The Cleanup_a Washington Rampage Sports Romance

by Megan Green

  I hang my head, knowing he’s right. I wanted to put this to bed before even broaching the subject with Liv. But I know she’d want to be a part of the decision. And it’ll show her I trust her enough not to jump to conclusions about the messages and to listen to what I have to say.

  This could be a good thing for our relationship, if I spin it that way.

  “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll call her right after the game.”

  “Good. Now, pull your head out of your ass. If we lose this thing because you’re too tied up in your own drama, I will personally kick your ass.”

  We didn’t lose. In fact, I stepped up to the plate in the seventh inning and redeemed myself, knocking one clean out of the park and scoring us three runs. That sealed the deal, our opponents not able to make up those three runs in their last three at bat.

  I head into the locker room with a smile on my face, glad I was able to let go of my shit long enough to not let my team down.

  Fuck Jayne and the broomstick she rode in on.

  As the team files into the visitors’ locker room, my thoughts revert back to Liv and the conversation we need to have tonight. I’m so lost in my own head that I don’t hear Coach when he first speaks.

  “Jeffers!” he shouts, his irritated tone letting me know this isn’t the first time he’s said my name.

  I pull up short, plastering a shit-eating grin on my face and sauntering over to him. “Sorry, Coach. Guess I was too busy reliving that one time I won the game for us. Remember that? It happened, oh, say, thirty minutes ago.”

  Coach rolls his eyes at me. “Well, when you’re done being a vain-ass moron, there are some reporters up front. Want to talk to you about your hit. And, after you’re done, you and I will be talking about that strikeout.”

  Leave it to Coach to bust my balls even though I pretty much just won the game.

  I take my time with showering before I head out front, hoping that maybe the assholes got sick of waiting and took off. Normally, I don’t mind talking to the press after a win. But I’ve got more important things to do tonight.

  I slide onto the chair and nod to the first reporter.

  After answering a half-dozen questions about my home run, the inevitable finally comes.

  “Brandon, what can you tell us about the rare strikeout you had today? It’s been a long time since we’ve seen one of those from you.”

  I want to tell the motherfucker to sit his ass down and shut up, that everyone makes mistakes, even people as great as myself. It always drives me batshit crazy when the press tries to dwell on the negative instead of the positive. Especially after a win.

  But I know that won’t win me any brownie points with Coach, who’s already ready to ream my ass. And I don’t need to deal with a fine for ripping into a reporter and tarnishing the reputation of the Rampage.

  “Well, I think I was just as surprised as you were. Like you said, it’s been a while since I’ve had one of those. I guess it just goes to show that you can’t always anticipate what the pitch is gonna be. Luckily, I was able to read Hansen better the second time, and we were able to salvage the game.”

  “Do you think the news of the pregnancy had any effect on your performance tonight?”

  My head snaps up, my gaze narrowing on the slender woman near the back. She is holding a recorder out over the shoulders of her colleagues, and I watch as the entire room erupts into a frenzy.

  I have no clue how this woman found out about the baby, and I want nothing more than to leap off the stage and drag her out of the room, so I can demand answers. There’s no way Liv went to the press about this. And Lexi and Tag are the only others who know, aside from Charlie and my mom.

  Then, it hits me.

  That goddamn nurse at the hospital.

  She must’ve leaked the news to the press. I mean, she wasn’t our nurse, but we were leaving the maternity floor. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out why we were there. And I’m sure she has access to look up records. Who knows how many laws she just broke, so she could get her fifteen minutes of fame and some cash?

  I was willing to look the other way when she was just telling her husband she saw me at the hospital. But you can be damn sure she isn’t going to get away with this. Her ass is grass as soon as I make a phone call in the morning.

  But there’s no use in trying to deny it now. The cat’s out of the proverbial bag, so I might as well own it. Besides, it’s not like we never planned for this to come out. Like Liv said at the doctor’s office earlier, it was only a matter of time before someone spotted her baby bump. It’s just a little…sooner than we were anticipating.

  “The pregnancy had nothing to do with my performance today. If anything, the reason I’ve been playing so well lately is because I’m so happy.”

  “So, you were aware of the pregnancy before today?”

  I give the woman a dumbfounded look. “Of course I was. I was just at the hospital with her this morning.” You dolt, I tack silently on at the end, borrowing the term from Liv.

  I’m sure the damn nurse told whomever she broke the story to that she had seen me there.

  What’s this woman playing at?

  “How long have you known? And why haven’t you made a statement before today?”

  Because it’s none of your damn business; that’s why.

  This woman is starting to royally piss me off.

  “Look, I agreed to some questions about the game, not about my personal life. I’ll go on the record as saying Liv and I are very happy about the baby, and I’m very much looking forward to becoming a dad. Now, if there’s nothing else…” I move to stand, ready to get the hell out of here and back to my room.

  I see the woman look down at her notes, her eyes quickly scanning a page before she calls out again, “Liv? My sources say the mother’s name is Jayne. Jayne Stewart.”

  I open my mouth, about to tell her to take her questions and shove them up her ass, when her words register.

