Even the Score

by Beth Ehemann

  I giggled at my obnoxious but adorable best friend. “You sure you can handle another?”

  “Mm-hmm.” She pressed her lips together and smiled as she struggled to keep her eyes open. “I haven’t been drunk in months. I need to build my tolerance up again.”

  “Okay.” I raised up on my tiptoes, waving for the waitress again. “Crap.” I lowered my arm. “She can’t see me. I’ll go up to the bar and get our drinks. Do not leave this table or someone will take it, understand?”

  Sadie nodded.

  “Repeat what I just said.”

  “You said don’t leave the table. I got it, Mom!” she repeated sarcastically, holding on to the table for stability. I sighed and hurried through the crowd, weaving in and out as fast as I could so that I could get back to the table before she passed out underneath it. As I stood at the bar, waiting for the bartender to notice me, I found myself getting lost in all the stuff on the wall. My eyes darted from frame to frame, case to case, squinting to see what was in each one. It was a dream come true. I wanted to live there. As I continued scanning, my gaze drifted to booth behind the bar . . . and I froze. Sitting at the table in the far corner was Andy Shaw, the agent who I’d interviewed with earlier in the week. I pinched my eyes shut and looked away as fast as I could, but I’d lingered long enough to see that he was sitting with Brody Murphy, Justin Sutter, and Viper, the male Madonna of the NHL.

  “Oh my God,” I mumbled under my breath as I pulled my hand up over my eyes. I silently begged the bartender to turn around so I could return to my table way on the other side of the bar, far away from them. With any luck, he hadn’t noticed me, and I could talk Sadie into finishing her one drink and leaving.

  “Hey, sweetie, what can I get you?” the bubbly redhead with the cute diamond nose ring asked as she dragged a glass along the ice pile.

  First of all, don’t ever call me sweetie again. Let’s start with that.

  I leaned in and spoke loudly. “Can I get a vodka cranberry and a Diet Coke?” While I was facing her, I stole a quick look past her at Andy’s booth, using her head as a shield. The three guys were still gabbing away, but Andy’s eyes were fixated on me.

  Shit!

  “Okay, coming right up.” The bartender smiled. As she turned to make the drinks, I reached out and gently caught her wrist.

  “Sorry, my friend isn’t feeling well, and I don’t want to leave her alone. Any chance the waitress could bring these to the table all the way in the back corner over there?” I pointed.

  “Sure, no problem,” she agreed pleasantly.

  “Thanks so much!” I returned her smile and turned away from the bar, hurrying back to our table.

  As I emerged from the crowd like a newborn baby fighting for life, I found just what I was hoping not to find . . . an empty table. Thankfully, no one had taken it over, but probably because that drunk, breast milk–filled lunatic had left both of our purses lying on top of it. I sighed and looked around, narrowing my eyes into the crowd as I looked for her hot-pink tank top. Panic built up inside of me. Sadie was drunk, really drunk, and if her purse was at the table, most likely her phone was at that table, so I had no way of even contacting her.

  “Vodka cranberry and a Diet Coke?” a deep voice said from behind me almost immediately. I whipped around to Andy, standing behind me with a big grin on his face and a drink in each hand.

  “Hey.” I tried to sound cheerful and not like he was obviously the last person on the planet I wanted to see at that moment.

  He set the drinks on the table but didn’t leave like I was hoping. Trying to give him a subtle hint, I turned my back to him and went back to trying to find Sadie.

  “I saw you at the bar and told Savannah I’d bring these to you. I’m surprised but really glad to see you here,” he shouted.

  Thankful that I was facing away so he didn’t see me roll my eyes, I turned my head slightly toward him. “I doubt that.”

  “No, seriously,” he came back again. “I feel terrible about the other day. About calling you a liar . . . and mostly about letting you leave my office without a job offer.”

  Now he had my attention.

  “What?” I asked, whipping around. I hadn’t meant to let myself sound as excited as I had.

