The Perfect Play (33 page)

“What’s up?”

“Get over here. Now.”

She laughed. “I’m kind of busy here, Mick.”

“I don’t give a shit how busy you are. Get your ass over here.”

There was a pause. “Here being your place?”

“Yeah.”

“A problem?”

“You have less than an hour.”

“I’ll be right there.”

He continued to pace the living room, then decided he should fix himself something to drink, realizing he’d really like a shot of whiskey. His gut churned, and the need for alcohol made his hands shake.

He clenched his fists and took a deep breath, then went to fix a glass of iced tea.

He was on his second glass when Elizabeth knocked at the door. Glass in hand, he went to the door and opened it. She strolled in, hair pulled up, earrings sparkling in the overhead light of his living room. She had on some fancy dress and heels.

“You tore me away from a very important business dinner, honey. Now what’s wrong?”

“What the hell were you doing at the carnival today?”

She arched a brow. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Care to be more specific?”

He hit play on the news spot he’d recorded. Liz watched, then turned back to him. “Okay. So?”

“So? Are you kidding me? You used Nathan.”

She shrugged. “He was there. With you. It was convenient. One kid is just as good as another.”

Mick sucked in a deep breath, never as close to wanting to punch a woman in the face as he was right then. “Elizabeth. Listen very closely to me. You hurt Tara. And in doing so, you hurt Nathan. You put his face erroneously on national television without her permission and used him to promote me and the team. She’s furious. At me.”

“So? I’ve been telling you—and her—for months that it’s never going to work between the two of you. She just doesn’t get it.” She pointed at the television. “That was great promo. You with underprivileged kids. Great emotional angle. Come on, Mick. Awesome bonus points.”

He finally grabbed her arms, wanting to shake her so badly he had to grit his teeth to keep from doing so. “No, you don’t get it. She’s important to me. What you think—or want—isn’t. I love her. And if I lose her over this, you’ll regret it. Do you understand that, Elizabeth? Do you have any idea how much I hate you for what you’ve done? Right now you are about two seconds away from having your
ass fired
.”

He’d said the last two words loud enough to get her attention, because her eyes widened. “What?”

“Fucking fix this, Elizabeth, or you’re history. I’ve had it with you deciding what’s best for me and my career. You haven’t known what’s best for me for a long time now. If you had really known what was good for me, you’d have had your goddamn eyes open over the past couple months and seen what I needed.” He shoved her away from him. “You want to know what’s best for me? Tara is best for me. Nathan is best for me. They make me happy, something you obviously don’t understand, since you don’t have a goddamn heart.”

She’d gone pale, her normal snobbish bearing seeming to shrink.

Good. He didn’t give a shit how she felt.

“Get your ass out of my house right now. You have until tomorrow to figure out a way to fix this massive fuckup, or I will fire you. Do you understand?”

She nodded, rapidly blinking back tears as she grabbed her bag and headed for the door. “I got it. I’ll fix this, Mick. Don’t worry.”

He held the door open for her, and she hurried through it. He slammed it behind her with so much force the pictures on the wall rattled.

God, he’d never wanted to hurt someone more than he wanted to hurt Elizabeth. And he’d never once in his life laid a hand on a woman. But she’d infuriated him and messed with his life. And no one did that and got away unscathed.

Now he had to do something to repair the damage she’d caused.

Considerable damage. Maybe irreparable damage.

TWENTY

TARA SAT IN THE COOL DARKNESS OF HER LIVING ROOM, her knees pulled up to her chest, trying to keep the headache that had started last night from turning into a full-blown migraine.

Nathan, her thankfully oblivious son, had no idea what had set her off yesterday. And she wasn’t about to burst his bubble about Mick. Not just yet. Later, when she was stronger, when she’d shored up her defenses, she’d sit him down and explain to him that people sometimes weren’t who you thought they were, that sometimes they couldn’t live up to your expectations.

She would have to break her son’s heart. But her job as his mother was to hit him with the cold slap of reality and force him to step outside the bubble of fantasy that he—that they—had been living in for the past couple months. It was her own fault for trying to grab the brass ring, for thinking she could have it all— great career, great kid, great guy. She should have known it wasn’t possible.

Nathan had gone to the last preseason football game tonight. No reason to deny him the enjoyment of it, at least one last time. She’d given up her seat to one of Nathan’s friends, and the friend’s dad had taken them. He was spending the night at his friend’s house, so she had a reprieve. She hadn’t watched the game, didn’t even want to think about football right now.

She just wanted to hide out in the dark and not think. Unfortunately, all she’d been doing was thinking, and her mind was on overload. Was it too much to ask for a few hours of peace?

The knock at the door said that it apparently
was
too much to ask. She pushed off the chair and inched over to the door, determined not to open it if Mick was there.

No one was there. Huh. She pulled the door open and reached down to pick up the box that lay on her doorstep. It was too late at night for a delivery service, so someone must have hand delivered it. There was no name on the box other than hers. She closed and locked the door, brought the box into the living room, and grabbed her scissors to rip it open.

Inside was a DVD with an envelope on top. Scrawled across the top of the envelope in lovely penmanship was—
Tara, Please Read Before Viewing
.

She opened the envelope and pulled out a sheet of linen paper, opened it, and read the handwritten note.

Tara gritted her teeth, dropped the note, and shoved the box to the side. She stood and walked into the kitchen to pour a glass of wine, her heart ramming double time against her chest.

The sheer balls on that woman to think she could send some flimsy apology and expect Tara would be fine with it. She didn’t care what was on that video. Nothing could erase what Elizabeth had done to Nathan and to her. She’d done it deliberately to embarrass Tara. Tara could handle anything Elizabeth dished out. She was an adult and could hold her own. But to bring her child into it was underhanded, dirty and uncalled-for, and utterly unforgivable.

