The Hard Way: a Sports Romance Read online

  “Oh?” It wasn’t often that we were asked to fulfill court-appointed community service hours. Because The Ark wanted to bring out the best in the attendees, it didn’t make a lot of sense to have undesirables hanging around them. Usually we got athletes from the hometown teams of the Falcons, Hawks, and Braves, and sometimes we even had some of the college guys from Georgia Tech stop by.

  Tamar nodded. “The dean of the athletic department at Tech reached out to me to help with a player of his who got himself into extreme hot water with a prank involving one of his professors.”

  Hmm, that had to be a first for The Ark. “What are they asking us to do?”

  “The young man has been assigned forty-hour volunteer weeks for the entirety of the summer. Of course, he is getting leeway to work around his practice schedule. He also has to work at least two Friday and Saturday nights.”

  My eyes widened in surprise. “Whoa. That must’ve been an extreme prank to get him in that much trouble.”

  “Yes, that’s part of it, but it also seems this young man comes from a privileged background. The dean wants him to see more of the world to try to appreciate all he has been given and not squander his potential. He feels if this young man were able to interact with the kids here—to see their strength, resiliency, and hope in spite of hardships life has dealt them—that it might help.”

  The word privileged caused me to shift uncomfortably in my seat. I might not have ever met this guy, but I had a pretty good idea what he was like. While I came from a humble background, I’d been thrust into a very privileged world my freshman year when I’d left public school and entered Harlington Prep School. My grades and standardized test scores got me in on a scholarship program, which of course made me stand out among the other kids who were there because of their parents’ money and social standing. I drove a beat-up pickup truck to school while they drove brand new Mercedes and BMWs. I didn’t get to take vacations and they went to exotic locations.

  While the majority of my classmates had been nice and welcoming, there had been a select few of the A-crowd who’d made my life a living hell. A pang entered my chest as I thought about one person…one guy in particular from that group who had almost ruined my life.

  “At first, I told the dean no. Even though we’re slammed in the summertime and we could use the extra body, I didn’t think I had the time to take on the responsibility. Then I realized I had someone who could take on the job for me, someone who could be a good role model for this young man and hopefully get him to see the error of his ways.” She leaned back in her chair and smiled at me. “So are you up to it?”

  I blinked a few times. “Me?”

  Tamar chuckled. “Yes, you. After all, you are our very capable day manager.”

  Bolstered by Tamar’s confidence in me, I quickly replied, “If you want me to do it, I certainly will.”

  “I hoped you would say that.”

  A knock at the door interrupted us. “That must be him now. I hope Mr. Privileged won’t be offended that we didn’t roll out the red carpet for him.” Tamar grinned before rising out of her chair and heading around the desk. I stood up as the door opened.

  “Mrs. Deegan?” a masculine voice questioned behind me.

  “Yes, I’m Mrs. Deegan, but please call me Tamar. You must be Mr. Hall.”

  Hall. The last name plus the inflection and tone of the voice rang through my ears before reverberating through my mind. My past and present collided violently, causing me to shudder. As the realization crashed over me, it felt like I plummeted into icy waters.

  No, no, no! This couldn’t be happening. The city was too big to possibly have our paths cross again. Surely the universe couldn’t despise me enough to bring me face to face again with the nightmare that continuously haunted me, the one guy I couldn’t seem to get out of my mind no matter how hard I tried.

  “Cade, I would like you to meet Avery Prescott. As our day manager, she will be overseeing your tenure here.”

  When Tamar stepped aside, I finally confirmed my deepest fears. Three years had passed since I’d seen him last. One thousand ninety-five days. A million and a half minutes.

  In all that time, nothing had changed about him. He still had the same short, sandy blond hair I’d once teased him about, calling him a metrosexual because he put product in it. His blue eyes were still as clear as a cloudless summer sky. His body remained impossibly built with muscles straining against his navy blue Georgia Tech T-shirt, and sadly, the same arrogant air of superiority swirled around him.

