Chapter 16 – RHETT
RHETT
By the time I make it home, my townhouse is surrounded. This is why celebrities live on big estates with fences and tall hedges. Except I’ve never thought of myself as a celebrity. I’m a ballplayer. A coach. A regular guy.
My parents owned a canning and bottling chain.
It provided jobs to nearly everyone in our small town as well as thousands of people across the country.
It made them more money than they or I could spend in twenty lifetimes.
The company is still doing very well, though I don’t run it.
I only serve on the board. But at their roots, my parents were simple people.
We had a nice house with nice things in it, but nothing flashy.
So I didn’t want to hide behind shrubs and fences. I wanted a place in the city.
Now I’m regretting that as I jog up the steps of my building while my name is yelled at me and flashes burn holes in my retinas. I keep my back to the press, unlock my door as quickly as I can, and slam it shut in their faces.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath.
“I’m sorry,” comes Russel’s voice from the back. I shove myself away from the comfort of the wood door and head in the direction of the kitchen. “I had no clue it would get this bad.”
“What were you thinking?” I round the corner and come to a halt. Damn. Crew got him good. “You need ice on that.”
“I’ve been icing. Not much to do with a straight sucker punch to the nose.” Russel is sitting on a stool at my kitchen island with a beer in his hand and his phone on the counter.
I grab a beer from the fridge, pop the top, and pull out the stool beside him. “I’m not punishing them,” I tell him before I take a sip.
He nods. “I didn’t expect you to. So it’s out there now. That you’re my dad.”
Not a question, but I answer him. “Yes. Did you tell Tamira?”
“No, but she’s got a hard-on for me and digs into me a lot. Half the things that hit the news about me, she reports. She’s the one who discovered Jermain Betts had two children with two different women at the same time.”
Lovely. She’s become a bloodhound, and it’s serving her well. Now she’s set her sights on my son. I wonder if that’s a fuck you to me or if he’s simply easy pickings because he’s had some trouble on and off the field.
“Does it bother you that it’s out there?”
“No. I was going to talk to you about it anyway. I’m good with it being out in the public.”
My brows take a nosedive. Nothing is adding up. For his entire life, he’s been adamant that it stays a secret. “Russel, what’s going on?”
“I spoke to my agent and my coach. It sounds like if Asher is willing, they’re going to work out a deal.”
I let that resonate for a moment as I take another sip.
I came from kissing Quinn in my office and having her squeeze my dick to sitting beside Russel, who’s telling me I may finally have the opportunity to coach him.
It’s what I’ve wanted his entire life, and I should be over the moon about it.
Part of me is. The other part is still stuck in disappointment.
“Why now?” I have to ask.
“Between us?”
“Always.”
He tips his beer against his lips, and after swallowing two large gulps, he sets the mostly empty bottle down on the stone with a small clink. He wipes his mouth with his hand and shifts on his chair until he’s partially facing me.
This can’t be good.
“Two things. One, I hate the new quarterback in Dallas, and the feeling is very mutual. He’s a cocky dick, and it’s not something we’ve been able to work out privately or on the field.
The reason Dallas is willing to make a deal and not flying off the handle that I’m here is that he went to them and told them I had to go or he would. ”
Jared Parsons is their third-year stud with a killer arm and field smarts.
He was their number one draft pick, and the city loves him.
Anytime he’s photographed off the field, he’s with his pregnant wife, whereas my son typically has a different woman on his arm every time. No way they’re getting rid of Jared.
“And the second reason?”
“I want to win. I think I can with this team, and I also like the idea of playing for you.”
That surprises me and I twist to catch his eye.
“You’re a good coach, Dad. You always have been. But I also know you, and this is your shot at proving yourself as a head coach. You’ll do what it takes to win.”
“Is that really the reason?”
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.”
That throws me for a beat, and Asher must read that.
“They told me he doesn’t gel with their current QB and that they don’t love his off-field shit.”
“They’re not wrong,” I admit, taking a sip of my coffee. “I don’t love his off-field shit either as both a coach and a dad.”
“I told his agent he has a one-year deal with an option for two more at our discretion. But it’s a play to get paid, and his off-field stuff stops.”
I lean back in my office chair and toss a hand behind my head. “I don’t work the deals, Asher. I run the players. I don’t care how they sign, just that they show up ready to work.”
He grins. “That’s why I hired you. You’re no bullshit, and I like that.”
“Russel assured me last night that he was looking to put in the work, be a team player, and clean up his act. Let’s hope all of those things happen.
If they do, I believe he could be a great addition to our roster.
But what about Crew and Mason?” I ask, sipping my coffee while I stare at my large monitor and Asher’s face on it.
“They’ll get on board as long as he stays away from Quinn. That’s my preference as well. I don’t want him near my daughter.”
I release a breath. I don’t either.
“I’m good with that.”
I’m such an asshole.
“I can’t enforce that or even put it in a contract. Quinn’s an adult. Ultimately, it’s her call if he tries anything. The father in me doesn’t like it, but the GM thinks this could be a good deal and a successful thing for our team. That’s the only reason I did it.”
“I get it,” I tell him as I sit up and set my mug down on my desk. “Believe me, no one wants him to be more focused on the game than me.”
Asher nods at that, seemingly mollified. Not that I have any control over what Russel does off the field.
“Taylor is going to Minnesota, and Dallas is getting a second-round draft pick and one of Minnesota’s players.
” Taylor is our other tight end but he hasn’t been producing much over the last two years so the fact that he’s all we’re giving up tells me just how badly Dallas wanted to get rid of Russel.
This trade will ultimately make the team stronger.
But it still feels as though Dallas knows something we don’t, and that’s why they’re so agreeable.
We iron out the details and end the call. The moment I’m off the phone with Asher, I call Russel.
“Hey,” he answers, and I can hear a lot of noise behind him.
“Welcome to the team,” I say.
“Thanks. I’m excited for it.”
I sip my coffee. “You flying home today?”
“Yeah, my flight leaves at one, and I’ll be back Sunday night.”
“Let me know if I can do anything to help.”
“I think I’ve got it covered but thank you.”
“Do you need a place to stay? You’re always welcome with me.”
He chuckles lightly. “I’m a little old to move in with my dad. I’ll stay at the hotel until I get a place. Shouldn’t take too long to happen.”
I try not to allow any disappointment to seep in, and clearly I was being ridiculous, but I liked the idea of him doing just that. I never had him live under my roof for more than weekends or occasional weeknights.
Background noise crackles louder into the phone. “Where are you? What is that?”
“I’m at the hospital.”
That pulls me up short. “What? Why are you there?”
“To see Quinn.” He’s so deadpan. Like it should be obvious he’d seek out his ex-girlfriend again when he hasn’t seen or spoken to her in four years.
I drag a hand across my forehead. “Jesus, Russel. Why the hell are you doing that? I thought the plan was for you to stay away from her.”
“The plan is for me to clean up my off-field persona. Besides, she should hear that I’m moving back and joining the team from me.
I tried calling her, but because she’s stubborn as hell, she didn’t pick up.
I owe it to her in person this time. I gotta go.
She’s coming my way. I’ll call you when I’m at the airport tomorrow. ”
He disconnects the call, and I drop my phone on the counter when what I really want to do is chuck it until it shatters against the wall. I grip the edge of the stone and lean against my counter, trying to get rid of the green-eyed monster strangling me with pointless anger. Goddammit!