Chapter 31

Jensen

I barely slept that night, tossing and turning as the evening’s events replayed in my mind. Why Tim and Eddie had decided to dig up Dirk was beyond me. The world already knew Bailey and Dirk had been broken up for three years, so there was no story there. It pissed me off that they were so hungry for attention they’d used Bailey, and me by association, to grab their fifteen minutes of what couldn’t even be considered fame.

I was still annoyed and even a little heartbroken when I finally gave up on sleep around six thirty. I padded into the kitchen and made a cup of coffee, staring out at the twilight sky.

Bailey and I were supposed to be waking up here together this morning.

Her first sleepover at my place.

Instead, I was nursing a broken heart and trying to figure out what to do next.

I couldn’t just walk away.

I was way too invested for that.

I’d fallen in love with her, so I wasn’t prepared to give up this easily.

The first thing I had to do was find out what the fuck Tim Barrowman had been thinking.

My phone buzzed and I grabbed it, hoping it was Bailey, but it was my mother.

MOM: Are you okay?

JENSEN: I’m fine. Why?

MOM: Is Bailey okay?

I got a sinking feeling in my chest, but hopefully Mom was just being dramatic about hockey or something. I decided to play dumb anyway, just in case her concern was a coincidence.

JENSEN: What are you talking about?

MOM: Have the two of you not been online yet today?

Motherfucker.

Not a coincidence.

JENSEN: Not yet, no.

MOM: Are you with Bailey? She must be upset.

JENSEN: I’m not with her. We had an argument last night and she went home.

MOM: Oh no. Is everything okay? Did you break up? Was it because of that Dirk asshole?

JENSEN: No, everything is not okay. But no, it wasn’t because of Dirk. It was an argument. That’s all.

MOM: But did you break up?

I sighed.

Lying to my mother never ended well.

JENSEN: I can’t talk about this now, okay? I have to focus on the game tonight. Please, Mom, stay out of it. I have to go see what they’re saying online and figure out what to do next.

MOM: She needs you, Jensen. Be the man I raised you to be. There’s more at stake here than broken hearts.

JENSEN: Don’t you think I know that? She was upset last night and asked me to leave. I wasn’t going to stand there and argue with her. I’m going to figure something out. It just can’t be right this minute. I’ll call you tomorrow. Promise. Love you.

MOM: I love you too.

I grabbed my coffee and went into my game room, turning on my computer. I searched Bailey’s name and sure enough, there were a bunch of articles and pictures. And she’d been a hundred percent right; the headlines were frustrating and inaccurate.

Oscar-winning actress now crippled.

Hollywood Is All About Change but is Bailey Walker’s too much?

My favorite was the one about her and Dirk.

Romance Rekindled: Bailey Walker and Dirk Lane?

Fuckers.

The articles talked about her limp in great detail, practically making her out to be some kind of hunchback as she’d ‘awkwardly stumbled out of the ballroom, unable to walk upright.’ They all ignored how stunning she’d looked in that red dress. How sweet and beautiful and engaging she’d been. Not to mention the fact that she’d been there with me. Instead, the articles talked about how sad and uncomfortable she’d looked walking out of the event after “exchanging words with her date.”

There was also far too much focus on how she and Dirk had been reunited for the first time since their fateful breakup, with her begging him to take her back.

The articles were filled with so much bullshit it was hard not to roll my eyes.

But Bailey had been right about how they would talk about her.

I just didn’t understand it.

We got some of this type of thing in the sports world, speculating on an injury or trade rumors. Occasionally, there was some personal drama, a player sleeping with another player’s wife or something, but that was the exception. And usually, if a story like that broke, there were enough elements of truth to make it newsworthy, despite being intrusive.

Ninety-five percent of everything they’d written about Bailey today was flat-out wrong, taking everything out of context to make her look ridiculous and pathetic. A broken starlet crying for attention.

I really fucking hated this for her.

I was also riddled with guilt because if I hadn’t asked her to come to my game, Tim and Eddie never would have met her and put her in this situation.

The flip side of that was frustration because even though this was difficult, it had been inevitable. She spent a lot of time with Manny, and he was highly recognizable, so her days of anonymity had been numbered anyway.

But I was supposed to be there for her.

I’d promised her that I would never let her down, yet I felt like I had.

This had happened now, at this time and in this way, because of me, so somehow, I had to fix it.

I was in a piss-poor mood when I got to the arena.

The fight with Bailey, lack of sleep, and frustration as the day’s media coverage of the event last night got more and more outrageous, put me on edge.

How did you counter shit like that?

I wanted to talk to our media relations guy, but he was pretty useless when it came to things like this, always telling us that silence was the best response. If we didn’t address it, the media would get bored and move on to something else, like when sportswriters wrote articles about how bad the Phantoms were. We weren’t allowed to address it other than saying we were always focused on the next game, but I didn’t think that was the right strategy in this circumstance.

