13. Macy

Chapter 13

Macy

What the hell was that? Since when am I Cord's girlfriend? I stare at him with furrowed brows, trying to figure out what I want to do about this.

I don't really want to cause a scene in the middle of the locker room. There are too many players starting to trickle in, but I also want to know what the hell is going on.

"Cord, could I talk to you in private?" I ask as soon as the player who was flirting with me walks away with his tail tucked between his legs.

"You can use my office," Owen sighs. "I swear, can I have just a few players who don't let their love lives enter my locker room?"

"I can guarantee my love life will never enter this building, Boss." Schmidt claps a hand down on Owen's shoulder as he walks by. "Hey, Macy. It's good to see you," he adds softly. There's so much guilt in his eyes and it just pisses me off. Maybe even pity?

I don't bother answering him because honestly it isn't nice to see him again. In fact, if I never saw him again, it'd be great. Absolutely wonderful.

"C'mon, I need to start training soon." Cord places a hand on my lower back and guides me towards Owen's office.

I'm surprised it's in the middle of all the action. Most owners of professional sports teams probably have their offices on an entirely different floor. They don't want to be a part of the day-to-day stuff. But that's not Owen Powell. He wants to get his hands dirty and know exactly what's going on.

Cord softly shuts the door behind him and leans against it. His thick arms get folded across his chest and he waits for me to open my mouth.

"You can't tell people I'm your girlfriend, Cord."

"Why? It will make everyone's life easier. The guys won't be all over you because they'll think you're taken. Trust me, Mace. Charlie came in here and made it clear she was single. The amount of shit she went through, I don't want you to have to do it too."

"And what if I want to date someone?"

"Obviously we'd tell people we broke up then." A flash of hurt crosses his features, but it's gone in the blink of an eye. "I'm trying to protect you. Charlie dealt with enough and she walks around in a t-shirt and yoga pants. What do you think is going to happen when you enter the room dressed like this?" He motions wildly to my outfit .

"Oh my gosh! You're acting like I'm wearing lingerie! I've worn this type of outfit to the office for years!"

Cord pushes off the door and closes the distance between us. He doesn't stop until the toes of our shoes are touching. He brushes his fingers over my cheek and down my jaw, making me suck in a sharp breath. Sometimes I really hate how easily my body responds to him still.

"Macy, any room you walk into, you're the most gorgeous woman in there. I don't know how you don't see it." He shakes his head. "I wasn't an idiot when we were dating, I was well aware of how lucky I was to have you on my arm. To be the one you kissed at the end of the night. And when we broke up, I had countless friends tell me I better figure out how to win you back because I'd never do better than you. I never argued with them because I knew they were right."

"Cord," I whisper his name, not knowing how else to respond. I've always regretted breaking up with him, but I wasn't about to admit I was stupid and made a rash decision because I was jealous.

"Be my fake girlfriend, Mace. Do it so my dad doesn't end up firing me and I don't get put in jail. Because I can promise you, if any of those assholes come near you, especially Schmidt, I'm going to end up in jail."

"Fine. I'll be your fake girlfriend." I roll my eyes, trying to keep some of the walls I've built around my heart standing. I swear every time he's sweet and caring, another brick or two crumbles to the ground. I need to watch myself or I'll be left without any defenses around him.

"Should we kiss on it?" He smirks.

Oh, my Lanta! Yes, please!

"Not a chance, buddy." I pat him on the chest. "I need to go talk to the hot Powell. I want to know numbers here!"

"The hot Powell? Are you seriously saying my dad is hotter than me?" He rears back and stares at me in horror.

"Hotter? I'm not sure, but there's no denying that man is hot. Does he wear reading glasses yet? Because I'm fairly certain he'd be super sexy in reading glasses."

"And just like that, I'm breaking his reading glasses," Cord mutters under his breath, making me laugh.

"So, the salary is-"

"Nope! You need to write it down and slide it across the desk all cool like." I hold my hands up to stop him from talking.

"Seriously?" Jerry glances from me to Owen and back again.

Owen chuckles and sits back in his chair. He eyes me with entertainment before motioning to me. "Give the woman what she wants."

Jerry rolls his eyes and scribbles something onto a piece of paper and tries to slide it across the table .

"No! You didn't even flip it over! I'm not supposed to see it right away," I huff. I wish Jerry wasn't here. Owen would do it the right way.

"Holy shit, can I take away some just because she's being difficult?"

"Nah, I think you should give her more!" Owen laughs even harder. "Add another zero."

"Yeah, I'm not doing that. The last thing I need is your employees thinking if they're sassy they'll get more money."

Jerry flips the paper over and slides it over. I lift the paper high enough to see the salary and I almost choke on my own saliva. That's almost double what I was making at the public relations company I worked for.

