Duke-ing It Out by Jami Albright
Sienna
As soon as Duke pulls the car back onto the highway, I release the breath I’ve been holding since hearing that my dad gave Duke permission to view my medical records. That’s when I knew I was done.
Done with tennis.
Done with this crazy life.
Done with my dad.
I ignore the ache just below my ribs. The fact is that Robert Ramsey hasn’t really been my dad for a long time.
It breaks my heart to remember that he used to be the best father around for his losing daughter.
That’s alright, sugar, you’ll get ’em next time.
How about we rub a little ice cream on the sting of that loss?
I’d love you whether you could swing a tennis racket or not.
Ironically, the more tournaments I won, the less and less like the father I used to know he became.
Tears press against my eyes, but I swallow the hurt, square my shoulders, and stuff all those emotions into the gigantic emotional suitcase that I carry around with me every damn day.
A fire slice of pain cuts through my back, and I suck in a sharp breath. “Damn it.” I readjust myself in the back seat, trying to get into a position that doesn’t make me feel like a ninety-year-old woman, instead of the twenty-five-year-old that I am.
“You okay back there?” Duke asks.
“Dandy.” But I’m not, and I’m sure he knows it, too, which chaps my ass.
He glances at me in the rearview mirror. “Want me to pull over so you can get into the front seat?”
“That would be great. Thanks.” It grates that Duke Wayne is the man I’m going to owe for getting me out of here. He and my dad are similar in a lot of ways, though Duke isn’t as win at all costs as my dad, but he is the reigning Mr. You’re Wasting Your Potential.
Every time he says it—and he’s said it or insinuated it many, many times in the last two months—I want to punch him in the gut. But that would’ve been difficult. Our association has been mostly virtual, since he lives in Texas and I have an insane travel schedule. It was tricky at times, but he made it work. He coordinated with my massage therapist, and we’d get online three days a week to deal with my old back injury, which was improving. It kills me to say it, but the guy is extremely good at his job.
I could like him if he wasn’t so serious all the damn time. Makes me want to ruffle his perfect hair above his flawless face with his gorgeous and distracting moss-green eyes. So why am I climbing into the front seat of his rental? He stood up to my father, and he’s the only one who ever has.
I close the car door and click my seatbelt into place.
“Adjust the seat however you need to.” My savior—a depressing and horrifying thought—says to me from behind the wheel.
“Thanks.” I do as he says, leaning the seat back some to get in a better position.
“Here.” He pulls his jacket off and hands it to me. “Use this for support if you need to take pressure off your back.”
“Thank you.” The words sound like they’re being chipped from concrete with a spoon.
His low, rumbling chuckle fills the car and swirls around my lower belly. “This is killing you, isn’t it?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Uh-huh.” He slips the car into gear, and we drive in silence for several long moments. The tension in the vehicle is so thick you could roll it up and make tension-filled doughballs. Oh, Duke looks all casual with his hand thrown over the steering wheel, but the muscle in his jaw is popping and spasming so bad that it looks like someone taught the thing to twerk.
I can’t help the snort that shoots from my mouth.
He cuts his eyes to me. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing.”
“It’s not nothing.”
I’m not going to tell him that his muscle looks like it’s a backup dancer in a Cardi B. video. He already thinks I’m an idiot. “I’m giddy with relief.”
His green eyes narrow. “Mm-hmm.”
“So where are we going?” I try to sound like we’re just out for a Sunday drive, but I know I miss the mark.
“I have a flight back to Texas in a few hours. I’m not sure where you’re going.”
“That’s fine. Texas sounds nice.”
He pulls to the side of the road again and stares at me. Good grief, at this pace, we’ll never get out of town.
“What?” I don’t like the way he’s looking at me. Like I’m defective or something.
“How exactly are you going to get through an airport without being recognized?” His brows may as well form a question mark with how high they’ve hiked up his forehead.
“I …Well, I could …” He’s right. The press is already here in Vail, and it’s such a small town and airport, there’s no way I can get out of here undetected. “We could drive.” I sound like Sally Sunshine huffing paint fumes.
“Drive? Do you know how far it is to Fort Worth from here?” He shakes his head. “Drive, my ass.”
I pull up the map app on my phone and punch in our destination. “It says it’s fourteen hours from here to Fort Worth. That’s nothing.”
He just stares at me.
And stares.
Yep, he’s still staring.
“What?”
“So now you’re going home with me?”
“No.” I shake my head. “No,” I say more adamantly. “You get me to Texas, and I’ll figure out my next move.” But then a thought occurs to me. “Actually, it might not be a bad idea for me to stay with you. My dad would never look for me with you.”
He look like he’s just sustained a blow to the head. “That’s a horrible idea.”
“Why?”
“Because it is. Besides, why not just tell your dad that you’re taking a break and be done with it?”
Because that would require me to unpack my figurative Louis Vuitton bag and not only examine those feelings but share them with my father. Not going to happen. “He doesn’t listen to me.”
“You’ve told him that you need a break.”
I don’t like the skepticism in his voice. “Come on, Duke, let’s get a move on.” I tap my wrist where a watch would be. “We’re burning daylight.”
“Sienna.”
I huff out a breath. “Not in so many words, but it wouldn’t matter.” I can’t quite meet his eyes. “You know him.”
“Pulling stupid stunts hoping he’ll get the message isn’t the way to—”
“I’m tired, Duke. Tired and hurt, and I just want something normal in my life. I know that at some point I have to insist that my dad treat me like an adult, but today isn’t that day.”
He doesn’t say anything, only looks at me with that intense stare that can peel the skin from your body. The one where he looks at what’s under your skin and finds you wanting.
The one I hate.
I’ve got things, soul deep things, that I don’t want to look too closely at, and I certainly don’t want a man who finds me so flawed digging around in my private thoughts.
Finally, he nods. “If you want normal, Sienna, then that’s what you’ll get.”
Yay, I win! But before I can celebrate, I see a smug grin sneak onto Duke’s face. It’s there and gone so fast, but I’m sure I saw it. “What’s that?” I point in the direction of his mouth.
“Nothing.”
“That wasn’t nothing.”
He shrugs. “Just be careful what you wish for, is all.”
Unease skitters around my chest and lands like a lead weight in my gut. He’s agreed to this way too easily. “What does that mean?”
Once again, he puts the car in drive and pulls back onto the highway, hopefully for the last time. “You’ll see.”
And I do not like the glint in those gorgeous green eyes.