Wrapped Up: A Triple Threat Sports Romance (9 page)

Brooke

Something had changed since the previous night. Jake didn’t seem as physical all of a sudden. He seemed to be taking our arrangement more seriously, and, beyond that, he seemed to be taking
us
more seriously. I wasn’t sure if it was just the after effects of the sex or if he really was being genuine. When he rushed me out of view of the photographers who stormed us as we entered the restaurant, I definitely noticed the change in his demeanor. He had come to me looking for a girlfriend to impress his boss with a more positive image, and when the time came for someone to notice that image, he moved to protect me from it.

I figured if I was going to be the wife of a professional football player, I needed to get used to the public life. Still, it was quite a shock to be hounded by photographers and would-be reporters asking questions about who I was, what we were doing, and what was going on with his injury.

It made me that much more curious about what he wanted to talk to me about. It must have been pretty important to warrant putting us in a situation where we would be hounded by the paparazzi just for trying to have dinner together in a public place.

“Sorry about that back there,” he apologized once we were seated.

“No, really, it’s okay,” I told him. “I should have expected it. A little warning would have been nice, but at least now I know for next time.” I couldn’t stay angry at him any longer. He had tried to shield me from the prying eyes and invasive questions. It didn’t quite make up for the mistake we had made or for his showing up at work to try to talk about it, but it was a start.

The restaurant was a step in the right direction as well. It was very atmospheric and quiet. The dimly lit booths felt very private. It felt like we were the only two people in the restaurant, despite the fact that almost every table had been seated. Jake ordered red wine, and it arrived quickly, taking the rest of the edge off with the first sip. I felt myself relax the rest of the way. And I realized we weren’t talking. I assumed the whole point of our date was to talk about whatever had been so important that he’d felt the need to interrupt me at work that afternoon.

“So, now that you’ve brought me out to this romantic candlelit restaurant and started working on getting me liquored up with wine, what did you want to talk about tonight?” I ventured to ask him.

“There’s so much to talk about,” he said thoughtfully, almost distracted by what was on his mind.

“We have all night, so go ahead,” I assured him.

“About last night,” he started. “I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you like that.”

I didn’t know what to say. I looked down at my glass as I drank from my wine. I felt embarrassed for the way I had run off, but I still felt like the night before had been a mistake. We definitely shouldn’t have crossed that line, but I couldn’t deny the satisfaction I had received from it.

“I owe you more than just trying to use our arrangement to get you in bed,” he continued.

I was torn between telling him that occasional sex was necessary for keeping up appearances and telling him we would have to satisfy our urges a different way, possibly with other people. I didn’t have time for this to turn into us falling in love with each other. I had a company to take over, and he had his own career to think about.

“You don’t owe me anything,” I finally said.

“No, I do. You’re more than just a business partner, Brooke,” he confessed.

“I know you probably feel that way right now, but I can’t be more than just a partner in this. This is just supposed to be a business arrangement. Let’s not try to rush into anything else from it, okay?” I took a deep breath after I finished, surprised that I had let myself say all of that.

He sighed. “You’re right. And speaking of business, I might have hit a snag in my career.”

“A snag in your career?” I asked. I didn’t like the sound of that. If he didn’t need me for his career, I couldn’t guarantee that he would stick with the marriage plan.

“Yeah, this injury. It’s possible it could be pretty serious. I’ve got to go back to see the doctors in a few weeks to see how I’m healing. If I’m not making enough progress, I could be out for the rest of the season, maybe even longer.”

I could see that it really bothered him just to talk about it. I wasn’t sure why he felt comfortable enough to bring it up at dinner like he was, but I was touched that he felt like he could open up to me. Maybe we were more than just business partners, I started to think.

“You’ll be fine,” I tried to reassure him.

“I’m sure I will be. See, what’s really bugging me is that even if this injury turns out to be nothing, who’s to say the next one won’t be
the one
, you know? It happens all the time. Guys get injured at the top of their game and they’re out,” he said, and the worry was all over his face. He really was upset by his injury.

