Chapter Twenty-Five

Chelsea

“Ugh! That’s so romantic that I can’t even stand it!”

I laughed at Paris as she rolled her head back against her suede loveseat. I’d just finished recounting my afternoon in the hotel with Cody—holding back the juicer parts just for me—and as expected, Paris lapped it up like chocolate ice cream on a hot day. “It was by far the sweetest and sexiest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

Paris sighed contentedly but then rebounded and sprang back upright. She gripped a navy blue throw pillow in her hands, gripping it like she was suddenly anxious. “So what happens next? I mean, your game is almost done. Cody will be home from the road soon. You two gonna take it to the next level?”

“How many levels are there?” I asked, thinking of all the things we’d already done to each other. With each other. I’d been more adventurous and free with my body for Cody that any other man I’d slept with. It was hard to imagine there was more. But if anyone would know, it was Paris. She prided herself on being the queen of kink.

Paris laughed at my bug-eyed expression. “Not sexually.”

“Oh. That’s just normally your thing…”

She laughed harder and shook her head. “True. I won’t even play. But that’s not what I meant in this case. I mean, are you two, like, together? If I were a stranger, would you tell me you are dating Cody Wright, the major league pitcher?”

“Well, I’d probably leave out the part about him being a pitcher. But, yeah, I guess that’s what I’d say.”

It was a question I’d tossed around a little bit over the past couple of weeks, but with everything else going on, there hadn’t been much time to really dissect everything and come up with the perfect label. In the past, a label would have been important to me. But now? With Cody it was honestly the last thing on my mind. He had assured me he wasn’t seeing anyone else after the whole Summer Pratt debacle. I assumed that hadn’t changed. He honestly wouldn’t have had time. We spent every night together.

“So he’s your boyfriend?” Paris said.

“Uh—yes?”

She laughed. “All right, see, that right there is what you need to lock down.”

“Why?” I shrugged. “I’m happy. He’s happy.”

Paris sat forward and pushed the pillow aside. “Honey, let me tell you something about men like Cody. Pro athletes in general, really. They are mobbed everywhere they go by gold digging hoochie mama’s who don’t care if he says he’s got a girl. Hell, most of them don’t even care if he’s got a wife! They want the money. They want to have his baby. Whatever. It’s everywhere. So you have to lock your man down ASAP. Make him put a ring on it.”

“But if they don’t care—”

“He cheats—you get half of everything he owns. Money, houses, cars, whatever.”

I shook my head. It was like doing a paint by numbers without one of the colors. “Then how does that make me any different than the gold diggers?”

Paris rolled her eyes. “Are you dating Cody because he’s rich?”

“No! Of course not!”

Paris nodded. “Okay. There ya go. Case closed. You’re not a gold digger.”

I laughed at the simplicity of her test. “That’s a relief.”

She shrugged. “Babe, I’m just telling you this because I don’t want you to get screwed over.”

“I appreciate that, Paris. I really do. But Cody isn’t going to screw me over. Even if we break up or go our separate ways, or whatever it would be called given our label-less-ness, our money isn’t combined or anything. I don’t live with him. He doesn’t pay my bills other than the stuff he buys me. If he disappeared tomorrow, I’d be—” I choked up unexpectedly before the last part of my statement made it out. “I’d be fine,” I said, forcing confidence into my voice.

Paris’s intense stare softened. “Oh my gawd! You’re in love with him!”

I blinked twice. “What? No. I’m really not. I just…had a frog in my throat there for a second.”

She pursed her lips at me. “Mmhmm. Not buying that load of shit, babe.”

I sat back and it hit me right between the eyes. Despite all efforts to keep it casual I’d gone off and fallen in love with Cody Wright.

“Well, shit.”

Paris cackled. “You’re in love!”

I shot her a sideways glance. “How did that happen? I mean it’s only been a few weeks since we even met. That’s certainly not enough time…is it?”

She laughed again. “Looks that way to me. It’s okay, you know. It’s not like you caught the bubonic plague or something.”

“Then why do I feel so helpless all of a sudden?”

Paris lunged at the coffee table and grabbed for her phone. She started pecking away at the screen like a madwoman. “What are you doing? You’re not texting Robby are you?” A cold rush of fear swept down my spine and chilled my bones.

