The Total Package (22 page)

“No thank you, Mrs. Green.” Tyson smiled. Dani followed his lead and shook her head politely.

“They’re here to see Marcus, Lila,” Pastor Green told his wife, and her smile faded. Not completely gone, but now wary.

“Of course,” Lila Green said graciously, still very much the pastor’s wife. She took a few steps toward the entrance to a hallway and called down it in what could only be described as a motherly fashion. “Marcus! You’ve got company.”

“We’re, uh, bringing him his phone,” Dani bumbled in an attempt to waylay the woman’s fears. She pulled the phone out of her pocket and held it up, feeling like she needed to prove it.

There was a thumping of multiple pairs of feet coming down the hall. It was accompanied by laughter, unfamiliar, almost childlike laughter. All of which abruptly came to an end when Marcus appeared and saw them. Beside him was the cutest, most fresh-faced girl Dani had ever seen. She looked barely out of her teens and was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, her long brown hair pulled away from her face by a chaste-looking headband. She had big brown eyes that grew wide when she saw Dani and Tyson, like she knew some sort of jig was up.

Apparently it was. The scowl on Marcus’s face confirmed it. He looked from Dani to Tyson, then quickly back to the pastor and his wife, then finally to the young woman. The glare then settled on Dani, accompanied by a cold “What are you doing here?”

The question broke Dani out of her stupor. It was too much. She’d spent all day, nay, the last six months worrying about where he was, what he was doing, and if he was in trouble. She had missed her own son’s fifth birthday to sit alone in a hotel room waiting for a half-hour phone call with Marcus. She had made up excuses for him that nobody believed. And all the while he was deep in the heart of Texas in some bizarre version of
Leave It to Beaver
. She walked up to Marcus, thrusting his phone in his direction. She didn’t care about decorum or politeness or even if there was a reasonable explanation. As far as she was concerned, if she never saw any of them again, it would be too soon.

“I might ask you the same question,” she hissed at him. “You forgot this. It’s been ringing all day. You’re welcome. I quit.”

With that, Dani walked out the door.

Her dramatic exit lost some of its effect when she realized that she was stuck until Tyson followed her out. After all, he was her ride and the car keys were in his pocket. She paced back and forth by the car, mentally writing a list of the things she needed to do, which consisted mainly of booking a flight home and putting in an application at the local Starbucks once she got there. Maybe she could try her hand at teaching. Thanks to her master’s degree, someone had to be willing to hire her for something that wasn’t sports broadcasting. She was through with football and the backbiting, judgmental world of television, where every time she put a piece of chocolate in her mouth, she’d have to measure the circumference of her upper arm to make sure it wasn’t too fat. Because for a female broadcaster, the most important thing in broadcasting was lady arm fat, even when wearing a coat in the dead of winter standing next to a football player twice your size. At the time she thought she was doing what she had to, to win some imaginary game. The dyed hair, the contact lenses, and the push-up bra—all to stand out and get noticed. Now she felt like nothing more than a puppet, one she herself wouldn’t want to play with. She stopped and took a deep breath, then another. If anyone was watching from inside the house, she must’ve looked like a raving lunatic.

Dani leaned up against Tyson’s Bentley, which looked ridiculously out of place parked next to a ten-year-old basic minivan and a rusted-out pickup truck. She laid her hand against her forehead, pinching at the bridge of her nose with her thumb and middle finger, trying to push her brain’s reset buttons. Who was she kidding? What had driven her all along was the hope her career would help bring her back to Tyson. How did it turn out that getting everything she wanted was the worst thing ever? It was time she got her head on straight.

“Dani?”

She dropped her hand and looked up, expecting to see Tyson. But it was Marcus who was now standing beside her. She glowered at him, not trusting herself to speak.

“Walk with me?” he asked, already taking a step in the direction across the lawn of rocks. It sounded like a plea. She might have refused, but curiosity won out, and she followed. She thought about picking up one of the landscaping rocks and beaning him with it, but a very healthy-looking red tabby cat dashed from around the back of the house to join them. The cat ran to catch up and tried to brush against him as he walked. Marcus stopped, reaching down to give it an absent-minded pat. The cat rubbed up against one of Marcus’s legs and then the other as he stroked it, then plopped down on the ground in front of him, meowing when Marcus straightened back up and went back to walking. The cat gave Dani a disgruntled glance, its tail slapping against the dust hard enough to create a small cloud as Dani passed it.

