Playing for Kicks (Play Makers Book 5) (6 page)

“Who’s the most romantic guy?” Johnny asked,
striding back into the room. “And do
not
say Decker.”

Tess laughed. “Erica was just telling me he
kisses
lots
of women, so no worries.”

Again, Johnny gave Tess a pointed look. “He
gets away with murder.”

“And on that note, I think I’ll go.”

“Wait.” Johnny’s eyes twinkled. “I have
something for you. Here.” He pulled a brand-new micro-recorder out
of his pocket. “My pop gave me this but I don’t have a use. So it’s
yours. Now you can eat and interview at the same time.”

Tess accepted the package reverently. “That’s
so sweet.”

“Yeah, I’m almost as sweet as Decker,” he
drawled. “And I asked Murf if you could use his place for another
week. He won’t be in town so he wants you to feel free.”

Tess’s cheeks warmed. “I appreciate it, but
no way. He’s already been too generous. You
all
have. And I
hope you know how grateful I am.”

“It was worth it to hear that alligator
story,” Johnny said with a grin. “Come on, I’ll walk you to your
car.”

“Stay and kiss your wife. And remember what I
said. Throat and belly. It actually works.”

Erica touched her shoulder. “Lunch at the
Ashton on Tuesday, right? I’ll reserve a table for noon.”

“Sounds good.”

“And I’m really sorry about that mix-up with
Sean. I still can’t believe he left so abruptly.”

“Right. Because
that
was the awkward
part,” Tess teased her. Then she stepped up to Johnny and patted
his cheek. “Stay strong, big fella. If she runs off with the
kicker, keep me in mind.”

“You’ll be the first to know,” he
promised.

Laughing, she headed for the front door.
Unless she missed her guess, these two would be in bed before she
reached the RAV4. And why not? They were perfect for each other and
they knew it.

Someday Tess would have that. The Gator Guys
and Sean Deckers of the world notwithstanding, she knew the right
guy was out there, and if he really
was
the right guy, they
wouldn’t have to angst over it, or envy what others had found, or
do a mad search of all available mates. It would just happen.
Naturally. Effortlessly. Like everything else that had ever
mattered to her. Or to him.

Wouldn’t
that
be the ultimate
sign?

• • •

As soon as Tess was gone, Erica stepped up to
her husband and smiled knowingly. “Do you still think I made a
mistake?”

He looked at her, then pulled her close and
kissed her with so much heat, she forgot the question.

“Johnny . . .”

“Yeah, let’s go to bed.”

“Wait!” She flashed an apologetic smile. “Do
you really think Sean’s planning on dumping Kerrie?”

He looked down at her, then said with quiet
satisfaction, “I love seeing you like this.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s been killing you, right? Worrying about
Deck? I knew it was bad, but until now—until I see this sparkle
again—I didn’t know how bad it really was.”

She leaned her cheek against his chest. “You
miss him too. I know you do.”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “And Bannerman’s a
wreck. Almost worse than you. The point is, you can’t care this
much. Deck’s gonna do what Deck’s gonna do. You
know
that,
don’t you?” He pried her face away from his chest. “The real
question is, if he actually breaks up with Kerrie, can you
appreciate it?”

She breathed in and out again. And then
because she recognized this mood of his—the take-charge QB—she
asked carefully, “What do you mean?”

His voice deepened. “Remember how you felt
last week? All you wanted was for him to be free. To be himself.
The problem is, he’ll just fall in love again. Right? Think about
the last six months. You, Rachel, Darcie, Kerrie—he can’t help
himself. But it has to be different this time, doesn’t it?”

Erica nodded slowly. As much as she wanted
Sean to click with Tess—or someone
like
Tess—Johnny was
right. During the worst of it, she had wanted nothing else but to
see Sean free of the angst. The turmoil. The never-ending
melodrama. To have him back again, hanging out with his old
friends. Lighthearted, fun, adoring, unencumbered.

“You’re right,” she admitted. But she
couldn’t help adding, “It’s bad timing, but Tess is so perfect for
him.
She’s
the one he should have fallen for from the start.
Not Kerrie.”

