“Dammit, Jax when are you going to get your shit together?” Austin asked.
“Come on guys. You never know where the paparazzi or fans are going to be,” Damon said in an attempt to help his brother out.
“My point exactly!” Bri poked her finger at her brother.
“Not my point. I was saying cut him some slack.” Damon tried again to stand up for Jaxon.
Austin groaned. “We are not doing this here. Not today. Today is Damon and Evie’s celebration.” Always the head of the family, he took the lead and his siblings usually listened.
Glancing at Jaxon, he said, “I hope you’re prepared for a meeting with ownership because once they see this video you’re going to be in for it.”
Everyone, including Macy, winced at Austin’s furious tone.
After some more family discussion and murmuring quietly, Damon and Evie said their goodbyes, probably going home to enjoy their new found happiness, while Jaxon headed for the bar and asked for a drink.
Macy waited until Bri was alone and walked over to her friend. “Hey, are you okay?”
“If I kill my brother, will you bail me out of jail?” she asked, a wry smile on her face.
“If I can afford it, you know I will.” Macy laughed. “Is he in that much trouble?”
Austin joined them. “He is.”
“Because Jaxon is a manwhore,” Bri said, grasping the drink out of Austin’s hand and downing it all in one gulp.
“He needs to mature and settle down,” Austin said.
“As if any sane woman would marry him,” Bri muttered.
Macy chuckled. “Come on. I know you can’t see him this way but he is easy on the eyes.”
Bri made a gagging sound.
Macy kept an eye on Jaxon, who looked dejected, as everyone said their goodbyes. She wished she had some words of wisdom for him but Austin was right. He did need to pull himself together and act the part of a leader not a bad boy athlete.
A little while later, Macy left and headed home to her sister. She was twenty eight years old and a few years ago she’d lived in her own apartment. But when it became clear her father couldn’t handle raising Emma alone, Macy had moved back into her childhood house, a patio home in a residential neighborhood just north of Miami.
As she approached, a bright red Mazda Miata Macy didn’t recognize sat in the driveway, top down. If her sister had an older friend over, thinking Macy wouldn’t find out, she’d be in even more trouble than she was already in.
Macy pulled around the other car, opened the garage, parked and exited her vehicle. Letting herself inside, she walked through the laundry room area and into the kitchen, stopping short when she saw who sat with Emma at the kitchen table. Bags of makeup and other items covered the surface with Sephora bags surrounding them.
Hell of a punishment. But the woman with Emma wouldn’t know from discipline, structure, or anything else good for a young adult.
“Hi,” Macy said, making her presence known.
“Macy, look! My mom’s back!” Emma popped up from her chair, a smile the likes of which Macy had never seen on her sister’s face and Macy’s stomach twisted painfully.
Emma was a pretty girl who hadn’t learned the concept of less is more when it came to makeup. She’d just started to wear it last year and after their dad died, she’d gone full out rebellious. But there were worse things than too much makeup on her face or the pink stripe in her hair. Macy actually liked the coloring if only Emma hadn’t done it without asking permission, along with a second piercing in her ear. Anything she could do to defy Macy, Emma tried.
Ever since Lilah left when Emma was ten, she’d grown angrier over time and tried to get away with whatever she could on principle. The last thing Macy needed was her mother’s return. Emma’s mother had walked out on her daughter and husband five years ago, looking for someone with more money and who could give her a better lifestyle than Macy’s father had been able to as an accountant. As far as Macy knew, other than an occasional happy birthday email, Emma hadn’t heard from her mother since she’d left. Unless she’d been in communication with her and kept the information to herself.
“Lilah, this is a surprise,” Macy said coolly, as she placed her keys in a basket on the counter.
“I’ve done a lot of soul searching and I decided it was time to come home to my baby.” She reached across the table and squeezed Emma’s hand, her long, manicured nails obviously freshly done. “And I arrived to find her by herself. Where were you, Macy?”
Oh she would not question Macy’s abilities as a parent. She had no right. “Not that it’s any of your business but I was at an engagement party and Emma is old enough to be home alone.”
“Can mom stay with us?” Emma looked at Macy with wide hopeful eyes and Macy silently cursed Lilah, whose smug smirk told Macy she’d put her daughter up to asking the question.
Narrowing her gaze, Macy wondered what Lilah’s agenda was because the woman always looked out for number one. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. We have a schedule and a routine and I’d like to keep things as they are.”
She didn’t want Emma to get used to having her mother around only for her to take off on her once again. The less time she was exposed to Lilah the better.
“It’s okay, honey, I’ll find a place to stay,” Lilah sighed dramatically.
Ignoring the guilt Lilah tried to lay on, Macy smiled. “Good. Now that that’s settled—”
Emma pushed back her chair and rose to her feet. “You’re such a—”
“Watch it,” Macy said before Emma could finish her sentence. “Don’t be rude to me. Now I think we should order dinner.” Gritting her teeth, she turned to Lilah. “Would you like to stay?”
Shaking her head, her brunette hair highlighted with blonde swept beneath her cheeks. Lilah rose to her feet and gathered her Chanel tote, which must have cost three thousand dollars easy, and smiled. “I wish I could but I have a date.” As she stepped around the table, Macy took in her obviously designer outfit and shoes.
