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“And what are we? Chopped liver?” Jones calls him out.
“You’re friends and teammates, but Brock and I have been friends a hell of a lot longer.” He offers no further explanation, and thankfully the guys let it go.
We spend the next hour just sitting in the hotel bar, shooting the shit. We’re all stone-cold sober, but it’s still been good to hang out with them. I’ve not spent much time outside of practice with my new team, and I’m glad we did this. We’ve had several groups, both men and women, walk past our table in the back of the bar, but so far, everyone has left us alone. It’s been nice. I hate that I missed talking to Joey, but I plan to text her when we get back to the room. Maybe she’ll still be up.
“I’m out,” Rogers says, standing and throwing some cash on the table.
“Hell, we might as well all go.” Jones stands, and he too tosses money on the table. Caleb and I and the rest of the team who showed up do the same. I don’t know what their hurry is, but for me, I want the chance to at least say goodnight to my girl.
“How’s Joey doing at the retreat?” Caleb asks as we’re walking through the hotel lobby back to the elevator that will take us to our rooms.
I turn to look at him. “Good, she really likes her boss, and the rest of the te—” I stop talking when I bump into someone. “I’m so—” I start to apologize until I see who it is that I bumped into.
Lucinda Gordon.
Her hair is twisted up on top of her head. She’s wearing way more makeup than a woman her age, hell any woman should be wearing, and the mix of her perfume and the liquor wafting off her is making me sick. To top it off, she’s dressed like a hooker.
My hands are on her shoulders as I try to steady her. It was a knee-jerk reaction that I’m very much regretting as she moves in, wrapping hers around my waist. She smells like a damn brewery. “What in the hell are you doing here?” I ask, removing her arms from around my waist and taking a step back.
She advances again, but I step back, moving away from her, holding up my hands. “Don’t.” There is a stern warning to my tone. I don’t want this woman near me. She might have given birth to the woman I love, but she was never a mother to her. Some of the stories I’ve heard from both Caleb and Joey make me sick. I hate the shit she put Joey through growing up.
“You’re drunk, Lucinda,” Caleb spits. “Go sleep it off.”
“Oh, are you offering to come with me?” She winks, or at least I think that’s what she was trying to do. She is well and truly wasted. “What about you, big man?” She turns her glassy eyes back toward me. “You know you want the older, more mature version. I can show you things my daughter never thought about,” she slurs. “I know men like you. You can’t resist a wet pussy, and mine is ready for you.” She grips the hem of her dress as if she’s going to lift it and stumbles toward me. I take a step to the left, and she falls to the floor. I make no move to help her up. Instead, my eyes find Caleb’s.
“Piece of shit,” he grumbles. “We need to get out of here before a crowd starts to form.” He looks around, and thankfully,there’s not another soul in sight. How we managed that in this hotel when the entire team is staying here, I’ll never know.
“Sounds good to me.” I purposely step around Lucinda, ignoring her pleas to let her show me how good we can be. Bile rises in my throat when her words replay in my mind. She has no regard for her daughter’s feelings whatsoever. She is the epitome of a jersey chaser. It’s hard for me to process my sweet, loving, sexy-as-hell girlfriend came from the piece of trash we left lying in the middle of the hotel floor.
“Thank fuck Joey isn’t here this weekend,” Caleb seethes as we step onto the elevator. “Lucinda wouldn’t have given two shits if she was standing next to you. She still would have pulled that stunt. Worthless.” He shakes his head.
“No shit. She’s going to be pissed when I tell her what happened.” Not only is she going to be pissed, but I know she’s also going to be hurt. There’s no way can I keep this from her, though. These kinds of secrets are what destroy relationships, and that’s not what’s going to happen to us. With me having to travel so much for my job, she needs to know that she can trust me, and that means having hard conversations like the one we’re about to have, no matter how bad neither of us really want to. I hate that I can’t be there to hold her when I tell her, but I think it’s best to get it out now.
“You’re going to tell her?” Caleb questions. “While you’re both out of town?” He raises an eyebrow.
“Damn right. I don’t hide anything from her, and I don’t intend to ever start. That kind of shit kills relationships, especially with our career. I hate to be the one to tell her, but at the same time, I want it to be me too. I wouldn’t put it past Lucinda to run to the press, or hell, they could have been lurking in the shadows, and we didn’t see them. I want her to hear it from me.”
He claps a hand to my shoulder. “You’re a good man, Brock Williams. I meant what I said tonight. If it had to be anyone, I’m glad it was you.”
Not gonna lie. I have to swallow back some emotion welling in the back of my throat. “Appreciate that,” I manage to say as the elevator doors slide open.
We stop outside our doors. Our rooms are across the hall from one another. “You want me there when you talk to her?” he offers.
“Nah. I’ve got this. I’ll see you in the morning,” I say, scanning the keycard to my room.
“Not too early.” He points his index finger at me, wearing a grin before scanning his own card and disappearing into his room.
Kicking off my shoes, I plop down on the bed and pull up her number. I listen to it ring, but there is no answer. Instead, it goes straight to voice mail. Son of a bitch. I really wanted to talk to her tonight. “Hey, Sunshine. It’s me. Something happened tonight that I wanted to tell you about. Call me when you get this. It doesn’t matter how late. I love you.” I end the call and toss my phone on the bed. I can’t believe Lucinda and the nerve of her actions. I’m her daughter’s boyfriend, and she knows I am. For her to come on to me like that… to say the things she was saying to Caleb and to me, I’m repulsed. But it’s not just that. My heart hurts for my girl. I know what this is going to do to her, and I hate I have to be the one to deliver the hurtful news.
I feel gross after having her hands on me. Stripping out of my clothes, I head to the shower. The hot spray does wonders for my tired muscles. Too bad it does nothing for my mood. I’m dreading this phone call with Joey, but it’s the right thing to do. Turning off the water, I quickly dry off and slip into some sweats before turning off the bathroom light and making my way back to the bed.
I settle back against the headboard and check my phone—nothing from Joey. My nerves can’t take waiting, so I call her again. Only to get her voice mail for the second time. “It’s me again. First, I want to tell you I love you and I miss you, and if I don’t happen to get to talk to you tonight, I hope you sleep well. I called earlier to tell you that Caleb and I ran into your mom here at the hotel. It was… an experience. Let’s just leave it at that until I can talk to you. I love you, Sunshine.”
I sit here scrolling through my phone for the next hour, waiting for her call, and it never comes. Worry tries to settle in, but I push it away. I’m sure she’s sleeping, and her phone is probably on vibrate. She wasn’t expecting to hear from me tonight, so I’m just going to have to wait until in the morning to talk to her. I’m exhausted and need to get some sleep. Before I do, just in case she’s not sleeping and forgot her phone or something, I decide to give her a story, one she can either come home to or wake up to. Either way, both are going to be with thoughts of me.
Me:Once upon a time, there was a man who was living his best life. He had the career he always wanted, and he recently found the love of his life. Although his career takes him away from his love, there isn’t a moment she’s not on his mind. He can’t seem to think of anything else. In fact, all he can think about is coming home to her and showing her how much he’s missed her. He plans to spend a lot of time wrapped up in their bed making love to her.
Me:To be continued…
