The Kicker: A New Adult Sports Romance ~ Nico (The Rookies Book 4)
Page 10
Good, because I couldn’t.
She came around the island and hauled herself up onto the stool next to mine. “I don’t judge you, because I’ve been you. I’m not proud of my behavior, and I can see that you aren’t either.” Her lips briefly smiled. “I always wanted my son to find a woman of strength and character.” She cupped the side of my face. “I believe he’s found that in you. You would honor my son to be his bride, and I’m confident that the two of you will have a wonderful life together filled with such happiness that a mother could only wish for their children.”
She smiled as tears ran down her chubby cheeks. “I’m sure you have to go to work, so I won’t keep you anymore.” She laughed and wiped her tears with her hands. “Thank you for sharing your pain with me, Veronica.”
My lower lip trembled. “Thank you for listening and understanding. I…I didn’t think you would like me.”
She kissed me on either cheek and her hands gripped my upper arms. “I trust Nico’s judgment. He’s never brought a girl home and since he’s proposed to you, then that means you are a very special woman.”
No, I wasn’t. I was a liar who had expected the man I had cheated with to be faithful to me.
I didn’t expect a guy like Nico to bring any woman home. He certainly wouldn’t have brought me, if this relationship had been real. Whoever he did eventually fall for would really be as special as his mother believed I was.
And in this moment, I really wished it were me.
“Go now, so you won’t be late.”
I nodded. Numbly, I slid from the stool and hurried back to the bathroom. I lifted the toilet lid right as I emptied my breakfast.
16
NICOLAS
The players had the decency not to say anything as the ball sailed clear past the right post.
I stubbed my right foot into the field, ripped off my helmet, and stormed past the coaching staff. I was done. Practice was over anyway—at least for me.
I stood in the shower for an hour, letting the hot water run over me as I shivered from the fear that now fully encompassed me.
I could not stop thinking about her.
More than I’d ever thought about any other woman.
Last night, I’d held Vero in my arms and had fallen asleep. A first for me. After sex, either the woman left, or I did. Never wanted to see them in the morning. Definitely didn’t want to hold them all night. Why would I when I wasn’t invested?
And another thing! I hadn’t slept with Vero. It had been easy not to try every seduction tactic in the book with her. To just lie with her and hold her. The restraint I possessed shocked me.
Who the hell was I?
Coach Hicks called my name when I exited the locker room. “Have you been waiting for me, sir?” I asked, seeing no one else in the hall. Damn. If I’d known he was standing out here, I wouldn’t have taken such a long shower.
“Not long. I figured you might be a while.”
My shoulders dropped. “Sorry about today.”
“What’s on your mind, Nico? You’re obviously…very distracted. If it’s the arrest, I wouldn’t worry about it. The GM is tough because she has to be, but she has your back. And so do I.”
“I know, sir. No, I’m…” I rubbed my head, not caring how messy my hair would look.
“You look scared, Nico. Whatever it is, I can help. I’ve had some life experiences too. If it’s about Veronica…”
I collapsed against the wall, my gaze drifting out the window. I’d barely slept the night before, waking up every other hour after dreaming about Veronica. I’d reconsidered my promise to her to leave Diego alone, but confirmed with my lawyer this morning to go forward. I’d teach Diego a lesson. I just hoped Vero wouldn’t be pissed when she found out.
And then my mother’s words about a man who cheats on his wife… I’d never have to fear being faithful if I remained single.
Simple.
Easy.
And strangely unfulfilling.
“I don’t know what to do about her,” I said quietly. “Part of me wants a relationship.”
“And the other part?”
“Freedom. No one gets hurt.”
“And neither do you.”
I smirked. “I’m good on that. I won’t get hurt.”
Coach Hicks raised both brows. “Really? Then why are you afraid?” He grasped my shoulder. “Anything worth keeping requires a certain amount of risk and faith. Be vulnerable enough to get hurt, and you may discover that you’ll end up with the greatest love of your life.”
My brows meshed. He wore a wedding band, but I had never heard him speak about his wife. “Is that what happened to you?”
He smiled wistfully. “It did. Scared the hell out of me to pursue her, but I wouldn’t change a thing.”
He didn’t say what had happened, and I kept my mouth shut. Wasn’t my business if he didn’t want to offer the information. “Thanks, Coach.”
“Good practice today.”
“You’re lying through your teeth.”
He laughed. “I saw you work hard today, even if you did miss every shot. It takes effort to work through obstacles. So it was a good practice.”
We hugged it out and I raced down the stairs to the cafeteria level. My mother waved from her spot near the windows looking out at the field and I joined her after grabbing my food.
“Hey, Mamma, sorry I’m late.”
“You look frustrated.”
“I’m okay. Just had a good talk with Coach about practice and…life.”
“Life? Anything you want to ask me?”
I smiled and shook my head. “Guy stuff. Stuff I never heard from my father. You wouldn’t understand.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure. I only birthed a male.”
I laughed.
“Where’s Vero? I thought she’d be joining us today.”