  “The mother’s name is Jayne.”

  I fall back into the chair, the thoughts in my head running at about a million miles per hour. But the only words I can manage are, “That fucking bitch.”

  A dozen cameras flash, the sudden uproar in the room making it impossible to hear any one voice above the others.

  But I don’t give a fuck what they’re saying.

  I need to get to Liv.

  Chapter 23

  Liv

  Throughout my entire life, there’s only been one person I know I can count on. One person who has never let me down despite the hardships I’ve faced, despite the years I’ve spent trying to shape my life into something worth living. There have been people along the way whom I’ve opened myself up to—Charlie, for instance, and Lexi—but even then, I’ve always held a small part of myself back, knowing there is only one person in this world I can fully trust not to break me.

  Myself.

  And then Brandon Jeffers strolled into my life and fucked it all up.

  I went and did the one thing I’d promised myself I never would.

  I fell in love.

  I let someone into my life, into my world, and into my heart. I told myself it didn’t matter, that even if it didn’t work out, things would be okay. That I would be okay.

  But this…

  I never expected this.

  I pulled up the internet this afternoon, ready to start researching locations for a second store. After Charlie’s scare and sudden retirement, I’d told Brandon all about my plans for the bookstore.

  “I’m in,” he said when I was done.

  My face scrunched in confusion, not sure what exactly he was in on. “What do you mean, you’re in?”

  He reached over and placed his hand on my knee. “I mean exactly what I said. I’m in. You’re looking at your new investor.”

  My mouth gaped, his words making no sense. “What do you mean?”

  He laughed. “I think your internal CD is scratched. You keep skipping.”

&nbs
p; I still just stared, understanding what he was saying but not truly getting it. “But you’re a baseball player. Why on earth would you want to invest in a bookstore?”

  Brandon gave me a bemused smirk. “I mean, I’ve only told you a thousand times at this point. But I guess I can say it again. You are it for me, Liv. I want to invest because of you.”

  “B-but don’t you think you should talk to a lawyer first? Decide if this is a good business decision?”

  He waved off my question. “No need. You know what you’re doing. There’s no way you’d do something half-assed, especially if it compromised the store. And even if—and that’s a big if—it ends up going south, I still won’t regret it. In case you haven’t noticed, I have more money than I know what to do with. And, if giving a small fraction of that to you so that you can follow your dreams means I’m making a stupid business decision, well, I never claimed to be a business mogul.”

  “But I can’t—”

  He cut me off, his hands rising to frame my face and his thumbs covering my lips. “Shh. It’s only money, Liv. You’ve given me something so much more valuable than any sum that might be in my bank account. You’ve given me you.”

  He’d told me to immediately start looking into the expansion, wanted me to have a few places lined up that we could look at when he got back from his road trip. I wanted to start small, maybe branch out into Denver, a city only a few hours away so that I could still keep an eye on it as it grew. If that worked, I was prepared to take on the entire western region.

  I’d been on top of the world when I pulled up my favorite search engine. It only took three words on the main page to completely wipe my world out from under me.

  Jeffers’s Love Child

  The headline immediately caught my attention, especially as it was accompanied by a picture of Brandon and his crooked smile as he watched another ball fly out of the stands.

  My heart dropped when the words registered as I wondered why he would tell the press about our baby without consulting me first. I clicked on the link to the story, hoping for some sort of explanation because I knew I couldn’t call him. His game was about to start. He was already in deep with his coach after his sudden departure when I’d thought I was losing the baby and again when he’d accompanied me to Charlie’s side after his fall. I knew, if he messed up one more time, he’d be looking at a serious suspension.

  And, no matter how angry I was that he’d gone behind my back and broken the news without my knowledge, I’d never risk hurting his career.

  Turned out, I was completely wrong anyway. Brandon hadn’t told anybody about our baby. Because this wasn’t about me.

  In true Jeffers fashion, the star Rampage hitter hasn’t only been scoring runs on the field. A source has confirmed that Jayne Stewart—Brandon Jeffers’s on-again, off-again fling—is in fact pregnant.

  Jayne Stewart.

  Not Liv Hunter.

  I read the line over and over again, blinking rapidly, as if all I needed was to clear my vision, and the words would change. That the J would turn to an L, and then the rest of the letters would follow suit.

  But, despite how hard I tried, another woman’s name remained, tied to the man I’d fallen for. Along with the one word that completely obliterated my heart.

  Pregnant.

  Brandon was having another baby.

  With someone who wasn’t me.

  I started to scan the rest of the article, hoping against hope that this was a misunderstanding. Maybe Jayne was further along than I was, and this had all happened before we met. I knew Brandon would want to be a part of this baby’s life, too, but surely, what we had meant enough that he wouldn’t try to make something work with Jayne like he had with me. He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t leave me.

  Until I read the words three months along.

  She was only three months pregnant.

  Brandon lied to me.

  That first night we’d slept together in Seattle, he’d told me he hadn’t been with anyone since me, five months before.

  But that couldn’t be. I was five months pregnant. Jayne was three.

