Payoff Pitch (Philadelphia Patriots) (27 page)

Teddy grimaced. “I just wish I had more time to prepare. I’ll probably end up sounding like a babbling idiot.”

Noah’s barely-there smile broadened into a grin of satisfaction. “I don’t buy that for a second. You’re a great advocate for what you believe in and I’ve got the scars to prove it. Want to see them?”

Before she could say anything, Noah closed the small gap between them and kissed her firmly on the lips. She barely had a chance to respond before he pulled back. “Let’s pick this back up after we get tomorrow morning out of the way.”

Teddy started to sputter. “But…”

“I’ll let you know the details when you come in the morning to walk the mutts.” Noah reached for the door handle. “Sleep tight, Teddy.”

And just like that he was gone, leaving her speechless.

Teddy cursed as she struggled to get her best silver hoop earrings into her earlobes. Her hands weren’t exactly rock steady. She supposed that wasn’t surprising since she’d managed only about three hours of restless sleep. She’d tried to mask her fatigue with makeup, but her reflection in the bathroom mirror still weighed in on the haggard end of the scale.

When she fed and walked Toby and Sadie at seven, Noah had come downstairs looking almost as jittery about the coming meeting as she was. She’d been forced at that point to summon up every ounce of courage to resist bailing on the meeting. Most of the night she’d been imagining the worst—that the discussion with his father would degenerate into an embarrassing shouting match. Though she had no intention of letting her temper get away from her, she wouldn’t be bullied either. And if Noah just sat there and let his father rail at her, well, she didn’t see how they could continue to have any kind of relationship, working or otherwise.

But she’d known right then that it was too late to back out, because one look from Noah had made her realize she simply didn’t have the heart to disappoint him. She’d just have to go through with the meeting and hope their relationship survived without permanent damage.

At least the news about Toby was good. Noah had texted a few minutes ago, reporting that the dog’s blood work had come back clean and his temperature had dropped back to normal. Dr. Clark thought he’d probably eaten something questionable outdoors but said it was fine for Noah to take him home today.

Emma stuck her head into the bathroom. “Hey, you look absolutely amazing! And I totally love that dress.”

“Thanks. It’s only the second time I’ve worn it. You know how much I like wearing dresses.
Not.
”

Still, she had to admit that the sleeveless, sleek-fitting sheath in turquoise with burgundy horizontal stripes looked pretty darn good on her, especially when combined with the matching burgundy lace flats. Noah would probably fall over in shock since he’d never seen her in a dress. In fact, he’d pretty much seen her in only two things—her less than sexy dog clothes and her clearly more appealing birthday suit. And just thinking about the latter—and that incredible night in his bed—made her insides tighten from both nerves and pleasure.

“Well, you look even more awesome than the first time I saw you in it,” Emma said, grabbing a brush and arranging Teddy’s freshly washed and dried hair in a soft fall down her back. “Those oilmen are going to be blown away just looking at you.”

“I don’t care how they think I look.”

Well, that wasn’t quite the truth. She cared a lot about what Noah thought and didn’t relish leaving a bad impression on his father and brother. “I care about whether they actually listen to what I have to say or just humor me.”

“I know it isn’t going to be easy for you. But as long as this makes Noah happy, right? Chalk it up to maintaining good client relations.” In the mirror, Teddy saw her smile. “If nothing else.”

“Got it,” Teddy said, trying to sound confident. “Good client relations.”

Unfortunately, her roommate’s pep talk simply made her even more nervous. The last thing Teddy wanted was to screw this up, for Emma’s sake as much as her own. On top of the strong sense of commitment she felt toward Noah and the dogs, their fledgling company needed the work and income. But for the life of her, all she could think of were the many ways that today’s meeting could go off the rails.

“Well, gotta make tracks,” she said in a falsely jovial voice. “Don’t want to keep the boys waiting.”

Noah had told her to meet them at the hotel dining room at ten. A corporate tycoon like Adam Cade wouldn’t wait around, and there was no way Teddy wanted to risk infuriating Noah, in that or any other way.

