Going For It (8 page)

“What?”

“It’s that piece of shit reporter.” Even the wiliest of veteran players had gotten caught in the crosshairs of Ender’s mean spirited column. The guy called himself a journalist but he was just a hack with an agenda to bring down the mightiest of players. No one was safe.

Ryan got up. “I wouldn’t worry. It’s not like Hannah is a stranger to the paparazzi.”

“He’s a slime. See you back at the rooms.” Jake headed for the stands.

Ryan followed. “Oh no. Someone has to make sure you don’t kill him.”

As Hannah signed the last autograph a man who’d been hanging back approached her. Instinctually she knew he wasn’t a fan. She caught Samantha’s glance and she mouthed, “Be careful.”

Dressed in khakis and a black polo shirt, she guessed he was in his forties. The slicked back hair made his nose appear large, like one of those caricatured sketches.

“Hannah, you here to tuck Miller into bed?”

She schooled her facial features to look naive. A trick she learned from modeling. “Who’s asking?”

“The name’s Ender. I’m with Sports Daily.”

Hannah shook her head. “Don’t know it. I’m a Cosmo girl.”

The man smiled as if he were about to score a scoop. “Some say Miller’s MVP award was a fluke and he’s not worth the twenty million he’s getting next year.”

“Oh, I’ll leave you experts to speculate on that.” Oh how she wanted to defend Jake but in this case Hannah wisely chose to play dumb. This guy was a snake and from the look on Samantha’s face she wanted to skin him alive. She wasn’t the only one, but though Hannah knew zip about football, she knew how to play the media game.

“So it doesn’t bother you if the media rakes him over the coals or if the fans boo him.”

“Honey, I’m not with him for his skills on the football field.” Hannah threw him off with her sweetest of smiles, but it was Jake’s laughter that knocked her for a loop. She turned to see him standing two feet away ready to pounce if need be. Apparently he thought he had to protect her from the big bad reporter.

“And what skills would those be?” probed Ender.

“Why his cooking skills, of course,” she said with such innocence she almost believed it. Hannah shook her head and left the reporter with a ‘deer in the headlights’ look on his face. She took Jake’s arm and led him back down onto the field before any trouble started.

J
ake hummed as he packed his bag. He couldn’t be happier about training camp ending. In three hours he’d be home ravishing Hannah for the following twenty-four hours until she had to leave for a week on an overseas assignment. Navigating his upcoming season with her erratic schedule would be a balancing act, but they’d make it work.

Ryan entered the room and held out his iPad. “Here, you might want to see this.”

Jake took the sleek tablet from Ryan, the screen opened to the headline, ‘Hannah Hahn Plays Jake Miller’.

Jake loosened his grip on the machine before he broke it in two. He didn’t care about Ender’s thoughts on Jake being led by his balls or that he wasn’t worth a payday of twenty million a year. Stuff like that rolled off of him like dirt and sweat in the shower.

What Ender’s interview with Hannah’s mother revealed was another story. A photo of the woman accompanied the article. She may have been a beauty once but too much make-up and plastic surgery left her looking like a mannequin.

“Samantha got a call from someone she knows at Sports Daily and he alerted her to Ender’s vendetta. It’s such crap and inflammatory that his paper wouldn’t print it. So he sold it to them.”

Jake nodded, noting the logo of one of the national gossip magazines. Ender had a lot nerve claiming Hannah was a fame seeker. The notoriety and money he got for this story put him in the same league. According to the mother, Hannah dated Jake only because he was the Super Bowl MVP and would do anything to be in the papers. Anything.

“My daughter couldn’t possibly be serious over a half-breed like him.”

Blooded rushed to the vein in his temple. As he read on each word pounded inside his head. The report alluded to rumors of Hannah posing nude before getting her big break.

Ryan paced the room. “The team will revoke his press credentials for this.”

And they would. It was one thing for reporter to write a scathing column about a player’s conduct on or off the field, quite another to print gossip and conjecture about a loved one.

Ryan added, “It’s not true. None of it. But we didn’t want you to be blindsided.”