  “You were by far the best interview I had all week. I was an idiot for letting you go.” It was so loud in the bar that he had to lean in close to my ear so that I could hear him. His warm breath blew against my neck, sending chills all the way to my toes and back up again. His words were also slurred, not quite as bad as Sadie’s but enough for me to notice, so I was reserved in my excitement of where the conversation might be headed.

  “Yeah? Well that was your fault for calling me a liar,” I snapped back defiantly.

  “I know, and I feel awful about that.” Every time he spoke, he moved in closer and closer, to the point that his lips were practically brushing against my ear. I took a step forward, partly to get closer to the crowd and look for Sadie, and partly because I needed distance from Andy. Suddenly his hand was wrapped around my arm, just above my elbow. “Why aren’t you listening to me?” he asked with a frown.

  “I’m looking for my friend Sadie. She’s really drunk, and I have no idea where she went,” I said, taking another step away so that he’d let go of my arm.

  “When did you last see her?”

  I turned to my right to answer him without realizing he’d taken another step closer to me. Our noses practically bumped. “Sorry,” I apologized awkwardly as I took another step back, trying to calm my racing heart. “Uh . . . she was here when I went to the bar to order our drinks. When I came back she was gone.”

  “What’s her name? Sadie? Sadie what?”

  “Sadie James,” I answered without turning my head again. “She just had a baby, and she hasn’t had a drink in a while. She can get a little . . . crazy . . . sometimes.”

  “Hang on, I’ll be right back.” He squeezed my arm again and disappeared into the thick crowd.

  Within a minute, a loud bell started ringing, hushing the crowd as everyone followed the sound toward the bar. Seizing the opportunity before the crowd started moving and dancing again, I stepped up onto the rung of the chair to try to get a better view of the people. That’s when I noticed Viper standing on top of the bar, ringing a cowbell.

  “Yo! Shut up!” he yelled over the few people who were still talking. “I need Sadie James and Danicka Douglas to come to the roped-off booth behind the bar.”

  “I’m Danicka Douglas,” an obnoxious blonde with fake tits called out from the front of the crowd as she took a step toward the bar.

  “Sorry, babe. Not on your best day,” Viper teased loudly, high-fiving other patrons as he hopped off the bar.

  A minute later, I stepped off the chair as Andy emerged from the crowd again. “Bright pink tank top?” he asked, leaning in close again.

  I nodded like an excited bobblehead doll. “Yeah, that’s her.”

  “We found her, come with me.” He reached out and took my hand, tugging me behind him.

  “Hang on.” I pulled back, remembering my and Sadie’s purses still sitting on top of the table. I grabbed the bags and turned back to Andy, who held his hand out again. I put mine back in his and let him lead me through the sea of people.

  Andy wove us through the crowd, keeping his hand down low so I was tucked in close right behind him. As the crowd began to thin out, I peeked around Andy’s shoulder and saw Sadie sitting at the booth with the other guys. I let go of Andy’s hand and hurried around him.

  “Where the hell were you?” I blurted out as I got to that table.

  “Sorry!” She giggled. “I went to the bathroom and then ended up dancing with a group of fun girls on the way back.”

  “I told you not to leave the table. Our purses were sitting on top, out in the open.”

  “Sorry,” she apologized again with a hiccup.

  “Brody, Viper, Justin—” Andy motioned to his friends at the table. �
�This is Danicka Douglas, my new agent.”

  “Whoa, whoa!” I spun around. “We didn’t agree on anything yet. And one thing at a time.” I turned back and held my hand out, introducing myself and shaking the guys’ hands one by one. All of them were very friendly, albeit slightly drunk, but warm in their hellos. Sadie sat next to Justin, blinking like a sleepy puppy as she swayed back and forth.

  “You okay?” Brody asked nervously. He was probably scared she was gonna barf all over their table. I was, too.

  Her eyes popped open, and she grinned so big I was sure her cheeks were going to hurt the next day. “Yep! I’m perfect.”

  Viper’s eyes shifted from Brody’s to Sadie’s. He jumped up and disappeared into the kitchen, returning almost immediately with a plate of warm garlic bread sticks. “Here, eat a few of those.”

  “Oooh, yum!” Sadie’s eyes lit up, and she licked her lips.