Noah strode through the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel and went up a short flight of marble steps to the ornately regal Fountain Room restaurant. The hostess greeted him by name, ushering him to a window table where his father and Levi were in animated conversation.

In deference to the upscale hotel and to his father—who would be wearing his usual bespoke power suit—Noah had worn a light gray linen sports coat. He’d paired that with a black T-shirt and black chinos, which was about as formal as he was prepared to go on a hot summer morning. His father would never wear something that casual on a business trip, which was another reason Noah had a hard time imagining he’d take his father’s place someday. Life as a big-time executive had simply never appealed to him.

Adam Cade had his back to Noah as he approached, but Levi spotted him immediately and jumped to his feet. “Bro!” he said, holding his arms open. “It’s been a while.”

Noah returned his brother’s embrace. Damn, but he loved Levi. They didn’t see eye-to-eye on everything, but their strong childhood bond had matured and stood the tests of time and distance.

Adam Cade rose and held out his hand, smiling his Texas, good-old-boy smile that had charmed both friends and foes for his entire career. He gave Noah a quick once-over, head to toe, with a faint lift of his eyebrows. “Good to see you, son.”

No hugs or touchy-feely stuff with the family patriarch. And no matter how old Noah might be, his father always seemed to exercise a subtle judgment—even over what he wore.

Noah grasped his father’s calloused, roughneck hand.

“Good to see you, too, Dad,” he said a little awkwardly.

Well, why wouldn’t he be nervous? Getting together with his father was always fraught with potential hazard. Today, the emotional land mines were strewn thick below the surface, just waiting for an errant foot to step on them.

Noah took the seat next to his brother and directly across from his father. Naturally, Levi had claimed the chair with the best view, one that overlooked the Swann Fountain in the center of Logan Square. A couple of little kids were rioting in the pool, running from one spouting jet of cool water to the next. He couldn’t help thinking that he’d rather be doing that than sitting down for breakfast with his always-intimidating father.

Trying to squash the guilt that particular thought had raised, he poured a cup of coffee from the carafe in the middle of the table and picked up the menu. “You guys order yet?”

Levi shook his head. “No, but we’ve already decided what we’re having. So, how’s the arm this morning?” He looked genuinely worried.

“Not great.” Noah had debated whether to be honest with them about his condition. But since Levi had a great nose for both baseball and whatever was going on with his brother, he’d decided there was no point in trying to deny the crappy situation.

His father’s heavy brows almost knitted together as he frowned. “Levi said he could tell you were hurting when you walked off the mound.”

“I thought your delivery was different,” Levi said. “Like you were holding back instead of throwing full-out like you used to.”

Used to. Well, bingo, Bro.

“Something’s going on with my shoulder.” Just saying the words made Noah’s gut tighten. “I hate like hell to have to do it, but I’ve decided to get an MRI. I’ll have a better idea what’s going on after that.”

As much as he’d wanted to avoid undergoing the scan, he’d finally concluded that there was no point trying to stick his head in the sand. Unless the MRI results were truly dire, he figured he could probably still convince the team that he could pitch through the pain for the rest of the season.

“Jesus.” Levi blew out a sigh. “First your elbow and now your shoulder. That totally sucks, man. You worked so hard to come back.”

Noah grimaced, but a server came over to take their orders before he could reply. Despite his jumped-up nerves, he had an appetite so he ordered a combination of eggs, scrapple and pork roll. Levi chose the same thing while their father stuck to his traditional three scrambled with Canadian bacon.

Adam Cade rubbed his jaw, as was his habit when he was about to say something he thought was important. “Noah, I hope everything turns out for the best, I truly do. But this news makes me think it’s even more important that you start to seriously consider your future.”

Shit, here it comes, even before breakfast shows up.

He couldn’t say he was surprised. “Okay, let me summarize to save you some time. Yes, I’m in the twilight of my career. I’ve been injured, undergone a long rehab, and maybe now I’m injured again. I should finally realize that it’s time to hang it up and get on with the rest of my life. A life in the executive office that’s already waiting for me in Dallas.” He kept his voice as neutral as possible. “How did I do?”

