Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
SALVATORE
Idodge a few kids running around the lobby as I step out of the elevator, the sound of their laughter reminding me of Isaac, and a smile lights up my face.
In the past I would have scowled at their parents, silently telling them to control their children, but now, you could say Isaac’s softened me.
A little. And I don’t completely hate it.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like kids. Because I always have. In small doses. It’s the chaos that I find difficult to handle. The unpredictability.
All things I’ve been working on since moving to San Francisco and reconnecting with Paige.
Speaking of my darling daughter… For the first time in as long as I can remember, she’s waiting for me in the restaurant at our building, faking annoyance as I walk through the door a minute later than planned.
“What time do you call this?” She taps the simple gold Rolex I bought her for her birthday, and I chuckle under my breath.
“I’m terribly sorry, Paige. I know how much you love punctuality.”
“I’ll forgive you this time. Don’t let it happen again.”
“Noted. Why are you early?”
“Because I thought we were meeting at nine.” She shrugs and I wince.
“Shit. You’ve been waiting for thirty minutes?”
“No. I just sat down.”
“Of course you did.” Another chuckle rumbles out of me, this one a little louder than before and Paige shrugs again. I can always count on Paige for consistency. Her lateness never fails.
“The usual?” I ask, scanning the room for a server.
“Yep. You know me.”
Since the restaurant’s busier than usual, I jump up to order our breakfast at the bar, hoping to bypass some of the patrons waiting for servers to arrive. When I sit back down, Paige is laughing at her phone.
“Sorry.” She briefly glances up as I place a glass of water in front of her. “I promise you’ll have my full attention in a second.”
“What’s so funny?” I take a sip of my water as I sit, enjoying the lightness to her expression.
“Apparently Luke wanted to set Keeley up with Coach Pierce.”
“What?” I cough, choking on my drink, inhaling the liquid instead of swallowing it down. “Pierce?” I rasp.
“Yep.”
A weight presses down on me at her nonchalant response but I ignore it.
“Well, there you go.” I laugh softly, trying to cover my shock, and it hurts as though the water burned the back of my throat. “Interesting pairing. Is she going out with him?”
I cough again. Why the fuck would I ask that? Since when do I gossip with my daughter?
Paige laughs out loud, waving me off. “Of course not. He’s like twenty years older than she is.”
“Of course.” I fight to stop the frown I feel forming because it has no business in this conversation. Paige is not wrong.
I force a smile and Paige eyes me curiously before her lips curl into a grin. “She’s humored Luke a few times, going out with the guys he set her up with, but it was a hard no for Pierce.”
“Right. I never pictured Luke as a matchmaker.”
“Oh, you have no idea. It’s become like a sport to him.”
“With all his friends?”
“Nope. Just Keeley.”
“I bet she loves that.” The words are out of my mouth before I can process it, and Paige doesn’t bother hiding her intrigue.
“Your sarcasm is spot on. She hates it. I think it’s because she’s hiding something. You two don’t talk about that stuff?”
“What? No. We talk about work.”
“All the time?”
“Yes.”
“But you’re friends, right?” She raises a brow and I nod in confirmation.
“We are.” After everything happened with Zane, it was harder to hide the close friendship Keeley and I had, since Hayley and Reed had seen it firsthand. Only our friendship isn’t exactly traditional in the way Paige is thinking.
“So…it can’t all be about work.” Her brows knit together, and I know it stems from her concern for my lack of a social life. I’m surprised she hasn’t asked Luke to try and set me up.
“Do you think we sit around painting each other’s toenails while talking about our love lives?” I smirk and Paige shakes her head, her concern instantly gone, exactly as planned.
“I would pay to see that. I’m not sure if I’ve said it before, but I’m glad you have each other. You both work too hard. I feel better knowing you’re not alone.”
You and me both, Kid. “It’s nice knowing someone else is in the building at all hours. Only, I’m an old man; I don’t have anything else going on. Keeley should go out more. Maybe you can help with that.”
“Maybe I can.” Paige nods with a smile, and while I’m the one that suggested it, a pit forms in my stomach. A selfish pit. Because I like having her around. “Maybe we need to take a different approach when it comes to her love life. Thanks, Dad.”
“Happy to help.”