So she was divorced. And home. Why?
“Come walk me out,” Lilah said to Macy, her tone not boding well.
Macy waited for Emma to say goodbye to her mother, glare at Macy, and storm off to her room before turning to her ex-step-mother. “Okay cut the sweetness and light act. Why are you back? It can’t be for Emma since you haven’t bothered with her since you left.”
Lilah straightened her shoulders, her attitude turning into the real bitch of a woman beneath the fake nice façade. “Because she’s my daughter. When I left I knew your father would take good care of her when I couldn’t—”
“Wouldn’t,” Macy corrected her.
Lilah pursed her lips. “Listen, she’s my daughter. Her father died and I needed to wrap up a few things before I could come back for her but I’m here now.”
Bullshit, Macy thought. “Nobody heard from you after dad passed away. You didn’t even come to the funeral or extend condolences. I’m not buying this act. I don’t know what your angle is but I know you have one.”
“It’s no act. I plan to take care of my girl.”
“Good luck. I have custody. You signed it over to dad and I’m her legal guardian now that he’s gone.”
Lilah had started for the door then turned back to face Macy. “Something a court can easily overturn. It’s not like you’re doing a decent job parenting. I show up here to find Emma all alone. She told me she’s grounded for no good reason, that you’re strict and difficult. She’s my child and I plan on getting custody.” On that note, she walked out the door without looking back.
Macy’s heart pounded inside her chest, fear and concern filling her at the thought of losing the sister she loved and the only family she had left. Macy’s mother had died from ovarian cancer when Macy was six and it had just been her and her dad. True, he’d dated like crazy, hating the idea of being alone, but he’d loved his daughter.
Life had been good until the step mother from hell arrived
when she’d turned thirteen. Her teenage years had been a nightmare with Lilah picking on her to be perfect but Macy had managed. And when Lilah disappeared, Macy was there for Emma.
She’d all but raised her sister and she had no intention of losing custody to a woman who didn’t know how to be a parent.
* * *
Jaxon knew he’d screwed up but he resented being summoned by his siblings so they could reprimand him for his behavior in their positions as his agent and publicist. He was a grown man, dammit, and could fuck whoever he wanted. He acknowledged he’d made a huge mistake but getting reamed out wasn’t on his list of fun things to do. He’d already been read the riot act by ownership of the Miami Eagles, the baseball team he pitched for, so suffice to say his mood was shit.
He walked into Dare Nation and headed straight for Austin’s office, smiling at the main receptionist on his way to his brother’s corner office. Quinn had a desk right outside.
“Hi, Jaxon,” Quinn said, greeting Jaxon not with her usual happy smile, but a pitying grimace.
“I take it they’re waiting for me?” he asked.
She nodded.
“How’s my adorable niece?” Jaxon asked about the baby not only because he cared but the longer he avoided the firing squad inside that office, the better. His brother Austin had found baby Jenny on his doorstep, moved Quinn in to help him navigate being a dad, and the two had fallen in love.
Eyes lighting up at the topic, Quinn went on to tell him all the things the six month old baby was learning to do. “And she stands up and bounces on her chubby little legs and she’s scooting backwards. Pretty soon she’ll be crawling!”
“Said like a proud mama.” Jaxon folded his arms across his chest and grinned. His brother was a lucky man—if Jaxon were to consider settling down with a wife and a baby lucky. Which he most certainly did not.
“Jaxon stop stalling and get your ass in here!” Austin bellowed from open door behind Quinn.
Quinn winced. “Guess you better move it.”
“It’s times like these when it sucks to have family as your agent and publicist.”
Quinn’s laughter followed him as he headed around her and through the door to face his siblings.
Austin stood behind his desk, arms folded, eyes narrowed, wearing a suit that demanded respect. Beside him, leaning against the floor to ceiling dark mahogany bookshelf waited Bri. High heeled foot tapping, lips pursed and also dressed up in her finest suit, she met his gaze.
“Okay let’s have it.” Jaxon didn’t mean to sound glib but realized based on his brother and sister’s expressions, that’s exactly how his statement had come out.
“Despite the fact that we discussed this at the party, let’s start at the beginning since the damned video is everywhere. What the fuck were you thinking, Jaxon? Seriously?” Austin asked, his tone one of curtailed frustration and anger.
Jaxon curled his fingers into fists. “As I said, I picked up a girl at a bar—”
“The general manager’s college-age daughter,” Bri said.
“His twenty-one year old daughter,” he repeated. “Not exactly a legal issue,” he felt compelled to remind them. “Both of us were single, both adults, both—”
“Stupid enough to get video taped in the back hall, lips locked, your hand on her breast, going at it like teenagers. And the person managed to get your faces as well. Cell phones have other uses than texting!” Austin practically yelled. “You need to pay attention what’s happening around you. And think smarter.”
Jaxon rubbed his hands across his clean shaven face. “Again, we were both consenting adults.” But the excuse sounded lame, even to him. He just found it hard to give in to Austin and just admit he’d screwed up.
