“You still haven’t answered my question. Weddings,” Levi reminded her when a puzzled frown formed between her brows. “Are you here to keep your clients happy?”
“Nope,” Piper said with a quick shake of her head. “I’m here because I’m a sucker for big, adorable teddy bears.”
“You lost me,” Levi said. “Where do stuffed animals come into the picture?”
“The teddy bears are your teammates,” Piper explained with a crooked smile. “Sweet little boys who are clueless about money and I shift into big sister mode.”
“Don’t they pay you a sizable fee?” Levi inquired with a knowing look.
“Naturally,” Piper said without apology. “I need to make a living just like everyone else. But I care about my clients. They become friends. Family. In fact, I introduced the bride and groom.”
“Then you only have yourself to blame,” Levi teased.
“How was I to know they would leap before they looked?” She exhaled. “I don’t mind weddings. Today’s ceremony was lovely. The food was good and the cake amazing.”
“Hard to beat lemon and raspberry,” Levi said.
“Yummy, right?” Piper smacked her lips.
“So, what’s the problem?”
“Besides the obvious?” Again, she drew his attention to her dress. “Two things. First. Men think single, unescorted women are easy pickings. In the past few months, I’ve heard more bad come-on lines and dodged more groping hands than the summer I worked as a waitress at a dive bar.”
“Tell me which teddy bears turned into wolves and I’ll happily kick some ass,” Levi promised. His teammates wouldn’t get away with disrespecting women while he was around.
“Don’t worry about the Knights,” Piper assured him. “They’re perfect gentlemen.”
No, they aren’t, Levi thought. His fellow football players were human, just like everyone else. Good guys, for the most part, they made mistakes, occasionally behaved like jackasses, and when pushed, could use their fists before their brains.
However, Levi didn’t want to shatter Piper’s illusions. And even if he did, there was a code. What happened between teammates, stayed between teammates.
“I understand reason number one,” he said rather than throw out meaningless platitudes. “What’s number two?”
“My mother.” With a groan, Piper’s forehead landed on the bar. “Other people’s weddings are like a dagger to her heart. A reminder that her only daughter is over thirty and single. Not that she doesn’t harp on the fact the rest of the time. But days like today are her chance to ramp up the guilt trip.”
“How does she find out?” Levi asked. “I assume you don’t tell her every time a friend becomes engaged.”
“You’ve heard of a nose for news?” Piper rubbed her temples. “My mother’s superpower is her ability to sniff out even a hint of a marriage ceremony. Then, she shoves the first available man at me because a woman needs an escort.”
The solution to Piper’s problem seemed simple.
“Tell her you already have a date,” Levi said.
“You poor, poor deluded man.” She sighed. “Since you’re lucky enough to say you’ve never met my mother, I’ll let your naiveté pass just this once.”
“How would she know?”
“She has eyes everywhere,” Piper said.
“Come on,” he scoffed, certain she exaggerated.
“If I don’t miss my guess, she already has a picture of you. By morning, she’ll know your name, profession, and estimated annual income.” Piper looked him up and down. “Handsome, though not my type. Good build. You know how to wear a suit. Custom-tailored?”
“Yes.” Levi glanced at his jacket and frowned. Under her perusal, he suddenly felt the need to sit up straight and barely checked the desire to raise a hand to see if his sandy blond hair was combed. “What difference does—"
“Mom would love you.” Piper brightened as her mood seemed to perk up in an instant. “Holy, moly. I just figured out a solution to my problem.”
“Which one?” Levi asked with a smirk.
Piper ignored his comment as she continued to give him the once over.
“Bear with me,” she said. “Repeat what I just said.”
“You think I’m handsome.”
“Not that,” she said with a dismissive wave. “The last part. My mom would love you.”
“And…?” he asked, not certain he wanted to know.
“Date me.” Before Levi could refuse—or agree—Piper continued in a flurry of words. “Not real dating. Just for show. And not just weddings. Anytime I need a no-strings-attached escort, you can be my backup.”
