CHAPTER 19 #2
Jackie looked confused. Antonio reminded himself to keep breathing while she typed on her phone.
“What do you mean especially now? Look, I appreciate the honesty, but if anything, I’m embarrassed.
I jumped to conclusions and made up a story about you ten years ago.
I was certain I’d caught you on the phone with your wife. I was angry.”
She paused to look him in the eye, then kept typing.
“But today? You having an adult son doesn’t affect me, Antonio. Why would it? It’s not like we’re together.”
That last sentence stung, and Antonio felt a rock land in his stomach. He closed his eyes, because there was no way he’d be able to look at her. “It matters because my son is a client.”
“A client of AMW-Elite?”
“Yes. Specifically, he’s your client.”
“My client? Who?” Her fingers stilled as she realized the answer, and she dropped her phone.
She snatched her free hand out of his grip, her nails scratching his palms as she pulled away.
Her fingers caressed her throat and she opened her mouth, as if willing her voice to return.
She might not have been speaking, but the look Antonio saw on Jackie’s face said outrage. Betrayal.
“Everything okay?” Locust jogged over to them. “Your app got a little loud, Ms. Miles. Is there a technical issue that we can resolve… mindfully?”
Jackie hadn’t realized she’d accidently increased the volume. Locust didn’t have to be so passive aggressive with her remark. The look she quickly gave the woman said, Well, two can play that game.
Jackie picked up her phone, typed furiously, and turned up the volume full blast before she pressed SPEAK. “Duck off, Bohemian Barbie!” She snatched her shoes off the mat and stood to leave.
“Lucky, please, let’s talk about this.” Antonio reached for her, hoping she would sit back down.
Before he knew it, he felt the sting of a backhand against his face. A collective gasp was heard in the garden. Jackie’s hands were small, and she hadn’t put her weight into the slap, but he’d felt it plenty. She snatched her wrist away.
“Jackie!” Antonio called out, but she had already made her way down the steps, toward the beach. He was still rubbing his face when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“You know, if you’d like,” began Locust in a sultry, low voice, “I could help you two work out some of those frustrations in a private session.”
Antonio didn’t bother to give Locust a response before he headed toward the beach, after Jackie.
JACKIE PACED THE SANDY SHORE NEAR THE WATER’S EDGE, HER sneakers in one hand, phone in the other.
She didn’t seem to care that the bottom of her leggings were getting wet.
Before he could reach her, Jackie held up her hand as if to signal stop.
Her back was turned to him. Antonio froze, then looked around. How the hell does she know I’m here?
“Don’t come near me,” the computer-generated voice blared.
Antonio ran a hand down his face. “Jackie, let’s talk about this.”
Jackie threw her sneakers down. She stomped down the beach, pausing every few steps to type.
When she turned back toward Antonio, the app said, “God! How dumb am I? I should have figured it out. Your sudden interest in PJ. Always showing up where he was. Thank God I didn’t fall for your act, saying you wanted to help me, wanted to be a team, wanted to be a soft place for me to land.
Nope, you really are trying to steal PJ from me.
You want to represent your son. Is that why you’re telling me now? ”
“Jackie, I don’t want to represent PJ. It’s not about that!”
“Then what is it about?” The app yelled the question, the last word swallowed by the sound of waves crashing on the secluded beach.
Antonio sighed, turning to stare at the water, gathering his thoughts. “It’s about me being a dad. Finally.”
“What do you mean finally?”
Antonio rubbed his hands nervously. He’d never talked about this with anyone outside of family, but he knew Jackie deserved the truth.
“When I found out that PJ was my son, Marilyn put up every obstacle between us. Visits cut short or cancelled. Phone calls limited to a couple of minutes. To her, I was just a child support check, and at first I was fine with that. I was running from responsibility of being a father. Then, PJ started gaining national recognition. He had every college scout in the country looking at him. For the first time, I had something to offer him—I wanted to step up and be there to guide his career. You know, since I’ve been there with football.
