Chapter 14—Broken Tackle

Tyler strode into the VC, pretending he owned the world and everyone in it. His asshole mode served him well, especially when confusion reigned inside his head. At least on the outside, he appeared in control.

He hesitated when he saw Xandra, not Lavender, mixing drinks. He considered leaving, but he walked across the room and sat his butt on his barstool, driven by curiosity. Xandra slid a beer across the counter to him. He stared at the label of his favorite brew and decided not to ask how she’d known what he wanted to drink.

“Where’s El?” He glanced around the bar. The brothers played cards in the far corner. Except for their table, the place was deserted.

“She took today off. She’s volunteering at the senior center and then making the brothers dinner at Homer’s house.”

“Does she do that often?”

“Yes, on her days off, usually, but they needed help today.”

“Oh.” Tyler had no clue that she cooked for the brothers or volunteered with seniors. Not knowing this detail of her life rankled him. Not that he cared one darn bit. He smiled to himself, proud that he’d used darn not fuck, and in his thoughts. Lavender would be impressed, not that it mattered.

“Besides, she’s not speaking to you.”

Crap. “I figured as much.” He scrubbed his face with his hands and took a deep breath, but nothing eased the shame weighing him down.

“Don’t you get it?”

“Not really.” Which was the crux of the matter. He had questions. Zan, as Lavender’s best friend and cousin, should have the answers, at least to the less personal questions—the ones about his coach.

His instincts warned it was best to let sleeping dogs lie and not get any deeper into this. He couldn’t.

But first he needed to settle a score with Zan. “So what’s with this sensitive crap?”

“Being called sensitive disturbs you?” She rubbed a wineglass dry with a towel and gave him one of those all-knowing looks that really got under his skin.

“Hell yeah. You insulted my manhood.”

“Tyler, you are one messed-up guy.”

He couldn’t dispute that fact. His frown tightened the mask of indifference on his face. “I’m not sensitive.”

“You are sensitive. It’s common for alpha males to hide their sensitivity behind an asshole exterior, but you’ve honed it to an art form. I’ve never seen someone so out of touch with their real self.”

He decided to ignore her bullshit and cut to the chase. “You’re Lavender’s cousin?”

“First cousin.” She pressed her lips tight and regarded him with suspicion, reluctant to give too much information. Obviously, she didn’t consider him trustworthy.

“Mother’s side or father’s side?”

“Father’s.”

Ah, pay dirt. Tyler sized up the defense and did an end run. He wanted more information. “So I met Brenda and Larry and happened to mention Brian had been my college coach.”

“Oh, sore sport. He’s not very popular with the family.”

“The family?” Puzzled, Tyler tried to make sense of it all.

“My parents, me, the rest of the family.”

So much for pay dirt. Hell, even the coach’s own family had turned against him.

“Was he abusive?” Tyler braced himself for the truth he might not want to hear. He had to know if his once-revered coach had done something worse than abandoning his family.

“Abusive?” She blinked, as if she couldn’t comprehend his question.

“Yeah, I wondered.” Tyler held his breath and waited for the answer. He’d take the bastard out himself if Coach had laid a hand on his daughter.

“Oh, no, nothing like that.” Xandra studied him like he was fu—flipping crazy.

Relief flooded him even as confusion set in. “Then what happened? They’ve been divorced for years.”

“I shouldn’t be telling you this. It’s really Lavender’s place to tell you what she wants you to know.”

“So give me a clue.”

She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “He wasn’t there.”

“He wasn’t where?” Tyler didn’t have much patience for evasiveness. There had to be more. Didn’t there?

“You know, he wasn’t around. He was never there for Lavender. He didn’t even attend her high school graduation. Never called her on birthdays or Christmas, never even sent a card. He missed every important moment in her life.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah, it does suck.” Xandra sighed. “Are your parents divorced, Tyler?”

