Player: A Secret Baby Sports Romance (24 page)

He winks. “I’ve always been James Bond, it just looks a lot cooler with a gun instead of a laptop.”

He darts a look past me at Vivian and I give him a subtle nod and a thumbs up.

“Let’s do this.”

“Might I suggest a comb and brushing your teeth before you swoop in, by the way?” I turn to see Vivian giving me a once-over, raising her shaped brows at my jeans and the t-shirt I slept in. “Maybe a change of clothes?”

“I’m sorry, am I
going
to a fucking wedding or stopping one?”

Her face breaks into a grin as she shakes her head. “Oh, our mother is going to
love
you.”

Kyle snorts. “Really?”

“My mother thinks t-shirts are for ‘poor people’ and that tattoos make you a criminal.” She smirks as she shakes her head at me again. “Oh, right, and you knocked up her daughter.”

Vivian turns back to Kyle. “My mother is going to lose her goddamn
mind
when we show up like this.”

There’s a buzzing in my pocket, and I yank out my phone to see Derek calling.

“Yeah, Derek, this
really
isn’t a good-”

“It’s not yours,” he gasps out.

I frown, holding my finger to my ear over the roar of the boat. “
What?
”

“It’s not yours!” Derek sounds like he’s downright giggling into the phone. “Tina’s whole thing with the pregnancy!”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, no
shit
, Derek.” I frown. “Wait, what about the DNA tests?”

Derek wheezes out a laugh. “Are you sitting down?”

The boat lures over a wave.

“Uh, not really-”

“It’s your dad’s.”

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

“WHAT?”

Kyle and Vivian glance at each other and then look at me with concern at what I’m sure is a full-on insane look on my face.

“Austin?”

“I’m here.”

I swallow, slowly shaking my head trying to even process what Derek’s saying.

“Yeah, some plan they hatched up together – another cash shakedown. Her lawyer just called our team - looks like she wants to drop the whole thing.” Derek makes a hissing sound. “Fuck, man, I thought
I
had a weird relationship with
my
dad.”

“Yeah, well, Harry’s the father of the fucking year isn’t he.” I close my eyes and take a deep breath as the boat pitches beneath.

Relief.

“Look, Derek, I’ve actually gotta run, but thank you, seriously.”

“What the hell is that sound? Are you in a convertible or something?”

“Boat.”

“Well, we beat this one, but try not to do anything stupid.”

I don’t say anything and I can practically hear Derek scowl through the phone.

“
Austin-
”

“Derek, relax. I’m with Kyle and Natalie’s sister, on my way to break up a mob wedding. Call you later?”

“Austin! You fucking-”

I put the phone in my pocket.

Kyle gives me a look and I shrug. “Harry being fucking Harry. That Tina shit?”

He wrinkles his brow when he suddenly reads the look on my face as his jaw drops.

“No
fucking
way. She banged
Harry?
”

“Will one of you kindly fill me in?”

Kyle grins. “His scumbag dad knocked up an attention-seeking tabloid skank so they could shake Austin down for phony child support.”

Vivian gives me a half-disgusted, half-grinning look as she shakes her head. “I’m beginning to have second thoughts about which horse I’m backing here.”

“Seriously,” Kyle says, nodding at her. “
No
amount of money could be worth that.” He grins at me. “I mean, bringing another
you
into the world?”

Vivian snorts as I flip him off.

“Just drive the boat, asshole. We’ve got a wedding to ruin.”

W
here the hell is she
.

I’m pacing the floor of the dressing room for the four hundredth time, wringing my hands and cursing Vivian under my breath.

“Who cares if you left your phone at the hotel?”

She purses her lips. “I care, Natalie.”

“It’ll be there when you go back, you are NOT leaving me right now.”

Her eyes dart side to side as she bites her lip. “Look, I’ll be quick. I need it for pictures, after all!”

I groan, dropping my face to my hands. “Of THIS debacle? I’d rather you didn’t.”

And now here we are, two freaking hours later, minutes away from my walk to the gallows, and my
one
pillar of support is missing in action.

Fuck you, Vivian.

I glance at the wall clock again, feeling my pulse skip another beat as I see the time.

I swear to God, if she leaves me to do this myself I will NEVER forgive-

There’s a succinct knock on the door, and before I can even answer, it opens as my mother steps in. She beams, clasping her hands together as she sighs happily.

“Oh
Natalie
, you look just wonderful, darling!”

I hate this dress. It’s gaudy and overly-sequined, and nothing like the one Bernadette helped me picked out. I purse my lips together in silence, giving my mother a withering look.

“Oh, don’t give me that,” she says, her voice suddenly back to the flippantly cold and bored tone I’m familiar with. “Vincent is a perfectly suitable first husb-”

Her frown furrows as she shakes her head.

“Well, second.”

This isn’t happening.

