Just for Kicks by Tracy Solheim

Twenty

* * *

ANDI COULDN’T HELPbut feel like the Cinderella Clive had turned her into. In all her life, she never dreamed of attending an event like this, much less being the center of attention. It was heady enough to have Dex’s hungry gaze following her around all night, but guests kept seeking her out to compliment her on the swag bags.

“Finally, something I want to use.” Nicole Jacobs pulled a bar of soap out of her gift bag. “There’s only so many Growler’s can koozies and luggage tags a girl needs, you know what I mean? I was thinking that some personalized bath bombs would make the perfect party favors for my sister’s baby shower next month. Is that something you can do?”

“As long as you aren’t inviting five hundred people,” Andi replied with a grin. “I’m not sure my nerves can handle that a second time.”

Nicole laughed. “Honey, I love my baby sister something fierce, but she can be a trip. I’m probably going to have to pay my own family to attend this shower. That’s why I want the favors to be special. I’ll be in touch next week.” She surprised Andi by leaning in for a hug.

Another of the WAGs came up right behind her. “I just googled your dress designer. Her stuff is amazing. She’s quite the rising star among the fashion scene. I’d love to see if she’d be interested in designing a dress I can wear to a charity event over the holidays. Do you think you could put me in touch with her?”

“Sure.” Clive would be happy to throw some business his friend’s way.

Shaina squealed beside her. “Oh, Andi. Isn’t this so exciting? I’ve never met so many famous people before. Can you believe as the wife of a Growler, you’ll get to do this every year?”

A kaleidoscope of butterflies swarmed through Andi’s stomach. She risked a glance at Dex. Fortunately, he was regaling a fan with the play-by-play from the winning point after the night before. Shaina couldn’t have been more wrong. According to the contract she’d signed, her marriage would be over in a few months and she wouldn’t be around for any future galas. But she wanted to renegotiate that contract. Specifically, for one with a longer term.

As in forever.

Until she saw him earlier, she wasn’t sure her plan was more than a pipedream. But something in the way he’d looked at her gave her courage. There was more than just simple desire in his eyes. There had been genuine concern, too. He cared for her. Over the past weeks, he’d demonstrated that in countless ways. But tonight, she felt that caring all the way in her soul.

They’d gone about their marriage in the opposite order of how it was supposed to occur. But did it matter how they got there as long as they were here now? She needed to bite the bullet and follow Mrs. Hilbert’s advice. She needed to tell him how she felt. And she needed to tell him sooner rather than later so as not to lose her nerve.

Catching his eye, she tilted her head toward the exhibit room at the back of the pavilion. His nostrils flared in answer. She threaded her way through the crowd, confident he was behind her. Once she reached the open floor, his big hand was on her back steering her toward the alcove where she’d waited for him earlier. Without a word, he led her behind the knight standing sentry and he pressed her up against the wall with his hips. His mouth was on hers in an instant.

“How long before we can leave without being rude?” she murmured when his lips moved to her neck several minutes later.

“Just long enough for me to leave a check and call an Uber.”

“I need to grab my things from the conference room. I’ll meet you in the lobby in ten minutes?”

He teased her lips with his own. “Don’t be late, Mrs. Fletcher. I’ve been dreaming of unwrapping that dress from your body since the moment I walked in.”

Dex using her married name buoyed her confidence even further. They could make this work. Joy surged through her. She could barely contain her smile as she made her way to where she’d left her things.

“Oh, you might be smiling now.”

Andi nearly collided with Jade on her way out of the conference room.

The other woman’s gorgeous clothes, hair and makeup did nothing to detract from the ugly sneer on her face. “You might have conned everyone into believing you are the belle of the ball tonight, but like my Gammy likes to say, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

Ignoring her, Andi kept her steps light as she dodged past. Not even Jade was going to spoil her mood.

“Look at you,” Jade continued, following her down the corridor. “In a borrowed dress from a no-name designer. But then you’ve been wearing borrowed clothes for most of your life, haven’t you? I’m surprised they even let you walk around with that necklace without an armed escort making sure you don’t pocket it.”

Before, the other woman’s words might have made Andi feel inferior, just as she intended them to. But not tonight. Jade was jealous. Pure and simple. And that jealousy only fueled Andi’s confidence even more.

“What do you want?”

