The Hot Corner

by Amy Noelle

  “Things changed after that. I guess maybe I wasn’t a challenge anymore. I don’t know. He pulled away, stopped calling, only answered every third or fourth call. He made excuses not to see me, broke dates, and just acted disinterested every time we were together.”

  That didn’t sound like any of the versions of Brad I’d come to know. “So you think he lost interest once he’d gotten you into bed?”

  “What else could it have been? I sent him presents, went to his games, talked about how wonderful he was in all the interviews I did, and he just kept pulling away. Then there were pictures of him with that no-talent whore Jenny Day, and that was the last straw. I keyed his car and broke all the windows.” She paused and pointed at me. “You can’t use that in the book. There’s no proof, and I was never charged with anything.”

  Okay, so Karen Grant was a raving psycho. It was no wonder Brad had blown her off. I was going to have to tread very carefully here, but I had to clarify a few things. “Did you and Brad ever make a commitment?”

  She looked down her nose at me. “Excuse me?”

  “Well, I’m just curious if you two ever defined your relationship as exclusive. It doesn’t sound like—”

  She let out a high pitched scream. “Would I have slept with him if we were not exclusive? No, I don’t think so! He took me out every night for almost a month, except when he was out of town or baseball got in the way. He’d let me talk for hours whenever I called him. He was my boyfriend, and he cheated on me!”

  Well, it wasn’t like he hadn’t done that very thing to me. Maybe she wasn’t exaggerating, but I couldn’t help feeling like she was. I wanted to defend Brad, even though I really couldn’t. “That must have been hard for you.” There, I would play the therapist. It served me well to get a subject talking.

  “It was! It was humiliating! Everybody knew we were together, and Jenny stole him from me. I could barely hold my head up in this town after that. It took me weeks to move on! And there he was going out with a new girl every weekend, obviously trying to make me feel bad for dumping him.”

  I furrowed my brow. “You broke up with him?”

  “What was I supposed to do after he embarrassed me like that? I told him we were through. He tried to act like he didn’t care, but I know he did.”

  “I’m sure he did.” Not.

  “I’m better off without him.”

  “No doubt about it,” I said. “What was he like when you were together? Did he talk about himself a lot?”

  She shook her head. “No, not at all. He let me do most of the talking. He was kind of mysterious, you know? I think that’s what made him so attractive. I wanted to get deep inside him and know what he was hiding, but he never let me.”

  That was consistent, at least. And she was creepy. I had an image of her trying to burrow into Brad, and it made me shudder. “Have you seen him since you broke up?”

  Karen sneered. “As if I would lower myself to go out with him again after he broke my heart?”

  As if he’d ask her out after he found out what a nutbag she was? Brad might be a horny jerk, but he wasn’t an idiot. “I meant in a social setting.”

  “Oh, yeah, we’ve been at a party or two since. And I think he went to the Emmys with Pamela Baxter once.”

  “Did you interact with him?” I knew she had. I’d run across some gossip articles about her being thrown out of a party for slapping Brad and throwing a drink on him.

  “Other than to call him lying scum? No. I have better men to spend my energy on now.”

  God help whoever they were. “I’m glad to hear that. I did read that you attacked him at a club last winter.”

  She let out a tinkling laugh. “Attacked? I simply called him out like the coward he was. The bouncer totally overreacted and pulled me away from him, even though I barely touched him. The whole thing was blown way out of proportion.”

  “You’d been broken up for several months at that point. So why’d you go after him?”

  “Why did he have to go to a party he knew I’d be at and rub her in my face? He was still trying to get to me, and it worked.”

  Karen Grant thought a lot of herself and her lasting influence on Brad. “He’d been on and off with Pam for years. Do you really think it was about you?”

  If looks could kill, I’d have keeled over right about then from the heat of her glare. “Everything is about me.”