I mean it is, in about ten minutes actually by the sound of the string quartet out in the church. And in a way, I’ve resigned myself to this. Like the five stages of grief, I’m on to “acceptance” of my fate as
Mrs.
Capra.

Austin was my escape. He was my last shot, my walk on the wild side and my experience in breaking free of the part I’d been born to play.

And that couldn’t last.

I look away from my mother then, trying to subtly fan my face as I feel the tears start to brim at the corners of my eyes.

“Oh,
honey.
”

And suddenly my mother’s arms are around me, bringing me into her and squeezing me tight. “Don’t cry, sweetheart, you’ll smudge your makeup.”

She pulls way from me, a look on her face that actually looks close to
tender
- like she actually cares. She smiles weakly as she dabs at my eyes with a tissue, and it’s maybe the most motherly thing she’s done in years.

“You make
yourself
happy, Natalie,” she says quietly. “Happiness isn’t about someone else, or being
with
someone else.”

“Mom, I don’t love Vince,” my voice all but breaks as I suck in a lungful of air, trying to steady myself.

“Marriage, love,” she waves her hand flippantly as she shakes her had. “It’s all a
means
, honey.”

“Do you love Monty?”

She gives me a sharp look, her lips pursed.

“Did you love Dad?”

She looks away. “We saw what happened there,” she says, her voice edged.

“I just wanted something different, Mom.”

She turns, slowly shaking her head as if mulling something over. “What we want and what life gives us aren’t always the same thing, honey.”

“I can’t do this.” I
hate
how small my voice is as the words come out, like I’m a little girl all over again with my mother telling me that I
do
in fact have to go to my etiquette class.

She smiles as her hands slide up my arms to squeeze my shoulders. “You
can
. You’re a smart, confident young woman, Natalie. Believe me, you
will
make yourself happy in this world, no matter who’s standing by your side.

There’s a quick knock on the door, and my mother frowns as she turns.

“Yes?”

It opens, and one of the ushers pokes his head inside.

“Ms. Ames?”

Oh, God.

“It’s time.”

* * *

T
he grip
on my arm is firm, unyielding - a shackle reminding me that there’s no escape from this more than the comforting touch it
should
be before I walk down the aisle at my own wedding.

In lieu of my father, it’s somehow been deemed appropriate for Vince’s
father, Lorenzo, to give me away.

“I’m pleased you came to your senses concerning my son, Natalie,” Lorenzo says icily.

I nod, saying nothing.

“We all make mistakes, Natalie,” he lectures on. “The important thing is that you
atone
for those mistakes.” He turns and smiles coldly at me as he pats my hand. “I believe a grandson for me would move things in the right direction. Don’t you agree?”

I nod again, my mouth still tight as the blood pounds in my ears.

My pulse spikes with dread as the string quartet inside the church begins to play Pachelbel’s Canon in D - the wedding march that might as well be a funeral dirge at this point. The doors open, and the crowd turns to look at me.

One foot in front of the other, you can do this.

I close my eyes for a second, taking a thin breath.

You HAVE to do this.

I can feel the eyes of everyone in the church piercing right into me. I shiver and put a hand reflectively over my stomach. I’m obviously not showing yet, but its like they all
know.

And where the
hell
is Vivian? I’m scanning the alter, seeing the hole between Vince’s sister-in-law and one of his cousins up there where my
one
friendly face should be standing.

But she’s not there. My own
sister
wants no part of this sham, and I almost can’t even blame her.

Lorenzo tugs on my arm, pulling me forward down the aisle like a gallows walk. And all I can do is put one foot in front of the other, and try not to think about what comes at the end of it. I’m wishing for all the world that this wedding and my last one were reversed - that I was blackout drunk for
this
one.

And I wish to everything that I could remember the first.

“Here we are, dear,” Lorenzo says gruffly, turning to give me a brief hug as if we’re family already.

I can’t breathe.

“Do
not
disappoint me, or my son,” he says sharply into my ear.

I shiver as I turn to see Vince, standing beside the priest three steps above me on the alter. He’s not smiling, like he’s not happy to see me on this day. He’s
smirking
- gloating, like he’s won.

And maybe he has. Maybe I played the game of love and I-

I freeze as the word sticks in my brain.

Love
.

It’s nothing I’ve ever said out loud throughout this whole thing - not a word I’ve even really
thought
until this every moment.

Love
.

I say it again in my head, feel the raw heat of it spreading through my body as the word sits there inside my head. And it’s like the sudden crack of ice beneath your feet as it suddenly hits me.

I
loved
Austin. God, no, I
do
love Austin. More than anything I’ve ever felt in this world, I know without a second’s hesitation that it’s utterly and completely true.

