The Lucky Charm (The Portland Pioneers) (26 page)

Ignoring the twinge of humiliation, Izzy spoke up again. “Sir?”

He was annoyed now, Izzy realized, as his gaze snapped to her. “I don’t understand why you persist in believing that
your
opinion is either solicited or right,” he said, and Izzy had to swallow the retort that despite his
own
opinion, she wasn’t an idiot.

Attending every game, she’d have to be blind to miss the fact that Jack’s star was rising. The number of Bennett jerseys she saw seemed to multiply at an exponential rate, and he drew the most attention of any player by far. Plus, there was the All Star voting that had been released yesterday, with him in the lead at second base. It was a huge coup for someone who hadn’t been all that well known before this year—and she knew exactly why it had happened. He’d been tearing it up at the plate and playing in the field with a drive and intensity that defied explanation. It seemed like every night he was being featured on ESPN’s “Web Gems” for some ridiculously impossible play, and his name was on the lips of every member of the sports media she talked to. Yet, Toby sat there and told her that striking now on the Corey Rood story wasn’t a given.

The only conclusion Izzy could draw was that he must think she was stupid beyond educating or really, saving. Considering how hard she’d worked to do everything he’d asked of her, that
really
stung. Unfairness bubbled up inside, and she was so sick of swallowing it all back again.

“No offense, but I do believe my assessment of the situation is accurate. Jack Bennett is a highly desirable commodity and we’re just sitting on a story about him that will go national if we ever decide to air it.”

Izzy offered up an unsaid apology to Jack, who she was pretty unashamedly using to make her point. If he’d acted like he gave even half a shit about this Corey Rood story in the last two months, she’d have pushed a fraction less for Toby to run it, but he hadn’t mentioned it once. She hadn’t
asked
him specifically, but Izzy figured his silence was about as good of a green light as she was going to get. Besides, it wasn’t really all that bad for him; sure, it made him look goofy and a little strange, but she believed with the right treatment, Corey Rood was going to look just as fanatically crazy.

Toby leaned back in his chair, considering her as if she was a bug under a magnifying glass and he just couldn’t wait to fry her under the next convenient ray of sunshine.

“There’s your problem. I don’t pay you to ‘assess,’ Dalton; I pay you to show up in front of the camera, give the boys at home something pretty to look at and then go home.”

Izzy tried telling herself that all this work she’d put in to understand baseball was now moot, and that she could stop trying so damn hard, but she
liked
learning, had liked the feeling she was, slowly but surely, making herself a better reporter. He was going to take that away from her, and she didn’t know how to stop him.

“I understand,” she choked out, hating the lie as it left her lips.

“Excellent. This is all so much better when you don’t fight me, Isabel. Now, as for the job you
are
responsible for…” He paused, opened one of his desk drawers and slid the paper he’d selected over the desk. She leaned forward and stared at the photograph he’d given her.

It was a stock CV photo, with the name “Tabitha King” inscribed on the top.

Izzy glanced up at her boss, and tried to keep her voice level. “She’s beautiful.”

It was a gross understatement. The woman in the photograph was undeniably gorgeous, with a heart-shaped face and a sweet smile that promised a lady in the office and a devil everywhere else. Her eyes were blue, her hair blonde, and she was pretty much the personification of every single one of Izzy’s nightmares.

“Just so you know how high the bar is.”

He didn’t have to say how far she was from meeting it; Izzy knew she could never compete with Tabitha on looks. She’d never wanted to. All she wanted was to use her brain to contribute
something
.

“You and I both know this is never going to happen if that’s what you want from me,” Izzy finally said, feeling herself die a little with each word. Each time she met with Toby, she thought she’d hit rock bottom, but it turned out the hole was deeper than she’d ever thought possible. “But I’m smart. I could be more than just window dressing. If you’d let me.”

Toby leaned forward now, clasping his meaty hands together on the desktop. “A sweet sentiment, but for the final time, Dalton,
no
.” His eyes bored into her, narrowed and dull, she realized.
Dead
. She definitely wasn’t the greatest reporter, but that alarm in her head was dinging as she stared into Toby’s empty eyes.

“What do you want me to tell Corey Rood, then?”

“Keep stringing him along. He might be pissed, but he wants the story on air bad enough that he’ll deal with it.”

He’d picked up the picture she’d slid back toward him and was absorbed in studying it, his gaze rapacious and possessive. Barely holding back a shudder, Izzy slid to the edge of her chair, hoping their meeting was finally over.

“Is there anything else?” she asked, but Toby just gave her an absentminded shrug.

He could barely tear his eyes away from the damn picture, Izzy realized as she stood up, and wasn’t that just the creepy icing on the cake of this god-awful meeting?

While she’d been in the meeting from hell, Jack had texted her, and as Izzy opened the message, she felt a tiny thrill of excitement that he’d sent it despite knowing she’d be with Toby. It was horribly reckless, she knew, but somehow, also horribly exciting. Maybe if Toby wasn’t such a prick, she wouldn’t feel so good about deceiving him right under his nose.

Dinner. The bench. 7 PM. Bring beer.

She smiled, and started to text him back as she walked through the hallways to the exit.

“Izzy?” She glanced up and saw Pilar Richardson heading her way.

“Looks like you’re on your way out. I’m glad I caught you,” Pilar said with a frank smile.

Izzy slid her phone into her bag. The last thing Pilar needed to see was her confirming a date with Jack. “I was. What’s up?”

