Payoff Pitch (Philadelphia Patriots)

by V. K. Sykes

  Noah’s smile vanished. “Is it Cristina? Did you guys go at it again?”

  Teddy shook her head. Her throat had tightened, as it often did when she had to talk about something important to her. She stared hard at the coffeemaker just to avoid his gaze, afraid she’d fall into those dark, smoky eyes and melt into a puddle if he simply touched her.

  “I learned something at my meeting tonight.” She forced the words out, wanting to know the truth yet dreading it, too. “Something important.”

  “Something that’s obviously got you wired,” he said, touching her chin and gently urging her to look at him.

  Yeah, she was wired, all right. “I just wish you’d told me that the Cade family—your family—is Baron Energy,” she blurted out. “Baron is going to destroy the land I grew up on. My family’s home, Noah.”

  That might have come across as melodramatic, but it was exactly how she felt. The thought of drilling rigs on her farm, and all the trucks and men and fracking fluid and other crap that went along with those rigs, made her sick to her stomach. Corporations like Baron didn’t give a damn. For them, the land was nothing more than a place to stick a drill in the ground and blow oil back up to the surface. What happened after that was somebody else’s problem.

  Noah’s jaw seemed to lock—until, that is, he cursed under his breath. Then he reached for a mug. “Let’s get some coffee and sit down.”

  “Fine.” Teddy didn’t want coffee—she wanted a drink. But she resisted the temptation, instead grabbing the carafe and filling his mug.

  Noah headed into the living room and sat down on the sofa as the dogs clambered up after him. Teddy followed and flopped down into the matching armchair, tucking her legs under her. Her heart was hammering hard enough that she swore she could hear it thudding against the walls of her chest. God, she felt sick, and she didn’t know what to do about it.

  “Baron is my father’s company,” Noah said, finally looking at her after petting the dogs, “but it’s not accurate to say my family is Baron Energy. Yes, Dad started it a long time ago, and it’s gone through a couple of different names since then. Now Baron’s a public company, so it’s not exactly Ewing Oil, that’s for sure.” He tried a smile as he referred to the cartoonish oil dynasty in the old TV show Dallas. “It’s owned by pension funds, sovereign funds, and hundreds of thousands of other shareholders. The family still holds a lot of stock and Dad pretty much calls the shots day-to-day, but he’s accountable to a Board of Directors and the shareholders.”

  “But your father is the CEO of one of the biggest gas fracking outfits in the country. And you just admitted that he calls the shots.”

  Noah began to look frustrated. “Teddy, come on. Do you really think my father wants to destroy the land you grew up on? Because I sure don’t. Baron is a responsible operator with an impeccable safety record.” He sat back, legs apart, his right arm draped over the back of the sofa. Toby responded by immediately crawling into his lap.

  Teddy wanted to contradict him but couldn’t. So far, it seemed that Baron hadn’t been involved in any serious incidents.

  Yet.

  “That’s not the point, at least not right now,” she said. “What I want to know is how deeply you’re involved in the business.”

  His eyes bored into hers. “Why?”

  Because I don’t want to have to leave you.

  She searched for some steel to stiffen her spine and found it. “Because what Baron and the others are doing is wrong. Because I thinking fracking is dangerous and totally unnecessary. And because I don’t see how I could face my father and my neighbors—the people I care about—if I was working for you and…”

  “Sleeping with me,” Noah said helpfully.

  “Slept with you,” she finished. “Once.”

  “And here I had such plans for when I got home tonight.” He gave her a sexy little smile that infuriated her.

  “This is nothing to be flip about, Noah.”

  He nodded. “You’re right. So, I’ll answer your question directly. And the answer is not at all.”

  Teddy felt a rush of relief cascade through her body, making her feel like a limp noodle. “You’re saying you’re not involved in Baron at all?”

