Linebacker's Second Chance (Bad Boy Ballers) (2 page)

Three Years Later…
 

I said yes. Macklin Pride just got a contract with the NFL, and I said yes. We’re getting married. Doesn’t matter when. Doesn’t matter where. But we’re getting married.

I’m standing by the little diner in my home town, home from Brooks University. And finally, I’m done with school, graduated and ready to start my life. There’s no better feeling. After four years of scrimping and saving to pay for my textbooks and my rent, I’m done with it. There’s a lead on a job out in California, and Mack Pride is coming with me.
 

And tonight—well, tonight is extra special.

My hair is freshly done, curled at the ends like Mack likes it. Normally I don’t give a single hot damn about what a man thinks looks good on me, but tonight is different. Tonight, we’re going out, we’re making plans, and we’re talking about the
when
and the
where
. The job in Cali and the house we’re eventually going to build together, where we’ll have all of our children and raise them to be good people—and football fans. We’re finally going to
be
together—for real. For the first time ever.
 

My former roommate Dianna thinks I’m crazy for holding out this long. Three years of dating the hottest guy on the football team, and we held out. I haven’t told Dianna exactly what we
have
done, but the answer is
absolutely
everything else. Just not sex. We were waiting. Both of us. Maybe it was some romantic ideal. Maybe it was the town we grew up in and the way everyone always knows what everyone else is doing, even when you’re away at college all the way across the country. If we’d had sex, I always thought, I’d certainly get pregnant right away, and then my Mama and every one of her gossiping friends would know exactly what I was up to with that no good Macklin Pride.
 

And besides, he was big.
Big
. People always called him Big Mack back home, and the name stuck once he got here. It was his brother Jared who started it, mostly to make fun of Mack for his size. But I know a part of Mack that’s even bigger than anyone realizes. And maybe… Maybe that made me a little nervous. Now though, with all of this engagement stuff on the table, I’m more
excited
to go for it than I ever thought could be real.
 

I pace and look at my watch.
 

7:08 PM.
 

Macklin Pride is never late. A shiver runs down my spine. He was supposed to pick me up at my parents’ house eight minutes ago. And knowing him, I’d expected to see him right around 6:45, holding a bouquet of pink tulips like the ones he brought to me on our very first date. I shiver again. Something is wrong.

My mother pokes her head through the door, frazzled as ever. She’s been dealing with hassle from some of the credit card people and she couldn’t care less what I’m doing with my day. “Why’re you still standing out here, Renata? You waiting on somebody?”
 

I shrug and sit down on the short stone wall in front of our house. The cows are mooing in the distance, sun hanging low in the sky. “Just Mack. We’re engaged, remember?”

“Oh yeah, that. Well, he doesn’t have any money, does he? Like I said last night, do you really think all this is a good idea?”
 

I grow cold and keep looking ahead down the dirt road. Mack’s been talking to several NFL teams, and there are several more probably interested. He’s juggling them right now, trying to see who will give him the best salary. And me? I was the top of my class in the business school at Brooks. I might not have a job
now
, but as soon as someone looks at my resume, they’ll figure out that they can’t live without me. The money is coming. Unfortunately, a lot of it will go toward maintaining our family’s farms and paying off the years of debt that they owe to every lender in a twenty-mile area. But the money is coming. I’m sure of it. We were raised poor kids, and we’re doing everything we can to change that.
 

“Mack’s talking to Carolina tomorrow, Mom. He’s not a poor kid anymore. He’ll get a major deal with the NFL.”
 

“Talk is cheap, Ren. He’s bound to screw it all up and be right back where he started. Just like his daddy, just like his mama. Just like that good-for-nothing entire damn family, including him and his brother.”

I hear my father yelling at her from inside the house, something about letting me figure it out myself. It’s not like they’ve kept their opinions a secret. Ever since I started dating Mack for real in college, they’ve had something to say about it every Christmas—the only time I come home for the year. He’s
worthless
. He’s
poor
. He’s
not good enough for someone like me
.
 

They don’t know the Macklin Pride that I know. The Mack I know worked his ass off for the football team at Brooks, taking them further than any other linebacker ever has. He shone brighter than any other player in his year. And for all four years at college, he made better grades than anyone else on the team and excelled in his classes. He was just as serious about his economics degree as he was about football. He didn’t do quite as well as I did—and I gave him plenty of crap about it. I smile at the memory. He told me that if it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t be half the man he was. Well, that’s good. Because I’ll always be there, right by his side.
 

The door bangs shut behind my mother. I turn and watch her—she has her hands in the air, and she says something scathing to my father, no doubt about Mack and me. I suppress the feeling of anger that rises up in my gut. There is nothing that either of them can do to ruin this. Even if Mack is late, I know that our relationship will last the rest of our lives. That’s what he told me the night before we left college. That’s what he’s told me since the day we were first together.

Nothing can stop the excitement I feel inside right now. Nothing can keep me from this man or the experience we’ve both been waiting so long for.
 

I try to let the feeling of anticipation build again, the sensations I felt before my mother came and rained on my parade. Before Mack ended up being egregiously late to pick me up. I stop my mind from going to tragedy.
 

What if he’s deathly ill? In the emergency room? Got into a car crash?

I shake my head, the warm summer air playing through my hair.
 

No, there’s none of that. There’s no accident. It’s something normal. Something I wouldn’t even think of—so mundane that I’d never expect it. His watch ran out of batteries, or he forgot to charge his phone, couldn’t find his keys.