They walked around the back of the house and across the property to an octagonal wooden gazebo by a large pond. Beneath its canopy were several picnic tables. Marcus took a seat on one of the long benches and patted the space beside him in invitation. Dani sat down next to him. It was serene and lovely, rich with the sounds of the wildlife around them. She could see the top of a white steeple from above the tree line in the distance. The pastor’s church. Her anger began to ebb, and she could feel a difference in Marcus as well. All his edginess was gone, replaced with a demeanor she had never witnessed before. Tranquility maybe? Or vulnerability?

“I thought football would be fun.” Marcus sighed wistfully.

Dani couldn’t help laughing. “So did I.”

Marcus grinned, before spreading his legs apart and hunching over, resting his elbows on his knees. He looked down at his hands as if they held the right words and then gave up. “We were so damn poor. I went to bed hungry a lot. And alone, I was always alone. I had to grow up fast.”

Dani could feel her chest beginning to tighten. She had wanted Marcus to explain himself, but now that he was actually doing it, she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the story. With each word he spoke, the more vulnerable he looked. He picked his head up and gazed out over the pond in a way that suggested he was still searching for words.

“I thought I was so smart, you know? The more people started to suck up to me, the cockier I got. By the time I was all buttoned up with the Blitz, it was already too late. . . .” His voice trailed off.

“Too late for what?” Dani probed gently. She wanted to stay angry with him, but seeing him so defenseless brought out all her motherly instincts.

“All I saw were the dollar signs. It never dawned on me, all the debauchery and mess that came with it. I thought the streets of New Orleans were bad, but at least when I was getting attacked there, it was up close and over fast. I learned how to fight for survival, and when it was over, I knew I had lived to fight another day. I got good at honing my instincts. But now, it’s all about back-slapping fools who grin as they feed off me. Before the first shovelful of dirt was thrown into the hole where they dropped my mother’s coffin, they were telling me I should get back to business. I was terrified they would grind me down until there was nothing left.”

Dani knew who “they” were. Not only the paparazzi, but also the master manipulators like Clinton Barrow, whose only focus was the bottom line and winning seasons. She had been their victim as well. But that still didn’t explain why she currently found herself in Cedar Creek.

“Marcus, none of that gets me any closer to why you’re here. And I think I’ve earned the right to hear the whole story.”

He took a deep breath, sat back up, and for the first time since she met him, did exactly what she told him.

“I met Beth and her family at the hospital after they thought I dislocated my shoulder in that game with Houston during preseason the year before last. Her grandfather was dying, and they had been there for days. They all looked at me with the kindest eyes. None of them had a clue who I was. She told me she would pray for me. Before I knew it, I was asking her to have coffee with me. Her parents said they didn’t think it was a good idea for her to go out with a stranger, so I ended up inviting all three of them. I was so sure they would be impressed once they found out I was a rich and famous football player, because heck, isn’t everybody?”

He chuckled at his own sarcasm.

“Aren’t you supposed to be gay?” she said.

“Gay? I never said I was gay. Y’all were the ones who said I was gay. I just didn’t bother correcting anyone. ” He chuckled again but the pained look returned and he continued with his confession.

“Not only was her dad not impressed, the man was downright disapproving, especially after he found out I had never set foot inside a church. After he thanked me for the coffee, which he insisted on paying for, he said it was probably for the best if I didn’t try to contact his daughter again. I was a nice kid and he would keep me in his prayers, but they were simple, godly people and he didn’t want his only child falling in with hotshot athletes like me. He said it as we all sat at the same table, so it wasn’t like he did it behind my back. And Beth looked like she agreed. For the first time in my life, I was truly ashamed. I told all of them I would do anything they asked to change their minds. I think the pastor saw me as a soul that needed saving and he couldn’t turn his back on that. I walked away from that meeting with an open invitation to join them at their house whenever I wanted to, and I used it to get my foot in the door.”