Tyler snorted at the ludicrous thought, even as he sought to swallow around the lump forming in his throat. “Heck no, not them. My dad died just before I started college. Suddenly. Heart attack. He’d been as healthy as a horse.” Why he told her this stuff, he’d never know.

“I’m sorry.” Her words rang true, not the shallow words most people spoke that meant nothing.

“Up until the day he died, they were as disgustingly in love as they were when they married years ago. High school sweethearts and all that crap. Totally devoted to each other. My mom says she’ll never find another man like him, and she’s not going to look.”

“I think that’s incredible. You were very lucky to have a family like that.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right. Try living up to their standards. I don’t even attempt it.”

Xandra stared at him to the point where he started to squirm. He’d given away too much of what went on inside his head. “You’re very proud of them.”

Tyler scrambled to steer the conversation away from his personal life. “How long has it been since Coach has seen Lavender?”

“After the divorce about twelve years ago, Uncle Brian took the assistant coach job across state at WSU. After that, he didn’t make any attempt to see the kids. He never called them, never sent them any cards. He just went away. He didn’t pay a penny of child support. Poor Brenda struggled to raise two teenagers and make ends meet. Lavender acted out. She was a handful. Her brother, Andy, just retreated into himself. Football became his life.”

“Are you sure he never paid child support?” Tyler scratched his head. He didn’t know much about child support, but he couldn’t believe it was that easy to just walk away and not pay anything, especially when the person earned a state salary.

“Brenda told me so. The woman is a good, honest person. Very devout. She’d never lie.”

Tyler’s head reeled at this revelation about a man who he’d once held in high esteem, the man who’d been there for Tyler when his father died but hadn’t been there for his own children.

“Uncle Brian deserted his kids. My mom and dad don’t speak to him. No one in the family does, not after what he did to Aunt Brenda and the kids.”

“What about the brother? Andy?”

“After he graduated from high school, he went to WSU, walked on the team, and made it. He hasn’t spoken to Aunt Brenda since. It breaks her heart.”

“That’s harsh.” He was developing a new level of respect for Brenda.

“She sacrificed everything for her kids. She was always there for them. Always. The first chance Andy got, he betrayed her.”

He was struggling with Coach as the man he knew and the man who abandoned his wife and family. Something seemed a little off, but what the hell did Tyler know? His family came straight out of a 1950s sitcom, except his mother actually worked. He’d lived a perfect life growing up, yet he was majorly fucked up. Big time. He had no right to judge anyone else’s family dynamics.

“I’m sorry to hear all this.” Tyler shut his mouth and dropped the subject. This situation was none of his damn business. His relationship with Lavender amounted to sex and nothing else.

Assholes didn’t have relationships with meaning. Nor did they get involved in each other’s family affairs.

* * * * *

Lavender glanced up from the bar and recognized a man on a mission. By the set of Tyler’s jaw, she suspected she wouldn’t appreciate this particular mission. She gave him the silent treatment and ignored him as much as possible.

Tyler stayed close all evening, though he made no attempt to carry on a conversation beyond grunting for another beer. Ever since he discovered her father’s identity, coupled with the debacle with her mother, he eyed her with wariness in his blue eyes. Meanwhile, Lavender brimmed with nervous energy during the day and tossed and turned in her bed at night. Ten days of celibacy combined with a hot man next door was a lousy cure for insomnia. Beyond the dark circles under her eyes lurked the fear she just might be missing more than the man’s body despite how furious he made her.

Tyler didn’t goad her into an argument or make lurid remarks. Nor did he swear up a storm and fill the cuss-jar coffers. Instead, he stayed silent and brooding, not one sign of the asshole persona she’d come to expect and, in a dysfunctional way, appreciate.

Tyler emptied his beer and signaled for another. She poured it and slid it across the counter. His blue eyes drilled into hers, physically stripping away each protective layer. She’d rather he stripped off her clothes than study her as if he knew all her secrets.

This crap needed to stop.

Putting her hands on the counter, Lavender went on offense before his odd behavior put her on defense. “Quit staring at me like that.”

