“I don’t want to go,” I whine like a toddler as Liv pulls up outside the airport.

She puts the car in park and opens her door, climbing out even though this is clearly a no-parking zone.

I follow, moving around to the back of the car to grab my bag from the trunk. Dropping it on the ground at my feet, I circle my arms around Liv’s waist and pull her flush against me. I bury my face in her hair, inhaling the fresh scent of her shampoo from her shower this morning. It’s simple and clean—no floral or fruit scents for my girl—and completely intoxicating.

Mostly because it’s on her.

“Please don’t make me go,” I pout against her ear.

She giggles, slightly pulling back so that she can look me in the eye. “It’s just a few days. I’ll fly out to Seattle when you get back.”

I mumble something about a few days feeling like a lifetime, and she rolls her eyes, calling me dramatic. But it’s true. Each time I’m forced to leave her gets harder and harder.

This time, walking away just might kill me.

“You promise me you’re coming? You won’t get lost in that big old brain of yours as soon as I’m gone, right? Thinking of all the reasons we shouldn’t be together?”

She stretches up onto her toes, gently pressing her lips to mine. “I’ll be there, Brandon. I’m done with trying to fight this.”

I lift her up and swing her around, knowing full well that the people around us are staring. Let them stare. I don’t give a fuck. Nothing matters more to me than this girl being here, in my arms.

When a car behind us honks, clearly irritated that our car has been parked here longer than the allotted thirty seconds to unload, Liv insists I put her down. I set her on her feet, grabbing my bag as I watch her walk back to the driver’s side.

She turns when she reaches it, a sweet smile on her face. I wink, giving her a crooked grin as she slides in behind the wheel.

I walk around to the passenger side, rapping on the window with my knuckles until she rolls it down. I lean over, resting my forearms on the edge so that I can pop my head inside. “I’m gonna miss you, Tink.”

The horn blares behind us. She looks nervously in the rearview mirror before darting her eyes back to mine.

“I’m going to miss you, too. But I really need to leave before this guy loses his shit.”

I straighten and look at the man behind us, holding up one finger to indicate it’ll just be a second. He immediately lays on his horn again.

“I’ll see you in a few days, Brandon. I really need to go.”

“One sec,” I say, heading toward the other car.

The asshole rolls down his window as I approach, pointing straight at the sign that says No Parking. “Can’t you read? Move it. I don’t have time to sit here while you two play kissy face.”

“Listen, bud. I just got back that beautiful woman up there. And there’s absolutely no way I’m going to let some impatient jerkwad ruin our good-bye.” I reach into my back pocket, pulling out my wallet, and toss whatever bills are in it through his window. “There. Why don’t you take that and circle back around? Maybe that’ll give you some time to calm your tits.”

The man’s mouth falls open as he eyes the money around him. “Dude, this has to be like a thousand bucks at least. You’re gonna give me this just so that you can kiss her?”

I look back toward Liv’s car where I can see her eyes on me in the side-view mirror. “Her kisses are worth a million times that.”

The man peels off, as if he fears I’m going to change my mind, but he didn’t need to bother. I meant what I said. I’d have given up the entire contents of my bank account if it meant I got to taste her one more time before I left.

“What did you do?” she asks as I walk back up to her window.

I drop my head inside, pressing my lips to hers in a brief but firm kiss. “Paying my dues. Now, come here.”

I open the door, yanking her out of the car so that I can properly kiss her good-bye.

She looks a little dazed when I pull back, and fuck if that doesn’t make me want to jump right back in that car and take her home. But I know, if I want to have any sort of a career left after this, I need to get my ass in that airport right now before I miss my flight.

“I’ll see you soon, Tink.”

She nods. “Travel safe.”

“Always,” I say with a grin. “I have way too much to come home to now.”

“I love you, Brandon,” she says as I drop my hold on her and head toward the door.

I turn, stopping for a moment so that I can burn this image of her standing there, on the pavement, watching as I leave, into my brain.

“I breathe for you, Liv.”

The next two days pass excruciatingly slow. The Rampage win both of the remaining games on the road, and if I wasn’t so damn exhausted, I’d head to Coach’s office and convince him to let me hop a flight back to Seattle tonight instead of flying back with the team tomorrow.

