Traded by Lisa Suzanne
CHAPTER 23
Jack saunters down into the kitchen in Aces workout gear the next morning. “We’re heading to the Complex today,” he says. “We leave in ten minutes.”
“What’s the Complex?” I ask.
“The practice facility.” He says it like this is something I should know.
“Okay,” I say, even though what I really want to say is something about how it would’ve been nice to know that yesterday if I had some freaking access to his damn calendar.
I climb into his truck and hold on for dear life as he weaves in and out of traffic. “I need to go to Los Angeles tomorrow. I emailed you the details just before we left so you can book your travel while you wait around for me today.”
“What for?” I ask, wondering whether this has something to do with Michelle.
“Aren’t you full of questions?” he murmurs.
I chuckle. “Just wondering what’s on tap.”
“I’ll be fucking around with some friends and we’ll probably hit the strip clubs. I’ll do what I can to get arrested, and for sure I’ll make headlines probably with whatever stripper is the hottest. And since Los Angeles is, well, the city of angels, and I’ve never met an angel I didn’t want to fu—”
“All right, all right,” I say, holding up a hand as I cut him off. At least I’m starting to get a little bit of a read on him. Sometimes. “What are you really going to do?”
He laughs. “I need to meet with my agent and I’m scheduled to film an endorsement spot. Does all that meet with your approval?”
I purse my lips and cross my arms over my chest. “It’s fine.”
We ride in silence, and I don’t get why sometimes he’s such a dick and other times he’s almost semi-nice to me. His moods swing wildly and it’s like I’m on a roller coaster I can’t seem to get off.
“What are you doing at the Complex today?” I ask as I try to make conversation.
“Meeting some of the coaches and a few of the guys on the offensive line for a casual workout. It’s just for whoever’s in town and free to swing by.”
“And you’re proving you’re a team player by showing up?”
“Bingo,” he says with a smile. “See? My ego isn’t that big.”
I snort, and he narrows his eyes in my direction.
“I’ve been in the business long enough to realize the importance of building a team from the word go, and they didn’t bring me here to sit on a bench even though Calvin keeps making empty threats.” He floors it as a light turns yellow rather than stopping. “They brought me here to fucking win, and the sooner I get to know the men on my line, the sooner we can start working to earn our Ws.”
“Will your brother be here today?”
He lifts a shoulder. “Probably not. He’s not doing full workouts yet with his knee still in recovery.”
“Do you know any of the other guys you’ll be playing with?” I ask.
“A few. Some through my brother, some because I’ve played against them. You get to know some guys, get to be friendly with others.”
“Even with the enemy?” My tone is light.
His answer is not. “Better to know your enemy, right?” I can’t help but think we’re no longer talking about football.
I’m just not sure whether he means me, Michelle, or somebody else entirely.
We arrive at the Complex, and he heads toward a locker room. He deposits me in a room that looks like a classroom on the way. It’s a small room with two rows of tables set up five tables deep each. Each table has two chairs behind it, and they all face forward to a single desk at the front of the room with a huge screen behind it. “I have a meeting in the room across the hall from here before the workout. You can wait in here until we’re done with the meeting, and then we’re heading to the weight room on the opposite side of the building. There’s a community room over there where families can watch workouts, so you can go there.”
“Aw, you think of me as family?” I ask.
He chuckles. “You’re basically like my mother.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Please don’t ever say that again.”
This time the chuckle turns into a full-on laugh.
“How long will you be?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Don’t know. It’s my first meeting as an Aces teammate.” He leaves at those words and heads across the hall, and I’m left to my own devices.
I find the email he sent me with his flights. He gave me the contact information to book the open first-class tickets next to him, so I call the airline and with the snap of a finger, my flights are booked.
I can’t say I’m not a little excited at the chance to go to Los Angeles...even though it’s for work.
I also can’t say I’m not totally terrified to travel alone with Jack Dalton. Not because of the job. So far he’s made that pretty easy.
But because I’m a little worried about the threat he poses to my heart. I hated him with an icy passion at first, but that hate has thawed into something else. Fire tends to do that to ice.
His meeting lasts about a half hour, and I hear jubilation and excitement coming from the room across the hall throughout those thirty minutes since they left the door open. I can’t really make out the specifics, but I can both hear and feel the excitement in the air.
Jack peeks his head into my room. “Come on,” he says, and I jump up to join him—mostly because I’m certain I’ll get lost in these hallways without an escort.
“This is my assistant, Kia,” he says by way of introduction, and my eyes widen as I’m suddenly surrounded by four members of the Vegas Aces. “And this is Jaxon Bryant, Cory Marshall, Andre Irvin, and you know Josh Nolan.”
“Oh my God,” I murmur, and my brain completely misses that Jack just called me Kia. I know who every single one of these men is, and despite the fact that I’ve been working with Jack over the last couple weeks and I’ve met his brother and Josh, it’s still a little surreal to be standing in these hallways like this is all normal to just be introduced to some of the greatest running backs and receivers to ever take the field. “I can’t believe I’m standing here with all of you.”
“She’s not a crazy fan,” Jack says.
“Damn,” Cory says, and he offers me a teasing grin. “She had some good potential until you said that.”
An older man appears from the doorway of the classroom where they just held their meeting, and he looks familiar, like I’ve seen him standing on the sidelines on Sundays as I watched the Aces games on television. “The others should already be in the weight room,” he says, and he moves to the front of the pack and starts his trek in that direction. The men all turn to follow him with Jack up in front, and I head up the back of the pack, still a little shaken that I’m in the presence of all this greatness.
I’m in a daze as we approach the weight room, and Jack hangs back. He points to a room with a wall of windows that overlooks the weight room. “You can wait in there,” he says. The room is empty right now, but it looks like the kind of place where team families with children can hang out or where maybe groups of fans could pay or win their way in to watch workouts. It’s outfitted with couches and televisions and tables with chairs, and the back half of the room is fully dedicated to entertainment for kids.
A brief flash of a future toddler JJ flashes through my mind as I settle in by myself. I haven’t spent a ton of time around him since he’s at daycare most days and Brooke keeps him occupied in the evenings, but I can imagine driving him over to watch his daddy run through his workouts.
I glance at Jack on the other side of the glass. His eyes meet mine, and that same heat that always passes between us is there.
Someone must call his name, because he breaks our gaze and turns toward one of the other guys he’s working out with.
And then reality plows into me.
My job here only lasts through February. I probably won’t get the chance to see a toddler JJ as he watches daddy through the glass. I won’t get to hear his first words.
He’s not mine to care for even if I’m starting to fall for him.
And it’s that final thought that drives a wedge of confusion right through my heart.
I don’t know if I’m referring to JJ...or to his daddy.
Either way, I think I’m screwed. It’s time to change the direction of this ship before things get really complicated.
