Crashing the Net

by Jami Davenport

  “I’m moving on.” Cooper squared his jaw and followed his friend into a nearby pub, wondering if moving on really was the solution.

  Or if he could even manage to do it.

  Chapter 3—Neutral Zone

  August turned to September, and Izzy worked her butt off, trying to be everything to everyone, even when they didn’t ask her to do so. She avoided Cooper the few times she’d been forced to be around him. Yet all the distance in the world didn’t stop her insane longing for him or her late-night fantasies. Time flew by, and it was already the second week of September. Her sisters got ready for another quarter of college, and Izzy forced herself not to be jealous of them. She’d go to college later, once they’d had the chance to graduate.

  On this particular night, Izzy applied finishing touches to her makeup, while Betheni lounged against the doorjamb of the small bathroom in the apartment they shared.

  “So you have a date with Tanner Wolfe?”

  “Not a date. We’re meeting about the fundraiser.”

  Betheni frowned. “Why are we getting into party planning? That’s not what we’re about.”

  Izzy studied her pretty sister in the mirror. “We’re about building our business, making money, and having a better life. Ethan and Lauren recommended us to Mrs. Parker. Besides, I like party planning. We’ve attended so many over the years and talked about what we would’ve done to make each party better if we’d planned it, why not try our hand at it?”

  Betheni shrugged. “You have a point.” She pushed her long red hair off her face and grinned a wicked smile, meaning she was up to something. “Tanner is hot, really hot. I wouldn’t mind taking a run at him.”

  “Go for it.”

  “You’re not interested?”

  “Not in any way, shape, or form.” Izzy turned back to the mirror.

  “Why not?”

  Izzy didn’t want to answer that loaded question. Betheni knew her too well. She’d take her answer and run with it, imagining all sorts of things which weren’t there, such as Izzy still having a thing for Cooper. Utterly ridiculous. Why would Izzy attach herself to a man who behaved all caveman and embarrassed the hell out of her?

  Cooper did not fit into Izzy’s life, and she didn’t fit into his. They were like fire and ice, fire one second and ice the next.

  Betheni laughed, already reading her expression. “Don’t answer that. You want Cooper.”

  Izzy opened her mouth to argue then snapped it shut. “How stupid is that? Really? Why would I want a guy like that?”

  “Why? Because he’s gorgeous and has a great body. He’s very driven like you and underneath it all, a nice guy. Oh, not to mention, he’s riiiich.” Betheni’s eyes glowed at the thought of all that money, and from what Izzy read, the team paid Cooper well.

  “I don’t care about the rich part. His money doesn’t matter to me.” And it didn’t. Despite their constant struggles to make ends meet, Izzy never cared about Cooper’s money. “But he’s controlling and jealous. I can’t deal with that.”

  “Because you have to be in control, too.” Betheni picked up Izzy’s red passion lipstick and tried it on.

  “I’m the oldest. Of course I do.” Izzy snatched her favorite lipstick out of her sister’s hands.

  Betheni just smiled. “Have fun with the Wolfe Man.”

  Izzy rolled her eyes, grabbed her raincoat, and head out the door. A few minutes later, she walked into a dark, neighborhood bar. Tanner was already there, entertaining a group of fans, mostly female, who gathered around the booth.

  Izzy sighed. The guy had an ego as big as Mount Rainier and then some. He looked up as she approached and said something to the group of women who giggled and scattered, leaving them alone.

  Izzy slid into the seat across from him. “Wow, what’d you say to them?”

  Tanner grinned. “Jealous?”

  “Not hardly, but a little surprised your adoring fans gave up so easily.”

  Tanner blew on his knuckles and scraped them across his chest a few times. “It’s the ol’ Wolfe charm. Gets ’em every time. I promised them my full attention later tonight.” He leaned forward, staring into her eyes. Izzy stared back, wishing the man’s gaze did things to her like Cooper’s intense gaze did, but Tanner’s seductive look only made her laugh. The man was so transparent.

  “What’s so funny?” Hurt flashed across his handsome features, gone as quickly as it came, revealing deeper emotions than she expected from him, or maybe it was just his bruised ego talking.

