Playing for Hearts (12 page)

“Hey. It's me. Is your cabin vacant?” He carried the phone with him as he took the stairs two at a time.

“Yeah, you need it?”

“I gotta get outta here.” Grayson pulled his carryall out of the closet. “I'll have the jet take me up.”

“When?”

“An hour ago.” Grayson ended the call and immediately dialed Jenson, his pilot. “Gas up. We're going on a trip.”

• • •

The next afternoon, after making the dumbest mistake of her life by running away from Grayson, Shauna walked through the front door of her house after work and found her dad embracing a woman she didn't recognize. She dropped her purse and gasped. Karma was a mean bitch.

“Daddy!” She covered her eyes and turned around.

In all the years after her father's divorce, not once had he brought a woman home. As far as she knew, he never even dated. He played poker with a few of the other men on a Saturday night once every few months, and stayed at the shop until the late hours every other day, but a sex life? No way.

“Buddy, come here.”

She puffed out her cheeks, blew the air out, and slowly turned around, afraid one of them wasn't fully clothed, or God forbid, something worse. She took a few steps toward them, scanning them both in case any clothes were missing, her mind still reeling that her dad had a life outside of her and the shop.

“I've wanted to tell you since you came home, but I haven't known what to say.” Tony gazed at the woman beside him and pulled her closer to him, whispering something in her ear.

Shauna looked at the woman, studying her. She appeared about her father's age, maybe older, and had short black hair spackled with gray. Her eyes were filled with pain. Shauna glanced away.

“Dad?” She went the rest of the way, and kissed her dad's cheek. “You know you can tell me anything.”

“I know.” He smoothed the hair off her face. “I love you so much.”

Fear squeezed her heart. She grabbed his hand. “Are you okay? You're not sick?”

He smiled. “No. I'm better than I've been in a long time. I'm happy.”

“Dad, that's wonderful.” She squeezed his fingers.

“Buddy?” Tony moved behind her and held on to her shoulders, turning her until she was in front of the woman. “I know it's been a long time, but look hard.”

The woman's chin quivered and her green eyes shone back brightly, as if holding back tears. Shauna frowned. The woman looked like …
oh God. No. No. No.

There were wrinkles around her eyes, but the pencil thin eyebrows and the familiarity in the woman's gaze stared back at her. She covered her mouth and shook her head in denial.

“Hi, honey.” Belinda Marino reached for her with a shaky hand.

Shauna jerked back before her mother could touch her, and turned toward her dad. “Don't tell me you let her come back. She left us twelve years ago.”

“Shauna!” He grabbed her arm. “She's your mother. I didn't teach you to be rude.”

She pulled out of his grasp. “Is s-she staying here?”

Tony nodded. “Yes. She's been staying at the hotel since you came home. She wanted you to get used to having her back before we told you we're living together. If you want to blame someone, I'll be the one responsible for not telling you sooner. I wanted you to get used to living here again before I sprang this on you.”

She blinked. Hard.

“Shauna, please … ” Tony whispered.

“No.” She backed up. “I gotta go. If she's staying in this house, I can't stay here.”

She turned and headed upstairs.
This isn't happening.

How dare her mother come here after what she did to the family. To her dad. To her. She wasn't wanted. Belinda had torn them apart and taken Shauna's whole childhood away when she'd left the house in the middle of the night. What kind of mother does that to their child?

She stuffed her work clothes in a suitcase and grabbed her makeup bag and a few pairs of shoes. Without stopping to think of where she was going or what she was going to do, she walked down the stairs.

“Don't go, buddy. Let's sleep on it. We'll talk tomorrow.” Tony blocked the door.

She stood on tiptoe and kissed her dad's cheek. “I can't.”

“Where will you go?”

“Don't worry.” She squared her shoulders. “I've been on my own for the last six years. I'll find somewhere to stay.”

“I love you.” Tony stepped out of her way. “I love your mom too.”

