by Nana Malone
Tami smiled, sliding farther down into the plush passenger seat. “My dad would’ve tried to give you a hard time, I’m sure, but he was a huge fan of your grandfather’s growing up, so I don’t think his overprotective spiel would have lasted long. My mom… She was always sweet and encouraging, but she would get so exasperated waiting for me to make up my mind about things. I think she would have liked you but I know she would have told me off for taking so long to give you a chance. ‘You’ll regret not trying more than you will trying so for heaven’s sake stop wasting your time.’ She used to say that so often I threatened to get it painted on a plaque.”
Bryce smiled, and wondered whether Tami was aware of the irony. Hearing her speak of her mother like that only solidified his resolve to convince her to try again. It didn’t seem like Andrew would be too much of an ally on that front after all—or at least, he wasn’t enough of an ally on his own. He needed to get more people to see Tami play and encourage her efforts.
The club was hosting a tournament in a few weeks’ time. If he could push himself to get his game back to a place where he could enter with her… It would be a step in the right direction, anyway. But he had to be sure to bring the tournament up in the right way.
“Bryce?”
“Hmm?” he asked, as her question dragged him out of his reverie.
“About your family—what do you think they’ll think of me?”
He turned to study her. When she was worked up like this, he had a hell of a time reading her. But a flicker of unease in her eyes gave him away.
“Well, how are the people you work with handling the news that we’re dating?” he countered.
She winced.
“That bad, huh?”
“No, I shouldn’t put it like that. The people at work are behaving just as they were before we started dating, but after they found out that I knew you—outside of work, that is. Now, some of the things they’re saying happen to be true.”
He frowned. “Are things really that bad at work?” They’d been dating for a few weeks and—if it was even possible—Tami talked less about those kinds of things than she did before. She kept conversation to books, movies, tennis, him. As little about herself as possible.
“I don’t want to talk about work,” she muttered. “It feels too much like I’m whining to my boss.”
“I’m not your boss,” Bryce reminded her. “You’re venting to your boyfriend. So spill. Vent.”
“It’s like I said. They’ve been treating me differently for a while now. I’ve kind of gotten used to it—as much as I think I ever will.” She shrugged. “I’ve never been particularly close to any of them, so there’s no love lost. It’s just a job. It doesn’t have to be better than what it is; it just has to be. I will say this, though,” she switched tones as she shifted in her seat, turning her body towards him more. “I like when I get to see you at the end of my shift. I’d prefer it if you weren’t necessarily waiting in the parking lot where they can all see you and start whispering, but it doesn’t take long for me to get over it.”
“Being with you is what I look forward to most every day,” he agreed.
“I haven’t forgotten you know. I still want to know how your family has taken to news of our relationship. Have you even told them?”
“They know, I’m sure.”
“But you haven’t talked to them about me,” she pointed out.
“Only because they’re vultures. My parents…they’re okay. My brothers and Echo—they’re siblings, so I’m going to get a hard time from them no matter what I do. My grandfather, though—he can be downright mean about these things,” Bryce elaborated. “I’m not ready to put you through that kind of scrutiny and attention yet.”
“Didn’t your grandparents meet—?” Tami began but Bryce interrupted.
“You’d think Gramps would be more understanding because of what he and Gram went through but apparently not. He’s more interested in maintaining the family image and legacy. It’s… No, I don’t want to get into it. My dad means well when he pushes us to do our best, to excel. Mom is good, actually. She’ll listen. But Gramps… Maybe being in business and off the field for so long has changed him,” Bryce muttered. The shit her coworkers said would pale in comparison to what he’d say.
“Maybe all those hits to the head?” Tami offered with a smirk.
He laughed, his frustration melting away. “Probably. So listen, I know that Andrew was a little…intense…earlier, about wanting to work with you and everything.”
She pursed those sweet, rosy lips.
“You think I should try, don’t you?”
“I get it now—better than I did—why you don’t want to, but I think you’d be amazing.”
“Thank you for understanding,” Tami said, leaning over to give him a peck on the cheek while his attention remained on the road.
He didn’t add anything further, instead, swallowing everything else he wanted to say for the sake of holding onto the moment of peace. There would be plenty of opportunities in the future for broaching the subject again, opportunities when Tami would be more open to the idea.
Nineteen
“Not disappearing again are you?”
Bryce jumped, and whipped around to face his father. He’d been trying to slip out the back door to the pool house.
“Uh, I was just heading to the club.” Sort of true. He just left out the part where he planned to go see Tami first, and maybe make love to her before they went to the club together. He hadn’t been able to spend too much time with her in the last week, since her schedule was so erratic.
She’d been called in twice to work when she wasn’t supposed to, and had just worked another double shift. He had to squash the desire to have a little chat with Jim about that damn schedule. He spent most nights with her before sneaking back home. But when she got off at eleven, she was exhausted.
His father narrowed his eyes. “The club?”
“Yep. You know that place where I have coaches, and all that good stuff.”
The old man crossed his arms. Bryce mimicked the action. He knew this trick. Usually, if his father gave the stern face and crossed his arms and just waited for a confession, one would pour out. Even though all of them were older, it still worked. At least, on just about everyone but him and Dax these days.