“Like what? How am I staring at you?”

“You know.”

Tyler rubbed the back of his neck and stretched, as if he hadn’t a care in the world. He picked up his beer and took a sip, regarding her over the rim of his glass. “Can’t you at least get back to hating me? This silent treatment is making me crazy.”

“What makes you think I stopped hating you?”

“You didn’t?” He almost smiled for the first time since his faux pas with her family. He sat back and rested his large hands on his belt buckle, drawing Lavender’s gaze downward. She licked her lips as she noticed a telltale bulge.

“What do you think?”

“But you miss the sex.” He tugged on a lock of her hair.

“Now there’s the asshole I’ve grown to know and despise.” She ran a finger across his stubbled chin and resisted the strong urge to follow the caress with her tongue.

He worked his jaw, as if considering his next words carefully. “I’m sorry. I was a real ass, even for me. The second I mentioned him, I knew I’d been an idiot.”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. It’s about the sex with us. Just stay out of my family’s business from now on.”

He looked down, then up again. “I am sorry.”

“Please don’t bring him up again. My stepfather is the only father I have. He’s been there for me, while my real father hasn’t.”

“Is that why you changed your last name?”

“Mom changed it. It was my idea, but she took care of it for me. She offered to change my brother’s, too, but he refused.”

Tyler frowned at her. Lavender twisted the ring on her finger. Hard. Any harder and she’d twist her finger off. He watched in fascination as it spun even faster on her hand. He looked up, and she realized she’d been caught. She slipped her hands behind her back and out of his line of sight. A knowing smile crooked the corner of his mouth.

“You do that when you’re upset. Really upset. At the risk of getting my head ripped off, tell me why you never call your stepfather ‘Dad’ if he’s the only father you have.” He raised one eyebrow in a silent challenge, looking more like his asshole self.

“I—I— Just because.” Anger rumbled through her like a thunderstorm through a wheat field. “Don’t go psychoanalyzing me, Harris.”

He snorted and pointed at his chest. “Me? I’m too shallow for something requiring insight into other people’s feelings.”

Lavender backed away, needing a moment to regroup. Tyler’s words hit home. Hard. Too hard. She skirted around the opposite side of the bar. She didn’t like talking about her parents, either one of them. Unfortunately, she couldn’t steer clear of the quarterback when she went to pour a beer, since he was sitting right in front of the taps.

Nobody understood. She loved her mother, and her mother loved her. Brenda Mead had always been there for her. She couldn’t say the same for her father. Even when he’d still been with her mother, football consumed his every waking hour.

She hated all this talk about her father. It put her on the defensive, made her feel guilty for God knew what. She’d done nothing wrong. Brian Gerloch deserted them, left them almost destitute. If Larry hadn’t rescued them, who knew where they’d have ended up. Larry might not be the most exciting or attractive man, but Lavender would be blessed to find a man as good and honest as him.

Tyler Harris did not fit that mold. Now he was asking too many questions, as if her family mattered to him. They didn’t. They couldn’t. She knew just the thing to stop this invasion of her personal affairs—another kind of affair. He’d forget his own name when presented with a warm, willing woman ready to engage in a little hard riding.

Casting a sultry look his way, Lavender sashayed closer. Tyler met her halfway, stepping into her space.

“This isn’t supposed to get personal.” She lowered her voice a sexy octave and watched his eyes go from sky blue to midnight blue. Tyler leaned into her and licked his lips. He didn’t touch her, allowing her to take the lead.

“Hey, get a room, you two,” Homer yelled from across the room.

Lavender jumped back. Her pale skin burned as red as a fire engine. Tyler took longer to recover. Finally, he shook his dark head and tipped back on the heels of his well-worn cowboy boots. “Tonight, after everyone’s gone, you’re at my mercy.”

“No, you’re at my mercy,” she countered, salivating at the thought of being in control of this powerful, muscular hunk of testosterone.