But I don’t think I could physically get up off this bed if the damn thing caught on fire. Turns out, getting little to no sleep on top of playing two back-to-back ball games—oh, and that whole emotional-turmoil thing—isn’t so easy when you’re pushing thirty. Now that things are right with Liv again, the last few days have finally caught up to me, and I plan to sleep for twenty-four hours straight as soon as I get back to her.

Well, maybe not straight. I might have to toss in a sex break or two.

A loud pounding on my hotel room door startles me out of my dozing musings of Liv, naked and in my bed. I look over at the bed beside mine, already knowing Tag isn’t there but hoping I can maybe magically manifest the motherfucker so that he could get up and answer the door.

No luck.

I groan, pulling my pillow over my head and praying that whoever the hell is at the door gets the hint and leaves.

Again, I’m shit out of luck.

The heavy beats only come louder and faster, as if the person on the other side is either pissed off or in a panic.

Before I can war with myself further on whether or not the building actually is on fire and if that is enough to get me out of this bed, Coach’s muffled voice sounds from the hallway. “Jeffers! Open the damn door. I’ve got news you’re gonna want to see.”

Huh. Guess I was wrong. There is something that could get me out of this bed. And Coach just said the magic words.

I dash across the room, throwing open the door. Coach doesn’t waste any time, pushing past me as he holds up a manila file folder.

“We’ve got her,” he says with an elated grin.

The relief that rushes through me is palpable, all the breath leaving my lungs in one fell swoop.

When I got back to the team after my visit to Maple Lake, Coach let me know just how much of a man of his word he was. While I had been gone, he’d not only cleared my leave for me, but he’d also hired the best private investigator in the business to see what we could dig up on Jayne to prove she was lying.

He strides across the room and sits down on the sofa, tossing the file on the coffee table for me to look at. I pick it up as I park my ass on the chair, flipping it open before I’m even settled.

I’m immediately greeted by a picture of Jayne leaving a building. With a man who is very much not me.

“Who’s this?”

Coach shrugs. “My guess? The real baby daddy. That door they’re walking out of? It’s a doctor’s office. An OB/GYN to be exact.”

“So, she really is pregnant?”

He nods. “It appears so. Frank couldn’t get into medical records because of all those dumb privacy laws. But I doubt she’s got a doctor in on her little scheme, too. She’s pregnant. And, for some reason, that schmuck is content to go along with her story.”

“Why would he do that? Why would he want people to think his kid isn’t really his?”

The thought baffles me. I can’t even imagine standing idly by while Liv tried to say my baby was somebody else’s.

He shrugs again. “Why do people do half the things they do? Fame, money, love? Who knows? But we can publish this. Show the world how full of shit she is.”

I raise a brow. “She could just say he’s a friend or something. This doesn’t prove anything.”

“No, but it sure as hell takes away a lot of her credibility. You know how desperate the paps are to dish out an illicit story. I’m sure they won’t have any qualms about adding their own speculation and spin on this. Especially if we grease their palms a little.”

I consider his words. It would be so easy to make Jayne go away. Even if she tried to respond to the photo, Coach is right; nobody would believe her. She’d go back to being a nobody, just another desperate woman trying to ruin the reputation of a sports star. It happened to Tag last year. It wouldn’t be a hard sell to convince people this was just another gold digger.

But something doesn’t feel right.

I need to know why before I make any decisions.

I toss the folder back on the table, heading over to grab my duffel.

“Hold on to that for a day, Coach. I need to make a stop first.”

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asks, his mouth hanging open.

“To get some answers.”

I can tell by the look on her face when she opens the door that I’m the last person she expected to see standing here.

Jayne quickly attempts to slam the door in my face, but unfortunately for her, I’m able to predict people’s actions just from the movement of their eyes. You don’t get to be the best hitter in the MLB without learning how to read people.

I crash my hand against the door, sticking my foot inside to prevent it from closing. “I think it’s time you and I have a chat, Jaynie.”

I don’t listen to her protests as I shove past her and step inside the room.

The man from the photo jumps up from the couch, his fists balling at his sides as he realizes what’s going on.

I point at him. “Sit down. I’m not here to hurt anybody. But you two need to start talking.”

