Quitting the Quarterback (The Nash Brothers #4)

CHAPTER 46 Cassie Fields

Car Trouble

When the doorbell rings just as the kids are settling into homework after school on Monday, Luca is all too happy to abandon his math problems and rush to the door to answer it.

“Dad!” he says, and I suck in a breath as I force myself to come to terms with the fact that I’m going to have to deal with my ex.

I walk up behind Luca. “Did Lily leave Guac again?” I ask.

He holds it up, and part of me feels like he purposely pulled it out of her bag to have an excuse to come by.

I take it from him. “Thanks.” I’m about to turn into the house with it when he stops me with a hand on my arm.

“Can we talk for a second?” His eyes shift to Luca, and then back to me. “Alone?”

I press my lips together. “Lukey, can you bring this to Lilypad for me?”

He nods, grabs the stuffed avocado from my hand, and rushes back into the house. I step outside and close the door behind me to seal us into privacy. “What? ”

“Luca couldn’t stop talking about your patient this weekend,” he grunts.

“So? He instituted a football program at Luca’s school. I wasn’t going to prevent my child the opportunity to work with current and former football players because you’re jealous of one of my patients.”

He raises a brow. “Jealous? I never said that. Is there something to be jealous of?”

“Oh, come off it, Alex. You don’t want the kids over at his house, and you hate that I have a connection to something you love.”

Don’t say it, Cassie. Do not say that you slept with him.

God, I want to say it so badly .

He raises a brow. “We came by last night to see if you wanted to go to dinner with us. You weren’t home.”

“Are you insinuating I was with my patient?” I ask.

“Were you? Because we stopped by Saturday, too. Lily wanted her iPad. You weren’t home then, either.”

“It feels an awful lot like you’re keeping tabs on me, but you lost that right when you slept with Corinne. And Jamie. And Carrie.” I mean, not that he ever had the right to keep tabs on me, but I’m making a point here.

He clenches his jaw, and I watch as it works back and forth. I brace myself because I know his tells, and the clenched jaw is the signal that he’s about to say something hurtful.

To my shock, he doesn’t. “Fine. Just watch it with the football player. I know you, Cassie, and I know you have this romanticized view of what life should look like. If you knew football players the way I do, you’d know he ain’t it.”

I nearly laugh in his face. He’s way more it than Alex ever was .

He deserves to hear those words, and someday he will. But right now, I need to keep a tight leash on both my emotions and my big mouth.

But as it turns out, it’s too late. Mostly because Alex does not keep a tight leash on his own emotions…nor his big mouth.

I head into the office for the Tuesday morning meeting ahead of Tanner’s exam, and just like the last time I was here, everyone in the office essentially ignores me.

What a warm reception.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen once I’m done with Tanner’s rehab and I’m forced to work with these people on a daily basis again. I’m sure everything will be fine by then, but the thought makes me a little nervous.

“Cassandra, a word?” Dr. Hayward says to me as the meeting draws to a close, and I hang back, presumably to give him the latest update on Tanner before we head into the exam room.

Once the rest of the physical therapists leave, though, he shuts the door. He draws in a breath before he turns to me, and an ominous vibe fills the air between us.

“Ms. Fields, it’s been brought to my attention that there might be something inappropriate going on between you and your patient. Can you please clarify?” He seems a bit off as he asks the question, as if he’s almost nervous to have this conversation with me.

My hand moves to my chest. “Excuse me?”

He clears his throat. “The relationship between a patient and a medical professional can be complicated. I just need to ensure that—”

I hold up a hand. “What are you asking me?”

“Are you engaging in something other than a professional relationship with Tanner Banks?” The question comes out rushed.

I take a step back as if I’ve been dealt a physical blow .

I don’t know how to answer that. I don’t want to lie to my boss, but I also can’t admit the truth to him.

“Why are you even asking me this?”

He pulls out his phone, and he shows me a photo. It’s from Luca’s after-school football practice—the one that first week when Tanner asked Lily to be his cone commander. He’s holding Lily’s hand as they walk toward the field. He flips to the next photo, and it shows Tanner’s head bent down low talking to Luca. And the final photo is Tanner looking at me while I’m trying to calm Lily down.

The look in his eyes is unmistakable even from a distance.

But none of these are incriminating. It’s not like he flips to a naked one of the two of us up on the rooftop deck this past weekend…but he does flip to a photo of my car in Tanner’s driveway, and it’s dark outside.

“Where did you get these?” I ask quietly.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It’s a total invasion of my privacy, and it does, in fact, matter,” I hiss.

“Your car was parked in your patient’s driveway for the entire weekend, Ms. Fields. Would you care to explain why?” he asks, sliding his phone back into his pocket.

He flattens his lips as he studies me, and I know I’m caught. I don’t have a defense, and lies aren’t exactly a solid way to go about it.

“Car trouble,” I finally lie weakly.

He doesn’t buy it. I don’t expect him to.

“I also received photographs of you and Mr. Banks arriving at a house near the beach together this past weekend.” His voice is flat, and maybe there actually is a naked one of us on the rooftop deck.

I’m mortified. I have no idea what to say, no idea how he found any of this out. We were being so careful, and it still didn’t matter. I open my mouth to apologize so we can move on and not keep Tanner waiting, but he cuts in first.

“Cassandra, I decided to give you a chance by giving you a job here even though you’d been out of practice for quite some time. I gave you our VIP patient despite the protests from others on staff because I thought out of everyone here, you would maintain professionalism. I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I am in your ethics. I’m going to have to let you go effective immediately for violating our practice’s code of conduct.”

All the blood drains from my face, and I feel like I might pass out for a second. “Let me go?” I echo. “But what about Tanner? What about—” What about the fact that I’m the only PT who can handle him? What about the fact that I need this job to support my kids? How will I become financially independent from Alex when I can’t even hold onto a job for more than a few months?

“I’ll put Rick on Tanner’s rehabilitation. You can pack your things and go.”

“But I need this job,” I beg. I know it’s useless, but I say it anyway.

“I’m so sorry,” he says firmly, as if he found his footing. “Best of luck to you.” He opens the door and walks out, and I close my eyes as I try to wake up from this nightmare.

But when I open my eyes, I’m still in the same room. Same place. Same feelings rushing through my chest. Same pit in my stomach.

Maybe I had it coming all along. I mean…he’s right, in the technical sense. I didn’t give my weak defense that we’d met before he was ever even injured. I didn’t mention the fact that there are actual feelings involved on both sides of the equation. I couldn’t find my voice when he fired me so quickly. So out of left field .

If only we hadn’t gone to that beach house. If only we would’ve thought to park my car in his garage.

If only we hadn’t slept together. If only I hadn’t thought a one-night stand with a football player my ex admired was a great idea.

That thought pulses a new realization in me, and suddenly I have an incredibly sneaking suspicion I know exactly who is behind Dr. Hayward finding out.

It doesn’t matter how he found out, though.

In one two-minute conversation, all my personal dreams and aspirations just came crashing down all around me, and I’m not quite sure how to pick through the rubble to find my way out of it.