Small Town Girls Don't Marry Their Back-Ups - Carol Moncado Page 0,13
a contract full of confidentiality clauses won’t help me any.”
“You had a bad few games,” Madi reminded him. “Lots of baseball players go through slumps.” She leaned her head against his shoulder. “You have before. This one just happened to be spectacularly well-timed - or ill-timed, as the case may be.”
“Good point.” His fingers found hers where their arms hung at their sides. He squeezed gently. “I’ve only met her twice now, but I have a feeling no one messes with Mama Beach.”
“Generally not more than once. She’s tough but fair. No one walks all over her. She claims most of Pond Creek County as family, blood related or not.” Madi sucked in a deep breath through her nose and blew it out slowly through her mouth. “Did she hug you the other day?”
“She did.” Wyatt linked their fingers together. “Said she’d been praying for me for a long time, but I didn’t get the impression she meant anything about my career. That’s the only way she’d know me, though.”
Madi closed her eyes as she remembered Mia telling her about Mama Beach’s first words to Eli. They were much the same. Mia and Eli were married a short time later.
So what did it mean that Mama Beach said the same thing to Wyatt? That he was going to be a part of their lives in some way for a while? Madi was the only one to remain unmarried out of her siblings. All of the cousins on both sides of Mama Beach’s family had tied the knot. All four of her brothers and sisters had done so between May and August. None had planned to, which was a bit weird, but they were all exceedingly happy.
Sean and Gray had both known their wives for years, so it wasn’t that much of a shock, though Madi still wasn’t sure of the rationale behind Sean and Lexi’s marriage. Mia and Lani met their husbands a short time before marrying them, but they seemed to be turning out all right.
Was that it?
Was that going to be the solution?
The producer had said something about a proposal.
“I know what it is,” she told Wyatt, her head still on his shoulder, his fingers still laced through hers.
“What?”
“They want us to get married.”
As Madi said it, Wyatt knew it was true. “I think you’re right.”
“Like that show on cable where experts match them up, and the couple meets at the altar and gets married.”
Wyatt had never seen it, but it didn’t surprise him that such a thing existed. “So what do we do?”
“I don’t know. I can’t afford the penalty for breaking the contract. HEA TV could ditch my movie if I do for violating a legally binding contract. I could live with that, I think, but the financial penalties? Not a chance unless I borrowed an insane amount of money from one of my brothers-in-law who might have that much. I could never repay it.”
“I’d cover it for you.” He didn’t know what the financial penalties were in her contract. He hoped they weren’t as high as his, but he suspected they were. It wouldn’t break him, but it would put a sizable dent in his savings.
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
“I’m offering.”
“I’m pretty sure it was in the contract that you couldn’t do that.”
Wyatt winced. She was right.
“Besides, what about the damage to your reputation when it gets out that you backed out of a contract? We won’t be able to talk about it. Word might leak out eventually, but it’s your contract year with the Knights. A blotch on your personal reputation will hurt if you don’t have another career year next year.”
He hesitated, becoming fully aware of the cameramen lurking nearby with lenses focused on them and the fact that Madi’s mic was probably still picking up what they were saying. He didn’t think they’d refuse to sign him, but they might lower the deal significantly. “I started a Crimson Knight. Right now, I want to play my whole career there. Things can change, of course, but I don’t think backing out of this contract would hurt negotiations too much.”
“Good.”
Wyatt nudged Madi with his elbow. As she looked up at him, he could see the moment she realized they were being watched. She didn’t make any sudden movements or jump away from him.
But she did let go of his hand and a few seconds later wandered around the hall for a minute before leaning against the wall across from him.