Stealing Second Read online

  “We wait,” Channing said matter-of-factly. “I’ve instructed the lead detective to notify me immediately when they’ve concluded their investigation. I’ll relay anything I hear as quickly as possible.”

  “Thanks, Mike,” Adam said, then glanced at his watch. “We need to be on our way to the airport. Our flight leaves in about two hours. I’ll let Jade know it’s time to pack up.”

  Channing nodded as Adam brushed past him. “I’m right behind you.” The attorney extended his hand toward Trey. “You handled yourself admirably today, Trey. I’ll be in touch as soon as I hear anything.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Channing.” Trey shook Channing’s hand. “I appreciate you flying out here on such short notice.”

  “It’s Mike, and you’re welcome. I’m sorry this situation put a damper on your perfect game. I hope once this is over you’ll be able to enjoy your accomplishment.” Channing released Trey’s hand and nodded to Tom, then Katherine. “It was nice meeting you,” he said, then turned and followed Adam.

  Trey let out a short laugh, but the lack of emotion in his usually bright green eyes told a different story. “You know what? I almost forgot I threw a perfect game.” He paused, and desolation clouded his expression. Katherine felt bad for him. Although he’d caused her and her staff more than a few headaches, he didn’t deserve the hell Ava McCandless was putting him through.

  “Excuse me. I need to hit the restroom,” Trey said, then turned and left her and Tom staring at his retreating back.

  After Trey disappeared around the corner, Tom edged closer to her, the concern she’d seen earlier in his eyes still present. “Is everything okay? You looked a little shook up after you spoke to your father.”

  Now that they were alone, Katherine felt comfortable sharing the news about her father buying the team. Although she and Adam had an excellent working relationship, he wasn’t a member of the Blaze family. It wouldn’t be long before the investor group and its members’ names would be public knowledge. Until then, the only person she trusted with the information was Tom.

  “My father just informed me that he and Carlton Sprigg are part of the investor group that intends to buy the Blaze. They’re putting up the majority of the money and will be the principal owners.”

  Tom’s brows rose, then came together in a frown. “I’m not surprised to hear Sprigg is involved, but your father? Has he ever expressed interest in owning a team?”

  “No. Never.”

  “Well, it looks like I’ll be out of a job for sure now,” he said, and with unhurried movements, slipped his sport coat from his arm and pulled it on.

  “Why do you say that?” She lifted her hand to straighten his collar, then caught herself and instead brushed back a few strands of hair that had escaped the low bun at the nape of her neck.

  He shrugged a shoulder. “Your father never cared much for me.”

  “That’s not true. You were always welcome in our house.”

  “Oh, he acted like he was okay with me dating his daughter, but I could tell he disapproved. I’m sure he thought I wasn’t good enough for you.”

  “His only concern was that we were too young to be so serious, but it was never about you.”

  “So he’s not the reason we broke up?”

  “No. You are.”

  Tom’s eyes narrowed. “So you keep saying. How about telling me why that is?”

  Before she could answer, Adam, Jade and Mike Channing walked out of the conference room. “Would you like a lift to the airport?” Adam asked. “Our driver is waiting outside and there’s plenty of room in the Town Car.”

  Katherine glanced at her watch, relieved at the interruption. No way were she and Tom going to hash everything out right now. In public. “That would be lovely. Thank you, Adam.”

  * * *

  The sun had long since set when Tom penciled in Dave Rizzo’s name next to the starting pitcher slot on the lineup card for tomorrow’s game. As a former player, and now as a manager, he was used to long grueling road trips, but this one had lasted for what seemed like an eternity.

  The flight from Denver to Phoenix had been uneventful. And quiet. Trey sat near the window, silent and brooding. Katie sat in the middle seat, scared to death but hell-bent on ignoring him, and he was on the aisle, wishing he hadn’t agreed to wait until he and Katie returned to San Francisco to talk about the past.

