Most Valuable Playboy(62)

I turn off the light, turn off the text notifications on my phone, and don’t wake up until my phone rattles on my nightstand in the morning like the world is ending. I rub my eyes, stare at the screen, then sit bolt upright when I see who’s calling.

I answer immediately. “Yes, sir?”

“Cooper, can you meet me in my suite before practice?”

“Yes, I can, Mr. Scott.”

Fifteen minutes later, I’m showered, dressed, and heading to what feels like an execution for real this time.





29





When I was in third grade, the teacher asked me to come to the blackboard and work on a math problem. I said, “Maybe. We’ll see.”

My classmates cracked up. The teacher did not. She sent me to see the principal. A terrible fear lashed through my nine-year-old body as I walked to the office. I’d be sent to detention, suspended, or expelled. My mom was going to be so pissed.

In the end, the principal gave me a stern talking-to about respect.

Now, as I wait for the shining silver elevator doors to whisk open, I can only wish for a stern reprimand. In my nearly four seasons with the team, I’ve spoken to Jasper on only a few occasions, and I’ve never been called to his office. Not once.

When the elevator arrives with a soft whoosh, I step inside, my feet leaden, my chest hollowed. The doors close, and I swipe my keycard across the security pad and press the button for the top floor.

As it rises, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m screwed.

When I reach his floor, I try to psyche myself up. I stare down linemen, I scramble in the pocket, and I throw pinpoint passes under fire from the toughest defensive coverage. Chin up, chest high.

I find suite 1200 and raise my fist to knock. Before I can even rap, he opens it. Jasper smiles, showing no teeth. He wears navy slacks and a crisp button-down.

“Thank you for coming, Cooper. Especially on such short notice.”

“Of course, sir.”

The suite is quiet. Only the hum of the heater echoes as we walk from the foyer around the corner. That’s when I see we’re not alone. Maxine is here, perched on a couch in the sunken living room, her hands folded in her lap.

Ice-cold dread fills me from stem to fucking stern. This is so much more than the ax.

“Please, have a seat,” Jasper says, indicating the chair across from Maxine.

She meets my eyes and offers a rueful smile.

I’m royally fucked.

Jasper sits in the yellow chair across from me. “Can I get you anything? Coffee, tea, water?”

I furrow my brow. The owner is offering me a beverage? Maybe I’m dreaming. Maybe it’s still the middle of the night, because this is a topsy-turvy world. “I’m good, sir.”

“Excellent.” He rubs his palms on his pant legs, almost as if he’s nervous. “You might be wondering why I called you here.”

Ya think?

I nod. I can hardly speak.

He takes a deep breath, sighs, then gestures to Maxine. Jasper’s tone is heavy, laced with import. “My sister has something to say.”

My stomach churns as I wait for her to smear me.

My mind leaps forward and back, replaying every interaction with Maxine. I try to find the moment I messed up. When I said or did something horribly wrong. When I led her on. I hunt in my memory banks, searching desperately for my transgression.

I can’t find it, but even so the blade is coming down. It’s aiming for my neck.

But when Maxine meets my gaze, her words shock me. “I’m sorry.”

I blink. “Excuse me?”

“I’m so very sorry,” she adds, her voice colored with contrition.

My jaw comes unhinged, and I try to speak. To say for what or why or what the heck. But all that comes out is something like um.

Jasper makes a rolling gesture, indicating Maxine should keep going.

She draws a deep breath. “I’ve been inappropriate. I’ve been hitting on you for several months. At first I told myself it was harmless flirting, but then it became more, and I should not have taken advantage of my position with the team.” She looks to Jasper, and he nods and gives her a faint smile. “And I crossed a line at the auction. I’d been sad, but that doesn’t excuse my behavior. After I saw you last night in the lobby, I knew it was time to come clean. I told Jasper everything.”

I tense, waiting for what the everything is, wondering if she somehow figured out I lied about Violet at the auction. I cycle back to the day in the stands, when Maxine approached me after my phone call with Violet. My pretend girlfriend conversation. Maybe she did overhear something. The tension in me refills and bubbles over.

“Everything?” I croak out.

She nods, purses her lips, then speaks again. “I told him how I tried to bid on you, how determined I was, but then how your girlfriend won you at the end. And she deserves you. I was jealous, but I can see you’re in love with her, and I completely understand why.”