Shauna never looked behind her, but opened the door and carried her things to the car. Numb and shocked, she slid into the driver's seat and drove away.

For reasons Shauna had never learned, Belinda had disappeared from the house while Shauna had gone to school. No note, no goodbye, no kiss. She'd simply exited their lives without a scene.

Except she'd left behind a lot of damage. All these years, Shauna had thought the reason her dad worked long hours was to distract himself from the truth. Belinda never loved them, only herself. But that wasn't true anymore. She'd obviously come back and made things right with Tony when Shauna was in college. Why hadn't he told her?

Shauna turned into the entrance of the tennis center, automatically running to the one person who'd been there for her after her mom had abandoned her the first time.

Grayson had no idea how much his continual presence in her life meant to her. When she was younger, the one constant person in her life had been Grayson. Every day at three o'clock, she'd enter the center, take a lesson, and hang out there with the other kids, often talking to Grayson or watching him teach another class until it was dinnertime and she walked home to her dad.

She parked the car and knocked on the front door. Her head hurt, but the numbness over the shock of learning her mother was in Cottage Grove wouldn't let her dwell on the pain.
Please, open up.

She rapped on the door again.

Seconds ticked by and still Grayson hadn't opened the door. She peered up at the windows. They were all dark.

Heaviness settled over her, and she swallowed the lump that rose in her chest and threatened to bring her to her knees. She walked back to her car. For the first time tonight, a tear wet her cheek. Then another one followed.

The rumble of a truck coming up the gravel road broke the silence in the Gifford forest. Grayson remained sitting in the rocker on the porch of Bruce's cabin. Out here, away from society, the visitor could only be one person.

A few minutes later, Bruce Coldwell lumbered out of the pumped up four-wheeler and headed toward Grayson. Lean and tan, Bruce spent the majority of his time outdoors near water. The world champion bass fisherman led a life of luxury and owned homes on more waterways than he could count, including the quaint four-bedroom cabin Grayson sometimes borrowed to get away from it all.

This morning Bruce wore his sun-bleached hair loose around his shoulders, and by the looks of it, hadn't shaved for a couple weeks. Grayson lifted his chin in greeting.

“You're a sight for sore eyes.” Bruce held out his hand and shook Grayson's. “I thought I'd drive up and see what's going on.”

“'Bout an hour ago a doe walked to the edge of the water, drank, and went back into the woods.” Grayson folded his arms across his chest.

Bruce sat down on the empty chair. “Well, that'll make the newspapers, I'm sure. Are you positive you didn't see any bears or maybe a pack of wolves? That seems to create more of a buzz.”

“Nope.” Grayson sighed and set motion to his rocker.

He'd sat outside all night, trying to find the calm inside of him. Solitude always helped him gather his thoughts and focus his energy. He didn't get to be a Wimbledon champion by losing his temper or letting the outside world faze him. Unfortunately, dealing with Shauna was harder than playing tennis, and he still hadn't come up with a solution to his problem.

“Wanna talk about what's going on with you? You haven't come up here to get away from life for at least a year.” Bruce stretched his legs out and crossed his ankles before latching his hands together behind his head.

“Not really,” he said.

Grayson wanted to stand up and throw Bruce and the damn chair off the porch. There was nothing anyone could do to help him make any of this better. He would have to figure out how to climb out of the shithole he dug himself. The way his life was going, it probably wasn't going to be any time soon if Shauna stuck around.

He hadn't relaxed since Shauna strolled back into town and pretended not to have any feelings for him. Oh, she tried to fool him, but she couldn't hide her true feelings from him. Every emotion played across her face, and he knew them all. She might've come back more mature and educated, but there was no denying the way her eyes still shone when she looked at him.

What he couldn't understand was why she'd turned him down. They were adults. Adults had sex. It didn't have to change anything between them. Hell, he didn't want it to change. He liked the single life, and not answering to anyone else. He'd worked damn hard to gain his freedom, and he wasn't going to ruin it.

