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Her surprised stare didn’t waver from mine. Although she remained calm and collected, I could see the wheels turning in her head. Immediately going into damage control, thinking how she could spin this and use it to our advantage.
Sophie’s father didn’t delay. He walked in with two men by his side dressed in suits. Nodding to Autumn, he ordered, “My lawyers want to see that contract.”
She handed it right over to him while my lawyer informed, “My client has every right to his son.”
Her father’s eyes met his as he passed the contract off to his men who went right to work. They walked out of the room, taking the agreement with them.
“I’m just trying to catch up here. I was in town for some business with my lawyers,” he explained, his gaze looking at all of us including his daughter. “Sophie and Ben were going to have dinner with me this evening, and now I’m hit with the news of Ben being yours. I want to start off by saying that all of this is news to me. I didn’t know you were Ben’s father. If I did, this wouldn’t be happening right now. I had no clue. Sophie only told me about half an hour ago. Up until then, I thought Ben was the result of a one-night stand.”
“He was,” Sophie agreed, only further pissing me off which was never a good thing.
Her father was my new coach, and the last thing I needed was to get on his bad side, but I wouldn’t surrender.
It wasn’t in my nature.
“You said you barely knew the father, Sophie.”
“I didn’t, Dad.”
“You lived with Jax. How long had this been going on?”
“Since the moment I saw her step out of her mom’s car.”
She glared at me before looking back at her dad. “I didn’t live with him. I lived in his guesthouse.”
I resisted the urge to remind her she also loved to sneak into my bedroom. I lost count of how many times she was waiting for me, laying on my bed. Ready to talk until the early hours of the morning. It was always our time together, when the world was sleeping, and we were wide awake.
“Someone needs to start talking and tell me what the hell is going on. Sophie says she’s being blackmailed into marrying you?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but Autumn stood with her hands in the air, silencing me. “I think this is a good time for me to intervene.”
Better her than me.
“I’m sure you’ve seen what the press is saying about your quarterback?”
“What does that have to do with anything? There’s a scandal with him every month.”
“Right, but this is different. They’ve labeled him a traitor, and let’s face it—you don’t want to start off on the wrong foot with fans booing him at your first game. And as it turns out, he’s now your grandkid’s father. The press is going to eat him alive if we don’t spin the story. Not to mention, what they’ll say about your daughter when they find out Jax is the father, and she didn’t tell him.” She paused, letting her words sink in. “I know what’s best for both of them, him being your quarterback and her being your daughter, it’s literally media gold. The press, the fans, they’re going to lose their minds when they find this out. It doesn’t get any better than this, sir.”
“Yeah, except I don’t want to marry him. I don’t care what they say about me.”
Autumn turned around to face her. “You’re going to care when your fans turn on you. And trust me, they will. Their favorite romance author hides her son from his father? That’s just career suicide, Sophie.”
“Romance author?” I questioned, leaning back into my chair. Hating the fact that I was once again taken by surprise.
Autumn smiled, fully aware of what I was thinking. “I was going to get to that after Sophie sat back down with us.”
“You should have told me before we walked through the door, Red.”
“Hello!” Sophie shouted, waving her hands in the air. “Can we please stop talking about me like I’m not standing right here?”
“I’m sorry,” Autumn apologized to her. “I know this is a lot to take in, but I swear to you that I’m working with your best interest at heart, Sophie. You’ve worked too hard to let this bite you in the ass now.”
I could see it in her eyes, Autumn was getting to her. As if on cue, her father’s lawyers walked back into the room, informing, “It’s an ironclad contract and pretty straightforward, sir. They’re not trying to pull one over on your daughter. She only has to be married to him for one season.”
Sophie’s dad grabbed her hand, nodding to us. “I need to speak to my daughter alone.”
With that, they left the room, and Caleb didn’t waste any time coming for me. Not that I expected him to. I could only imagine what he was thinking.
