front of him and began reading off the charges… “Well, the good news is that I can get you out of this, Katy.”

“That’s great,” I said.

My head was still reeling from the emotional blow that Sara had dealt me with this lawsuit. I just couldn’t believe she could do it. But recently I had been so preoccupied with Colton that I hadn’t been thinking about the problem that much. In the meantime, I had put all my wedding business on hold for the foreseeable future…it was entering the low season anyway…I hadn’t even been into the office since that day that I hadn’t been able to get ahold of Sara, and found out that she was suing me…and I would have really loved to talk to her about Colton. We used to talk about men together all the time…it had been so fun and intimate, and now all I felt was betrayal from her…it was so disturbing that a person could change like that right before your eyes. Or maybe she hadn’t changed, and was just now revealing her true colors.

I tried to focus my attention back on the meeting with Bill.

“So,” said Bill. “First thing’s first…you’re probably going to have to go to court.”

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed, tears forming in my eyes again.

“Don’t worry, Katy. It’s not as bad as it sounds. And it’s not going to be more many, many months hopefully. By that time, I hope to have everything sorted out on our end. From what I can tell, you ran the business totally on the up and up. Everything, all the books you turned over to me…my staff says everything looks totally legitimate, which is great. I can’t really figure out what it is that she’s contesting…it’s a little strange, because she’s just claiming that she wasn’t receiving a fair wage…although it’s clearly on the books…everything should be fine. But of course I still have to see your employee contract. Technically, she was your employee, and not your business partner, although I know you ran the business together, essentially.”

“Yeah, I said. We ran it as partners. We started it together. She just didn’t have good enough credit, so everything had to be in my name.”

“Well, that’s fairly standard. But you do have an employee agreement or contract, don’t you?”

“A what?” I said, my heart starting to pound. I was feeling nervous.

“Like some kind of agreement that she signed when she became your employee.”

“No…” I said. We had been such good
friend
that nothing like that had seemed necessary in the least bit. We never wrote anything of this stuff down.”

Bill pushed himself back in his chair. A look of worry ran over his face. He took a deep breath before speaking. “This could be a problem, Katy.”

Tears started welling up in my eyes. “I just never thought it would come to this,” I said.

Seeing me upset again, Bill began telling me how everything would still work itself out in the end. “It just might be a little more complicated,” he said.

We talked over some of the business details. I had to explain everything to him, every last thing about the wedding planning business. It turned out that Bill already knew quite a bit about the business, and even had some ideas of his own.

“Listen,” he said. “I’m going to get you out of this mess. Trust me. I’ve done it before and I can do it again. But the only problem I’m seeing for your future is that in this town, stuff gets around. Word spreads. I can foresee you having some problems with getting new clients in the future.”

“Why?” I said. “Why would they care if I had a legal battle?”

“Unfortunately, no matter what the outcome of legal cases, the general public ends up assuming that everyone involved was guilty of something. It’s not going to look good for you as a wedding planner, and frankly you’re going to have a hard time running a business in this town again.”

“What can I do?” I said.

“What I’d suggest is moving to a new city. Starting over.”

“It took me years to build up my client base here.”

“Well, you can always look to places where people go just to have their weddings.
Like Napa Valley for instance.
Personally, my sister in law moved their family there last summer to start the very same business, and she’s already doing better than she ever did here.”

“Really?” I said. “What was her name again? I might know her. You know how we wedding planners are.”

“Rosie Aversa,” he said.

“Oh! Rosie. Yeah, I know here. She was doing really well here.”

“Well, I can tell you in confidence that she’s earning five times in Napa Valley what she earned here.”

“Wow,” I said, letting the figures sink into my head for a moment. I certainly could use the money…it wasn’t like I was doing badly, but now with all these legal fees, my expenses were really starting to add up. It was costing a
fortune,
over $200 per hour just to have Bill’s legal team review the documents from by business.

And now I wouldn’t be able to continue my own business.

Napa Valley was beginning to sound pretty appealing.

For one thing, I could earn a living, and not have to go work as a clerk in some wedding dress shop. I had done that before when I’d gotten out of college, and didn’t relish the possibility of doing it once again.

Plus, the weather sounded like a nice change.

But then I thought of Colton…

I would be leaving Colton behind.

I knew in my heart I couldn’t abandon him.

There was no way he could do his bull riding in Napa Valley.
At least, not as far as I knew.
Plus it would be asking far too much of him…to pack up his whole life and move just for me. We might have been in love, but we had basically just met.

“I can’t do it…” I said.

“Well, I’m sorry to hear you say that. I’m sure Rosie would have been more than happy to set you up. Plus, I hate to say it, but you’re going to have a lot of legal fees once this whole thing is over. I really hate to charge you know, but I have to make a living myself.”

And put a new addition on your house, I thought to myself.

“Can I ask why you won’t move?” said Bill. “I’ll be able to handle everything on the legal end from here if you did move. At the very worst, you’ve have to fly back here for a weekend or something, should the whole thing come to a trial.”

“I…met someone,” I said.

“Ah,” said Bill, giving me a smile and a wink. “No need to say anymore. Old Bill knows how those things go. Can I ask who he is?”

“I’m not being charged still, am I?” I said, cracking a smile, trying to make a joke.