Johnny’s blue eyes clouded. “He’ll fall for
her. No doubt about that. Because he falls for every woman he meets
these days. It doesn’t
mean
anything, babe. And she’ll end
up getting hurt.”

Erica stared in dismay. She didn’t want to
believe that, but it almost made sense. “You’re saying we should
just let her walk away?”

“Hell, no. We’re keeping her for
ourselves.”

Startled, she dissolved into laughter.
“
Excuse
me?”

“She’s awesome. And fun. But most of all, I
haven’t seen
you
this happy in weeks. You miss Deck, yeah.
But you miss your friends in New York too, right? You run yourself
ragged, making the rest of us happy, but your friends are thousands
of miles away.”

Surprised again, she edged closer to him.
“Sean and Bam are my friends.
You’re
my friend—”

“Bullshit. You can’t talk to us the way you
talk to a girlfriend. You two were so cute at dinner. Especially
you
. Because,
man,
you’re cute.” He pulled her into
his arms. “How did I get so lucky?”

Staring up at him, she insisted, “
I’m
the lucky one. You’re so amazing, Johnny Spurling.”

“More flirting? With your own husband?”

When she nodded happily, he scooped her up in
his arms and headed for the bedroom, insisting with a grin, “Throat
and belly? Hell, no, I’ve got a
much
better game plan than
that.”

• • •

Eighteen feet off the ground, Sean sat back
on his heels and examined the skylight he had installed in the roof
on his Portland barn. Despite the wind and rain of the previous
night’s storm, the flashing was solid, the shingles firmly in
place. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but it hadn’t leaked, had it?

Not bad, all things considering. And since
this was just a test case, he now felt confident enough to tackle
the
real
project: putting a skylight over the kitchen of the
main house.

In a perfect world he’d start first thing
Saturday morning. But he had something much more pressing to
do.

Break up with Kerrie.

A familiar pressure bore down on his lungs,
mostly because he had failed so miserably the last three times he
tried to end the relationship. Not only did it prolong the agony,
but it hurt her feelings, and that was the last thing he wanted.
She was probably the most innocent, generous, loving person he had
ever met. And yeah, she was bat-shit crazy, but that wasn’t
her
fault. Life had dealt her a lousy hand, and to her
credit, she had made something of it despite the odds.

Not crazy,
he reminded himself
sternly.
Just irrational
.

It was the code word he had stumbled onto
during a particularly sleepless night. And it fit her, didn’t it?
Irrational in her jealousy of Erica. Irrational in her fear of
interacting with anyone connected with the Lancers. And more than
anything, irrationally in love with Sean to the point where he knew
for sure it wasn’t love. More like mania. Desperation. And sadly,
fear of being alone.

The first time he tried to break it off, she
had simply outmaneuvered him with sex, so he blamed himself. It had
been their way from the start, hadn’t it?

So he had informed her they needed to talk,
and until they did, no more sex. Not even blow jobs—her specialty.
And she had taken it pretty well, or so he thought. But when he
showed up at her condo in Oakland the following weekend, ready for
the talk, he had been greeted by her jubilant parents, who insisted
they couldn’t be happier that their little girl had found love
again so quickly. They had even brought their wedding album so Sean
and Kerrie could get ideas for the ceremony. And the father—as
certifiable as the daughter—had brought cigars to smoke on the
balcony while he tearfully confessed to the innumerable ways he had
failed his twin daughters.

A fucking nightmare.

Sean hadn’t had the heart to break up with
Kerrie that weekend, even knowing she probably planned it that
way.

But last weekend had taken the cake. He had
warned her they absolutely had to talk.
Alone.
No more
excuses. No sex. No company. And she had agreed to all his terms,
even admitting they shouldn’t sleep together until they sorted
things out, which had given him some hope.

Right up until she explained her
quote-unquote reasoning.

“We’ve been taking sex for granted,” she had
insisted. “When it’s really such a gift. I just wish I could have
met you when I was a girl. So you could be the
only
man I
ever gave myself to.”

Before he could assure her that wasn’t the
problem, she had told him gently, “The point is, Sean, I’m having
surgery in a few weeks.”