“Thanks Bro.” Jake handed back the iPad with a nonchalance that covered up the doubt pricking inside his mind. Was she like every other female who would do anything for fame? No, he she wasn’t with him for the publicity. Pissing off her mother seemed a more likely reason and it wouldn’t be the first time Jake was used in such a way, but that happened in his teens.

“You okay?”

“Sure. Like you said—the trials and tribulations of dating a supermodel.” Not since he’d been an adult had a female had the upper hand on him. Except for Hannah who held all the cards. When he got home he’d make sure they were laid out on the table.

His cell rang with Hannah’s ring tone. He wouldn’t jump to conclusions, if anything she was in it for the hot sex. That he DID know. But the nude pictures? “Hi, beautiful.”

“Jake, did you see it?”

The sound of her tears only made him want to risk a dozen speeding tickets so he could be there to comfort her. “Don’t worry, baby,” his voice soothed. “I’ll be home by five. We’ll talk then. Okay?”

“I’m so sorry you’re getting dragged into my family drama.”

“We’ll figure it out.” The call ended and Jake had a long three-hour ride home to do just that.

Hannah greeted him at the door with a solemn hug. “I missed you.”

Jake kissed her forehead. “I missed you, too” Walking into the living room, Jake dropped his bag to the floor. “Look Hannah, forget the article. It’s apparent that we’ll be the tabloids favorite targets for a while. We’ll have to do our best not to feed into it.” He paused, wishing it were that simple but there was one thing that needed to be settled. “I have to ask. At some point is there going to be pictures of you all over the Internet? Nude pictures?”

Hannah sat down on the couch. “There is a possibility yes, but if someone were to click on those images they would be arrested for child pornography.”

“What?” His mind reeled.

“I understand if you want to leave me,” she said, her voice weak with despair.

Rage burned in his blood. “The only place I’m going is to jail after I murder the perverted bastard who did that to you. Where the hell was your mother?”

“My mother?” Hannah’s laughed chilled him to the bone. “She makes those moms of that toddler pageant show look like candidates for Mothers of the Year. I was home schooled but all I knew were manicures and spray tans from the time I was two. I wasn’t raised—I was groomed like a fucking show pony!”

“Hannah, no—”

“She ordered me to do it and when I refused she took what little I had on, off. I was fifteen.”

Jake tried to process this. How can someone who is supposed to love you treat you like you were nothing? How did someone recover from something like that?
You don’t.
The physicals scars his father inflicted were nothing compared to the emotional ones he still carried.

“You know how twisted I am? I thought doing Playboy would exercise the demons because this time I would be in control. And then you said no and it made me feel dirty all over again which is why I broke it off and never returned your calls.”

Stunned by the realization, Jake knelt at her feet and said, “I didn’t know. I would never make you feel bad about yourself.”

“I know. You’ve been nothing but good to me.”

His hand cupped her cheek. “I was falling for you and the thought of other men seeing you naked drove me insane,” he confessed.

“You were falling for me? What about now?”

Her eyes wide with innocence tugged at his protective instincts. “I’m still in the midst of the fall and I’ve been reaching to grab onto to something, anything, to make sense of it all.”

“Maybe if we held onto each other?” Both her hands came to rest upon his shoulders.

Her blossoming trust in him caused his heart to thud like booms of thunder. “I think that’s a great idea.” That stunning smile sent him reeling. Lightning struck deep within in his chest, his fall complete. But he couldn’t tell her now, didn’t want the purity of what he was feeling to be linked to the sad admission of her past. She’d probably think he said it out of pity. No, he’d hold onto the words for now, until she was ready to hear them, until she was ready to say them back.

H
annah lounged in her agent’s corner office. She was about to sign a lucrative contract that would make her the spokeswoman for a new cosmetics line. Like the world needed another one. She glanced at her watch. What was she doing here? She didn’t need another gig or the money that came with it.

Between Jake’s football games and her modeling assignments that had been taking her to the four corners of the world they’d been the proverbial ships passing in the night. Perhaps that was a good thing and why their three-month anniversary approached. For Hannah it was a milestone she had never reached.

