Page 57 of Score to Settle
She huffs a reply then shakes her head, pushing past me and heading for the stairs.
My muscles tighten another notch. “You sleep with me, but you won’t trust me.”
She stops in the doorway and turns back without a word as though waiting for me to continue. So I do.
“You see a fan sidle up to me and instead of giving me the benefit of the doubt or asking me about it, you immediately assume the worst. I thought you knew me better than that. What the hell have we been doing these past four weeks?”
“You expect me to trust you and yet you refuse to tell me what happened last year with the cheerleaders? I’ve got one week left with you, Jake. One week. I could write the feature on you tomorrow. The only thing missing is your side of what happened last year.”
Anger and hurt rise up from the deep well inside me. It’s no longer for tonight, but for that one stupid moment and all that came next.
“You really wanna know?” I growl. “Fine I’ll tell you.”
She folds her arms and fixes me with a fierce look. “I’m listening.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
HARPER
Jake pushes a hand through his hair and looks like this is the last thing he wants to do.
“I’m a nice guy, Harper,” he says, dark eyes boring into mine. “A good one. Those closest to me know this. I think deep down, you know it, too.”
I force myself to keep quiet. Inside a voice is screaming,Yes! I do know that.But if I speak now, if I give in to my need to step into Jake’s arms, we’ll lose this moment. And I have to know the truth. Not just for the feature, but for me. Because Jake is right. I saw the redhead on his arm earlier and thought the worst.
“A few years ago, Billy dated a woman called Kylie Hutton. They were together for six months, but it ended amicably when she joined the Stormhawks cheer team. They weren’t serious and as soon as Kylie was on the squad they both knew it had to end. There aren’t many rules for what football players can and can’t do off the field, but dating cheerleaders is one of them. Management takes it seriously. If a player and a cheerleader are caught fraternizing, they’ll both lose their spots on the teams. But during those six months Kylie was dating Billy, she and I became friends. So when she found herself in a tough position last year, she asked for my help and I gave it. Or tried.”
“What kind of help?” I ask.
Jake sighs like the weight of the world is sitting on his shoulders. “Kylie found out two of her squad mates were breaking the rules and were secretly seeing someone on the team. Worse still, it was the same man. She wanted to tell them and she wanted it to stop before anyone lost their job, but because the guy was a teammate of mine, she wanted me there for moral support, I guess.”
It hits me like that cold wind howling around the ranch outside. “Gordon,” I say, realizing why Jake reacted like that in the bar and hating myself. I fight back a groan and the apology dancing on my lips as Jake continues.
“We were supposed to meet at The Hay Barn, but practice ran late and by the time I finished, Kylie and the other two cheerleaders were waiting by my truck. It was clear the second I arrived that they’d already been arguing. Cheer rules are a lot stricter. Being seen fighting would be an instant dismissal, too. So I told them all to get in my truck, planning to drive somewhere quiet, but then it all came out, right there in my truck in the parking lot of the stadium.
“Kylie tried to keep things calm but one of the girls went ballistic at the other. Accusing her of stealing Gordon from her. She tried to smack her and I moved between them. I should’ve just got out the truck, but it all happened so fast.”
A haunted expression fills Jake’s eyes like it’s not the first time he’s tormented himself with regret over the things he didn’t do that night.
“I guess a fan was near enough to hear the shouting, because they snapped the photo that hit the tabloids. Three cheerleaders and me in a truck, one of them screaming about how the other was stealing her man. The story broke that I’d been sleeping with all three of them.” He shrugs like that’s the end of it. “I was trying to help and it blew up in my face.”
There’s more to this. I can tell by the rippling tension still in the air around Jake.
“Why didn’t you speak out and explain what was really going on?” I ask.
He rubs a hand over the stubble of his jaw. “Behind the scenes, I did. I told Coach Allen and Mama. Kylie backed me up and at least management believed me so I could keep my spot on the team. But it was a huge mess. The publicity guy got involved and decided it was the kind of fire that would be better to let burn out than add fuel, so I was told to say nothing.”
“Except it didn’t die out.”
“No.” Jake shakes his head. “With my reputation the story exploded.”
“But wouldn’t the press have known that nothing could’ve happened or you would’ve been fired? Like you say, you were still on the team, so…”
“That’s what they’d hoped, but it wasn’t the gossip sites anymore, it was the fans taking to their socials. People were saying the Stormhawks let me break the rules with the cheerleaders and it wasn’t fair. The story completely blew up. People were saying stuff that wasn’t even remotely true and their followers were believing it. There was huge blowback on me and on the team. But by then it was too late to deny it without looking like I was lying or causing a ton of journalists to start digging around for the truth.”
“And Gordon?”
Muscles tighten in Jake’s jaw. “He acted like I was protecting him because of some bro code. It wasn’t that at all, but like it or not, he was my teammate and I wasn’t about to throw him in the shit.”
