Veronica scowled, but Kelsie didn’t care. Instead, she drove home her point. “In case there’s any question, that’s not a compliment.”
“You’ve been around that cave man too long. Now you’re sounding like him.”
Kelsie sat up straighter and smiled her beauty queen fake smile. “Thank you. I do take that as a compliment. You could learn a few lessons in kindness and humility from him.”
“And I was going to offer you a second chance working with some of our more challenging players. Of course, none as challenging as Zach.”
“I won’t work for you.”
Veronica sat back and shook her head as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You’d pick Zach over a lucrative career opportunity?”
“Of course I would. Apparently you have no idea what it means to love someone.” Kelsie rose to her feet, while Rachel and Lavender stared up at her open-mouthed and wide-eyed. They may not have heard any of the conversation, but they could see her face.
“I think it best if I sit elsewhere.” Kelsie nodded at her friends and left the suite.
Not having a ticket for another seat in the sold-out stadium, she wandered to a bar area and sat at the only empty bar stool. Only then did she realize her hands were shaking as the enormity of what she’d done hit her. She’d set a torch to that last bridge and burned it until it sank with a pitiful sizzle into the river.
Kelsie had done the right thing but at a huge personal sacrifice. When given a lucrative opportunity to be an opportunistic bitch, she’d turned nice girl, and in effect, achieved the goal she’d set for herself when she’d moved to Seattle months ago. She’d wanted to change, and she had. She’d supported Zach. Even if they parted ways, and he left her with a broken heart, she’d survive.
Maybe her business working with high-end athletes was going nowhere fast and her work with homeless people didn’t exactly rake in the bucks, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
She liked her life as it was. A lot.
There were other sports teams in town. Of course, as Veronica had pointed out a while ago, her father happened to own a share in every one of them. She was so screwed. No paying job. Possibly no husband. No home. No nothing. But the only part of that she really cared about was Zach.
She sipped on a glass of red wine poured from a box and realized she quite liked it. She smiled, then grinned, then threw her head back and laughed loud and long, not minding a bit that everyone in the bar stared at her.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” The bartender kept his distance and regarded her warily.
Kelsie dabbed at her eyes with a napkin. “I’ve never been better.” She set her glass down on the bar. She had her pride and her integrity. Things money couldn’t buy. That meant more than all the gold bars in her father’s Swiss bank account. And she wanted to share her newfound self with Zach.
She stood up with a new sense of resolve. She was a fighter, and fighters didn’t give up. She’d throw one last Hail Mary and hope he caught it.
* * * * *
Zach lay flat out on the field. He blinked the sweat from his eyes. Or was it rain? A big hand extended into his line of vision. He followed the hand up to the shoulders, neck, then the face. Tyler Harris towered above him, holding his hand out. Zach took it, and Tyler hauled him to his feet. After which the quarterback turned and trotted off to the huddle. Zach still cradled the ball he’d intercepted on the Jacks’ twenty. He flipped it to a referee and jogged to the sidelines.
The seconds ticked off the clock. They were down by six. A field goal wouldn’t do it. Harris marched them down the field until only twenty yards stood between the Jacks and a spot as a wildcard team in the playoffs, twenty long yards. It might as well been twenty miles. Zach paced the sidelines, sick to his stomach, shouting until he was hoarse, along with the rabid sold-out crowd.
These moments were what Harris was famous for. He’d come through. He always had. They didn’t call him Mr. Heroic for nothing.
Zach stopped and waited. The crowd quieted, sensing this was it. The final moment of truth in an up-and-down season Zach accepted partial responsibility for creating. Fourth down. Three seconds on the clock. No timeouts. The final play in a season where Zach had learned more about himself than he had in all the other years he’d played football combined.
Harris called the play. It should’ve been a bootleg to Bruiser. Only Bruiser slipped and skidded on his ass across several yards of water-logged artificial turf. Harris didn’t get to be the best for nothing. He looked for a receiver. Once. Twice. He stayed in the pocket until the last possible moment. They were all covered. He tucked the ball under his arm, put his head down, and forged ahead. There was a hole, a small one. Zach watched him power toward it, shoving defensive players off his body left and right. Zach yelled encouragement from the sidelines, not caring that the offense couldn’t hear over the fan noise. Cold, freezing rain dripped in Zach’s eyes, but he didn’t give a shit.
Harris’s helmet popped off as he barreled into the stomach of a three-hundred pound lineman. He went down, buried under a couple tons of human muscle. Referees waved their arms and started pulling bodies off the pile. Zach stared at the big television and saw it.
Short by inches.
His heart stopped. His lungs constricted. His body slumped. This year was supposed to be his last shot at a Super Bowl. Now it was gone. Down the tubes. Over before it even started. No playoffs for this team.
