I'll Catch You (21 page)

But she’d lost so much more than just her client’s respect today. She’d lost the man she loved.

Above the clank of glassware hitting the bar and the chatter of about two dozen bar patrons, Payton heard the chime of her cell phone. She dove for her purse, frantically searching for her phone, hoping to see Cedric’s number.

But when she retrieved the phone, it wasn’t Cedric’s name that illuminated the tiny screen.

As she stared at the phone through another trilling chime, Payton tried to swallow the lump of disappointment that welled in her throat. Regret over her colossal failure as an agent collided with disappointment in what she was about to do. But at this point, Payton saw no other choice.

She answered the phone.

“Hello, Daniel. I assume you’re calling to tell me the position at McNamara and Associates is still available.”

Chapter 15

A
s he watched the clock on the Sabers giant scoreboard tick down to zero, Cedric could not summon the desire to care that after a stellar season, the Sabers had just been knocked out of the playoffs by a sixteen-point underdog. He’d given the game everything he’d had, shattering the team’s all-time rushing record in a single game. But his heart hadn’t been in it. His heart hadn’t been in anything for the past two weeks. Not since he’d left Payton at the Sabers facility after the press conference.

Cedric followed his teammates off the field, not even bothering to look up as the loyal Sabers fans shouted his name. He was in automatic mode as he stripped out of his uniform and entered the shower, counting the tiles in the shower stall in an attempt to keep his mind clear of the erotic images he tortured himself with in his showers at home. That would be a hard one to explain to his teammates—pun intended.

Cedric made quick work of dressing, wanting to get through the postgame interviews as soon as possible so he could head home. Though God only knew why he was in such a rush. After losing today’s season-ending game, he suddenly had a lot of time on his hands.

As Cedric made his way to his locker, he spotted agent extraordinaire Marvin Hayes standing right in front of his cubby. Hayes was
the
agent. His client list covered every sport imaginable and he only represented the cream of the crop, including two former Super Bowl MVPs, last year’s Cy Young award winner in baseball and the current heavyweight boxing champ of the world.

For Cedric it was like déjà vu. He couldn’t help but recall the last time a sports agent met him at his locker after a game. Had that only been a few months ago? In some ways it seemed as if he’d known Payton forever; yet these days she felt like a stranger.

That deep ache that had become a part of his existence whenever he even thought her name settled into his bones. He would have to embrace the misery. There was no getting over this.

As Cedric approached, Marvin Hayes extended his hand. “Good game out there today,” he said. “Two hundred eighty-eight rushing yards in a single game? That’s phenomenal.”

Cedric gripped the proffered palm. “Doesn’t mean much when you lose.”

“Just wait until the sting of the loss wears off. It’ll mean a lot when we renegotiate your contract in a few weeks.”

“We?” Cedric asked.

A cagey smile pulled at Hayes’s lips. “I don’t like to play games with my clients, Cedric.”

“I’m not a client,” he returned.

“Not yet. But you’re smart and you know what it would mean if you walked into the meeting with Sabers upper management with me by your side.”

He
did
know. The deals Marvin Hayes had negotiated for his star clients were legendary. The man commanded respect. And he hardly ever took on new clients. Cedric hadn’t even bothered to call him during his frantic agent search. Yet here was Hayes, already claiming Cedric as his new client.

And where was his current agent? Nowhere to be found. She hadn’t even bothered to show up at today’s game.

Hayes clamped a hand on Cedric’s back. “Why don’t we talk after your postgame interviews? I think you’ll like what I have to offer.”

Payton folded her legs underneath her and wrapped her purple and black Manchac Mustangs afghan more securely around her arms. Watching the snow fall on Buffalo Stadium made her shiver, even though she was in the comfy warmth of her living room.

As the seconds ticked down to halftime of the game between New England and Buffalo, she picked up the file folder from her coffee table so she could do a little work before the start of the third quarter. She needed to do another read-through of the contract she’d drawn up for Percy Johnson. Now that the Sabers season had come to an end in today’s earlier divisional playoff game, the young player would have an earlier start to his off-season.

