Page 73 of The Wedding Deal
He groaned and shoved a pillow over his head, not wanting to face the day or the plane ride home. Was it bad that a small part of him didn’t care if she had told her dad and he’d leaked it?
Yes, yes it was. He couldn’t afford not to care. Couldn’t afford to get so wrapped up in a woman who hadn’t been 100 percent honest with him. He was already so tangled in her web that every ounce of happiness had drained from him the instant she’d stormed out the door. Much longer and he’d be sucked dry and unable to break free.
After a few minutes of wallowing, he sat up and reached for his phone.
His stomach sank. There were several missed calls from Gavin Frost and his agent in the mix of dozens of others. The news must’ve broken, and Gavin was probably upset he hadn’t gotten to announce it the way he’d hoped—hell, the way any of them hoped.
As much as he wanted to put it off, it wouldn’t change anything, so he dialed up Gavin, preferring to talk to him over his agent. He’d been in the guy’s shoes and was always better with players anyway.
“Gavin, I’m so sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry,” he said, and Lance focused on the way he’d said the words. Not sarcastic. Genuine, with a hint of remorse. “I told my mom not to answer the phone, but when I wouldn’t talk to the reporters, they called her, and she has this thing about lying. I tried to tell her it wasn’t lying, but you know how pushy those reporters are. She cracked. My family was just so excited about me playing for the Mustangs, and…”
The rest of his words faded as Lance put together what he was saying. “Your mom talked to a reporter.”
“Like I said, I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t Charlotte.Of courseit wasn’t her.
It’d never seemed quite right, and he hadn’t wanted to believe it. But he’d let himself believe it anyway, and he’d accused her of tipping off her dad andshit, shit, shit.
“If your people want to put together a statement for me to release or read,” Gavin said, “I’m happy to do it. I’ll do whatever I can to make this right.”
Lance pinched the bridge of his nose. Pre-Charlotte, he would’ve let his frustrations spill out of his mouth without thinking, but he was slowly learning to take a second before he spoke—with the exception of last night, damn it. She’d made him better, and for all her efforts, he’d accused her of being a liar. He cleared his throat and concentrated on staying on good terms with his newly acquired quarterback. “Don’t worry about it, it happens. Let me get back to you on the statement.”
He didn’t have people quite yet. Technically, he had one person, and he’d screwed up so badly he wasn’t sure she’d ever speak to him again.
Every thought turned to going to find Charlotte so he could apologize and beg for forgiveness. He hung up, flung off the covers, and tugged on jeans and a T-shirt— Even a shower would take too long. He finger-combed his hair and stepped into his shoes as he made his way to the door.
As his horrible luck would have it, the halls were full of people checking out.
Not that it mattered. He knocked on the door to her hotel room. When she didn’t answer, he pounded on it. “Charlotte? Charlotte, please talk to me. I was an asshole, and I’m sorry, and I…”
Everyone in the vicinity was staring now, but he didn’t give a shit. “Charlotte, please. Please let me in so I can tell you what an idiot I am. Not that you don’t already know.”
Nothing.
He strode to the front desk, impatiently tapping his fingers against his thigh as he waited in line.
Finally a desk clerk waved him over, and he asked about getting a key to Charlotte’s room— He’d paid for it, after all, and desperate times called for desperate measures.
“Oh, Miss James checked out early this morning.”
It was earlynow. “What time?”
“Four thirty.”
Two hours ago. “Did she say where she was going?”
The desk clerk hesitated.
“We work together, and I’m sure you can see that my name is on the room. I just… My phone’s not charged,” he lied.
“We called her a cab to take her to the airport.”
His tattletale phone rang in his pocket, and when the desk clerk frowned at him, he gave him a sheepish look.
The second he answered it, Gavin’s agent added his apologies about the leak. “We know you wanted to make a big announcement, and that’s what we wanted, too.”
