Playing for Kinley (Cruz Brothers Book 1) (19 page)

“We should probably head out,” I told her, widening the distance between our electrified bodies. “We don’t want to be late.”

She nodded her head and straightened her shoulders, which I hated. I didn’t want her feeling like she had to hold up some sort of act around me. I guess she had reason to put up her guards after what I’d done in the past, but things were different now. We were both older, more mature, and I was here now. I wanted to be one hundred percent committed to making us work.

I would have to show her that she didn’t have to hold back anymore.

##

I had never really cared for weddings. I guess I had known so many couples who ended up divorcing—whose weddings I attended—that I had to wonder what the point of it all was. And the fact that this particular wedding was on Valentine’s Day, a holiday I never truly saw the value of, was like a double dose of clichéd romance.

But with Kinley on my arm, I didn’t give a damn where we were.

As soon as we’d arrived and people started to notice me, Kinley had panicked a little. “Oh, shit. I don’t want your being here to take away from Marcy. I hadn’t even thought of that. Should we leave?”

I just looped her arm through mine—feeling like it belonged there—and patted her hand comfortingly. “It’ll be fine. We’ll sit in the back and I’ll keep my head down.”

She nodded, biting her lip, and followed me to the back of the room. She sat close to me throughout the entire ceremony, something I relished. It didn’t matter that we weren’t officially together. My male instincts were making me feel territorial with Kinley, urging me to shoot death glares at any man who dared look at her and kick the ass of any of them stupid enough to actually touch her.

Yeah, I sounded psychotic but whatever.

Not to mention the fact that it was probably the first time in my life that I’d really listened to the vows as the bride and groom spoke them to each other. I’d never given much thought to my own wedding, unsure of whether or not I’d even have one. But I was hanging on to every word the pastor spoke, every promise the couple made to each other.

Those were the same promises I wanted to make to Kinley. The ones I’d already silently vowed to her in my head. The ones I so desperately wanted to hear her say to me.

Growing up the way I did, with the parents I was given, I never knew much about love. I’d never had a serious girlfriend in my life, never felt anything earth-shattering for anyone except for Kinley. But I’d seen what love should be like in the form of Sam and Diane and now Clay and Gwen. And sitting there in that wedding ceremony only confirmed what I’d known for a long time now.

I wanted love like that. Someday I wanted to be married. And I definitely wanted a family.

And Kinley was the only woman who I could picture having any of that with. The only one who made sense because she was the only woman who had ever made me happy, who could make me happy for the rest of my life.

We made our way into the banquet hall across the way for the reception after the ceremony ended with a rendition of “I’m Walkin’ On Sunshine,” a choice I would have thought was unacceptably corny but somehow worked for the happy-looking couple.

“I’m starving,” Kinley groaned out as we made our way to our table. My arm quickly shot out to grab a handful of mints on one of the refreshment tables as we passed by it.

“Here,” I said, handing her some.

She looked down at my hand and back at the table. Then she laughed, her smiling making her whole face light up like a Christmas tree. “Oh my God. I can’t believe you just did that.” She still popped a couple of mints into her mouth, once again dragging my attention to her luscious lips.

I shrugged. “No one saw. Can’t let you starve now, can we?”

She playfully rolled her eyes, shaking her head at me. We found our seats and Kinley began to greet everyone around the table. She turned back to me and with her hand lightly touching my arm, pointed to everyone as she introduced them.

“Parker, this is Beth and her husband Mark, Cal and his wife Ramona, and John and Lisa. We all went to Boston College together, except for Ramona and John. Everyone, this is my friend, Parker.”

I would have loved for her to introduce me as her boyfriend, but I knew that clearly wouldn’t have been accurate. But I also loved the fact that she’d introduced me like any other normal guy and not as a famous athlete, one she assumed everyone would recognize.

I smiled and stuck my hand up in a wave. “Nice to meet everyone.”

One of the guys—Mark, I think?—stood up to shake my head. “Honor to meet you, Mr. Cruz. My father and I are big fans.”

The guy may have screamed “old money,” but he sounded genuine. “Parker is fine. And thank you very much. I appreciate that.”

