Page 81 of Love Game

Unimpressed with her friend’s idea of a compliment, Kate rolled her eyes. “Great. Just what I was shooting for that day.”

“She’d need bigger boobs.” Avery didn’t look up from the papers in her lap. With a practiced flick of her wrist, she circled a section of text. “No such thing as a flat-chested figurehead. You know those suckers were carved by men.”

“Thanks for that,” Kate said with a snide smile. “Reading anything good?”

Avery held up her hand. “I’m not done yet.”

Kate turned to stare out at the quad. The space should have been deserted, but it seemed that every sports reporter who wasn’t covering baseball was on campus, hoping to catch her and Danny together. She was all for giving them what they wanted. After all, Danny was being terminated. They had little to lose. But he wouldn’t do it. For once, he was the one reminding her about her own contract negotiations and playing it cautious, claiming they needed at least one steady income to keep them both in Tiger Balm.

She glanced at the contract in Avery’s lap, hoping her friend might use her experience as a former paralegal to confirm what Kate already suspected. They might have a way out of this mess.

Maybe. Possibly. With a little luck, a giant leap of faith, and some skillful loophole diving.

She hadn’t said anything to Danny that morning. He had his hands full as it was. His agent was due in on a midmorning flight. His voicemail had gone to overload within minutes of Jim Davenport’s accusation. He’d come in early to beat the press, wanting to talk to Mike face-to-face one last time. Now, he was down the hall, packing his things. For either California or Idaho.

He’d asked her a question, but it was one she didn’t want to answer.

Which was ridiculous, considering she’d threatened to do exactly what he was asking her to do. She was already putting her career on the line for a man. One who shouldn’t have any claim on her but somehow did from the minute she met him. After just one night with Danny, she knew they were right together. She knew it the same way she could tell if a shot was good the second it left her fingertips.

But she’d been wrong about one thing. She’d thought he was going to propose to her when he said he wanted to ask her a question. And in that magical moment, every princess fantasy she’d stowed deep down inside her sprang to life. It was a damn good thing she’d been speechless.

Idaho, for cripes’ sake. What does someone say to that?

But oh, she’d wanted him to pop the question. She’d wanted a poofy dress and a tiara and a bevy of woodland creatures to help her dress. She’d wear high heels so she’d tower over him as they said their vows. He’d like that, perverse as he was. She wanted a real wedding this time. She didn’t want to pretend fifteen minutes in a judge’s chambers was good enough for what she felt for him.

But dreams and reality didn’t always play out that way.

Being the industrious woman she was, she knocked her man out with a vigorous round of screw-’em-all sex, waited until he started to snore, then slipped out from under his tree trunk of a leg to reclaim the pages of the contract they’d tossed aside. Closeted in the bathroom, she read and reread the morals clause until she could recite it. If her hunch was right, a quickie ceremony at the courthouse might be just the ticket. And she’d do it for him. Otherwise, she might be saying hi-de-ho to Idaho soon.

She’d lain awake until he crept out of bed and shuffled off to the shower. Then she’d called Millie and Avery. They might not be cute, furry woodland creatures, but they would help her get her man.

Avery tossed the contract aside with a dramatic sweep of her arm. Pages fluttered to the ground all around her.

The commotion was startling enough to capture Millie’s full attention at last. Peering at the smug bohemian seated in the guest chair over the rims of red-polka-dotted glasses, she quirked an inquiring brow. “Well?”

The stretched neckline of Avery’s tie-dyed T-shirt slipped off her shoulder as she heaved the world’s largest sigh. “As much as I hate to say it, I think you’re screwed.”

Kate’s stomach plummeted to her feet. “There’s nothing I can do?”

“Just the one thing,” Avery said with grim twist of her lips. “You’re gonna have to buy the cow if you wanna keep him.”

Millie yanked her glasses from her nose and fixed their friend with her hardest stare. “For once in your life, can you cut the crap and just give a straight answer?”

Avery rolled her eyes, then turned her full attention to Kate. “The clause specifically states ‘inappropriate or immoral relationship.’” She shrugged, and her T-shirt slipped a little more. “If you buy into all that bogus morality crap created by misogynists and supported by a patriarchal establishment, there’s nothing inappropriate or immoral about marriage.”

Millie barked a triumphant laugh. She glanced up at Kate, her eyes sparkling with anticipation, then turned back Avery. “Thank you for not using air quotes.”

“Air quotes are always inappropriate and immoral,” Avery answered. Beaming up at Kate, she cocked her head. “So…think you’ll take the bull by the horns?”

Kate froze, her lips pursed and her gaze fixed on the rack of shoes mounted to her wall. She never left the pair Danny gave her here. They were too important to her. No, even though she had room on the wall for another half dozen pairs, she carried those sneakers back and forth each day in her gym bag, afraid to let them out of her care.

Was that why she wanted to marry Danny? Was it just a way of pinning him to her side? If she didn’t marry him and the administration followed through, would she be able to go too? Wolcott had always been her home. This was the place where she first became a champion. It was her safe haven when her playing days ended far too soon.

“Is it crazy?” she asked her friends.

“Yes,” Avery answered without hesitation.

“Shut up, you,” Millie admonished.

---