telling me?”
He stared at me for a few brief minutes before saying, “He asked about our relationship.”
“As in our working relationship?”
“As in our romantic relationship . . . he wanted to know if it was a trend . . .”
“If what was a trend?” I fired back. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I don’t know how he knows, Parker. God knows we were careful, but someone tipped him off about Erik. All he knows is that according to an unnamed source, you pursued your coach in order to further your own career—and all he knows from that same source is that you are living under my roof, under my care, while I coached you, and that last night we were seen at a stop light kissing, with you in nothing but your sports bra.”
My mouth dropped open as terror threatened to split me in two. The very man I wanted—I needed—to tell me it was going to be okay was looking at me like it wasn’t, like we couldn’t come back from this. Like I never would.
“Matt . . .” I licked my dry lips. “I need you to be my agent now. Tell me what to do, how do I handle this?” Tears welled in my eyes as my throat got thick and heavy. “I don’t know how to lie to him and I don’t want to. I don’t want to lie about us, but if I don’t—”
“I get it,” Matt said softly. “And I’m going to make it easy on you, Parker. Choose your dreams.” He didn’t touch me, didn’t walk over to me and pull me into his arms. “I’m not the reason you’re here, you’re the reason you’re here, your talent, your tenacity—it’s you. Worry about you. Not me.”
“But . . .”
He silenced me with a sad smile.
“That can’t be the only option!” I jumped to my feet.
“It is the only option,” Matt said through clenched teeth. “Right now you’re just another one of my athletes ready to sign what should be a seven-figure deal with one of the best teams in the US. As your agent, it’s my job to tell you that another option doesn’t exist!”
“You mean we don’t exist.” I hung my head as a solitary tear dripped from my cheek onto the expensive concrete floor.
Matt braced my shoulders with his hands, his face filled with agony, his smile gone. “When he walks in that door, the only thing that matters is your soccer career.”
I reached for him, fisted his shirt in my right hand, and pulled him close. “And when he walks out?”
Matt’s eyes fell to my mouth. “I wish I knew.”
The doorbell rang.
He crushed his mouth to mine then.
And I hated that kiss.
I hated it more than I hated anything.
Maybe even Erik.
Because it tasted like good-bye.
“I’ll get it!” Willow yelled in her usual everyone-must-be-wearing-ear-plugs-so-I-need-to-double-the-effort fashion.
Matt hung his head, and we broke apart. I counted the seconds from the time his fingertips left my skin, from the moment he backed away, and then, when he left me standing in the foyer to greet the coach, I had to ask myself, Was this the most important dream I had?
Or had Matt given me another one?
I was too confused to think.
All I knew is I wanted both.
The man, the dream. They weren’t complete without each other, I just didn’t know how to have both while still protecting him, protecting us from my past, my reputation, without killing his and my future with my new team—that is, if they still wanted me.
“Parker!” Darius waltzed right in and shook my hand. “I hope you got some rest last night?”
My mind flashed to images of Matt and me in the shower, him licking down my neck, my hands pressed against the cold hard tile as he filled me, as we became whole and just stayed that way as water cascaded over our bodies.
“Yeah,” I croaked. “I crashed pretty early.”
Next to me, Matt didn’t as much as smirk. He was back to being the asshole agent who’d screw his own grandma in order to ink a deal, wasn’t he?
I thought that was what I needed.
What I wanted.
But now I knew the truth.
Behind all of the business was a man, a wonderful man who made me laugh, who held me when I cried, who helped me chase a dream I wasn’t sure I could still chase without getting laughed out of the stadium.
“Willow, why don’t you grab some coffee?” Matt flashed his megawatt grin toward Darius. “So what