Levi winced. Backup? Without trying, Piper hit a nerve. He should be immune—he wasn’t. No matter how much time passed. No matter how accustomed he became to standing on the sidelines while another quarterback led the team. No matter how thick his skin became. Now and then an unexpected jab snuck past his defenses and hit home.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Piper said when Levi didn’t answer. “Our arrangement won’t be one-sided. When you need a faux date, give me a call.”
“You’ll be my backup?” The idea was novel enough to bring an ironic smile to Levi’s lips. “I haven’t had one of those since college.”
Misunderstanding his meaning, Piper ginned.
“You fake dated in college? Then you’re an old pro.”
“Practically ancient,” Levi muttered. At least in football years. Rather than launch a lengthy, sad story explanation, Levi didn’t correct Piper’s assumption.
“We can hash out the particulars later.” She bubbled with enthusiasm. “Deal?”
Without thinking, Levi shook Piper’s hand. Why not? He could think of worse things than to spend his free time with a beautiful, interesting, dynamic woman.
“You need a backup?” he asked. “I’m your man.”
CHAPTER ONE
▲ ▼ ▲ ▼ ▲
SUNDAYS WERE THE best. Slow and easy. Mellow. Lowkey. Peaceful. No running around. No answering the phone every five seconds. No deadlines. No pressure.
If perfect existed outside a private tropical island, Sundays came as close as Piper could imagine.
Of course, she mused, everyone’s idea of perfection was different. Other than the sundrenched beach of her dreams, she found her happy place in numbers. From the time Piper was a little girl, she could always count on the non-shakable absolutes of addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc.
Piper’s homelife always seemed to be in a state of flux. Her parents' never-ending bickering, threats of divorce, reconciliations. Her brothers’ obnoxious superiority complexes. The general ups and downs of adolescence, puberty, and the terrifying/exciting spurt toward adulthood. She’d needed a source of stability. To calm her brain, she used mathematics. To soothe her soul, she had a secret weapon—her best friend, Darcy Stratham.
Not that Darcy didn’t have her flaws. One rather conspicuous flaw. If numbers were Piper’s salvation, football was Darcy’s religion, her first love, and her obsession all rolled into one.
For a woman who couldn’t care less about any sport, having a best friend who lived and breathed all things football, Piper was often bemused to realize how much secondhand knowledge she’d acquired despite herself.
Though Piper would never call herself a dyed in the wool fan, she couldn’t help but have a rooting interest in her city’s NFL team, the Seattle Knights. How could she not? Her best friend was the team’s new general manager. On top of that, Darcy had recently become engaged to Joshua McClain, the Knights’ first-year head coach. Connection after connection.
Plus, thanks to a guiding hand from the Knights’ owner, Riley Preston, in the past five years, Piper’s fledgling accounting business had gone from barely squeaking by to a healthy, thriving enterprise.
Piper shook her head and smiled. Football, like it or not, had become a huge part of her life, both professionall
y and personally. While her list of clients continued to grow, somehow the men who arrived needing financial advice became her friends, her family. Her teddy bears.
Propping her feet onto her desk, Piper leaned back in her chair and let out a contented sigh. Her life had far surpassed the dreams she harbored while working in Baltimore as a grunt accountant in someone else’s firm. She’d paid her dues. Suffered and endured touchy-feely bosses, male counterparts taking credit for her work, and women coworkers who started rumors that claimed she slept her way to every promotion because they resented her drive and ambition.
Though hard and sometimes down heartening, Piper tried to hold tight to the good from her experiences and let go of the bad. And she was glad to acknowledge how many good times she had on her journey. She’d met some amazing people who became lifelong friends.
Plus, she learned some important lessons and tried to apply them when she finally branched out on her own.
Lesson number one? Be a good boss. If her employees weren’t happy, their discontent trickled down to the clients. Which brought Piper to lesson number two. The clients are the first and last priority. She didn’t merely provide service with a smile. But the willingness to twist yourself into a pretzel, look at every angle, and then look again until every avenue and resource for saving money had been explored and exploited.