Out on the field the last tackler stood, and only Harris still lay on the field. The quarterback didn’t move. Not one toe or one finger. The crowd hushed as they realized their beloved quarterback wasn’t getting up. Even the opposing team halted their celebration to gaze at the field with concern. Several players knelt down in a circle and bowed their heads. Zach ran onto the field in a panic. He’d only felt such overwhelming fear once in his life, when his brother was put in the hospital. Zach never put much stock into praying, but he sent up a silent plea to the man above.
God, please make him be okay.
Several seconds ticked by, though it seemed like hours. Finally Harris opened one eye then the other. He wriggled his fingers, rotated his ankles.
HughJack held up three fingers in front of Harris’s face. “How many?”
“Is this a fucking trick question?” Harris managed a lopsided grin.
HughJack breathed a sigh of relief. So did the rest of the team and staff standing around. Harris was okay if he was being a smart ass. They did a few more tests and then helped him to his feet. Zach rushed forward and grabbed his arm and slung it over his shoulder. Hoss, the Jacks’ mountain of a center, did the same on the other side as Harris limped off the field.
Zach kept an eye on Harris in the locker room. The team trainers and doctors had cleared him as good to go, despite how rough the guy looked. He was one tough cookie, Zach had to admit with a newfound respect.
Harris sat on the bench, holding an icepack on his knee.
“You let it all out on the field today.”
Harris looked up and smiled. Blood trickled from his mouth and from a gash on his head from a cleat. Bruised and bloody, Tyler met Zach’s gaze. “And it felt damn good to play like that. All out. Balls to the wall. We just didn’t have it today. Too many young inexperienced guys. But next year.”
“Yeah, losing those veterans last off-season was a blow.”
“But we gained a very important veteran. You played a damn good game, too, not bad for an old guy.”
“Thanks.” Zach ducked his head, somewhat embarrassed by the rare compliment from the quarterback. Sometimes the simplest answer was best, per Kelsie.
“I think you might still have a few more years in you, old man.” Harris studied him, and their eyes met. Harris’s gaze was open and friendly. None of the animosity of the past showed on his face. “I was wrong about you. You were just what the team needed. I’m sorry for all the hell I put you through.”
A million possible responses raced through Zach�
�s head, but only one thing truly begged to be spoken. He sat down beside Tyler. “I’m not. I learned more than I’d ever bargained for. Like you can’t judge a guy by the clothes he wears or the words he says, but by his actions.”
“And what did those actions show you?”
“That I’d be proud to call that man a friend.”
“And so would I.” Tyler reached out his hand, and Zach shook it. “I heard the GM offered you a contract extension.”
“Yeah.” Yesterday, he’d been called into the league office, fearing the worst and actually finding out the best. Until just now, his answer had been no, but Zach wanted to come back. To hell with the opening for a college coach. There’d be others.
“Are you taking it?”
“My lifelong dream since I picked up my first football was to win a ring. I chased that goal with a single-minded purpose, convinced that without a ring, my career meant nothing and my life meant even less.”
“And now?”
“And now I don’t quite see it that way.”
“A good woman will do that to you.” Tyler nodded and smacked him on the back. “Come back. We’ll move hell and high water to get you a ring next year.”
“I’m thinking about it.”
“In the meantime, join me in the San Juans. I could use your help getting my retreat for veterans off the ground. I’ve been toying with the idea of a summer camp for homeless kids. I understand you do some work in that area. You in?”
Zach nodded, smiling in spite of their loss. “I’m in.”
CHAPTER 29
The Clock Ran Down
Zach limped out of the locker room and walked to his truck. His one goal was to find Kelsie. The rain slowed to a steady drizzle, but still better than earlier. Considering his team lost its chance for the playoffs, he felt okay. Life was looking up in all areas—but one. The most important one.
Kelsie.
As he got closer to the truck, the very object of his thoughts emerged from under a nearby awning and walked toward him. His breath caught in his throat. Even bundled in a raincoat with the hood pulled up, she was striking, every bit the beauty queen who’d imprisoned his heart for life all those years ago. He’d never gotten a pardon for his sentence, and he didn’t want one. Ever.
Zach walked toward her, feeling a lot like that awkward teenager who’d panted after her. He stared down at his feet and swallowed. “Hi.”
“Hi. How about a ride home?”
Home. He liked the sound of it, but did she really mean home in the truest sense of the word? Zach had never had a home before. He’d bought his Victorian monstrosity because it’d been a childhood dream of Gary’s. Only lately had it felt like home, since Kelsie added her little touches, and her annoying dog scampered around yapping, and her girlie stuff littered his bathroom counter.
“Are you going to open the door or are we just going to stand in the rain and gawk at each other.”
“Oh, sorry.” Zach fumbled for the keys and dropped them on the pavement. He scooped them up and unlocked the door, whisking it open for Kelsie. She climbed into his big truck in her usual ladylike manner. Damn, but they were the beauty and beast, all right.
He got in on the other side and drove toward home. Something made him take a turn into a parking area overlooking the waterfront. Somehow, he felt they needed a neutral place to talk, because for once Zach Murphy was going to bare his heart and accept whatever consequences came along. She didn’t question why he didn’t take her home. Instead she dug in her purse and re-applied her lipstick.
