I opened my mouth to reply, but Autumn stood with her hands in the air, silencing me. “I think this is a good time for me to intervene.”
Better her than me.
“I’m sure you’ve seen what the press is saying about your quarterback?”
“What does that have to do with anything? There’s a scandal with him every month.”
“Right, but this is different. They’ve labeled him a traitor, and let’s face it—you don’t want to start off on the wrong foot with fans booing him at your first game. And as it turns out, he’s now your grandkid’s father. The press is going to eat him alive if we don’t spin the story. Not to mention, what they’ll say about your daughter when they find out Jax is the father, and she didn’t tell him.” She paused, letting her words sink in. “I know what’s best for both of them, him being your quarterback and her being your daughter, it’s literally media gold. The press, the fans, they’re going to lose their minds when they find this out. It doesn’t get any better than this, sir.”
“Yeah, except I don’t want to marry him. I don’t care what they say about me.”
Autumn turned around to face her. “You’re going to care when your fans turn on you. And trust me, they will. Their favorite romance author hides her son from his father? That’s just career suicide, Sophie.”
“Romance author?” I questioned, leaning back into my chair. Hating the fact that I was once again taken by surprise.
Autumn smiled, fully aware of what I was thinking. “I was going to get to that after Sophie sat back down with us.”
“You should have told me before we walked through the door, Red.”
“Hello!” Sophie shouted, waving her hands in the air. “Can we please stop talking about me like I’m not standing right here?”
“I’m sorry,” Autumn apologized to her. “I know this is a lot to take in, but I swear to you that I’m working with your best interest at heart, Sophie. You’ve worked too hard to let this bite you in the ass now.”
I could see it in her eyes, Autumn was getting to her. As if on cue, her father’s lawyers walked back into the room, informing, “It’s an ironclad contract and pretty straight forward, sir. They’re not trying to pull one over on your daughter. She only has to be married to him for one season.”
Sophie’s dad grabbed her hand, nodding to us. “I need to speak to my daughter alone.”
With that, they left the room, and Caleb didn’t waste any time coming for me. Not that I expected him to. I could only imagine what he was thinking.
“How many times have I told you not to fuck the coach’s daughter, Jax?”
“Does it look like I knew she was the coach’s daughter? I’m as surprised as you are.”
“She never told you?”
“No. I mean, she told me about her dad, but she never mentioned he was a football coach.” My gaze shifted to Autumn. “Nice spin by the way. You’re quick on your feet, Red.”
“This isn’t my first rodeo, but what are the odds of her dad being your new coach? Way to start off on the wrong foot, Quarterback.”
“Yeah…” was all I could respond. “So she’s a romance author?”
“Not just any romance author. She’s a New York Times bestseller. She sold over three million copies of her last release alone.”
“Is that right? Then why haven’t I ever heard of her?”
“She writes under a pen name. Nobody knows who she is.”
“What does Baby Soph want to do with the rest of her life?”
She beamed. “Spend it with you.”
I shook away the memory of one of our nights together, not wanting to live in the past, but unable to get away from it. We had a history, a friendship, and I’d fucked it all up. I broke her heart, and I had to live with that mistake. The only thing I could do was focus on the future and how I could make it up to her.
After all these years.
All the memories.
I didn’t know…