  Like a flash of jagged lightning cutting across the sky, I was no longer in Tamar’s office. I was spirited away across the years to a different place, a different time, a different me…

  I eased my grandfather’s battered Chevy Cheyenne pickup truck into my assigned space. A pang of grief speared my chest as I killed the ignition. He’d only been gone six months, and sometimes it felt like just yesterday…others it felt like an eternity. He had been the only father I’d ever known while at the same time showering me with love and spoiling me as only a grandfather can.

  Buttoning my pea coat closed against the December chill, I started across the parking lot and into school. As I got jostled in the crowd of black and white standard-issue Harlington Prep uniforms, I craned my neck, searching for him.

  Just the thought of him sent warmth through my chest and a flush to my cheeks. So much had changed since I had left school on Friday afternoon. My entire romantic world had undergone a seismic shift all because of him. I couldn’t wait to see him again. To hear his voice. To see his smile. To feel his lips on mine.

  On the way to my locker, conversations silenced to a hum. Some people pointed. Some stared. Some whispered behind their hands. The skin underneath my uniform prickled as if sunburned from the attention. What could they possibly be looking at? Had I tucked my skirt into my underwear and was mooning everyone? Did I have a milk mustache from breakfast?

  When I got to my locker, my questions were answered. I recoiled in horror at the words that had been carved into the metal. Whore. Slut. White trash. Somehow everyone knew about him and me. I wondered how that was even possible since we hadn’t been in school. Since we had been together in the privacy of my mother’s shop, no one could have possibly seen us. I hadn’t spoken a word of it to anyone, and I didn’t want to believe he had either. After all, we’d made a pact. A promise.

  And yet, they knew.

  God, I had to get out of there. I had to get away from all their judgmental and hateful stares. My gaze spun frantically around. When my eye caught the sight of the girls’ bathroom, I started toward it.

  It was then I ran into him and a gang of his friends. One of them snickered. “Oh don’t look now, dude, but it’s your girlfriend.”

  I glanced up into his eyes. For a moment, I saw in them what I had before: a reflection of what I imagined had once been in my own eyes—attraction, caring, and…love.

  “Dude, did you really sleep with her?” his friend, Renly, asked with disgust.

  At that moment, the emotion drained out of his eyes. It was like looking into the lifeless eyes of a shark. He was no longer who I thought he was—the one who had stolen my heart, as well as my virginity.

  He jerked his chin up at me and pinned at me with an icy look that caused me to tremble. “Yeah, I did, but trust me, it was nothing more than a mercy fuck.” He clapped a hand onto Renly’s shoulder. “Think of it like throwing a dog a bone, but in this case, it was a boner.”

  I gasped as the roar of cruel laughter stung my ears while the enormity of his words pierced my heart. Although I tried not to cry in front of him or the others, tears pricked against the backs of my eyelids. Before I knew it, sobs rolled through me as my chest caved in from the jagged pieces of my broken heart.

  Desperate to get away from him, I raced across the hallway to the bathroom. I slung my backpack and purse to the floor and started for a stall. I wanted nothing more than to hide myself away from the horrible accus
ations being thrown at me.

  I pinched my eyes shut while desperately hoping to wake up and find that his rejection had all been a horrible nightmare.

  Was that truly what is was? A mercy fuck? Had his declaration that he was falling for me just been a joke? After everything we had been through over the last four months, why would he lie to me like that? What had I ever done to deserve his heartless treatment?

  Before I could hide, someone rushed at me and pushed me into the stall. Before I knew what was happening, a hand was at my neck and my lower back. “Stop it!” I cried. My plea for mercy was ignored as my head was placed precariously close to the toilet bowl.

  My assailant and I fumbled around on the floor. “This is what happens to dirty whores who think they can fuck someone else’s guy,” a familiar voice whispered in my ear. The girl who thought he had belonged to her. The girl he had humiliated by momentarily appearing to choose me, even if it was nothing more than a fuck to him. It should have been him that was being treated like that, not me.