But I never tried to represent him. Marilyn basically told me to either be a father or an agent. I can’t be both.”
Jackie was silent for a few minutes, her free hand resting at the base of her neck. Antonio wondered if her throat was sore. Wondered if he could flag someone to bring tea down to the beach. He wanted to make sure she was alright.
She typed some lines and held up her phone for him to hear.
“For all of Marilyn’s faults, that was sound advice.
I can’t argue with that. So why keep this from me?
I’m his agent. Neither you nor PJ thought enough of me to let me in on the fact that you’re his father?
All this talk about me trusting you—why don’t you trust me? ”
“It’s not about that, Jackie. I mean shit is complicated. Especially now that we work together.”
“Well duh, Sherlock.” She typed something, then erased it, paused, and typed again. “Not only that, but we’ve slept together! This is so messed up! I don’t do drama like this! Well, not anymore.” Jackie took a deep breath and tapped the corner of her phone on her chin.
Antonio knew what Jackie was implying when she said “not anymore.” “I know. But this is different, Jackie. I’m not Katrice.”
Jackie’s fingers flew across the screen of her phone. “How is this any less jacked up? I slept with my client’s father who is now my coworker. Do you hear how that sounds?”
“I mean, technically, you’ve never slept with your client’s father. The first time we had sex, neither of us knew I had a kid. So that’s like a scratch.”
Jackie stared at him, her eyes cutting into him like laser beams. She typed, “This isn’t funny, Antonio. What if someone at the agency finds out? I can hear it now. They are going to say the only reason I have PJ as a client is because of some relationship with you.”
“No one at the agency is going to find out. Because no one knows that PJ is my son. You’re the first person outside of my parents and Marilyn who knows.”
Jackie stopped her pacing, giving him a look of utter bewilderment.
Antonio nodded. “Yep. Sounds wild, but it’s true.”
“So, in twenty-two years, no one has known?” she typed.
Antonio rubbed a hand down his face. “Yeah. You gotta remember, for the first twelve years, another man thought that he was PJ’s dad. Since then, things haven’t been easy. That’s why we’re keeping things private. Rebuilding our relationship. We aren’t there yet, being out there like that.”
Jackie nodded, then typed. “I can see Sports Ragz running wild with that story.”
The mere mention of the sports gossip media juggernaut made Antonio a little queasy. He’d been on the receiving end of some messed up stuff from them during his career. They had the potential to blow up lives with one rumor. He didn’t want that for PJ or Jackie.
“Right! You feel me,” he said. “Plus, I think PJ just wants to make a name for himself. And honestly, I think the public knowing that I’m his biological father is going to open up a can of worms.”
Antonio watched Jackie bite the corner of her lips. He knew that was her habit when she was thinking.
“Jackie, I have only been in my son’s life for ten years.
Consistently, for maybe five of those years.
They’re gonna ask where I’ve been. Why I wasn’t around.
What was my relationship with his mother?
Why am I not representing him? You feel me?
Not only that, but there’s the added pressure of living in the shadow of your former pro-athlete father.
I don’t think he wants to be accused of being a nepo-baby. ”
“You weren’t that good,” Jackie’s app retorted. “You act like you were Ray Lewis or something.”
Antonio smirked. This app was getting good at throwing shade. “I got my team to the big dance. Twice. I can show you the ring to prove it.”
Jackie waved her hand after typing a reply. “Ain’t nobody trying to see that gaudy thing.” She tilted her head to the side. “And here I was thinking maybe I was a little paranoid, accusing you of stealing my client. You weren’t a thief; you were something else altogether.”
“I was just being an overprotective dad. That’s all.”
“I was going to say jerk,” Jackie countered. She picked up her shoes to walk further down the beach, and Antonio followed. They stopped near a clearing between palm trees and sat on a large, flat rock in the shade.
“Jackie,” Antonio began again. “I’m sorry I inserted myself in your dealings with PJ. It was a bad look, I know. I just wanted the best for him.”
