Chapter 32
W ynter can say that. She might even believe it. But she’s wrong. Doesn’t she know that I’ll never give up? That I’ll never stop fighting for her? For us?
“It will,” I promise. “Please, I’m sorry about how you found everything out, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you from the start. I swear, I’ll never do that again. From here on out, I will always communicate with you first. Which is what I need to do now because I have more things to tell you.”
Her hands fly. “Oh, now you want to tell me things.”
“I was going to tell you everything tonight.”
“Too late!” she yells. “Tell me right now, Asher, and I swear, if you ever withhold anything from me ever again, I will slice off your balls and feed them to a neighborhood dog. Don’t think I won’t. I have scalpels at my disposal.”
I lean in and kiss her, my hand diving into her hair and cupping the back of her neck.
I stare at her, hoping she can see that she is my whole world.
“I love you, and I’m sorry. Please forgive me.
I promise, it’ll never happen again,” I repeat as I press our foreheads together and drag my nose along hers.
“Tonight, I’ll rain orgasms on your body until you’re so exhausted you can’t help but love me again.
But for now, I do have a lot to tell you, and none of it is easy. ”
“Okay.” Her voice trembles. “Just tell me. I don’t like the build-up.”
“I had Lenox do some digging into your father.”
She rolls her eyes. “I know. Fallon told me.”
A wry grin hits my lips. “When did she tell you that?”
“Today,” she hisses, still fiery. “Since you didn’t.”
I hold up a consolatory hand. “That’s fair. What did she tell you?”
“She said the guys were all in another room talking, and that she knew it must be something like this. She didn’t know what specifically though.”
“Are you mad?”
“Not about that.” She quirks a you’re an asshole eyebrow at me. “That’s a drop in the freaking bucket compared to everything else. But I’d like to know what’s going on.”
I thread our fingers together. “Lenox found a lot of information Joe has been trying to hide. In fact, he had quite the system built up with a lot of cyber protection on it. He didn’t want anyone to discover his secrets.
They’re going to be upsetting. Nearly all of them will be and for different reasons and in different ways. ”
She swallows hard, nervously licking her lips. “Is it about me?”
“Not directly, though it does impact you greatly.”
“What about Mason?”
I shake my head. “No.” I cup her jaw. “Wynter, Joe is—”
“Reyes,” Randolph barks as he bursts into the bathroom. “I’ve been searching everywhere for you.” He wipes at his forehead, his round face ruddy. “What in the absolute fuck happened on that field today?”
“Sir—”
He holds up his hand, stopping me. “Not here. Not like this. Joe is in my office, and I think it’s time we all hashed this out once and for all. Now move your ass.”
He turns and leaves the bathroom, the door closing with a heavy bang behind him.
Wynter gives me a grim look. “I guess you’ll have to explain everything to me upstairs.”
The fact that Wynter is sitting here with me, listening to what I have to say, feels like a miracle.
It’s a gift. A second chance I wasn’t sure I’d be granted after everything that happened today.
And it isn’t over yet. Not even close. I messed up epically with her, and it’s certainly not something to play with or chance again, so everything else will have to wait.
I shake my head. “No,” I say to her. “He can wait a moment. I need you to hear this, and I need you to hear it from me.” I swallow and shift her to the edge of the counter, bringing her body closer to me, and then I stare into her eyes as I say, “Joe has cancer.”
She sucks in a sharp breath. “What kind?”
“Prostate. He had surgery and then a round of chemo in April, which is why he didn’t actually sign a contract with the team or move here until the summer.
It’s advanced though, and I’m not sure what he’s doing about it at this point or if they’re watching it.
I don’t have all the details on that nor am I a doctor. ”
Her head is twisted away from me so all I can do is squeeze her hand for comfort. She clears her throat. “There’s more, I take it?”
“Yes. And this is the hardest part.” I pull her into my body, cup her jaw, and force her gaze up to mine. “Leo is your half-brother.”
Her eyes round, and I think her heart just stopped beating entirely. “He’s what?!”
