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I grinned. “Since when did you become such a morning sports fan? Is there a story about me ?”
“Turn it on,” she hissed .
I picked up the remote. It was still on the channel from last night. I saw the picture and read the scroll across the bottom .
“Fuck,” I muttered. I couldn’t believe it. There was a pit in my stomach. I felt panic and outrage. My hands balled into fists .
“How could you do this? Why did you do this?” she cried into the phone .
I shook my head, still foggy from sleep. “I didn’t.” But I was staring at a picture that was on my phone. One that Natalia and I had taken at Canyon Lake .
“That was a special place. A special night. And you did this with it ?”
“I’m trying to tell you what happened with the picture. It wasn’t me.” She had never sounded this frantic before .
“Don’t try to tell me someone else sold our picture. You’re the only one who had it.” I could hear the sobs. “I thought you respected my decision. I thought you cared about me. You realize I’ve been fired? I have to take in my Goddesses uniform today.” She was crying hard. “I have to give them back the boots. They won’t even let me keep them .”
“God, Natalia. I know it looks like I could have done this, but I know who sold the picture. I would never do this to you. I would never hurt you like this .”
“Then who? Who has our picture ?”
I exhaled. “My stupid bitch of an ex .”
“What?”
“She stopped by a few days ago and now I realize why. I played right into her hands. Damn it. There probably wasn’t a single ounce of truth to anything she said. I bet she and Todd are still together .”
“Who is Todd? Your ex stopped by and you didn’t mention it?” I could hear the outrage in her voice .
“Right, that sounds bad, but it’s not what you think either. God, this is fucked up .”
“Isn’t it?” She paused. “I have to go. I have to get to the stadium to meet Heather and give her my uniform. They won’t even let me inside. We have to meet at the gate. Do you know how humiliating this is? Do you even know what this is doing to me ?”
I couldn’t fix it. I couldn’t take away her embarrassment. I couldn’t retract the photo. God, I couldn’t even punish Maddie for screwing me over again .
“I’m sorry, Natalia. Look, I’ll be there as soon as I can .”
“No. Stay away. Stay in San Antonio with your ex or whoever. Just leave me alone, Sam. You’ve done enough .”
She hung up and I sat up in bed. I stared at the TV. The announcers were still speculating on when Natalia and I had met and how long we had been seeing each other. Maddie must have sent the picture to her phone when I was in search of tissues for her fake tears. With a first name and a picture, it only took two days to track down her position with the Warriors .
I should have given her the money when she asked for it. Instead, she found a way to take it from me. I didn’t know which tabloid had paid her for it, but they could expect a huge lawsuit headed their way. Someone was going to pay for what this had cost Natalia .
I knew Natalia was angry and hurt. She thought I betrayed her, maybe in more than one way. I had to prove to her that I wasn’t that kind of man. I had questioned it myself. I had the pictures. I knew with one social media post our relationship would blow up the headlines. A Wrangler and a Warrior. What would be more taboo than that? We’d get all kinds of attention. I knew she’d be fired and that would leave her free to finally move in with me. Yeah, I was the kind of asshole who thought about doing it. I had thought about it more than once. But fuck, Natalia made me want to be a better man than that. I didn’t want to trick her into living with me. I didn’t want to force her into my life. I could have been the one to do what Maddie did, and I was ashamed of that thought more than anything .
I rolled out of bed to get dressed. I had ninety minutes to get to Austin .
My phone rang. I looked at the number. It was Keith Stone, the Wranglers’ head of publicity. It was never good when Keith called .
“Hey, man,” I tried to sound casual as if nothing catastrophic was happening .
“Sam, we need to talk about the Sports Now story .”
I started getting dressed while I talked to him, grabbing a clean pair of jeans from my dresser. “What do you want to know, Keith ?”
“Is the picture real? Is the girl a Warrior Goddess? What the hell is going on ?”
I sat on the edge of my bed to put on my socks. “Yes, yes, and I don’t know .”