What the fuck did I just do?
With the draft approaching, the topic of Thomas’s replacement surfaces again now that it’s apparent our second QB isn’t going to be fit enough to play.
And it’s safe to say, it’s elicited an acceptable level of panic.
We won the Super Bowl last season, and to be without a star quarterback now is less than ideal.
I’m the first to arrive for our Monday morning meeting, and as the room fills, I scan my notes, glancing up every time the door opens.
With a minute to spare before we begin, Keeley walks in looking like the epitome of a fucking bombshell with a new, wavy shoulder-length bob, and my eyes bulge before I quickly recover. Not before opening my big mouth.
“You cut your hair,” I rush out the second she sits down, silencing everyone at the table.
“I did. Thank you for noticing.” She rakes her fingers through the strands, her expression confident, despite the fact that it’s probably not something I should have mentioned.
I almost tell her it’s hard not to notice, but I manage to hold back the remark, turning my attention to our general manager, Wes. “And you got glasses?” I smile, my tone lifting, thankful that he too walked in with a new look.
“I did. For reading. Thanks for noticing.” He chuckles to himself as I tap my papers on the table.
“What can I say? I’m an observant fucker when I want to be.”
“It’s appreciated,” Wes jokes before launching into the reason we’re all here—our lack of a quarterback—and my chest tightens.
“As I’m sure you’ve heard, Lawrence injured himself again playing a friendly game of football with his family last week, after he was cleared to play by the team trainers and the third-party doctors who assured us he was fit.
It’s no one’s fault; it was a freak injury, but it now leaves us down two quarterbacks for next season.
” Wes is so calm you’d think he was discussing dropping his sandwich at lunchtime, and it settles my mind.
If he’s not worried, I shouldn’t be either.
“We already planned to secure one in the draft, but we need star power and we don’t have the picks to secure that,” he continues, stating the obvious. “The team and I have a suggestion.”
“One suggestion?” Dammit. I force a smile while my stomach knots again. I trust Wes. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.
“It’s a good one,” he confirms, putting me at ease. Wes is a straight shooter. It didn’t take long for me to learn there’s no smoke and mirrors when it comes to him. He says what he thinks and he always does what’s best.
“Let’s hear it.”
“Beckett Myers.” He pauses, letting the name sink in, and I’m pleasantly surprised. “Current quarterback for the Colorado Cougars, known for his precision and record-breaking strike rate. He never misses his mark. It’s usually his teammates that fuck it up for him.”
Wes isn’t wrong. Myers is a great player. One of the best. He’s a solid choice. The only problem being that, despite his teammates letting him down, he’s been with the same team since he was drafted, and there has to be a reason for that. Loyalty, maybe?
“What makes you think he’s interested in a move?”
“His agent.”
A laugh escapes me and it’s echoed around the room, drawing my gaze back to Keeley. She brushes a loose strand of her hair behind her ear, and I picture my fingers entwined in the waves, tugging her head back as I… Jesus.
“That’s a good place to start,” I rush out when the laughter dies down. “I’m guessing he’s a free agent?”
“He is. We’ve been told he wants to retire in a few years but that he’s hungry for a Super Bowl win.
Desperate for it, in fact. And while we can’t guarantee that for him, our odds are higher than most. I’ve also heard through the grapevine that he’s not happy.
Hunter, his agent, didn’t say that when we spoke, maybe to protect his reputation if he ends up staying with the Cougars.
But a reliable source mentioned that he’s one person in the spotlight and another person entirely when he’s around his teammates in private.
They’re not the bonded team they claim to be. ”
“Okay. What does he want?”
“A three-year contract, and a guarantee that the team is out to win. Even if they don’t.”
“I meant money.”
“As crazy as it sounds, his agent alluded to the fact that money didn’t matter as much as his other requests.”
“Seems too good to be true.”
“Well…” Wes trails off, removing his glasses before eyeing me apologetically. “Our reputation isn’t exactly glowing right now, and Beckett, understandably, has reservations. He’s concerned about what he’d be walking into.”
Fuck. I love this team, but most of my time is spent cleaning up messes, with a majority of them caused by outside forces or staff from the past, Landon’s death aside. “Let me talk to him. Can you send me his agent’s details? Maybe give him a heads-up that I’ll be in touch?”