  Viper sat back down next to Brody and stared as she grabbed a bread stick off the pile, shoving the end into her mouth.

  “Down, boy,” Brody teased him, smacking his arm to get his attention. “You’re married now, remember?”

  Viper shook his head. “I wasn’t staring at her. I was staring at the bread stick.” With that, he grabbed one off the stack, gobbling half of it up in one bite.

  As Sadie and Viper started talking about their kids, who were almost the exact same age, Andy leaned in close to my left side.

  “Can we go outside where it’s quiet and talk for a minute?”

  I looked from him to Sadie and back again. “Um . . .”

  He leaned forward, looking past me. “She’s fine. Viper, Brody, and Justin can sit with her. I need to talk to you alone for a minute. Please?”

  I don’t know if it was his puppy-dog blue eyes or the intoxicating smell of his cologne, but I agreed.

  “I’ll be right back, okay?” I said into Sadie’s ear. She gave me a quick thumbs-up before returning to her exciting diaper-rash-cream conversation with Viper.

  The Minnesota summer air warmed my face as we stepped outside. Andy walked over to a black, wrought iron bench near the street and waved for me to follow him.

  “Listen.” He sighed as we sat down. “I meant it when I said that I was really sorry about what I said at the interview the other day. Truth is, I’m an asshole who used that same tactic I’d accused you of just a couple weeks before when I was late for an interview. Guilty conscience, I guess.” He shrugged.

  “Thank you for that,” I said with a tight smile.

  His apology seemed sincere, and it was just want I needed to relax and take a deep breath as I leaned back against the bench.

  He lifted a leg up on the bench in between us as he turned to face me. “I also meant what I said about you being the best interview I had all week. Most of the guys that came in were jokes, others had rosters full of clients I’d never even heard of. You were by far the most talented and the one that I want.”

  My stomach flipped. I wanted so badly at that moment to throw Sadie’s drunk ass in the back of my car and drive straight to my office to pack it up.

  When I heard through the sports-agent grapevine that Shaw Management was expanding and taking on a new agent for the first time, I couldn’t get my résumé sent over fast enough. His firm was prestigious and powerful, exactly the type of firm I wanted to move my career to.

  “I appreciate the compliment, Mr. Shaw—”

  “Stop,” he interrupted, holding his hand up as he shook his head. “If this is going to have even a chance of working out, you have to call me Andy, okay?”

  I dropped my eyes to my lap, unable to contain my building grin. “Got it.”

  “Good.” He nodded, mirroring my grin. “Let’s not ruin this with a lot of technical bullshit, there’s plenty of time for that. When can you start?”

  CHAPTER 9

  Andy

  The sound of the ringing doorbell echoed through my quiet, empty house. I put the remote down and walked toward my front door, waving as Justin’s face came into view. We hadn’t really had a chance to catch up in the loud bar, so I’d told him to stop by and hang out for a bit before the Cubs headed back to Chicago.

  “What’s up?” I held my hand out. “You’re early.”

  He laughed and shook my hand back. “I know. We got a call that they moved our flight up, so I have to be at the airport in a few hours.”

  “Come on in, you hungry?”

  “No, thanks.” He shrugged. “I grabbed something at the hotel. I’m good.”

  We walked through the house into the kitchen, where he pulled out a stool and sat at the island. I opened the fridge and turned to him. “Gatorade, water, or beer?”

  “Uh . . . water’s good. Thanks.”

  I grabbed two bottles from the fridge and dumped a bag of pretzels in a bowl before joining him at the island. “I’m glad you stopped by, man. It’s been a while since we had time to hang.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He reached into the bowl and grabbed a pretzel. “You’ve got this single-dad thing going on now. How is that working out?”

  “Good.” I nodded. “I think I’ve got it under control for the most part. It’s tough, though, trying to juggle the firm and the kids by myself. Thank God I have Gloria here to help, or I’d be totally lost.”

  “Nah.” He waved his hand at me. “You’re a good dad. You’d figure it out. How are the kids doing, anyway? With the whole divorce thing?”