“One of the most important things a man can know is when to quit,” Cade said, ignoring Noah’s question with his usual laser focus on making his own point. “Doesn’t matter if you’re a baseball player or the head of a corporation or a politician or anything else. You want to go out when you’re on top, or at the very least while you’ve still got people’s respect and your dignity is intact.”

Noah clamped down on his instinct to curse. “And you think I’m about to lose those things, do you?” he asked in a hard voice.

Levi grabbed Noah’s forearm and gave it a quick squeeze. “Dad didn’t say that, man. I think what he’s trying to do is ask whether it’s worth it to try to keep going, especially with this new shoulder issue. You’ve worked your ass off trying to get back to where you were before the surgery, but maybe you’ve done enough. Maybe it’s time to think about calling it a day. Does it make sense to have more rehab, maybe even more surgery, now that you’ve been demoted from starting to middle relief?”

Noah knew that Levi didn’t mean to stab him in the heart with that particular message, but that was pretty much the result. He’d been fighting those same thoughts non-stop, and to hear them come out of his brother’s mouth made the pain sharp and deep. He couldn’t deny that Levi had asked a damn good question.

Still, he couldn’t find it in him to answer in any coherent way.

His father, though, sensed they were making headway with him. He leaned forward, his craggy, distinguished features intent. “I’ll be sixty-five this year, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to still be working eighty hour weeks when I’m past seventy. The succession plan at Baron is clear. Our Board members are behind it. If you’re ready, you’ll have my chair when I leave. But we all know that you’ll need a good deal of seasoning before that can happen, Noah. Five or six years isn’t that much time—not when you need to head up at least one of the company’s divisions before taking my job.”

Noah shook his head. “I could work there twenty years and still not know half as much about the oil and gas business as you do. You should be able to find people in the company who are a lot better qualified than me to take over.”

All three men knew that Levi would never get the top job at Baron Energy, and even Noah could see why that made sense. Levi wasn’t temperamentally cut out for the CEO’s office, and their dad had made that clear to his younger son not long after Levi joined Baron. Over the years, Levi had grown to accept that hard truth, but Noah knew it remained a wound between father and son that would probably never fully heal. Levi had told him more than once that the only way he could stand not getting the top job was if his brother took it.

“No, there damn well aren’t,” his father brusquely replied. “And even if I
had
somebody that I could live with as the next president, I want to retire knowing that the leadership of the company is still in the family’s hands. In
your
hands, Noah.” His dark gaze, so like Noah’s own, narrowed even more. “I know you won’t let me down, son.”

He could see why his father thought he was making good sense. The timing was probably right,
if
Noah was ready to call his baseball career over and done. But he’d barely begun to think in those gruesome terms.

“Whatever decision I make is going to depend on what’s going on with my shoulder and the prognosis for when I’ll be able to make a full recovery. I can’t—I
won’t
—make any decisions until I have a better idea what’s happening on that front.” He switched his glance to Levi and then back to his father. “I hope you both get that. And I hope this discussion will be the last on that subject until such time as I tell you otherwise.”

His father gave him an odd smile he couldn’t quite interpret. “Fine. Let’s leave it there for now. But would you allow us to run an idea past you? One only tangentially related to the discussion you’ve just terminated?”

Noah shrugged. As if he had much choice. But before his father could elaborate, the server arrived and with their breakfasts. Glancing at his watch and noting that Teddy’s scheduled arrival was only minutes away, he started wolfing down his meal.

His father took a couple of bites and then put his fork down and wiped his mouth with the cloth napkin. “One of the reasons we made this trip was to meet with representatives of the other companies operating in the Marcellus region. You’re probably aware that there’s a coalition there that’s opposed to using fracturing technology anywhere in the state. They’re fighting for new regulations that would make it a damn sight harder and more costly to properly exploit the land leases our company has already signed.” He made a face that conveyed his disgust. “In fact, in a worst case scenario, there could be a state-wide moratorium declared on fracking, and God only knows when—or if—it would be lifted. That could spell an end to gas development in the Marcellus and would be some very bad news for Baron.”