  He’d slept with her after he was with me.

  He’d looked me in the eye, seen me at my most vulnerable, and lied to me.

  If he could lie to me about something like that, how could I trust anything he’d said to me since?

  He’d promised he’d been faithful on all of his road trips. He’d told me there was no one else.

  But, clearly…

  I closed the browser, flipping the Closed sign on the front door and locking up. I couldn’t stand the idea of having to face anybody today. I needed to go home. I needed to think.

  That is how I’ve found myself here, lying facedown on my bed, my pillow soaked with my tears as I poured my heart out into its softness.

  How could I have been so stupid?

  How could I have actually believed a man like Brandon Jeffers was prepared to give up his superstar lifestyle to play house with a girl like me?

  There was a single picture of Jayne accompanying the article. Just a small thumbnail that I didn’t even have the heart to click on and inspect. Because, even in that tiny shot, I could tell she was everything I wasn’t.

  Thin. Blonde. Gorgeous as hell.

  Exactly the type of woman you’d expect a man like Brandon to end up with.

  A fucking first place trophy.

  Meanwhile, I’m barely a participation ribbon, fraying at the edges and never able to sit quite right on your shirt.

  A few hours after I got home, I was forced to turn my phone off, Brandon’s name and that stupid fucking ringtone—“Rewrite the Stars.” Right. I should’ve listened to Zendaya. Nobody could rewrite shit—incessantly badgering me over and over as I broke. I couldn’t take it. Couldn’t handle talking to him, listening to him try to explain away his actions, when the evidence was so clearly there for the world to see.

  So, I turned it off. It’s much easier to ignore your problems than to try to face them. I’d be an adult tomorrow.

  Maybe.

  Right now…

  Right now, all I want is a bottle of wine and my best friend.

  Too bad I can’t have either. Lexi doesn’t fly into Colorado until tomorrow. And this damn baby means wine is out of the question.

  Rolling over onto my back, I place my hands over my belly, instantly apologizing for the thought.

  “I’m sorry, Little Bean. Your mommy is just mad because she’s a stupid, stupid girl. None of this is your fault.”

  I move my hands in small circles, wishing I could touch him or her, hug my baby to my chest, forget all about this awful day.

  “It’s you and me, Bean. Just like it was meant to be. I promise you, I’m going to do everything I can to give you a good life. I hope I can be good enough for you, Bean. I hope you never want for a single thing in the world. Because I love you so much. Do you think I can be enough?”

  A gentle fluttering presses against my fingers, and I jackknife up off the bed. The tears start flowing again but for an entirely different reason this time. The smile that spreads across my face nearly splits it in two as I sputter out an elated laugh.

  I just felt my baby move for the first time.

  As if this little life growing in my belly heard me, it responded to my question by pushing against my skin, letting me know I wasn’t alone.

  I was wrong. There isn’t only one person I can count on anymore.

  It doesn’t matter how much Brandon has hurt me. It doesn’t matter if Lexi gets married and moves away tomorrow, never speaking to me again. And it doesn’t matter if Charlie decides I’m more trouble than I’m worth, selling his business and retiring to Florida instead of staying here, in Maple Lake, with me.

  Nothing in this world matters, except me and this precious life inside me.

  Brandon Jeffers might have fooled me once. But I’ll be damned if I let him or anybody else do it again.

  “It’s you and me, Bean. You
and me.”

  We don’t need anybody else.

  Chapter 24

  Brandon

  Pacing the length of my hotel room, I wear a track into the dark carpet, contemplating what to do next.

  Liv won’t answer my calls.

  She hasn’t even looked at any of my texts, the read receipts all showing as delivered but unopened.

  It’s been almost a full twenty-four hours since the story broke, and she won’t talk to me, won’t even consider hearing me out. It’s driving me goddamn crazy.

  I finally got ahold of Charlie this morning, his surprise at the urgency in my voice letting me know Liv hadn’t told him a thing yet. He told me Liv hadn’t stopped by to see him at his rehab center yesterday, hadn’t even called to tell him she wasn’t coming. Any hope I’d had that maybe Liv hadn’t seen the news disappeared after that admission. Liv could’ve lost her phone, forgotten to charge it, left it at the bookstore. There could be any number of reasons to explain why she wasn’t answering my calls. But there’s no way she’d miss out on visiting Charlie. She’s hiding. And not just from me.

  I plop down on my bed, knowing I only have a few minutes before we have to head over to the stadium to get ready for today’s game. The thought of playing baseball while my entire life is exploding around me sounds about as fun as getting a prostate exam from the Incredible Hulk with no lube, but I have no other choice. If I take off and miss another game, I might as well kiss my career good-bye.

  If it wasn’t for Tag, I’d already be gone. He was the one who caught me on my way out the door, telling me to calm down and consider the consequences before I run off on some half-assed scheme.

  “Give her some time, man. She just got her whole world rocked. She needs time to process this. Liv is a smart girl, and she’s not cruel. She’ll hear you out. You just need to let her come to terms with it on her own time.”