Dare to Tempt - Carly Phillips Page 0,68
to get your faces as well. Cell phones have other uses than texting!” Austin practically yelled. “You need to pay attention what’s happening around you. And think smarter.”
Jaxon rubbed his hands across his clean shaven face. “Again, we were both consenting adults.” But the excuse sounded lame, even to him. He just found it hard to give in to Austin and just admit he’d screwed up.
Austin shook his head. “This isn’t your first strike with management. There was the time you played still drunk—”
“I was just hungover and nearly pitched a no-hitter that day.”
From the shake of Austin’s head, that had been the wrong answer again.
“You fucked the general manager’s daughter, Jaxon.”
“I didn’t know who she was!”
“That’s the point! You should have known.” Austin’s voice rose again and his face flushed red.
Jaxon shoved his hands into his pockets so he didn’t go after his brother like when they were kids. “So I’m supposed to do a background check on anyone I meet in a bar before I get laid?”
Austin closed his eyes and gritted his teeth before looking at Bri. “He’s not getting it.”
Bri shook her head. “Yes he is. He’s just being stubborn.” She walked over, grabbed Jaxon’s arm and dragged him to the sofa on the far side of the room. “Sit down.”
Being smart and not wanting to piss his sister off any further, Jaxon sat.
“Now you’re going to pay attention to your agent. Not your brother, your agent, who has your best interest at heart. And as your sibling, you can be damn sure he’s looking out for you even more. So shut up with the excuses and listen.”
She was right, of course. Jaxon just didn’t want to deal with the reality of what he’d done and the possible repercussions going forward for his career.
Leaning back against the sofa, he glanced at his brother and braced himself. “Go ahead.”
Austin, having calmed down, walked over to the seat beside him and lowered himself onto the cushion, placing one arm on the back of the sofa. “As your brother, I understand who you are and why you act the way you do but dammit, you have to grow up. You’re twenty-eight. Old enough to understand you’re nearing the end of your pitching career.”
Jaxon’s heart squeezed in his chest. “Ouch.”
His sibling was hitting on every insecurity he had about his past, old relationships, his job, his career, and his future. The things he partied and drank to avoid dwelling on.
He knew why he’d fallen into this lifestyle and it wasn’t just the woman who’d walked out on him. Though Jaxon had been fifteen when his father died, Jesse Prescott had been around long enough to have an impact. His asshole father had let him know in no uncertain terms if he didn’t play football he was useless and no woman would want him. After losing Katie, Jaxon had gone about proving his deceased old man wrong by letting any cleat chaser available into his bed.
Austin didn’t flinch. “It’s my job to tell you the hard facts. I know you’re in the off season but if you want to retire in disgrace you’re well on your way because if the Eagles want you gone, no team is going to want to pay what’s left on your contract and they’re not going to trade for a twenty-eight year old with Tommy John surgery two years ago. The reality is you’re too old for the partying and sex with groupie shit too.”
“Linc said the same thing,” Jaxon admitted, speaking of his best friend, his catcher, and a happily married family man who planned to retire at the end of next year when his contract expired.
Bri strode over and put a hand on his shoulder, offering sympathy where Austin appeared to have none. “I represent Linc too, as you know. He gives me no trouble, he goes to work, does his job and knows how to stay off ownership radar. Can’t you be more like Linc?”
“You want me to get married and settle down but that’s not happening. No female wants to live the kind of life a baseball player does. I’m constantly on the road and play one hundred and sixty two games a year, excluding post season. Not to mention the fact that I was once in a relationship, came damn close to having that married life and learned it’s not in the cards.”
Katie, his college girlfriend, and the woman he thought he’d marry, had broken his heart, teaching him a hard lesson. His father had been right. No woman would want him and Jaxon refused to let that be true. So he’d locked up his emotions and lived life to have fun and prove dad wrong. Not even being dead eliminated the ghost of Jesse Prescott.
Austin groaned. “It is possible to live that life with the right woman. Look at Linc.”
“You two sound like parrots,” Jaxon muttered.
Ignoring him, Austin went on. “You won’t be playing ball forever. You’ll be more settled. And you don’t want to be alone for the rest of your life.”
“Says the man who not three months ago was a die-hard bachelor. Ever heard the expression the pot calling the kettle black?”
A muscle ticked in Austin’s temple. “One, I didn’t have to answer to anyone but myself and two, you might learn from my experience instead of being an asshole. Quinn is the best thing that ever happened to me. You should try dating a nice girl and not going for the ones who spreads their legs for anyone with a jersey.”
“Eww.” Bri shuddered. “This isn’t a locker room.”
“Well he needs to hear it,” Austin muttered.
Jaxon frowned because no matter what his brother said, no matter how much of a valid point he might make, no way was Jaxon giving in. “Ownership can’t make me get married,” he muttered.
“No but they can order you to chill the fuck out or be suspended or worst case, cut. Is that what you want?”
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About the Author
NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestseller, Carly Phillips gives her readers Alphalicious heroes to swoon for and romance to set your heart on fire. She married her college sweetheart and lives in Purchase, NY along with her three crazy dogs: two wheaten terriers and a mutant Havanese, who are featured on her Facebook and Instagram. The author of 50 romance novels, she has raised two incredible daughters who put up with having a mom as a full time writer. Carly’s book, The Bachelor, was chosen by Kelly Ripa as a romance club pick and was the first romance on a nationally televised bookclub. Carly loves social media and interacting with her readers. Want to keep up with Carly? Sign up for her newsletter and receive TWO FREE books at www.carlyphillips.com.