  “Other than in the fact that I own some stock, no. Dad gifted shares to Levi and me years ago. But I play no role in Baron, much to my father’s chagrin, because he’d like nothing better than to have me retire from baseball and join the company. Believe it or not, he even thinks I should be CEO someday.” He snorted. “Not happening, though. Not for a good long while, I hope.”

  Teddy’s emotional roller coaster plunged again. It sounded like Noah was both very rich and not at all free of the family business. “Are you saying that’s where your future might be someday? At Baron Energy?”

  He set his mug down on the coffee table with a thunk. “Look, Teddy, I try not to think about life after baseball. Right now, all I want to do is get back into the starting rotation and pitch for the Patriots for another half-dozen years. Worrying about what happens after that seems pointless.”

  “I don’t understand how you could even think about working for a company like Baron, much less heading it up,” she huffed, more out of a crushing sense of disappointment than anger. “Don’t you care at all about the environment? Fossil fuels are killing the planet, and companies like Baron don’t care as long as they can make billions in profits.”

  Ugh. Now I’m starting to sound like that idiot Chance.

  Noah visibly bristled. Toby lifted his head to peer at him, and Noah took a moment to reassure the poor guy before responding. ”I’m no apologist for the industry, but isn’t that kind of rhetoric a little over the top? Baron and companies like it are trying to use American resources to finally get rid of our dependence on foreign oil. That’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned, especially given how screwed up the world is these days.”

  “But at what cost to the environment?” Teddy countered, trying not to feel like she’d wandered into the middle of high school debate night. “We should be putting all our money and effort into alternative energy sources, not into finding new ways to suck every last ounce of oil and gas out of shale rock. Fracking is dangerous and dirty, Noah.”

  “Says who?” he shot back. “Because that’s not what I’ve read and heard. And my dad might not be a poster boy for the green movement, but he doesn’t go around bulldozing the tops off mountains either.”

  “Maybe not, but he seems to be pretty good at handing out bribes,” Teddy blurted.

  When Noah’s face flushed under his tan, she knew she’d pushed one too many buttons. When she’d read about the bribery incident on the Internet tonight, she’d been horrified. But still, directly attacking the man’s father was not exactly kosher.

  She shook her head before he could respond. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up,” she said contritely. “I apologize.”

  He waved a dismissive hand. “No, no. You raised it, so I’ll answer.” He hunched toward her, resting his sinewy forearms on his thighs. “That Nigeria affair was a big embarrassment for both him and the company. In his defense, I’ll say he got some very bad advice from his people on the ground over there. But bribing a government official was wrong in any event, and he paid the price for it. Not just with a hefty fine, but in terms of loss of face, too. All I can tell you is that he regrets what happened there very much.”

  For a man who claimed to be distant from his father, Noah was doing a bang-up job of defending him. But Teddy decided she’d already said too much on that score. After all, family was family, regardless of skeletons in the closet.

  Noah reached out and put a hand on Teddy’s bare knee. Though it felt warm and rough and altogether wonderful, she forced herself to shift away from his touch, eliciting a weary sigh from his lips.

  “Look, Baron Energy isn’t evil. You don’t like fracking, but you can’t show me where the company has done anything illegal or even something that’s been proven to
be harmful to the environment. And, like I said, I don’t play any role at all in what the company does or doesn’t do.” He gently moved the dog off his lap and got up, clearly frustrated and ready to end the discussion. “Are you really going to let this…this…crap come between us, Teddy?”

  His expression revealed a little anger and a whole lot of disappointment.

  She inhaled deeply, unsettled and a little afraid. “Noah, I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. This is all too new. Too hard.” She waved a vague hand. “All of it.”

  He reached down and slowly slid his calloused hand across her cheek with such tenderness that it made her want to cry. “Okay. Sleep tight, Teddy.”

  Then he strode out of the room, leaving her stunned, dismayed, and alone.

