Playing the Game (The Renegades) (Volume 3) (18 page)

“
Looks like it, Uncle Ty.” Sam
grinned ear to ear.

“
Tri?” Tyler looked at his sister.
“Really?”

“
Why would I joke about that? It’s
still early, and we aren’t telling anyone else until I start to
show, but, yeppers bro! We’re having a baby!” Trina glowed with
excitement, and her eyes sparkled.

A baby? Wow. His sister had suffered such heartache
in her life. If anyone deserved a happy ending, it was her. After
losing her fiancé tragically, then finding out he’d been actually
going to leave her, she almost died from medical complications,
and
lost a baby she didn’t know she was carrying. It may
sound like a fictional daytime television drama, but it was his
sister’s life, and he wanted nothing more than normalcy for
her.

Once she met Sam things started to fall into place
for her. This was just the icing on the cake. “Trina.” He grabbed
her up off the couch and hugged her tight, lifting her up off the
floor. His heart swelled with joy. “I’m so happy for you, sis. Did
you tell Talia yet?”

“
Yeah, we called her right before
we came over here. She and Mike are thrilled for us. I think she’s
already planning to go baby shopping. She’s too much.”

Of course their older sister would be thrilled. She’d
helped to get Trina through those tough times.

She pulled back and smiled at him. “Now, Uncle Ty,
you better get your act together and cut out this ‘woe is me’ shit
before your niece or nephew shows up.” She punched him in his arm
as he set her down.

“
Ow. Damn, Tri.”

“
I mean it. I want my baby to be as
proud of you as I am, so get this shit out of your system now. I
swear, if I have to run Gia out of town in order for that to happen
I will!”

“
Now Tri, what did I tell you?” Sam
pulled her down to his side. He flashed her a loving smile and
rubbed her belly. “No running people out of town while you’re
pregnant, or at least not until the third trimester.”

“
Wow.” Tyler sat down and just
stared at his sister. She was so happy with Sam. If she could find
happiness after all the craziness she’d survived, then maybe so
could he. “I’m just so happy for you two.” He smiled and shook his
head. “A baby. I can’t believe it.”

First Kris and Kat, now Trina and Sam. The Renegades
were slowly settling down. He couldn’t help but wonder what their
secret was.

“
Alright
Sally
, enough mushy
stuff. Grab some pizza and eat!” Trina teased. Standing up she
announced, “I have to pee. On my way back does anyone want another
beer? Babe? How about you, Ty?”

“
Yeah babe, I’ll take one,” Sam
said.

“
Me too.” Tyler chimed
in.

When Trina was out of sight, Sam moved closer to
Tyler. “Ty, I need to talk to you about something.”

“
You’re not thinking of running out
on her are you? Because I will kill you.” Tyler was not joking; no
one was ever going to hurt his sister again. “I’ll kill you before
she even has the chance.”

He put his hands up defending himself. “No, no!
Absolutely not! You know I love her, and I’m stoked about the baby.
I’m going to be a dad, dude.” He lowered his voice. “It’s not about
that.”

“
Oh, okay, sorry. What’s up?” He
sat back and devoured a slice of pizza.

“
Ty, I was taking the dogs out the
other night… It was probably around five in the morning. I saw
her
leave your house.”

Five in the morning? What is he talking about?
“Who?”

“
The new public relations
assistant. Paige.”

Tyler stopped mid-chew and swallowed what he had in
his mouth, almost choking on the partially chewed food, and
coughing wildly. For a moment he wasn’t sure if he was going to
need the Heimlich, and wondered if Sam even knew how to do it. But
once he coughed up the killer pizza, he was able to breathe.

“
You okay?” Sam attempted to pat
him on the back, but Tyler stopped him. “Look at the birdies?” Sam
suggested, more as a question.

Tyler waved his hand, motioning he would be okay as
he took shallow breaths until he stopped coughing. “What the fuck,
Sam! You could’ve waited till I was done chewing. Holy hell.” He
still took shallow breaths trying to relax after almost dying on a
doughy ball of pizza.

