22. Losing His Heart
LOSING HIS HEART
“ H ow come no one knew you were in a relationship?” his head coach asked him on Monday morning.
Emma was currently getting a tour by one of the office assistants. He’d brought her in today and got her clearance set up so that she could be behind the scenes and on the field where some wives and girlfriends could go move around.
“You know I’m not someone to make it public.”
“No,” his coach said. “But the fact you’re getting her clearance means something. I’m not sure I’ve known of you doing that before.”
It was another reason he was sought after.
He kept his nose clean and his life private.
He had a strong work ethic and let nothing distract him. Including his personal life.
“I didn’t know I needed permission to have a girlfriend,” he said, forcing a smile.
“No,” his coach said. “She doesn’t seem like the type I’d picture you with.”
“What type did you think I’d be with?” he asked, his brows coming together.
“Someone a bit more flashy.”
He snorted. He’d been shocked when Emma came down in a cotton dress today. Lately, she’d only been in shorts and half the time they were of the athletic variety.
It’s not as if this dress was sexy. The soft red material reminded him of a long T-shirt. It wasn’t clinging to her body, but hugged enough to give off her slim shape.
Her white Converse chucks that she’d slipped on her feet were so her and brought her back to the woman he was losing his heart to.
“Nope,” he said. “She’s the one I want.”
“Damn,” his coach said. “Tell me about her.”
“What?” he asked.
“You know how it goes. Do we have to worry about anything? At some point, people are going to see you out and start trying to find out anything they can about her. I only heard her name was Emma.”
Warren knew about this and hadn’t even told his agent yet. The team would want to be on top of it and he wasn’t sure why he wasn’t more prepared for this conversation.
Maybe because he’d never had it before.
“Fuck.” This was why he didn’t officially date anyone.
“That doesn’t sound good,” his coach said, leaning back in his chair. “The fact you’re in prime condition, if not stronger and more focused than last year, I’d worry she was taking up a lot of your time.”
“No,” he said. “You should know better than that. She lives on Amore Island.”
“Which is about two hours or more to get there between ferry schedules.”
“That’s right,” he said. “Is Mike around?”
“You want the team publicist here for this?” his coach asked.
“I don’t want to say this twice.”
He’d told Emma this might come up and she was fine with it. He just didn’t think it’d be today.
He knew what he could and couldn’t say, but he wasn’t giving permission just yet to release their relationship.
It was best to take things in stages.
His coach picked up the phone, then started talking. “Mike, I’ve got Warren in here if you can come down now.” He hung up the phone. “He’s on his way.”
“It’s not bad,” he said. “I don’t want you to think that.”
“But it’s something,” his coach said.
He turned his head when Mike popped in. “What’s going on?”
“Warren has a girlfriend that he just got clearance for,” Coach said.
“That’s good,” Mike said. “What’s the bad part that I need to know about?”
“Nothing bad,” he said. “Information you should have for when we decide to officially comment on our status. We’ve been keeping our relationship low key and it’s of no one’s concern.”
“How long have you been dating?” Mike asked, typing into his computer. He hated this intrusive shit, but understood the image of the club meant more than individual players.
He was the face of the organization right now, so that carried a lot of weight and he knew his responsibility.
“About two months,” he said. “We met at the end of April on Amore Island. I went back to get her number in early May.”
“You made the first step?” Coach asked, laughing.
“She didn’t know who I was,” he said, smirking. “At least at the moment. It doesn’t matter. Her name is Emma French. She’s an author.”
Mike was typing into the computer quickly. “Got her. Romantic Suspense. She’s got a big-name publisher even though I’ve never heard of her. Not that I read much. Nice. Oh shit.”
“What?” Coach asked.
“That was my first reaction too,” Warren said. “I had no clue.” No way he was admitting her family thought the whole thing was hilarious that he was trying to track her down and hitting on her. Her family pretty much owned and ran the island.
“She descends from the Bond family. One of the very wealthy branches.”
“Impressive,” Coach said. “Must be several generations with a different last name.”
“Her grandfather is Stephen Bond. Her parents are Melissa and Noah French.”