“If you’re worried about it, go ahead and start looking into what you can do for the team off of the field. You have a degree in marketing, right?”

He nodded.

“Use that to see what other services you can provide. Find some way you can still work for the team. You’re the total package. You have experience on the field. You have a valuable degree. And you have star power because of your record over the last few years,” I explained to him, watching the expression on his face as he took in my advice.

“I think I’ll go talk to Coach at the training facility tomorrow and see what I can do while I’m on the bench. I just thought my career would end. You know, you see a lot of these guys end up in sports journalism, and I just couldn’t see myself doing that.”

“Well, there’s a lot more to it than just playing on the field and reporting on the teams,” I told him. “Teams put a lot of work into creating an image, working with the community, and so many other things. Surely, you can find some way to put that education you got to work for you while still being part of the team.”

I could tell he really appreciated my advice and business insight. I had been employed by my father’s company for the last ten years, but I could remember the day he started it. I grew up watching everything that went into running the business, and it was pretty much the same with every business, no matter the industry, I was certain.

We talked more as we ate dinner. He had been vulnerable when he came home from the game with the injury, but that had been a physical kind of vulnerability that threatened his image as the hotshot pro athlete. The vulnerability I was witnessing in him at that moment was deeper and more emotional. He was opening his heart to me and letting me see what was really bothering him.

Whatever was left of my anger and confusion from the night before had melted away. I was no longer sure of why I had been upset with him for it in the first place. With our emotional connection deepening, it just seemed like an inevitability that we would end up in bed together again before it was all said and done.

He paid for dinner and walked me out to the car, where his driver waited with the door open for us. We were going to have to work on the perpetual use of his driver every time we left the house, but it was also nice to have someone act as a buffer between us and the few photographers who had waited for us while we were inside the restaurant.

My heart was melting for him the whole car ride home. I sat next to him and held his strong hand in mine. My heart wasn’t the only thing that was wet. Despite how awful it was for us to be mixing emotions up in our arrangement, I had enjoyed sleeping with him, and I caught myself wanting him again in the car.

Once we got to the house, he walked me straight to my room. At my door, our bodies pressed against each other again, and I knew, I just
knew
, we were about to kiss and start the whole process all over again. My body ached for him. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t help it. He had awakened old emotions inside the restaurant by opening himself to me so fully, with such genuine honesty that I was defenseless against him.

“I had a good time tonight,” he said in a low tone, heavy with desire and the hint of something deeper, something I wasn’t sure I wasn’t just imagining.

“I did, too. We should do it again sometime.” I gave him a suggestive smile. I playfully pulled on his suit jacket, holding him in place against me. I pressed my hips against his. I could feel him hardening for me. I wanted him again.

“We should,” he agreed, taking my face gently in his big, strong hands. He leaned in and delicately kissed me. Our lips pressed together lightly, and he slowly pulled away.

I tried to follow, leaning into his kiss as he pulled away from me, not ready for it to end. I wanted more, more than just a kiss good night, but that was all I was getting.

“Good night, Brooke,” he said with a warm look in his eyes.

“Good night.” I reluctantly let go of my fiancé and watched as he walked away, leaving me at my door, fully clothed and physically unsatisfied.

I asked myself what I really expected from him after everything I had said earlier in the evening. After our conversation about taking things too quickly with sex, I really shouldn’t have expected him to give in to our desires.

I couldn’t deny how much I wanted him, though, which meant that his new approach, his emotional appeal to me, was working. I couldn’t tell if it was as genuine as it seemed or if he was just trying to take another route to get into my pants again.

I couldn’t let myself fall for him all over again. We had already decided to essentially stamp our arrangement with an expiration date right from the start. It was wrong to play with each other the way we were.

I went into my room and locked the door. I didn’t need him creeping into the room in the middle of the night to check on me or try to climb into my bed and allow us to indulge in our desires.

As I undressed for bed, I watched the door. Part of me hoped to see him try the knob to enter. I slept in just my panties. If he
did
decide to come in to see me in the middle of the night, I wanted him to have fairly easy access to me. I doubted he would try, since he seemed to be pursuing me a different way, but I wanted to be prepared just in case.