Jake’s bye week was coming up and she left her schedule free so they could enjoy it together, but with her stomach still roiling with the effects of a horrendous flu bug she caught while in Nepal she didn’t hold out much hope.

Francine dressed in a sophisticated white Chanel suit and sporting a pair of fake eyeglasses entered the room. Her hair looked like spun silver and Hannah imagined that one day her blonde locks would turn the same shade. Francine didn’t bother to sit down. “I’m sorry, you didn’t get it.”

One part of Hannah nearly slouched in relief, but a model never slouches unless you’re contorting your body into a high fashion pose. Another part, however, balked at the snub. “Who did?”

“Lily. And from what I hear for half your going rate.”

Fresh faced and young, Lily was a rising star in the fashion world. While Hannah was old news, a fading star destined to fall. Hannah laughed at the drama of her own making. Couldn’t blame a company for saving money. There’d be other campaigns she told herself, but her mother’s voice drowned out reason and replaced it with doubt.

“You’ve been working too hard. Take a break. Go to the spa,” advised Francine.

“Is spa code for ‘get a little work done’?”

“No! Forget them. Start your own cosmetics line.”

“Or a clothing line,” ventured Hannah.

“Yes! That wedding gown you designed for your friend has been copied by hundreds of brides.”

Hannah rose and thanked Francine, agreeing that she needed some time off. Her agent began to speak, but stopped.

“What?”

Francine’s gaze swept in Hannah’s body, “Is there any possibility you might be pregnant?”

“No way.” Her response was automatic but as she headed for the elevator her thoughts zeroed in on the one time Jake didn’t use a condom. The grave voice of her tenth grade Health teacher sounded in her mind, ‘All it takes is one time.’ But she hadn’t had her period months prior to that.
And haven’t since then either.

She stopped walking and placed a hand on her belly.
Could I be?

As she left the building, Brianna, a model represented by the same agency, ran up to her. “Hannah, darling, so sorry to hear you lost out.”

“First time for everything.” In this business bad news travels faster than the speed of sound.

“That’s how it starts. Everybody wants you when you’re hot, and well, you look a little worn out. Here’s the name of my plastic surgeon. He practices out of the Cayman Islands and is very discreet. My bookings have doubled since I’ve gotten back.” Brianna slid the business card into Hannah’s hand as if she were passing an illegal drug.

Did she really need work done? Hannah always thought she’d age gracefully, but faced with the harsh reality of her business she began to consider it.

She threw the card into her purse and flagged a cab. Settled in the backseat she fished out her compact and lipstick. The cab jolted sending a red line across her face. Cursing, she grabbed a tissue, wetted it with her mouth and tried to rub the mark away. The reflection staring back looked like an escapee from a clown college or worse like a used whore. Scrambling for another tissue her hand touched the business card and she reluctantly pulled it out. Brianna did look amazing and she was a year older than Hannah.

Maybe this is just what she needed. A little pick me up. She placed all the items back in her purse and called the number. No way she was pregnant. A week in the Cayman Islands and she’d come back looking and feeling brand new.

A few hours later she sat fidgeting in a chair across from Jake. While dining on his mother’s spaghetti and meatballs, Jake mentioned her upcoming visit. As much as she wanted to meet the woman who raised such a wonderful man, Hannah didn’t know the first thing about impressing Jake’s mother. Here was a woman who flew into town just to pack up her son’s freezer with home cooked meals, while Hannah didn’t bake or sew or take care of Jake in any way. Except for the bedroom, of course.

“What’s up?”

Hannah looked up to see Jake’s concerned face. She’d been trying to figure out how to tell him about her trip without revealing the reason behind it. She took a deep breath. “I’m leaving for Cayman tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? But you’re eating carbs.”

The man knew her all too well. The lie was on her lips but she couldn’t tell him it was a last minute assignment. If she expected him to share what was going on in his life then he deserved the same. Besides he’d notice the change when she got back. “I’m having a little work done.”

“The hell you are!”

His fist fell upon the table causing the silverware to jump along with Hannah’s nerves. She gathered herself together ready to fend off any resistance. “It’s my body.”

“No, it isn’t. It belongs to the products you sell.”