  I screamed as my arms were painfully wrenched behind my back. The next thing I knew my head was dumped into the toilet water. I didn’t know how long she kept me face down before bringing me back up. When I resurfaced, laughter echoed around me. “Drown the skank!” someone cheered before I was thrust back down into the water again.

  Although I was fighting with everything I had in me to break free, a part of me wanted to give in. I wanted to succumb to the soul-crushing hurt and humiliation. To stop the flailing of my arms and legs as I fought against my captor. To widen my mouth and allow the water to overflow and overtake my lungs. To let the heart that had been betrayed and ultimately broken by him cease beating.

  What chance of happiness did I have in the future if I had so misread his feelings? How would I ever be able to trust again?

  The thoughts of defeat were intense but fleeting. They were chased from my mind by a stronger will to survive and overcome.

  My savior came in the form of the bell ringing for first period. The arms and hands that held me bound released me as a flurry of activity came from outside the stall. I jerked my head out of the water and took in several heaving breaths of air. Then I began gagging before throwing up some of the water that had gotten into my mouth.

  It was then I realized I wasn’t completely alone. She was still there.

  After she fisted a handful of my hair, she twisted my head back. “Even though he’s made it clear that he wants nothing more to do with your pathetic self, I’ll fuck you up even worse if you ever try anything with him again. You hear me?” When I didn’t answer, she gripped my hair even tighter. “I said, do you hear me!”

  “Yes,” I croaked.

  She released my hair and shoved my face to the floor then backed out of the stall and got her things. She calmly left the bathroom like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

  Although I literally only lay there for a few minutes, symbolically it would take years for me to pick myself up off that bathroom floor.

  CADE

  Fuuuuuuuuuck! This seriously was not happening. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, apparently the universe didn’t just hate me, it fucking despised me. Not only was I stuck working forty hours a week at this shithole, but now I had the worst blast from my past standing before me. Avery Fucking Prescott.

  In the world of every manwhore who seems to have no soul, there is one girl he regrets. One girl he thinks about from time to time. One girl he measures all the other ones against. One girl he even cries about when he’s shitfaced.

  Mine was Avery Fucking Prescott.

  I couldn’t help noticing that the Avery standing in front of me didn’t seem the same. Sure, she still had the same long, dark hair swept back in one of those ponytail things, but gone were the glasses, which made it a lot easier to see her green eyes and the flecks of gold in them. Of course, there was also pure and unadulterated hate burning in them where back in the day, there had been love.

  I had managed to kill that love by being a prick. Yeah, I’m sure you’re thinking that isn’t all too shocking based on the pure stupidity you’ve seen me exhibit so far. The thing was Avery had brought out the good buried deep down inside me, the good you needed a fucking bulldozer to unearth.

  While there were slight differences in her appearance, her entire personality seemed different, and no, I don’t just mean that she hated me with a fiery passion. She wasn’t the wide-eyed, innocent farm girl who had seemed so out of place at Harlington Prep. It was like she’d had a personality transplant. It reminded of me of what had happened to my older sister Catherine the summer she turned fifteen and my mother sent her off to some glamour school shit to detox the awkward out of her. When she came back a month later, it was like she had become a Stepford Kid. Catherine no longer took the time to play with me. She had “more important” things to do like contouring her brows or preparing for cotillions. Things were never the same between us after that.

  My ego couldn’t help wondering if what had happened between us had caused the seismic shift in Avery, like I’d broken the old Avery with my actions and this was what had been rebuilt in its place. Another voice rationalized that unlike me, Avery had probably gotten her shit together in the last three years. College had matured her.

  After a few moments of a silent standoff, Avery said, “Hello again, Cade.” Her words might have been polite, but her voice was strained. I could tell it was taking everything within her not to go off on me.

  “Oh, you two know each other?” Tammy—or Theresa, or whatever the hell her name was—questioned.