Jade took a step closer. “Soon enough, I’ll be the new wife on this team. The wife of the Growler’s most notable player. Their team’s leader. And then, little orphan Andi, you’re going to wish our paths never crossed because I know exactly what you’re hiding. And I can’t wait to out you and your sham of a marriage.”

A shiver ran down Andi’s spine before she quashed it. The other woman was bluffing. Grasping at straws. Whatever “proof” she spoke of was a figment of envy. She refused to endure Jade’s jealousy any longer.

Before she could challenge the other woman’s claim, however, Trey Van Horn emerged from the shadows.

“Jade.”

Jade drew in a startled breath. “There you are, babe. I was just telling Andi here what a great job she did with her contribution to the swag bags. They’ve been the talk of the party.”

The quarterback’s expression was inscrutable in the face of Jade’s lie. Andi was fairly certain he’d overhead everything. She waited for him to make excuses for his girlfriend or simply ignore her behavior.

A slow, chagrined smile broke out on his face instead. He stepped past Jade and reached for Andi’s hand. “I was looking for her to tell her the very same thing.” His eyes softened. “I’m very glad Dex convinced you to marry him, Andi. If I haven’t said it already, welcome to the Growler family.”

Jade bristled when her boyfriend leaned in and kissed Andi on the cheek.

“He’s pacing the front lobby for you.” Van Horn gave her hand a squeeze before releasing it. “You better go find him before he goes all Highlander on us.”

“Thank you.” She returned his warm smile with one of her own. “Goodnight.”

“Maybe we should make an early night of it, too,” Jade suggested.

“That’s an excellent idea,” Andi heard Van Horn respond as she made her way down the corridor. “I believe I will head home. Alone.”

“I told you Van Horn wouldn’t keep her around long,” Dex said when they arrived back at the penthouse fifteen minutes later. “I’m only sorry he didn’t do it weeks ago so you wouldn’t have had to endure her torture for as long as you did.”

There it was again. That concern for her well-being. Her happiness. It had to mean something. She sincerely hoped it did, especially since she was about to open up her heart and tell him how she felt.

She draped her arms around his neck. “I’m only sorry I didn’t have you in my life years ago to look out for me.”

He placed his fingers on her waist and pulled her forward so they were nearly nose-to-nose. “Do you want to explain to me why you moved out of our room?”

“Agent Figueroa stopped by the other night.”

His grip grew tight. “What did he want?”

She drew in a deep breath. “To tell us that his investigation into our marriage had been dropped.” She omitted the part of their conversation that included his warning.

The news left Dex looking equal parts relieved and peeved. “And that made you scamper back down the hall?”

She shrugged. “I assumed that with the threat of a bed-check gone, you’d want me to move back to the guest room.”

Andi felt as well as heard the low groan coming from his chest when he dragged her body in contact with his. “You assumed wrong, lass.”

“Are you sure, Dex? I don’t want to be in your bed because you need someone to pretend to be your wife. I want to be there because you want me. Because you want this relationship. For more than just pretend.”

A war of emotions played out on his face. His body went so still, she feared he’d stopped breathing. Just when she thought she might faint from the shame of putting herself out there, he responded.

“Aye,” he whispered. “I want this.”

Their mouths fused in a searing kiss. Before she knew it, they’d made it as far as his study and he was tugging at the fabric of her dress with wild abandon.

“Wait,” she laughed. “You have to be careful with it. It’s not mine. The designer wants it back.”

He huffed with impatience. “Take it off then. I want to take you wearing nothing but that bloody necklace, and those heels.”

Her stomach pinched at his demand. She reached around to tug on the zipper only to have it get stuck. She swore in frustration. “It won’t budge.”

“Here, let me.” He spun her around, his fingers bringing goose bumps to her fevered skin.

“Jaysus. The bloody thing is well and truly jammed. I’m going to have to get the kitchen shears to cut it out.”

“You can’t!” she protested. “The designer is using it in a show next week.”

“If she’s that good with a needle she can bloody well sew a zipper back in. Don’t. Move.”

Panicked, she pulled open his desk drawers, rifling through them looking for something less destructive than kitchen shears. Her hand abruptly stilled when she spied a packet of letters addressed to her. Her feelings of guilt for snooping were quickly snuffed out by curiosity. Sitting back in the leather desk chair, she fingered the expensive stationary. The letters were postmarked from Scotland. All four of them bearing her name. The return address listed Annis Fletcher as the sender. The warm glow she’d been enjoying all evening abruptly fizzled. A cold numbness settled over her in its place.

