Playing Dirty (A Bad Boy Sports Romance)

by Avery Wilde

  “I’m glad we can at least try to be friends,” I said with a smile as I reached for my fork. “That means a lot. I was feeling stressed about not getting along with you, seeing as we have to work together.”

  Josh gave me a wolfish smile. “I’m glad we can be friends, too,” he said. I expected him to throw in some casual remark about ‘more than friends,’ but oddly enough, he stayed quiet and started eating some of his dinner.

  Even though I was enjoying myself more than I thought I would, my mind wasn’t at rest. I couldn’t stop thinking about Jay. How was I going to tell him about the photographs? Should I wait for him to say something first? No, I should definitely confront him. My stomach twisted and I began to lose my appetite as the images from earlier popped back into my head.

  Jay with another woman’s tongue down his throat.

  Jay making out with a woman in public, not even caring about who took his picture, and not even caring who might see.

  Jay, who had left one woman in his bed and gone out to meet another.

  My heart hardened slightly under my blouse.

  “You’re being quiet,” Josh said with a smirk. “Normally when I take you out, it’s Kate the Chatterbox.”

  I tried to smile. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I just have a lot on my mind.”

  “No worries,” Josh replied. He winked at me. “I have to go use the little boy’s room.”

  I watched as he stood up from the table and smoothly navigated his way towards the back of the restaurant. My phone buzzed on the table, and reaching for it, I noticed there was something slightly different. Oh, yeah, duh, I thought to myself. It’s Josh’s phone. Before I could put it down, a text flashed across the screen:

  ‘Did she fall for my Photoshop job? Better hope she doesn’t go through TMZ and catch you lying!’

  Frowning, I set the phone down on the table. Josh was devious, but I didn’t want to think that he was that devious.

  “Hey,” Josh said, catching me off guard with his return a moment later. He slid down into his chair and looked at me. “Wow, Kate, you really need to cheer up. I don’t like seeing you without a smile.”

  I bit my lip. “What is this?” I pressed the main button on his phone and showed him the text. “This came up while you were gone.”

  He laughed, and underneath the table, my hands clenched into small fists. “Kate, don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “What are you talking about?”

  “The pictures you showed me earlier,” I said through gritted teeth. “Did you get them from TMZ and get a Photoshop-savvy friend of yours to change the time stamps to make them look more recent?”

  Josh shook his head and ran a hand through his brown hair. “Kate, you’re being really crazy,” he said. “I was gone for five seconds and I come back and you attack me like this? That message is about a work thing.” He shook his head again and gave me a wounded expression. “I can’t believe you think I would do this to you. After all this time.”

  I folded my arms across my chest. “Stop making me think I’m crazy,” I said. “I don’t think Jay was seeing someone else at all, and I don’t think you have a ‘friend who works in media’ here in Manchester. I think you got someone to doctor those photos.”

  Josh smiled at me and shook his head. “Kate, if you even heard yourself right now, you’d be embarrassed,” he said. He leaned over and hunched his shoulders. In a conspiratorial whisper, he said: “Men don’t really like it when you act crazy, honey. It makes you much less attractive. You know that, right?”

  I snorted. As if I gave a crap whether or not he found me attractive. “I’m not acting crazy,” I said. “You’re lying to me.”

  “Why would I do that?” Josh gave me the same wounded look. “Kate, I care about you. We’re friends. We’ve been friends for years, right? I mean, before we dated, that is.”

  I frowned. I didn’t want to believe that Josh would do something so odious, but come on…I wasn’t an idiot. Then again, I didn’t want to believe that Jay would be playing me, either. But one of them had done something wrong. As much as I wanted to be friends with Josh for professional reasons, something in my gut was telling me that he was lying. I knew he’d never admit it, though.

  “I’m choosing to trust Jay,” I said coolly. “He told me that he had something important to take care of today, and that he’d explain everything later.”