Throughout dinner, I listened to Kinley and her friends catch up and share college stories, delighting in her smiles and laughter, re-familiarizing myself with this side of her. The laidback, bubbly side that had been so prominent in her younger years.

Before she got involved with you.

The guilt was excruciating. It was true, after all. Kinley changed after I ended things with her. She became more closed off, less outgoing, and just altered her once-positive outlook on life. Not that she was super negative now or anything, but I still hated myself for what I’d done to her. I was thankful that she’d had friends in college who she seemed to like and had fun times with. I’d wanted her to have a good experience in school, break out and meet lots of people, see the world.

That had been the whole reason I ended things in the first place.

Listening to her and her friends made me think that I hadn’t totally ruined all of that for her.

“Could I get you any more wine?” I leaned over and asked her, not wanting to interrupt her conversation.

She looked at her empty glass and then up at me, her face glowing in a way that made me want to kiss the hell out of her. “Sure.”

Her eyes flickered to something behind me and her smile was suddenly wiped from her face. Surprise turned to nervousness as she quickly glanced back to me, eyes wide. I started to turn to see what had caught her attention, but her hand flew out to snag my arm, pulling me back to face her.

“What?” I asked, my senses on alert.

Shaking her head, she replied, “Just saw someone I didn’t want to see. Didn’t think he would be here.”

He?
“Who?”

She sighed and closed her eyes. “An ex.”

Parker

If there was one thing that I hadn’t been expecting to deal with tonight, it was meeting one of Kinley’s exes. I hadn’t even thought about it, though I wasn’t sure why. A lot of her friends from college were here, so there was a considerable chance that I was going to run into some guys she used to date.

And although the last thing in the world I wanted to do was meet this guy, I was also incredibly grateful that I’d agreed to come to this wedding with her. Because if she had been by herself, who knows how many men would have been throwing themselves at her.

In my opinion, it would have been every sane, single man in the room.

When I saw Kinley force a tight smile on her face, I knew the ex was coming over.

Breathe. He could be a nice guy. You never know, you might like him.

Yeah, right. I was pre-disposed to hate any man who had ever touched Kinley, ever held her. It was an inevitability, no matter how nice the guy was.

“Hi, Kinley,” the male voice behind me said. “It’s good to see you again.”
I’m sure it is
. “You look great.”

Not going to get you any play, asshole. Not while I’m sitting here.

“It’s nice to see you too, Ethan. This is my good friend Parker,” she said, gesturing to me, at which point I stood up to face the guy that I might have to kill. “Parker, this is Ethan, one of my former classmates.”

I held back my smirk. I may not have been her boyfriend yet, but even I knew that
good friend
was a hell of a lot better than
former classmate
.

Ethan’s face froze in shock when he saw me and this time I did smirk, unconcerned if it made me look like an ass. I was never a jerk about my wealth and fame, and I never used it to take advantage of anyone or any situation.

But as I shook hands with the man who had once called Kinley his girlfriend, I relished in the fact that I was Parker Cruz and I had a woman like Kinley Masterson by my side.

“Wow, it’s awesome to meet you, man,” Ethan said, his face still registering bewilderment. He looked over to Kinley. “I didn’t realize you followed baseball, Kinley.”

Why would he know that or care now anyway? They weren’t in contact anymore, were they? My gut tightened at the thought, so much so that I answered for her. “We’ve known each other for years. Her brother and I are close.”

Ethan nodded his head, his eyes narrowing just slightly at me, like he was re-assessing me as unexpected competition. “I see,” he responded. “Well, I better go offer my congratulations to the bride and groom. We’ll catch up later,” he said to Kinley before leaning down and giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

Really?

I wanted to beat the shit out of the guy just for making the presumption that he had any right to do that. Ethan gave everyone at the table brief nods and waves before walking off. I noticed that none of the men smiled at him, instead keeping their expressions hard.
Interesting
. Kinley seemed wildly uncomfortable as she watched me watching Ethan walk away with anger in my eyes.

“Want to dance?” she asked as she grabbed my hand and yanked me toward the dance floor without waiting for a response.

