Chapter 23—Block in the Back

Tyler stood in the pouring rain, not moving until Lavender’s taxi turned the corner and disappeared. Riddled with guilt for not going with her when she needed him most, he walked back into the hotel lobby and shook the rain off his tux.

He’d rather follow Lavender, maybe cajole her into another round of in-flight sex, which would make both of them forget their problems, at least temporarily.

Maybe he’d leave as soon as he went back inside to grab his trophy. The press would crucify him if he left it on the table. They’d use it as one more piece of evidence regarding his lack of dedication, or they’d claim he drank too much to remember he’d gotten an award. Lavender was right about him staying. They’d be all over his ass for skipping out early.

At least camp was over, for now. He could crawl back to the relative obscurity of the islands and lick his wounds. It’d been another shitty day at mini-camp. He’d paced the sidelines and watched as his backup, Sam Pollard, took all the reps. The fact that he felt inclined to pace was somewhat encouraging. At least he cared enough to be frustrated, definitely a step in the right direction.

Murphy did everything except stand on his head to make sure Pollard looked good. Under Murphy’s influence, the defense missed easy tackles and let receivers beat them. Judging by the quizzical look on HughJack’s face, he’d noticed their lack of effort, too. Instead of ranting on the sidelines, he observed it all, as if biding his time. Hell if Tyler knew for what, but HughJack did everything for a reason.

Tyler’s uncharacteristic ineptitude and lack of desire for the game troubled Tyler more than being benched. Two plus months on the island hadn’t glued those broken pieces back together. Somehow, he’d hoped mile-high sex with Lavender might help cure his woes, even perform a miracle. Instead, once the incredible high wore off, he found himself mired in doubt as the situation between them grew more complicated.

Lavender added one more complex piece to his confusing life.

Oddly enough, Tyler didn’t enjoy his return to the city as much as expected. Several times during the evening, he’d checked his watch, doing a mental countdown until the limo picked them up to take them to the floatplane. He’d spent the first half of the evening imagining getting Lavender out of her little black dress, pushing down those the thin shoulder straps and lifting up that tight little skirt to nothing underneath. Maybe a repeat of the night before. His greedy cock had signaled its approval of that plan. Then Brian Gerloch’s appearance ruined what should’ve been a perfect night for them. The hypocrisy of the man cut deep, as Tyler witnessed firsthand the damage her father’s indifference did to El.

A feeling of protectiveness had overwhelmed Tyler. He wanted to do battle for Lavender and make this man pay for the emotional wounds he’d inflicted on her because of his own selfishness.

She deserved better from her father. Coach preached family and commitment, but he sure as hell didn’t live it. That didn’t work for Tyler.

Brian Gerloch wasn’t the man Tyler thought he was. Did anyone in this world measure up to his own dad? Tyler frowned. His dad had been a hero.

Lavender considers me a hero. The thought warmed his heart and gave him hope.

Slipping back into the ballroom, he made a beeline for the bar and ordered a double whiskey.

A few seconds later, Derek grabbed his arm and whipped him around. “What the hell was that all about? Coach Gerloch has a daughter? He’s Lavender’s father?”

Rachel flanked Derek, her hand on her husband’s arm and her green eyes filled with concern.

“I guess you could call him that.” Tyler threw back his drink and grabbed another off a waiter’s tray. He scanned the crowd, ready to pull a disappearing act if Gerloch headed his way. He hated hiding, but he couldn’t deal with all this.

Derek shook his head, in denial like Tyler had been earlier. “No fucking way.”

“Oh, yeah. Big fu—flipping way. He abandoned his family. Really messed her up.”

“Wow, I never pegged him as the kind to shirk his responsibilities.”

“He didn’t just shirk them; he acted as if they never existed.”

“Well, brace yourself. He’s coming our way again, and he looks none too happy.”

His escape cut off, Tyler leaned nonchalantly against a wall and pretended he hadn’t a care in the world. His chickenshit cousin and his wife slipped away, leaving the two men to settle their differences.

