Seven years later

“Hey, sweetheart!” my dad addresses me as he quickly climbs out of his SUV. A dark silver metallic Chevy Suburban, exactly like the one he drives back home.

He positions himself beside me, takes hold of my hand, and the two of us gaze up in astonishment at the building I’ve grown quite comfortable looking at for the past six months.

“Stunning place.” The sound of his voice used to soothe my jitters. Today, not so much. I doubt anyone or anything will until this meeting is over.

Actually, that’s not true. I won’t be calm until I’ve let go of the heavy weight that’s been weighing my heart down since I was old enough to grasp hold of the world I grew up in.

However, this particular day I’ve been fretting about, excited, anxious, and scared while waiting for it to get here, and now that it has, I’m worried.

My turbulent head has spun and spun for the past two months until I’ve lost any semblance of balancing anything else in my life except this meeting.

The only thing I’ve accomplished is unpacking all my belongings and feeling settled in my gorgeous two-story home in the foothills of Boise, Idaho. I’ll be calling this place my home for however long it takes to get this upcoming adventure off the ground.

Who knows, I might even love it here.

This adventure I’m looking forward to as much as I am frightened out of my skin to accomplish—and not a bit of it—has to do with my family letting me hold the reins.

“It is,” I confirm, squeeze my dad’s hand, and suck in a breath. The man is my anchor. A devoted family man, not only to his flesh and blood but also to his job. One I will never understand, no matter how much I have tried.

Being the daughter of Cain and Calla Bexley was relatively easy for my brother and me growing up.

We stuck to our own, both in school and outside of it. It wasn’t because my parents kept Jonathan and me sheltered. It was the opposite, really. They sent us to public schools, involved themselves as much as they could in our daily lives.

That is until both of us gained the notoriety from our classmates of who they thought we’d become the second we left the perimeter of the school grounds.

Their judging never bothered me, not like it did my hot-headed brother. He stood up to them, pretty much told them to fuck off or they would feel the wrath of what he would do. He never followed through with his threats back then. I’m fairly certain he shows every enemy we have what he can do now, though. The thought of it freezes the words I’ve longed to ask and say straight up.

We both had our core group of friends. They knew all along who we were and what my family did for a living. Some of our friends are amongst the family; some are not. Didn’t really matter because I was taught to never apologize for who I was, to stand with my head tall; and I did, up until the day I couldn’t hold it high anymore.

Since then, the only thing that has lifted me up is doing this job.

“It’s a beautiful morning, Dad. Are you going to be a good boy and let me do all the talking, or do you need to sit in the waiting room and color me a picture?” I tease, slide through the door when he opens it for me, and smooth down the skirt of my suit. A nervous habit I’ve picked up ever since my father has been trying to negotiate a deal with the agent of the man who I hope is upstairs waiting to talk to me.

A man I fell hard and fast for in college, and a man whose heart I shattered into a million pieces the day I vanished.

Every other player we’ve drafted, scouted, and signed already for this up and coming team. Dad and the long list of men in our family have negotiated contracts with the majority of them. This one in particular is personal to me, and I insisted on hopefully finalizing the deal myself.

And I believe this is why my dad is here today. It doesn’t have a thing to do with him not trusting me to get the job done. He’s here for moral support for what my entire family claims is an aching soul. Mine. One that has never healed. They couldn’t be any closer to the truth, whether I admitted the reason why I’ve allowed my heart to ache all this time or not. Which I surely haven’t. Not to them anyway.

“You might be able to gang up on me when your mother is around. Not going to happen today, Justice. You own twenty-five percent of the Idaho Diamonds. Alex owns another quarter. The rest is owned by the Diamond Empire. And just because we have officially declared you the general manager does not mean I don’t have a say in what happens here today.”

I rein in my temper before pausing in my steps. There is a lot more meaning to those words than he’s letting on. I might be my mother’s daughter, but I look, act, and have the temper of my father; and right now, he’s pushing me. My temper ignites, and it shoots all the way to the top floor of this stadium.

A football stadium, to be precise. The one place I never thought I would step into ever again. Not until the day my parents and the leader of the Diamond Empire, my mom’s cousin, Roan Diamond, presented me with my college graduation present nearly four years ago.

My mouth never hit the floor as hard in my life as on that day. I’m afraid it, along with my heart, is about to do it all over again.