Jayne skirts around me, rushing to the protection of the man in front of me. He pulls her into his arms, shielding her from me, before sinking down onto the sofa with her still in his hold.

Dear Lord, Coach must be right. This dude is in love with her.

Poor bastard.

“What do you want?” the man bites out at me, his lips pulled back off his teeth in an ugly sneer.

“I want to know why she’s telling everyone she’s pregnant with my kid when we all know it’s not true.”

Jayne cowers down in his hold further, whimpering against his chest. I roll my eyes.

“Oh, please. Don’t give me that frightened doe-eyed act, Jayne. It might work with this guy, but I know better. You’re nothing if not tough as nails. So, drop it.”

Her eyes narrow at me as she sits up straight, pushing Random Asshole’s arms from around her shoulders.

“Tough as nails but still not good enough for Brandon Jeffers.”

I exhale slowly. “So, that’s what this is about. You’re seriously so pissed off that I found somebody else, you’re willing to destroy my life because of it?”

“You had no qualms about destroying my heart. Why should I care about what happens to you?”

My head rolls back on my shoulders. “Give it a rest, Jayne. Don’t act like you were in love with me. We both knew what this was. A good fuck. That’s it.”

She’s up off the couch and in my face quick as a flash, her bony finger poking into my chest as she shouts, “No. That’s all it was to you, Brandon. I loved you. I loved you so much, it hurt. And, like an idiot, I held out hope that, someday, you’d realize you loved me, too. So, I let you have your fun. I cried myself to sleep whenever you silenced my calls after a game because I knew it meant you were with someone else. But I knew. I just knew that, if I could hold on long enough, you’d see me for what I really was. You’d finally realize you had everything you needed right here.” She crosses her hands over her chest as she says the last two words.

My mouth falls open, shock coursing through me at her admission. I knew she’d brought up the possibility of us taking our relationship further a few times, but I had no clue she thought she loved me. I thought she just wanted to be able to tell all her friends she was dating a baseball star.

“Jayne, I had no idea—”

“No, of course you didn’t. Because the only things you cared about were your stupid team and your stupid dick. You didn’t give two shits about the fact that you were hurting an actual human being. You just tossed me aside like a piece of garbage, only too happy to leave me behind for your shiny new toy. It wasn’t fair. It isn’t fair. I loved you first.” She spins around as she finishes, covering her face with her hands as she bursts into tears.

The man on the couch stands, pulling her into his arms, even after everything she just admitted.

I don’t get it. I seriously don’t understand why he’d want to hold her after she just admitted that she was in love with me and was doing all this to get back at me.

“The baby is yours.” I meant it to come out as a question, but instead, it’s a statement. Because I already know the answer. I knew the second I saw the way he looked at her.

He nods.

“Why? Why are you okay with all this?”

He smooths Jayne’s hair as she cries against his chest. I’m not sure she can even hear the words I’m saying; her sobs are so loud that they nearly drown out everything else in the room.

He shoots me a cutting glare. “You broke her. And I’m willing to do whatever it takes to put her back together again. Even if I don’t necessarily agree with it. Because I love her.”

It still doesn’t make any sense, but I don’t push the issue. I’m done with these people.

I reach into my jacket pocket, pulling out a wad of bills. I toss it on the table before me, giving the guy holding Jayne a stern look. “Take that and go. I don’t care where. But get the hell out of here and never talk to the press again. I have evidence she’s lying. If you cooperate, nobody will ever have to know anything. If not, you’ll be forcing my hand.”

The man’s eyes move from the money to me a few times before he nods. “You won’t hear from us again.”

I spin on my heel, striding toward the door without looking back.

A weight lifts off my shoulders as I step out onto the stoop, hearing the latch of the door as I pull it closed behind me.

Their relationship is all sorts of fucked up, but there is a small part of me that’s glad Jayne has finally found someone who can give her what she wants. What she probably deserves, despite her actions this past week.

People do crazy-ass things for love.

Sometimes, they make up stories.

Sometimes, they go along with things they know are wrong.

And, sometimes…

Sometimes, they pay assholes in the airport to shut the fuck up, so they can kiss their girl one more time.

Love makes people crazy.

But I wouldn’t change it for the world.