Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
~AUGUST~
It’s game day for the Blaze, which means it’s a long day for me.
I’ve worked all day in the office and pretty soon I’ll need to head out to the box to watch the game.
It’ll be nice since Danny is coming to hang out with me tonight.
He doesn’t have a swim meet and isn’t traveling with his team.
It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do this.
I sigh and look out the window. The Tampa Bay sun is shining brightly.
I haven’t been outside since I arrived at eight this morning.
Looking over budget numbers has been a long, exhausting process.
I need to make sure that we can endure during the playoffs, because the chances of a home game are slim, so travel will need to be accounted for.
I thought Finance budgeted for this and they had, just not as much as I had hoped.
My phone chimes, pulling me away from the large Excel spreadsheet that is covering my second monitor, while I have the email from Finance explaining our situation on the other screen. I glance over at the phone and see that it’s a text from Hendrix.
Hendrix: Hey, my brother, Ash is in town. I think Danny invited him to hang in the box with you. Please be nice to him. He knows exactly who you are and he’s not a fan.
I sigh and blow out a loud breath in the quiet of my office.
August: Hey you, nice to hear from you. What exactly does that mean?
I lean back in my office chair, ignoring the spreadsheet and the dilemma I’m looking at. What could that possibly mean? I wonder. And how much shit is this man going to give me about her? Does he know about our night together? I’m hoping he doesn’t.
August: Does he know about our night?
Her bubbles show up immediately, indicating she’s typing, and I’m wondering if she’s fired up.
Hendrix: Nothing happened, what’s there to tell?
I laugh at her response.
August: Denial doesn’t look good on you, baby.
Hendrix: Can you promise to be nice?
August: Since when am I not nice?
I can just picture her now—the scowl on her face and her fingers frantically flying across her phone’s keyboard. I wish I was there right now to see her face and maybe kiss her until she smiles.
Hendrix: Seriously, August, just don’t talk to him about the thing that never happened or anything about me, okay? Just be nice, please. I’m begging you.
August: I like to hear you beg. But don’t worry, baby, I always deliver.
Hendrix: Come the fuck on, August. He hates you, so please don’t piss him off further.
August: Relax, I know how to behave. Now stop worrying about your brother and me sharing space in the box and get ready for the game.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. Of course, the fucker hates me.
Tonight, should be interesting. I told Danny when he texted earlier that Hendrix’s brother was welcome with us.
It had to have been a favor to her. I wonder why she didn’t just ask me.
I mean hell, she had guts enough to text me to be nice, but not enough to ask if we could hang out.
I shake my head and look at my phone to see there are no more text bubbles coming from our chat.
Maybe she’s getting ready. Or maybe one of her teammates saw her on her phone and she didn’t want to tell them who she was texting.
She’s probably ashamed that we spent the night together because she puts so much energy into hating me. But the other night she came into my bed too willingly for her loathing to be real. But it’s okay, I’ll let her keep up the pretense, until she’s ready to admit that we are so good together.
A knock at my door startles me from my thoughts. I look up and see Danny standing there, leaning against my doorframe. He’s got on his custom-made Blaze jersey with Mac’s last name and number on the back. I grin at him.
“I love that. I love that you wear that for her,” I say, pushing away from my desk and standing up. I raise my arms over my head so that I can stretch my back. It feels so tight from sitting.
“Thanks, I really love it too. Thanks for offering these,” Danny says grinning back at me.
“I didn’t do that. It was probably somebody in merchandising or something,” I lie easily.
“Uh-huh. I mention it and then I get an email from the Blaze team store that custom jerseys were available for order, shortly after we talked about it one night.” Danny studies me carefully.
He knows I did it, I know it did it, but for some reason I can’t bring myself to admit to it.
It’s like it’s easier for them to believe that I’m some womanizing businessman than a man who cares about his friends enough to use what influence I have to make things happen for them.
I’d honestly believe the former. It’s easier that way.
I’m not meant for anything more than that.
Not after what I did to her. Not after the expectations my last name comes with.
