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“I hate to tell you this because I know the man hurt you, but…he’s not Cap,” Harley said, making tears sting my eyes. “Yeah, he fucked up, but make him pay for whathedid, not for what Cap did.”
Taking in a deep breath, I asked, “Where’s the press conference?”
“It’s at the Devil’s media room,” he answered. “That’s why everyone’s speculating that he’s going to retire. If his announcement wasn’t related to his career, then he’d be holding a press conference somewhere else.”
I nodded, feeling a bit frantic. “I…uhm, I have an appoint-”
“Send me your schedule,” he said. “My last appointment is at three.”
I threw my arms around my best friend. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, baby girl.”
I left work, driving like a bat out of hell, refusing to let Orion Knight ruin his life because of me.
Chapter 27
Orion~
With basketball saving me from the hell that’d been Hammond, Illinois, you’d think that I’d be an emotional wreck right now, but I wasn’t. Nothing mattered more than Sinclair, and I didn’t care that some people would think that I was crazy for giving up my career over a woman that I’d only known for two weeks. Nothing mattered but how I felt about Sinclair Hansen, and so I wasn’t as nervous as I should be.
When I’d spoken with Coach Quincy, he had been just as surprised as my agent had been. Lenny Richmond had been with me since the beginning, and he hadn’t minced words when I’d broken the news to him. He’d been very vocal during our meeting with the organization yesterday, but when I’d made it clear that the contract and all my monetary commitments would be honored, no one really had anything left to say. Oh, they had argued against my madness, but at the end of the day, all anyone cared about was their cut, and that’d been the end of that conversation.
“Dude, are you sure you want to do this?” Lenny asked. “No one wants you to retire.”
The media room was filling up with reporters, and I had Lenny, Coach Quincy, and the Devil’s PR rep standing with me. Because of Titan’s mishap all those years ago, we only employed males as our agents, financial planners, etc. So, luckily for me, the Devil’s PR rep was a guy, Malcolm Henricks, and he was good at his job.
“I have to do this,” I told him for the millionth time. “It’s personal.”
“Look, I get it,” he whispered, making sure that the reporters couldn’t hear us. “There’s nothing like a woman to turn a man stupid, but this is yourcareer.”
I eyed Lenny. “How do you know that this is over a woman?” The only people that knew the truth were Nova and the guys, and I had their full support once I’d made up my mind for good.
“Because only a woman has the power to fuck up a man’s life,” he said, making me chuckle because he wasn’t wrong. “Unlike women that have the ability to love often, when a man loves, he loves only once, and that’s why we’re fucking crazy.”
My lips twitched. “Then you know where I’m coming from.”
Lenny let out a heavy sigh. “If you don’t marry her, I’m going to kill you.”
Turning from Lenny, I noticed that the media room was pretty full now. Glancing at the clock on the back wall, I saw that it was already five o’clock, and the sooner that I got this over with, the better. While I wasn’t nervous, this wasn’t exactly fun. I was announcing the end of my career, and I was doing it selfishly. A decent person would wait until the end of the season, so as not to distract the team, but I didn’t have the luxury of time on my side. Sinclair needed to see that I was serious about hernow.
“Hello, ladies and gentlemen,” I said, kicking off the press conference. “Thank you for coming, as I understand this was last-minute.”
“Stop!”
The entire room looked back as Sinclair came rushing through the doors, stopping in the middle of the aisle, looking like she hadn’t slept in ages. Her hair looked like she’d been running her hands through it, she had no makeup on, those dark circles showing under her eyes, and though her scrubs looked fresh and clean, they looked two sizes too big for her, making me wonder if she’d lost some weight in the last few days since I fucked up.
Standing in the middle of the media room with all eyes on her, not caring that this was going to go viral, Sinclair asked, “Have you lost your goddamn mind?”
My brows rose. “What are you doing here, baby?”
“Stopping you from making the biggest mistake of your life,” she huffed, and I loved that her fire was back. No tears, no sadness, no pain…just fire and strength.
“Oh, thank God,” Lenny muttered behind me.
“Thank you, Jesus,” Coach Quincy added.
“My mind is already made up,” I told her. “You refuse to date athletes, so there’s only one way to fix that problem.”