“Who shoved a football up your ass?” Coach kept his voice low, not wanting to be heard in the crowded room. He sipped a glass of wine, his other hand shoved in his pocket. By all outside appearances, their conversation was nothing out of the ordinary. Yet tension crackled between the two of them like two Pro-Bowl linemen facing off on fourth and inches.

“It appears you did.” Tyler fisted his hands and crammed them against his sides in an attempt to keep from beating the shit out of a man he once respected. He squared up to his coach, legs slightly apart, body tense with anger. He fought the urge to wipe the arrogant expression from the asshole’s face. “I’ve got better things to do than waste time with you.”

“Harris. If you’re one thing, you’re straightforward. Quit beating around the proverbial bush and say what you fucking want to say. You’ve never been one to hold back.”

“I inherited Twin Cedars. You familiar with it?”

Momentary surprise flickered in his eyes. He hadn’t known. “Of course I am. I wondered what happened to that place. I guess it stayed in your family.”

“Sure as hell did. Your daughter is my neighbor. I’ve heard all about you—the side you keep hidden.”

The man’s face fell. A look of profound grief sunk his features into his face. Tyler almost felt sorry for him. “I’m betting you’ve met my ex-wife, too.” Coach’s shoulders slumped. In less than two minutes, he became a shell of the man he once was.

“Yeah.”

Coach rubbed the back of his neck and stared out the window at the Seattle nightscape. A muscle twitched in his jaw. “Fuck. Is nothing sacred? She destroyed my relationship with my family, my closest friends, pretty much everyone but my son. Even he was under her spell for a while. Now she’s trapping my former players in her web.”

“You deserted your daughter when she needed you most.” Tyler refused to be swayed. The man was full of bullshit.

“I did, but not because I didn’t care. By the tone of your voice, we have nothing further to talk about; you’ve convicted me without hearing both sides.”

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?” Tyler’s head pounded as his confusion battled with self-righteous anger.

“Form your own opinions once you have all the facts.”

“You were my mentor, the guy I wanted to be someday. You held me up when my dad died unexpectedly. You filled in for him, kept me sane.” Tyler’s voice cracked. He backed up a step, no longer feeling combative, just betrayed and puzzled.

“Ty, I can’t begin to explain all this. You’d never believe me if I did.”

“I don’t know who to believe.”

“It’s not a matter of believing, it’s a matter of judgment. You need to weigh your experiences with me against what you’ve been told. You need to decide based on what you know about me as a person.” Coach raised his eyes to meet Tyler’s. “Listen, let’s talk somewhere alone. Meet me in the bar in ten minutes?”

Tyler hesitated then nodded. He had to hear the story from his coach.

A few minutes later, Tyler hunched over his beer and waited for Coach to join him. The hotel bar was dark and private. Only a few people sat at tables scattered around the room. No one paid him any attention. That should have bothered him. It would have a few months ago, but Tyler found the privacy oddly comforting.

He didn’t wait long. He’d only taken a few swigs of beer when Coach slid into the seat across from his.

“I heard about your Uncle Artie. I’m sorry. He was a great guy and a big supporter of the athletic program at WSU. Twin Cedars is yours now? It’s a beautiful place.”

His coach’s knowledge of Twin Cedars threw Tyler off his game. He couldn’t come up with a response.

“So, tell me how well you know my girl. You’re not dating her, are you?” Coach raised one eyebrow and leaned forward, staring Tyler down, as if the man had a right to ask about his daughter.

“Worried?” Tyler shot back, knowing his reputation made him any father’s worst nightmare.

“Wouldn’t you be if you were a father?”

“Damn, I’d never let my daughter near anyone like me.” Tyler chuckled, and the ice between them cracked a little.

“Yeah. Are you going to be charged with a DUI?”

“Hell no. I wasn’t drunk, and before you ask, no, I wasn’t fu—frigging in rehab, either. Drugs and alcohol are not on my extensive list of vices.”

“Good to hear.” Gerloch sighed, as he folded and unfolded the bar napkin. “I hoped—prayed, actually—if I ever ran into Lavender she’d hear me out. Maybe agree to give me a second chance.” His expression softened, grew tender. “She looks good. She’s happy with you.”