It had devastated him. Was she dying? Why
hadn’t he realized she was sick? Did his personal turmoil outweigh
hers? What the hell kind of boyfriend
was
he?

Then she had explained that the surgery was
to restore her virginity. So she could give it to him. Just as she
should have given it to him from the start. Then she claimed he was
brilliant
for insisting they stay celibate until her divorce
was final and they could have a real honeymoon, complete with—well,
completion.

And as much as Sean wanted to be a nice guy,
he had blurted out, “That’s nuts, Kerrie. Do you think I want your
virginity? What the hell? You need to talk to someone—a shrink or
something. Because this is worse than I thought.”

Thinking back now, he wished he had sustained
that momentum. But she had been so hurt. So
crushed.
Sobbing
pitifully in his arms like her life was over for good.

And because he was the world’s biggest wuss,
he apologized and put her to bed, feeling like shit but still
insisting they needed to talk, so he’d be back the following
Sunday.

Then he had flown back to Portland, wondering
if this was his future—trying to break up with Kerrie week in and
week out. Making her miserable. Making himself miserable. And it
affected Erica too, didn’t it? Even Bannerman, for all his joking,
seemed stressed these days because they didn’t hang out
anymore.

“You should have gone straight there after
the college clinic,” he told himself ruefully. “Instead, you
eye-fucked Erica’s writer friend. What the hell?”

It was almost comical. In the midst of his
frustration about Kerrie, or maybe because of it, he had been
stunned when a normal girl crossed his path. Not that Erica’s
friend was normal in the dismissive sense. Just the opposite. Her
breathless voice, sparkling eyes and shockingly pretty breasts—not
so much big as just so
there
—had jolted him back to life,
like a suffocating man who was suddenly blasted with pure, cool
oxygen.

Luckily, the girl—Tess—had been a sport about
it. Easy-going. Almost playfully so. Like she dealt with losers all
day long and would forget about his bizarre behavior five seconds
after he left.

He hoped that was true. She seemed like a
nice girl and he didn’t want her to worry about it. Or tell
Erica.

Or worse, tell the QB.

The sound of a car engine caught his
attention and he eyed the vehicle curiously. It barely hesitated at
the entry panel, which meant the driver had the code. Which meant
it was one of six or seven trusted friends or workers, and none of
the workers would show up at this hour.

Especially not in a red BMW sedan. And since
none of his friends drove one, it had to be a rental. Not Murf,
since he always chose black vehicles.

Meanwhile Kerrie loved all things red, so it
had to be her.

To his surprise, it felt like good news.
Instead of agonizing over the talk, he could just do it. He had
practiced enough, hadn’t he? Honed it to a work of art. Maybe it
would be easier this way. Just blurt it out. She would cry, but
that would happen anyway, wouldn’t it?

Energized, he climbed down the ladder and
strode over to the car, brushing his grungy hands on his jeans.

Remember,
he warned himself.
She’s
irrational. But she’s not crazy. So just stick to the script. Make
it happen. Remember Erica’s writer friend? How free she seemed? You
want to be free like that, don’t you? So for fuck’s sake, just do
it.

Chapter
Two

She wore a short skirt and a skimpy red top.
No surprise there. While modest in public, she was an exhibitionist
at heart.

“Hey, Kerrie.” He didn’t need to fake the
warmth in his voice, since he honestly cared about her. Who
wouldn’t? She was so needy—so hopeless—he knew this episode would
haunt him forever.

She gave him a sexy purr as she wrapped her
arms around his neck. “I wanted to surprise you. Did it work?”

“Yeah, it worked. Let’s go inside and get you
something warm to drink.”

“Or you could warm me up the old-fashioned
way,” she said, plastering her curvy body against him. “I know we
said we’d wait, but I’m so horny. Aren’t
you?”

“Geezus, Kerrie.” He gently moved her a safe
distance away. “I’m glad to see you, but not for that. We need to
talk. I’ve been saying it for weeks. And you know I’m right.”

To his chagrin, she seemed honestly confused.
“Talk about what?” Then before he could explain, she giggled
nervously. “Is it the virginity thing? I’m past that, Sean. I
promise.”