I soften my tone and my expression. “Your half-brother, sweetheart. Your father had an affair with his mother and paid her off after. I don’t know what Leo knows, but I don’t think it’s much.”
She blows out a breath, her eyes glassing over. “They’re keeping him in the hospital overnight for observation. He has a severe concussion.”
“I know. I couldn’t get more information than that. Is he okay?”
She nods, nibbling on her lip. “Dean is with him. I texted with him a bit. Leo won’t be able to play for a few weeks.” A fresh tear hits her cheek, her chin trembling. “Half-brother?”
“Joe wasn’t ever part of his life.”
A scowl twists her face. “God, he’s a son of a bitch.” Then she changes course. “Joe brought him here.” She pauses, her lips parting. “Joe brought me here too. Not to Boston, but to the team.”
“Yes. And there’s more to that.”
She shakes her head. “It’s already too much.”
I drag my thumb across her cheek, swiping away her errant tears. “I know. I can tell you the rest upstairs because it involves Joe and the team and both of us.”
“All right. I need a few minutes to process this anyway.” She hops off the counter, and then I hold her hand, leading her out of the bathroom.
Before we get too far, she twists and pinches my nipple with vengeance.
I screech like a little girl and jump about five feet in the air, making her laugh. “That’s for keeping things from me.”
What can I say, I have sensitive nipples, and sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes—like right now—that’s a very bad thing because now is not the time to be hard. “Just don’t do that to my dick.”
She shrugs. “I make no promises.”
“What if I buy you a diamond? Will that smooth everything over with us?”
She glares hatefully at me. “Um. No. Definitely not. And don’t you dare get any ideas about that.”
I grin, bumping my shoulder into hers and then rubbing them together up and down. “Too late,” I whisper playfully.
“Asher!”
I laugh at her horrified expression. “I meant with the ideas, not the actual diamond shopping. Relax, ice queen. When I’m ready to pop the question, I won’t tell you about it beforehand. That’s a rookie move, and I am not a rookie.”
She grumbles something under her breath that I don’t have to hear to know isn’t all that kind. She’s mad, but she has a forgiving heart, and I’ll earn her trust back.
“I love you madly,” I tell her, stopping us before we enter Randolph’s office.
I turn and hold her gaze, keeping her close.
My heart thrashes inside me as I look at her, and a soft, almost incredulous smile curls up my lips.
“I don’t know how to describe it. It’s almost beyond words or comprehension.
Some things are better felt than expressed, and that’s you. ”
“What do you mean?” she whispers, clearing her throat.
“You, Wynter Hathaway. It’s this incredible trick of reality, but you somehow make my soul both hungry and satisfied.
There are places in my heart I never knew existed before, but you’ve unlocked them and made them your new home.
You and Mason live inside me. There isn’t a part of my day where my thoughts don’t automatically drift to you both and are reluctant to leave.
You’ve awakened my soul and taken over my dreams.” I step into her and place my hand over her thrumming heart.
“It’s simple, Wynter. You’re my passion, my obsession, my someone I can’t live without.
Please remember that. Even when I screw up, which I will likely do again. It’s you and Mason. Forever.”
She leans up on her toes and kisses my lips. “You’re forgiven.”
I grin. “I knew you found me irresistible.”
She rolls her eyes. “Irresistibly risky. Troublesome. Arrogant. Aggravating—”
I shut her up with a kiss. That is until Randolph pops his head out and ruins it with a grizzly growl. “In here now.”
I take Wynter’s hand and lead her into his office. Joe is already here, standing by the window, refusing to turn and face us. He doesn’t know all that’s headed his way, but if he thinks I’m not here to fight him, he’s a goddamn fool.
“What in the fuck happened out there today?” Randolph starts without any preamble. “Joe told me you went rogue. It’s all over the goddamn news. Not even just sports networks, but regular fucking news, Asher.”
“I went rogue because Joe wanted us to lose the game,” I tell him bluntly, taking a seat in one of his chairs even though everyone else is standing.