Tyler said nothing, but guilt gnawed at his gut. What made him any better than her dad? He’d desert her, too, once he returned to his life on the mainland. He wasn’t any good at real relationships because the last true fairy-tale couple died with his father.

“I’m betting you’ve gotten an earful about me from Lavender and her mother, too.”

“Not really. Other than you abandoned them.”

“I did, but it’s more complicated than all that.”

“How so?” Tyler popped a pretzel in his mouth and chewed. Despite it being stale and tasting like crap, he stuffed his mouth full of a few more.

“Brenda is a master manipulator. Doesn’t matter what I say, people believe her. She even turned my own family against me. I’ve heard all sorts of crap she’s spread about me, and there’s plenty I’m guessing I haven’t heard.”

“Then hit me with your side of the story.” Tyler slouched in his seat and propped his feet on a nearby chair. He could feel a headache coming on. The niggling suspicion he had that everything wasn’t as it seemed might be about to come to fruition.

“Do you think it’s a coincidence my daughter just happens to live next door to your family legacy?” Coach fidgeted with his coaster. Tyler couldn’t recall ever seeing Coach fidget. Pacing the sidelines with pent-up energy, yeah, but fidgeting? Never.

“More like family albatross. But yeah, it did occur to me how strange fate is.”

“Not fate exactly, unless fate’s name is Art.” Coach tore a piece of the corner of the cardboard coaster then ripped it into even smaller pieces. Fidgeting, again.

Tyler sat up, dropped his feet to the floor. He signaled for another beer and leaned his elbows on the table.

“I was born and raised on that island on the very property next door to Twin Cedars. I graduated from high school on the island. My family’s old homestead burnt down years ago though. I was a high school football standout, and your grandfather and uncle helped me get a scholarship. When my pro career didn’t pan out, I coached a high school on the mainland. By then your grandfather had died.”

“I never knew my grandfather. He was at odds with my dad’s family, and we never met.” Regret seeped into Tyler’s voice, and he fought to keep his tone neutral. This was not about him.

“I know. That’s tragic.” Coach now bent and re-bent what was left of the coaster.

Tyler pushed his own coaster across the table to Gerloch. “This from a man who abandoned his daughter?”

“That’s tragic, too.” Coach rubbed his face with his hands and sighed. “Artie played a large role in my career. He and your grandfather were big Cougar fans and convinced the current coach at WSU to give me a chance. I took the assistant coaching job a few years before you went there. I worked my way up to head coach by the time you attended.” Now all four corners of the coaster were torn. A little pile of coaster guts littered the table. Coach reached for Tyler’s coaster.

“I didn’t know about that connection.”

“Artie didn’t want you to know. He never missed one of your home games. Flew over those mountains from the San Juans for every game.”

“Why didn’t he contact me? My dad died before my freshman year. I was pretty messed up. I could’ve used someone.” Tyler tried to make sense of his family dynamics and come to terms with the situation. Maybe his family did have a chink in their perfect armor.

“I tried to convince him, but he was funny like that. He pushed me to recruit you. Not that I wouldn’t have anyway. Every college coach in the nation was salivating at the chance to sign you.” Coach attacked the second coaster, murdering it with his bare hands.

“When you recruited me, you played on my family loyalty, how a long line of Harrises had been Cougars.”

“Sure I did. Art gave me the information I needed to have one up on the other schools. Of course, it helped that your dad was an alumni there, too.”

“Yeah, Dad really pushed me to attend Wazzu.” All the locals called Washington State University by the nickname of Wazzu. At one time, the new president of the university attempted to ban the usage of the nickname because it wasn’t complimentary. After a backlash, he conceded and gave it his blessing.

“I’m sorry your dad and grandfather didn’t get to see you play. They’d have loved that.” Coach looked up and caught Tyler staring at the pile of coaster pieces on the table. He shoved them out of the way. But his fidgeting didn’t stop. Pretty soon he swirled the beer in his glass around and around.