“So you don’t have some secret girlfriend tucked away?”
“Nope.” Fuck.
His father nodded. “Well, given that you spend so much time out of the house these days, I thought you might have forgotten my birthday is coming up.”
Bryce frowned. “Of course not.” He totally had. Over the last several weeks, he’d sort of been in a Tami fog.
“Oh, good. So you’re planning on coming?”
“Dad, don’t be ridiculous. Of course I’ll be there.” He tried to slip out past his father, but the old man still had an ace up his sleeve.
“Please bring her to the party, son. We’d all like to meet the reason you’ve been in such a good mood lately. You know, check her out.”
Bryce clenched his jaw. “Dad, I told you—”
“Yeah, you seem to think I was born yesterday. I notice when you take the housekeeper’s car. I notice that you don’t sleep in your bed, and come home at six. I notice when you’re uncharacteristically happy and whistling. I notice when you and Dax don’t fight. And I especially notice when Echo can’t lie about you having someone, when asked a direct question. Your sister’s a poor liar.”
Fuck. Echo. “Look, Dad, it’s not what you think.”
“So you don’t have a secret girlfriend.”
Bryce ran his hands through his hair. “I do have someone, but I’m not ready to bring her around. It’s still new.”
His father narrowed his eyes once more. “Are you ashamed of her?”
“What? No.”
“So it’s us, then.”
“Truth be told, a little.”
His father smiled at that. “Bring her to the par
ty, son. That’s not a request.”
Bryce scowled as he watched his father walk off. Echo was smoking something. The old man seemed just fine to him.
“You want me to what?” Tami’s heart hammered against her ribs.
“Look, it’s no big deal, it’s just a party. We’ll make an appearance and then bounce. It’ll be fine.”
“A party with the same people you described as vultures. So you’ll forgive me if I’m not exactly jumping for joy.”
He took her hand. “You know I won’t let anyone give you any shit, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“I’ll be right with you the whole time, okay?”
His blue eyes were focused. Intense. He really wanted her to do this. But if she did this, she’d just be in deeper. It would feel more real, and she’d want more of it. It would get much harder to run at that point.“Bryce, this just feels…serious.”
There was a flicker of shadow in his eyes, but then it was gone. “It’s totally low key. I swear. Please come. For me.”
Well, damn. He rarely asked for anything from her…well, except to give her things. “Okay, I’ll come, but don’t do the thing where you abandon me at a party, please.”
“Trust me, you’re the one I don’t want to abandon me.”
Twenty
“Bryce, can you come with me for a moment?”
He was on his way to pick up Tami for the party. The last thing Bryce had wanted was to bring Tami into the lions’ den. But he knew his father and grandfather well enough to know their request to bring Tami by was more of an order. Their bliss was officially over. Tami’d agreed, but she hadn’t looked thrilled about it.
“I’d rather just rip off the bandage,” she’d said, though she was rather philosophical about it. “If you’re right, it’s going to be awkward no matter what, so might as well do it on a happy occasion.”
She thought he was exaggerating when he described family gatherings. It was true there was a lot of love in his family, but it wasn’t the gentle love most people pictured.
“I have to get going,” he said. “Tami’s waiting.”
At the mention of her name, Bryce saw his father stiffen slightly. “We’d uh…we’d like to speak to you in the library for a few minutes before you head out to get her,” Brent said firmly. “You haven’t been around much lately or we’d have spoken to you sooner.”
Bryce sighed and turned to follow his father, a nervous quivering beginning in his stomach. “What’s this about?” he asked, hoping for some sort of a heads-up.
“Just…we’re worried about you, and wanted to check in on how you are,” his father said, his answer sounding awfully evasive to Bryce.
When they walked through the doors to the library, Bryce saw his grandfather seated on the sofa next to his grandmother, and his mother standing by the window with Echo, who looked mildly miserable. Catching Bryce’s eye briefly, Echo looked away.
“Bryce,” Gramps said with the practiced amiability developed over two decades of business dealings. “Thank you for joining us. Please sit.”
Bryce ignored the request. “I can’t stay long,” he explained. “I have to go pick Tami up for the party.”
“Ah, Tami.” The old man said the name like he had taffy stuck to the roof of his mouth. “Just what we’d wanted to discuss.”
“Oh? This ought to be good.” Bryce rocked back on his heels.
“Is this Tami the reason you’ve been disappearing on us lately?”
“Tami and I have been seeing each other exclusively for almost two months, yes,” Bryce replied.
“I see.” Gramps’ voice turned scolding. “Instead of wasting your time with some tart you should be working on getting yourself back into shape.”
“Pop,” his father interjected, temporarily silencing the old man before turning to Bryce. “What he means is, we are worried about your progress. You haven’t been keeping us in the loop like you were before, and we’re wondering if it’s because things are going badly, or that you’ve been blowing off your physical therapy, or… Well, frankly we don’t know what. The few times we asked about watching you play you’ve blown us off. Your coaches have remained mum, and—”
“I have been working on training, but I asked them not to speak to you. Specifically, I am their client.” Bryce fought to keep his voice even. He knew that yelling would only make the situation worse, but his grandfather’s remarks had already put him on edge.