  “You are, Tanner. You might as well quit before you start because this girl isn’t buying front row tickets to your performance. I’m here to work.”

  He leaned back, crossed his arms over his broad chest, and grinned—a totally unexpected reaction. “Not buying it, huh?” His perfect, Greek-God sculpted face would sink a million women’s ships, but not Izzy’s. He couldn’t sink a rubber ducky in her bathtub.

  “Not one penny.”

  “Well, damn.” He shook his shaggy head of gold-streaked blond hair.

  “Tanner, I’m here for business not pleasure. My parents were rock stars, made a ton of money, and lost a ton of money. I grew up with a who’s-who list of people going in and out of our house night and day. Know what? They’re just people. Money doesn’t impress me. Good looks don’t impress me. Fame doesn’t impress me. The only way you’ll impress me is with hard work and dedication to our cause.”

  “Then you’ll go out with me?”

  “No, but I’ll be your friend, one who only cares about who you are inside, not your outside image.”

  Tanner sat silently for a long while, as if digesting her words. “I don’t have many real friends.”

  “Well, now you have one more. Let’s get to work.”

  “One more question.” He managed a small smile, all earlier cockiness had faded.

  “What?”

  “It’s Coop, isn’t it?”

  “What is?” Izzy’s heart stalled in her chest. God, was she so transparent everyone and their posse could see her strong attraction to Cooper?

  “You look at him like you can’t wait to see him naked.” He ran his hands through his unruly hair. “You sure you won’t ever want to see me like that?”

  “Positive.”

  “That won’t stop me from needling Black every chance I get. He has a thing for you, and it’s a great sport to watch his ass squirm.” He sighed, and as if accepting his fate, he opened up his iPad, tapped a few times on the screen, and showed her notes he’d made on ideas for the fundraiser.

  She leaned forward, but her brain had fixated on seeing Cooper naked. She’d never seen him completely naked. Not once.

  And she really wanted to see Cooper Black stark-assed naked.

  Chapter 4—In a Bind

  Cooper drove up the driveway to his secluded home in an exclusive area of Seattle overlooking Puget Sound and the Olympics. He’d leased the place at the end of August and moved in Labor Day weekend. The place was a little stark with minimal furniture and no pictures on the walls, but Cooper wasn’t much for stuff unless it improved his hockey game, such as his state-of-the-art media system. Not that he used it much. He’d rather watch film at the Sockeyes Hockey Athletic Center, or the SHAC as the team called their shiny new Sockeye headquarters near the Space Needle.

  Ethan had hooked him up with the home’s owner looking to rent this place only minutes from Ethan’s hundred-year-old mansion.

  The house suited Cooper; retro to the max, it’d missed all the remodeling done by most inhabitants, and retained that weird early sixties’ contemporary charm, with floor-to-ceiling windows, high, slanted ceilings, and one wall of cedar planking.

  Most people would’ve bulldozed it and put up a McMansion. Not the owners. And not Cooper—if he owned it. He liked it just as it was, funky, old, and reminiscent of a simpler time.

  The sun was setting in a late summer sky. Not a remarkable sunset, but Cooper appreciated it just the same. He’d get a beer an
d sit out on his patio, enjoy the evening, all the while wishing Izzy were here. What a lonely wuss he was. He tried to get her out of his mind, even dated a time or two, but none of the women he dated interested him.

  Cooper frowned as his sharp eyes homed in on a lone figure sitting on his front porch. As he drove closer, the tall, lanky kid rose to his feet and stood on the top step to stare at Cooper.

  Instead of pulling into his garage, Cooper parked in front of it and got out. He studied the kid for a moment, at first annoyed then curious. The kid wore a faded Raiders T-shirt and well-worn jeans. He’d guess him to be about fourteen or fifteen, a good looking kid, with unruly dark hair, long limbs, and big hands and feet, a lot like Cooper had been at that age.

  The boy watched him approach, neither retreating, nor advancing. In fact, his blank expression struck Cooper as odd for a fan who’d cared enough to track him down at his new home.

