Roper raised an eyebrow.
“It’s my job, remember. Come on.”
He rattled off some old ball players he knew were into coaching who might be able to use a guy like Ben. Although he loved his brother, it rankled to have to call in favors knowing Ben wouldn’t appreciate the effort and would probably turn down any opportunity Roper uncovered because
he
felt he deserved better.
“Just be prepared. Ben won’t make it easy. He’ll play the guilt card because I had the father with the talent, while his dad had none. He likes living on pipe dreams of what life owes him, instead of what he could actually do to make it on his own.”
Amy jotted down a few more notes. “Delusions of grandeur,” she said without glancing up. Her brows were furrowed in concentration and her lips puckered as she wrote. Lips he still wanted to kiss more than he wanted to breathe. But she was working with him now. There would be time.
Neither one of them had eaten much, but he sensed until she finished dissecting his family, she wouldn’t be interested in food.
“Are you ready to talk about Sabrina?” she asked.
He leaned back in his chair and stretched. “Sure am. She’s the easiest one. My little sister is marrying a great guy. A normal accountant. The wedding is planned for next fall, after my season ends.
I’m paying for the big day, but that isn’t a problem. I want to pay. She deserves the best. Problem is, she isn’t in charge of her own wedding, our mother is. Or at least she wants to be.”
“Long distance?”
He nodded.
“Sabrina calls me several times a day with another of Mom’s outlandish ideas, things Sabrina doesn’t want but Mom thinks are best.
Sabrina wants me to mediate, but frankly, I don’t want to do any more than write the damn check.”
Amy chuckled. “Typical man.”
He grinned. “I tune them out when possible, but if I don’t answer the phone right away, they hunt me down. Don’t get me wrong. I love them but—”
“They need to live their own lives,” Amy finished for him. “But they haven’t had to since you’ve always done everything for them.” A few more notes and Amy finally put her pen down and met his gaze. “Got it all,” she said, then picked up her knife and fork. “God, I’m starving.”
She dug into her meal with a gusto he’d never seen in a female.
Just watching her renewed his appetite and they finished their meal in comfortable silence. As soon as their waiter placed the check on the table, he placed his hand on the leather folder.
“I’ve got it,” she said, reaching for the billfold at the same time so their fingers met.
He’d always let Micki pay when they went out for business and he should allow Amy to do the same, especially this first business lunch when he figured she needed to feel in control.
But he let his hand deliberately linger so he could touch her a little longer. “You already talked me into turning off my phone and Treo.
Don’t add insult to injury by paying the check. My fragile male ego can’t handle it.”
She laughed. “I don’t think your ego has been fragile a day in your life.”
“You’d be surprised,” he said, sobering. She probably thought the insults from Buckley and the fans rolled off his back. Maybe at one time they would have, but not any longer. He was afraid they were right and he was a washed-up has-been.
Without warning, she slipped her hand from his. “I’ll get it next time,” she said, leaving him with the distinct impression she did understand the fragile ego thing.
Just as he understood hers. “No, this is business. I don’t mind letting the Hot Zone pick up the tab.” Before she could get too cocky, he added, “I’ll get it on our next date.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he glanced down at the check, ignoring her so she couldn’t argue. Because there would be a real date.
She could count on it.
Once the check was paid, he walked her out of the restaurant and onto the street. To his surprise, they’d made it through the meal with only a few stares. No one asked for an autograph or bothered him with stupid questions, like how did it feel to single-handedly blow the series?
He waited as she glanced up the street to locate her driver, then held the car door for her as she climbed inside. He had a physical-therapy appointment downtown so he declined a ride and sent her back uptown alone.
But not before she promised she’d be in touch with a plan to help him reclaim his life. She believed she could fix things for him, and for the first time, he admitted to himself that he needed her to be right.
He’d always been the one taking care of others. No one had ever given much thought to what
he
needed, not because they didn’t care, but because they knew he could take care of himself. Even though Amy was only doing what the Hot Zone paid her to do, he appreciated her efforts. He believed she’d do her best, although he had less faith in her ability to get his family under control. It wasn’t personal, nor was it a lack of belief in her abilities. He just knew his family, and short of doing their bidding, there was no denying them.
