Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
~DANNY~
Iwake up and realize I’m still in her apartment.
I told myself I was going to sneak out at some point, but it’s the morning and I haven’t left yet.
I’m not sure if she has anything this morning; she didn’t say.
I look over my shoulder and see her sleeping so sweetly.
Her lips are slightly parted, and she’s breathing in and out evenly while her eyelids flutter.
I grab my phone so that I can see what time it is.
6:32 a.m.
I have several unread messages from August. My blood runs cold.
I wonder if he’s figured it out or if he’s been looking for me and noticed that my car is at the team housing.
I tried to hide at the edge of the lot, away from where the girls tend to park, but maybe that’s why he saw it.
Maybe I should have made sure I blended in.
I unlock my phone to eight unread messages from him. I scroll to where they begin and read them.
August: Hey, man. Wanna hang out tonight? I'm in the mood to celebrate.
August: Come on, it’s beer 30. Let’s hang.
August: You up for a beer or not?
August: Okay, I was hoping to talk to you about the article. We need to get it wrapped up.
August: Where are you at, man? The team is here, but you aren’t. I thought you’d be here scoping out Mac some more.
August: Are you hooking up with someone? Is that why you’re not answering me? Well, either way, let me know about the article. The old man is breathing down my neck about it. With the win, he wants to capitalize on good press.
August: I hear you’re coming to the next away game. That’s great. Let’s get the article out shortly after that.
August: Dude let’s play golf this week and talk.
He’s like a hyperactive teenager. I wonder if he’ll ever grow up.
Is that why Maxwell keeps him under his thumb?
Or is he this way because he’s constantly under his dad’s thumb and can’t do anything on his own?
It makes me wonder if that is how I would be if I hadn’t chosen a completely different career path than my father.
I gotta get out of here before anyone sees me. I don’t want Mac to be caught, so I’ve gotta go. If I wait much longer, someone from the team could wake up and see me here. Or come over and find me here. I’m not going to let it ruin something for her.
Plus, I have my own career to think about too.
I’m sleeping with the person I’m being paid to interview.
She doesn’t know that part yet. Cromwell is paying a hefty sum to have this article published by my paper.
It would comprise everything—ruin my career, maybe even hers.
Especially once Cromwell gets wind of it, I’m not sure what he would do to her.
Sure, she’s the captain, but still, the city isn’t that thrilled with the team anyway, so they could easily replace her.
She’d never play pro soccer again. And then she would be like me, living a life of what-ifs.
I rise quietly and find my clothes. I pull them on and carefully make my way to the entrance of her bedroom. I pause and look back at her, sleeping so peacefully and looking gorgeous doing it. I hate to leave her, but I have to do it. There’s too much at stake for us to have a normal morning here.
I creep out into the living room and see it’s sparse of decorations and she keeps it very neat.
Which is probably pretty easy considering there aren’t too many personal effects.
Just a bookcase, which has a lot of books and some pictures.
I slowly make my way over to the bookcase to see what they are.
It’s her in college, wearing the Portland U uniform.
She’s got pictures of her with Cassie—a lot with her. They must be best friends.
There’s a picture of her when she was younger. She still has that same bright smile, and of course she’s in a soccer uniform. It must be high school. They’re all holding medals, like they won a tournament or a championship or something. She was beautiful even back then.
I walk to the front and open the door. It’s one of the locks with the keypad, so it looks like I can lock it from the outside too. I decide to send her a text message letting her know that I left and why. I don’t want to upset her or hurt her. Hopefully she gets that it’s safer this way.
Danny: Good morning, beautiful. I’m sorry you woke up alone, but I had to go. I didn’t want you to get caught. I had a great time last night. Congrats again on the big win. Call me later if you want.
I’m not sure why I threw in call me later in there, but I hit send. Even when I’m at the diner working on the article, which doesn’t have a lot of content to it because I can’t stop taking her clothes off long enough to ask her a question, I’ll constantly be checking it to see if she’s called.
It doesn’t look like anyone is up and about.
It’s not even seven in the morning yet. They’re all probably taking this time to sleep in.
I look around before I jog to my car, hoping to get out of there before I’m detected.
I think it works as I unlock the car and peek around to make sure that no one is watching me.
I leave the parking lot and immediately head to the diner.
There has to be something I can start putting together.
August sent me those texts asking about it, reminding me that his father is looking for something soon.
Mac and I just have to stop being alone.
She has to quit looking so adorable when she smiles and stop turning me on with her quick wit and quips.
I shake my head. “You’re really going to screw yourself over if you don’t get it together.”
Thankfully, I have my iPad in the back of the car. I keep it with me all the time in case I need to write or take some notes. This way, I can maybe get some notes together that I’ve been putting into the notes app on my phone. Or at least determine all of the questions I still want to ask her.