  As young boy, Cooper and his brother had stood outside in frigid weather to get their idol’s autograph, but the star hockey player pushed right past them, shoving Cooper’s little brother into a wall and making him cry. That night Cooper tore down all his posters of the guy and burned them in the fireplace. He’d never destroy a kid like that. Despite the fact that this teenager was trespassing, he’d give him an autograph and send him on his way with a strong suggestion that he respect Cooper’s privacy from this point on. Hopefully he’d get his point across without resorting to stronger tactics.

  “Hey, buddy, you lost?” Cooper grinned. The kid didn’t. In fact, he didn’t blink. He stood statue still and said nothing. Not a damn thing, but the sweat beading on his forehead betrayed his nerves.

  “I’m Cooper.” Cooper held out his hand.

  The boy ignored it. “I’m Riley.”

  Riley? Cooper’s maternal grandparents’ last name happened to be Riley. Cooper scratched his head and tried again. “Are you looking for someone?”

  The kid blinked a few times. “You,” he answered simply.

  Cooper nodded, “You’d like an autograph?”

  “Not exactly.” Again that emotionless blank stare, only this time a muscle jerked in the kid’s jaw, giving him away.

  “Then what exactly do you need?”

  “I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

  Cooper almost choked. He ran his hand through his too long hair and did a double take. Fuck, he did a triple take.

  “Are you a runaway?”

  The kid shook his head. “No.” The plaintive, almost desperate way he said no wrapped a web of pity around Cooper’s heart. Cooper took in the worn clothes and shoes and ratty backpack.

  “Are you homeless?”

  The kid swallowed and shifted his stance. He ran a hand over his face and sighed. “Yes, sir.”

  Well, hell, what was he going to do with a homeless kid? There must be shelters, places a kid like him could go.

  He wished Izzy were here. She always knew how to handle stuff and say the right things.

  Only Izzy wasn’t speaking to him because he was an overbearing idiot of immense proportions. In fact, she hadn’t spoken to him since that fateful night, except when it applied to their mutual project, and his pride refused to beg her to take him back.

  “Look, kid, I can’t have you stay here. It’s—it’s not legal.” Cooper patted himself on the back for coming up with such a logical reason.

  “I don’t need a place to stay. I need your help.” Frustration laced his voice as if Cooper was missing the point, and he was.

  “I’ll find you a place for the night. Let me make a few calls. That’s the most I can do.”

  “She was right.” The kid’s shoulders slumped. His brave front crumbled, and his blue eyes filled with defeat and despair. Turning, he hoisted his bulging, beat-up backpack over one shoulder and started down Cooper’s front walk.

  Cooper stood there, uncertain if he should let a juvenile leave without insisting he go to the proper authorities. Besides, it was getting dark, and they were a long way from any kind of shelter. The kid probably hadn’t eaten in hours. Come to think of it, neither had Cooper. He started after the boy.

  The boy kept walking.

  “Hey, wait. Who was right about me?”

  “My mom. She said I couldn’t depend on you, any more than she could.” His eyes were filled with disappointment and accusation, the most emotion Cooper had seen from him all night.

  “Mom? Do I know your mom?” Cooper quickly did the math. Surely, this couldn’t be his kid? “How old are you?”

  “Fourteen.” Riley stood up straighter, his jaw jutting out, and his shoulders squared.

  He’d had to have been eighteen when Riley was conceived. No, not possible. The one girlfriend he’d had at that age had never been pregnant as long as he’d known her. He blew out a relieved breath.

  Riley stared at him, as if the answer to the question should be obvious, and Cooper had to be stupid not to see it. Cooper hated feeling stupid. Really hated it. He narrowed his eyes and wracked his brain, but couldn’t come up with one hint of how he might know this kid or his mother.

  “You don’t get it, do you?”

  Cooper shook his head, causing the shaggy mess to fall in his eyes. He swore to God the next free hour he had, he’d get his head shaved. He shoved it back from his face and waited.

  “You think I’m your son?” The kid rolled his eyes, exasperated.

  “No, but do you think you are?” Cooper asked. Yet, Riley looked like a younger version of Cooper, and that made his stomach hurt.