  Well, she didn’t mince words. “Okay. I think I have everything I need unless there’s anything else you need me to know.” Like the number for her psychiatrist so I could recommend some additional therapy.

  “You’re sleeping with him, aren’t you?”

  Was she spying on him? I wouldn’t put it past her. “Why would you ask that?”

  “Because you’re on his side, I can tell. All these little digs about whether we were really together or not. You’re defending him because you’re sleeping with him!”

  I held up my hands in a gesture of surrender. “I’m not on anybody’s side. I’m trying to get at the complete story so I can tell it accurately, just like you requested.”

  “I saw those pictures of the two of you at that charity dinner. I saw how you looked at him. You’re in love with him. Well, just let me tell you, he’ll dump you as soon as that book is over. So all the glowing things you’re writing about him now will be meaningless later, don’t you see?”

  I saw, all right. I saw the need to escape before she attacked me. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but I can assure you I wasn’t looking at him in any certain way.” I scooped up my things and stood. “I appreciate your taking the time to talk to me.”

  “You better leave in what I said word for word! I want the world to know he’s a liar and a user. It’s a public service.”

  I left her ranting behind me and practically sprinted out the door. I waited until I’d driven out of her gated development before getting out my phone, and I didn’t waste time with preambles.

  “You could have told me she was a psycho.”

  Brad’s warm laugh filled the line. “I told you she wasn’t fond of me.”

  “Understatement of the century.” I pulled into a parking lot and turned off the car. “Why didn’t you tell me she keyed your car and attacked you?”

  “She admitted to that? Damn, I’m impressed.”

  “I got it on tape, followed by her telling me I couldn’t use it because there was no proof.”

  He snickered and I joined him. “She’s not the brightest tool in the shed.”

  “Why did you go out with her?”

  He sighed. “I don’t know. She wasn’t insane in the beginning. She seemed a lot like her character. All innocent eyes and sweet smiles. She was cute and charming, even. But then it was like a switch flipped and she got clingy and weird.”

  “How so?” I switched him to speaker phone and turned on my recorder.

  “She called me about twenty times a day. She sent me flowers and pictures and clothes and shit. None of which I wanted. She referred to me as her boyfriend on one of those talk shows and in print several times.”

  “Did you consider yourself her boyfriend?”

  “Hell no. You know I haven’t been in a relationship since I was with you.”

  I smiled. “Well, she thought you were in one.”

  “I found that out the hard way. We never talked about exclusivity, and you know if we had I would have told her no way, no how. I hadn’t been seeing anyone when we first got together, but I never said she was going to be my one and only.”

  Player Brad struck again. “So what happened?”

  “I started blowing her off. Stopped returning her calls, broke a date we’d made before she’d gotten all possessive, and basically avoided her at all costs. When that didn’t work, I went out with another actress in the hopes she’d get the message. She obviously did, because two days later my car was trashed.”

  “Why didn’t you press charges?”

  “I just wanted to be done w
ith her. And I mostly was, after a few more angry phone messages. There was nothing more until I ran into her at a nightclub and she slapped me and threw her drink on me. She got thrown out and that was that.”

  “Well, she’s convinced you cheated on her and that I’m writing a puff piece because I’m sleeping with you.”

  He laughed. “She doesn’t know you very well, does she? But she’s right, you are sleeping with me.”

  “For a second there, I was afraid she had someone following you.”

  Brad snorted. “A couple years ago, maybe, but I’d like to think she’s over me by now.”

  I thought about that. “I think she’s over you, just not over what she thinks you did. She’s convinced you lost interest because she slept with you and the chase was over.”

  “Did you tell her you slept with me and I haven’t lost interest in you?” he asked, his voice dropping sexily.

  “No. I value my life.”

  “I’d protect you.”

  I laughed. “From a woman? How valiant of you. Thanks, but I think I can handle myself. It’s none of her business anyway.”

  “Ahh, but it is the business of everybody with a computer, apparently.”

  I groaned. “What is it?”

