Fair Play (58 page)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Angel

I’ve learned three things since leaving California four weeks ago. One, flying doesn’t agree with me, so much so that I’m considering a cross-country drive for my trip home in two weeks.

Two, New Yorkers aren’t as mean as I thought they would be. I’ve only been flipped off once, and Felipe says that’s amazing for a tourist. The National Ballet Company assigned him to me to show me around while I’m here, and he has been my savior.

And three, absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. It breaks it.

I have spoken to River a total of two times over the past four weeks. Once was to tell him I made it safely to New York, and another to tell him I got to see the Statue of Liberty.

We exchanged a couple of texts, but other than that, it’s been total radio silence. What’s worse is I think he’s doing it on purpose.

The story of his brother’s beating and the police’s suspicion that River may have something to do with it has been clogging the Internet and tabloids since I left.

There was tension in his voice the first time I called him. He’s protecting me from his corrupt media by distancing himself. I get it, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

For the first time in my life, I have a boyfriend who gives a damn about me and wants what’s best for me. River isn’t in it for what he can get from me. He loves me for who I am, a passionate, focused dancer. Or at least, I hope he still does.

The problem is that River loved me so much, he encouraged me to spread my wings and fly. But when I did, he went back into his mansion and closed the door.

I miss his hands on my curves and the way he made me laugh, our playful bickering, and even tickle torture.

A knock on my door interrupts my mini pity party. I jump up to answer it and instantly sit back down on the edge of the bed. My head is spinning, and I see a halo of tiny speckled stars.

“Just a sec, I’ll be right there.” I take several deep breaths and try again. No stars this time, and the slanted room has righted itself.

Felipe is on his way to take me to lunch with three women I’ll be dancing with tonight at IBC.

I swing open the door, and instead of my new French friend, I am face to face with my old best friend, Cat.

“Oh my God, what are you doing here?” I yell and wrap my arms around her neck to hug her.

Cat’s never been the touchy-feely type, but she laughs and hugs me back.

“You borrowed my dress and never gave it back.”

I release her and step aside so she can come into my hotel room, rolling my eyes. It’s just like her to play nonchalant about visiting me in New York.

“So you came to the east coast to get it back?”

“Yeah, where’s it at?”

“Sorry, it’s back in Cali. You should have called first.” I close the door and stand with my hands on my hip and my eyebrows lifted, playing her game.

“Oh shut up, I came to see my big shot best friend dance in the big city. You didn’t even tell me you were leaving. I had to find out secondhand from your boyfriend at a dinner party my parents had.”

Every muscle in my body locks up. River was at a dinner party? It dawns on me just how out of touch I’ve been with him. I know he’s been doing a grueling pre-season training camp, but I have no idea what he does in his limited off-time.

“Don’t worry. Pretty boy is behaving. Or at least he was a week ago when I saw him. I don’t expect he’s doing anything in his downtime this week other than icing his sore muscles and sleeping. My brother says training camp is the worst.”

“What did he tell you?”

“That you jetted out here on the National Ballet’s dime and that Cammie Onyx is your manager! What the fuck, Angel? How could you not tell me about that?”

“You don’t even know who Cammie Onyx is, do you?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. I watched a documentary on public television about famous prima ballerinas once. Every one of them had her as a manager, and every one of them is a world-famous dancer.”

She sticks out her tongue and crosses her eyes, and I laugh.

“I’m sorry, things happened so fast with River and then this, and every second of my time has been scheduled since I stepped off the plane. I’m so exhausted, and the stress has my stomach in knots.”

“Oh, poor baby. Being famous is so draining,” she says. Her voice is dripping with sarcasm, and she’s pouting and pretending to rub her eyes with her fists like a baby crying.

“I’m serious. I don’t know if it’s the time change between the west coast and the east coast or what, but I’ve never been more tired.”

“Well, you’d better not be tired tonight. We’re going out on the town. I have a room down the hall, and I’m ready to cut loose.”

I sigh and sit down on the edge of the bed next to her.

“I’m dancing tonight. It’s my debut with the National Ballet Company. There’s a dinner first, though, at seven. You wanna go too? You could come to the show after. I’ll get you backstage.”

There’s another knock at the door. It’s got to be Felipe.

“I have a lunch scheduled with the dancers I’ll be performing with tonight. Do you want to come to my room around six? It’s a formal thing. Did you bring a dress?”

“No, dummy, I came to get my dress back from you, remember?”

Felipe knocks again, and I get up to let him in.

“Hush, I don’t have your damn dress, and I know you didn’t come all the way out here with no fancy dresses. Get your butt back here at six so we can start catching up.”

“Damn, Angel, you’re gonna kick me out when I came thousands of miles to visit you?”

I open the door for Felipe.

“Hey, sorry about that. This is my best friend. She just decided to fly all the way across the country to get back a dress I borrowed from her,” I say to Felipe and gesture toward Cat.

“I’m Cat. Don’t let her borrow your clothes. She’s an Indian giver,” she says.

Cat turns to her side and slides past Felipe so closely, her breasts brush against his chest. She’s a shameless flirt.

If this were a cartoon, little blue birds would be flying in a circle above Felipe’s head and fireworks would be going off in his eyes. My poor new friend is instantly smitten with my old best friend.

“Nice to meet you … Cat …” he says as she walks away, swinging her hips, not even waiting for a formal introduction.

She waves over her shoulder. “Later, Angel. See you at six.”