Four long years it has taken my family to establish, build, reconstruct, and form the first professional football team in the state of Idaho. They bought an old stadium in downtown Boise, an area that’s thriving. Worked alongside architects, contractors and turned it into a state-of-the-art modern football stadium rivaling the rest of the league, Dallas included. Nobody, not even the biggest football fans of the great state of Idaho, expected what we brought to the league. There’s been plenty of skepticism, but my determination trumps it all. The Idaho Diamonds will leave their mark in football history, and that’s why I only want the best, even if what happens here today tears me to shreds.

Our stadium is beautiful. All shiny with the logo above every entrance. Three stories of skyboxes above the stadium seating with crystal glass walls that can open on beautiful autumn days. A massive store which is selling out quicker than our marketing team can keep up with. Tiled floors and offices on the third level and a skybox that will give us the perfect view to watch every game in a few months once the season starts.

The only issue we had, which was a doozy, to say the least, was dealing with the National Football League board. They were apprehensive of a mafia family joining their forces. While my father, Alex, and I sat alongside my mother and Roan with steam billowing out of our ears, my mother stood her ground. Told them they would spend a long time in court fighting a losing battle they could not win if they didn’t sanction the team into the system.

If I didn’t know I wanted to be a lawyer before she ripped new assholes into each one of them, I would have changed my major and become one. The woman is as loyal to our family as everyone else. Hardcore and doesn’t put up with shit from anyone. Especially the man who is here to soothe me.

It wasn’t until the Sunday after the NFL called to notify my mom that the paperwork had been pushed through and the announcement of a new team joining the ranks would be delivered in a national press conference that I realized there would come a time when I would run into my past. It was then I had to grow up and start watching football again.

I learned moves, plays, penalties, and I learned everything I know about this great sport from watching Liam Blake.

Shortly after I left, Liam signed his contract, and from there on out, the only man I ever fell head over heels in love with was everywhere. All over ESPN. Magazines, the news, radio.

He had done it. Went on and fulfilled his dream without me as he should have. I quit watching, only because my heart couldn’t suffer through the pain anymore.

He stole my heart the first time we met, and I’ve never taken the chance of getting it back.

Being with him was the best year of my life.

His rich cocoa eyes, broad chest, and skillful hands haunt my dreams, and I’ve been given an opportunity to make everything right again. Or at least try.

I wish he didn’t have to go through what he did for me to get this chance. I would have waited and sought him out when his contract came up. So, when the time was right, we pursued and offered him a deal he’d be crazy to turn down.

I cringe thinking about what happened to him. I stood alongside my family watching the big Thanksgiving Day game and saw the only man important to me outside the realm of my family have his dreams demolished in one unjustifiable play. His face not only contorting in pain, but also in the knowledge his career could quite possibly be over.

My heart tore, and a gasp ripped from my throat. Before I knew what was happening, my dad had me lifted off the floor and a giant puddle of tears pooled at my feet. That was the day my family figured out I was still in love with a man who more than likely hates everything about me now.

I sigh, gather my strength, and again take my mind to a place of happiness, a place I’ve worked my ass off to achieve. The last piece of this football team needs to be put in place, and I will not allow the one half of my heart that’s still dangling to get in the way. The simple fact is, the Idaho Diamonds need a leader, and Liam Blake is the best man for the job.

The broken part. The part my father desperately wants to protect. He can’t protect me from what I’ve done. No one can. He should know that by now, and yet here he is, by my side without knowing the real reason why I broke it off with Liam in the first place.

I never thought I would be part owner of an NFL team when I left New York a few days after walking out on Liam.

I hid away and finished up my last two years of college at the University of Michigan. After graduation, I returned, moved in with my friend Danika, and attended NYU to obtain my degree in corporate law.

When I first left the state of New York, I was second-guessing everything in my life, from my career choice of following in my mother's footsteps and becoming a lawyer to leaving the man I loved behind; and now here I am, the oldest child of our family’s next generation, part owner of a sport I knew little about until I started dating the quarterback in college.

On the one hand, it’s funny how I’m standing here now, the athlete in our family. The one who fell in love with the sport of baseball because all the men loved it.

It surprised me when they decided to invest all this money into a franchise with the NFL instead of with the MLB. I’m glad they did.

I was known in our family as the girl who drove her parents and everyone else out of their minds with worry after injuring my arm more times than any of us cares to count during my high school career as our leading pitcher. I helped drive our school to their first state championship with a messed-up shoulder that had my dad obsessing while standing on the sidelines. He told me my career as a pitcher was over, and as heartbroken as I was about not carrying the talent he helped me achieve to the next level, which was playing college ball, I knew he was right. But this he is wrong about, and he knows it.