How can I expect a woman to be worthy of my father’s standards, when I myself do not think I am?
“How about that,” I reply. “Are you ready to head over to the box?”
“Yeah, about that, though. I wanted to talk to you about Hendrix’s brother. Mac might have mentioned that he knows about your history with Hendrix. He’s not exactly a fan of you. Could you just please try and be nice to him tonight? And not pick any fights with him?” he asks me.
I grin, holding in the fact that Hendrix had already texted me for this very same favor.
“Yeah, I can do that. I’m sure I’m not his favorite person, but I will be nice to him.
I won’t antagonize him about anything. I do know how to be civil to people, Danny,” I tell him.
“After all, he’s her brother. The last thing I would say to the man is anything about how I used to do his sister. ”
Danny chuckles and shakes his head. “I know it’s true, that you two were a thing. No one makes any effort to hide it anymore and she certainly hates you. But I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that you actually used to date her.”
I nod. “I know, I’ve heard it before. But I did and I loved her.” The last line slips out before I can stop it.
Danny’s eyes widen. “I had no idea, man.”
“I did. I loved her. Hell, maybe I still do. But she hates me and with good reason. So, I will behave and let her take all the shots at me that she needs. Because at the end of the day, we need her on this team and she needs this team. It’s where all her friends are and it makes her happy,” I say, shrugging.
“I won’t be an ass, and I won’t blow that up a second time. ”
It’s Danny’s turn to nod. “You know you are not who everyone thinks you are, August. I wish you would show them this side of you.”
I shake my head. “Nah, let’s just let them believe what they want.”
He chuckles. “Whatever you think is best.”
“Come on, let’s go watch them kill it,” I say, locking my computer and heading towards the door.
“Did you ever meet Hendrix’s brother?” Danny asks me as we make our way to the elevators.
“Nope, but I knew she had one. She mentioned him in college, but he never came to see her that I know of,” I reply.
What I don’t tell him is that I did Google the guy back when we were in school.
He was a college basketball standout, but now he owns his own consulting company.
He’s a self-made man who has done well for himself.
If things had turned out differently between Hendrix and me, we might have managed to be friends.
But there is probably very little chance of that now.
“Mac says he’s some silver fox,” Danny says with a laugh.
I nod. “Are you meeting him somewhere? Or is he just coming to the box?” I say, changing the subject from his looks to the question that has been looming in the back of my mind since he was invited to hang out with us tonight.
“Yeah, I’ll meet him outside the entrance of the girls locker room and head up to the box. I just wanted to check in with you first and see if you were going to be cool with this.” Danny glances at me as we make our way from the office buildings over to the stadium.
“Sure, why wouldn’t I be?” I ask him, only a hint of sarcasm in my voice.
“Oh, I don’t know, because she’s not always the nicest to you and no one asked you if her brother can come and sit in your box,” he says, stating the obvious.
“It’s fine, the more the merrier. I told you guys a long time ago, you’re welcome in the box and so are your friends.
It’s just me up there most nights anyways.
Why should I be the only one enjoying it?
” I reply. What I don’t tell him is that there isn’t really anyone that I want to invite into the box.
Being a Cromwell comes with the extra special perk of not always knowing who you can trust or who just wants to be friends with you for your money.
I could tell instantly the guys and players that I’ve had the opportunity to hang out with because of the Blaze are not like that.
So, there’s no reason to turn down anyone’s family who wants to watch the game from the box.
Although, no one has ever asked before, except, of course, Hendrix.
And she didn’t really ask; the request came through Danny. I was just given orders to be nice.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you both up there,” I say as Danny veers off to wait for Ash Monroe to join us.
I make my way to the box. I smile when I come inside.
It looks the same every game—the same food, drinks are all the same.
The emptiness is still the same too. No one else in the organization really comes to watch the girls play and that’s fine with me.
I enjoy the privacy of watching them from up here, and not being judged or noticed for the number of times my eyes wander to the goalie.
I don’t have to wait long to meet him. I hear the door open to the suite, and I turn just in time to see Danny and Ash walk in.