“Noah is a federal judge,” Mike said, his fingers moving over the computer. “Melissa Bond-French does charity work and has interests in many of the family businesses. Emma has a brother, Roark, who is a defense attorney at Bond Law.”
“I hadn’t realized how fast you were gathering information,” he said, frowning.
It reminded him of Emma when she was on her laptop and he expected smoke to be coming from her fingers.
“That just shows you how quickly everyone else will get this information. All of it is good. She’s almost like a dream come true. The Bonds are considered American Royalty around here,” Mike said. “It couldn’t make your image any more squeaky clean. I can’t wait to meet her.”
“I guess,” he said. No reason to say he thought the same thing. Not about his image. He’d never use her or anyone for that.
And that no amount of money in his account would ever give him the respect and class that Emma’s family had.
“You guess,” Coach said. “You can’t make this shit up.”
“I know,” he said. “I’m not. We are taking it slow. And she has nothing to do with my image or hers or anything to even think that.”
“I don’t care how fast or slow you take it,” Coach said. “As long as it doesn’t affect your game.”
“It won’t,” he said.
He could hear Emma’s laughter outside the office. She must be on her way back.
It brought a smile to his face. Her joy in life and what she was bringing to his.
“Hey, Warren,” she said, walking into the office with Zoe, who had been showing his girlfriend around.
“This place is massive. I had no idea. We stopped at the cafeteria. Don’t worry, it’s mango and strawberry with yogurt.
I didn’t need a lecture about having a chocolate milkshake this early in the morning. ”
“Emma has no boundaries when it comes to food.”
“I’ve never met someone on such a strict diet,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry if we are interrupting. We can go walk around some more.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “Come in and meet my coach and our publicist.”
“Ahh,” she said, moving to shake hands after she wiped her damp palm on her dress from holding her half-finished smoothie. She looked at Mike. “You’re going to be nice to me, right?”
“I wouldn’t dare be mean to you with your family,” Mike said, laughing.
Emma waved her hand. “We don’t bite. Luckily I don’t get that connection too much having a different last name.”
“You and I both know how easily someone can find the connection,” Warren said.
She laughed. “You should have seen his face when we were at The Retreat and he found out. He’d been trying to get my information from my cousin Hunter.”
“Hunter runs The Retreat now,” Warren said. He hadn’t wanted to go into details, but she seemed as if she was fine with it.
“Warren said you met there and he returned for you,” Coach said.
“Yep,” she said. “I was trying to be a bartender.”
“Trying?” Mike asked.
“I do a lot of research for my books. It’s best to put myself in those positions to fully understand it. Thankfully he didn’t order anything complicated.”
He saw Coach and Mike look back and forth at each other smiling. “He said you didn’t know who he was,” Mike said.
“No clue other than I was calling him Adonis in my mind. Two other patrons recognized him and told me.” She put her hand in front of her mouth as if she was trying to whisper but didn’t. “I don’t follow a lot of sports. I’m more into murder and mayhem with a little bit of sex appeal thrown in.”
“What other jobs have you done for your books?” Mike asked. They were being polite and he appreciated it. He hoped it was because of him but had a feeling it had more to do with Emma’s family. If they only knew who her mother was they’d be amping it up more, he was sure.
She shrugged. “My family owns so many businesses. I take advantage of it and do things or just observe. I’ve been in a lot of the hotels in various roles, the casino, restaurants.
I have a lot of medical professionals in my family also.
I only get to pick their brains though it’d be neat to observe, but HIPAA.
I’m very grateful to have those resources. ”
“You can add another thing to your research repertoire,” Warren said.
“What’s that?” she asked, slurping some more of her smoothie.
“Now you’re a WAG.”
“I know,” she said excitedly. “How cool is that?”
“Very cool,” he said, holding his arm out.
She easily moved under it and snuggled into his side. “Want some?” she asked, holding her smoothie to him. “I promise it’s not ice cream, though when I asked if I could have it they said yes. Then I thought you’d lecture me, so yogurt it was.”
“No,” he said, grinning. “You can have it.”
“You’re a breath of fresh air this club could use,” Coach said. “The other WAGs will not be happy.”
The smile left her face as quickly as it did his.