The bookies in Las Vegas were no doubt having a field day with all the money they were raking in. This was supposed to be the year the Sabers made it to the Super Bowl. No one had expected them to get knocked out so early. It was the nature of the playoffs. A missed tackle here, a couple of costly turnovers there and your season was over.

Payton tried to shake off her disappointment. As an agent, she could not let her emotions about the game get the best of her. When her agency started growing, she would likely have clients who played on opposing teams. She could not allow her heart to get entrenched in a single team’s season.

Payton turned her attention back to Percy’s contract. Convincing the rookie linebacker that he should sign with Mosely Sports Management hadn’t been as hard as Payton had once thought it would be. She’d had calls from several Sabers players, a tight end for the Giants, even a power forward with the New Jersey Nets, though she had no desire to move into the NBA arena. After all, she became an agent to stay close to the game of football.

The flood of calls had started Tuesday, the same day she’d turned down Daniel McNamara’s offer to return to the firm for the very last time. Tuesday had also been the day it was announced that Cedric Reeves would be the face of Electronic Sports Gaming’s newest football video game. News of the eight-figure endorsement deal Payton had scored for her client had buzzed through the NFL’s grapevine at rapid speed, and had several players rethinking the girl agent.

Too bad she couldn’t enjoy a single bit of her success.

She and Cedric hadn’t spoken a word to each other since the press conference. He hadn’t answered his phone when she’d called to give him the news about the ES Gaming deal and Payton hadn’t bothered to call back. They’d done the communication-through-nonverbal-devices-only dance before; in fact, the steps were still fresh in her mind.

They would have to speak face-to-face eventually. The NFL’s free-agency period would open up in a matter of weeks and she and Cedric still had to go over the list of incentive clauses and performance bonuses they would demand during contract negotiations. After the stellar season he’d had, Payton had much more ammunition than when she’d first taken him on as a client a few months ago.

What happened after their meeting with the Sabers was still up in the air. Now was not the time to worry about that. Everything she and Cedric had accomplished this entire season would mean nothing if he walked out of that meeting without a new contract. They could work on their personal relationship later; for now it was their professional relationship that demanded her undivided attention.

Payton pushed Percy Johnson’s contract to the side and picked up the yellow legal pad where she kept notes for Cedric’s contract negotiation. It had just occurred to her that his performance in today’s game had put him close to breaking into the NFL’s top twenty all-time rushing yardage. They could demand an extra bonus if Cedric passed that threshold next year.

Her BlackBerry buzzed atop her coffee table. Payton’s stomach instantly tightened, as it did every time she got an email or text message these days. But the message wasn’t from Cedric, just an email from the Twitter service she’d signed up for. It alerted her any time the volume of internet chatter surrounding Cedric’s name on the social networking site passed a certain number.

A tiny burst of excitement fluttered in Payton’s stomach as she read the tweets—the Twitter messages people were posting regarding Cedric’s stellar performance in today’s game. Despite the loss, Sabers fans were ready to nominate the team’s running back for the NFL Hall of Fame.

As Payton came across a tweet from a columnist for one of the biggest online sports magazines, the fluttering in her stomach stopped and was replaced by a feeling of dread the size of a boulder. She scrolled through the messages the columnist had posted. He claimed the insider information came from a source deep within the Sabers organization.

Cedric Reeves joins Hayes Entertainment Management Co.

M. Hayes will take C. Reeves to the next level.

Payton blinked several times, unable to digest what she was reading. She clicked on the pages of several other sportswriters who were also reporting that Cedric had signed with mega-agent Marvin Hayes.

Cedric had fired her.

Payton shot up from the couch, grabbed her coat and headed out the door. It wasn’t until she’d made it to Manhattan that it occurred to her that she should call to make sure Cedric was at his home, though he probably would not have answered the phone anyway. Chances were she would be stopped at the front desk of his building again but she’d cross that obstacle when she came to it.