  Josh laughed again. “Kate, don’t be so naïve. For a man like Jay, an illicit date very well could have been the important thing. He’ll just lie to you, you’ll see.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “But me, I’m over here, trying to help you. I flew over here just to see you! Isn’t that pathetic, I’m chasing you,” he added, laughing to himself.

  “Wow, you really know how to make a woman feel special,” I said in the most sarcastic tone I could conjure up.

  Before I could really tear into him, something caught my eye, and I gasped.

  “What is it? What’s wrong?” Josh looked around, obviously confused.

  A smile crept onto my face. I couldn’t help it. “Jay’s here,” I said smugly. I pointed towards the front of the restaurant. “He just walked in.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jay

  Lizzy told me exactly where Kate had gone, and she’d confirmed that it was Josh she was having dinner with. Apparently, he’d shown up at her apartment earlier this morning, looking for Kate, and Lizzy had left them to chat when Kate returned.

  When Lizzy had gone shopping with Kate later in the day, Kate had informed her of her plans to have dinner with Josh, and Lizzy had then made the decision to tell me.

  I headed to the restaurant, and my hands balled into fists when I saw Kate talking to the smarmy-looking man across from her. He was wearing an arrogant smirk, and I could tell what he thought of her, even from a distance. Men like that weren’t to be trusted.

  Not now, not ever.

  “Hello,” I said, in the friendliest voice I could manage. “Kate, may I please speak with you?”

  “Sure,” Kate said. She seemed relieved to see me, and as she slipped out of her chair, her companion glared at me.

  “Just wait one minute, Kate,” he said in a reedy, nasal voice. “Wait just one minute before you go off with this jock.”

  I felt a hot rush of anger in my chest as the prick continued. “Kate, you realize what a hypocrite you are, right?” He leaned back in his chair and glared at her. She was staring at him with her mouth open and her lovely dark hair hanging to one side. “Really nice of you to preach values about being strong to young women and then choose some dumb football player over me!”

  Kate shook her head. “Josh, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. She sounded tired, and I was overcome with the urge to pull her into my arms and shield her ears from whatever nonsense this asshole was spewing. “I’m not a hypocrite, and I haven’t chosen him over you. I didn’t choose you to begin with, Josh. I didn’t want you, and I still don’t want you. I thought you had accepted that. I thought that somehow, magically, we were going to be able to be friends, seeing as we have to work together, but obviously that’s not going to work out.”

  Josh laughed. “That’s all pretty rich, coming from you. You should know, Kate. You’re the one who lectures young women about how to act. You should have known you were leading me on.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Kate raised her voice, but only slightly. She leaned down in Josh’s face. “I’ve talked about nothing but how much I don’t want you back! And how I was hoping we could be friends!”

  “If you really wanted to be friends, you wouldn’t be on a date with me right now,” Josh sneered.

  At this point, it was becoming abundantly clear that Lizzy had misinterpreted Kate earlier. This wasn’t a date at all, and Kate confirmed that a second later.

  “This is not a date!” she said. “I told you a hundred times, I was just taking you to dinner to be nice, seeing as you flew all the way here, and we needed
to talk about work. But screw being nice to you now, asshole!”

  Josh stood up and tried to grab Kate. She squealed and jumped out of the way, and his hands came crashing down on the table.

  Anger flooded my body and before I knew what I was doing, I stepped forward and swung one of my fists back behind my head. Josh gave me a dazed look, like a deer in the headlights, but he didn’t move; he was too slow. My fist collided with his face, and I felt cartilage snap beneath my fingers. When I pulled my hand away, it was dripping with Josh’s warm blood, and he winced and ducked down. At first I thought he was going to fight me, but he must have come to his senses because he was putting his hands up and backing away after only a few seconds.

  “You know what, Kate?” Josh said, blood dripping down his face and over his chin. “Your secretary, Pammy? I slept with her. While we were dating. And the news from the head showrunner? He’s actually thinking of canceling your show.”