“No! Of course not. Besides, even if I did, guys aren’t like girls. It’s not like he’s gonna run over and stick a note in his locker or something.”

I laughed and relief washed away the fear that had temporarily gripped me. She was right. “Okay, so what are you doing?”

She continued typing like a woodpecker and then hit one final button with an extra flourish of her wrist. “I just booked us two tickets to LA, baby!”

“What?”

“We’re going to go surprise our men and cheer them on at the game tonight!”

“Paris that’s insane! I can’t take time off of—”

She snapped a finger at me. “If you say work, I will hurt you! We’re doing this!”

There was no point in arguing with her. She was a bullheaded shark when she wanted to be.

“Now, scoot. Pack an overnight bag and I’ll swing by in an Uber.”

I grinned. “This is crazy.”

“You love it. Now go! I gotta see if my wax lady can do an emergency sesh. Yikes!”

I jumped off of the couch before she could share any more details about her…waxing crisis…and headed through the massive, sprawling home to the front door. I hurried down the drive, hopped into my car, and raced home to get ready.

* * * *

“So, Robby doesn’t even know we’re here?” I asked Paris when we got off the airplane hours later. The time change was on our side and we landed with an hour left to get to the seven o’clock game.

She shook her head and flagged down a cab. “Nope! It will be a total surprise.”

A little while later, we were at the hotel where the team was staying and Paris flashed Robby’s credit card that also had her name and explained the surprise to the front desk clerk. She got the key to Robby’s room and we went up and stashed our stuff inside.

“They are gonna flip when they see us waiting in the tunnel after the game!” Paris squealed, fluffing her hair before applying another coat of spray. She blamed the airplane air for her limp locks. But I couldn’t see her problem. She looked runway ready as always.

I swiped on some lip gloss and then stashed the tube in my purse. “It’s gonna be fun.”

“Agreed! So, let’s go. We don’t wanna miss the first inning.”

“How did you even get us tickets?” I asked her as she led the way out of the room.

Paris waved her hand. “Easy peasy. Once you’re in with the wives and girlfriends club a whole new world of networking opens up. Damon Rodgers used to play for the Warriors. Now he’s out here. I’m tight with his wife and we stay in touch. She scored some last minute tickets for us. I’m sure the seats aren’t fantastic on such late notice but it’ll work.”

As it turned out, the seats were pretty good. But luckily, not close enough to the diamond that we had to worry about Cody or Robby spotting either of us in the crowd. Paris and I spent the entire game drinking, eating, and cheering our asses off for our men on the field—to the chagrin of the LA fans that surrounded us.

When the game ended, a landslide win by the Warriors, Paris and I made a run for the visiting team locker rooms. We flashed a few smiles, dropped a few names, and got past security to wait for Cody and Robby outside past the pack of ravenous media. Robby popped out first, and I watched him and Paris reunite with all their usual fanfare.

At some point, Paris removed her tongue from the inside of Robby’s mouth long enough to tell him about our plan to surprise him and Cody. Robby took her off down the hall and I hung back, not wanting to see round two of their reunion.

“Damn, guys, wait until we get to the hotel…” I muttered to myself, watching them fade into the crowd of security, reporters, photographers, and other players.

A few minutes later, Paris reappeared with a wide grin on her face. “Change of plans,” she said, grabbing me by the arm and hauling me around the corner. She stopped short and I nearly toppled over backwards but she held tight to me arm. “Here, Robby slipped this for you.”

She pressed a keycard into my hand. “Is this Cody’s room key?”

Paris nodded. “Go be sexy for your man.” She winked.

I laughed. “He swiped his card?”

“Yep. Now go! He doesn’t know you’re here yet.”

She shooed me away and I made a beeline through the underground maze. I finally reached the exit and selected a cab from the line up outside the stadium. The driver whisked me back to the hotel Paris and I had stopped at earlier and I smiled all the way up to Cody’s room. Thank goodness I’d picked out a sexy matching set of panties and bra. Everything else I brought was still in Robby’s neighboring room. It was dark outside and I expected the room to be pitch black as I pushed open the heavy security door. Instead, I was met with a soft light, like from an arrangement of candles.

