Player: A Secret Baby Sports Romance (23 page)

I
f you ever have the
opportunity to wake up hung over after a five-day bender on a boat, I strongly suggest you tell that opportunity to go fuck itself.

Kyle’s yacht heaves in cadence with the rolling of my stomach. And during this, I’m sitting on the edge of the bed in the spare galley bedroom, holding my head in my hands and trying to see straight.

Jesus Christ.

The last five days have been a fucking
blur.
The morning after Natalie left, when I woke up to Buckley licking my face on the couch and the Waylon Jennings record spinning vinyl hiss on the stereo?

Yeah, that’s when it really sunk in. That’s when the storm hit.

My mom had come over later, wringing her hands and shaking her head.

“Look, Mom, get mad at me, not-”

“Oh, I AM,” she snaps, looking at me the way moms do when they’re mad at you more for making them HAVE to be mad at you.

“Austin, how could you?”

“The thing with the girl from the papers-”

“Oh my goodness, Austin, sweet Natalie having to READ about it like that? My goodness you should’ve seen her face, it’d have broken your heart!”

I know for a fact it would have.

“Mama, you gotta listen to me.” My mind is still foggy from the all-night whiskey and country music bender, but I look my mom right in the eye.

“It ain’t real. She’s lying just to make a name for herself or try to shake me down. I swear I never even went near that girl - not before Nat and sure as hell not after.”

Mom stops her fidgeting hands and nods. “Well good.”

“Doesn’t change anything.”

I slump down at the kitchen counter, trying not to think about the funny looks, the jokes, the stolen glances - all the interaction with that girl that happened in this very room.

Hell…spreading her out across this very counter in the most fantastic way.

Mom gives me a sad look. “Is she-”

“Gone? Yeah.” I nod at the legal folder with the papers half-spilling out, and my mom’s whole face falls.

“Oh…Lord, Austin.”

“Yeah.”

Mom runs her fingers over the rosary on her neck, but then she nods at me, looking calmer than I’d have expected.

“Natalie did what she thought she had to do, honey.”

I shake my head, dropping it to my hands.

“It’s hard, Austin - this life of ours on this earth. We don’t always get what we want, and I can tell you-”

Her face grows small as she looks down.

“We don’t always get to pick who we love, and even then, we don’t always get to choose who we stay with.” She looks up at me sadly, and I know who she’s talking about.

My father.

“Life isn’t always fair, Austin.”

I stand then, moving to my mom and hugging her tightly.

Funny how even as a grown-ass man, a hug from your mama feels like it can cure cancer.

“So,” I grumble. “How is Harry these days.”

Mom pulls away and half smiles. “I asked him to leave.”

My jaw drops. “Really?”

She nods.

“But sometimes life makes you choose, and you’ve got to do what you need to do. Natalie did.”

My jaw tightens. “So you’re saying she NEEDS to marry this asshole?”

Mom shoots me a look at the swear.

“Sometimes you’ve got to let the ones you love do what they need to do, even if means you’re not part of it.”

It was later that day when I signed the papers and sent them to my lawyer.

And after that is when I went off the deep end. After that is when I opened a bottle of bourbon, poured a drink, and then pretty much made that my game-plan for the next five days.

Kyle, being the good, true friend he is, joined in - at least for as long as he could. When you’re a forty-million-dollar arm-cannon who’s season hasn’t started yet, you can put in some days off. The FBI, however, seems to have a lower tolerance for fucking off from work to get wasted, and after Kyle’s second sick day, I think they called bullshit pretty fast.

Sort of took him off my slow-train to drunken oblivion.

I’d managed to drag him out last night though, which is why I’m here, struggling to be human as I sit in the dark galley of his boat.

Slowly, I manage to stagger up to the deck and breathe. It’s better up here with the fresh air. Kyle looks up from the bow, two coffees from the cafe in the marina sitting in front of his haggard looking face. He looks about as miserable as I feel.

“Remind me to never do that again,” he croaks out, bringing a trembling hand to one of the coffees and pushing it my way.

I wince as I look around the carnage of the top deck of the boat - beer bottles, two empty pizza boxes, and an assortment of half empty bottles of liquor.

