Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
RHETT
I was driving myself crazy, so I drove around for an hour, trying to clear my head, before I found myself sitting in JP’s driveway. I put my car in park, hoping he would know what to do.
I picked up the pizza box and the twelve-pack from my passenger seat and trudged up the driveway; balancing the food and drinks in one hand, I twisted the knob with the other, only to find that it was locked. The lights were on inside, so I knew he was home.
I rang the bell and waved into the Ring camera in case he was looking.
A few seconds later, the front door swung open. “Rhett, what are you doing here? I thought you were still at Beau’s?”
“Wow,” I said, breezing past my buddy. “Some greeting.”
He closed the door while I kicked my shoes off. “We’ve talked about this,” he said gently like he was afraid he would hurt my feelings. “Rylee and I are engaged, and this is her house now too. You can’t just show up unannounced whenever you want.”
My eyes rounded. “Are you saying I’m unwelcome?”
He scrubbed a hand over his beard. “You are always welcome, but Rylee and I are living together, and you know, we could be doing things.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, noticing his rumpled shirt and messed up hair. “What kind of things would you be doing? Because judging by your appearance, I can take a wild guess.”
He gave me a murderous glare, and I laughed. It wasn’t his job to entertain me, and it wasn’t like I couldn’t keep myself busy. I liked being around the guy but with him settled down, we didn’t see each other all that often anymore.
“Where is that lovely fiancée of yours?” I called out and set the pizza and beer on the table.
He looked up at the top of the stairs. “None of your damn business.”
I fought back a laugh and flipped open the pizza box. “Easy there, big guy.”
“So, how did things go with Natalie?”
“Not great,” I said, patting their golden retriever, Oakley, as he came up to rest his blocky head on my lap.
“What happened?” He walked back into the kitchen to grab a bottle opener.
“She doesn’t want to drag this out. She wants a divorce.” I sighed and popped my beer open.
He pushed a coaster my way. It was another new house rule since Rylee moved in. “That’s good. You can’t hide this forever, and with her being Beau’s niece, that makes things really complicated for you.”
I rested my head against the back of the couch. “Dude, you don’t know the half of it. Big B told her that he would get rid of anyone who tried to make a move on her.”
“Damn. That’s rough, and Big B isn’t known for his sarcasm either. So, what’s your plan now?” he asked, taking a seat next to me.
“I was hoping you would give me one.”
Sleeping with the owner’s niece was crossing a line. Secretly marrying her was career suicide. But even knowing who she was, I still didn’t regret it.
He shook his head. “Not going to happen, buddy. Time to start acting like a grown-up and take some responsibility for your actions.”
“She’s really eager to put this behind her and move on,” I told him, staring straight ahead.
“That’s good, right?”
I shrugged. “I’m not so sure.”
He moved a scented candle out of the way so he could set his beer down. “Rhett, what’s going on? You can’t possibly want this. I know you want your mom off your back, but there has to be another way. You barely know each other.”
I played with the label on my bottle. “Maybe I want to get to know her.”
His eyes grew big. “Then date her first. Ease your way into this. Find out if you have anything in common and go from there.”
“She won’t date me.”
“Try being her friend, then.”
I mulled over his words. “I don’t want to be her friend. This is going to sound crazy, but there is something about her. I’ve never felt this way before.”
His head tilted to the side, and he looked at me like he couldn’t believe we were having this conversation. “That’s a pretty big statement coming from you. ”
I looked up at the ceiling, pondering how to explain this in a way he would understand. “I feel a connection to her that doesn’t feel forced. I’ve never been in love before, but if it were to happen with anyone, I think it could be with her.”
“Rhett, come on.” He laughed. “You are not being rational right now. You barely know the woman.”
I rolled my lips together and felt myself getting defensive. “Just because I don’t know all the personal details doesn’t mean I can’t learn them over time. But she doesn’t want that with me and it bums me out, man, and I know it shouldn’t, but it does. I should be focused on my career and not landing myself in hot water with the owner of the team.”
He pushed his beer aside and leaned forward. “I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this. You have spent your entire life avoiding relationships because you didn’t want anything serious. This is so out of character for you.”
“Maybe, for the first time in my life, I’m being honest with myself about what I want. My gut instinct is telling me she’s the one, and I’ve spent too many years relying on that to stop now.”
JP grabbed his phone and started texting someone.
“What are you doing?”
He lifted his phone. “This is too much for me to handle on my own. Mav is on his way.”
I rolled my eyes. “Now you’re being dramatic, and I promised Natalie I wouldn’t tell anyone else.”
“Too late.” He looked at his screen. “He’ll be here in thirty.”
As the ex-team captain, Maverick Cross was like our team Dad, which could be really irritating at times. He was one of the last people I would want to talk to about this. Over the years, even after his retirement, we maintained a solid friendship. I still looked up to him to this day, but the thing with Mav, he was serious as fuck and called a spade a spade. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the truth.
“I’m not waiting for him to eat,” I said, grabbing a slice of pepperoni and taking a huge bite.
JP was in the middle of lecturing me about the toll this would take on my career and how it would affect the team when the doorbell rang. I couldn’t believe I honestly came here to loosen up. Instead, I was feeling more irritated than when I first got here.
Mav walked through the door holding what looked like to be a pie. “What’s going on? What’s the emergency?”