Before Antonio could take a breath, Jackie’s phone replied. Damn, she’d gotten fast at typing. “You didn’t have to lie to me. As much as it pains me to say, maybe I would have been more receptive to your meddling had I known the truth.”
As an agent, Antonio knew having a positive relationship with a client was paramount.
Trust was everything. “Your relationship with PJ is solid, Jackie. He respects the hell out of you. But with the merger, and PJ’s career on the rise, I didn’t know when or how to tell you.
Of course, I should have told you years ago, instead of letting you make all these assumptions.
I just never expected our paths to cross like this. ”
Jackie blew out a breath and typed. “So, what’s next?”
“I don’t know.” Antonio shrugged.
“Are you going to tell the partners? Patrick?”
“Hell no.” Antonio was a pretty private person, and this definitely fell under the realm of none of their damned business.
“So, you don’t think the nation’s largest sports agency should know their number two agent’s son”—Wi-Fi was apparently spotty on this part of the beach, so the app responded for Jackie in spurts—“who happens to be in the running for Rookie of the Year, is their client?”
Antonio gave a dry chuckle. “First of all, you ain’t slick with that number two agent line, and secondly, there is no conflict of interest. You’re his agent, not me.”
Jackie put a hand on Antonio’s knee, which surprised the hell out of him—and briefly made him stiffen. It was an action that was so soft, so sweet, and so unlike her. She removed her hand to type a question.
“Don’t you want to be able to tell everyone that amazing young man is your son? I know you’re proud of him. You care so much about him beyond the court. I can tell.”
“I’m so proud of him.” Antonio sucked in a breath as he said the words.
Fuck. I’m not about to cry in front of this woman.
He blinked his tears away quickly before speaking.
“And I do care. But Jackie, PJ has to be ready to share this. I won’t force him.
If I push, he’ll just shut down. Plus, Marilyn has her hooks so deep in every aspect of his life, any reason to take the shine off her, change the narrative that she’s constructed…
it’s just going to piss her off. She’s crafted an image around PJ too. The press love that shit.”
“Trust me, I know. But he’s an adult now—” They both waited for the app to pick up signal, so Jackie could finish her thought. “And he can make his own decisions as to how and why he wants you back in his life.”
Antonio groaned. “Ugh, you don’t know Marilyn like I do.
” If Jackie was scary at times, Marilyn was downright horrifying.
She’d been a nightmare to coparent with from the start.
With PJ entering the league, Antonio had become enemy number one.
Marilyn told him constantly to mind his business when it came to her dipping her hands into PJ’s money or fame.
Jackie laughed. “Trust me, I do know Marilyn. Nothing pisses her off more than not getting her way. But my point is, this isn’t about her. It’s about you and PJ.”
“You’re right, Lucky.”
They sat listening to the ocean waves for some time, the sound of the waves lapping against the shore seeming to calm them both. Antonio finally spoke. “I already apologized, but I’ll say it again: I’m sorry for keeping this from you. So, do I have your trust again?”
Jackie scoffed, then typed. “Not even close.”
Antonio’s lips quirked upward. “That’s fair. I tell you what. In the spirit of earning your trust, why don’t I give you something I know you’ll appreciate. Actually, two things.”
Jackie narrowed her eyes.
Antonio leaned closer to her. “What if I can convince PJ to do the interview for your girl at WWSN?”
Jackie gave him a look that said, Of course you’d know about that. She thought for a moment before typing her reply. “Fine. But you have to promise me, no more secrets, Antonio.”
Antonio put his hand over his heart. “I promise.”
“Okay. So, what’s the other thing?” Jackie typed.
“Get you Mo Williams as a client,” Antonio said as he stood. “That’s what we’re here for, right?”
Before she could insist she didn’t need his assistance, Jackie’s stomach growled loudly. She pressed a hand against her belly.
“C’mon Lucky. You need to eat. Maybe the mushroom tacos won’t be so bad.” He extended his hand. She stared at it for a moment, then let him help her up.