I feel my stomach turn. “Which part?”

My eyes drop to the bag of weed open on the table between us, and I raise a brow.

Kyle follows my eyes and groans. “Yeah, great. Now I need to go on a fucking
cleanse
and call in some favors with the internal testing guys to make sure I get a pass for the next four weeks.” He glares at me as he sips his coffee. “Thanks for that.”

I scowl. “Hey, same here. And shit,
you
bought it.”

“I did?”

I slump into the padded bench across from him, gratefully inhaling the coffee. “Actually I have no idea.”

He grins and flips me off. I let my head dip back, closing my eyes and letting the LA sun beat down across my face.

“Austin Taylor?”

Kyle and I both turn to glance down over the edge of the boat at the sound of a woman’s voice.

I do a double take.

She looks vaguely familiar, dressed to the
nines
standing there on the dock in glittery heels and expensive looking jewelry.

“Uh, yeah?”

Goddamnit I am
not
in the mood for fucking Instagram selfies or whatever bullshit this is.

“Can I come up?”

Kyle mutters something as he stands. “Look, this is a private marina, miss, and we need you to respect Mr. Taylor’s priv-”

“Yeah, I’m not interested in a fucking autograph, or football at all for that matter.”

Damn, this girl has a mouth on her.

Kyle frowns. “Look, lady-”

“My name is Vivian Ames.”

My brow shoots up as Kyle and I look at each other.

“Yeah, uh, come on up,” he mutters when I nod at him.

Vivian looks disdainfully around the boat once she makes her way up the gangway.

Kyle clears his throat. “We, uh- we had a party.”

“Evidently.”

Her eyes drop to the bag of weed on the table, and I see her grin as Kyle hastily shoves it away.

I glance up at her, squinting through the hangover and the late morning sun. “So, look, whatever you’re here for-”

“Do you love my sister?”

The question takes me by surprise, and I frown, scratching my chin. “Excuse me?”

“It’s a simple question, Austin.” She holds me gaze, that same fiery look I recognize from her sister.

“It’s complicated.”

“It’s
not
, actually,” she snaps.

I narrow my eyes at her. “Look, she’s getting married.”

Vivian rolls her eyes. “
Clearly
I’m aware of that.” She gestures down at her dress, and the little bunch of flowers tied to her wrist, and suddenly my stomach drops.

“Wait,
today?!
”

She nods, and I drop back against the bench, grinding my teeth and staring at the floor.

“Send her my congratulations.”

Vivian sighs loudly, narrowing her eyes at me before darting them to Kyle. “May I speak
alone
with your friend here?”

Kyle starts to stand, but I shake my head. “Whatever you’ve gotta say, he can hear it.”

Her mouth goes smaller. “Austin, I think you’ll want to hear this privately.”

“I don’t see what could be so-”

“Natalie’s pregnant.”

Something inside of me breaks. Because,
now
I’ve really lost. I lost the girl, and now she’s having a damn kid with that fucking…

I can feel my vision swimming as I narrow my eyes at Natalie’s sister. “Jesus, why the
fuck
do you think I’d need to hear-”

“Because it’s
yours,
you big idiot!”

And
that’s
when the bottom drops out.
That’s
when the whole world comes to a screeching halt and shifts violently beneath my feet.

Vivian makes a face. “Jesus, did you think it’d be
Vince’s
? Good
God
no. Natalie’s been sleeping in the damn
guest room
for the last two weeks.”

I grin. It’s a weird, small victory, but I’ll take it.

“Look, my sister is carrying your child, and about to make the mistake of her life – for
you
I might add. I
thought
you might like to do something about that.”

I’m staring past her, through her, and out at the ocean, my head still trying to catch up and figure out what the hell to even say right now.

I’m going to be a father.

It’s both a world-shatteringly awesome feeling, and an utterly terrifying one wrapped up in one little bundle. And suddenly, I’m looking right up at Vivian, focusing on that last part of what she’s just said.

“Wait, what did you say?”

She frowns. “Which part?”

“The part about her making a mistake
for
me.”

Vivian looks away, but I stand and put my hand on her arm. “Vivian-”

“Vince made a deal with her.”

