Page 54 of Forever Offsides

He sighs. “I also need to clean up my image. Grow up, I guess. I’m losing endorsements, and I can’t have that. When I was here before, everything was great. I got deals, and my status as a player was as high as it’s ever been. I need it to be that way again.”

That fits better.

“What about the girl?”

“Quinn?”

I simply stare him down, my hand clutching my bottle a little tighter, my body growing with tension.

“I don’t know. I left her because I was afraid she’d hold me back. I wanted more than I was getting with the team, and she was about to be a surgical resident. Her life was here in Boston, and I knew once she was an intern, she wouldn’t have time for me. I saw some of the veteran players’ wives. They would be at the games with their kids and kiss their husbands before they took the field. That wasn’t going to be her with the hours she was going to be working, but more than that, she wouldn’t have picked up and moved every time I needed to.”

Quinn had it nailed for me the night I met her. I wonder if those male expectations she hates so much stemmed from her relationship with Russel or if he was simply the start of an overarching agenda placed on her. Either way, knowing this about him, I can’t see that they would have worked out.

“She’s an incredible doctor.” An incredible woman.

“I’m proud of her,” he says. “I am. I… well, I’ve never met another woman like her. She’s something special. So accomplished, and maybe I never felt I could live up to everything she already was when I was just starting and barely anything. I don’t know. The way I did it… I know I was an asshole. I’m not so young and foolish anymore. She’s perfect. She’s everything I need to get myself and my life on track. But she’ll never take me back, and my first priority has to be the team I play for and being a team player for once.”

I shouldn’t feel relief at that, but I do, and I hate it.

“You’re going to have to work this out with them. Mason is the quarterback, and Crew is our starting tight end, and that’s not changing. If you want to be part of this, it’ll need to be the three of you as a unit. A functioning unit. You will have to be humble. You will have to fall on your sword a bit when it comes to their vitriol over how you treated their sister. And you will have to not only tell but show their father that you mean business.”

He moves the bottle back and forth between his hands. “I know that. I also know I deserve what I got.”

I chuckle, and he smiles. “Where are you staying?”

“The Four Seasons. Technically, I could walk there from here, but your place is a bit surrounded.”

“I have burgers, fries, and salad I could make us.”

“You’re the only billionaire I know who doesn’t have a meal service or a personal chef.”

I shrug. “Not who I am.”

He licks his lips. “I know. I’m not complaining.”

I smack his shoulder and grab him another beer while I take the meat and veggies out of the fridge and the fries out of the freezer. I make dinner for my son. Something I haven’t done for him since he was a kid. We watch game film, drink beer, and talk sports. Well after it’s dark, he has a car pick him up to take him back to his hotel, even though I offered for him to crash with me.

It’s one of the best nights I’ve had in a very long time. One I’m hoping I’ll get more of if he comes to Boston and plays for me. But when the lights are out, and I’m alone in my bed, my pretty redhead creeps back into my thoughts. My mouth on hers. The feel of her hands on me.

But it’s more than that with her.

More than just the physical stuff.

For four months, I dreamed of her, falling asleep with my phone by my pillow after texting with her. I couldn’t get enough and was anxious to get to Boston for more than the job.

She made me excited. She made me laugh and smile. She made me feel like the kid I never got to be. Hell, she simply made me feel.

It was incredible. Addictive. Like her.

Eventually some guy will be lucky enough to keep pace with her. I already know no matter who it is or when it happens—even if it’s years from now—I’ll still be jealous of anyone who gets a chance to be with her. It might not be Russel, but it won’t be me either. She’s seventeen years younger than me and impossibly off-limits.

“Dallas’s GM had me up late,” Asher tells me over video from his office in his house with some kind of protein shake in his hand. “The deal is done, though.”

Which means Russel will have to fly home today, grab some of his things, and hire someone to manage his house and affairs there because he’ll have to report to training camp on Monday.

“Damn, you work fast.”

“Dallas was anxious to make a deal.”