Dirty Jock Read online

  I was shocked and offended at the accusation, but I wasn't about to let him get away with it. Standing up for myself was somewhat new to me, but Gia wasn't around to protect me anymore. At the very least, I owed it to my best friend to provide that kind of example to her daughter.

  "Listen, jerk, you're the last person in the world to give advice about how to live."

  "Oh really?" His eyebrow lifted. "You follow football so you think you know me, do you?"

  The laugh that escaped my lips at that accusation didn't have an ounce of mirth in it. "Actually, I couldn't care less about football. I have no idea what Gia's obsession with it was. But I'd have to be living under a rock to not hear about you and your antics. Big time athlete, spending all your time and money living like life is just one big party." I gestured towards the stairs. "Were those two proof of how misunderstood you are? That you aren't just the dirty jock that the media paints you as, but a poor misunderstood philanthropist, instead?"

  That got under his skin, I could see the anger building along the strong lines of his face--darkening them. I couldn't help but feel like Gia would have been proud of how I wasn't backing down from this thug.

  For a moment it looked as if he was about to slam the door in our faces, but then we were saved by the distractive reappearance of his lady friends. They bounded down the stairs, this time fully dressed, each giving Tanner a quick kiss on the cheek as they squeezed passed us and hurried down the hallway toward the elevators without another word.

  Miss Myers was the first to break the silence, speaking as if the last few minutes of heated conversation had never happened. The look on her face told a different story, though. She was clearly not impressed with the football player.

  "Well, now that I assume you're alone, might we come in and settle this once and for all? I think we can clear this up quickly and then be on our way."

  I almost felt bad for Tanner. She didn't even give him a chance to think about a response before she strode forward into his apartment, forcing the big man to step out of the way. He could only watch helplessly as she marched over to a couch and set Isabella—who still hadn’t woken up—down before settling in next to her. I hurried quickly in her wake, unsure how long a football player with the nickname of Flash would remain too shocked to react.

  Tanner let out a heavy sigh and swung his door shut. It closed with a slam that startled Izzy, finally causing the little girl to stir. I sat on the other side of her, pulling her head against my chest so that she'd wake to someone familiar.

  The apartment was furnished tastefully, although evidence of Tanner's ego was everywhere. The couch we sat on was a dark, rich leather and the rectangular glass coffee and end tables looked expensive, but almost every available surface and wall had some sort of monument to his greatness. There were trophies, medals, framed magazine articles and jersey's. I wasn't sure if I was in an apartment or a gift shop dedicated to Tanner Garrick.

  "We aren't here for your money," I said as he approached us. "We don't even want your time. Well, beyond this meeting, anyway. The opposite, in fact."

  "And what, exactly, is the opposite of time, Laney?" Tanner flopped down on an armchair across from us. The dark leather was a match for the couch we sat on.

  He still looked skeptical, but really, who could blame him? I didn't doubt that others had tried to rip him off in the past. Fair or not, that was the price of being rich and famous, wasn't it?

  "The question of paternity is easily solved with a simple cheek swab," the CPS worker answered. "We can have the results back in a week. At that point, if your paternity is determined, Miss Chase is simply asking that you sign away all parental responsibilities for the child, which would leave her free and clear to formally adopt Isabella."

  "Really?"

  "Really," I nodded. "Then you can go back to living your self-indulgent and hedonistic lifestyle."

  Tanner shot me a withering look, and for some reason it actually made me feel guilty. "Sorry," I mumbled. "Look, we already have the agreement drawn up and we can leave a copy with you. You can have your lawyer look at it. All we're doing, really, is giving you a legal document that protects you from ever being on the hook for anything from us, in exchange for you not ever coming after Izzy. It's a win-win."

  3

  Tanner

  This whole thing stunk.

  I hadn't completely ruled out the idea that this was some sort of scam, but I had to admit that I couldn't quite see the angle if it was. For one thing, I had to assume there was nothing fishy with the contract they wanted me to sign. Not if they were confident enough in it that a week in front of my lawyer didn't make them sweat, anyway.

  Still, none of this made any sense. If this really was my kid, why hadn't the mother ever approached me for money or support? Even by Los Angeles standards, I’ve been a big fucking deal in this city for a couple of years now. And like Laney had pointed out, the media has, at the best of times, painted my off-season antics as nothing more than a rich party boy with too much time on his hands and too little common sense. That sort of publicity has made me a target for more than my fair share of crackpot or desperate women trying to name me their baby daddy. If this one was legit, why was this kid’s mother the only one not to have come forward?

  "Tell me about her mother," I asked. "About this Gia." The name didn't ring any bells, but that was hardly a smoking gun in my life. I'd probably slept with more women that I hadn't known the first name of than ones that I did.

  Delaney took a deep breath as she quickly glanced down at the child half-pulled onto her lap. She'd fallen asleep again, but her face was turned more towards me now than before. She had dark hair, like me, but so did plenty of people. Was it possible she had my nose as well?

  I snapped my eyes away, letting them focus on Delaney's ample chest instead. It did the job of distracting me, but when I lifted up to meet her gaze, I could tell I was busted. I flashed a lewd smile as cover and she grimaced.