I’ve done this before, but something always gets in the way, and I don’t feel like asking her anything.
I want to listen to her talk, but not about the things the fans will care about.
I want to talk to her about her likes and dislikes.
I want to find out who she’s dated and for how long.
I want to know what she thinks this is between us and what will happen when the article is published.
Can I still be at the games without anyone questioning it? And will she even want me there?
I head to the booth in the back of the diner, where hopefully I can get something done.
Sal isn’t in yet, so I’ll just have to have some random waitress wait on me.
Which might be good because Sal is chatty, and she might have asked me about Mac.
Maybe bringing her here was a mistake. Soon, I might not have a place safe from her.
I order breakfast and look over my notes. There’s not much here. Fuck. What am I going to tell August? I decide I better text him back so that he doesn’t get suspicious.
Danny: Yeah, sorry, bro. Got a little tangled up last night. But I’m free for golf or whatever. Hoping to get the article polished off soon. Hit me later if you wanna hang.
I hit send and hope it’s enough that he won’t be suspicious. Getting tangled up wasn’t exactly a lie. I was pretty tangled up with her—three times, in fact. I smile thinking of the way she looked when she was on her knees in front of me.
Like an angel.
“I know that look,” Nick says, dropping into the booth across from me. “Who are you so smitten with, and can I guess?”
My head snaps up, and I look at him through narrowed eyes. “What do you mean who I am so smitten with? I’m not smitten with anyone. I’m not even seeing someone.”
“Oh, you don’t have to be seeing someone to be smitten with them.
And I know that something is going on. You didn’t even come to the bar last night.
There were so many hot girls there. The team was there, and they were in good spirits.
I swear, if I wasn’t hired by Cromwell for pictures for home games and certain he would rip my balls off, I would have taken one of them home with me. ”
I chuckle and shake my head. “I’m glad you had a nice time last night.”
“I did. I was hanging out with August,” he tells me. “He was asking me about the article. He wants to know when you’re getting that done. I covered for you and told you that I know you’re working hard on it.”
“What do you mean you covered for me?”
“I haven’t seen you work on it very much,” he admits with a shrug. “What’s going on with you? Are you banging her?”
My head snaps up. “What?” I try to act surprised, but based on the smug smile on his face, he’s figured it out.
“Don’t bullshit me, man. I see the chemistry there, and I know something is happening. I’m just not sure what. And I’m not sure if anyone else has figured it out. You better hope not.”
He smiles like the cat that ate the canary. He nailed it right, and I can’t deny it. I’m not trying to deny it, either.
I sigh and take a sip of my coffee. “What are you saying, Nick? Are you saying that you’re going to turn us in? Or are you saying that you know and you’re going to be cool and keep a secret?”
He chuckles. “Dude, come on, how did you get yourself so mixed up with her?”
“She’s not as bitchy as you would think. It’s just a front she puts on. She’s sweet, and I like hanging out with her. But I’m not sure that it’s anything more than fucking. And it hasn’t been going on that long.”
“Cromwell is not going to like that,” he tells me. “I’m not going to tell anyone. I just want you to be careful, dude. Cromwell is a powerful man. If he wants to get you fired from the paper, he will. If he wants to blackball you from the city, he will. He has that kind of power.”
I nod. “Think he would do all of that?”
Nick shrugs. “I don’t know, but you better get your fucking act together, man, and get the article done.”
“What do you think I’m doing here?”
“Coming from a night with her, huh?” he teases me.
The waitress comes over, and he orders breakfast for himself.
“I did, yeah, and now I’m trying to figure out what to do about it. Trying to figure out what questions I should be asking her. It’s hard. Every time I’m with her; I want to do other things and not treat her like she’s some kind of job.”
“But she is a job,” he reminds me.
“I know. I—”
“Do you? Do you know that? Do you know that you’re compromising your integrity by doing this?
Or do you even care?” He shakes his head at me.
“Dude, I thought you were smarter than this. When I met you, you said you wanted to make a name for yourself. Something separate from your father. This will certainly separate you from him. This will go everywhere.”
I scrub a hand down my face. “Yeah, I know.”
“What do you have so far?” he asks me, pulling the iPad across the table. Looking at it, he can see there’s nothing there. “Fuck, man. You’re screwed.”
“Help me,” I say. I’m ashamed he had to point out all the things I already knew. But it took hearing the harsh realities from him to make me wake up. I gotta get my ass moving and turn something in before I end both my and Mac’s careers.
We spend the morning coming up with a plan and questions so that I can get this article wrapped up. I want to ask him to come up with a plan to see her without it causing problems, but I don’t. Because who knows if that’s even something she wants from me.