The cocky, crude mouth, those piercing hazel eyes, that confident cowboy smile. The way he both infuriates me and sets me afire in ways I’ve never felt. The way he gets in under my skin in such a way that I never want him to leave it. The way for the first time in my entire life, I felt like I
belonged
somewhere - with the last man on this planet I should belong with.

I love him, and here I am at the alter about to sign my life and my heart to another man.

It’s the final, crushing blow before the tears just start to fall. It’s knowing I came so close to something wonderful, and knowing I can’t ever get back there. It’s knowing how wrong this is, and how
unfair
it is to lose like this.

It’s knowing I lost
him
.

I’m floundering, there at the bottom of the three steps up the alter, when Vince’s cousin and his brother’s wife quickly move to help me up.

“I know! It’s like a fairytale isn’t it!” His cousin gushes in my ear, obviously mistaking my meltdown as tears of happiness.

Vince grabs my arm as I finally make my way up to stand in front of him. “There, there, don’t be so emotional,” he mutters through his fake smile at me.

“Dearly beloved!”

The priest begins, but I almost don’t even hear the words as everything starts to fade around me. I don’t hear the verses from Corinthians, or the quote from Ephesians. I don’t hear the asking for the rings, and its not until Vince physically grabs my arm and gives me a small shake that I look up through my tears.

“She’s emotional,” he says brusquely to the concerned looking priest.

“Follow through, Natalie,” he mutters through the plastic grin on his face, pushing the ring onto my finger.

I shiver.

The priest clears his throat. “Ah, well then. Do
you
, Vincent Salvatore Capra take this woman to be your lawfully wedded-”

“I do,” Vince says sharply, cutting him off.

The priest turns to me. “And do
you
, Natalie Elizabeth Ames, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

The silence is deafening.

I’m blinking as I try and make my brain connect with my lips. But I’m not seeing Vince standing in front of me anymore. I’m seeing what
was
- what I almost had.

With Austin.

Vince grabs my wrist. “
Natalie
,” he hisses, his eyes looking furious as a murmur starts to ripple through the church.

And I
can’t breathe.

“Uh, my dear?” The priest is smiling awkwardly at me.

“I-”

I swallow, feeling what feels like pressure slowly closing in on my throat as my pulse comes in short, staccato beats.

“Say the
fucking words,
Natalie,” Vince growls.

“I-”

There’s a sharp
bang
from the back of the church, and I hear a horrified gasp from the crowd.

“No, she doesn’t.”

It’s that honeyed, drawled voice - the one I know, the one that’s buried deep in my head and my heart. And I know it’s him even before I turn towards the last man I ever expected to see again.

Austin.

“
What?!
” Vince sputters, pushing me aside and taking a step towards Austin, standing at the back of the church by the doors.

“I said
no
, she doesn’t.”

There’s another almost comically loud gasp through the crowd, and I glance over to see my mother clutching at her pearls.

“You’re a dead man, Taylor!” Vince screams, his face bright red and frothing up on the alter.

The crowd suddenly
shrieks
, and I’m still gasping for air as I whirl to see Lorenzo standing from the first pew and pulling a gleaming silver pistol out of his suit coat. His eyes narrow at Austin as he suddenly levels the gun right at him. “Get this
redneck
piece of trash out of-”

There’s a sound like a
bomb
going off, and suddenly every door to the church crashes in as men in black fatigues and jackets with the letters “FBI” stenciled across them come charging in, guns raised. And there at the front of them is…
Kyle?

What the HELL is going on here?

“Lorenzo Capra!” Kyle roars, as two other agents wrestle Vince’s dad to the floor and kick the gun away from him.

“You are under arrest by the United States Government on the charges of racketeering, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit fraud!”

What?

I can feel my knees go weak, and the world starts to spin as my vision starts to fade. And I’m clawing at my neck, my other hand tight across my belly as I suddenly start to tumble.

And then I’m gasping as I feel Vince’s hands close around my wrists, shaking me. Austin roars as he charges the stage, and I’m dimly aware of him tackling Vince to the ground before suddenly he’s just
there
, right in front of me. His face is tight as his arms go around me, lifting me up as my head spins.

“Medic! Kyle! Get a fucking medic!”

“Hang on, princess,” he whispers, his lips brushing mine. “Hang on.”

I look up at him dreamily as the world starts to go dim. “You came?”

“Of course I did,” he says hoarsely, his face tight.

My voice sounds distant, like I’m in a dream. “But I divorced you.”

He grins. “Well, where I come from, paper-napkin contracts mean a
lot
.”

I’m laughing, at least, I think I am, as the world starts to fade.

“I- I need to tell you something,” I say suddenly as my hand slides across my stomach.

“I know.” His hand entwines with mine across my belly as he nods quickly. “I know, princess.”

“Thanks for rescuing me, cowboy.”

And it’s the last thing I remember before there are faces above me, a light in my eyes, and the whole scene goes dark.