But he was looking forward to seeing Amy try.
HE CALLED IN THE TIP ABOUT
Roper’s lunch at Sparks Steak House with the niece of Spencer Atkins. He supposed he ought to feel guilty about causing the guy trouble, but Roper’s life was already imploding. There was no reason not to help the process along by placing him squarely in the public eye.
He wouldn’t want people to forget about Roper or his part in destroying the Renegades’ chances of winning the World Series. Not when the man was paid more than anyone else on the team to come up with the ultimate post-season win.
Besides, wasn’t it time that the high-and-mighty realized how fragile fame and fortune were? Some people worked hard for their talent.
Others thought it was their birthright. Roper was one of the entitled. He took what belonged to others without thought or care. Roper would soon learn otherwise.
He hung up his disposable cell phone and tossed it in the trash.
Nobody could trace this call. Celebrities and athletes showed up in papers and columns all the time, but he felt better covering his tracks.
He wouldn’t want anyone to discover his grudge.
Better to just help Roper’s fall from grace anonymously and enjoy the spectacle from a distance.
AMY LEFT THE RESTAURANT
on a euphoric high. She knew what she needed to do to help Roper and she had some ideas already to research and implement. On the way back to her office, she stopped by Micki’s and ran the plan by her, receiving a thumbs-up in return. She had her secretary following up on some of the coaching possibilities Roper had mentioned for his brother. She felt certain once each of his needy relatives was squared away, they’d leave Roper in peace, allowing him to get back to what he did best.
All he needed was some organization, some direction and a firm, guiding hand.
Her
firm, guiding hand.
She wished she could share her excitement with someone other than her boss, but she hadn’t made any real friends in the city yet. So she fell back on the familiar. She called her mother.
Rose answered on the first ring. “Hi, Mom.”
“Amy!” her mother said, clearly excited. “Darla, it’s Amy!”
Amy could envision her yelling across the small kitchen even though her aunt was always within whispering distance.
“Your aunt Darla sends her love,” her mother said.
“Send mine back,” Amy said.
“Darla, Amy sends her love right back,” Rose yelled.
Amy smiled, a pang of homesickness hitting her despite the fact that she was exactly where she wanted to be. “How are things down South?
”
“Bo-o-o-r-ing. It’s been raining nonstop. We’ve seen all the movies playing in theaters. Twice.” Her mother let out a long-suffering sigh.
“How are things with you?”
“Pretty great.” Amy knew better than to tell her mother anything specific about John Roper or she’d be on the next flight out to matchmake. “I have my first client and things are really working out for me here.”
“No need to thank me. I knew I was doing the right thing throwing you out of here,” her mother said smugly.
“Need I remind you I left on my own?”
“And I must tell you, your replacement is fantastic,” her mother said, ignoring her. “Better than fantastic. She’s organized daily bingo—
for
money.
”
Amy winced. Clearly the new director didn’t know what she was up against. “There’s too much cheating going on to use real prizes.” Amy had kept the prizes small and manageable, so nobody would win a jackpot at someone else’s expense.
“You’re telling me. Marilyn Hornsby stole my card right out from under me and won a jackpot of one hundred and one dollars, the weasel,” Rose said.
Her mother went on about the new director and the goings-on in the community. Amy missed them, but she definitely had more of a challenge here. And she couldn’t help feeling a sense of peace that came from not being in the center of her mother’s world. “I’ve really got to get back to work now,” she explained.
Rose cleared her throat. “I understand. Just make sure your uncle Spencer isn’t working you to death or I’ll have to have a talk with him.”
“Stay out of it,” Amy ordered.
“Are you sure?” her mother asked.
“Quite sure. I came here to get a life, not to have you meddle—I mean—interfere in mine. I know you mean well, but no thank you.”
“Fine.” Her mother sniffed.
Amy grinned. “Stay out of trouble and don’t give the new director a reason to quit,” Amy warned.
“As if I can possibly cause any trouble. It’s boring here, I tell you.