  Riley shook his head, regarding Cooper as if he were too dense for words. “My mom is your sister.”

  “My sister?”

  “Yeah? Remember her?” Sarcasm-laced sadness filled his quiet voice.

  Cooper remembered all too well, even though it’d been over a decade.

  * * * *

  Riley watched the almighty Cooper Black with the growing dread he’d made a dumb mistake. He was all kinds of idiot to come here, but he’d been all kinds of desperate. Fuck, he still was.

  Cooper didn’t want to help them, just like his mother had warned. The same mother who’d walked out the door of their ratty hotel room fourteen days ago and never come back. The fear and desperation almost strangled him.

  His mom had been gone before, a few days at a time, but she’d always come back, full of bullshit apologies that meant nothing because her addiction meant everything, but Riley forgave her. She was his mother, and she was all he had. He didn’t know who his father was, and he didn’t think she did either.

  Yet, there’d been moments when she’d gone clean, gotten a real job that didn’t involve selling herself, and they’d almost lived like real people, but those times didn’t last long.

  Now Riley was scared, really scared, about what had happened to the only person in his life who cared about him and about what would happen to him. Shit, he’d have been better off continuing his search on his own. His uncle would probably have him locked up in some foster care place or God knows what. He’d never be able to find her if that happened.

  Cooper watched him warily, standing on the balls of his feet, as if he expected Riley to bolt any minute, and he’d have to give chase. Riley fully intended on bolting, but his feet wouldn’t cooperate.

  Finally Cooper seemed to find his voice. “Have you eaten?”

  Riley’s stomach growled in response. “I’m fine,” he lied, and not very convincingly.

  Cooper closed the few steps between them and wrapped strong fingers around his arm, reminding Riley that his uncle was supposed to be the fastest man on skates, at least in professional hockey. “Come in the house. My housekeeper made a stew in the crockpot.”

  Riley resisted, but Cooper didn’t seem to give a shit. He hauled him into the house. Riley blinked a few times as he stood near the spacious, open kitchen that looked like it had survived from the set of a really old sitcom, the kind he and his mom used to watch on Nick at Night on the rare nights she hung out wit
h him.

  “Sit.” Cooper pointed at one of the bar stools that weren’t quite blue or green. Despite how the place appeared to be caught in some weird-assed time warp, Riley liked it, liked the open spaces, huge windows, and funky furniture. He especially liked the awesome view. Really awesome view. It beat the alleyway view of the dump he’d lived in until he’d found it padlocked this morning with an eviction notice on the door.

  “Does Julie know you’re here?” Cooper placed two bowls on the counter and filled them with thick, savory stew. Riley’s stomach growled louder as he inhaled the incredible smell.

  Riley licked his lips and shrugged as his stomach continued rumbling like a thunderstorm on the horizon. Cooper almost smiled. He pushed one bowl and a spoon across to Riley, who was pretty much drooling by now. After cutting up some thick bread and pouring Riley a glass of milk, Cooper opened a bottle of beer and sat next to him.

  Riley dug into the meaty stew and was in pure heaven. He’d never tasted anything so good in his life. He didn’t come up for air until the bowl was practically licked clean.

  “Help yourself. There’s plenty.” Cooper pointed with his chin.

  Riley wasn’t used to plenty of anything in his life unless it involved bad things. He didn’t wait for a second invitation but served himself another large bowl. He forced himself to eat slower this time, pride overcoming hunger. He didn’t want his uncle to see how pathetic his life was, well, at least not any more than he already had.

  Finally Cooper pushed his bowl away and studied him. “When I was your age, there wasn’t enough food in the house to keep me satisfied,” Cooper chuckled.

  Riley didn’t smile. Cooper wasn’t his friend, and he needed to remember that. He bet Cooper never had to dig in dumpsters or beg for scraps from the back doors of restaurants just to get his next meal.

  Cooper took a pull on his beer and sat back, watching Riley but keeping quiet until Riley finished. Riley knew what was coming, and his mind raced ahead as he tried to figure out how much to tell his uncle. Riley didn’t have to wait long.