Head Games (11 page)

The plumber was coming to install the new toilet in the tiny bathroom in the break room, so Kelly was forced to use the one in the front of the house during the next night’s dinner shift. She finished her business, and as she came up to the sink to wash her hands, a woman gave her the stink eye. Taken aback, she said, “Am I in your way?” She moved as far as she could and still reach the sink.

“So, are you fucking both of them?”

Her mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”

“I saw you out last night with Leo Laporte and Scott Schaeffer, so I was just wondering. Are you fucking them? They share. And I’d know.” The woman threw a significant look over her shoulder at Kelly, who was rooted to the spot, unable to believe she was even having this conversation.

“I—”

“You probably think you have something special, but when it gets out that you took both of them on at once, you’ll be labeled a whore. Trust me on that.” The woman dried her hands with a paper towel as Kelly continued to stand there, her mouth agape. “Dump them now while you can, honey. They’re good-time boys—players. Maybe you thought you were different because they agreed to be seen out in public with you, but you’re not. They’ll never settle down. Can you imagine that, really? Two guys and one girl, happily ever after?” The woman sneered and gave Kelly a once-over. “Not likely.”

She left the bathroom, and Kelly had to lean on the wall for support. One word kept repeating in her head like some twisted mantra.
Whore
. Would that really happen? Would people call her a whore if they knew?

With shaking hands, Kelly washed up and returned to the kitchen. Bonnie looked at her in concern. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.” Kelly walked right past her without stopping and made for her office, shutting the door behind her. She sank down in her desk chair and turned it away from the door and toward the opposite wall, as if it held the answers to her problems. The phone rang, and she was startled out of her stupor. She picked it up on the second ring. “Kelly’s.”

“Hello, may I speak with the owner?”

“This is her.”

“My name is Roger. I cover hockey for the
Buffalo Courier
.”

“Uh-huh…”

“It’s recently come to my attention that you may be”—he paused, and Kelly’s eyes closed in mortification—“involved with both Leo Laporte and Scott Schaeffer. Can you comment on that?”

“Excuse me?”

“Are you the reason Leo Laporte’s game has been going downhill as of late?”

“Whether or not Leo plays well has nothing to do with me!” She could feel her anger rising and knew she needed to get off the phone before she said something she’d regret. Her business couldn’t afford to make enemies at the local newspaper, no matter what department they worked in or how much of a slimeball the guy was. She wondered idly if the woman who she’d seen in the bathroom had called this guy to tip him off. Who would do something like that, though?

“Can I quote you on that?”

Kelly took a deep breath. “I have no comment. I’m a busy woman with a restaurant to run, so I’m hanging up now.” She tossed the receiver back in the cradle before the guy could get another word in. Shaking, she rubbed her hands up and down her arms. What would she do if it got out that she was with both of them? Surely they would survive the scandal, but would she?

Knowing there was no use in trying to get any office work done, Kelly went back out into the kitchen. Hopefully keeping busy would help put her mind at ease a little. When her cell buzzed in her pocket a few hours later, though, she was still so jittery she nearly sliced her thumb off. Fishing the phone out of her front pants pocket, she answered it.

“Did some guy named Roger talk to you?” Leo demanded.

“Yeah, he called earlier.”

“What did he say? Did he ask questions?”

“Hang on.” She motioned for one of the prep cooks to take over for her and slunk into her office, sliding down the wall until she was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Her limbs felt too heavy to hold her up. “I didn’t tell him anything.”

“That wasn’t my question, Kelly. My question was, what did he ask you?”

“He alluded to us being involved and then asked if I was the reason your game has gone downhill in the past couple of weeks.”

Leo let out a string of curses that would’ve done a sailor proud before continuing. “When he asked me the same thing, I told that little prick to mind his own business.”

“Which of course he won’t, since he’s a journalist, and it’s his job to uncover stories.”

“Don’t let him get to you, honey.”

“What if he prints something? Even if he doesn’t come right out and say it, the inference will be right there on the page in black and white for everyone to draw their own conclusions from.” Rising, she began to pace the room. “I need some time, Leo. This thing could blow up in my face so fast my head would spin.”

“He’s just—”

“I know exactly what he is. He’s a little weasel, but unfortunately one who has an audience. And it’s not like anything he would say wouldn’t be true.”

“Now wait a minute, Kel. First of all, nothing’s wrong with my game. Second, if there was, you wouldn’t be the cause of it. And third, don’t let someone like him dictate your life to you.”

“I don’t have any other choice,” Kelly replied, sighing. “I can’t afford any negative publicity for my business, and if being with you brings that kind of attention to Kelly’s, I can’t in good conscience continue our relationship.”