Dani couldn’t help but smile. She had firsthand experience of the power of persistence.

“I knew I wouldn’t be able to wow them by trying to bring them into my world, at least not at first. I was already behind with my Sundays dedicated to football. So I joined their church. I had to do it without anyone finding out and blowing my cover. If the media found its way to their door, it’d be all over. I was already good at being sneaky. I started spending all my free time there, which was hard to do when I was with Boston. I’d fly in and ditch anyone who happened to notice and try to follow me. Then take a cab, sometimes the bus. Nobody’s looking for a football star on a crappy bus rolling through small towns, even if this is the middle of football country. If anyone did recognize me, I’d just hop off the bus or ditch the cab, jog a few miles, and try again.”

“That’s why you wanted to sign with the Mavericks,” Dani said slowly as the pieces came together. It was awe inspiring. “You did all this to date a girl?”

“I know it sounds crazy, and looking back when I started it I was probably just doing it to be stubborn. But I love this girl. When she looks at me, I get all hot and cold inside.”

And with that quietly spoken declaration, Marcus LaRue, the coolest, most aloof character Dani had ever met, willingly reduced himself to a puddle of lovestruck mush. His eyes were still as blue, but the ice had melted from his stare. For the first time since she’d met him, the cold, jaded look was gone and Marcus looked his age.

“It looks like you succeeded in winning them over,” Dani remarked sarcastically, if not bitterly. In the end, he had sealed the deal. All in the name of love no less, a feat she couldn’t manage to accomplish.

“It wasn’t easy. At first the pastor really made me earn it. They wouldn’t even let me sleep in the house and set up a little room for me in the barn. He made me go fishing and sit around in nature, picking berries and stuff. He was really good at getting me to tell him about where I came from. Sometimes he’d put his arm across my shoulders as I did, like he was trying to hold me up and support me. I could tell he felt bad for me too. This place became my sanctuary. The more time I spent with them, the more it turned from wanting to get them on board with my way of living to this desperate need to keep them shielded from it. The longer it continued, the higher the odds got that someone was going to find out.”

“So you used me to run interference.” Dani sighed. She looked at him with more empathetic eyes now. He hadn’t singled her out. He had used everyone and everything to his advantage. She began to realize just how much they had in common. Dani had also been living within enormous lies and ulterior motives. But he hadn’t trusted her completely. Someone else had gotten full disclosure. “But you let Tyson in on what you were up to.”

Marcus gave a shrug. “The deeper I got into it, the more I realized I would eventually have to trust someone on the team. Tyson gets me. He knew what I was feeling.”

Dani shook her head. More proof she would never see the inside of the boys’ club. “That’s what cuts the deepest.”

Marcus put his hand on her knee. “Look, Dani, I didn’t know my dad. My mom was sunk in her addictions before I got out of grade school and everyone in the league knows what happened once she had money to burn. Tyson has a lot of experience with addiction. I knew from the time I was little that I wanted what the rich folks have. But it’s nothing if I have no one to thank for it or share it with. These people have become my family, the family I never had. I’d do anything to protect them. I’m really sorry you got caught up in that, baby girl.”

Dani could’ve chosen not to forgive him, but that thought never crossed her mind. She could only imagine where Marcus was coming from. She knew nothing of dysfunctional families or addiction. Her tight-knit clan had rallied around her without judgment whenever she needed them—no questions asked. They wanted her to pursue her dream, even if it was completely misguided. Besides, her grudges had already weighed her down for a long time.

“Apology accepted. So what’s next?” she asked.

Hearing her words of forgiveness, he visibly relaxed. Shades of the Marcus she knew returned with his insolent grin. “For me, I’m going to finish out this year with the Mavericks, hopefully win the Super Bowl. Then I’ll cash my check, walk away, marry Beth, and give her parents all the grandkids they can handle. I’m through leading a double life. The Greens are tougher than I ever gave them credit for. They’ve wanted me to stop living in this mess for a while now. What’s next for you? You going to keep running?”