“I sure can.”
“And if that fails… Are you telling me we don’t have a backup other than our current backup who isn’t ready to be a starter and our draft pick?”
Wes falls awkwardly silent and I have my answer. We’d have to secure two quarterbacks in the draft.
Keeley smiles from across the table, and I raise a brow in question, my eyes betraying me as they drop to her lips. “What Wes’s silence is saying is… don’t fail and all will be fine.”
A laugh bursts out of me as I shake my head. “Thanks, Keeley. I’ll do my best.”
“You’ve got this. And if not, I know a wide receiver who I could bully into giving it a go. And you know Easton. He’d love it.”
She’s joking, of course, but I appreciate the humor. We have to stay positive. Beckett’s our man. And we’re going to secure him.
After another fifty minutes of the team running through realistic ideas in case my talk with Beckett doesn’t go well, we end the meeting no better off than we started. When it comes down to it, Myers is the best fit, and until we know for sure what he’s thinking, we’re stuck in limbo.
Keeley’s caught in another conversation when we leave, so I wait for her in the hallway closer to her office, reading through the millions of emails I’ve received in the hour I’ve been away from my phone. Or, at least, trying to read them.
I’m distracted.
Despite managing to hold very official discussions, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Keeley’s goddamn hair since she walked into the conference room. And I can’t for the life of me figure out why. It’s a haircut. It’s not a big deal.
She turns the corner, and the second she smiles I’m taken back to our kiss. It’s been months, and yet I’m always taken back to that goddamn kiss, which is really fucking inconvenient.
“Are you waiting for me?” she asks when she spots me, tucking her new hair behind her ears, drawing my attention to it.
“Why the change?” I blurt, launching right into it, making her laugh.
“Are you saying you don’t like it?”
“Did I say that?”
“No.” She sucks her lips into her mouth, biting back a grin. “It was hard to miss the shock.”
“I thought I hid it well.”
“From others, maybe, but I saw it. When the attention shifted to Wes and your eyes flashed to mine.”
“I wasn’t expecting it. You never mentioned you were getting it cut.”
“I didn’t, and?—”
“Why would you?” My shoulders drop as I chuckle lightly.
Like I told Paige, work has always been Keeley’s and my main topic of conversation, although before our kiss, we were definitely moving toward more personal topics.
Now, we’re back to strictly work talk. Our conversations may have changed, but the support and comfort she gives me have never wavered.
And I like to think that’s remained something she values from me too.
“Exactly.” Keeley confirms my thoughts. “We’re colleagues. Actually, we’re not colleagues. You’re the boss and my brother’s future father-in-law.”
Complicated as fuck is what I am.
Tension knots my neck while Keeley laughs as though she’s read my mind and finds it utterly ridiculous, except that’s the exact reason I never brought up the kiss again after it happened.
Should we have had another conversation about it?
Probably. But we’re both adults, and at the time we decided it was a one-off lapse of judgment during an emotionally charged moment, nothing more. So that’s how I’m treating it.
And she’s dating now anyway.
Keeley nods a few times before gesturing toward her office. “I’ve got some work to do. Did you need me? Other than to ask about my hair?”
“You never actually answered me.”
“Someone said I needed a change. Something new in my life. This is that, I guess.” She laughs to herself.
“Good. I like that. And I like the haircut. It suits you.”
She shakes her head as though I’m just trying to be nice, but she’s wrong. She’s more beautiful now than she was before and I didn’t think that was possible. She’s… Keeley. That’s who she is. Motherfucker.
“Thanks, Sal. I like it too. And Wes’s glasses.” She stares at me pointedly and I can’t stop the belly laugh that rumbles out of me.
“Yes, definitely. They were very striking. Me and my attention to detail.” Code for… I fucked up again and almost admitted that I care for Keeley on a deeper level than that of a colleague.
I may not care about what anyone thinks of me, but I wouldn’t want her to suffer because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Thank God for new glasses.
“Have a nice afternoon, Keeley.”
“Thanks, Sal. You too.” She hits me with a sassy grin as she walks into her office, and it stays in my mind long after she’s gone. My head is a messed-up place to be right now.
What the fuck is wrong with me?