I hadn’t asked her. She’d been in my head so much it felt as if she was already here. “Um, I think she’s working through lunch.”
“Are the two of you having trouble?”
I choked on my soda. “Excuse me?”
She put down her napkin and settled back into her seat. Uh-oh. This was about to be a long conversation. I picked up my cheeseburger and shoved as much of it as I could into my mouth.
“She and I spoke this morning about…life,” she said with a small smile.
“Girl stuff?” I asked around my food.
“Uh-uh. You’re not getting out of this that easy. And don’t talk with your mouth full. I raised you better than that.”
I shoved my plate of pizza and cheeseburgers away and adopted the same position as my mother. “Okay. What do you want to know?”
“I don’t get the impression that you two are…ready to marry.”
What the hell did Vero say to her? I shifted in my seat and braced myself for my not-so-carefully-constructed fabrication to come crashing down.
“What are you talking about? I thought the two of you had fun dress shopping the other day.”
She nodded, her eyes smiling. “We did, and she’ll be the most beautiful bride.” Her eyes searched mine. “This trouble with her ex…”
“Mamma, I’m handling it. Don’t worry. My lawyer says—”
She held up a hand. “I know you are, but that’s not what I mean. She told me how the two of them got together. She…cheated on her ex with Diego.”
I sat there stunned. That, I hadn’t know about her. I’d only seen the devastation she’d felt knowing that Diego had another woman in his life while with Vero. “The way you lose them…” I said, chuckling at the irony.
“You didn’t know?”
Oops. “Uh…not all the details, no.”
“She is very sorry about what she did to Ryan.”
Ryan. Got to remember that name.
“But?” I asked my mother.
“Are you sure you can trust her? I think she might still harbor some feelings for Diego, or she is having issues trusting herself.
”
Since she and I weren’t in a relationship, I didn’t have to trust her. But thinking about how lovely she’d looked the night before, how she’d tried to take care of me, and the guilt she’d felt over the fight with Diego, I had started to consider being in a relationship with her.
I hadn’t thought anything through.
“You’re a good man, my son. Not like your father.”
Vero had said the same the night before. I didn’t know if I could believe it. Even Diego couldn’t stay with one woman—but he was trash anyway.
“Perhaps you are too young to marry. I feel…” Her lips drooped and a line creased between her brows. “I might’ve put too much pressure on you.” She reached across the table for my hand and I gave it to her. “I only wanted you to know some happiness. More than what I’ve known.” Her lips shook as she smiled. “If…if it has been too much.”
“No, Mamma.” I squeezed her hand, my own heart constricting at the pain and guilt in her eyes. “It hasn’t been too much. I love Vero…”
Ugh, the depth of this hole. As soon as Mamma left, I would dig myself out.
“But if you want to break the engagement…”
My own mother threw a rope down to help me get out. I stared at it as the words hung between us. I could break the engagement right now. Tell my mother it was over and that I’d pay her back for the dress. Then send Vero a text that she could relax and not to worry about breaking my mother’s heart. We’d all have dinner, and Vero and I would share a secret laugh about how this had all been for nothing.
For nothing…
It had definitely been something these past few days. I slipped my hand from my mother’s grasp.
“The right woman will make you feel like a good man, son. If she doesn’t—”
“She does,” I said quietly. She did make me feel like a good man, and that’s why the words I’d eventually tell her wouldn’t come. “She’s been great, Mamma. I like being with her and defending her from her ex, and making sure she has what she needs.” Even if it did cost over two hundred thousand dollars. Cost meant nothing to me if I got see her smile.
And I loved her smile. Especially when I thought it was for me alone.
“I don’t think she’s still in love with Diego. I think what she went through is still painful.”
“But do you believe she loves you? Can you trust that she will honor you and stay true to the love you have for one another?”
Did she love me…? Could she stay true? Had no right to ask any of that from her.
My heart sank.
No. Because this relationship wasn’t real.
I could only nod. My mother smiled in return. “Well, for what it’s worth, I think she loves you too. I looked in her eyes when she told me. There’s love there, Nico. I wish you two could trust that. Leave this Diego behind and move forward.”
She loved me? Veronica Tirado was in love with me?
My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest, and I was wearing one of my favorite shirts. Screw it. I could buy another one.
Tonight I’d get her to confess. And hopefully, while in my arms.
17
VERONICA
I clicked the fob for my car and heard it unlock. I opened the door and threw in my purse and wished I didn’t have to drive myself all the way back to downtown. I might have Nico’s driver take me to and from work for however many days his mother would still be in town. A perk of being engaged to a rich athlete. Might as well take advantage, right?
I chuckled to myself and heard it echo.
That laugh chilled me to the bone. I looked around the parking lot lit up by streetlamps. Maybe I should’ve taken the guard’s offer to walk me to my car.
Then my eyes landed on Diego. “How did you…?”
“I know people.”
Of course he did. I would have to find the idiot that let him in here. “What do you want?” I asked stiffly. I put one foot in the car so he’d see I had somewhere to go.
“Your boyfriend’s lawyer threw all this paperwork at me.”
