Chapter Twenty-Eight

Trey

While Josie slept, I got out of the bed, dressed, grabbed my phone, and made my way through the massive house to the lower level. The house was dark and quiet. Her parents were still out for the night. With a sigh of relief, I went to the front of the house and flicked on a light. I wandered through the large, formal living room, looking at the pictures along the walls. Most of them were of Josie and her three older brothers at various ages. A wide grin tugged at my lips as I wandered through the memories of her childhood, captured in still life pictures, but somehow coming alive as I moved down the wall, pausing to take each one in. Josie was clearly a tomboy. Most of the pictures were taken outdoors. The Crawford family didn’t seem to be the indoor type. From the array of pictures, it would appear that they were constantly alternating between horseback riding, hiking, camping, fishing, and swimming at the lake. A little farther down the line was a display of trophies and ribbons on narrow shelving. Football mostly, adorned with her brothers’ names. Then there was a section for Josie. Tennis, cheerleading, and barrel racing.

One thing was clear, Josie wasn’t the type of girl who liked to sit around. I wondered how she liked living in the city. She was clearly a country girl. The city was nice, and provided its own sources of entertainment, but it was hard to top the beauty and wildness of her parents’ ranch. Acres of trees, fields, and that creek we’d gone to the night before.

Damn, that had to be the hottest fuck of my life.

It was more than that though. Being out in the middle of nowhere with Josie was more than just hot sex, fresh air, hearty home cooked meals, and sweaty work on the farm. Something about it was changing me—or finding me—from the inside out. I wasn’t ready to go home yet. Because once we were back in the city, things would go back to the way they were before. Josie had her life, her work, her friends. I had baseball and the fuckin’ circus that constantly was my life.

The time in Texas was almost like a dream—and I wasn’t ready to wake up.

I reached the end of the gallery-style wall and turned to go take a spot on the longer of the two couches in the room. Once I got settled, I grabbed my phone from my pocket and started scanning through the bullshit that had poured in in the last two days since the scuffle with Kimberly. My email was loaded with unopened messages, I had two dozen voicemail messages, a hundred texts, and even more missed calls. Anytime something like this happened, my number got out, and I’d have to change phones and numbers when it all died down. I waded through the shit and found the important messages, most of them from Mason. I hadn’t told him where I’d be staying, just that I was going off the grid. At the time, he’d agreed it was a good idea, but he probably hadn’t anticipated that I’d fall off the grid and stop taking his calls. Then again, maybe he did.

Despite the darkness outside, it was only a little after eight o’clock. I flicked a glance up at the ceiling, thinking of Josie, snuggled under the covers, her bare skin warm and still smelling of sex. I wanted to get back to her as soon as possible, but I needed to find out what was happening back in Oklahoma City. Besides, I didn’t want Mason shitting his pants or quitting on me.

I dialed him back, without bothering to listen to any of his voicemails or read his texts. He answered right away. “Trey? Where the hell have you been?”

“Evening to you too, Mase.”

“Don’t get cutesy with me, Delgado,” he growled.

I groaned and flopped back against the couch. “All right, fine. You’re right. I’m in Texas, with Josie. She’s visiting her fam and I’m tagging along.”

“Texas? And, who is Josie?”

“Josie’s my…” I paused, glancing back at the ceiling again. What was she? We hadn’t talked about it. “She’s my girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend?” I could hear Mason’s jaw hitting the ground. “Since when do you have a fucking girlfriend? Any why does that name sound so familiar to me?”

“She’s the reporter I was making out with at the post game in Denver.”

“Oh, Trey…” I heard the sound of Mason’s hand slapping his face. “This is not a good idea. I can only deal with one scandal at a time.”

I arched an eyebrow. “How is me dating a reporter going to be a scandal?”

“Because as soon as you decimate her heart, she’ll blast your ass all over the media.”

I laughed. “Okay, well first of all, I’m not planning to decimate her heart or anything else. Secondly, she’s not like that, all right? Trust me, if she wanted to give me hell in the press, she would have by now.”

“Why doesn’t that comfort me?”

I grinned. “Listen, Mase, just be happy for me, all right? She’s a good girl and I really care about her.”