“Hey.” Ivan met me at my locker.

“Hey.” I threw my things into it and started to undress.

“You okay?”

“What do you think?” I snapped.

He sighed. “Is Bailey okay?”

“I have no idea. She broke up with me last night.” I dropped my voice to make sure no one else heard me.

“Shit. Can I do anything?”

“Tell me where Tim and Eddie are so I can break their noses?”

He nodded solemnly. “I know where their offices are.”

I yanked my shoulder pads on with so much force I almost elbowed Ivan in the face. He ducked out of the way, grimacing.

“Easy. I am not the enemy.”

“I know.” I squeezed my fist and pressed it against the side of my locker. “Fuck. She knew this would happen, but I talked her into trusting me, becoming part of my world. And look what happened.”

“This isn’t on you. This is on them. And the negative culture fostered by the media here in L.A.”

“But she consciously chose to stay out of the limelight. She only stepped back into it for me.”

“Because she loves you.” He met my gaze questioningly, but his words were a statement.

“Yes.” I wasn’t sure what he was getting at.

“She made a choice to do something for love. Like the many things you do for her. How slow and patient you were as you got to know each other. Your first date was with a group, yes? To make her more comfortable?”

I nodded.

“You have only slept at her house because it’s easier for her.”

I nodded again.

“You asked her for something very small—to support you in your career. And coming to the game shouldn’t have been a big ask. You had no way of knowing Tim and Eddie would jump at the chance to invite her to their event. Or that they would blindside her like that. You can’t be held responsible for the actions of others, and she knew there was a chance she would be recognized.”

“Hey, man.” Marty came over to us. “Is Bailey okay? Sherry was pissed off this morning when she saw the headlines.”

I sighed. “Yeah, it was a rough night.”

I didn’t want to announce that we’d broken up. That almost felt like I’d be invading her privacy all over again.

“Well, tell her Sherry said to call or text if she needs anything.” He moved past me with a nod.

“Thanks,” I called after him.

“It’s not all bad, you know,” Ivan said after a moment. “I understand she’s upset, but if this is all it takes to end things, maybe it wasn’t right to begin with.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, man. I just don’t know.”

“Perhaps a little time apart is what you both need to reassess the situation, give everything time to settle down. Honestly—and please don’t be offended by this—she’s not a big enough star anymore to be in the news for more than a couple of cycles. They’re going to move on to bigger and better and more juicy headlines. Movie star who got in a car accident and now has a limp and might or might not be getting back with her ex is kind of lame in the grand scheme of things.”

He had a point.

“I know. I just hate being the reason she’s in the middle of another shit storm. She suffered a lot after the accident. And Dirk is the reason they crashed. There are a lot of details that no one knows, so it’s frustrating to her.”

“It seems to me she should set the record straight. I bet Oprah would do one of her special interviews with her!”

I chuckled. “I don’t know if she’s at Oprah’s level at this stage, but she’s pretty private anyway. That might not be her thing.”

He shrugged. “You cannot have it both ways. If you hate the lies, the only way to set the record straight is to defend yourself. If she’s unwilling to do that, then she has to live with the results. And burying her head in the sand isn’t the way to do it.”

“I know.” I heard a familiar voice in the hallway and fury hit me right between the eyes.

The voice belonged to Eddie .

“Dude, think about this,” Ivan called as I walked in that direction.

“What’s happening?” Marty asked, turning to us in confusion.

“Eddie.” I called to him loudly, attracting more attention than was necessary, but I didn’t give a shit.

“Hey, Big Bang.” He turned with a fake smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“What the hell was that last night?” I asked. “Bailey and I attended as a favor to you and you fucking blindsided her. Why would you do that?”

“Hey, it’s not my job to keep your woman in line. If she’s fucking her ex?—”

I pulled back my fist but Ivan caught it in both of his hands.

“He’s not worth it,” he stage-whispered. “Think about it. Think about adding more negative press that will impact Bailey all over again.”

That was probably the only thing he could have said to stop me from flattening Eddie.

“You keep her name out of your fucking mouth,” I hissed to Eddie. “And if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I will kick your ass into the middle of next year. I don’t give a fuck how many laps I have to skate or games you want to bench me or fine I have to pay. Oh wait.” I paused dramatically. “You don’t own this team anymore. So technically, you have zero control over me. You’re nothing but a fucking wannabe riding on daddy’s coattails.”

Eddie stared at me spitefully. “Fuck you. You’re a second-rate D-man who’s overpaid and underperforming. We tried to trade you and couldn’t get any bites, so who’s the wannabe?”

“I don’t give a fuck what you think about me, but you leave Bailey alone,” I told him.

Then I turned and stormed in the other direction.

I needed to get the hell away from him before I threw caution to the wind and pummeled him.