“The team offered me a two-year contract with incentives.” Zach ran a hand though his short hair, wet from a combination of a recent shower and the rain.
“Are you going to accept it?” Kelsie put the cap on her lipstick and stared straight ahead. Zach stared at her lips and licked his own.
“I’ve always wanted that ring more than anything.” God, he’d give it all up for Kelsie. “Now, not so much.”
“Why not?” She looked at him and blinked those big blue eyes.
“I want you more.”
Her eyes opened wide and her gorgeous lips parted. “You do?”
“Yeah, I do.” He grabbed her hand and held it. Tight.
“Zach. You should go for the ring.”
“You think I should?”
“Yes, while you’re at it, how about two rings.” She flashed her diamond wedding ring at him.
A lump of happiness clogged his throat. “I think I could manage that.”
“I’ll kick your butt if you don’t.”
“Now that sounds like something I’d say.”
“This girl learned a lesson or two from the nice boy and quite a few from life itself. Zach, I’m sorry I shadowed you at the gala and didn’t trust you to handle yourself.”
He nodded. “I have an apology of my own. I understand you defended me at the risk of your business and your future.”
“It was the right thing to do.”
“And you did it. For me.”
“Do you know why?”
“I hope I do. Tell me.”
“Could the nice man ever find it in his heart to love the selfish girl?”
“No, he couldn’t. But the nice man finds his heart bursting with love for the nice girl.”
She smiled, one of those smiles straight from her heart to his. “I love you, too. My big, warm, kind, well-mannered man.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” He snorted then turned serious. “I love you, Kel. With all of my heart and every cell in my body, including the dense ones in my head.” He wrapped her in his arms and held on.
Forever.
CHAPTER 30
For the Love of the Game
Kelsie and Zach stood side by side, arms around each other in their manicured yard near Gary’s memorial stone. Kelsie couldn’t stop the smile spreading across her face. Spring flowers raised their colorful heads toward a sun that warmed the chilly salt air and promised warmer tomorrows.
So much had happened. Zach signed a two-year contract with the Jacks. They accepted an offer to work with Tyler and Lavender to create a unique vacation opportunity for veterans and a summer camp for children in need. Kelsie brimmed with ideas for the camp and veterans’ retreat. In keeping with the when it rains, it pours adage, Kelsie had gotten a call from Veronica just that morning hiring her to do some work with a couple players the Jacks drafted, definite challenges both of them. And a few days prior to that, she’d been contracted by a major league baseball team to offer some classes to their players.
Side by side, she worked with Zach at the homeless shelter. Kelsie’s training program for the unemployed homeless was gaining national recognition, not that it mattered to her. What mattered was all the people who benefitted by finding gainful employment.
She glanced at Zach, and her heart filled with love. Giving was so much better than receiving, and she wouldn’t have changed a thing in her past because it got her where she was today. She’d purged that former selfish bitch from her soul to find the true Kelsie underneath. Being a good person was so much more fulfilling than being a bad one, except in bed.
They’d raise their children with love and discipline, better than they were raised. And if life threw them bumps along the way, she’d pull out a page from their pasts and remember that what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.
And better.
And more loving.
With Zach all things were possible, and Kelsie knew there wasn’t anything they couldn’t face together because they’d already faced the worst life had to offer and become better citizens and partners for it. And someday, parents. Yes, someday soon.
They’d name their first son, Gary.
Kelsie leaned into Zach and stood on tiptoes. He lowered his head and captured her mouth with his. They kissed in a silent promise that they’d always have each other.
No matter what.
Love was the ultimate bond for the beauty and her beast.
&nbs
p; About the Author
An advocate of happy endings, Jami Davenport writes sexy romantic comedies, sports hero romances, and equestrian fiction. Jami lives on a small farm near Puget Sound with her Green Beret-turned-plumber husband, a Newfoundland cross with a tennis ball fetish, a prince disguised as an orange tabby cat, and an opinionated Hanoverian mare.
Jami works in information technology for her day job and is a former high school business teacher and dressage rider. In her spare time, she maintains her small farm and socializes whenever the opportunity presents itself. An avid boater, Jami has spent countless hours in the San Juan Islands, a common setting in her books. In her opinion, it is the most beautiful place on earth.
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Table of Contents
Synopsis
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 Thrown for a Loss
Chapter 2 False Start
Chapter 3 Taking a Time Out
Chapter 4 Charmed, I’m Sure
Chapter 5 Opponents on the Same Team
Chapter 6 One Yard and a Cloud of Dust
Chapter 7 A New Game Plan
Chapter 8 A Loss on Downs
Chapter 9 Illegal Use of the Hands
Chapter 10 Blitzed
Chapter 11 Scrambling for a Few Yards
Chapter 12 Faked Handoff
Chapter 13 Slammed to the Turf
Chapter 14 Goal-Line Stand
Chapter 15 Throwing out the Playbook
Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance Page 32