By some miracle, she found an open parking space on the street. Payton parked at a meter two blocks from the building. Whether it was luck, fate or some higher power, Payton didn’t know, but something was working in her favor. As she approached the entrance to the building’s parking garage, the gates opened and a black Lincoln Navigator eased out. Payton stared right into Cedric’s eyes through the driver’s side window. The overwhelming rush of hurt that crashed through her at the sight of him was enough to bring her to her knees.

How had they ended up here?

The window lowered. He didn’t say anything, just stared back at her.

“When were you going to tell me I was no longer your agent?” Payton asked.

The gate opened and another car pulled up and honked.

Cedric motioned with his head. “Get in.”

Payton hesitated for a second before jogging around the car and slipping into the passenger side. The interior was nice and toasty, but the atmosphere between her and Cedric was as icy as the cold New York day.

He took a left, his hands tight on the wheel. They drove along the streets of the Upper West Side in the lighter Sunday afternoon traffic. After a solid five minutes of silence, Cedric finally spoke.

“I was on my way to your place. I didn’t want to do this over the phone.”

The dread that had sunk into Payton’s bones multiplied, spreading throughout her entire body.

“Do what?” she asked, a heart-rending ache crushing her chest before he could even speak his next words.

“I want to exercise the exit clause in our contract.”

Payton pushed back the threat of tears that clogged her throat. She would jump out of this moving vehicle before she allowed him to see her cry. Yet the urge to do so was so overwhelming, she wasn’t sure her will was strong enough to stop the tears from flowing. Forget being a professional; this cut through the business persona, straight to the core of the woman who had fallen in love with him.

“I’m sorry,” Cedric said. “I really am, Payton. I didn’t want it to end like this, but I’m thinking about my career. Marvin Hayes is a legend. I don’t care how much you prepare, you could never get me the kind of deal he’ll be able to negotiate. Just his name adds another twenty-five percent to my bottom line.”

“I know the kind of clout Marvin Hayes wields, Cedric.” And she did. Hayes was the kind of agent others in the business aspired to be, and he rarely took on new clients. Cedric would be a fool not to sign with him. “It’s not that you signed a contract with him,” Payton continued. “It’s that you didn’t bother to tell me. After everything we’ve been through, you didn’t even bother to
tell
me you were done with me.”

“I haven’t signed with him yet,” he said.

“But you’re going to.”

A pause, then, “Yes.”

Hurt wrapped around her heart like a fist, squeezing it in a vise grip. Somehow, Payton managed to pull herself together. Emotions had no place here. How could she tout her professionalism if she became this disheartened when she lost a client? It was a part of the business.

But Cedric wasn’t just a client. She loved him.

And she was losing him.

“This is strictly business, Payton. I know what you’re thinking, but it doesn’t have anything to do with what happened between us after the bar fight incident. I know I’ve been a jerk since then, but I needed to clear my head and focus on the game. That’s why I haven’t been in touch.”

“Well, it sounds as if there’s no reason for you to be in touch now,” she managed to say while keeping her emotions contained.

They pulled up to the traffic light a block away from his building. In more ways than one they had come full circle, landing right back where they’d started.

Cedric stared at her. “Is that how you want it?”

No. Not at all. But what else was there to say?

With a nod, Payton said, “That’s how it has to be.”

Chapter 16

“C
an you hold one minute, Mr. Myers?” Payton switched the first phone to her other ear as she answered her other one. “Percy, I can’t talk right now, but I promise I’ll call you back in an hour.” She switched back. “Yes, Mr. Myers. I apologize for that.”

She’d once envied agents who needed to walk around with multiple cell phones on their hips. Who knew the juggle would be such a pain in the butt?

Payton finished up her conversation with the head of the marketing division at Pump You Up Energy Bars—the new super food that promised both energy and muscles. It was the perfect product for a hefty lineman to endorse. She would call Percy Johnson—whom she’d realized ten minutes after signing would be the kind of client who needed his hand held—and let him know the call had gone well. Later.