Time to steer this conversation away from Tyler’s family and back to Gerloch’s family. “How did your ex end up with your family’s homestead?”

“She didn’t.” Coach seemed confused. He tipped the beer up to his lips and took a good swig.

“What do you mean she didn’t?”

“Not for lack of trying. Brenda knew how much I loved that place, which is exactly why she went after it in the divorce.” At the mention of his ex, Coach’s face turned hard, like it did when his team couldn’t score in the red zone.

“But it’s hers.”

“If it was hers, it would’ve been sold by now. I pay all the bills. She doesn’t pay a damn thing.”

“But Lavender pays her rent.”

Gerloch shook his head and scrubbed his hands over his face. “Damn. That bitch never ceases to amaze me. She has no right to collect rent on that property. It’s mine, not hers. When we divorced, I put it in a trust for the kids.”

Tyler didn’t know whom to believe, but he knew how to find out. Once he got back to the island, he’d research Coach’s claims. “Go ahead, tell me your side of the story. I’ve heard a bit of the other side.”

Coach stared over Tyler’s head, silent for a long moment. Finally, he drew in a breath and blew it out. He picked up a wine list and bent the corners. “What’s to tell? It’s an old story. I’m the bastard according to Brenda, never paid child support, which is bullshit, never contacted the kids, bullshit again, had a problem with alcoholism and drugs, which is why she divorced me, more bullshit. We divorced because she refused to move across the state. Not to mention we fought like cats and dogs and could hardly stand each other. I tried to stay in touch with the kids, but our battle over the kids was destroying them. She made their lives miserable whenever I saw them. Tore them in two, claimed they were disloyal. No matter how I looked at it, it was a lose-lose for them and me.”

Tyler signaled the waitress for a drink. “I wouldn’t have let that happen. I’d have fought her with every penny I had.”

“Easy for you to say. As long as I was in the picture, Brenda put the kids through major guilt trips, played on their sense of loyalty to their mother. I always sent birthday and Christmas cards and presents, called several times, but Brenda claimed the kids didn’t want anything to do with me. Several years ago, I received a letter from Lavender telling me to go to hell, essentially.”

Tyler absorbed his coach’s story, feeling more confused than ever. He wanted one person to blame for this mess, but right now, he might have to blame both.

“I respected Lavender’s wishes even though it broke my heart. I haven’t talked to her for years until tonight. My son—her brother—Andy, called me a few years ago, and we met. We talked. He went away for a while. Then he came back. He’d done the research and confronted his mother on her lies. When he chose to reconcile with me, Brenda wrote him off and convinced Lavender to do the same. Andy misses his sister and mother, but I can’t talk sense into my ex. Her love is conditional. You’re either with her or you’re not. A relationship with me, the enemy, means betrayal and exile.”

Closing his eyes for a moment, Coach leaned his head against the wall of the booth. Finally, he opened them and continued. “Then there’s my daughter. Do you have any clue how it feels to be excluded from every facet of your child’s life? I was specifically told not to attend her high school graduation. That’s a memory I’ll never get back. My own sister took sides and has nothing to do with Andy or me.”

“That’s crazy. What mother wouldn’t want a child to have contact with both their parents?”

“My new wife, Sarah, and I have asked ourselves that a hundred times. We’re attending counseling as a family with Andy. There’s no cure for what’s wrong with Brenda. It even has a label, actually several, and it’s affected children of divorce for decades. But in the end the results are the same; the child is alienated from one parent, usually the non-custodial parent, and made to feel guilty and disloyal if they want a relationship with that parent. It’s really a form of brainwashing. It can even go to the extent that it alters the child’s memories of that parent.”

“Are you serious?” Tyler couldn’t imagine such a thing.

“Yeah, unfortunately, I’m very serious. It’s way too common with children of divorce. The person doing the alienating honestly believes they’re in the right. They’re on a mission to do what they believe is best for the child, which makes it even more difficult to treat.”

“Damn.” Tyler’s head spun with conflicting reactions. He needed time to weigh what his coach was telling him. He didn’t have any experience with divorce in his perfect family, but he sure as hell knew how much it hurt to lose a parent. “But you weren’t there.”