I tap my feet against the stone wall, trying to convince myself that everything is okay. Then, there’s a distant sound at the end of the dusty road, a rumbling that could only be Mack’s big-ass truck, the old white Ford that barely works and rumbles over every nook and cranny in the asphalt, that bounces angrily over the gravel and dirt on these Carolina back roads. Through the dust, the truck appears like a great white specter, surrounded by billowing clouds of dust and spitting gravel. The body behind the wheel is massive and muscular, but something doesn’t sit right with me. Still, I assure myself that everything is as it should be, that Mack is sitting there, ready to take me away from this place for good. Jumping down from the wall, I start running towards the car.

“Mack!” I yell, hoping my mother will hear, hoping she’ll hear the sense of fulfillment in my voice. The voice that says,
I am here, and I am ready to spend the rest of my life with you.
“Mack!” I shout his name again, but as the truck pulls closer, I already know that it’s not Mack sitting behind the wheel. “Macklin…” My voice trails off, hoarse. Instead of Mack Pride, my fiancé, it’s Jared, Mack’s brother. Equally broad and muscular but with a scrunched up, angry face and not even half the personality and smarts of his brother. My heart sinks. There must have been an accident. Even in my white summer dress, I fall down to my knees as Jared parks the car, gets out, and walks toward me. The movements of his body are eerily like Mack’s, but somehow colder and more distant.
 

“There’s been a new development, Renata.” His voice is cool and formal, like he’s talking to an insurance representative on the phone. “I don’t think you’re going to like it. We all know you’ve been trying to cling to Macklin while he gets his life together and goes out for the NFL. But it looks like he’s figured out what kind of woman you are.”

“What…” My brain doesn’t quite compute the words coming from Jared’s mouth. He keeps walking toward me, but it’s like time has slowed down to a near standstill, and the words he’s saying have no meaning to my brain.
Mack told me he loves me, a thousand times. He told me we’d never be apart. We’d keep going like this forever.
 

“The engagement is off.” Jared shrugs and remains standing about six feet in front of me, like he can’t bear to get any closer. It’s no secret that our families hate each other, but these words and ideas couldn’t be coming from Mack. That’s not
him
.
 

“No, no it’s not.” Fueled by anger, I climb to my feet and stand, facing Jared with all the rage I can muster. I struggle with the information, the pictures of Mack’s proposal circling around in my head.
We’ll always be together, Renata. Just say yes.
And I’d looked at him with a quizzical look on my face. Why wouldn’t I say yes? I was in love with him for years before I finally gave in and defied all the wishes of my family. Before I gave in and followed my heart. Yes, yes, yes. Of course I’ll marry you.

And now, there’s a man in front of me telling me otherwise.

It’s not true. It couldn’t be true.
 

“Well, Renata,” he huffs. “That’s a true fact. You can drive up to our house, but Mack is
gone
. He left for his meeting with the team early, and he’s in one of them fancy hotels in Charlotte. Looks like he’ll be their linebacker, and he wants nothing to do with you.”
 

“No. That’s not true!” I scream the words and fumble around frantically, grabbing my purse and pulling out my phone. “I don’t believe it.” I pull up Mack’s number from my favorites and dial him immediately, heart pounding hard in my ears. I taste blood and salt in my mouth, like all the times my mother and father have shouted at me, like every time they’ve shamed me. Except this is worse. Mack’s own flesh and blood is standing in front of me, kicking me down with his words like I’m lower than a dog. He couldn’t resist the dig at my family, couldn’t resist telling me what kind of woman I am. “It’s not true, goddammit,” I hiss as the phone starts to ring.
 

And then it rings, on and on. And Mack is usually the man who picks up on the first ring, eager to hear my voice.
 

If he doesn’t answer, I’ll drive down to Charlotte myself and—

“Hello?” Mack answers sleepily, and if I’m not mistaken, I hear the sound of a hangover in my voice.
 

This isn’t like him. This isn’t like him at all. He barely drinks. What is going on?

“Mack? What’s this about the engagement? Are you really in Charlotte?”

“Renata.” He croaks my name like it pains him to hear my voice. I pause, waiting for him to say something else, anything else.
 

“Macklin, what’s going on? Tell me this is a joke. Tell me it’s your family trying to play with me, trying to hurt us—”

“We can’t do it—not right now.” I wait for him to say he can explain it away or that there’s some kind of misunderstanding.

“We can’t do what?”

“We can’t get married, Ren. Not with how our relationship stands. Not right now—”

Everything in front of me seems to go red as rage rises in my veins. This is the only thing either of us has ever wanted, save for Mack’s career in football. And hell, he wanted that
with
me. Not apart from me. “What the hell, Mack?” My voice breaks. “You asked me to marry you less than a week ago. You gave me a ring. What in the Lord’s name is going on here? You’re really telling me that this is all over? This was all just a dream…” My voice trails off, and hot tears sting my eyes, mixed with the dust from our yard.
 

“That’s what—” He pauses as if the words are stuck in his throat. “That’s what I’m saying. It’s true. It’s over. I can’t—” Macklin’s voice cracks, and I hear a click of the phone. Jared looks at me with a smug expression on his face and turns to walk back to the pickup truck. My tears fall to the dusty ground before me, and I watch as he gets into Mack’s car, the car I shared with him while I was in college, the car he drove to my dorm the night he picked me up for our first date. There’s something disturbing about watching someone else drive it, especially someone who loathes me and my family so much.
 

And now we’re back at it. The Prides and the Youngs won’t have the sweet reunion I’d always hoped for at my wedding. It looks like neither of these families wanted us together, and now they have their wish. The tears fall for a long time after, pouring from my eyes like so many raindrops, even when I go inside and hide in the shower, They mingle with the hot water of the shower, the only place I feel safe and hidden and unexposed. I hear my parents voices outside the door—my mother, concerned for once, and my father with his deep monotone voice telling her to go on and calm down. That this is all for the best.

It only makes me cry harder.