Nick Read online

  Worse if they’re the gossip columns.

  I’m not saying that some of the shit isn’t true; it’s just how they dish the truth, and this particular truth is one that rubbed me the wrong way.

  It’s rubbed me the wrong way because of the other truth it brought along with it.

  The truth that Louise is the second woman to make me feel like this.

  It’s not that I’m still in love with her. I’m not. Not at all. I moved on and managed to get past the whole ordeal.

  What I never got past is the hurt and disappointment.

  The first person to do this to me was Tania, my best friend. But the funny thing about it is she doesn’t know.

  It’s something I filed to the back of beyond, right out of my mind because I had to accept the truth for what it was that we were just friends, but it’s times like these when I think about it.

  Times when I get the reminder. Realistically though, Louise is the only girlfriend I’ve ever proposed to, so I’m all kinds of self-pity tonight.

  Today just put me in a mood I can’t shake, and when I get like this, there’s only one thing that can fix me.

  A text comes through on my phone that brings a smile to my face when I read it.

  Should I bring flavored condoms and lube, or have you got some from last time? x

  That is what Rachel is asking. When I think of the wild night I’m going to have with her, I feel a little better in the sense that I can shove this shit to the back of my mind.

  Not sit here thinking of how much of an idiot I was to be a fool to Louise not just once, but twice.

  It’s only Tony who knows that little secret. The first time I was with

  her, we were together for eighteen months. Then there was a break of ten months. We got back together early last year for six months, and that was it. Her answer when I asked her to marry me was that she wanted to break up.

  She didn’t want a long-distance relationship, and she didn’t want to be with me.

  Tony was the only person I was able to tell that crazy story to

  because I was so crushed about it.

  So that’s why I feel like shit, hearing how she doesn’t mind traveling from one corner of the globe to another for her new love.

  The first time we broke up was because of Tania.

  Louise didn’t like Tania and gave me the ultimatum. She wanted me to choose. Her or Tania.

  She wanted me to choose between her or my best friend.

  I said no.

  Sure, it’s not that common to have a girl for a best friend. I won’t be the first guy, and I know I won’t be the last. Women just automatically hate that fact about me, though.

  And it’s not like Tania makes it easy on me either. Not at fucking all.

  She’ll give as much as she gets in an argument, and the looks she gives to anybody she doesn’t like are enough to kill. Although I’m two years older than her, I had to endure it all through high school and college. I had to endure it too all through my time playing for the Hawks.

  I never told her when Louise and I got back together because I knew she couldn’t stand her, and I wanted to give the relationship a chance. I knew she’d come around to the idea if she saw that Louise was for keeps.

  It doesn’t matter now. None of it.

  I have a best friend who is completely oblivious to how I’ve truly felt about her since the dawn of time, and I always seem to keep picking these women who aren’t good for me.

  What I need is a no-strings woman, so Miss Rachel will hit the spot tonight.

  She’s a hot little stripper the guys and I found at the strip club we frequent often, and she doesn’t mind dropping whatever she has for me whether I pay her or not.

  I’m about to message her back when the doorbell rings.

  I’m not expecting anybody else tonight, not unless Rachel is already here.

  My damn dick is already twitching just thinking about being inside her, so I get up and make my way over to the door.

  I open it and don’t even get the chance to register who it is before arms surround me. Dainty arms and a dark head of hair press against my bare skin. I’m shirtless with just my sweats on, and from the feel of the little woman crying in my arms who I’ve known for a lifetime, I’m pretty certain she’s naked under this coat.

  “Tania, what happened?” I ask, pulling her inside.

  I close the door to shut out the draft from the night air and take hold of her shoulders as she sobs.

  “Baby, what’s wrong?” I ask again, but she shakes her head.

  I manage to get her over to the sofa where I sit her down and grab a blanket to cover her legs. As she sits, the little coat rides up her thighs, and I can most assuredly tell she’s naked under it.

  “Owen…” she breathes through tears and pushes her long dark locks over her shoulder.

  I stifle a groan. I do. I hate that prick.

  I hate him for more reasons than one. He’s another that’s a thorn in my side. It won’t take much for me to beat the shit out of him if he’s hurt her.

  “What happened with Owen?” I can’t even stand to say his name. He’s one of those people that just irk me with his holier than thou attitude.

  He doesn’t like me and did not attempt to hide his dislike or his disapproval of my friendship with Tania.

  “He’s ma…rried…” she splutters. I’m not sure I heard her right. No way she said what I think she said.

  “Say that again, baby,” I say.

  She wipes fresh tears away with the heel of her hand but more come. Then her bright green eyes find mine and there’s so much sadness in them that it grips me.

  “He’s married Nick. I walked in on him with his wife.” I can’t believe it.

  “Motherfucker!” I leap to my feet and walk over to the coat stand to grab my jacket.

  She rushes to me and grabs it before I can get it on. She won’t win. Her with her five feet and four inches in stilettos is still nothing in comparison to my six feet and six inches I have over her.

  What gets me to back down is the way she looks.