Bill consulted his watch. “I’ll give you this one for free,” he said. It was hard to tell if he was joking or not. I knew he did have a habit of rounding up from the half hour to the full hour.

“Maybe you’ve heard of him. His name is Colton. He’s a…”

“He’s only the #1 bull rider in the whole country,” exclaimed Bill, excited.

“I’m surprised you’ve heard of him,” I said. “I thought bull riding was still a pretty cloistered sport.”

“I saw him on talk show last night,” said Bill.

“Wow,” I said. “He must be getting more famous than I thought.”

“Hang on to that one,” said Bill. “He’s quite a catch.”

“I’ll try,” I said, getting my things ready to leave the office.

Things were going really well for Colton.

Even though he had decided not to move to New York City, his career was taking off. His manager Cambridge Whitehead really knew what he was doing. Colton had put everything in his hands.
Or nearly everything.
Cambridge had just called him and said he had a new idea, an even bigger idea, possibly the idea that would send Colton’s career into the stratosphere…
.Colton
was dying to know what it was.

In the meantime, Colton’s injuries from his latest rodeo had only solidified in his mind the idea that he needed to become famous…he decided that he needed to put this goal above practically all else. Although, almost without realizing it, he had put Katy first, before his career, when he had refused to move to New York City, even though it had sounded comfy, luxurious, and a real stepping stone to a new career.

Colton didn’t want to admit it to Katy, let alone anyone else, but bull’s gouging had really hurt him.

He still winced in pain when he got up first thing in the morning.

Sometimes he woke up at night covered in sweat.

The sex with Katy hurt him terrible. Each time he thrust, his abdomen felt like it was on fire. And that wasn’t even including the bone bruise he had gotten on his clavicle, which flared with pain each time he moved any way at all, even a millimeter.

But despite all the pain, and the doubts about whether Colton could continue doing what he really loved most in the world (excluding Katy, of course), which was riding bulls, things were going great for Colton.

It was all because of Katy.

She seemed to light up his world.

He had never thought that a woman could have this effect on him.

Before meeting Katy, Colton had been interested in women of course. But he had only really wanted them for their bodies. He had just wanted to possess them briefly and then move onto the next.

But Katy made him feel a new way…a way he had never felt before.

It seemed like they could do just the simplest things together and they would both wind up happier than when they had started.

They spent days in the park…relaxing…they both weren’t really working right now, given their situations, and they both had a lot of free time.

They spent the evening at Katy’s apartment watching movies.

They went grocery shopping together, and found themselves making jokes about common food products that they each thought were hilarious. They would end up so giddy from giggling after pushing the shopping cart through all the aisles that they got a lot of strange looks from the other costumes, who seemed completely baffled that two people could have so much fun going shopping in an everyday grocery store.

“Hey baby,” said Colton, opening his eyes for the first time that day. He normally liked to keep his eyes closed for about ten minutes after waking up, just going over his thoughts. It was a type of meditation for him, and it had always helped in all sorts of situations.

Colton winced inside with pain, but was careful not to let out any audible noises, or to make any faces. He didn’t want Katy knowing how badly he still hurt. He didn’t want her worry about him.

He snuggled up next to Katy in bed.

They were at her apartment.

Colton’s new cowboy hat and dirty jeans were hanging over a chair in the corner. His thick leather belt hung down from the waist of his pants, looking almost like a piece of construction equipment…that’s how sturdy it looked. It was all beat-up and battered. Colton had owned that belt since he was 16 years old, and didn’t think he could ever part with it, given all that he had been through with it. He wore it at rodeos and at weddings, and any event in between.

“Hey, sleepy head,” said Colton, gently pushing himself further against Katy.

“Hey, baby,” said Katy, finally opening her eyes.

“I love waking up next to you,” said Colton.

“I love it too,” said Katy.

“Come on, then,” said Colton. “Let’s get moving. I’ve got a big day planned for us.”

“A big day?”

“Well, a picnic in the park and dancing in the evening. Then I thought we could go for a ride on my motorcycle.”

“Sounds lovely,” said Katy, giving him a big smile. “But there’s enough time for us to cuddle a little, isn’t there?”

“Sure,” said Colton, pretending to check a watch that he didn’t have. “I thin they’ll hold our reservations for us at the park.”

Katy giggled, and put her arms around Colton, snuggling up closer against him.

Colton lifted up the sheets and moved his body under them, so that his bare skin was against Katy’s skin. It felt so wonderful, feeling her body against hers.

“Someone’s getting excited,” said Katy, playfully tapping his penis, which was growing erect. “I love how big and thick it is,” she said.

“I know you like it,” said Colton. “And I know where you like it most of all.”

“Inside me,” said Katy.

“That’s right,” said Colton, leaning in and giving Katy a big kiss.

She wasn’t wearing any make-up, and her hair was a complete tangled mess, flowing all over the pillow, like some crazy overgrown houseplant.

“You look even more beautiful without your makeup,” said Colton.

“Oh stop,” said Katy, blushing.

“It’s true,” said Colton. “I wish you’d never wear it.”

“Fine,” said Katy. “I’ll do it, and then we’ll see how much you like it in the light of day.”

She and he giggled. It was amazing to both of them how little it took to start a giggling fit.