Trying to distract myself from the myriad of emotions that were coursing through me, I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her into me, as we began to sway to the sounds of Adele’s heartbroken love song. I wasn’t sure which one it was. Weren’t most of them about heartbreak? Weird choice for a wedding.

“You okay?” I asked her, tempering my need to crash my lips onto hers and make her forget all about that prick.

She nodded. “Yeah. Sorry. It’s just been a long time since I’ve seen him and it surprised me. It’s really not a big deal. We didn’t even date for that long.”

Hearing that they had dated at all caused my grip on her to tighten. “I understand.” Though I said it through clenched teeth so it probably sounded contradictory. “Do you still have feelings for him?”

I had absolutely no right to ask it. I knew it the second the words flew from my mouth. I couldn’t take them back now, though. Her head snapped up to me, but I didn’t see the anger I was expecting to find in those green eyes. All I saw was curiosity.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “It was never serious between us. I haven’t thought about him since the day I broke up with him.”

That relieved me more than I cared to acknowledge, especially the part where
she
dumped
his
ass.

I was just still a little confused as to why she’d been so upset by his presence if he didn’t mean anything to her. I didn’t want to push it, though. She could tell me the whole story if she wanted. Otherwise, I wasn’t going to encourage her to talk about another man with me.

“You know something?” she asked, her voice lighter, a hint of teasing in it.

“What?”

“I’ve never seen you dance.” Her smile was almost mischievous, which made me relax. I wanted to get back to how we were before Ethan showed up.

I cocked an eyebrow at her. “We’re dancing right now.”

She shook her head, her flowing hair sliding around on her shoulders. “No, I mean fast dance. In all the years of us growing up, I’ve never seen you bust a move.”

I grinned, excitement rushing through me at where this was going. “Well then prepare yourself, woman. I can whip and nae nae it like you’ve never seen before.”

Her smile spread, her own excitement shining in her eyes. “Is that a challenge, Mr. Cruz?”

“Hell yeah. It’s on, Masterson.”

##

How sad was it that I was a thirty-two-year-old man and I couldn’t remember having had this much fun since I was in college?

Kinley and I had wobbled and dougied—basically going through the entire dance evolution of the 2000-2010s—and I was on a high that was, for lack of a better word, otherworldly. I hadn’t even had more than one beer but it didn’t matter. Kinley made me feel loose and free all on her own. I didn’t want alcohol to impede my ability to remember every single second of this night.

She was tearing me up, too.

If she wasn’t exploding into laughter at my over exaggerated dance moves, then she was cracking me up by doing some of her own. And when she wasn’t being silly and flamboyant, she was swinging her hips and ass in my face, rubbing up against me and being sexy as hell.

We had definitely gotten pretty close during a few of those dances. She’d grinded her back to my front, I’d held her hips tightly against me, making sure she felt everything she was doing to me. She’d spin around and press her tits against my chest, wrapping her arms around my neck, syncing the rhythm of her movements to mine.

I’d never been hotter for her.

I felt like I was saying that every time I was around her but it was true.

I leaned down as the sounds of “YMCA” started to fade away, bringing my mouth to her ear so she could hear me over the music. “Got to take a bathroom break.”

She smiled coyly up at me. “Hurry back.”

Damn right I would hurry. When she looked at me like that I would literally do anything she said.

Luckily, there was no line at the restroom. I quickly did my business, wanting to get back to my woman as soon as possible.
Not your woman
. Eh, semantics.

Just as I was finishing up, the door opened behind me. I didn’t pay attention to it as I zipped up and headed toward the sink. I glanced over to the guy who just walked through, my feet halting for only a second when I saw who it was.

Ethan.

“Hey, man,” he said, smirking like a tool at me.

“Hey,” was all I said and not in a friendly way either.

He walked over to the urinal as I washed my hands, wondering if it was pure coincidence that we were in here at the same time. What he said next verified that it, in fact, wasn’t.

“So, you and Kinley together?”

My teeth grinded against each other, but I bit back the growl I had building up. Small victories. “We’re here together.”

He chuckled.
Dick
. “No, I mean are you like,
together
? You hittin’ that?”

I was wiping my hands off with a paper towel and my whole body stilled at the question. I turned around slowly to face him, rage traveling through every part of me, quickly taking over.