Piper never broke the law. She considered the tax codes to be sacred texts. However, her nimble brain knew a loophole when it saw one and, where saving a buck was concerned, she was an expert at slipping through the tiniest of openings.
Rubbing her empty stomach, Piper contemplated what she wanted for dinner. Should she stop for takeout or sit down in the restaurant to enjoy her meal? Eating alone wasn’t a problem. She appreciated her own company. Though if she were honest, her appetite was healthier when she was with a friend or two.
When Piper’s phone rang, she was annoyed by the interruption—until she saw the picture filling the screen. Levi. Her favorite football player. Without thinking, her lips lifted into a happy smile.
“Hey, handsome,” she said. “Shouldn’t you be on a plane over the Atlantic? Or have you landed in New York already?”
“Still in London.”
“What? Why?” Piper frowned. “The game ended hours ago.”
“Our flight out of Heathrow was canceled due to bad weather,” Levi explained. “Hopefully, we’ll get in sometime tomorrow morning. Lord, I hate these international games.”
Back in 2007, the NFL began a global expansion of its brand. London’s Wembley Stadium hosted a matchup between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins. A huge success, two games were played annually.
This year, the Seattle Knights took their turn.
After a long, exhausting cross-country, trans-Atlantic trip, the players weren’t thrilled. However, they understood their roles as international ambassadors of the game. Besides, what choice did they have? Big boss, i.e. the commissioner, said fly across the ocean, they flew.
Of course, the long journey wasn’t as bad if the team won. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for the Knights.
“We lost,” Levi said with a resigned sigh.
Piper saw no reason to watch every second of every game—she wasn’t a fanatic by any means. However, out of loyalty, she kept tabs on wins and losses. With a record of 2-6, the season was not shaping up to be a success.
Trouble was, everyone and their dog knew the reason for the Knights’ on-field woes. The problem could be summed up in two words. Monte Oliver. To be concise, the team’s starting quarterback sucked. Four years in the league, his career began with endless potential. Unfortunately, he peaked in college. Each season his skill level dropped until now he could barely get out of the way of his own feet let alone the other side’s rush defense.
If Piper ran the team, she would have kicked Monte Oliver’s butt to the curb after he lost the second game of the season with a fumble. Or the third game with an interception.
With a bumbling twit behind center, why not replace him? Why not replace him with the backup? Damn it, someone needed to finally give Levi his chance.
Knowing how hard it was for Levi to stand on the sidelines and watch his team fail with no way to help the losing cause, Piper stifled her righteous indignation and tried to lighten the mood.
“On the upside, you looked great.”
“You mean the camera caught me and my clipboard? Mom will be so proud—if she didn’t blink,” Levi said with his trademark deprecating laugh. “The upside of not getting in the game is I rarely wear my helmet. Good thing I got a haircut before we left Seattle.”
Levi was an expert at walking the fine line between humor and understandable bitterness over his situation. He was thirty-two years old and never started a game in the NFL. The only time he saw playing time was when the score was too lopsided one way or the other to matter. He joked that his life was golden. What other profession—besides politics—would pay him so much for doing so little?
Sometimes Piper wanted to bundle him into a hug and cry because she knew he never would. Despite his glib, smiling exterior, where his lost dreams were concerned, Levi was a prototypical stoic man. When he shrugged off the hurt, she knew the truth. He wasn’t okay, not now, not ever, with his role as a backup quarterback.
Unfortunately, spilling his guts wouldn’t change the facts. After ten years in the league, Levi’s situation wasn’t likely to change and Piper’s heart broke for him.
As his friend, Piper wasn’t about to state the obvious. Instead, she followed Levi’s lead and kept their conversation light and breezy.
“Where are you now?” Piper asked. “Cozying up to a local beauty?”
“I wouldn’t call Dylan a beauty,” Levi said with a snort. “More like a beast. But to each his own.”