What? Nico promised that he wouldn’t… I rallied against the news with a smirk. Diego didn’t respect meekness. “You mean my fiancé.” I couldn’t help but flash the giant ring in his face.
He slow-clapped. “Congratulations, Mami. You finally got a man to propose to you. I’m impressed.”
My lower jaw slacked.
He laughed while holding his stomach. “Oh, did you think I was going to propose to you?” He pointed at me and laughed again. “Why would I? Didn’t you cheat on your man to be with me? So desperate, Mami. So desperate. No real man wants that kind of trash.”
Bile shot up my throat. My stomach twisted and clenched so much I felt really ill. “I seriously doubt paperwork was thrown at you,” was all I could say, because everything else was the truth. I did cheat and I was desperate to be with this man.
And Nico hadn’t proposed.
In three strides Diego had his hand around my neck and yanked me into him. “I said threw!”
He shook me, and I closed my eyes against the pain of my head being jerked back and forth. His hand constricted around me throat, cutting off my ability to yell. I clawed at whatever I could get my fingers on, but nothing I did worked to get him to let me go.
His hot, alcohol-laced breath washed over me, the stench nauseating. “You tell your bitch boyfriend to drop the charges.”
Sharp pain radiated up my back as I landed against my car. My face felt a blow and my jaw ached. I landed on the hood of my car and used it to steady myself. I felt a strange, abrupt discomfort in my mouth and my tongue moved around, searching for the source. I tasted blood and felt a hole in the back. I held my jaw. “You knocked a tooth out!”
He laughed. “That’s not all I’m gonna knock out.”
He kicked my legs and I felt something snap and my left leg gave away. I landed hard against the pavement. Tears burned my eyes and clouded my vision. I cried out against the searing pain. Diego loomed over me and stopped. Something blue flashed in the distance and it grew brighter and brighter.
And then darkness.
I squeezed my eyes but refused to open them. My head hurt too much.
My jaw!
A hand moved to my mouth and I felt something hard, like plastic. My eyes shot open. I saw Siobhan’s red hair. The expression on her pale face morphed from sadness to shock.
“She’s awake!”
“Not so loud, please,” I said. “Why do I sound like I have a sock in my mouth?”
She smoothed my hair back. “Because it’s full of gauze. You had a couple of teeth knocked out.”
Another tooth? Diego!
It came back to me in a flash and I moaned. I attempted to sit up when Siobhan put hands on my shoulders and told me not to move.
Then I felt it. I cried out in pain. “My leg!” I collapsed back against my pillows. It was broken.
“Vero!”
A male voice shouted. I started sobbing. “Nico…” My voice came out softly.
He rushed through the door and nearly knocked Siobhan out of the way to get to me. He gently cradled my face in his hands. His eyes strayed from mine and went downward. His bronze face turned red, his jaw going hard. Then he met my gaze and his voice was soft. “I got here as soon as I could. Veronica…I…” His eyes scanned my body once again, cursing underneath his breath.
His mother came around to my other side. “What happened?” she breathed.
A man in a white coat entered and started talking about whiplash, missing teeth, and my broken leg.
I shut my eyes. All of this because of…
“Who did this to you?” Nico whispered. “Vero? Look at me, baby.”
Tears careened down my cheeks when I opened my eyes. “Diego. Because you filed charges.” I saw him go stiff, his face stone. Shock and despair filled his eyes. He hung his head. “Why?” I whispered, my heart breaking at the deception. “You promised. You promised me…”
“Not right now,” Mrs. Langetti spoke. “She needs to rest. She can barely talk. In a few days, she’ll be able to think more clearly.”
More tears. How I wished my mother was here, but I was grateful for the substitute. I found comfort in her smile, and continued to stare at her, wishing she could be my future mother-in-law, if only for a little while longer.
“You’re coming home with me,” Nico said. “No excuses.”
I saw a curious look cross Mrs. Langetti’s face. I said nothing.
The doctor advised continuous rest, but said I could check myself out tonight if I wanted to.
“She not going anywhere. Look at her, Doctor! She’s clearly in pain—”
“Nicolas!” his mother interjected.
“No, Mamma. She’s staying the night.”
“Apologize to the doctor.”
The doctor held up a hand and said with a smile, “I understand. Fiancés can be on edge when they see their significant other lying in a hospital bed. Don’t worry, Mr. Langetti, she will recover. We already had the surgeon reattach her teeth and she’ll be in a cast for at least three months, maybe longer. We’ll have a knee scooter for you to rest the leg on so you’ll be mobile, Ms. Tirado. Other than that, she can visit her primary care physician with regard to the brace around her neck.”
Nico’s eyes widened on the brace as if seeing it for the first time. “Her neck…”
“It’s not broken, but we like to take precautions when we believe a person has suffered a neck injury. She has bruising there and complained of it hurting when the paramedics arrived.”
I did? I looked at Siobhan. She nodded. Either she understood that I didn’t remember a thing, or she’d gotten that information from the paramedics.
When the doctor left, she explained. “Casper and I were headed out about the same time as the paramedics pulled up. I found your teeth on the pavement.”