  Kate immediately turned pale, and Josh grinned. The blood smeared over his teeth made him look like a madman. “That’s what I’ve really been wanting to tell you in person. Figured I’d at least see if I could get a decent fuck out of you first, though,” he added, sneering at both of us. “I hope the news finds you well, you stupid cunt.”

  I stepped forward, ready to beat him to a pulp for the shit he was saying to upset my Kate, but she grabbed my arm before I could hit him again.

  “Please don’t,” she said in a small voice. I could tell she was hurting tremendously, and for that I wanted to rip Josh limb from limb.

  When he realized I wasn’t going to punch him again, Josh looked triumphantly from me to Kate. “So, what do you think about that, huh?”

  Kate set her lips in a thin line. “Why didn’t Rod call and tell me?”

  Josh shrugged. “I guess he wanted to wait and see what your final ratings were,” he said. “Wait until the last possible minute before pulling the plug, right?”

  He shrugged in mock-apology, the shit-eating grin on his face growing by the second. “That’s what we do, Katie.”

  Kate covered her mouth with her hands, and I could see tears filling her eyes. Before I could say anything else to Josh, he bounded away and ducked out of the restaurant.

  I turned to Kate. “I’m sorry about all of that,” I said. “I wish that hadn’t happened. Are you okay?”

  Kate nodded, just once. I reached out my arms and she curled up against my chest, fitting the top of her head right below my chin. “I’ll be okay,” she said softly. “But I need to go home; I need to figure out what’s going on with my show.”

  I sighed heavily. “I’ll take you back to my place and you can get a return ticket, okay? Sound good?”

  Kate sniffled. I could tell she wanted to cry, but she was doing a great job holding it in and being brave. I wanted to tell her that she didn’t need to; that she could be vulnerable around me if she needed to, but we’d already made enough of a scene in the restaurant, and I was sure she didn’t want any more attention.

  A small man in a turban bounced up to us. “Ah, ma’am, can I get you anything else?”

  Kate looked at the table, her expression weary. “No, thank you,” she said softly. “Just the check please.”

  The man frowned. “You don’t want your food? You barely touched it.”

  I stepped forward. “Just the check, mate,” I said. “But thanks anyway.”

  The man nodded and scurried away, and Kate lowered herself into a chair and stared at me. “I had no idea it was going to be like that,” she said softly. “I really thought he understood that things were over between us. I even made him promise that he understood our dinner wasn’t a date!”

  “Yeah, I gathered that.”

  She made a fist and slammed it down on her left thigh. “I mean, god, are all men that stupid?” She looked at me apologetically. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you. I wasn’t talking about you. God, I don’t even know what I’m talking about. You probably think I’m a real nutter, don’t you?”

  I laughed politely. “I’d never call you a nutter,” I told her, reaching out and ruffling her soft hair. “You know I think you’re very smart.”

  Kate slumped down with her face in her hands. “I wish I knew what was going on,” she said softly. “It’s all up in the air now.”

  When the waiter came back, I handed him my card and told him that I’d cover it. Kate barely noticed; she was slumped over the remains of her butter chicken, staring moodily at the table, but when the receipt came, she realized what had happened and thanked me.

  “Come on,” I told her. “Time to go back to my place.”

  She was silent in the car on the way home. My mind was occupied, too; after I’d left, the rehab center had called me and thanked me for my generous donation. I was sure that Connor would be well taken care of, but I still felt like a shitty friend. It was just like what Mary and that cop had said—if I hadn’t been so busy paying attention to my own life, I would have known that my best friend was getting into dangerous shit and needed help.

  “What’s wrong?” Kate turned in the seat and looked at me. “I can tell you have something on your mind. Would it help you to talk about it?”

  “It would,” I said, and I meant it. “But not right now. You’re my first priority, Kate, and we need to make sure that you’re taken care of.”

  She sighed. “Normally I’d fight you on that, but it’s been a hell of a day,” she said, yawning gracefully and covering her mouth with one hand.

