Warning Track (Callahan Family #1) - Carrie Aarons Page 0,64
like I used my position to influence the relationship. The media will paint me in the same light as my father, when in reality, I just couldn’t help who I fell in love with.
Love. I’m in love with Hayes Swindell, that much is evident. I haven’t told him in so many words, but I’ll end up confessing it soon enough.
One of the doors opens, the assistant pitching coach coming out with a brisk nod and heading back to his seat. I try not to make it look like I’ve jumped, but my body betrays me. Luckily, the coach is none the wiser.
Hayes waves for me to proceed, and I walk ahead of him. His hand ghosts over the small of my back, and when I turn around to flash him the briefest of smiles before shutting the door, he’s staring intently at me.
I’m pretty certain he’s thinking the same things I am, and it both thrills and saddens me. We are both head over heels for each other, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
29
Hayes
“Put that thing down, gorgeous.”
I kiss up the column of her spine, leaving open-mouth kisses and a trail of my wet mouth as I go.
Colleen barely even notices, her nose stuck in her phone. “Damage control, sorry. The team publicist just sent me another article my father supplied quotes for. When will enough be enough?”
She’s sitting up in my bed, naked except for the sheet pooling around her waist. I’m propped up on an elbow, equally as naked, having finished our second round of sex just twenty minutes ago. It seems, while I was in the bathroom wiping up and brushing my teeth, Colleen reached for her phone as she’s so prone to do. I’ve never been much for mobile devices, and don’t spend much time on mine if I’m not texting her or chatting with Bryant, so it kind of grates on me that she lives on the thing. But I get it, for her, business never sleeps.
“He’s a narcissist, in every sense of the word. Also a thief, a jackass, a criminal … there are many names I could apply to him,” I grumble, annoyed that her piece of shit father keeps invading her thoughts.
Sitting up, I pull her back into my lap, so that she can rest on my chest while I massage her scalp and shoulders.
“He groomed me for this position, which is what I can’t figure out in all of this. He literally trained me to take over, and now that I have, it’s like I’ll burn the entire Pistons organization to the ground.” She points at her phone, accusing it as if it’s Jimmy Callahan.
My fingers dig into the muscles of her shoulder, which are surprisingly tight and wound up for a woman her size. She doesn’t even flinch when I press harder.
“It’s because he didn’t do it the way he always intended. The job, his life, was taken from him because of his own actions. He’s salty as hell that you’re the one in power now, even though you’re cleaning up his mess and learning on the fly because of what he did. That’s the true nature of a narcissist.”
I should know, I’ve seen enough of them in the foster care system and in the fame circles I’ve run in from time to time.
Colleen tosses her phone down to the end of the bed, some of her hair floating over the shoulder I’m massaging. I push it back over, and she sighs in frustration and contentment at the issue at hand and my hands on her.
“And people want to know why I never stop working. Stop pushing, stop grinding myself to the breaking point. He made me like this. And now he’s trying to undermine me, yet again. I hate to be that cliché, but I’ve never once in my life heard the words ‘I’m proud of you’ from either of my parents.”
Her admission sends a pang of sorrow through my gut. I might not have heard those words from parents, but I’ve definitely heard them from Bryant. Or my coaches. Or my agent. Or any number of people throughout my life.
“I’ll say it now. Because I’m so fucking proud of you. You’re the hardest working person I’ve ever seen, and that’s coming from someone who trains with elite athletes every day.”
She sighs, melting back a little into me. We might both be naked in my dimly-lit bedroom, but this is more of an intimate position than a sexual