Was this a set up? Cody was really here waiting for me? No. He couldn’t have gotten here so fast.

What was…

“Hey lover, what’s taking you so long,” a female voice purred from around the corner.

My stomach flipped over. It was the wrong room!

I went to leave but the sound of footsteps stopped me.

“Baby, I’ve been waiting for—who the hell are you?”

I whipped around and my eyes went as wide as Frisbee’s at the sight of a naked woman standing in the hallway.

“Wait, I know you! You’re that mousy girl from high school! Cassie something?”

The woman in Cody’s room was none other than Summer fuckin’ Pratt.

When I managed to get my jaw off the floor, I folded my arms and glared at her. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Summer planted her hands on her hips, apparently not bothered by the fact that she was butt naked. I wasn’t sure where to look. I settled for glowering right into her big, blue, not-so-innocent eyes. “I’m waiting for my boyfriend. Cody Wright. What are you? One of his groupies?” She folded her arms, pushing her breasts up. “Sorry, sweetie, he’s taken. And even if he wasn’t,” she gave me a once over and then quirked her ruby red lips into a cruel smirk, “yeah right.”

“Fuck you, Summer! Cody is my boyfriend. And he told me all about you and your delusions!”

I smiled at her, waiting for her to crumble, but instead, she laughed and shook her long hair back over her bare shoulders. “Oh, honey. You’re in way over your head here. But hey, kudos for getting him into your bed. That couldn’t have been easy for a girl like you.”

My fists clenched into tight, dynamite charged balls. One more word and she was going to get knocked onto her perfectly toned ass.

Summer shrugged and sat down on the bed. “You into threesomes?”

“What? No!”

“Pity. Cody would probably like that.”

I shook my head. “No he wouldn’t.”

Would he?

Summer laughed. “As his girlfriend you should know that yes, yes he would. Cody’s a wild tiger that can’t be tamed.”

“Whatever you think you know about him is all in the past. He’s different now. You don’t know him anymore.”

Summer shrugged. “Tell yourself whatever you want to hear, my friend.”

“We’re not friends,” I bit out between bared teeth.

Summer looked unruffled. She considered her nails under the soft light coming from the bedside lamps. “When Cody and I were together, back in college, he was insatiable. Every night. Every morning. Threesomes, strippers, vibrators, handcuffs, you name it, baby cakes, and he wanted to try it.” She cocked her head at me and sized me up with another long glance. “You’re something like an appetizer. You know, the little snack you eat before you go out and get your main meal. There’s no way that a girl like you would ever be enough to keep him happy. I mean, look, you’re here to surprise him in his hotel room. Right?”

I didn’t reply.

“Look at what you’re wearing. It’s all wrong.”

“Who said I was going to be wearing anything at all when he got up here?”

Summer laughed. “You’re not the spread eagle on the bed type, Chelsea. I remember you from school. You were a nerdy little prude then, and I’m sure not much has changed.”

“How did you get in here? I have Cody’s spare key.”

Summer laughed. “I have his room key. You weren’t supposed to be here, remember? He’s coming back here tonight, expecting to see me, just like this,” she paused and licked her lips as she glanced down her own bared curves. “See, I travel with the team, so we can have as much fun as we want on the road and no one ever knows.”

“So, you want me to believe that you’re Cody’s girlfriend, but he’s hiding you in hotel rooms and only sees you during away game trips?” I clucked my tongue. “You better work on straightening out your story.”

Summer grinned. “Tell yourself whatever you want, Chelsea, but Cody belongs to me. Whatever the two of you have back in Oklahoma City is no concern to me. I have Cody’s heart and in about twenty minutes, I’m gonna have every inch of his beautiful body, too.”

My heart hammered at the disgusting visual image of Summer and Cody together. I turned away before she could see the hot tears glistening in my eyes.

Summer called after me as I made my way back to the door. “Remember, Chelsea, when you want to run with the big dogs, you have to be a bitch, or you’ll get eaten alive. Men like Cody will always do whatever they want. Take whatever they want. If you’re not okay with that, it would be best to bow out now.”

The tears fell as soon as I pushed out of the room and ran back to the elevators without another glance back.