“Excuse me?”

He laughed this time. “Because if you’re not, I’m telling you, man. She’s fucking hot in the sack.” His words were slightly slurred and it was obvious that he was drunk. It didn’t matter, though, because if he didn’t shut the hell up in about two seconds, his head was going straight through the damn wall. “I’m sure you get plenty of prime pussy being who you are, but Kinley was definitely memorable. And she’s even hotter now.”

I took a menacing step forward, but something he said made me stop, made me think. “When did you say you two dated?”

He looked up at the ceiling like he had to think about it. “Uh, she was a freshman and I was a sophomore, I think. God, she was so innocent.” He snorted. “I took care of that, though. Trust me.”

Oh, this motherfucker has a death wish.

And I sure as hell didn’t like what I was hearing. Because despite the fact that he was wasted, I was almost positive that what he was saying about him and Kinley was true. That knowledge filled me with so much fury and regret that I didn’t know whether to smash this guy’s face through his skull or run into one of the stalls and lose my dinner.

Completely oblivious that there was a big ass dude standing three feet from him, contemplating his death, Ethan zipped himself up without a care in the world and turned to me with a drunken smile.

“If you’re not tappin’ that, bro, do you mind if I do? For old time’s sake?”

I lunged at him, shoving him up against the wall without another thought, holding him up by the lapels of his suit jacket. His eyes went wide and fearful, finally taking stock of his situation. And probably recognizing the murderous look on my face. I heard the bathroom door open behind us but I didn’t pay any attention to it. I didn’t care who saw this.

“I’m not your
bro
, asshole,” I spat, barely holding it together. “And I’m only going to say this once so listen up. If I ever hear you talk about Kinley like that again, I will knock every single one of your fucking teeth out. Don’t ever go near her again. Don’t even fucking look at her. Because if I think you’ve even
thought
about touching her, things won’t go well for you. Understand me?”

He nodded frantically, looking like he was too afraid to speak. I dropped him with a disgusted grunt and turned abruptly to the door. Mark and Cal stood there with solemn looks of understanding on their faces as they watched the exchange. They weren’t rushing to Ethan’s defense so I didn’t think we were going to have a problem.

“All good, man?” Mark asked, showing no reaction to the scene he walked in on.

I nodded, stretching my neck from side to side, trying to release some of the tension. “Yeah. I think he got the message.”

They both nodded as I started to walk past them. Mark’s voice stopped me before I reached the door. “Just so you know,” he began and I turned my head back at him. “He was never our friend. Kinley dated him briefly but none of us approved of it. She was just going through a rough time so we went along with it. It if means anything, I’ve wanted to punch him since the day I met him.”

My lips tightened and I gave him a nod, letting him know that I understood and what he said did actually help, though I wasn’t going to ignore that whole Kinley going through a rough time thing. I had no intention of telling her about what just happened, but I wouldn’t lie to her about it if she happened to get wind of it. She could glean what she wanted from it, and if she was going to get mad, so be it. I didn’t regret it. The only reason I hadn’t started pummeling him with my fists was because I was at Kinley’s friend’s wedding, and I didn’t want to ruin the bride and groom’s day, nor embarrass Kinley.

But the whole experience caused memories of another time when I came to Kinley’s defense to suddenly flood my mind.

These bicep curls were kicking my ass.

But that was the point. I needed it to hurt, needed the pain. Anything to take my mind off this sick infatuation over Kinley that I’d developed. In fact, I’d been spending almost every waking minute of my spare time in the weight room, trying to sweat out these insane urges and distract myself with the burn of muscle exertion. Maybe if I pushed my body hard enough, it would forget about all-grown-up Kinley. Green-eyed Kinley. Most-beautiful-girl-I’d-ever-seen-Kinley.

It hadn’t worked yet.

My cell phone started ringing where it sat on the bench by my water bottle and towel. I did two more reps and then went over to answer it.

Clay.

He was out of town for an interview today, so I answered in hopes that he was calling to tell me he got the job. “Hey, man. Got good news?”

I heard a frustrated sigh on the other end and the smile fell off my face. “Not yet. They had to push my interview back a little, so I’m still waiting. But that’s not why I’m calling.”