“I wasn’t. That’s on me. I gave up a long time ago trying to convince anyone that this black-and-white situation is really gray. It’s not to say I wasn’t faultless in this screwed-up mess. I let my ex get to me. I gave up. I went away. I’d like to say I did it for the kids, but I did it for my own sanity, too. I didn’t fight for them like I could have, maybe should have. I don’t know if it would’ve changed anything or made their lives more unbearable. I suspect things would’ve ended up the same. I’d have still gone away to give the kids some sense of peace in their lives.”

Tyler scratched his pounding head, tried to fit all the pieces together to get to the real truth. “Lavender misses you. I know she does.”

“Tyler, be careful. Don’t get in the middle of this. You won’t win with Brenda. Her hold is too strong. Let it be.” Now the menu was missing corners.

“I don’t know.” Tyler stared into his coach’s stricken eyes. He saw how difficult this had been for him. “I still don’t completely understand why you gave up and went away. Why you didn’t fight?”

“Because it hurt too much to try. Brenda didn’t make it easy for me, but I chose to walk away. That’s on me.”

“Her mother is convincing.”

“Andy filled me in on some of her stories. Judging by how he keeps me at arm’s length, I’d say he’s still uncertain who’s telling the truth.”

“Damn.”

“Tyler, form your own opinions. All of this state’s court records are online. Check it out for yourself. Run a background check on me. A badass like me should have domestic violence charges and DUIs, not to mention some kind of criminal record.”

“I’ll do that.” Tyler shook his head as he stared at the now shredded menu.

“Will you do one last thing for me?” Coach squirmed a bit in his chair, unlike the confident man Tyler knew and once idolized.

“I might.” No way in hell would he commit to anything.

“Tell my daughter I love her.”

Picking up the tab, Coach walked out, leaving Tyler to sort out fact from fiction.

 

* * * * *

 

Tyler’s floatplane touched down at 11:58. He half expected the brothers to be standing on the runway with watches, hoping he’d screw up. They weren’t.

Pausing on the large front porch of Twin Cedars, Tyler craned his neck to see Lavender’s house through the trees. The lights were out. He missed her. Too much. And they’d only been apart for a few hours. He fought the urge to go to her.

Not tonight, because for once it wasn’t about him. He’d give her the space she’d requested. Besides, he had to sort this out in his own mind.

He walked in the door of his chilly mansion. Coug sat on the arm of his leather chair and bitched his head off. After he took care of the opinionated cat, Tyler called his mother and got her out of bed. Groggy as she was, she listened to the entire sordid story about Lavender’s family dysfunction. Her advice was simple. Follow your heart. Do what you think is right but be prepared to live with the consequences.

Tyler conference-called his sisters next. He wasn’t surprised to find out they were still up at this ungodly hour. He explained the situation to them, minus the part about Coach’s daughter being not just his neighbor but his lover.

Unearthing dirt and getting to the truth happened to be a hobby of theirs. Being two of the nosiest women he’d ever known with type triple-A personalities, they were on it like All-Pro defensive ends on a rookie quarterback.

Instead of going to bed, Tyler did his own research. He found the county website for property information and typed his coach’s name in the search field. Brian Gerloch owned 142 Twin Cedar Lane. Not Lavender’s mother. Not her stepfather. But her father. He’d caught Belinda Mead in an out-and-out lie. Possibly one of many.

Tyler rubbed his eyes and glanced at the clock. Four. Shit. Yet he couldn’t stop, not now.

Searching online, he uncovered summaries of court records, no details. He ran a few background checks on Gerloch and came up with nothing. No protection orders, no records of domestic violence, no DUIs, no drug charges, nothing. If she lied about legal issues easily proven false, what else would she lie about?

His sisters knew people and would get to the bottom of it. His job would be to figure out what to do with the information once he received it. Any way he looked at it, it wouldn’t be pretty.

A sick feeling took root and grew in the pit of his stomach. This might not end well for Lavender or him.

Several hours and no sleep later, he had lots of questions and no answers.