“Grayson … I'm your friend. If something is going on, I want to help you. You'd do the same thing for me, wouldn't you?”

“Yeah, you know I would.” He ran his hands over his face. “My problem isn't simple.”

“Hell, we've been through a lot together. It can't be that bad.” Bruce turned. “Is it woman trouble?”

He nodded. “She's a pain in my ass.”

“Yeah?” Bruce chuckled. “Aren't they all?”

“I never have problems getting a woman in bed.” He snorted. “There are times I can't keep them out. This one … she's different.”

“Turned you down, huh?”

“Shot me in the chest before I could even talk her into it. All I could think about was getting the hell out of town.” He shook his head. “The damn thing is I shouldn't even like her. I've known her forever. She's a friend who helped me survive growing up in Cottage Grove. She kept me sane.” He snorted. “I swear she's out to cause me nothing but misery. Do you know she has it in her head that she loves me? She's more persistent than any opponent I've faced on the courts.”

“Jesus, Gray … ” Bruce slapped him on the shoulder. “Are you talking about that young chick that used to stalk you?”

“The one and the same, except she's not so young anymore.” He clenched his teeth and grunted. “We've got a history. Years ago, in the off-season, I used to go back to Cottage Grove and give lessons to the younger kids. She was one of them. She had a crush on me, but I just saw her as a cute kid. She was funnier than hell, and no matter what life threw at her, she never gave up. Hell, looking back, I wasn't that much older than the kids I was teaching. I think I was around twenty-one years old. It seems like a lifetime ago.”

“And … ” Bruce sat forward.

“She grew up. Every time I came back from a tournament, I'd tell myself to ignore her and I made sure I was never alone with her.”

“Did you go your separate ways?”

“Hell no. She found me wherever I went, even going as far as to make sure the town knew about how much she loved me. I couldn't hurt her. I felt sorry for her. It was just her dad and her. They barely scraped by after her mom ran away. She needed a friend, so I listened to her when she needed to talk. That's all. I didn't mean to encourage her or let her believe that I cared in any other way than as a friend.”

Bruce shrugged. “That sounds like you. You're a good friend to others.”

“When she turned eighteen, everything changed.” He scratched his jaw. “She changed. Suddenly I realized that the little friend that pestered me and kept me in laughs had turned into someone who … she's beautiful, you know.”

“How old is she now?”

“Twenty-four, maybe twenty-five.” He sighed.

Bruce clicked his tongue. “The age difference isn't such a big obstacle now.”

“I shouldn't feel this way about her.”

“Why not?” Bruce asked. “You're both adults.”

“She might be older, but she's still naive compared to me. I've been on my own my whole life. Even when my parents were alive, they weren't with me. I raised myself, with my manager leading my way.” He stared out at the water. “I'm not someone who does the whole dating scene. I can't.”

“Why not?”

“I know what she wants. She wants love, marriage, and forever. I don't do any of those. I don't believe in them.” He stood up and crossed to the porch railing. “Maybe it's all about the chase. She's the one woman who turned me down, and I hate losing.”

Bruce joined him and motioned toward the boat tied up on shore. “Let's go fishing. Maybe once I show you how to hook a fish, you can go back and catch the woman.”

Shauna survived another week of working on the benefit all by herself, and even managed to hide out in the hotel room across the road from the commerce building in her free time. She'd gone out with Kate and Diana, afraid that Diana would somehow find out she was staying in the same hotel she was working at, but neither one of them uttered a single word about what was going on with her family. For all they knew, she was staying at home with her dad and throwing herself into what everyone knew as the Celebrating Cottage Grove event.

The excitement of her secret plan going public on Wednesday helped distract everyone from what was going on in her personal life. For that, she was grateful.

The decision to throw herself into a routine helped take her focus off what was going on with Grayson. She finished her day, went to the hotel, got through the night, and returned to work the next morning. She didn't cry or sleep, and she managed to consume enough food to keep her going. The smile on her face hid the tug of war happening in her heart.