“Andi.”

She looked up to see Dex standing in the doorway, a grim expression on his face.

“Your sister has been writing to me?” It was more a statement than a question, but she was so confused why he hadn’t given them to her that everything running through her mind was a question.

“No,” he had the nerve to say.

“My name is right here.” She waved the envelopes at him.

He was across the room in three strides. “Give them to me.”

She jumped up, putting the big leather chair between them. “No!”

He moved to grab the envelopes from her. She clutched the letters to her chest.

“Lass.” He uttered the word with a threatening undertone.

“Don’t you dare ‘lass’ me, Declan Fletcher! I want to know why you withheld these letters from me.”

“You know why.”

“No. I don’t!” she cried.

“I told you from the beginning you and my family are never going to cross paths,” he bellowed.

Clearly, she wasn’t numb enough because a painful ache was beginning to unfurl in her chest. “I don’t understand. Not more than five minutes ago you said you wanted me. You wanted everything.” Her voice scraped painfully against the back of her throat. “With me. But apparently I’m not good enough to be . . . family?” She was ashamed when she choked over the last word.

He clenched and unclenched his fists at his sides. “That’s not how it is.”

“Then how is it?” she demanded. “Explain it to me!”

“I can’t!”

The harshly spoken words nearly knocked her to her knees. She gripped at the chair like a lifeline.

“Can’t? Or won’t?” The words were raw with anguish as they slipped out of her mouth.

He stood a few feet away, his face hard and his eyes unreadable. His mouth unmoving. His silence telling her everything she needed to know.

The breath continued to saw through her lungs. She was still upright. Andi counted both as small blessings. She’d had a lifetime of not being enough. Of not being worthy of unconditional love. By now it shouldn’t hurt as much as it did.

She quickly righted herself on the stupid heels Clive insisted she wear and began a slow march toward the door, going the long way around the room to avoid Dex. So much for Cinderella. At least she was able to make her escape from the ball with her dignity intact.

“Andi—” He moved to block her path.

“Don’t!” She slipped past him to the threshold of the room. When she glanced back at him, she could have sworn there was anguish reflected in his eyes before he shuttered them. “You can keep your family to yourself, Declan. I’ve managed as a party of one just fine all these years. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

With a grace she didn’t realize she possessed, she navigated the walk to the guest room without falling to pieces. But only just barely. Behind her locked door, she let the tatters of her heart fall along with her tears.

* * *

SEVERAL HOURS ANDtwo-thirds of a bottle of scotch later, Dex realized Andi had taken the letters with her. Truth be told, she took a lot more from him than those letters. He unleashed a string of vulgarities as he tried, and failed, to get up from the sofa. From somewhere in the study, Morag scolded him with a baleful meow.

“Not you, too.” He wadded up his bowtie and tossed it in the direction of the cat’s caterwauling. “Keep out of this, ya wee beastie.”

The bloody cat had the nerve to move within his field of vision. She was wise enough to stay out of reach, however, sitting on the chess table and staring him down with a look of cold disdain that looked eerily similar to the one his ma used on him when he was a wild youth.

“Aye, cat, I ken. I’ve mucked things up royally.”

Morag responded with a condescending meow. He arched an eyebrow at the bloody cat. At least, he tried to. He couldn’t really feel his face at the moment, so he wasn’t sure what his expression looked like. Giving in to gravity, he rested his spinning head back down against the cushion.

“The thing is, for a wee moment tonight, I really did think I could have it all, ya ken?”

He’d known exactly what she’d been asking when she told him she wanted it all. All the things the contract stipulated she would not have. And damned if at that moment, he didn’t want the same thing. The happily ever after. A lifetime of waking up next to Andi, seeing her smile, keeping her safe. A future.

All the things he’d taken away from Niall.

No, it was good she’d found the letters, he told himself. It was better that she hated him. Besides, she could never hate him as much as he hated himself.

Morag continued to lecture him with a series of loud meows.

“Aw, pipe down. I know I hurt her. But I warned the lass upfront. I can’t give her what she wants. Ever.”

The dull ache in his chest he’d been trying to numb with scotch persisted. He took another swallow from the bottle dangling from his fingertips. “Once she knows the truth, she won’t want me any longer anyways.”

The cat made a frustrated sound.

“Argue with me all ye want, silly cat. But it’s true. Sweet Andi won’t want anything to do with me once she finds out I killed my best friend.”