Mason was silent for a long moment. “You’re being straight with me?”

“Yeah. I am.”

“Wow. Fuckin’ Trey Delgado is ready to finally settle down.”

I chuckled. “I know, right? Anyways, shockingly enough, I didn’t call to shoot the shit about my love life. You and everyone else has been blowing up my phone. What’s happening?”

Mason paused and I wondered if he was silently debating whether or not to give me a tongue lashing about going MIA. In the end, he heaved a sigh and answered my question without the lecture. Thankfully. “The paternity test came back—” Mason stalled and my heart slammed into my ribs, thrashing violently. “—as expected, it’s negative. You’re not the baby’s father.”

A whoosh of air left my lungs in one big gust. I stood up from the couch and started to pace around the stone coffee table. “Oh, shit! Wow!”

“Yeah. So, that’s the biggest thing I wanted to tell you. If you’d answered your damn phone every once in a while, you would’ve known twelve hours ago.”

I was too stunned and relieved to argue with him. He wasn’t mine. Kimberly’s last strong hold had finally been ripped away from her. I never had to talk to—or see—her again.

“Trey? You okay?”

I pumped my fist. “I’m fuckin’ fantastic! You kidding? This is what I’ve been waiting for, forever!”

“The paperwork has been thrown out and it’s all done.”

“Well, not quite.” My smile slid from my face.

“What do you mean?”

“I want a restraining order against her. I’ll testify, file charges, whatever the hell I have to do, but I don’t want her coming anywhere near me, my family, and especially Josie. I’m sure our relationship will go public soon enough and I can’t risk that Kimberly will do something…crazy…to lash out.” The thought send sick chills over my body. I had to protect Josie. If that devil woman ever hurt her…I’d never forgive myself.

“All right, Trey. I’ll notify the lawyers in the morning. They’ll get started on it right away. They already have all of your documentation of her stalking behavior from the evidence you prepared in the event this custody case went to court.”

“Good. Thank you, Mase. Anything else I should know about? What’s going on with the team?”

“Ah, yes, well, since witnesses cleared you of any wrong doing in the altercation with Kimberly at the clinic, they can’t remove you from the team. I suspect the suspension will be reversed within the next 24 to 48 hours. So, you need to get your ass back to Oklahoma City as soon as possible to be ready when they call.”

I nodded and sat back down on the edge of the couch. It was good news—but it didn’t sit right. I didn’t want to go back just yet. I was having such a good time in Texas, it was more than just a vacation, it was like I’d stepped out of my life and entered someone else’s entirely, and the change felt good.

“That’s not going to be a problem, is it?” Mason asked, a sharpness to his tone.

“Nah. I hear ya. I’ll look at flights in the morning.”

“And send me the details as soon as it’s booked?” he prompted.

“Sure, sure.”

We ended the call and I lay back against the couch, just staring straight into space, processing the news in my head. She-devil was gone, I wasn’t a father, and the nightmare that had spanned more than a year was finally over. My lawyers would make Kimberly go away—hopefully for good this time—and I could finally move on from the headache and drama.

Josie filled my thoughts and I smiled to myself. Somehow, in the middle of all the chaos, I’d let my guard down long enough to fall for her. With everything else out of my way, the truth hit me like a two-by-four right between the eyes. I was in love with Josie Crawford.

Fueled with a sudden surge of emotion, excitement, and levity, I hopped off the couch, hurried across the room, and made for the stairs, killing the living room lights on my way.

“Hey, where’d you go?” a soft, sleepy voice answered as I cracked open the door to Josie’s bedroom. A sliver of light from the night light in the hallway spilled across the room, and I hurried to shut the door behind me to block it out.

“Had to make a call,” I replied, finding my way to the bed. I dropped my phone on the nightstand and then shucked off my clothes before sliding back into bed. Josie instantly curled up to me and I ran my hand down her bare back. “Mmm. You feel so good, baby. You have a nice nap?”

She nodded against my chest. “You’re running me ragged, Delgado.”

I chuckled softly against her hair. “You like it.”

She laughed. “What was the call about? Everything okay?”

“Yeah, baby. It’s all gonna be over with real soon. I promise.”

What I didn’t tell her at that moment was that something else was just about to start.