  - 16 -

  Noah flopped down onto the dugout bench, gritting his teeth against the pain in his shoulder. With his left hand, he awkwardly tilted up the water bottle and shot a stream into his parched mouth. Somehow he’d managed to get through the inning, but there was no way he could go back out there in the seventh—not even if the manager wanted him to, something that was highly unlikely given how he’d performed. At least he’d yielded only one run, not bad considering he’d loaded the bases with one out. More importantly, the Patriots still held the lead they’d built over the first six frames.

  He used the towel around his neck to mop his sweating brow. Though the pain was getting worse every time he threw, the last thing he wanted was to be put on the disabled list. It had started with a twinge, and then the twinge had built into what was now a steady, dull pain. Maybe it was just a little tendinitis—at least he prayed that was all it was. He’d played through stuff like that in the past and could do it again. You just toughed it out. In major league baseball, if you didn’t play hurt, you wouldn’t be playing much at all.

  The past few days had sucked big time, though. His shoulder worried the hell out of him and so did what had happened with Teddy. After the stupid argument over his father’s company, she’d packed up the next morning and moved back in with her partner in Manayunk. There hadn’t been much use in trying to talk her out of it, not after she’d practically begged him to give her some time and space. She’d been nervous and unhappy but had made it crystal clear that she wanted to keep her job taking care of Toby and Sadie. She’d told him that nothing needed to change other than that she wouldn’t be living in the house when he was in town.

  That assertion had struck Noah as wanting to have her cake and eat it too, and in fact he regarded it as breaking their verbal contract. But, in the end, none of that mattered because he didn’t want to lose her—either as his dog walker or whatever more she might be. If Teddy needed time, he’d give her time. If she needed space, he’d give her space. As much as he thought she was over-reacting and hung up on stuff that had nothing to do with him or their relationship, he grudgingly respected the tenacity of her beliefs.

  He just didn’t share them. Noah wanted to leave a clean environment for the kids he hoped to have someday, and it wasn’t like he was against alternative sources of energy. But Americans were sitting on top of enough natural gas and oil to power the country for a hundred years or more, so why would anybody want to buy oil from unreliable partners and even crazy dictatorships? He’d bitten his tongue on the arguments he could have used against Teddy last night, including the fact that a lot of oil was shipped from abroad in fuel-burning tankers that regularly spilled their contents, polluting the oceans and coastal waters. But he was sure that a full-blown political debate would get him exactly nowhere with her.

  God, he missed holding Teddy. For three days, he’d hauled his ass out of bed early just so he could see her when she came to take the mutts on their morning walk. Yesterday, he’d even suggested he might tag along, but she’d asked him—reluctantly, he thought—to let her do her job on her own. That had made him start to feel like he was in danger of becoming a doormat and he didn’t like that feeling one bit. So, after she’d brought the dogs home he’d pushed back. That had led to another argument about Baron Energy that ended with her stomping off in a huff. This morning, the tension had been thick as honey but not at all sweet, and she’d hurried off again as quickly as she could manage.

  He looked up as Jack Ault strode over, blocking his view of the field. The manager’s baggy eyes were sympathetic. “You battled hard, Noah, but you’re done for the night. Your velocity just wasn’t there, and you were hanging your curve.” He gave Noah’s left shoulder a tap. “I only wanted one inning out of you, anyway, and I got it.”

  Yeah, but it was a lousy inning. “I’ll do better next time out, Skip,” Noah said, forcing a tight smile.

  Ault returned to his usual position standing on the dugout steps, Noah was about to head into the clubhouse to ice his arm and shower when Nate slid down to sit beside him. His buddy gave him a hard look. “Dude, when are you going to wise up and get a specialist to look at that shoulder?”

  Nate never missed a thing. He could read any pitcher—any player—like an open book. There was no point trying to deny the extent of the problem with a veteran pitcher like Nate.

  Noah stared straight ahead onto the field but wasn’t really seeing the action. “It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

  Nate snorted. “I know you, and I know how you handle pain. But don’t try to be a hero. Get an MRI, and soon.”

