Chapter Thirteen

When they got to her apartment, Kaiden helped Romilly move her painting supplies to her bedroom. He didn’t have much, just a couple of duffle bags, which reminded him that he had to call his mother and ask her to check on his stuff in storage.

“It’s not much,” Romilly said, biting her bottom lip.

There was a little apprehension in her eyes as she looked around the sparse room. She had a desk and chest of drawers, and the twin bed was going to be hell to sleep on. He was six foot five and weighed two hundred forty pounds of muscle. He was going to break that damn bed.

“Maybe I should just go back to the hotel.”

“No, because I have an idea,” she said suddenly lighting up. “You can sleep in my bed. It’s a queen, so it’s better for you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And where will you be sleeping?”

“I can sleep in here.”

“No,” he said. “I can’t kick you out of your own bed. I’ll go back to the hotel before I do that.”

She waved away that statement. “It’s just sleep. Until you find out if you’re staying here in St. Louis.”

It wasn’t often he was rendered speechless, but Romilly did that with one simple gesture. Come to think about it, she did that a lot. Willing to uproot her life to accommodate him, and while he was used to a certain amount of people bending over backward when he was around, this was something entirely different.

She was someone entirely different.

Romilly was beautiful without it going to her head. She was caring, by the way she took an animal that wasn’t even her own pet to a dog park. She was generous to everyone she met. Maybe a little too generous. The woman needed a keeper so people couldn’t take advantage of her.

With that thought came the guilt he was good at ignoring. The paparazzi had already started following them. There’d been a few snapped photos of their dates posted on social media. I f— whe n— he made the team, it would get more intense for her. He did have a certain level of celebrity status, thanks to his father, and the fact he had dated a few high-profile actresses and models, including the daughter of his last coach. Truthfully, it had been only a matter of time before everything exploded. Or maybe “imploded” would be a better phase. Was he doing the right thing? Could Romilly hold up under the pressure of being in the spotlight.

He fucking hoped so, because he liked being with her. The initial plan had been to break it off when the season started, but now he wondered if they could have a real relationship. If that was the case, then he didn’t have to worry about the motives behind his actions. She would never need to know he planned to use her because it would be a moot point.

Feeling infinitely better about his deception, he put his arms around her and squeezed. She felt so damn good in his arms.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” she murmured, snuggling into his chest.

“I should know by the end of this coming week if they decided to buy my contract.” God, he fucking hoped so. “If they do, I’m pretty much a sure thing to be on the team. But, there’s always that small amount of doubt lingering. I feel like an anvil is on my chest. Hard to even breathe.”

She tightened her arms around him. “They will. I know it. I don’t know much about football, so I had to watch a few videos of you on the field.”

“And?”

She grinned up at him. “Even I understood how good you are. You got this in the bag.”

Something hit him in the chest, in the region of his heart. Something … all consuming. Like he just stepped off into a bottomless pit and was free-falling. It unsettled him.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“Anytime.”

Just then his cell phone rang and he dug it out of his pocket. His mom’s name lit up and he answered the call.

“Hey, Mom. I was just thinking I had to call you.”

Romilly left him in the room, giving him a bit of privacy.

“Hi, sweetheart,” she said. “I just wanted to check in. See how you’re doing.”

“I haven’t heard anything from the coaches or the general manager, but I have a good feeling.”

“I have my fingers and toes crossed.”

“Toes?”

“I figured more things crossed the better.”

He chuckled. “Okay. I’ll take that. Thanks. By the way, I moved into a friend’s apartment.”

“One of your teammates?”

“No,” he replied, grimacing. He knew she was going to take this the wrong way. “A female friend.”

“Girlfriend?”

“No, not really. Just a friend. Who happens to be a girl.”

There was a heartbeat of silence.

“Okay,” she said. “Keep me posted if your friend that’s a girl turns into a girlfriend.”

He grinned, even though she couldn’t see it. “I will.”

There was a hesitated pause, and he instinctively knew what she was going to say.

“Your father called.”

Kaiden tensed, waiting for her to elaborate. He wished he could run interference to keep him from hurting her heart even more.

“He wanted to apologize once more. Said he missed me.”

“Fucking asshole.”

“Kaiden,” she admonished. “He’s your dad.”

“Yeah, unfortunately, but he’s still a fucking asshole. The man cheated on you, so there’s no forgiveness in me.”

“I know it’s hard to see, but he’s only human. He made a mistak e— ”

“You can’t believe it was only the one time! He’s a cheat and a liar, Mom. There isn’t any shade of grey here.”