“Why not? They’ve always kept us in the loop,” his mother asked calmly from her spot by the window. “They know we want to assist in any way we can.”
“I explained to them that you guys calling all the time and asking about how soon I can get back, or what my sponsors say, is detrimental to me. So we’re keeping everyone out of the loop because I’m worried you’ll push me more than you should because you’re more worried about keeping yourselves on the right side of the Coulter franchise and legacy-making, than you are about my health and my mental state!” Bryce exploded. Shit. No taking that back, was there?
“That isn’t what—” his father began, but Bryce wasn’t finished.
“Since you’re clearly aware of the fact that I’ve been seeing someone, you must know that I’ve been going to the club regularly, and have been playing and building my strength. Somebody is clearly keeping you informed of that much.”
“We have heard about your activities at the club,” Gramps chimed in. “We’ve heard about how you spend all your time there with this gold digger, and how much she plays on your membership. When I told you to bring her, I didn’t know about that. Who is she? No one can get any information about who she is, or where she comes from. She’s not a real trainer or a coach—if she did something like that, maybe it would be understandable for you to be dicking around with her and passing it off as practicing—”
“She plays,” Bryce argued. “She knows the game and she knows me and she doesn’t push me more than I can handle and she doesn’t badger me into things. Between her, physical therapy and my coaches, I’m well in hand. Being with her is the first time I’ve felt like my own person and not just another model rolled off the lines at the Coulter factory that needs to have repairs done on it.”
“You were born to a great family, young man, and you should show it the proper respect.” Gramps rose to his feet. Despite his age, he was hardly feeble. His football player’s frame remained sturdy and imposing as he faced off against him. “We don’t want the Coulter name being passed on to the brat of some slut who was smart enough to trap you by getting you to knock her up.”
Fury simmered under the surface of Bryce’s skin. If there was a choice to be made, they’d be on the losing side. Because right now, he would choose her, every time. But before he could open his mouth, his father was suddenly standing between him and his grandfather, holding a firm hand on his shoulder. “That’s enough, Pop.” His father’s voice was quiet but firm. “We all know how you feel, so drop it. We agreed that we were going to ask Bryce about his knee and where he thought he was as far as getting back on the court. Not attack his friend. So time to back down.”
The old man took his seat next to Bryce’s grandmother, whose expression remained perfectly placid, despite the fact that her husband had nearly come to blows with their grandson.
His mother and Echo had left the window and joined the main group. His mother stood, resting a supportive hand on his father’s back, while Echo stood closer to him. His sister’s eyes were apologetic as he dragged in deep breaths to regain his composure. They all knew how his grandfather could be. But they’d backed Bryce.
“Now,” His father said calmly. “Whatever our opinions of Tami may be at present,” he paused and glared at his frowning father, “we will refrain from saying any more on the subject until after we meet her. It’s clear that Bryce cares about her and we don’t want to embarrass the family by behaving badly in front of a guest,” he directed his last statement to a grumbling Rory. “Thank you for listen
ing, Bryce. You should probably go pick her up now. Guests will start arriving within the next hour.”
Still fuming, Bryce stormed out, but when Echo followed through the door, he caught a snippet of their grandfather’s raised voice. “She’s a nobody—no name, no family, no nothing. She’s a goddam employee at one of our stores!”
“Sorry about all that,” Echo said to drown out the continued fighting. “Mom cornered me about what I knew about your training. I didn’t know it was going to be like that. And don’t listen to Grandpa, he’s an ass.”
“I’m leaving. Let them know that if they behave badly in front of Tami, I have no problem walking out with her. For good.”
Her eyes bulged. “I—uh… Okay.” She nodded. “And Bryce,” she called him back. “Just…make sure she’s prepared for whatever else Gramps might have up his sleeve. You know he likes to throw a Hail Mary when he doesn’t get his way.”
Twenty-One
Bryce was quiet. It was never a good sign if he was quiet. “So whose birthday is it?” Tami asked. If he’d just talk to her, she could relax. The sight of the enormous house up ahead made her swallow hard. Holy shit, he lived in a castle. She adjusted the hem of her dress self-consciously.
“It’s my dad’s birthday. It’ll be pretty small—just the immediate family, some close friends, and a few business associates. There probably won’t be more than thirty or forty people,” he explained.
“Thirty or forty? That’s your definition of ‘small’?” she asked in disbelief.
Normally, he would laugh or something. The fact that he didn’t worried her. He’d been quiet and preoccupied since he arrived to pick her up. He’d even tried to bail out. She’d known by the desperate kiss he’d given her, and the way he’d tried to lead her into the bedroom.
But she’d bought a new dress for the occasion, and wasn’t about to waste it. Bryce had offered to go shopping with her and pay for the dress himself, and she’d dug in her heels, insisting she take care of it on her own. And she wanted this to be real. Needed this to be real. Meeting the family would make it real. So she’d insisted they go.