  Noah shook his head. “Those radiologists read whatever they want into MRIs. Any little thing that could be a problem, they’re on it like a damn pit bull. The next thing you know you’re under the knife.”

  “Yeah, maybe. But, look, if you keep stressing that arm, you’re going to make whatever is going on inside there into a big fucking problem. You need to come clean with management and get a real diagnosis.”

  Short of tearing his UCL again, undergoing shoulder surgery was Noah’s biggest nightmare. Even if it was only the bare minimum involved in tightening the joint, he’d be looking at missing the rest of this season and maybe part of the next, too. What were the chances that the Patriots’ front office would stay patient with him for that length of time? He wasn’t some flame-throwing young stud with a decade or more of success ahead of him. At the moment at least, Noah Cade was nothing more than a middle reliever, a guy so far down on the pitching totem pole that he couldn’t see daylight.

  But Nate might be right. Noah had to admit that trying to play through the pain might endanger his career. Not knowing what else to say, he leaned forward, his head bowed and his eyes staring down at the piles of sunflower seed shells that littered the dugout floor.

  Nate leaned on his forearms, too, imitating Noah’s posture. “Look, the team needs you, but you’ve got to think of your career and your health first. You gotta do what’s right for you in the long run. Make the smart choice.”

  Noah nodded but stayed silent. While Nate’s advice rang true, what the hell was the right thing to do in the long run? The stakes were too high to get it wrong.

  At that moment, surrounded on the bench by his closest friends, he’d never felt as alone in his life.

  * * *

  After freshening up in front of the bathroom mirror, Teddy gave her hair a few final brush strokes before she tied it back in her usual working ponytail. While Emma was out to dinner with some guy she’d hooked up with via a dating site, Teddy had made herself manicotti with a salad and then channel surfed for a couple of hours before changing from shorts and sandals into jeans and sneakers. The day had been hot and sultry, but the stiffening breeze billowing out her bedroom curtains told her a cold front was passing through and the temperature would be falling for the rest of the evening.

  Funnily enough, it still felt strange to be back in the townhouse with Emma. Maybe it was because she’d done some painting and decorating in her bedroom at Noah’s that it had made it so quickly feel like her home. Whatever the reason, she had to admit she missed it. After all, it was pretty cool to have a huge, high-ceilinged bedroom with its own private and al
most decadent bathroom. It was sure a far cry from her room here and from the modest farmhouse where she’d grown up.

  Who was she kidding, though? It wasn’t really the cushy bedroom she missed. It was Noah. The dull ache that had permeated her body since the first argument over Baron Energy hadn’t lessened in the intervening days. If anything, it was worsening—probably because she’d seen his gorgeous, manly self every day, if only briefly. Plus, Noah had been so damn nice that it made her cool and entirely fake attitude seem churlish.

  But then yesterday they’d replayed the first argument, this time hiking up the temperature to the boiling point, and that had reminded her of why she’d left in the first place. Just when she’d started to soften a little toward him, Noah’s pig-headed defense of his father’s company and everything she hated about the oil and gas industry had made her storm out of the house before she either threw a dog dish at him or burst into uncontrollable tears.

  He just didn’t get it. Didn’t get her. To him, the whole thing was just a stupid argument over politics, as he’d called it. But every time Teddy thought of all her parents’ hard work over the years and of the precious and beautiful farmland that had been in her family for generations, Noah’s blinkered attitude made her crazy with frustration.

  Teddy slipped on a light sweater and was just about to pick up her car keys when Emma came in the door. “You’re home kind of early, aren’t you?” Teddy said, surprised.

  Emma tossed her keys into the dish as she blew out a sigh. “When the guy is so boring that you almost fall asleep in your appetizer, you don’t stick around for after dinner drinks.”

  “That bad, huh?”

  “Worse. I should know better than to keep surfing those stupid dating sites.” She frowned as Teddy grabbed the keys to her Escape from the same dish. “You’re going out? I thought you were done for the day.”