Felipe is so hypnotized by Cat’s sexy hips, he doesn’t hear me invite him in. I shake my head and grab my purse.

“Let’s go, Romeo. We don’t want to be late.”

I gently push him out of my way, shaking him from his trance.

“Wow, she’s amazing.”

“Yeah, she is. She’s also a non-committing, heartbreaking party animal who will chew your heart up and spit it out. Come on, let’s go eat.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

River

I can hardly walk from my car to my parents’ front door without wincing. Training camp is kicking my ass especially hard this year, but I don’t want to miss out on a home cooked meal with my family.

Everyone is here tonight . . . well, not everyone. David is still in the hospital, but my brother, Abel, and his daughter are here visiting from New York, and Olivia and her crew are here spending a couple of days with Mom and Dad.

Noah and his family are always here, and so are James and Mark and their kids. Abigail usually has a hard time rounding her family up to come, but she’s so pregnant, I imagine she needs a break.

When we get together like this, everybody looks after everybody else’s kids, and I take care of them all.

“Don’t jump on Uncle River!” Maria yells when I’m met at the door by a laughing mob of nieces and nephews.

“He’s been working hard, and he hurts,” she says, trying to explain, but it’s too late. They are crawling all over me like Arnold Schwarzenegger in that old movie,
Kindergarten Cop
.

Marie is plucking them off one by one, but I’m okay with the pain. At least it comes with love and not criticism. Coach is brutal this year. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but his positive attitude approach to coaching this year seems to have gone out the window.

“Everybody come and sit down before dinner gets cold,” Mom yells from the kitchen, and the kids are off and running to the table.

I groan and straighten up to hug Maria.

“Lo siento. They’re just excited to see their favorite uncle,” she says, patting my back gently.

“It’s all right. I love it no matter how battered I am.” I smile down at her, and she takes my hand to lead me to the table.

“Hey, baby brother, when’s your girlfriend coming home?” Olivia says when I sit down next to her.

“She’s gone for two more weeks.”

“You miss her?” she asks.

“Yeah, like crazy, but I’m glad she’s not around for all this crap with the media about David. She doesn’t need that when things are taking off for her.”

“If you two are serious, you’ll weather these kinds of storms together. It’s called teamwork, ever heard of it?” she says and elbows me in the ribs.

I flinch and grab my side. “Oh God, sorry. I forgot you’re having your ass handed to you this month.”

“It’s okay.”

Mom had a table custom made to fit all of us, but we’re usually missing one or two people every week, so it’s particularly crowded tonight. Olivia is left-handed and I’m not, so we keep bumping arms.

“Sorry,” she says for the tenth time. “I haven’t gotten to talk to you since your sleepover at my house. Allen says you had a very nice time out by the pool.”

“I told him not to watch that. He said he would erase it.”

“He did after he watched it.” She pops a cherry tomato into her mouth and waggles her eyebrows.

“You can’t seriously expect a red-blooded man to erase a porn flick filmed by his own pool. Come on, River.”

“Yeah, I guess so. You have a very nice bed, by the way—firm yet bouncy.”

“You changed the sheets, right?”

“Yes, I did. I also borrowed a couple of condoms from your drawer. Thanks.”

She stops eating with her fork halfway to her mouth. “What?”

“We borrowed your condoms. Man, if it’s a big deal, I have a few in my wallet I can pay you back with.”

She drops her fork, and it clatters on her plate.

“Olivia, what’s the matter?” Allen says from her other side.

She whispers something into his ear, and his mouth falls open.

“Oh my God, I thought you got rid of those,” he says, setting his fork and knife down on his plate too.

“Um, what’s going on with you two? Did I use your favorite condoms?”

A hush has settled over the table, but I’m not worried. Most of them are too young to know what a condom is anyhow.

Allen takes a deep breath and blows it out, puffing his cheeks.

“Olivia and I recently decided to try and have another baby.”

“That’s awesome. Congratulations,” I say, and everyone at the table begins to congratulate them as well.

“We aren’t pregnant yet. Well, I don’t think so anyway. That’s not the point, though. When we decided, we had a little ceremony where we put a pin through all the condoms in that box,” Olivia says and stretches out the last few words of her sentence to make sure I understand exactly what she’s saying.

She blinks, and I stare at her. She blinks again, and adrenaline starts to flood my bloodstream.

Holy shit, no, no, no. I want kids, but Angel and I are nowhere near ready to start a family. We’ve only officially dated for a little over a week, over five if you count the weeks she’s been gone.

I scoot my chair away from the table, and she grabs my wrist.

“River, I am so sorry. I didn’t even think.”

“I have to go to New York.”

“River, honey, wait. You should call her first. You might be getting all worked up over nothing,” Mom says.

“I can’t tell her about this over the phone.”

“But you’ll miss training camp tomorrow. You need to be there,” she says.

“I don’t care. I’ll take the red-eye and be home tomorrow. I have to go.”

“All right, Son. I’ll pray for you. Drive safely. Your mind is all over the place. You won’t be any good to her if you have an accident.”

“I will, thanks.” I kiss her on the cheek and get on my phone on the way to my car to talk to Coach and book a flight.

He’s going to shit a brick when he finds out I’m flying to New York. Reporters follow me everywhere these days, but they aren’t trying to get a great pic of the famous football player, River Kelly. They’re competing for the juiciest picture of a fallen star suspected of trying to murder his brother.

I’m not officially supposed to leave the state, but they can kiss my ass. They can throw me in jail when I get back, but I’m going to see Angel tonight, no matter what.