I’m not the one who should be sweating bullets right now.
“Well, he wanted me to lose, that is. He wanted me to only hand off the ball and nothing else, and to me, that was unacceptable. But it comes down to one simple fact. I don’t trust Joe.
I don’t trust any man who sets out to sabotage another man’s career. ”
“What?” Randolph exclaims.
“Do you want to tell them about it, Joe, or should I?” I toss the words casually out to him, just to see how he’ll bite, when really, my throat burns and my skin itches with all the things I want to yell at him for.
Instead, Wynter surprises me by walking across the room and yanking on Joe’s arm, forcing him to turn and face her.
“You have cancer?” she questions.
Joe stares down into his daughter’s eyes, and then his head snaps in my direction.
I toss my hands behind my head and give him a smug look that tells him I know everything.
I warned him on the field. I told him straight up.
He should have listened. Frankly, he should have never fucked with me to begin with.
“Don’t look at him,” Wynter snaps. “Look at me. You owe me a million explanations. Start with that one first.”
Joe turns back to her and sighs plaintively. “Yes.”
She exhales a heavy breath, her hands on her hips. “How advanced?”
A palpable pressure settles in the room. “I had surgery and chemo. I’m currently on hormone therapy.”
“Did it metastasize?”
He makes an evasive noise that she’s not having any part of.
“Tell me,” she demands sharply.
His eyes narrow. “Yes. To my lymph nodes and bones. They tell me it’s relatively under control now.”
She shoves him. Not hard but enough to startle him. “And Leo?!”
Now Joe is supremely pissed. His gaze slashes dangerously over to me. “How the fuck do you know all this?”
“What about Leo? The head injury wasn’t Joe’s fault.” Randolph is befuddled, his eyes volleying back and forth between me and Joe like he’s watching a tennis match as he seeks answers.
Joe curses and turns away from Wynter for a beat, only to think better of it and race over to me. He grabs me by my suit jacket, balling it up on his firsts, and hauling me up and out of my chair until I’m right up in his face. “How the fuck do you know?!”
“Back off, Joe,” Randolph orders.
I don’t move, and I don’t attempt to shirk him off. I get that he’s pissed. I invaded his privacy. I dug into shit I had no business digging into, and I crossed a lot of lines with that. But it doesn’t change the facts, and it doesn’t change what he did.
If anyone crossed lines, it’s him.
“Do you remember what you told me when I was crying in the hospital?” Wynter calls out, her voice calm and composed. “Before you told me that I wouldn’t see you for a very long time that is.”
Joe pulls me in, putting us nose to nose before he shoves me away. He blows out a strained breath and then shakes his head as his chin drops toward the floor.
“You told me that when a person makes a mistake, they need to own up to it and accept the consequences of their actions. Even if it’s hard.
” She laughs acerbically. “Then again, you were talking about me falling out of the tree and breaking my arm. You weren’t talking about yourself, which, in retrospect, makes you the biggest hypocrite of all.
But for once, be a man of your word and tell me the truth. ”
“What the hell are you talking about? What is all this about Leo, and what do you mean Joe said that to you when you were five?” Randolph is getting more and more riled up by the second, glaring into Joe’s back.
“Joe!” he bellows, pounding his fist on his desk as if he’s calling this courtroom to order when Joe doesn’t so much as move a muscle to answer.
Joe, ever the shark, glares at me once more, ignoring everyone else. “Tell me how you knew?”
“I will never divulge my sources,” I tell him flatly, only to edge toward Randolph’s desk, giving Joe my back and Randolph my full attention. “I was curious if you already knew who Leo is to Joe, but given your reaction, I’m going to say no.”
Randolph stares dumbfounded at me, his eyes owl wide. “What do you mean? Who is Leo to Joe?”
“Leo is Joe’s son,” Wynter supplies. “And I’m his daughter.”
Randolph curses under his breath. “Goddammit, Joe!” He releases a harsh growl. “What other secrets are you keeping from us?”