“Dad, this meeting will be done my way. You will step in only if I need you. We’ve talked about this. Don’t underride me by throwing your authority around. There’s more at stake here then you realize.”

“I’m well aware of what’s at stake here. More than you might think.”

I doubt that.

I snap my mouth shut and start walking; it won’t do me any good to try and reason with the man. My heart starts pounding harder than my now moving feet are in my five-inch black Louboutin’s. My love for heels is one of the few things I inherited from my mother. That and the strength to tune my overbearing father out.

I don’t disrespect the man by any means. I love him with everything in me. He’s taught me how to survive in a world so full of malicious people; I would have never made it after walking away from Liam if it weren’t for the love he, my mother, and my younger brother gave me.

My heart shattered the night I left Liam sleeping in his bed, and the only ones who understood how I felt were my family. Even though I lied and told them the breakup was amicable, they still took care of me. Still did everything they needed to make sure I would be alright.

“Goddamn it, Justice. This is your call, your team, but I will not stand by and listen to one negative word come out of his mouth. Whatever unfinished business the two of you have will not be done here.” He takes hold of my arm gently, spins me around to face him, and like the loving man he is, pulls me into his arms.

“He’s a professional, Dad. He is not going to bring up our past in front of you, his agent, or anyone else in there. If he didn’t want this, he would have told Alex to fuck off when he asked him to fly out here to meet with me,” I say with determination. Very little of it, though, by the way he’s looking at me. My father doesn’t buy my bullshit at all.

I step into the elevator with my father behind me, and I brace myself for the bit of fatherly advice he’s chomping at the bit to give me.

Regardless if I’m flustered and angry, I’ll welcome it, because, well, he’s my dad.

“I used to think of you like a flower waiting to bloom. This little girl who shadowed me around. Always wanting to hold my hand. I’m not sure when you discovered you had your own wings, your own momentum to drive yourself forward. Somewhere, you found it, Justice. You built up an inner strength all on your own. Liam, he’s a vulnerability for you. He’s the one you let slip away. You’ve heard the story about me and your mom many times; I don’t need to repeat it. What I do want to say is, do not let your heart cloud what this meeting is about. Stand your ground, show him this is business and nothing more. After we get him to sign, then move forward with whatever plans you have running through your head.” The gleam in my dad’s eyes does not go unnoticed; neither does the love pouring out of him.

What is it that makes us see ourselves clearer in another person’s eyes? My dad would never have agreed to my proposal if he didn’t believe in Liam, and yet here he is giving me the okay to step out of the box, to finally free myself of the agony I’ve lived with for so long I’ve lost myself somewhere. His words might not make sense to others, but they do to me. My father has always been highly demanding of me. Expects loyalty and respect and returns it in abundance when and if it’s earned.

Years ago, he wasn’t all that happy with me when I started dating Liam. We fought a lot; my dad wanted to meet the man he claimed was taking his little girl away from him. I argued back and said I was surprised he didn’t already know everything there was to know. I lied and told him over and over about why I never brought him around. I couldn’t get myself to bring him over because I didn’t want Liam associated with the crimes I knew my blood committed. I’ve lived with that shame for years. I still do.

Those feelings are what started the downward spiral to me trying to detach myself from Liam. In the end, he was on his way to the NFL, giving me the perfect excuse to tell him who I really was in order for me to walk away.

The problem was, Liam didn’t care, or at least he said he didn’t. It was me who did and me who would have bottomed out if his dream was ruined because of my name.

“I love you, Dad. I promise I will keep my heart in check.”

“I trust you will. Let’s do this. Go get the man who's going to lead this team to the Super Bowl. Then you can talk about your past.”

I rest my hand on the railing, replaying my father’s words in my head, and wonder if he and my mom ever suspected my reason for the breakup. My mind starts racing faster than the elevator with worry. It would crush me if they did.

I don’t have time to ponder when the doors open to reveal our office space.

I exhale, step out, and turn my head to see Liam talking closely with his dad and agent.

The minute he notices me, his eyes narrow with the same kind of arrogance he’s known for on the football field. He lifts his brows, scans me from head to toe, and mouths, “Game on.”

It most definitely is, and I’m way behind. Time for me to make my move.