“Up yours, Reynolds,” a gruff voice answered.
“In your dreams, Montgomery,” Levi countered.
Piper rolled her eyes at the exchange of adolescent banter. Dylan Montgomery was the starting tight end for the Knights and Levi’s longtime friend. Teammates back in college, though both were over thirty, worldly and sophisticated, when in each other’s company, they could revert to the equivalent of a pair of bickering teenagers in the blink of an eye.
“Tell Dylan hello for me,” Piper said.
“Hello back, Piper.”
Wincing, Piper held her phone away from her ear. She was surprised to realize that Dylan was more than half-crocked. She sighed in sympathy. Seemed losing four games in a row could take its toll on even the most died-in-the-wool teetotaler.
“You’re keeping an eye on him, right?” Piper asked. “Dylan is such a lightweight drinker.”
“I cut him off after the second beer,” Levi assured her. “As I look around the bar littered with Knights players, I realize frustration and anger make the alcohol work faster.”
Piper felt a surge of concerned empathy. She might not love the game of football with an all-consuming passion the way so many of her friends did, but she was connected to the team by a series of tightly woven bonds. Friends, clients, family. Because she cared so deeply, their pain became hers.
“Take care of my boys,” Piper said, knowing she could count on Levi to keep everyone safe.
“Don’t I always?” Levi let out a dramatic sigh. “When did my wild and free Piper become such a mother hen?”
“I’m still the same woman you tried and failed to pick up two years ago,” she assured him.
“On a football player, they say the legs are the first to go. I guess on an accountant, it’s the memory.” Levi scoffed. “You made the first move. You initiated the conversation. You propositioned me.”
“I’m certain you’re wrong.” Since no one was around to bear witness, Piper’s delighted grin measured ear to ear. “I have an excellent memory. Ask anyone.”
“What you are is a scammer,” Levi said. “Or, to be blunt, you lie through your teeth without
an ounce of remorse. Why we became friends is a mystery I’ll never solve.”
“You couldn’t resist my sparkling personality.” Piper laughed. “End of mystery.”
“You do possess a certain shimmery glow.” Levi’s chuckle melded with hers. “Do you feel older?”
“Interesting segue,” Piper said with a frown as she wondered at his abrupt change of topic. “Why do you ask?”
“Because as of thirty seconds ago, today is your birthday.” Before she could argue that tomorrow was the day she was born, not today, Levi added, “London time. I wanted to be the first to send you greetings.”
Levi remembered everything. Not just birthdays or holidays. He kept track of every milestone—large and small. Just last week he sent her flowers to commemorate the anniversary of the day she opened the doors to her business—a date she told him in passing during one of their marathon gabfests.
If left to her own devices, Piper would have happily let her birthday pass like any other. Her family by blood was too busy jockeying to be first in line to inherit her grandmother’s fortune to care. The hurt she felt by their careless disregard had long ago faded to a manageable ache.
Besides Levi, the only person who would remember was Darcy. Despite the fact her oldest friend was busy trying to turn the Seattle Knights’ season around, they were scheduled to have a quiet, lowkey dinner tomorrow night—just the way she wanted.
Perhaps Levi knew Piper better than she knew herself. More likely, a bit of his childlike belief that birthdays were meant to be celebrated in big, bold strokes. Whatever the reason, when a chorus of Happy Birthday broke out in the London bar, sung by her boys, tears filled her eyes and streamed down her face.
“Are you crying?” Levi asked. When Piper sniffled, his voice lowered, the tone turning warm and intimate. “Open the bottom drawer of your desk. Right side.”
“How do you know I’m in my office?” Piper asked, doing as he instructed.
“Sunday afternoon. Where else would you be?”
Yes, Piper thought as she discovered a neatly folded handkerchief. Levi knew her too well. She wiped her cheeks.
The Backup Plan: A Friends to Lovers Sports Romance (One Pass Away: A New Season Book 2) Page 2