  For years he’d believed Katie had walked away from him without the courtesy of an explanation, and it seemed she’d believed the same of him. But why? The answer to that question and a whole lot of other ones gnawed at his insides and made it difficult to concentrate on anything else. Even Seth noticed his distraction and commented on it when they met up to discuss the game the Blaze had won in Tom’s absence.

  It had been a long time since he’d physically craved a drink. But sitting in the restaurant with Seth, the urge to order a shot of whiskey to get himself back on an even keel was so strong he’d cut short their discussion and returned to his room to prepare for the team’s final game with the Diamondbacks.

  But immersing himself in stats and videotape of today’s game wasn’t cutting it. Not tonight.

  Heaving a sigh of frustration, he tossed the pencil on the table, sat back in the chair and stared out the window at the building across the street. In less than a minute, the array of lights from building windows blurred and the memories he’d used alcohol to forget appeared like some sort of coming-attraction movie trailers. They reminded him of a time in his life when he had everything he ever wanted and then, in the blink of an eye, lost the one thing that mattered most.

  Katie.

  Everyone who knew how torn up he was had assured him he’d get over her, and for a while, with the help from his new best friends, Samuel Adams and Jack Daniel’s, he thought he had. Maybe if he’d taken the job with the Rangers instead of the Blaze he would have continued to believe he’d moved on. Maybe he would have forgotten the husky sound of her laughter, or the feisty flash in her eyes whenever she was passionate about a certain topic, or the way her soft body fit so perfectly with his when they made love. Maybe, but not likely. He’d loved Katherine Aurora Whitton since he was fourteen years old, and as hard as he tried, he’d never been able to get her out of his system.

  He doubted he ever would.

  Tom blinked, and the lights came into focus. Something else did too. Whether Katie liked it or not, it was time to lay their cards on the table and settle this thing between them.

  Before they returned to San Francisco.

  * * *

  After taking a relaxing warm shower, Katherine set her phone to silent mode. It was nearly ten and she was done talking about Trey Gentry.

  To anyone.

  Nothing would be decided tonight, anyway. The amount of media requests she and Kelly had fielded in the past twenty-four hours was beyond ridiculous. And despite not having any new information, the sports media circus was still going strong. Theories and conjecture flowed like a raging river from radio and television sports analysts alike; there was no shortage of opinions. And now that Ava had announced she was selling the team, the speculation as to whom was almost as widely discussed as the attempted rape charge against Trey.

  As far as she was concerned, both topics had been debated ad nauseam. All she wanted to do for the next ten hours was sleep like the dead, and not think about Ava or Trey at all. With that thought in mind, she moved to the bed, pulled back the bedcovers and breathed a happy sigh. Hotel sheets had never looked so inviting.

  Just then, a sharp knock filled the room and startled her.

  “Katie.” Tom’s voice carried through the door. “It’s me.”

  Irritation turned to concern as she moved swiftly to the door. Trey had been unusually quiet on the flight back to Phoenix. She hoped Tom wasn’t here to tell her Trey had done something to make things worse for himself. Like get rip-roaring drunk in the hotel bar. Or invite a couple of cleat-chasers up to his room for a threesome. Both of which he�
��d done before. Several times.

  “Hold on a sec.” She unlatched the safety bar, then opened the door. “What’s wrong? Is Trey all right?” she asked, scanning Tom’s solemn face.

  “Trey’s fine,” he assured her. “He was in his room when Seth did his rounds.”

  Katherine exhaled. “That’s a relief. I was worried about him.” She tilted her head and frowned. “If Trey’s fine, then what are you doing here?”

  Tom put his hand on the doorframe and leaned toward her. He’d showered; the bracing scent of his soap surrounded her and sent a tingle of sexual awareness over her skin. And if that hadn’t done it, the faded Levi’s and white T-shirt molding to his muscular body would have had the same effect.

  “We need to talk.”