“
Sorry.”

“
Do you even know the Heimlich? You
were patting me on the back. What the hell was that supposed to do?
And look at the birdies? Dude, you better brush up on what to do
when your kid is choking! Look at the birdies? Really?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Sam agreed.

“
Okay, you saw Paige leave my
house. So what?” He had forgotten all his problems while they
celebrated Trina’s news.

“
I tried to confront
her.”

“
Why?
Fuck me
.” He narrowed
his eyes. “It was that day I ran into you by her office, wasn’t
it?”

“
Yeah. I wanted her to know that I
saw her. I didn’t think it was right that she didn’t know. I was
standing right there in our yard, and I was surprised she hadn’t
seen me. But the day I went to talk to her she was in a hurry to
get out of there. Probably because she assumed that you were on
your way up.”

“
So you never got to tell
her?”

“
No. So what’s the deal with you
two?”

“
There’s no
deal
. It was a
one-time thing. Too much alcohol, bad choices, you know how it
goes.” That described almost the last year of his life.
Bad
choices
.

“
Really? I was hoping maybe she’d
be good for you. After, well, you know.”

“
Yes, Sam, I know.”

“
What do you know, Ty?” Trina
returned to the living room with beers for the guys and water for
herself. She settled in next to Sam after taking another slice of
pizza.

“
Sam was just saying that I need to
find a girl that’s good for me.”

“
Yeah and if you just open your
eyes she might be right in front of you,” Sam added.

Shut the hell up, Sam. Why is he even putting his two
cents in? What does he care what I do? Or who? Luckily Trina didn’t
even flinch at his comments.

“
He’s right about that. You need a
girl who’s going to save you from yourself.”

“
Why does everyone keep saying
that?” Save me from myself? What do I need saving from, exactly? I
needed to be saved from Gia, saved from her ripping out my dignity,
then her and Pat dancing all over it. Maybe someone should’ve saved
me from that. But what exactly do I need saving from
now?

CHAPTER 20

Paige kept busy in her office while the Renegades
practiced. She could see it on her closed circuit television, but
she avoided looking at it. Avoided it, because she knew her eyes
would be on Tyler. The butterflies in her stomach did somersaults,
and she tapped her pen on the desk repeatedly as she stared at the
wall ahead of her.

She couldn’t explain why she was so nervous to talk
to Tyler. That was a lie; she knew exactly why. She just didn’t
want to admit why he made her uneasy.

The players had had the last few days off and today
was their first practice back. That meant a few days she hadn’t had
to avoid Tyler. She was able to come in and not worry about him
cornering her in her office again.

Maybe she should just tell Melanie what happened. The
only thing that kept her from fessing up was fear of losing her job
for sleeping with him. No fraternizing with the players. How could
she have been so stupid? Would Melanie really fire her for that? It
didn’t matter; she didn’t have enough guts to tell her anyway.

Over the last few days she’d thought of nothing else
than Tyler at Mannie’s the other night. Everything he did when he
didn’t know he was being watched proved her wrong about him. It was
easier to keep her emotions in check when she thought he was a
douche. She had been staring at the request for the Make-A-Wish
visit the entire morning. It wasn’t that she hadn’t made her
decision; it was that she couldn’t stomach the fact that she
had.

Everyone was right. Tyler wasn’t the bad guy she kept
trying to see him as. Sure he had bad habits and made bad choices,
but didn’t everyone? At an early age she had made all kinds of
mistakes after her brother died. Under-age drinking, smoking. She
even tried some drugs; it wasn’t her smartest decision. To this day
she still regretted trying to run away. But she’d been young and
stupid. She’d made
bad choices
.

Only after coming to terms with the fact that her
brother’s bad choices were what killed him, did she realize she
needed to straighten up. Gram and Pap helped her do that once they
took her in.