  “They seem to be okay,” I answered, cracking the seal on my water bottle. “I feel bad saying it, but I wish they didn’t have to see Blaire at all. Every time they come back from her house, they’re both cranky and pissed off at the world.”

  He looked at me from under his baseball hat, pulling his eyebrows in tight. “Why is that?”

  I shrugged. “I wish I knew. I ask them how their weekend was and try to get them to talk to me about it, but they’re so closed up. They don’t talk about her, ever. Sometimes I think they don’t say anything because there’s nothing to say. They do a lot of TV-watching over there while Blaire does her own thing like she always has.”

  “That’s awful.” Justin shook his head. “I didn’t realize she was always like that. I thought she changed suddenly.”

  “She wasn’t always that bad, but she’s always been selfish.”

  “Yikes. How long were you married?”

  “Nine years.”

  He raised his eyebrows and shook his head again as he stared down at the bowl of pretzels. “Wow. To put up with that for nine years. That’s rough.”

  “It is, but thankfully it’s over now, and I only deal with her a couple times a month.”

  “It’s tough doing it all alone, I bet.”

  “Very. Thankfully, Gloria does all my grocery shopping and stuff around the house, or I would literally have to find a way to stop sleeping,” I joked.

  “Speaking of that.” Justin sat up straight and leaned back to look down the hall toward Gloria’s room. “Is she here?”

  “No. She has most weekends off unless I have something I really need her for, so she typically stays at her boyfriend’s house on the weekends.”

  “I’m proud of you.” Justin turned back and looked me straight in the eye, speaking in a low, humble tone. “Juggling all of this plus your company can’t be easy.”

  “Thanks, brother. It’s not, but those kids mean everything to me, so I’ll do what I have to do to make their lives as good as possible, ya know?”

  Justin pulled his bottom lip up a bit and nodded without saying anything.

  “Plus,” I continued, “I’ve hired a new agent to help out, so that should definitely alleviate some of the stress at work so I can be home more often.”

  “Oh, that’s right!” His eyes lit up. “You hired that Danicka Douglas from last night, right?” He wiggled his eyebrows up and down.

  “Yeah, her, and before you say it, no, I didn’t hire her because she’s hot.”

  “But she is hot.”

&n
bsp; “Well, obviously, but that’s not the point.”

  Justin laughed and smacked his palm on the island playfully “Well, not the whole point, but I’m just saying that if I were going to be stuck in an office all day with someone, she’s not a bad choice.”

  “You act like I’ve never worked with a woman before. Ellie’s been with me for a few years now, and I’ve managed to let her keep her pants on.”

  “I’ve seen Ellie. She’s cute. Like . . . little-sister cute, but Danicka . . .” He puffed his cheeks out, shaking his head back and forth slowly. “Dude, she’s no one’s little sister.”

  “I think she’s single, want me to put in a good word for you?”

  “For me?” His voice rose with surprise. “Oh no, my friend. I’m not the one she’s interested in.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Dude, at the bar last night when we were sitting in the booth . . . every time you talked to her, she was eye-fucking you, staring straight at your lips. That’s a for-sure sign that she’s into you.”

  I threw my head back and laughed hard. “Bullshit!”

  “I’m serious!”

  “Get outta here!” I argued as I threw a pretzel at his head. “The bar was dark. and you were across the table; no way could you have seen what she was staring at.”

  “I’m telling you, I know these things. Don’t forget that I was married once before, too.”

  And just like that, the mood in the room changed from light to dark. Justin was a quiet man who didn’t open up about his personal life often. He used jokes and sarcasm as a defense mechanism to keep from talking about his painful past.

  “I could never forget,” I said sincerely. “She was one of the most amazing women I’d ever met.”

  “She really was.” Justin smiled and got that far-off look in his eye that he’d had for just a second in the bar the night before. He always got that look in his eye when he talked about her, when anyone asked about her, or when he was thinking about her.

  Justin and Liz had a love story that made every other couple jealous. They were the true definition of soul mates . . . always together, always holding hands, always staring at each other like love-struck teenagers. I’d never seen two people connected like that in my whole life.