  “About what?” she asked, warily.

  “About the past. I know you want to wait until we get back to San Francisco, but waiting isn’t going to make it any easier. We’ve managed to avoid talking about it ever since I joined the team, but it’s always there. The elephant in the room we try to ignore, but can’t.”

  Overwhelmed by his masculine presence, Katherine took a step back and smoothed her palms down the front of her pink-and-white sleep shirt. “It’s late. Why do we have to do this now?”

  “Because it’s apparent we have different versions of what happened, but mostly because we owe it to ourselves to figure out what went wrong and why. I’m tired of not knowing for sure, aren’t you?” He lowered his arm but didn’t cross the threshold. He was leaving the decision up to her, which was just like him.

  Now that it was about to happen, she supposed she’d always known it would come down to this. Hell, she’d probably invited it by dropping her guard around him the past few weeks. Maybe that meant she’d subconsciously decided she wanted to hear Tom’s side of the story and then made sure it would happen, even as consciously she fought it.

  “All right,” she said, then turned and walked to the window. She motioned to the table. “We should probably sit down for this.”

  Tom remained silent as he entered the room and closed the door behind him. She waited for him to cross the room, then sat down in the chair closest to the window while he took the one to the left of her.

  Taking a breath, she straightened her shoulders. “Where should we begin?”

  “How about the month before the celebration party my mom and Sheila threw for me?” Tom rested his forearms on the table and watched her with a slightly unnerving gaze. “Up until then you seemed excited about going to UT with me. If you’d changed your mind, I would have been disappointed, but I would have understood. I know going to Berkeley had always been your dream. We could have done the long-distance thing.”

  Unease skated up Katherine’s spine. She wanted to be completely honest with him, but for a couple of reasons, one of which was to spare him the same pain she’d gone through, she didn’t believe it was in his best interest. And his knowing now wouldn’t change anything, so what was the point?

  “My father was giving me a hard time about changing schools,” she told him. It was the truth. Just not all of it.

  “You said he wasn’t part of the reason we broke up.”

  “He wasn’t. But that didn’t mean his well-meaning advice didn’t get to me. He said we were too young to live together. That we wouldn’t concentrate on school. That I’d be a hindrance to your baseball career and that if you did get drafted after college, I’d have to give up my career ambitions to follow you around the minors.”

  “And you believed him?”

  “I started to. He was convincing.”

  Tom let out a light snort. “I knew he didn’t like me.”

  “He wouldn’t have liked any guy I was with. It wasn’t you, it was the situation.”

  “Is what he said why you never showed up at the restaurant?”

  “I did show up. I couldn’t stay away, but when I got there and I saw you through the window celebrating your future, I couldn’t help but think Dad was right, and that I might hold you back. I wanted so badly for you to have the career you’d been dreaming of your whole life that I couldn’t bear to be the reason it might not happen.”

  His eyes turned bleak. “So you walked away?”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “But after I got to my car, I sat there for about ten or fifteen minutes and came to the conclusion that my father was wrong, that we loved each other enough to make it through anything. So I got out of my car and headed back to the restaurant. I stopped at the light on the corner and waited for it to change. When it did, I was so anxious to get to you that I wasn’t paying attention. I was almost to the other side of the street when I was hit by a car.”

  “What?” A mixture of shock and concern filled his eyes. “You were…? Jesus, Katie. How badly were you hurt?”

  “Mostly abrasions on my arms and legs. My ribs were badly bruised and there was some…some internal bleeding.”

  “How long were you in the hospital?”

  “Several days.” She lifted her shaky hands and clasped them together on the table. “When I woke up, I was in the emergency room and my father was there. I asked him to call you and he did, but you never came.” Tears swam in her eyes; she blinked them away. “Why didn’t you come?”

  Tom’s expression changed from sympathy to one of anger. “He never called me.”

  Katherine frowned. “What?”