  “Pictures of you and me at the charity ball, pictures of me and Pam at dinner, and pictures of you and Pam on your little shopping spree yesterday. Apparently I have a little harem.”

  I rolled my eyes. “As if. Pam’ll be disappointed they didn’t buy she was in love with me.”

  Brad laughed. “How could she resist you, Red? You’re quite lovable.”

  I felt my cheeks heating. “Well, if I’m going to get my car keyed, I guess it’s a good thing this is a rental and I got the insurance.”

  “She won’t come after you, baby. She’s just the type who likes to steal the spotlight. She doesn’t want me anymore. All she wants is for your readers to feel sorry for her.”

  I doubted that. If he called her, she’d probably come running, but he was too smart for that. “Well, I didn’t believe a word she said.”

  “That’s because you know I’d never cheat on a woman I’d committed to.” He waited, but I couldn’t speak. “Red? You know that, right?”

  I felt like I didn’t know anything anymore. “Well, I mean, you rightly said last night that I don’t know you, so—”

  “But you do know that. I may have changed, but that hasn’t. When I commit to someone, that’s it. My father raised me to respect a woman and treat her right. He knew what it was like to be cheated on and left behind, and he wasn’t about to let me do that to anyone.”

  My mind flashed back to when David Reynolds would visit Brad at college. He always asked if Brad was treating me right and reassured me his son loved me. “Loyalty, Dani, that’s the first thing I taught my boy. You tell me if he ever steps out of line, and I’ll knock him back in.”

  “I remember,” I said, tears starting to prick at my eyes.

  “Good. You might not be ready to hear this, but I’m committed to you already. There is nobody else and there won’t be. You’re it for me. You got that?”

  My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest, and I was pretty sure I could hear blood roaring in my ears. “Yeah.”

  “Good. I have to go to a team meeting now, but I’ll call you tonight after the game. Are you going to watch me?”

  “Sure,” I said, my mind screaming at me. I had to get off the phone. “Good luck.”

  “I don’t need luck, but I’ll take it. Bye, Red.”

  I hung up the phone and rested my head on the steering wheel. I banged my forehead against the hard rubber a few times for good measure, to knock out any thoughts that I might have gotten it wrong all those years ago.

  Chapter 17

  Loyal. The word rang in my head as I looked through piles of notes. Everybody, with the obvious exception of Karen Grant, echoed the sentiment. His high school baseball coach had used the word when I’d called him after getting back to my hotel.

  “Brad was loyal to his team and his teammates. You think bigger and better schools didn’t court him to come play for them? Schools that already had state championships, had the pedigree. But Brad stuck with us and helped us win our first championship and two more after that. The only three we’ve ever won. He wanted to stay here and win for his home town.”

  His college coach said the same. “He could have gone pro right out of high school, but he and his father wanted him to have an education. Scouts were sniffing around him from day one. Agents, too. But Brad didn’t even think about going, not until he won us the championship. I was surprised he left before getting his degree, but he still calls me and checks in on the team.”

  Of course, he couldn’t resist taking a dig at me. “The only thing he loved more than baseball was his girl. We butted heads a time or two over you. I told him he should play the field, that he was settling too early, but he told me he knew what he wanted. He always knew. And he got it, too. Whatever the boy set his mind to. He’ll win the World Series, mark my words.”

  His agent agreed. “Brad’s going to be one of the best of all time. And a Dodger for life. His contract is up this year and he’s in line to be the top free agent on the market. His first and only choice is to stay with the team that selected him. He’s told me to get it done and to make it fair. He doesn’t need to be the highest-paid player in the game, even though he could be. He wants the Dodgers to be competitive enough to win, and that means sacrificing some salary to do it.”

  His loyalty had always been one of his best qualities, and one of the things that attracted me to him in the first place. Yes, I’d hated the bevy of girls that had been after him at every turn, but I’d never truly had to worry, and I’d known that. I’d known it up until that fateful day in Omaha when my whole world had exploded. But I was starting to wonder what I’d really seen. Could all the people who spoke of his loyalty be wrong?