  “Nick, no,” she says, shaking her head.

  I growl, baring my teeth. “Fuck, what the hell do mean by no? Are you kidding me?”

  She tightens her grip on the jacket, yanking it back to her, but I don’t let go. This shit grates me the wrong way for so many reasons.

  Yes, I can’t stand Owen, but that’s a personal thing. But what he’s done is something I know that hurt her more than deeply because her father did something similar.

  She winces and yanks again on the jacket, holding her own coat to stop it from falling open and revealing her nakedness.

  I’m not sure what pisses me off more. Knowing she had some night planned with that asshole who didn’t deserve her, or what he’s done.

  I’m man enough and friend enough to look past my fury and see that she needs me.

  I stop pulling on the coat and reach for her again, pulling her into my arms, where she cries harder.

  “Baby, I’m so sorry. I want to kill him,” I tell her.

  “No, don’t,” she whispers. “I’m the bad guy, Nick. Me. You should have seen her face. His wife. The way she looked at me was awful. She looked as disappointed as my mother did when she found out about Dad. I’m the other woman Nick.” She starts shaking. “I loved him so much.”

  I sigh and press my head to hers, holding her closer to me. I feel like an asshole. She’s never, ever confessed love for anyone like that before. Never.

  “Tell me what you need, baby,” I say, feeling her pain. I feel it and remember how heartbroken she was when her family found out the truth about her father and the fucking double life he lived.

  “I need you,” she answers. And like always, when we have moments like these, I think of what she means to me. “I just…need you.”

  “I’m here. Don’t worry, I’m here.” I rub her back, and she buries her face into my chest. “Go on upstairs and grab one of my j
erseys and I’ll make you some hot chocolate.”

  That always makes her feel better. I know it’s nothing, such a simple thing, but I do it when she’s upset like how she is now.

  She pulls back and sniffles. “Thank you, I’d love that.”

  “Go on, I’ll be up in a minute.”

  She slips off her heels and walks up the stairs. The first thing I do is grab my phone.

  I find Rachel’s message and send my reply:

  Sorry babe. Can’t do tonight. Something came up…

  That’s what we do, leave it open. Never rearrange, so she knows what to expect.

  She replies in seconds.

  No worries, until next time. Miss your body already…

  If Tania ever knew I was associating myself now with strippers who made house calls, she’d lose it.

  I can’t think of that now.

  What a damn night. I still want to kill that bastard.

  I’ll wait until morning to see what she wants me to do. I can’t leave it alone.

  I’m not allowing Owen to get away with this. He can’t, and I don’t think I should allow it, no matter what Tania tells me.

  I see men cheating all the time, and I know she’d been careful and mindful to avoid anyone she felt would cheat. So this cuts me deep.

  What’s even worse is that asshole all but threatened me, telling me I needed to keep my distance from Tania. He said the lines of friendship looked blurred to him and he didn’t like it.

  He didn’t like how much she relied on me and couldn’t understand why I had to be around so much.

  I never told her about that little encounter, and I never knocked his teeth down his throat for coming to talk that shit to me for two reasons.

  The first and foremost reason was that I knew how much she was into him, and the second reason was the man wasn’t completely wrong.

  He was right.

  Anybody who looks at me can tell. They can see straight off the bat that Tania means more to me than friends.

  It’s the same reason I have trouble making my girlfriends believe Tania is just my friend.

  They look at me and they see more than what meets the eyes. They look at me and see I care more than I should. Often, I can’t control that lingering stare I give her when she says something to fascinate me.

  It’s not her who was the problem.

  It’s me.

  And clearly, that’s the thing I’m still hung up on even when I know

  Tania doesn’t see me that way.

  Nick

  Morning comes, and I barely slept.

  I spent the night alternating between trying to sleep and comforting Tania. I got the spare room for her, and that was where I left her when she said she was going to bed. That was sometime after midnight.

  I only woke up one hour later to find her in my bed with the jersey riding up her hips and her ass pressed up against my damn dick.

  Thankfully she was wearing a pair of shorts she must have left here from the last time she stayed over, but the thing looked like lingerie.

  That sent me downstairs to the sofa where I just shuffled between asleep and awake.

  When I did finally get to sleep, I woke up to what sounded like someone breaking in.

  Except it wasn’t, it was Tony, and he’s still using the spare keys I gave him when I was vacationing in Florida.

  He’s in the kitchen drinking my coffee and eating my waffles. Feet up on the table like he owns the place.

  When he sees me he tips his head and smiles.

  “Bro, you look like shit,” he states with a laugh.

  “What the fuck is the time?” I glance at the clock on the wall and see it’s seven. Not uncommon for him to come around at this hour. What’s out of sync is me.

  He laughs. “Wild night with Rachel?”

  “No…why are you here, Tony?”

  “Because we’re meeting with Brian today. You forgot? Come on, man. Today’s a big day,” he says, giving me an incredulous glare.

  I bring a hand to my head. I can’t believe I forgot. Today is big. We have a meeting with the team owner about the football summer camp we want to set up for under-eighteens. We want him to invest and put his name to it, which would mean better prospects of success, and we could go places with the whole idea.

