38. Brent
38
Brent
I try to relax in the hot tub, waiting for the heat and jets to ease away some of my tension after Caitlyn’s visit. I’m only thankful Joey was out when Cait showed up unexpectedly. Afraid she’d cause a scene, I told the doorman to let her up. And wished I hadn’t.
She’d surprised me with an attempt to kiss me in greeting, one I narrowly avoided. Without my cooperation, she’d only been able to reach my jaw. Then came the soft pleas to remember the good times we’d had. I honestly couldn’t remember any. And told her so.
My rebuff angered her, and it went downhill from there. The gloves came off. She demanded I put in a claim for custody of Summer. I told her I wouldn’t do anything until a paternity test was done. She devolved into shrill threats when I wouldn’t give in to her demands.
Her short visit ended in a vile threat. “I’ll paint such a terrifying picture of you in the press, you’ll become the most hated NFL player in history. I’ll say you tried to force me to get an abortion. And…And hit me when I refused.”
“No one’s going to believe that shit.” I could sue her for defamation, but she and I both knew the accusations alone could do irreparable damage to my reputation. I would always have a cloud of suspicion hanging over me for the rest of my career. All my achievements would be tinged by the scandal, her accusation always linked to my name, regardless of being proven innocent.
She threw one more poisoned dart at me before leaving. “I wonder what that woman who you say is just a friend will think of all this.”
I shudder as I recall her venom. Was she always like this, and I’d been blind to it? My mother had called her a viper, so she’d certainly seen it. I can’t believe I’d dated her for as long as I had. It doesn’t say much for my powers of perception, at least where women are concerned. No, that isn’t true. I know the kind of person Joey is, inside and out. Maybe I just hadn’t spent enough time with Cait to really know her—or cared to.
Still, I don’t understand her vindictiveness and why she’s suddenly targeted me after all these years. She reeked of desperation under all that maliciousness.
Unable to sit still anymore, and not one bit more relaxed, I leave the hot tub and towel off, wondering how I’m going to fix this. I’ve worked too fucking hard for my career to have a raving bitch ruin it for her own gain.
And then there’s Joey. If I don’t tell her about Cait and Summer and she finds out…But if I do tell her and it turns out I have a daughter…
Fuck. I’m screwed either way.
I wish now I hadn’t held off on the romantic date night I planned to give Joey this weekend. Maybe if I tell her what I realized in the hotel room, I’ll have a better chance of holding on to her if or when all this blows up in my face.
I come in from the terrace just as she comes out of the bedroom, freshly showered and dressed after her run.
“Good morning, babe.”
Despite the ironic endearment, her smile doesn’t reach her eyes. A ball of anxiety lodges in the pit of my stomach.
“Hi. How was your run?” I hope my own smile doesn’t appear as forced as it feels.
“It was good. It’s beautiful in the park.” She walks to me and I lean in to kiss her but am surprised when she pulls back abruptly, staring at me as if I’ve suddenly grown horns.
“What’s the matter?”
“Did you have a visitor while I was gone?” Her voice is quiet, her eyes expectant.
“What? No!”
I realize as soon as the knee-jerk denial leaves my mouth, I’ve made a mistake. The ball inflates, squeezing my insides painfully.
“It’s stupid to lie when you have lipstick on your face. Or were you trying on my lipstick without a mirror? But that’s not my color.” Her voice is tight with anger, and her eyes filled with disappointment and betrayal.
Shit. I hadn’t realized the aborted kiss had left a mark. “Okay, I—”
“Who is she?”
Her implied accusation stings, but I keep my defensive anger in check, knowing this could go sideways in an instant if I lose my temper.
“No one.” I hold up a palm to stave off the eruption I can see coming. “I mean, she’s no one to me. To us.”
“Then why didn’t you just admit you had someone up here?”
Her judgmental tone is doing a good job of making me feel defensive, and I don’t like it. It isn’t like I invited Caitlyn. Nor is it my fault that she’s forcing me into the middle of her bitter divorce because she’s apparently gone nuts. That has to be the only explanation.
“Because she has nothing to do with us, and I knew it would upset you.” I force my tone to be patient.
“Well, guess what? I’m upset anyway. Because you lied, and now you’re evading. Which, funny enough, makes me more suspicious. We’re not in an actual relationship, but you agreed to be monogamous. If you wanted to move on, all you had to do was say so.”
I’m thunderstruck at the direction of her thoughts. “What the fuck? I don’t want to move on! I told you, she’s no one important. And this is an actual—”
She doesn’t let me finish. “I’m going to ask you one last time. Why was your ex from college here, and why have you been sneaking around seeing her?”
“How do you know it was my ex?” I ask, surprised.
She laughs without humor. “That’s your response? But to answer your question—something you haven’t done so far to any of my questions, at least not honestly—rumors about the two of you have been floating around for weeks. Even someone like me who’s hardly on social media couldn’t avoid all the speculation. I was waiting for you to say something. You never did, but I still trusted you. That’s the real reason you didn’t want to make us public, isn’t it? I can’t believe what a gullible idiot I’ve been.”
She stalks away from me and heads into the bedroom.
“Josie!” I follow her, panic running through me to see her pulling out an overnight bag from the closet. “What the hell are you doing?”
She’s throwing clothes into the bag haphazardly. She can’t leave me. Not after I’ve gotten used to having her here in my home, my bed, my life. After I’ve realized just how much she means to me.
“Josie, baby. Stop packing and look at me. Let’s talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. I only wished you’d told me you were done with me instead of going behind my back and cheat—”
“What the fuck, Josie! I’m not done with— We’re not done! You see lipstick and you assume I’m cheating on you?” Okay, actually, that is usually the logical assumption.
“No, I tried to get some answers, but you didn’t give me any.”
I blow out a breath and run a hand through my hair. “Christ. Fine. Like you already know, she’s my ex-girlfriend from college. Ten years ago,” I emphasize. “She’s getting divorced and trying to hook her claws into me again. I told her I wanted nothing to do with her.”
“So why the visit today?”
I can see I’ve made a fatal error when I hesitate for the briefest moment before answering.
“She…wanted to see how I was doing…my injury…” Her eyes narrow at me as I stumble over my response. Fuck! I should just tell her, but the fear from everything Caitlyn spewed earlier prevents me.
I follow Joey as she stalks into the bathroom.
“Right,” she says while throwing things into a cosmetic bag. “And she was just giving you a comforting kiss—”
“I told you!” I shout, my patience for the questions at an end as my panic at her leaving rises. I block her exit from the bathroom and hold her upper arms, forcing her to look at me. I ignore the pain in my ribs from her effort to shake me off. My voice is desperate when I tell her, “Nothing is going on with her. She means nothing to me. What else do you want me to say?”
She glares defiantly into my eyes. “The truth. But since you seem incapable of that, you can say absolutely nothing.” She pushes me—hard—right against my bruised rib, causing me to flinch and loosen my grip enough that she gets past me. Her slight hesitation when she realizes she hurt me isn’t long enough for me to grab her again.
She hitches the bag over her shoulder and strides out of the bedroom. I start to follow, but the towel around my hips begins to slip, reminding me I still need to put clothes on. Before I can decide to go after her despite my lack of clothes, she’s already on her way out of the penthouse.
And, I’m very much afraid, out of my life.