“Oh, honey, I know that. But I still love him. He broke my heart, but I can’t go from loving him for thirty years to hating him in an instant. Or ever. I’m not built like that.”

“I am,” he said ruthlessly.

She sighed again, and part of him hated that he was disappointing her, but he simply couldn’t play nice with his father. Not after what he saw.

“I know it’ll take time, but don’t block yourself off from forgiveness. You won’t be able to move forward if you keep it all bottled inside.”

He couldn’t deal with that right then. His father was a topic he wanted no part discussing. “I hope to know sometime this week what the decision is about me still having a football career.”

“I know they’ll say yes. You’re one of the best tight ends in the entire league.”

It felt good knowing she still believed in him. “I hope so, because I don’t know what I’m going to do if they say no.”

“Positive thinking, my love. And if that fails, I know you’ll figure out something.”

“Sure, Mom. Listen, I’ve got to run, but I’ll call you as soon as I find out anything.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“Love you back.”

He disconnected the call and rubbed the back of his neck. Right then he couldn’t deal, so he did the only thing he knew how to do, and that was ignore and forget. At least, hope he could forget. Kinda hard to do that when he’d walked in on his father fucking someone else.

His phone rang again and he glanced down to see the name of the public relations guy flash up.

“Yeah?”

“Nice to talk to you, too,” Pace said dryly. “Listen, a few news outlets contacted me about you doing some interviews.”

Interviews were nothing new to him. He’d been on a few late-night talk shows back in California, but that was when he had a career.

“Shouldn’t I wait until I hear something from Coach Sigworth?”

“We should capitalize on your notoriety. Get your name out into the publi c— ”

“My name has been in the public for all the wrong reasons,” he interrupted. “That’s why we came up with…”

He trailed off and glanced at the open door. He’d almost fucked up and said that aloud where Romilly could’ve heard.

“That’s why we came up with our plans,” he managed to finish. “I think they’re going to tell me something soon.”

Pace huffed. “You should check social media. The first part of your plan seems to be working. Pictures of you and that woman are circulating, and people are loving the blossoming love story.”

Every single time the true reason Romilly was in his life came up, the guilt chipped away a little more of his emotions. He didn’t want to hurt her, but by now he walked on a road he didn’t know how to get off.

“I will,” he said. “If I get on the team, let’s set up the interviews.”

Pace was silent for a long moment, and then he acquiesced. “Very well.”

“By the way, I found a charity.”

“Great. Which kind?”

“I had a young fan come up to me and he told me about his school needing football equipment and probably a new travel bus. That’s something I can get behind. Helping kids out who can’t afford equipment.”

“Brilliant. What school is it?”

“Sterling Pines. Can you set that up?”

“Certainly. I’ll be in touch.”

Once again, Kaiden disconnected the call. Bringing up his social media links, he saw that the paparazzi had been doing an excellent job plastering his dates with Romilly all over the place. There were a lot of chatter speculations, good and bad, although most of the posts were still about his fall from grace. Comparing him to his father, wondering what James Demay thought about his son’s exploits. Kaiden couldn’t change the past, but he was working hard to move past it, and all he had to do was walk the straight and narrow.

He left the bedroom and went in search of his new roommate. Romilly sat at the table sketching in a notebook, with earbuds in her ears. He wondered if they were for his benefit, to give him privacy to talk on the phone. Around her were mailing boxes, bubble wrap, and other supplies. Several art racks lined one wall holding numerous paintings.

Not wanting to startle her, he moved around the table until he was in her line of sight. She glanced up and closed her sketchbook, smiling up at him as she took out her earbuds. Desire hit him in the solar plexus, causing all the air in his lungs to escape in a whoosh. The area around his heart burned, and he absently rubbed around it.

“Good talk?” she asked.

He gave a little shrug. “Yeah, I suppose. You know how moms are.”

She didn’t say anything, only blinked up at him as her smile wavered a little, and he mentally kicked himself.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” he said.

“It’s fine,” she replied. “Truthfully, I barely remember her. What I really miss the most are her hugs. She’d wrap them around me and pull me in so I could hear her heartbeat. They were the best hugs in the world.”

Even before she finished speaking, he was pulling her into his body as he wrapped around her in a tight hug.

“I know it’s not the same,” he murmured.

She settled into his embrace and hugged him back. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”

Remorse tried to claw its way up his body. It took an effort to push it away, and each time was proving more difficult than the last.