  Pam said there was no way he could have cheated on me. Of course, she didn’t know what I’d seen and heard. Brad said he was committing to me again, which was both flattering and alarming. Did I want him to? Did I trust that he even could? Wasn’t it too early? We’d spent one night together. An incredible night, but still. Maybe he was having problems with the past and the present, just like I was. It was easy to fall back into the couple we used to be, or at least to pretend until something came along to jar me back to reality. When he touched me, though . . . God, it was just perfect. Just like it used to be.

  I needed to ask him what was real, but I was scared to. If he hadn’t cheated on me, if by some possibility I’d been wrong, I had cost us seven years. We’d have been married by now, with a child, maybe two. We’d had a plan. We were going to graduate, find out what team he was going to, find a job for me wherever he was training, and get our own little place. He’d move up to the pros, and I’d go with him. It wasn’t like I’d be giving up anything. I’d just wanted Brad, until my dreams had shattered with one blond Bailey and three little words.

  I grabbed my phone, highlighted her name, and waiting impatiently for an answer. “Hello?”

  Just the sound of her voice had me smiling. “Mom.”

  “Sweet girl! I’ve been thinking about you. How are you doing?”

  She knew, of course. She knew where I was and who I was with. “I’m confused.”

  She laughed lightly. “Of course you are. How are you holding up? Did you notice I hadn’t called? I was trying not to pry.”

  I had to laugh. “Since when?”

  “Oh come on, baby. You know I’ve always let you and your brother live your own lives.”

  “How is Mikey?” I asked.

  “Loaded down with exams and rounds at the hospital. Do yourself a favor and when you talk to him, don’t ask for details. I’m still having nightmares from the stories he’s told me.”

  I’d heard a few. “Who knew there were so many things to remove from the human body?”

  “Gross!
But I know you didn’t call me to talk to me about your brother. Tell me how it’s going. What’s it like to see Brad again?”

  I curled my legs under me and rested my head against the arm of the sofa. “Well, confusing. Difficult sometimes, but other times it’s easy. Exhilarating but exhausting. It’s just weird. He’s so different from the Brad I knew, but then he’ll say or do something that makes me think the old him is still in there somewhere. Then he’ll be an arrogant jerk again, and I’ll get mad, and it’s a vicious cycle.”

  “So have you kissed him yet?”

  “Uhhhh . . .” I felt my cheeks heating like I was fourteen and discussing sex with her for the first time.

  “That’s a yes. How was it?”

  She knew me too well. “Incredible.”

  “Isn’t that interesting? And how was the sex?”

  “Mom!”

  “Are you scandalized because I asked, or because I know you’ve been intimate with him?”

  “Both!”

  Mom and I had always been open about things, but she’d never been quite so bold as to flat out ask me about sleeping with anyone. I’d always thought we had a mutual understanding that even though it happened, we didn’t need to acknowledge it.

  “Dani, you’re nearly twenty-eight years old and I’m more than aware you’re no virgin. I’m not asking for details, just if things between the two of you were like they used to be.”

  “Better.” When my mom laughed, I sighed. “Time has gone by and he’s had loads of women since me, so he’s learned some things, but most is still the same and he can still drive me wild and I can’t believe I’m discussing this with you.” I felt like I’d run a marathon after my overly descriptive commentary and gasped for breath.

  “You called me for a reason, honey. You obviously need to get it all out, so I’m here to listen. No judgments. So now what?”

  She was right. This was what I needed, to unload on someone who’d been there back then and was still with me now. Most of my friends from college had faded away, save for the occasional birthday card, Christmas letter, and Facebook post. It had hurt too much to be around them after the breakup. They’d been Brad’s friends, too, and the pity, the questions, had all been too much for me.