  She had a sexy scowl.

  "Gia was an amazing woman and my best friend since we were kids, but she always had extremely poor taste in men," she began.

  I chose to ignore the obviousness of her insult.

  "It was about three years ago when she told me she was pregnant. She only told me because she knew I would keep the secret, but she hid it from everyone else for as long as she could. And not for the reasons you're probably thinking. Gia was never ashamed of being single and pregnant, and she never even considered giving her up."

  "Then why the secrecy?"

  Delaney shrugged, her eyes glassing over as she stared at some distant point beyond my left shoulder. "Gia hated to sit anything out. She was always so full of energy. She was worried she'd have to give up playing sports, or that people would start treating her different. I mean, that all happened eventually, as she knew it would, she just didn't want it happening any sooner than it needed to."

  "She was into sports? So she was a fan?" The pieces were starting to fall into place.

  "Well, football was her favorite," Delaney agreed hesitantly. "She rarely missed a Sunday game, although it was rare for her to go and see them live."

  "But I'm guessing she made it to at least one."

  The redhead sitting on my couch was nodding again, but seemed to be holding something back.

  Could it be that she was keeping some key detail a secret? Some thread in the story that, if pulled, would cause the entire lie to unravel? I needed to start pulling on threads.

  "Okay, so you're saying she came to a game one day and that's when it all happened? She wanted to meet me, so somehow snuck back into the locker room to make her dreams come true?" I was intentionally trying to rile her up in the hopes that she'd let whatever she was holding back slip out, although I didn't really consider my version that implausible.

  Dominick, the head of stadium security, has a long-standing order from the team not to be too diligent in keeping out a certain class of fan. The hotter the girl, the more likely hi
s team is to be looking the other way when they try to sneak past.

  Delaney cocked her head as she regarded me. "Close," she finally said.

  "But?"

  She let out a little exhale that sounded like a laugh. "Sorry to burst your bubble, Flash, but it wasn't you she was dreaming about."

  A smile spread across my face at hearing her use my nickname, proof that she was more familiar with me than she initially let on. But then the rest of what she said clicked into place. "Wait, what do you mean?"

  "Gia had a thing for Bullet Jones. That's who she'd been trying to meet that night, only by the time she'd made it back there he had already left."

  "Bullet?" My teeth were used to clenching at the mere mention of the Stars’ quarterback, but for some reason this time I felt my entire body tense up. I didn't even remember this girl Gia, so why the hell did I care so much that she'd been after him instead of me?

  Probably because it was just further proof that no one had a fucking clue who the real star of our team was.

  "Are you fucking kidding me?" I launched to my feet, only barely keeping myself from screaming the words. Suddenly the story seemed even more implausible than I initially thought. "I was second choice to Bullet?"

  Delaney pulled Isabella closer as the child stirred again, this time opening her eyes.

  "Like I said, Gia went from one bad choice to another when it came to men."

  "Crap, sorry," I mumbled. "Here, give her to me." I grabbed the girl and lifted her up from the couch, pulling her into the crook of my arm and against my still bare chest. I swayed her as I walked around the room. I woke her up, least I could do was get her back to sleep. The room was silent, so I looked back over at Delaney, nodding to urge her to continue. The look on her face was strange. What, she never saw a grown man hold a kid before?

  "I... uh, I was saying..."

  "That Gia went for scumbag jocks like me and Bullet," I reminded her, but I spoke in a singsong voice because Isabella's eyes had only just started to drift closed again. I was too focused on the little girl I was holding to care about the dig. Her face reminded me of something. There was a girl... a hook up after a game one night a couple years back that fit the time line. I don't know that I ever caught her name, but she had so much fire in her that I remember asking her for her number as she left. That's something I rarely do, but something about her made me want to see her again. Only, she just laughed and gave me a quick peck on the lips as she disappeared from my life. I always wondered why a groupie would go to the trouble of sneaking in to meet up with their crush and then turn them down when they wanted to see them again. It made sense if she hadn't been there to see me.

  Could that have been Gia?

  "I just meant..." There was silence again, and then a sigh. "Anyway, eventually Isabella came along. For a while, things were great. Gia was still living with her folks, which helped a lot, while she was finishing up college." At this point Delaney paused again, and the silence stretched on for so long that I actually pulled my eyes away from the fascinatingly familiar face of the little girl I was holding. The redhead on the couch wasn't looking at me anymore. She was staring down at the floor, but she finally continued.

  "And then she got sick. Cancer. At first she was upbeat about it, sure that she would beat it like she did everything else... but... it spread too fast. Faster than anyone expected. Within a year she had wasted away and could barely get out of bed. Her parents continued to look after Izzy, but they're getting older... so I started helping as well and..."

  Delaney turned and grabbed a tissue from the box on my end table. Miss Myers finished the story, but not before glaring at me in a way that made me think that she somehow considered all of this completely my fault.

  "She only lasted a couple more months. Since then, Delaney and Gia's parents have been caring for Isabella. When they started to seriously discuss the idea of Delaney adopting her officially, the question of paternity was raised. Apparently, Gia hadn't told her parents who the father was. Only Delaney knew the story. Without a father, Isabella's grandparents have legal custody, and they are willing to move forward with the adoption. But if her father is located, he would need to sign off as well."