Jake

“I will be more than happy to make an appearance,” I told the event coordinator at the local children’s hospital. She was scheduling a fundraising event for childhood cancer and asked if I would make an appearance to help draw attention to the charity. I figured at the very least it would give me the opportunity to visit with some of the sick children at the hospital and possibly brighten a few kids’ days.

I had taken Brooke’s advice, and for about a week, I had been working in what we called our front office. My celebrity status as a star player was keeping me busy with community appearances and charity events, which was great because it drew attention to the organizations we were partnering up with, but it was also drawing attention to the team.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the kind of career behind me to support a lifetime of celebrity. I only had a few years behind me, which meant my celebrity status was eventually going to fade away. A few years down the road, I saw myself becoming
that guy
, the used-up former pro athlete still trying to live off his glory days and remain relevant.

I had to find something else to do for when the day came when my celebrity status wouldn’t continue paying the bills. I had never thought about it before, but there was a future beyond football. And it was starting to look like Brooke was going to be part of that future, regardless of what our little arrangement was supposed to be.

I needed to make sure I had a way to support her and take care of her once I was no longer playing on the field. She was right. I needed to find other ways to play for the team. I also needed to heal so I could get back on the field as soon as possible. I needed to play as long as I could to maximize the pull my name would have after I retired, whether I was forced to due to an injury or I chose to because it was just time.

I called another local charity organization to offer my services. It was a community group that worked with a local homeless shelter. They were raising money to prepare for winter. They provided services to keep people off the streets during the coldest months of the year, but those services weren’t free. Cots, blankets, food, clothes, and the power to run the place all came at a price. The shelter had some public funds at their disposal, but they relied on private donations every year to make sure they were able to help as many people as possible. It wasn’t always just the homeless who needed their services.

“Hey, you play on the team with Harley Marks, right? He’s your quarterback, isn’t he?” the program coordinator asked after I introduced myself.

“That’s right,” I told her.

“Would Harley be available for this event?” she asked me.

At first it shocked me that she made the request. She was the first one to have asked for another one of my teammates. That was when it occurred to me that even once my own star power had run out, I would be able to continue doing what I was currently doing for the team permanently. If every player who was available for charity appearances had to make the phone calls, make the contacts, and arrange everything themselves, it would be incredibly difficult to schedule any appearances, like I was doing for myself.

“I’m not sure, but I will gladly check,” I told her.

I knew we had to have someone who currently did the job of scheduling public appearances for the team, but I had no idea who it was or how they operated. I did know that after making a handful of phone calls, I had scheduled more community appearances for myself than I remembered us organizing for anyone on the team in the few years I’d been playing for them.

I had to come up with my own system for reaching out to my teammates to help set them up with these opportunities. I knew I would figure something out, but the realization that I could be doing it for other people associated with the team was pretty exciting.

I took my ideas to Coach Hawkins.

“Hey, Coach, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Yeah, sure, step into my office.” I caught him on a rare break, when he wasn’t pushing someone on the field or in the gym.

We stepped into his small office. It wasn’t much more than a closet with a desk and a computer. He didn’t need more than the space he had because he almost never used it. To the rest of us, it seemed like a cramped space, but Coach seemed perfectly comfortable in there.

“We’ve got an events coordinator already, right?” I asked him, just making sure.

“Not really. We do have someone handling PR, but scheduling events like you’re doing right now is only part of what she does,” he explained.

“Depending on the outcome of my injury, I’d like to possibly take over that position,” I told him.

“Depending on your injury?” He raised an eyebrow. “Let’s get you checked out by the doctors first, Jake. If they say you can get back in the game, you’re going back in the game and forgetting about all of what you’re doing right now. If they tell you to stick to the bench, we’ll talk about your future with the team.”

My blood turned to ice. I hated phrases like
your future with the team
. It always sounded like a decision had already been made when someone resorted to such a dismissive phrase. I decided to make my case right then and there. I knew there was a possibility I would be going back onto the field in a couple of weeks, and at that point nothing I said to Coach in our little meeting would matter, but if I didn’t make it back onto the field, I needed him to keep what I was saying to him in mind.