"Hmm, I guess I could make this work." I tap on my chin like I'm really thinking things over.

"Oh my gosh. Give me the stupid paper." Owen snatches it out of my hand and crosses off what Jerry wrote. He scribbles out his own number before flipping the paper over and sending it sailing across the table to me. "That's my final offer."

I lift the paper again and actually choke on air. There's no way he's serious. This is double what Jerry wrote.

"Owen, that's too much," I say softly.

"Nope. That's your salary. Now, sign the damn papers so I can stop seeing that hopeful look on my son's face." He shakes his head in disappointment at Cord who's standing near the window of the conference room. "Why's he even over here? He should be training."

Jerry alters the salary on the stack of documents in front of him. He stands and moves to my side of the table.

"I need you to sign here." He points to one place and I quickly sign my name in big swooping letters. "Initial here… And sign here and here." As soon as I'm done, he returns to his chair and carefully tucks everything into a big folder. "Congratulations. You're officially paid way more than you should be."

I wait for Jerry to leave before I turn my attention back to Owen. He's watching me with a smirk playing on his lips. I wish I knew what he was thinking.

"How much more am I paying you than your last job?"

"Eh, three to four times the salary." I shrug. "I told you it was too much."

"That means it was too much when Jerry offered you his salary." Owen raises a brow at me.

"Yeah, I was just screwing with him. I didn't expect you to jump in there. This isn't really my fault. You need to learn self-control."

"Clearly. Let's just hope I can make ends meet now that I'm paying you so much." He rolls his eyes.

"I'm fairly certain Sunshine makes enough money to keep food on the table."

A loud knock on the door pulls our attention away from each other. I glance over my shoulder and find Cord standing in the threshold.

"Why aren't you training, Cord? If this is how it's going to be, I'm going to make her work from home."

"I'll just give a horrible interview and she'll be forced to come in for damage control." He grins when Owen's eyes widen to a comical level.

"Don't screw with me, son. I'm dealing with enough shit for letting go of Stubbs. Apparently, he's already contacted some media outlets and he's painting me in a pretty shitty picture." Owen scrubs a hand down his face and groans. I'm sure he's under a lot of pressure with everything he has on his plate.

"You, Danny, and Charlie met with Stubbs in your office to fire him, correct?" I pull a small notebook out of my bag and grab a pen.

"Yes, why?"

"Are you smart enough to have cameras in there?" I glance up and arch a brow at him.

"Obviously."

"Awesome. I want the video files from the meeting." I scribble something down on my paper.

"Why?" Owen asks again.

"Because Charlie told me Stubbs tried to go after her and you stopped him. If the video backs that up, I'll conveniently leak it to the media and paint him in a worse light. If this asshole wants to play, let's play. I'm not scared of him, I always win. By the end of this, you'll look like a hero and Stubbs will be begging for people to glance in his direction. Charlie will look like a victim though… I'll talk to her about that. Either way, I'll fix it all. By the end of the week, the Pit Bulls will be known as the team who cares about their good employees and gets rid of the bad ones."

"Wow, I'm not sure I'd ever want to play with you." Owen rests his chin in the palm of his chin and watches me.

"I don't know, playing with her was always my favorite thing to do." Cord wiggles his eyebrows, flashing me a lopsided grin.

"Yeah, but do you always win when you play?" I arch a brow, totally screwing with him.

"Based on the noises coming out of you, I'd say I won."

"Damn, this is going to be fun to watch," Owen mutters under his breath as we go back and forth. "Cord, what are you here for anyway? You've done a mighty fine job of avoiding my question every time I ask." He checks his watch before turning back to us.

"I wanted to ask my girlfriend to eat lunch with me." He grins, knowing Owen's going to get all excited for no reason.

"What did you just say?" Owen sits a little taller and pays a little more attention this time.

"Fake girlfriend," I correct, pointing a finger at him.

"You're fake dating? Why? "

"Because he's afraid boys are going to flirt with me." I stick out my bottom lip in a pout.

"Because it will keep me out of jail," Cord mumbles under his breath.

"Well, I can't fight with that logic. If you go to jail, I'll have to find two new players and I don't feel like putting in that much work." He stands and gathers his things. "Mace, if you could dress a little more like Charlie, you could really save us all from bad press."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I frown at him. How am I going to cause him to have any bad press?

"I view you like a daughter, sweetheart, even more than I do Charlie. If I hear a player talk about your ass or tits, I might end up in prison too. Sunshine wouldn't like that."

"Oh my Lanta! You two are being ridiculous."

"Cover up the goods and we won't have to be this way." Owen presses a kiss to the top of my head. "Make good choices," he says before he exits the room, leaving me alone with Cord.

"Let's go, babe." Cord holds his hand out to me and as soon as I place my palm in his, he intertwines our fingers and leads me out of the office.