Taming the VIP Playboy

At the time, Nate had been more interested in his budding baseball career and had merely signed a paper agreeing to the terms. But when a shoulder injury forced him out of the game two years later, he’d been very glad for Cam and Justin’s decision to buy this place and open a club. And Nate had quickly found that he had something to contribute to the business.

His A-list contacts from the celebrity world.

As much as he loved to play baseball, he was also a Stern through and through and he loved to socialize. Something that the society pages had noticed when he’d first gone to New York to start his career. And Nate had been careful to make sure he stayed in the news.

He used his celebrity to bring attention to the club and to stay current. Even though he hadn’t played in over six years he was still one of the top-ten most recognizable baseball players.

“What are you doing up here?” Justin asked as he came out of the kitchen area. He was two inches taller than Nate and had dark brown hair. They both had their mother’s eyes and their father’s strong jaw, a feature all the Stern men had.

“Talking to the salsa teacher. T.J. is going to be in her class tonight and I wanted to make sure she could handle it.”

“Jen must have loved that.”

“Do you know her?” he asked, feeling a twinge of jealousy at his brother’s familiarity with Jen.

“Not well. But I interviewed her for the job and she’s very confident of herself. She doesn’t like to be questioned.”

“Who does?” Nate asked.

“Not me. I have a meeting downtown with the community leaders tomorrow. They want to have their say about our tenth anniversary party.”

“How many times are we going to have to prove ourselves before they accept that we are a part of this community now and not going anywhere?” Nate asked.

“They’ll never be satisfied,” Cam said as he joined his brothers on the patio. “What are you two doing up here? I need you downstairs to talk to the band when they arrive.”

“I’m on it,” Nate said. “I’ve got the society reporter from the Herald coming. And I’m positive we are going to see Jennifer Lopez tonight. She’s in town and her people said she’d drop by. I’ve got calls in to the internet celeb-site stringers so we should get some good coverage.”

“Great. I like the sound of that,” Cam said.

“I know you do, that’s why I spend all night partying.”

“Ha. You do it because you like it,” Justin said.

“Indeed, I do. I guess the Stern genes run true in my case. I’m not meant to settle down.”

“Like Papa?” Justin asked.

“Yes. I think that’s why he and Mom were so miserable,” Nate said.

“That and the fact that she was so…cold,” Cam added.

Nate turned away from his brothers. Their mother had never wanted children and had done her best to spend as little time with them as she could. It had affected them all in different ways. For Nate, it was that he didn’t trust women to really know their own emotions. He always knew that women were going to leave and they always did.

“I guess we all know what to do tonight,” Cam said. “How are your talks with the community leaders going?”

“Slow. I invited a few of them to join us for tonight’s show so they can see how much a part of Calle Ocho we are.”

“Good. Keep me posted,” Cam said.

“I will.”

Nate and his brothers went back downstairs. Standing in the nearly empty club, Nate glanced around at the decor. It was hard to tell from looking at the place that this had once been a cigar factory.

As a boy, he’d never thought about the future. Once he became a professional baseball player, he’d always just assumed that he’d continue playing until he was in his thirties and then transition to a sportscaster career. But when he’d been injured so young…his dreams had changed and morphed into this.

He wasn’t bitter about it. To be honest, he figured he’d ended up exactly where he needed to be and he was very happy about that.

“Nate?”

He turned to see T. J. Martinez standing in the foyer under the Chihuly glass ceiling. “T.J., my man. How was your flight down here?”

“Good. Very good. I’m ready for some action tonight. Ready to mix it up with you.”

“Me, too,” he said, shaking hands and giving the other man a one-armed hug. “I heard you signed up for dance lessons.”

“Mariah insisted that I take them. She said the teacher is the best and that I’d be an idiot to miss out on the classes. Of course, Paul said the teacher was hot.”