“With my marketing degree and my record on the field, I think I’d make an excellent spokesperson for the team as either the head of PR or an events coordinator. After only a week of scheduling appearances and working with local community and charity organizations, I’ve got more appearances lined up for myself than I’ve seen the team schedule as a whole for the entire season. I’ve also got a request to get Harley out to one of the events coming up, but I’ll need to work that out with him,” I explained.

“Well, there’s a reason why you don’t see active team members doing a whole lot of these events during football season, genius. I need you guys on the field, not running around and smiling for the cameras,” argued Coach.

“Remember that whole positive image thing we talked about the other day?” I asked him.

“Of course.” He sighed. He could already tell where I was going with this.

“The way I see it, these appearances would help a lot with that positive public image issue we’re having. Of course, I could work around the game and training schedules, and since we’re technically still part of the team even on the off-season, I could schedule more appearances then just to help keep us relevant. Who knows? It might even be a great marketing strategy to help us win over fans who aren’t typically football fans.”

While I spoke, it occurred to me that all of what I was saying was essentially common sense from marketing and PR standpoints. And I was sure other teams had to be using the strategy I was explaining to Coach Hawkins already. It just made sense once I took the time to think about it, and it amazed me that I never thought about it before.

I had always been so concerned with what was going on out there on the field every day at practice or every Sunday at the game. My time off the field had been preoccupied with girls and the network we had set up. Sure, I had a multi-million-dollar deal with the team, but the network was like a separate multi-million-dollar deal every season.

Between my injury and having Brooke in my life again, my mind was open to the possibility of not having those things anymore. There weren’t lines of women trying to get in bed with me. I wasn’t killing it on the field, and I knew I couldn’t count on that forever. I wasn’t involved with the guys as much this season because I was working on the whole positive image issue. Normally, we met once a week, but I had the sneaking suspicion that the guys were meeting without me. The direction of my career was changing, and so was my lifestyle. I didn’t know how to explain to my coach that I felt the need to start seriously considering the future.

“You’re completely right, and I’ll pass any ideas you have off to the right people, but I need you on the field, Jake. I need you to focus on healing so when the doctors check you out, they give you a clean bill of health and let you get back to doing what you’re good at, which is kicking ass and taking names for us out there.” He pointed out towards the practice field.

“I understand,” I said, nodding. He wasn’t ready to face my career’s mortality like I was doing.

“Now, you’re not out yet. Let’s not start talking like you are. I think you’ve done enough for today. Why don’t you go on home and get some rest? I’d really like to say I don’t expect you back here until you come in to see the doctor again, but I know that’s not going to happen. Just be careful,” he said. He patted me on the shoulder as he walked by, leaving me alone in his cramped office.

The idea, I supposed, was that I would leave after he made it clear the conversation was over. I was tempted, instead, to go back to work in the front office. I had to have something to do to keep myself occupied. Otherwise, I was just going to obsess over the fact that I wasn’t playing and wasn't over Brooke.

I had been devoting a little more attention to her over the last several days, trying to win her over and keep her from freaking out over the things that had been written about us in the tabloids. They weren’t saying anything bad. In fact, most of what was being said about us was pretty good. They just didn’t use the most flattering language when they talked about how she was taming the NFL’s most eligible and desirable bachelor.

Well, it wasn’t flattering for her. I really enjoyed the way they talked about me, even if it was a reminder of the way I had lived my life before. It was a step forward, though, and I knew some of it was going to make it to our team’s new owner so that he would see that I was making an effort to create a more positive image.

I had a driver pick me up at the training facility and take me back to my mansion, which had been paid for through the money I had raked in as one of the heads of the network.

I wondered how many of the guys had already seen the articles about my mysterious date the other night. I wondered what they thought about it, and how it would affect my continued contributions.

Everything was up in the air, and I needed to find a way to ground myself again if I wanted to ensure that my plans didn’t blow up in my face.