While the players were off, she’d taken full
advantage of the team gym. She forgot how good it felt to work out,
to push her body to the limit. Beating up the punching bag at her
local gym was another thing she missed. Since she got this job she
hadn’t been going; it was a mix of being busy and being lazy.
Looking at the clock she wondered if she had time to get a quick
workout in before the guys came off the ice.

No, she’d better not chance it. It was too bad; it
could’ve helped calm her nerves.

Looking at the monitor, she saw the guys had already
left the ice. She had to get ahold of herself. This is why she
hadn’t wanted him to remember their night together, because now she
was nervous about going down to the locker room and doing her damn
job. Not many people could rattle her, but he did.

She was missing something with Tyler. Was he really
turning out to be the good guy everyone said he was? She had to
admit that during her unguarded moments with him, she’d thought so.
But then each time, he turned around and did something stupid to
change her mind. He had a lot of proving to do before she could
totally give in to the realization that he might be a pretty good
guy.

“
Knock-knock! Morning sunshine.”
Melanie strutted in to her office. “Practice is over so give them
about twenty minutes, then you can head down. Just be sure to
knock. I always like to announce I’m entering the locker room, you
know, just in case.”

“
Good suggestion.” The last thing
she needed was to walk in on Tyler in only a towel. Just the
thought of seeing him naked again got her overheated.

She couldn’t forget their night together, and that
scared her. It had been a long time since a man affected her this
way, and denial was the only way she knew how to handle it. Lazily
she looked through stacks of manila folders, but she didn’t have
anything pending. They were all requests for future interviews. She
grabbed her purse, pulled out her compact, and fussed with her
makeup. Without much thought, she touched up her lipstick and
reapplied some foundation.

Looking at the clock to make sure at least twenty
minutes had gone by, she grabbed her paperwork and headed down to
the locker room. Her heart raced and her mouth went dry. Her head
was spinning with questions. Was he really as good of a guy as
Marco said? Did the alcohol fuel the womanizing ass she’d seen?
What exactly did their night together mean?

Simple. It couldn’t mean anything. Nothing changed
the fact that they worked together.

She walked into the quiet locker room to find Tyler
was the only player remaining. He was sitting at his stall playing
with his phone. He needed a haircut; the wavy brown locks fell into
his face. He swatted them away from his eyes but they fell back,
the same curls she’d run her fingers through.

She swallowed the knot in her throat. It had been a
week since she’d spoken to him privately. She’d been doing
everything she could to avoid being alone with him. Taking a deep
breath, her feet moved towards him before her brain could decide to
make her retreat to her office. She needed to talk to him, whether
she was ready or not.

Those heavy hazel eyes connected with hers before she
could speak, stealing her breath and causing her to gasp for air.
She cursed at her feet for continuing to move; soon she was
standing right in front of him.

“
Paige. Nice to see you.” His lips
turned up into the cutest smile that caused his eyes to sparkle.
Setting his phone to the side, his attention was solely on her.
“Can I help you with something, or did you just stop by to say
hi?”

Damn him and his charm. It wasn’t going to work on
her; she had seen him at his worst and didn’t need that in her
life. This was only business.

Her body disagreed, her heart racing and stomach
flopping and twisting as he sat there observing her. Convincing
herself was proving more difficult than she thought. Should she sit
down? No, she felt more powerful standing above him in her pencil
skirt and blazer. Her heels made her seem to tower over him.

Deciding it was best to just jump into business, she
mustered up enough strength to speak. “I received a request for
you. I think it’s the opportunity we were looking for, but wanted
your opinion first.” Handing him the manila folder of paperwork,
her body again took control as she sat down next to him.

Dammit! Her skirt was already snug and sitting on
this hard bench was making it worse. Her heart was skittering out
of control. Being this close to him was wrong. But her body was not
budging.

The room stayed silent as he read over the papers. He
was freshly showered, and the soap scent tickled her nose. Her eyes
traveled over his body, watching his chest rise and fall with every
breath he took, and the way his hooded sweatshirt molded to his
muscular form.