Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 37344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 187(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 187(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
I’m dumbfounded by the lengths she went to just to protect me. And still, that nagging worry that she’ll eventually come to resent me for having to betray her brother lingers in the back of my mind and brings a frown to my lips.
“I’m sorry I put you in this position, Bailey. I’m sorry I forced you to choose between me and your brother,” I say.
“It was an easy choice to make,” she tells me. “But you didn’t put me in this position. Eric put himself in this position. I gave him the rope, and he hung himself.”
“I don’t want you to eventually resent me for your brother being sent away.”
She offers me a warm smile. “I won’t. Like I said, Eric did this to himself,” she says. “Besides, I think maybe now, with us not living in the same town, working in the same building, and having some actual distance between us, maybe our relationship will improve. In time. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Maybe this will make him realize that I’m a grown woman and he can’t control my life.”
“Here’s hoping,” I reply. “And hey, he’s instantly the best player in Washington. He’s going to be the big fish on their roster.”
She laughs. “He'll be the big fish, but he'll be in a much smaller pond. I hope that his time in exile is going to humble him. He desperately needs it.”
Still holding her close, I look down at her and smile. “Have I told you just how amazing I think you are?”
“Not yet today,” she replies.
“Well, you’re amazing, and I definitely don’t deserve you.”
“Damn right,” she says with a laugh. “Now, I’m famished. Take me to lunch. And then take me home and ravish me, mister.”
“I think we can do that.”
She flashes me a crooked grin. “You’re suspended. It’s not like you don’t have the time.”
“That’s true.”
I walk around to the passenger side, open the door, and look at her as she slips inside. Bailey gets settled on the seat and looks back at me.
“What?” she asks.
“Washington, huh? Might as well have sent him to Antarctica,” I say. “Remind me to never cross you. I would hate to see where I end up.”
“Then mind your manners,” she replies and tips me a wink.
“Yes ma’am.”
I close the door and walk around to the driver’s side feeling good. Really good. And I know I have the woman in the passenger seat to thank for it.
EPILOGUE
BAILEY
Three Years Later
“I think there are more people here than last year.”
I have to shout to be heard over the blaring music coming from the truck at the front of the procession. Ben leans down to hear and nods, his smile broad.
“I think you’re right,” he shouts back and laughs.
The streets are in absolute chaos. Thousands upon thousands of people line the streets, pushing and jostling each other for a better view of the double-decker buses going by. Three of the big red buses slowly roll down the street, the team, and their wives and girlfriends on the top, open-air deck waving to the adoring fans.
A mobile billboard just in front of our bus plays highlights from a second consecutive championship season—and Ben’s MVP season—on a continuous loop to the thunderous applause and cheers of the crowd.
Gabe White, the big, bulky man wraps me in a tight embrace, laughing like a lunatic. “I knew your man here was going to lead us to the promised land the day I heard we traded for him,” he says. “I knew he was the missing piece. Just as I knew you were his missing piece.”
“Nah. He just needed a dominant big man inside,” I say.
“That too is true. I guess he would be nothing without the both of us,” he crows and plants a cigar between his lips.
“That’s probably true,” Ben says.
I lean into Gabe and laugh. Over the last couple of years, he and his wife Tania have become our best friends. We do everything together, making a point to spend a couple of weeks on vacation during the offseason. This year, we’re all heading to Spain. He’s a good man and I will always remember him as Ben’s staunchest defender when that whole mess with my brother was going down. He took up for Ben when most people stood on the sidelines. That’s something I’ll always appreciate about the big man.
As for my brother, while he’s faring well in Washington as far as his personal stats go, his team hasn’t been even close to competitive. Ben was right when he said he would be the big fish on that team while I was right about it being in a tiny pond. Washington hasn’t sniffed the playoffs and with their roster construction, and I doubt they will any time soon. But Eric is a free agent after next season, so his stat padding on the worst team in the league is likely going to earn him a lucrative new deal somewhere. Maybe even with a contender.