I can feel a cold, sinking feeling in my gut, my blood feeling chilled in my veins.

“
What
deal
.”

Vivian’s eyes grow sad as her mouth falls a little. “A trade, Austin,” she says quietly. “She went to Vince to settle whatever this debt was you had with his family.”

Holy. Fuck.

My feet feel unsteady, and my legs suddenly buckle as I drop right into the seat behind me.

She did it for me.

Vivian suddenly glances at her watch. “Look, the wedding is at St. Anselm’s in about forty-five minutes.” She looks up at me, and gives me the smallest little smile as she arches her brow.

“I think you should
do
something about it.”

My child.

Our
child.
Natalie’s having
our
child.

“Dude-”

Kyle’s poking me in the back but I wave him off. “Hang on-”

“
Austin.
”

I turn around this time to see Kyle’s eyes wide open as he stares at his phone. “What is it?”

He’s shaking his head, his jaw hanging open. “It’s an internal memo.” His eyes dart up to mine. “They’re officially bringing Lorenzo Capra into custody.”

“Who?” My brow shoots up. “Wait,
Capra?
As in-”

“My sister’s douchebag future father-in-law,” Vivian mutters.

I frown. “Yeah, well, apparently he’s mob connected or something. At least that’s what Natalie-”

“Austin.”

Kyle looks up at me sharply from the phone in his hand. “Your dad’s implicated in this.”

“You’re
joking
, right?”

“Dude, I’m reading it right here. He’s in the damn memo.”

I whistle. “Harry’s got himself under the microscope of the FBI? Shit, that’s-”

“You’re in the FBI?”

Kyle shoots me a look before nodding at Vivian.

“Uh, there’s more…” he trails off before he whistles lowly at the screen. “Austin,
you’re
in this.”

That cold chill creeps up my back again as I snap my eyes back to him. “I’m sorry,
what?
”

“That thing with your dad and the money?” Kyle looks up, grinning. “The ‘mistake’ Natalie’s making for you?”

“Kyle, I am in
zero
mood to be fucked with right-”

“There was no loan, man.”

What.

“It says here it was a shakedown - your dad and Vince’s family trying to blackball you for cash. They’ve got an inside source confirming. It’s one of the reasons we’re moving in.”

Kyle’s phone suddenly rings, and his face gets serious as he puts it to his ear.

“Reporting in, sir.”

I raise a brow questioningly.

“Yes, sir. I’m in the Venice Marina, I can be there in thirty minutes.”

Vivian pulls a phone out of her clutch and frowns at it. “Look is there a cab stand or something around here? I actually seriously need to get back. This debacle starts in like forty-five minutes.”

“St. Anselm’s in Malibu right?”

Vivian nods and I grimace. “Wedding’s in forty-five? That’s at
least
an hour and a half in traffic right now.”

Vivian swears, her eyes going wide. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me! She’s going to
kill
me if I’m not-
good LORD!
”

Her eyes go wide, and as I whirl back around to Kyle, my jaw suddenly drops at the sight of the silver and black .45 in his hand.

“Uh, buddy?” I nod at the gun in his hand, standing and backing towards Vivian.

He rolls his eyes as he snatches a plastic ID card on a chain from the boat’s glove box and slings it over his neck. “FBI, remember?”

“You carry a
gun?
”

“Yes?”

I wrinkle my brow. “But you’re like, a computer guy.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a computer guy with a gun who’s actually taking point on this raid,” he mutters. He turns back to to the wheel house, and the boat guns to life a second later.

“St Anselm’s is on the water,” he yells over the engine as he jumps to the side of the boat and starts casting mooring lines off.

“Uh, what the fuck are you doing?” Vivian looks at him wildly before turning to me.

Kyle cocks the gun, safeties it, and then sticks it into the back of his jeans as he gives Vivian possibly the smoothest look of his life.

“Grab onto something, beautiful, we’re about to take the express to this wedding.”

Vivian’s face goes flush, but she nods as she quickly takes a seat by the bow.

I slowly shake my head at him as he brushes past me for the wheel. “Dude, when did you become James Bond?”