  “I never got a call from your father saying you were in the hospital. I had no idea until right now that you’d been hit by a car.”

  Stunned, she stared at him. “But…but he said he called your house several times and left messages on the answering machine.”

  “Then he lied,” he said, sharply. “There were no messages on our machine from your father. When you didn’t show up at the party, I was worried about you, so I went to your house the next day. The housekeeper answered the door and told me that you’d left for California ahead of schedule to get acclimated to the Bay Area before you started school. She gave me a note and said it was from you.”

  “A note? What did it say?”

  “Just I’m sorry.”

  “I never wrote you a note. And like I said, I was in the hospital for several days. That’s why I wasn’t home. Not because I left Dallas.” She shifted in her chair. “When I was released, the first thing I did when I got home was call your house. Your mom answered and told me you’d left for UT a few days early.”

  Tom shook his head. “That’s not true. I don’t know why my mom would say that. I left the same day we planned to leave together. Before I left, I called and spoke to your housekeeper again. I asked her if she had your address in Berkeley. I thought she was going to give it to me, but then your father came on the line and told me that you didn’t want to hear from me, and that you’d been too afraid to tell me you’d changed your mind. He said I should forget about you and concentrate on making something of myself.”

  “Which you did,” she said, in a tone that sounded slightly more accusatory than she intended.

  “I may have made something of myself, but I never forgot about you.” He let out a mirthless laugh. “Oh, I tried. Believe me. I had a helluva great time trying to forget you. Turns out alcohol is the best cure for a broken heart. Or at least it was for me until I almost killed myself.”

  “So that’s why you started drinking. Because you thought I didn’t love you anymore? That I’d turned my back on you?”

  “Yep. That’s about the size of it. Drinking and screwing any girl who looked like you was how I dealt with it.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not proud of it. But it’s the truth.”

  She made a helpless gesture with her hands. “I don’t understand any of this. My father and your mother lied to us. Why?”

  “I don’t know, but you can bet I’ll be calling my mother as soon as we get back to San Francisco. She has some serious explaining to do.”

  “So does my father.” A mixture of pain and anger closed like a fist around her heart. Her father
had deliberately lied to her. No matter how he felt about her choices, at the time she’d made them she was officially an adult. He’d played God with her life, and she and Tom had been paying the price for it for the past seventeen years. So much wasted time. Time she and Tom could have spent together.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and reached for his hand. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault, Katie.” He twined his warm, strong fingers with hers. “I’m glad we know the truth. Or at least part of it.”

  “I should have tried harder to contact you.” She bent her head and stared at their entwined hands. “I should have known you would have come to the hospital if you’d known I’d been in an accident.” Tears spilled from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. “I should have known you wouldn’t abandon me.”

  “And I should have known you’d never leave without talking to me first.” Tom slipped his other hand under her chin and gently urged her head up. “Both of us screwed up by not trying harder to get in touch with each other after the fact. Speaking for myself, pride had a lot to do with that.”

  “And I was so hurt I refused to go home at Christmas break. My roommate invited me to go skiing with her and her family in Lake Tahoe and I jumped at the chance. Dallas is a big city, but I didn’t want to run into you.” She lifted a hand and wiped away the moisture on her cheeks and gave him a tremulous smile. “I hate skiing, but every Christmas while I was at college I went skiing with Amelia and her parents. Then after I graduated, the only time I went back to Dallas to see my father was when I knew you’d be on the road with the Rangers. When I found out you’d accepted the job with the Blaze, I seriously considered resigning.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Mostly because I love my job, but I think there was a part of me that wanted to see you again. And then when I did, I was surprised by how much it still hurt. To protect myself, I froze you out and refused to talk to you about anything other than team business.”

  “You were extremely adept at freezing me out.” His thumb brushed the back of her hand. The soft touch affected her in much the same manner as the kiss they’d shared the night before. A pleasurable shiver skimmed over her body. “You always were an overachiever.”