  Do we know each other? Oh yeah, we know each other, like in the biblical sense. I can even tell you about the heart-shaped birthmark on the inside of her right thigh.

  I knew I would mortify the hell out of Avery if I said anything like that in front of her boss, so instead I cocked my brows at Avery to indicate that she should take the lead on how she wanted us to respond to that question.

  “A little. We went to high school together,” she replied diplomatically. The wounded look that momentarily flashed in her eyes told an entirely different story—the story where I played the villain—but Tammy didn’t seem to pick up on it.

  “Well, isn’t it a small world?” Tammy mused.

  “Yeah,” Avery and I said in unison.

  Tammy smiled at me. “I was just about to sing all of Avery’s praises to you, but since you know her, I don’t need to waste my breath, right?”

  “Right,” I muttered.

  “Well then, I’ll leave you two alone to catch up, and Avery can show you the ropes.”

  “Thank you, Tamar,” Avery said politely.

  Oh, it was Tamar. Shit, I needed to remember that. “Yeah, thanks, Tamar.”

  Tamar started out of the door and then stopped. She threw a grin over her shoulder. “Now, Avery, just because you know Cade, you can’t go easy on him. He has a debt to pay to Georgia Tech’s athletic department.” Apparently Tamar wasn’t picking up on the heavy tension between us.

  Avery glared at me before flashing a fake smile at Tamar. “Oh, I promise to make him earn his keep.”

  “Unfuckingbelievable,” I muttered under my breath after the door closed.

  “Excuse me?” Avery demanded.

  I held up my hands. “Nothing.”

  Avery crossed her arms over her chest. “I never thought I’d have to see you again.” She shook her head at me, which caused her ponytail to swish back and forth like a whip. “Yet here you are standing before me. I guess I must’ve done something epic to piss the universe off enough to put you back in my path.”

  Whoa, that was sure as hell not what I was expecting. “I could say the same.”

  Her green eyes narrowed to fury-filled slits. “Excuse me? You have some nerve to stand here in front of me and say that considering what you did.”

  She was right. Only an epic tool would not immediately apologize for what I did to her. It should have been the fi
rst words out of my mouth, and not just to make things run smoothly there at The Ark, but because it was the right thing to do. After all, she had truly been an innocent in the whole fucked up situation of me being an emotionally crippled bastard. I’d let her be tortured by a psychotic chick who thought she belonged to me. I’d humiliated her with my deceptive words and cruel actions, but the greatest of my crimes was that I had broken her heart.

  In this instance, I was being King Epic Tool because I couldn’t get those words to come out of my mouth. It wasn’t something I was struggling with for the first time. I’d had three years to stay those two words. Hell, I’d started off a hundred texts, but I’d never sent them. I’d even done a few stalkerish drives by her house to say how sorry I was in person, but being an emotional pansy ass, I had never gotten out of the car.

  So instead of taking the emotional high road, I went slumming. “It’s been three years, Prescott. You really need to get over that.”

  Avery’s mouth gaped open and closed like a fish gasping for its last breath. Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking, and I totally agree—it was a fucking heartless thing to say. I could have just said mumbled a “whatever” and asked for her to hurry up and show me around, but no, I had to go for the jugular like I was an animal or something.

  I waited for her to burst into tears, but once again, I had underestimated this new Avery. The only emotion that radiated in her eyes was pure hate. I’m not gonna lie, it was a little scary.

  “I see you’re still an unimaginable bastard. Guess some things never change,” Avery snapped.

  Holding my ground, I swept my hands to my hips. “Are you going to stand here all day giving me shit, or are you going to show me around like your boss told you to?”

  Avery’s fists clenched at her sides. Part of me was mildly amused at the thought of her taking me on. This hellcat side of her was one I wasn’t used to. “Fine. Let’s go,” she hissed. She then power walked out of Tamar’s office, and I practically had to break into a sprint to catch up with her.