Another knock on the door, and Tara slammed her wine goblet down on the kitchen counter. She’d bet anything it was Elizabeth. Hell, she hoped it was Elizabeth. She’d love to tell the woman exactly what she thought of her.

She flung the door open, and her words caught in her throat as she saw Mick standing there.

“What do you want?”

“Five minutes.”

Dammit. She stood in front of the door, blocking his entrance. “There’s nothing you can say I want to hear.”

He laid his hand against the brick. “Five minutes. That’s all I want, Tara.”

He looked as miserable as she felt. God, she wanted to believe that look was sincere. “Five minutes.”

She moved aside, and he came in while she closed the door.

She stood near the door, her arms wrapped around her middle. “Start talking.”

He turned. “I didn’t know what Elizabeth was doing until I saw it on the news last night.”

“How could you not know what she was doing? She was right in front of you. You pulled Nathan next to you when she pointed to you.”

“I know how it looked, but it was so noisy there. Nathan and I were busy grabbing T-shirts and footballs, goofing off, and talking to the kids and the other guys, mugging for pictures. We weren’t paying any attention to the cameras or what Liz was doing. I thought she was promoting the foundation. I had no idea until I saw it on the news. I was sick after I saw that news clip. And I was fucking furious with Elizabeth.” He moved toward her. “I’ve never wanted to lay hands on a woman in anger until I saw that, Tara. I had to pull myself back because I wanted to hurt her. I’m so sorry.”

He was hurting as badly as she was. “She sent me a video.”

“What?”

“She sent me a video and a note. Said she was sorry. It’s over on the chair.”

He went over and grabbed the note, read it, then panned his gaze over to her again. “What’s on the video?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t looked at it yet.”

“Do you want to?”

“I guess so.”

Mick put the video in her DVD player. It was scenes cut from the carnival, with a voice-over from a very prominent sportscaster talking about how the Sabers—and Mick—gave tirelessly to the foundation, and how much the charity stood to benefit from the carnival.

It was the same thing, with Nathan and Mick highlighted in the video.

Nothing had changed. What was her point?

Except then it did change, with the sportscaster talking about Mick, his girlfriend Tara Lincoln, and Tara’s son Nathan and how they unselfishly gave of their time planning this event. He went on to say Tara was a local event planner and donated her time in preparing the event. He talked about Nathan being a sophomore at a local high school, briefly described the school, and showed a picture of the school and the team. He explained Nathan was a quarterback, and mentioned how Mick had started out as a quarterback, and he went on to make comparisons between the two.

Dear God. Nathan would love that.

Tara moved into the living room and sat on the sofa, watching how Liz had completely turned around a negative spot into something positive and beneficial. Nathan would come out of this looking like a hero. Tears filled her eyes, and she swept her gaze to Mick.

“You did this?”

“I told Liz she fucked things up. Bad. I told her to fix it.”

“Looks like she did.”

“I told her I’d fire her if she didn’t make it right.”

Tara lifted her hand to her mouth. “You threatened to fire her?”

“I did.”

“Mick, what she did ... that’s amazing.”

“She damn well owed it to you and Nathan to make it amazing. She had no right to manipulate you and Nathan that way. I won’t tolerate anyone who works for me treating the people I love that way.”

“People you ... what did you say?”

He stood, went over to her, and grabbed her hands, pulling her to stand. “Come on, Tara. Surely by now you’ve figured out how I feel about you.”

“No, I had no idea. We’ve never talked about it.”

“Well, let’s talk about it.” His lips lifted in a hopeful smile.

Oh, God. Her mind was awash in all the pain, in what this could mean. In what she’d hoped for. And in the agony she’d been through today. All she could think about was the pain and the fear. She pushed against him. “No, don’t. I ... can’t, Mick.”

His smile died. “What? Why? I just told you I loved you.”

“Don’t.” She shook her head. “I can’t do this. Please. You have to leave.”

He frowned, tried to hold her, but she stepped back, needing distance, needing him to go.

“Tara. It’s going to be okay, I promise. I’ll make sure that video is run everywhere.”

“It’s not that, Mick. You don’t understand. Tell Liz I appreciate her making amends, but you and me? I can’t do this anymore.”

She backed farther away, but he wouldn’t allow it, kept following her.

“What do you mean, you can’t do this? I say I love you, and you push me away? I don’t get it.”

“We’ve had a great time this summer, Mick. But it’s over. Your life and mine just don’t mesh. I have my career and Nathan. You have your career. And the two just don’t fit well.”

She’d hit the front door, and he was in front of her now. She had nowhere else to go. He didn’t touch her, but his body was inches from hers. “We fit. Perfectly.”

She shook her head. “No, we don’t. I can’t live in your world, and neither can my son. Your life is parties and trips and magazine covers and the news and it’s just not what I want for Nathan.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way, Tara. That was just Liz building up my image.”

“And you need that for your career. But I need a little breathing room. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me and for Nathan. Now I just need some space. Nathan will be starting school soon, and he needs to focus on that, not on your crazy lifestyle.”

“It can be like that.”

The tears stung her eyes and she blinked them back. “Please go.”

“Do you love me, Tara?”

Her heart wrenched as she lied to him. “No. I had fun with you this summer, but I don’t love you, Mick.”

He gave her a curt nod. “Okay.”

She opened the door for him, and he walked away without looking at her. She shut the door and locked it, then rested her head on it, listening to the sound of his car starting up and driving away.

She let the tears come then. She was doing the right thing. For Nathan and for herself.