“There is no emergency,” I said, standing up to greet him.
“That’s not what JP said.” He lifted a brow and handed me a glass pan covered in foil.
“You brought dessert?” I lifted the lid to peek inside. “How domesticated of you.”
“Shut up.” He laughed. “Kinley was up all night baking. Mila has been stuffy and coughing. Between the two kids, Kinley and I haven’t gotten much sleep. Kinley finds baking therapeutic.”
“At least she doesn’t find painting relaxing like Rylee. I’d rather suffer through eating a few pies as opposed to sanding down walls and spending hours looking at swatches of gray paint that all look the same.”
“Dude.” Maverick exhaled, looking exhausted. “At least you get to sleep at night.”
I smacked Mav on the back. “Enough of this pie and painting shit. When did we become a bunch of boring old men?”
“When we grew up and settled down.” JP smirked over the rim of his beer. “Buckle up, buttercup. ”
Maverick laughed and squeezed my shoulder. “Enjoy the single life, my friend.”
I could feel JP’s stare on the side of my head, so I avoided eye contact. Mav was smart as a whip, so I knew it wouldn’t be long before he started putting the puzzle pieces together. Now was as good a time as any to spill the truth. He wasn’t known to have a big mouth, so I wasn’t too worried about anything getting leaked.
What’s one more person, right?
“Yeah, about that,” I said, looking at Mav. “I’m not exactly single at the moment.”
His eyes widened, looking caught off guard. “You’re dating someone?”
“I got married in Vegas.”
Mav’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You did what?”
JP jerked his chin toward the backyard. “Let’s take this Dr. Phil session out back and finish whatever pizza is left in the box.”
Mav shook his head. “I can’t believe you got married.”
“It gets worse,” JP said, and I glared.
We walked through the house and grabbed a few more beers to take outside.
“So, who is the mystery girl?” Mav asked, helping himself to a slice of pizza.
“Beau’s niece,” I said, cutting straight to the chase.
Mav dropped his plate on the table and turned to me. “I don’t even remember him having a niece, and when the hell did you two start dating?”
I knew before I even explained this that he would give me an unwanted lecture about breaking the rules and crossing lines.
My jaw worked back and forth as I geared up for the pending lecture. “We haven’t actually dated. I met Natalie at one of the clubs in Vegas. We had a little too much to drink and ended up getting married at one of those little wedding chapels off the Strip. I didn’t know who she was until the next morning,” I said, giving him the short version.
He shook his head like he was disappointed in me. “Rhett, what the hell were you thinking? There is a difference between getting drunk and being reckless. You aren’t some rookie who doesn’t know how to exercise self-control. You’ve been in the league long enough to know better.” His reaction was exactly what I expected. He was always the serious one of the group, which made him a damn good team captain back when he played. “It’s ten ways of fucked up. You crossed a line that you can’t uncross.”
I sighed, running a hand through my hair, struggling to find the right words. “I would think you’d be a little more understanding about my situation, seeing you slept with your sister’s best friend and didn’t even know who she was.”
“Whoop, there it is.” JP clapped and raised his hands in the air. I reached over for a high five. Mr. Serious narrowed his eyes at us. He hated every time someone threw that in his face. In his defense, he did marry her, but it sure was fun yanking his chain.
Mav shook his head. “Now that you got yourself in this mess, what are you going to do about it?”
I reached for my Blue Moon. “That’s a good question.”
Mav shook his head. “I can’t imagine Beau being very happy about this.”
“He doesn’t know.”
He pinned me with a serious gaze. “You are planning on telling him, right?”
I scratched the side of my head. “Not exactly. We are in the process of getting the marriage annulled, and I don’t know all the details, but there is a delay with the paperwork.”
“Rhett.” Concern was heavy in Mav’s gaze. “This is going to blow up in your face. The longer this goes on, the more you have to lose. Beau Landers is not the type of guy you fuck with. I don’t know how close they are, but I can’t imagine he would take being lied to lightly. You need to find a way out of this dumpster fire before you lose everything.”
I leaned forward, resting my hands on my knees. “Maybe I don’t want a way out. Maybe this is a sign that we should at least try to work through this mess.”
Mav raised an eyebrow, and it was hard to miss the solemn expression on his face. “I’m not sure what signs you are looking at, buddy, but all I see are ‘Job Wanted’ and ‘Apartment for Rent’ signs in your future.”
JP cleared his throat. “You seem pretty into her. Just be smart about this. This is your career. Beau is the owner, he could cut you from the team if he doesn’t like the color of your hair if he wanted.”
“Do you really think he would trade me?”
He implied to Natalie that he would, but would he actually do it? Everything has been happening so fast that I haven’t had time for the gravity of the situation to sink in. I was at the top of my game, but I had to look at the bigger picture. The potential impact on the team made my stomach feel unsettled.
“Anything is possible.” JP dropped the pie down in front of me and took a seat. “So, if you and Natalie find yourselves on the same page and decide to do this thing for real, you better hope to hell that Beau will jump on board. Chances are he won’t, so proceed with caution. ”
I stared into my beer, feeling my throat grow tight. I couldn’t even allow myself to think of the worst-case scenario, but I needed to take this seriously.
Mav was right, as usual. There was a good chance this could blow up in my face.