“Please, Kelly, don’t do this.” Leo’s voice sounded needy and unsure, so unlike his normal, rich baritone, and her heart ached at what she was doing to him. What she was doing to them. But her restaurant had to be the most important thing in her life. It was her dream, her livelihood. She couldn’t just throw it all away for a few rolls in the hay with Scott and Leo.

“I’m sorry. Listen, I have to go.” She dropped the phone back in her pocket and swiped at the tears starting to run down her face. “Dammit!”

* * * *

Leo stared at the phone after Kelly hung up. “What the fuck just happened?”

“What?” Scott walked into the kitchen and leaned against the island.

Leo looked up at his friend. He still couldn’t believe it. “That dick Roger called her.”

“And?”

“And now she’s freaking out.”

“What did she say?”

“She ended everything.” Leo slammed his hand on the table and saw Scott jump a little.

“Shit.”

“My thought exactly.” Leo pinched the bridge of his nose. His whole world was falling down around him.

Scott stumbled to the kitchen table and sat down heavily. “Well, I guess we don’t have much of a choice but to leave her alone since we’re going to be on the road for the next four days.”

“Yeah, I guess so. I still don’t like it.” He jumped up and started pacing. “What if we go away and she sits around stewing? That’s only going to make things worse.”

Scott regarded him from his place at the table, his face drawn into hard lines. “There’s not much we can do about it. It’s not like we can stay home and beg her to take us back.”

Leo uttered a curse under his breath and then threw his hands up. “I fucking hate this.” His head snapped up. “How did that asshole find out about us, anyway?”

“I have no idea. Maybe someone saw us at the restaurant and jumped to conclusions. It’s not exactly a secret that we’ve shared women in the past. Even management has mentioned it.”

Leo winced. That was true enough. He’d never stopped to consider that his sexual past might come back and bite him in the ass. “I fucking hate people. If I find out who did this, they’re gonna be sorry they ever met me.”

“Just keep cool, man. It does us no good to have you going off all half-cocked on some mission of vengeance.”

Leo kicked the table leg in front of him. “I feel like my life is out of my own control, and it seriously sucks.”

“It does. But for right now, we have to concentrate on hockey and let Kelly be.”

“You’re right. Of course, you’re right.”

The two of them trudged out the door to practice, unsure of where tomorrow or the next day would take them.

* * * *

Kelly spent the time while the guys were away going back and forth a million times on her decision about whether or not to keep seeing them. She would resolve to stay away from them, and it worked during the day when she was busy at the restaurant, but then she would go home at night and remember how good it felt to have both of the guys touching her, bringing her to new heights, and her determination would falter.

She spent the first day they were back with a mixture of eagerness and anxiety churning in her gut. She’d missed them, but she also dreaded seeing them. It was funny. They’d only been together for a short time, but there had been months and months of anticipation and now that she’d had a little taste of them, she wanted more. Thankfully she didn’t have to go into work until later. She’d probably burn the kitchen down with how distracted she was. In a vain effort to get something productive done, she had taken all her curtains down and was washing her windows, when her doorbell rang. Dropping the rag, she wiped her hands on a towel and opened the door.

“Of course,” she muttered as her doorway was filled by the very people she was trying to scrub out of her mind. As she took the sight of them in, however, she noticed both were shifting from foot to foot. Neither looked very happy. “Do you want to come in?”

“Thank you,” Scott answered, his voice sounding odd to her, almost polite or formal. He walked past her, and Leo followed. Neither made any attempt to touch or kiss her.

“Have a seat. Would you like a drink? Coffee?”

“No, we’re fine,” Leo answered. “Could you sit?”

“Sure.” Taking a seat, she waited for them to start the conversation.

“First of all, we’re really sorry about the dick Roger calling you,” Scott began. “He didn’t print anything, so I guess the thinly veiled threat we issued worked.” Kelly nodded, and he took a deep breath before continuing. “Leo and I have talked, and we think it’s time we laid our cards on the table.”

Leo cut in. “We’re in love with you.”

Kelly’s mouth dropped open. They were in love with her? Both of them? How could that be? How did that happen?

Scott glared at Leo briefly and then said, “I can see from your face that you don’t believe us. This was never casual for us. Never, Kelly. When we got involved with you, it was always with the intention of making you ours forever.”

Kelly sank back against the recliner she’d sat down in. “But–but how would that work? Three people can’t be in a permanent relationship.”

“Why not?” Leo challenged.

“Because!” Kelly threw her hands up. “Because you just can’t! I mean, who does that?”

“This is a free country, Kelly, we can do whatever we want.”

“What if I want to have children?”

“Then we’ll have children,” Scott answered, leaning over the coffee table to take her limp hands in his.

“Who would the father be?”

“Both of us, no matter who the actual biological father was.”

“Both of you…”

“Yes, Kelly, both of us.” He squeezed her hands and sat back.

Leo moved to kneel in front of her. “We want you to move in with us, baby.”