“Is that a promise?” Tyler didn’t even blink; instead he looked intrigued.

“For once, I’m going to run the show.”

“Looking forward to it, sweetheart.” He ran a finger over her lips, and she shuddered. With a wink, he sauntered off to join the brotherhood at a table across the room.

* * * * *

Despite it being past their bedtime, the old codgers stuck around long enough to beat Tyler at three hands of pinochle before they finally tottered out the door. Once the door clicked shut behind the final geriatric, Tyler tipped his chair back on two legs, crossed his arms over his chest, and enjoyed the view. Lavender sped around the room, vacuuming, wiping tables, cleaning the counter, putting everything in order for the night. Her ponytail swung as she walked, keeping rhythm with the swaying of her fine ass. Pretty soon Tyler would be grasping two handfuls of that ass as he buried himself deep inside El’s soft heaven. His cock hardened in response. He leaned forward and the chair legs clunked as they hit the floor. He tapped his foot impatiently on the worn hardwood floor.

Lavender finished the last of her closing chores and headed for the door with Tyler on her heels. He held the door open for her but blocked the doorway. She pushed on his chest. He didn’t budge.

“It’s been too long, purple lady.” Tyler leaned in, caught a whiff of lavender, and leaned closer. He slid his hands down her sides and rested them on her hips. Damn, but she felt fu—flipping good. Everything he’d ever dreamed of wrapped up in one fiery little package. He pulled her against his body, cupping her ass in the palms of his hands. He picked her up, sliding her along his length until her face came level with his. Her red lips parted, revealing a glimpse of white teeth. Her pink tongue flicked out and moistened her lips.

Tyler groaned and bent his head to sample those lips and tongue for himself. He’d always loved kissing as foreplay, but kissing Lavender took the act to an entirely different level. He gave her more than he ever gave with other women, even Cass. At first it might have been the challenge, the mutual dislike, the great chemistry. Maybe it still was all that and more. She drove him wild with an irrational need he couldn’t explain, nor did he want to. She made him feel. And for a man who’d been buried in smothering apathy this past year, he embraced feelings of any kind, especially those that awakened his passion for life.

Slave to a different type of passion, Tyler backed Lavender against the doorframe. Her mouth opened for his tongue as she sucked on it. He closed his eyes and surrendered to the feelings rampaging through his body, his head, hell, even his big toenail. His brain shut down for the night since he wouldn’t be needing it. He had all he needed right here wrapped up in this little redheaded dynamo.

Fingers digging into his scalp, she pulled him closer, held his mouth to hers. Their bruising kisses only sent the flames higher. Tyler resuscitated a miniscule portion of his common sense and dragged his hungry mouth away from his purple lady’s equally hungry mouth. Panting and turned on beyond sanity, he slid her body back down his until her feet touched the ground. His cock demanded immediate satisfaction, nothing new there. His boy was legendary for its impatience, but it’d have to hold out a little longer. Wrapping an arm around Lavender’s shoulders, Tyler waited while she shakily locked the door. She fumbled with the keys twice. He swallowed a smirk, smugly satisfied with his power to rattle her.

Heady stuff.

“Your place or mine?” He dangled his keys from his index finger.

“Yours. You have a four-poster bed.” Her eyes sparkled with little flecks of gold, which he’d only seen when she was aroused.

“Hmmm. Tell me why you need a four-poster bed.” The mental images were killing him.

Lavender regarded him for a moment. He stood on the sidewalk, one hand on the side of the brick building as he leaned against it. His casual pose didn’t disguise the barely reined-in sexual energy radiating from his every pore.

“You’re being punished. I’m in charge, jock boy. Just go with the flow.”

“Oh, yeah, I will. I definitely will.” He pushed off the wall, grabbed her hand, and headed for the truck. His long strides ate up the ground. She ran to keep up. In a few minutes, she’d be calling the shots, and they wouldn’t be hurrying anywhere, which was just fine with him.