She’s running the place like a military base,” Rose whined.
Amy laughed. “I thought she was wonderful.”
“Wonderfully uptight,” her mother muttered, the truth coming out.
Amy wasn’t surprised her mother had fibbed at first so Amy didn’t feel bad for leaving. Or maybe so she would. Knowing her mother, Rose figured if Amy thought the new director was so perfect, she’d get jealous and run home. She wouldn’t put anything past her mother.
“Have you met any nice men?” Rose asked.
“No one in particular.” She crossed her fingers as she lied.
Another drawn-out sigh sounded over the phone line. “Leave it to my daughter not to meet men when she works for a sports agency loaded with hotties. Rich hotties.”
Amy pinched the bridge of her nose. Definitely time to hang up. “My secretary’s calling me. I have to go. I love you, Mom. And I miss you.”
“I love you, too. And we miss you. Don’t we miss Amy, Darla?”
“We both miss you,” Rose said, blowing a loud, smacking kiss through the phone.
Grinning, Amy hung up, and with her mood light, she went back to figuring out how to change John Roper’s life.
AFTER ROPER LEFT AMY,
he headed straight for the physical therapist’s.
Taking her cue, he kept his cell phone and his Treo off, and sure enough, got through his physical-therapy appointment uninterrupted.
He even fit a short gym session into the day. Amy’s solution worked well for him so far.
But by the time he arrived back home, there were no less than half a dozen messages on his answering machine, most of them from his mother. Roper thanked God she lived long-distance or else his life would be more of a hell than it was now. In her messages, his mother managed to hit all of his buttons and he called her back immediately, feeling guilty for taking an entire afternoon to himself.
That’s what he got for jumping into the role of man of the family too early in life. His parents’ affair had been hot, heavy and had petered out just as fast as it had started, leaving his mother pregnant in an era when women didn’t have kids out of wedlock. The beautiful starlet had turned to a man she’d thought would save her. Another impulsive decision, leading to the birth of his siblings. Ben and Sabrina’s father soon tired of living with his famous wife and took off, leaving Cassandra with three kids. Though Roper had been young, he’d taken charge. The family had come to rely on him, and he had been the decision-maker and fixer of everyone’s problems ever since.
He called his mother back and left a message both at her home and on her phone, hoping that would buy him some peace until morning.
Then he headed for a hot shower. As he stripped and flipped the water on hot, his thoughts turned to Amy, and he changed the temperature to icy cold instead. He wished that the effect she had on his body was all he liked about Amy, but in the short time he’d known her, he’d learned there was so much more. The take-charge attitude he hadn’t expected, the understanding of his relationship with his family, her pure determination to succeed in her new job that he could see in her eyes.
Eyes that made him crazy with desire.
He finished showering, dried himself and fell into bed, exhausted.
What seemed like moments later, he woke to the sound of his doorbell ringing. His doorman had a list of approved people to let up, so his uninvited guest had to be someone he knew. A glance at the clock told him he’d crashed all night. It was morning.
He reached for the nearest pair of jeans lying on a chair and made his way to the door. Without coffee, he wasn’t ready to see anyone.
He glanced through the peephole and let out a groan. He especially wasn’t ready to deal with the woman standing impatiently on the other side. Cassandra Lee had arrived.
NO SOONER HAD ROPER OPENED
his door than his mother barged right in. “Darling!” She presented her cheek for a kiss, which he dutifully gave.
Then he stepped back and looked at her linen pants and blouse, obviously wrinkled from travel. “Did you tell me you were coming and I forgot?” he asked, knowing he’d done no such thing.
She narrowed her gaze. “Don’t play games with me, John. You didn’t answer your phone, you didn’t return my e-mail or text messages, so I’m here.” She waved her hands around expressively, ending by cupping his cheek in her hand. “I was worried about you.”
He narrowed his gaze, which didn’t take much since he was still half-asleep. But mentally, he was now wide-awake. That his mother loved him was fact. That she might have been concerned about his silence also might be true. But no way would she fly across the country just because he hadn’t picked up his cell phone.