Austin shook his head. “This isn’t your first strike with management. There was the time you played still drunk—”
“I was just hungover and nearly pitched a no-hitter that day.”
From the shake of Austin’s head, that had been the wrong answer again.
“You fucked the general manager’s daughter, Jaxon.”
“I didn’t know who she was!”
“That’s the point! You should have known.” Austin’s voice rose again and his face flushed red.
Jaxon shoved his hands into his pockets so he didn’t go after his brother like when they were kids. “So I’m supposed to do a background check on anyone I meet in a bar before I get laid?”
Austin closed his eyes and gritted his teeth before looking at Bri. “He’s not getting it.”
Bri shook her head. “Yes he is. He’s just being stubborn.” She walked over, grabbed Jaxon’s arm and dragged him to the sofa on the far side of the room. “Sit down.”
Being smart and not wanting to piss his sister off any further, Jaxon sat.
“Now you’re going to pay attention to your agent. Not your brother, your agent, who has your best interest at heart. And as your sibling, you can be damn sure he’s looking out for you even more. So shut up with the excuses and listen.”
She was right, of course. Jaxon just didn’t want to deal with the reality of what he’d done and the possible repercussions going forward for his career.
Leaning back against the sofa, he glanced at his brother and braced himself. “Go ahead.”
Austin, having calmed down, walked over to the seat beside him and lowered himself onto the cushion, placing one arm on the back of the sofa. “As your brother, I understand who you are and why you act the way you do but dammit, you have to grow up. You’re twenty-eight. Old enough to understand you’re nearing the end of your pitching career.”
Jaxon’s heart squeezed in his chest. “Ouch.”
His sibling was hitting on every insecurity he had about his past, old relationships, his job, his career, and his future. The things he partied and drank to avoid dwelling on.
He knew why he’d fallen into this lifestyle and it wasn’t just the woman who’d walked out on him. Though Jaxon had been fifteen when his father died, Jesse Prescott had been around long enough to have an impact. His asshole father had let him know in no uncertain terms if he didn’t play football he was useless and no woman would want him. After losing Katie, Jaxon had gone about proving his deceased old man wrong by letting any cleat chaser available into his bed.
Austin didn’t flinch. “It’s my job to tell you the hard facts. I know you’re in the off season but if you want to retire in disgrace you’re well on your way because if the Eagles want you gone, no team is going to want to pay what’s left on your contract and they’re not going to trade for a twenty-eight year old with Tommy John surgery two years ago. The reality is you’re too old for the partying and sex with groupie shit too.”
“Linc said the same thing,” Jaxon admitted, speaking of his best friend, his catcher, and a happily married family man who planned to retire at the end of next year when his contract expired.
Bri strode over and put a hand on his shoulder, offering sympathy where Austin appeared to have none. “I represent Linc too, as you know. He gives me no trouble, he goes to work, does his job and knows how to stay off ownership radar. Can’t you be more like Linc?”
“You want me to get married and settle down but that’s not happening. No female wants to live the kind of life a baseball player does. I’m constantly on the road and play one hundred and sixty two games a year, excluding post season. Not to mention the fact that I was once in a relationship, came damn close to having that married life and learned it’s not in the cards.”
Katie, his college girlfriend, and the woman he thought he’d marry, had broken his heart, teaching him a hard lesson. His father had been right. No woman would want him and Jaxon refused to let that be true. So he’d locked up his emotions and lived life to have fun and prove dad wrong. Not even being dead eliminated the ghost of Jesse Prescott.
Austin groaned. “It is possible to live that life with the right woman. Look at Linc.”
“You two sound like parrots,” Jaxon muttered.
Ignoring him, Austin went on. “You won’t be playing ball forever. You’ll be more settled. And you don’t want to be alone for the rest of your life.”
“Says the man who not three months ago was a die-hard bachelor. Ever heard the expression the pot calling the kettle black?”
A muscle ticked in Austin’s temple. “One, I didn’t have to answer to anyone but myself and two, you might learn from my experience instead of being an asshole. Quinn is the best thing that ever happened to me. You should try dating a nice girl and not going for the ones who spreads their legs for anyone with a jersey.”
“Eww.” Bri shuddered. “This isn’t a locker room.”
“Well he needs to hear it,” Austin muttered.
Jaxon frowned because no matter what his brother said, no matter how much of a valid point he might make, no way was Jaxon giving in. “Ownership can’t make me get married,” he muttered.
“No but they can order you to chill the fuck out or be suspended or worst case, cut. Is that what you want?”
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About the Author
NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestseller, Carly Phillips gives her readers Alphalicious heroes to swoon for and romance to set your heart on fire. She married her college sweetheart and lives in Purchase, NY along with her three crazy dogs: two wheaten terriers and a mutant Havanese, who are featured on her Facebook and Instagram. The author of 50 romance novels, she has raised two incredible daughters who put up with having a mom as a full time writer. Carly’s book, The Bachelor, was chosen by Kelly Ripa as a romance club pick and was the first romance on a nationally televised bookclub. Carly loves social media and interacting with her readers. Want to keep up with Carly? Sign up for her newsletter and receive TWO FREE books at www.carlyphillips.com.
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