  “Yeah, I heard about the photos. Lizzy told me.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry I believed Josh for even a second,” she said, looking embarrassed. “They were convincing with the time stamps, but still…”

  Her voice trailed off, and I grinned. “It’s fine. Considering my reputation, I don’t blame you for not being sure.”

  “But I should’ve been sure,” she said softly. “You’ve done nothing but treat me with respect over the last few weeks, and you’ve never given me any reason not to trust you.”

  “Well, I should’ve made it clearer that there’s been no one else since I met you,” I replied. “Seriously, don’t sweat it. And for the record—I definitely wasn’t on any sort of coffee date this morning. Those pictures you saw were from six months ago.”

  She smiled, and I reached over and squeezed her hand. “So…about Josh,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “How did you get involved with someone as smarmy as him?”

  Kate let out a dry laugh. “It’s not as romantic as it sounds,” she said, looking away. “He’s one of the assistant producers on my show. He kept hanging around, sending flowers to me and my secretary, Pammy.” Kate paused and threw me a grimace. “I know, he screwed her.” She winced again. “I should have known when Pammy was always a little too happy in the mornings. I think she wanted us to break up.”

  “Sounds like a real piece of work,” I said as I navigated the car into my driveway. “So how did you get together?”

  Kate shrugged. “You’ll hate me for saying this, but I was lonely. Lizzy was off at college, and I’m not that close to our parents. Geographically, I mean. All of my friends were either engaged or getting married and I just felt so alone. And here was this guy who never left me alone, who always brought me lunch and flowers...” Her voice trailed off for a moment. “I mean, he was intense. I kind of liked that, I thought it meant he wasn’t going to flake out on me. But obviously I was wrong about that. Once we started dating, he really took off. We’d only been together very casually a few times, and then he kept pressuring me to do things. I just didn’t know what to do; he wasn’t respecting my boundaries. I’ve been hurt before, and I need to take things slow. Well, usually, anyway. I guess you’re different,” she added with a wry smile.

  “I’m guessing he didn’t take that well?”

  Kate laughed humorlessly. “No, he didn’t. The morning after I broke up with him, he showed up with flowers and chocolates. He apologized for fighting with me and promised that ev
erything would be better, and that I didn’t have to worry because he wasn’t angry with me anymore. Isn’t that rich?”

  I whistled. “Damn, he’s a manipulative little bastard,” I said. “I’m guessing that wasn’t the last you heard of him?”

  Kate shook her head again. “He started emailing me all the time, calling me in the middle of the night, threatening Pammy to hold me up in the office, and then he’d mysteriously stop by when I couldn’t get out of going to dinner or drinks. Finally, I thought I’d managed to shake him. But then he showed up on my doorstep, drunk at three in the morning, and I knew that I wasn’t getting rid of him without a fight.”

  “Christ,” I said, gripping the wheel and steering the car into my driveway. “Back in the day, I thought a bloke knew when a girl didn’t want him around. But I guess Josh went to a different school of thought.”

  Kate didn’t reply. She didn’t laugh; she only nestled further down in the seat. “This is a mess,” she said softly. “I had no idea things would wind up like this.”

  As I turned the car off, she slipped out of the passenger side before I could comfort her. It was chilly outside and I saw she was shivering as I let her into my flat.

  “Feels like ages since I’ve been back here, even though it was just this morning,” she said. “Thanks, Jay. I appreciate this so much.”

  “Not a problem. Come into the kitchen,” I told her. Grabbing my computer, I put some water on to boil for tea and booted up the laptop, sliding it across the counter to Kate. I caught her staring at me with big, guilty eyes.

  “You do so much for me,” she murmured, sliding onto a stool at my bar. “Thank you.”

  I was silent as she booked her return ticket. It took her longer than I thought, and she frowned at the screen the whole time.

  “Get everything squared away?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Yeah. I couldn’t get a flight until the day after tomorrow, though,” she said. “Some kind of weather issues keeping planes grounded for the moment. I guess all that fog that’s been hanging around in the mornings is the culprit.”