They look up at me in surprise, and I don’t have to fake the surprise on my own face. “Jack. What are you doing here?”
“Oh, just came to see my brother, but Michelle tells me he isn’t home,” he says. He’s just as handsome as I remember, somehow so devilishly charming with just a single glance in my direction, but I won’t fall for it.
“Well he’s not here, so you can feel free to slither back to wherever you came from.” I smile sweetly, giving him the Michelle smile I’ve come to perfect over the last few weeks.
“Oh, but I have a whole two hours free, so I’d love to get to know my new sister-in-law a little better,” he says.
I give him a tight smile. “Some of us have jobs,” I say, glancing over at Michelle pointedly as I wonder why she isn’t at hers, “so I’m unable to entertain you at the moment.”
“I can entertain you,” Michelle says. “I’m free all day.”
I wonder exactly what sort of entertaining Michelle is going to be doing, but I really do have work to do. Greg sent me the contact information for three of the Aces teammates who are interested in my services, so I have three plans to draft to try to sell them on why they need PCPR to handle their publicity. Each of the three has slightly different goals, so it’s not just some easy cut and paste job. I need to be precise as I tailor plans to each man.
“It’s as lovely as ever to see you, Jack,” I say with as much sincerity as I can muster. It’s true. It’s as lovely as ever—which isn’t very lovely at all. “I hope you lose on Sunday.” I smirk and turn to leave as he bellows out a laugh.
“Oh, silly, sweet, misguided Ellie.” His tone is mocking, and I want to slap him. “You really don’t know much about the game, do you?” I turn back around at his insult to find him leering in my direction. “Not only are we going to beat the Aces, but we’re going to beat them handily. Tell Luke to watch out for Allen Hammond.” He winks at me, and I repeat the name three times to myself so I can look him up when I get back to my office.
“Break a leg,” I say back, meaning those words literally rather than figuratively. “Oh, sorry. Is that appropriate for football? Or is that more suited for drama?” I shrug and play dumb. “Well, plenty of drama here, am I right?” I leave those as my parting words as I head back toward my office.
The first thing I do is type Allen Hammond into the search bar. I learn he’s a safety for the Broncos. I look up what a safety does and discover that their job is to stop the offense from scoring at all costs.
And then I look up a little more on Allen. Apparently he’s known for his extremely aggressive behavior when it comes to stopping wide receivers. He’s famous for launching himself into opponents trying to catch the ball, in particular shoving a shoulder into their chests to knock the wind out of them and hurt them just enough to sideline them for a few plays. He’s intentional with his hits, but he doesn’t catch penalties since there’s nothing illegal about chest hits.
I’m sure Luke knows how to deal with aggressive safeties. It’s part of his job, after all.
But this just gives me one more thing to worry about.
CHAPTER 23
The three of us sit down to dinner an hour after Luke gets home. Today’s training camp session was slightly less intense than previous days to give players a bit of a break to rest before Sunday’s game. Luke’s plate is nearly empty, and I’m almost done, too. Michelle takes an hour and a half to eat three bites of pasta, and I don’t have the energy to play hostess to her tonight.
Especially not when I need answers.
My plate is empty, and I take mine and Luke’s to the sink when I decide I can’t sit on this any longer. Rather than talk privately to Luke, rather than stew over it, rather than have a conversation with Michelle, I blurt out the question that’s weighed on my mind since this afternoon when I return to the table.
“Hey, Michelle, you want to explain to Luke and me why you and Jack kissed earlier?”
Her eyes widen as she looks across the table at me.
She’s caught, and her expression says it all. Not only did I catch her doing something she didn’t think I knew about, but I also caught her off guard with my question.
Her eyes edge over to Luke to gauge his reaction.
“It was a friendly greeting,” she says, brushing off my accusatory tone. “He’s become a good friend to me the last few weeks.”
I nod, my expression dripping with sarcasm. “Right. So that’s why you told him he shouldn’t be here and he said something about it being easy to pretend he’s here to visit Luke.”
Her brows dip. She had no idea that I heard everything.
“He said what?” Luke asks. “He wouldn’t come here to see me. Not before a game.” He turns his angry gaze on Michelle. “What was he doing here?”
“I told you, he’s become a good friend to me,” she says. She’s maintaining her cool, but there are little things that tip me off to the truth. The way her eyes dart around a little like she’s trying to come up with a sufficient lie, for example. The way she taps her fork lightly against her plate without even realizing she’s doing it. The way she takes a big bite of pasta to fill her mouth so she can think up more lies.
“How good?” Luke sneers, his tone full of innuendo.
“Why do you even care? It’s not like you want to be with me.”
Luke lets out a maniacal little laugh. “No, you’re certainly right about that. But I have a right to know. You’re carrying my child and you’re living in my house while claiming you’re still in love with me. Are you sleeping with my brother?”
She smirks. “Wouldn’t that be great if I was? A great way to poke the beast in you. To get you to wake up and see you should be with me.”
I roll my eyes. I can’t even muster up a good response to that joke of a line.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Luke says. “You of all people know where I stand with my brother. You and me may not have ended on the best terms, but when we were together, I let you in. And for you to run to him, even as a friend...” He trails off and shakes his head. “It’s a betrayal.”
“Luke, no, it’s not like that,” she says. She’s already starting to whine, and I am not here for it.
“Then what’s it like?” I spit.
She glares at me before her eyes dart to Luke. “You told him he could have me.” There’s a bit of desperation in her tone. “You called him in front of me and said he was my problem now. You gave both of us permission.”
“Because you called me a fucking loser when I got home from the playoff game that sent his team to the Super Bowl,” Luke says, his voice increasing to a yell before it falls eerily quiet with his next sentence. “You told me you wanted to be with a winner like Jack instead of a fucking loser like me.”
Whoa.
I knew she called him a loser...but I did not know about the part where she called Jack a winner. What a low blow from someone who claims to love him.
Just more examples of how he has surrounded himself with all the wrong people his entire life.