  How could I forget something so important?

  “Okay, I need coffee. Lots of it. Today will happen, just give me an hour to wake up.” We’re meeting Brian at eight-thirty. The man is busy and fitting us into his crazy schedule.

  Tony and I work together. He’s my assistant but more so my right-hand man and the guy who usually stops me from going insane with the amount of work we sometimes have to do.

  We have two months before we get crazy busy too with the drafts season. I want to utilize the time I have now.

  “Good, because I also want to talk to you about O’Shea.” He takes his feet off the table and sets the coffee cup down. I don’t like the serious expression on his face.

  O’Shea was the kid I picked last draft season. The guy reminds me of myself at his age. Born and raised in Chicago like me and linebacker like I was. He works well with the team. We did well last season because of him, which tells me the other guys need to shape up.

  Or, maybe it’s him that needs to. The look of seriousness deepens in Tony’s eyes.

  “What’s up?” I ask.

  “I think he’s using.”

  “Oh, fuck! Motherfucker!” I balk and slam my fist down on to the table.

  The impact knocks over the coffee cup, spilling the contents over the hard pine surface.

  Tony’s shoulders slump. “Yeah, that’s what I said too.”

  “What happened? Just give it to me.”

  “Rodriquez saw him buying from a dealer and snorting. He thinks it’s cocaine or ecstasy.”

  I sigh with deep frustration. “God, why do you hate me? Okay, lets…”

  I think about it. I can’t just go talk to him. I work with the players but not like that. It’s Coach who’s responsible for them and for checking up on shit like that. No one can be blamed for this sort of thing. Oshea should know better.

  “Let’s talk to Coach and get him to keep an eye out. If he’s using, we need to either get him to stop or get him help. We can’t have him on the team and turn a blind eye,” I state.

  That happened on my college team to the quarterback. Everybody turned a blind eye until he ended up in the bottom of the ravine dead with three other players. They were driving back from a homecoming game.

  It was horrible and the sort of thing to leave a mark on a person. Those guys were friends and teammates. Wouldn’t listen to me.

  I never tried drugs because I was too focused on my career to fuck it up with something like that.

  What fucked me over was my injury, but I got a good run of the sport before that came to get me. The way I played it was only a matter of time before I injured myself.

  Now I take care of the team with whatever they need, so I view alcohol and drug problems seriously.

  The kitchen door opens and Tania comes in.

  She gives us both a little smile.

  Although her eyes are puffy and her skin blotchy, she still looks beautiful. While my jersey swamps her tiny frame, it does a good job of showing off her fine assets. Perfectly rounded breasts and curves a man could get lost in; that body of hers is pure temptation.

  I had to stop her from coming over whenever the guys were around because I knew there was a chance I might kill someone just for looking at her the way I am now.

  “Hi boys,” she says, walking over to the cupboard to get a cup.

  Tony just looks at her, then looks at me, taking a few seconds before he gives his answer.

  “Hello, Dr. Tania Peterson,” Tony replies with a wink. “My, they sure are making doctors better looking than they used to.”

  She shakes her head at him and opens the cupboard door.

  I already know what he thinks before he can
say it. The wild, fascinated look he gives me and her tells all.

  I roll my eyes at him and get up to make whatever she wants.

  “Baby, let me get that for you,” I say to her. “Want some more hot chocolate?”

  “Yeah, thank you,” she nods.

  “How are you feeling?”

  She shakes her head and presses her lips together. “I have to be okay. I have my patients.” She blinks like she’s going to cry again and walks out.

  I’m happy she’s at least the kind of person that can still go to work when the shit hits the fan. I think it has something to do with being a doctor.

  “Well, hell,” Tony says, giving me an accusing glare. “What did you two get up to last night?”

  “Tony, please…not now.”

  “What happened, looked like she was crying?”

  I move back over to him so I can whisper and just give him a summary of what happened.

  I expect him to at least looked shocked; instead, he smiles.

  He gives me a shit-eating grin and nods like he’s got the best idea ever.

  “What the hell’s the matter with you? Why are you smiling like that?” I frown at him.

  “Bro.” He shakes his head at me. “The question is, why aren’t you smiling?”

  I can’t believe this guy sometimes. “Tony, it’s a bad thing to happen.”

  “You hate that guy. This is your chance. It’s the door of opportunity that’s flung itself open because that asshole was thinking with his dick.”

  “Tony, what the hell are you saying to me?”

  “You know what I’m saying, Nick. Let’s cut the shit. I see the way you look at her. You like her more than what you show.”

  “She’s my friend,” I answer, like that’s going to stop him from continuing his tirade. It’s not the first time we’ve had this conversation.

  He shakes his blond head, and his dark eyes sparkle with mischief. “Friend? Come on now. You’re still gonna sell me that story? I’ve known you for years. Ten years we’ve been friends. From college ball to pro ball and beyond and guess who’s been along for the ride? Her. She’s your constant.”