  I knew what it was like to grow up with a missing parent, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. This little girl was missing both. She was in for a hard life.

  "Fine," I nodded. "Let's just do this test then." I walked back over to the couch. Isabella had fallen back to sleep, so I offered her back to Delaney who took her immediately and held her close, refusing to look at me.

  The CPS agent nodded and I sat back down in my chair. She opened a worn, brown leather satchel and fished around for a moment before drawing out some papers and handing them to me. "These are the contracts we mentioned. Feel free to have your lawyer look them over before we next meet."

  "Don't worry, I plan on it." The words came out harsher than I intended, but what did I care. I didn't owe these people anything. They showed up at my door.

  Miss Myers then pulled out a little plastic container with a cotton swab inside. "I'll just need a quick dab of the inside of your cheek, and then we can be on our way."

  I nodded and opened my mouth as she approached, turning my attention back to the woman and child sitting on my couch. As sour as my mood now was, I could still appreciate how attractive the redhead was, and not just on the outside. Despite her initial reaction toward me, she'd been trying to save my feelings earlier, about Bullet. My paranoia had made me believe she was hiding something, but I wasn’t completely blind. She was a decent person and it was clear now that regardless of the truth, Delaney, at least, believed what she was telling me.

  Not that her believing the story made it true. It didn’t mean I’d slept with her friend. Gia may have simply had some drunken one-night stand and couldn't face owning up to the truth, so she made up some bullshit about banging a famous athlete. That would certainly explain the whole Bullet angle. Wouldn't a random detail like that just make a bullshit story seem more plausible? Probably figured no one would ever be able to verify any of it anyway.

  Still, even if I did fuck her, that also didn’t necessarily mean anything. I always wore a condom. Especially with after game randoms.

  But condoms weren’t a hundred percent effective, either.

  And Isabella did kind of remind me of that one girl.

  Fuck.

  4

  Delaney

  "Deedee, how did it go? Hi Isabella, sweetheart, come to grandma."

  Aside from my mom, Gia's parents were the only ones that ever called me Deedee. A side effect of knowing them since I was five, I guess.

  "Na na!" Izzy reached her hands out to clap with glee at seeing her grandparents. I handed her over happily. Who knew a two-year old could be so heavy?

  "As well as can be expected, I suppose."

  "Did he sign the papers?"

  "We still need to wait for the DNA test to come back," I reminded her. We'd already gone over this a couple of times. "It'll be about a week."

  "Oh, yes, I remember."

  Mrs. Marcelo only held Izzy for a few moments before putting the girl down. "Go run and find Grandpa. He's watching TV. Or sleeping in front of it, more likely."

  Izzy squealed as she ran, swaying unsteadily at first on feet still getting used to moving and balancing so quickly.

  "How are you doing, Laura?" There was a time when I used to call Mrs. Marcelo mom. Gia and I used to spend so much time at each other's houses that it was just natural. But as I got older it felt weird, and I started doing it less and less.

  Once Gia died, I stopped completely.

  Her face fell now that Izzy was out of sight. She let out a big sigh, putting her hand on my shoulder and shaking her head. "Every time I see her I think of my Gia."

  "I know." The months since Gia's passing hadn't made it any easier for her.

  "Do you think everything will work out?" It was a question she seemed to ask me at least once a week, and I a
lways gave her the same answer no matter how I felt.

  "Yes. Everything will be fine, don't worry."

  "You're such a good girl. Gia was lucky to have a friend like you in her life."

  "I was luckier."

  Mrs. Marcelo sighed again, shaking her head. "A mother shouldn't have to bury her daughter."

  "I know."

  We were quiet for a moment.

  "Do you have time to come in for some coffee?"

  "No, I really have to head back home. But I'm back on Thursday to take Gia for the weekend."

  "You'll stay for dinner on Thursday then. I'll make pasta."

  "Okay," I smiled. Coffee was one thing, but I knew better than to turn down her offer of dinner.

  Izzy suddenly reappeared, running back toward us, screaming with laughter as her arms flailed. A few seconds later, Salvatore came lumbering after her. His fingers were wiggling as he reached in her direction.

  "Here comes the tickle monster," he bellowed. Izzy turned to look backward and then tripped over her own feet. Laughter instantly turned to tears.

  "Now look what you've done," Laura admonished her husband as she reached down to pick up her granddaughter.

  I reached out and stroked Izzy's head. There wasn't even a mark on it.

  "She's fine, just got scared." I leaned forward and planted a kiss on the imaginary injury.

  "'daid! 'daid!"

  "Oh, you don't need a bandaid for that," her grandfather said. He was almost out of breath from his brief run from the living room through to the hallway. When I was little, I remember him having a bit of a belly but over the years he'd continued to put on weight. Ever since Gia's death, it had gotten even worse. "There's not a mark on you."

  "'DAID!" Izzy screamed, fresh tears flowing at the indignity of being denied proper medical care.

  "Okay, let's get you a bandaid," Laura agreed, carrying her off into the other room. "I think I have a Hello Kitty one..."