The Running Back's Baby (Dirty Players 2)

“Do you want anything to drink?” I asked, walking into the kitchen. I stopped in front of the fridge and tugged the door open, leaning in to check. “There’s beer, but that belongs to Dad. We have juice, too, they’re mine and I’m willing to share with you. There’s wine, too, if you’d rather have that.”

Howard shrugged, unconcerned. “Just give me what you’re having.”

“I’m having water,” I clarified.

“Then bring me water,” he said simply.

I got a pair of glasses from the cupboard and poured water for the both of us, then went back to the living room. Howard was already seated on the couch, and I set his glass on the small coffee table for him, and sat on the opposite end, tucking my legs beneath me as I took a sip of my water.

“You look exhausted,” Howard said.

I smiled wanly. “Is it that obvious? I’ve had a shit day, is all. Not the worst by far, but it was pretty terrible.”

“What happened?”

I looked at him curiously. He seemed to be really concerned about this, and I smiled. I had friends, of course, but they were all busy with their own lives while I was still trying to get a career off the ground, so I didn’t get to see them as much as I would like. Having someone show concern for me felt good.

“I had a couple interviews to go to today,” I admitted.

His eyebrows jump up. “Don’t tell me, you’re actually looking for a position on a different team? You want to be a general manager for a football team, right?”

“Yeah, I was looking into other teams. Dad probably won’t change his mind on letting me work for the Eagles, and I feel like I’ve wasted enough time waiting on him to change his mind. What about you? Did you get through to him?”

“I’m still working on him, too,” he said. “Of course, it’s going to be a lot harder for me, at least you have a chance to speak to him, but I’m not his daughter. I’d really hoped we could work for the same team.”

“That would have been nice, huh,” I mused, then sighed. “And being his daughter isn’t as big a deal as you think. So, what if I can talk to him if he won’t listen to me? It’s absolutely pointless, isn’t it? That’s why I was trying to move on. I guess even this much won’t be that easy, though.”

I finished my water and stretched to set the glass on the table. Then I picked up the remote that was sitting between us on the couch and turned on the TV. I set it to some music channel and left the volume low.

“So, how did the interviews go?”

“You don’t sound very enthusiastic to hear about it,” I accused.

He smiled. “It’s not that, I just thought we could spend more time together if I could make it back on the team, and now you’re planning on going away. But this is something you want, right? So, tell me how it went? Not well?”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course, I’d still support the team regardless, but I didn’t even get to be interviewed. Which is complete bullshit, because I had to wait a whole hour in that first place I went to before they told me they couldn’t interview me.”

“Really? Both of them?”

“Yeah, both of them. I had to leave early to get to the first one, and after I couldn’t do the interview, I had to waste a few hours before I went to the next one, but it’s further away so I couldn’t come back home and then go. I got pissed off, so I walked around and wasted the afternoon before I came back.”

“Did they at least give you a reason why they canceled on you?”

“I didn’t get a direct reason, I kept asking and they kept running me around in circles. It’s why I was so frustrated, you know? I do have an idea why, though.”

My irritation from earlier came back, and I scowled at the TV.

“What do you mean?”

“I think my dad is behind it.”

“Really?”

Howard sounded surprised, but I was as sure as I could be without making him confess to it. There was no other reason why I got called to two perfectly good interviews only to have both get cancelled. Even though Dad didn’t even look at it, my resume was actually good. There weren’t that many local teams, and I had to go far to find those two. If I wanted to look for another team, I’d have to leave town, maybe go to a different state. I wondered what Dad would do if I told him I would go that far to get what I wanted. Would he stop trying to get me to do what he wanted, then?

“Have you talked to him about it?”

“I’m not in the mood to talk to my dad at all, and I don’t doubt he’d just lie if I asked about it. Or he might just admit to it and tell me to stop trying. I can’t even tell which would be worse.”

I let out a groan and leaned my head against the back of the couch. Technically, I had a job, since I’d been working as an agent the entire time, and it had been at Dad’s insistence, but it wasn’t like I got to do much, and I still got paid. I knew it was Dad’s idea, but when I took the job, I thought it would just hold me over before I got a general manager position. Three years later, and I still didn’t have the job I wanted.

“But if you can’t talk to him, how can you know for sure?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense. Dad is pretty influential, you know? It seems like he’s been throwing his weight around. I didn’t realize his influence reached so far, but I’m not surprised, he’s been in this field for years, after all. It’s practically his whole life by this point. I just... don’t want to deal with it today, so can we stop talking about it?”