“Next week, Sport Cares is sponsoring a trip to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, to their cancer ward. Hector is coming. Would you be interested?”

She froze. She hated hospitals, the antiseptic smell and their cold white walls, and that was only one reason she’d switched her major from pre-med to journalism.

“Also, I thought it would be a good time to ask a player to join us. Do you think you could suggest it to him?” Pilar asked with a conspiratorial smile.

Izzy wanted to believe there was nothing but charity in Pilar’s heart, but there was a knowing edge to her voice. “Um, I don’t know any of them all that well. Wouldn’t it be better coming from you? You
are
their manager’s wife.”

“Exactly. I don’t want them to come because they feel obligated to say yes. This is about recruiting them long term for Sport Cares.”

Panic was welling up inside of her, but Izzy kept the easy smile on her face through sheer force of will. “I’ll do what I can, of course. Who did you have in mind?”

“Jack Bennett.”

Even though she’d known it was coming, Izzy still barely kept her expression in place. There was no possibility that Pilar continued to be in the dark. It was all just a
little
too convenient.

“An interesting choice. Why Jack?

“He doesn’t have his own charity,” Pilar replied sweetly. “It’s so much easier to secure an athlete’s endorsement if they aren’t already occupied with their own organization.”

“Right,” Izzy said, and she had to give Pilar a lot of credit. This all seemed perfectly legitimate, but there was definitely
something
in her innocent smile that told an entirely different story. And that story made it impossible to say no, hospital or no hospital.

“So you’ll talk to him?”

Unfortunately, Izzy didn’t have a lot of choice, and Pilar knew it. She’d neatly boxed Izzy into a corner, and she couldn’t back out of it without throwing more suspicion onto herself. “Of course. I’d be happy to,” she lied.

“I knew you were the right girl for the job,” Pilar replied with a knowing smile.

“Always glad to help.” Izzy could only hope that Pilar’s gratitude would be enough to keep her silent.

It was the right thing to do to tell Jack that Pilar had somehow discovered their secret, but as they sat together on the bench watching the sunset and sharing a pizza, Izzy remembered that right didn’t always equal easy.

She picked at the slice of pizza in her hand, halfheartedly snagging a piece of pepperoni and flipping it into her mouth. Jack was going to notice something was up any minute now, considering that since her conversation with Pilar, her appetite had seriously gone on the fritz.

“Bad meeting?” he asked, nudging her knee with his. “What did Toby say this time?”

“Nothing, really. It wasn’t bad.” That was not exactly true, but despite the fact that Pilar was about a million times nicer than Toby, it was the former, not the latter, that was on her mind.

“You’re not eating,” Jack stated matter-of-factly. “In my experience, when you’re not eating, there’s something wrong. And that something is usually Toby.”

Izzy glanced up at Jack’s concerned expression, his blue eyes gazing intently at her face, as if her fine-ness was all he cared about. Though he’d never come out and actually said that it was, she thought he probably believed that was the case, and the fact that she couldn’t say a simple thing like “Pilar knows we’re involved, and she’s probably going to tell her husband, who just happens to be your boss,” made her feel like the worst person in the world.

He would definitely tell her, she knew. He would’ve called her on his way over, not wasting a single moment. And how did she repay his loyalty and his unspoken devotion? She clammed up and couldn’t bring herself to say a word.

“Actually, it was more of an interesting meeting than anything else. He showed this picture of Tabitha King and practically waxed rhapsodic about how beautiful she was.” Izzy paused, nudging a stick with her toe, not meeting his eyes because she couldn’t really—not when she was deliberately not telling him the truth. “And she really
is
.”

Jack’s face settled into hard lines. “Why was he talking about Tabitha?”

Izzy shrugged. “Why does Toby do anything? As far as I can tell, he left the rational part of his career behind a good ten years ago.”

The intensity of Jack’s moody expression didn’t fade, despite her flippant tone, and he’d become totally absorbed in mashing a twig with the toe of his shoe until all that remained was a handful of wooden bits. “I’d guess that all this is the reason why she got away with so much last year.”

“The reason?”

“His obsession, Iz.” His tone was impatient. Then he glanced up at her, as if curiosity had gotten the better of him. “What did he say when he showed you the picture?”

“Something about how beautiful she was. Mostly in comparison to how beautiful I’m not.” She’d not meant the last part to come out so wryly, and definitely hadn’t meant it to sound like a passive-aggressive plea for validation, but Jack seemed to understand her in an intuitive way that nobody ever had before. Instead of judgment, she got a wry chuckle.

“I bet he’d be pretty damn surprised if I told him that you’re far more beautiful than she ever was.”

Izzy barely refrained from rolling her eyes at his obviously preferential treatment. “Is this your treatise on inner beauty?”

“Hardly.” He paused, pulverizing more of the bark bits until they were nearly dust. “I mean it. You’re gorgeous, and every time Toby makes you question it, I want to slam his head against a wall.” Jack’s fists clenched together, as if he was actually imagining the play-by-play in his head and Izzy realized he really
meant
it. He believed every single word he was saying, and even though she’d been trying to steel herself against his charm and his ridiculously blue eyes, she felt herself fall just a little deeper. At some point, she knew she’d wake up one morning and she’d be so far gone there was no climbing out.

“Thank you,” she said, though the words didn’t seem adequate.

“You’re welcome,” he said, grinning.

Staring out at the orange-red sky, she couldn’t help but go back to what he’d initially said. “You said Toby let Tabitha get away with everything. What exactly did she do?”