Play Along (Windy City Series Book 4)

“If it’s still hurting you tonight, I can rub it out later.”

My brows quirk with interest as I sit upright on the training table.

“Get your head out of the gutter, Rhodes.” Kennedy stands between my open legs, wrapping the plastic wrap diagonally across my torso to keep the ice pack secured. “If your shoulder is still bothering you when you get home, I can come over and work on it before bed.”

“And what about if my dick is still hurting when I get home?”

“You’ve got two hands.”

Mouth popping open, I wrap my hand around the back of her thigh and pull her closer.

“We get it,” Monty grumps. “You’re into each other. What happened to keeping it professional at work?”

“Clearly they’re not great at following that rule.” Reese walks into the training room, high heels and pencil skirt in full force today. “Emmett, I need to speak to you in your office, please.”

She walks right past him, into his office, blonde hair bouncing with each step. Monty stands there, arms crossed over his chest as if he has the option not to follow her. He takes a deep breath through his nose before remembering he wants to keep his job, and follows her into his office, closing the door behind him.

“What’s that about?” Kennedy asks.

“I’m not sure, but he’s been in a shit mood lately. Said that Reese has been constantly reminding him that he’s up for contract renewal next year.”

“They wouldn’t get rid of Monty. Your guys’ record since he became the field manager is good. Great even. And everyone loves him.”

“Everyone besides her, and starting next year, her opinion is the only one that’s going to matter.”

Kennedy puts the plastic wrap roller away, a small smile tilting on her lips as she does.

“You’re excited about that, huh?”

“Not about her not liking Monty, but I am looking forward to her taking over. If we’re looking at the positives here, I get to work for the first ever female team owner in the MLB.”

And she was supposed to be the first female team doctor.

There’s that contradicting feeling again. Yes, Kennedy is staying here. We get to keep doing what we’re doing, but the person I love lost an opportunity she’s waited for her entire adult life.

“Rhodes,” Sanderson, the other athletic trainer, calls out. “Someone is out in the hallway to see you.”

I look back to Kennedy in confusion.

“Who is it?” she asks for me.

“It’s uh . . .” Sanderson hesitates. “Dean Cartwright.”

I burst a laugh. “Yeah. Hell no.”

“Isaiah.”

“Kenny, I didn’t get into it with him during the game today. I still have to deal with him for two more in this series. You’re not sleeping in my bed because he’s here. What else do you want from me?”

“I want you to talk to him.”

She stands firm, holding my eye contact.

I’m already annoyed that she stayed at her place last night to hang out with him, and now he wants to talk to me?

Every part of me is wanting to scream no. Fuck that guy. But I truly don’t know how to say no to this girl. Never have.

“Fine,” I huff. “But I’m only accepting sexual favors as a thank you from you.”

A little grin on her lips, she shakes her head at me as she leaves to go work on another one of my teammates.

With only an ice pack and a pair of shorts on, I leave the training room to find Dean leaning against the hallway, waiting for me.

“What?” I ask, staying on my side of the hallway, closest to the door, so I can leave as soon as he says some stupid shit I know I’m not going to like.

He clears his throat. “I need to apologize.”

That has my head whipping in his direction, single brow lifted.

“Kennedy chewed me out. She found out the details of our little childhood rivalry.”

She did?

I try to act nonchalant. “Well, I didn’t tell her anything.”

“Wouldn’t have blamed you if you did.” There’s a heavy pause, Dean’s focus locked on the carpet under his feet, clearly uncomfortable. “The truth is, I was a little shit back then.”

“Still are.”

His eyes shoot to mine in warning. “Still am, sometimes, but I was angry as a kid, and I took it out on you. So . . . I’m sorry.”

“How’d those words taste?”

“Pretty fucking terrible.”

“Well, I don’t really care anymore, so it’s whatever.”

“Yes, you do,” he says. “And you should. It was messed up. I fucked with you because I could, and it made me feel better when just about everything else in my life made me feel like shit.”

From across the hallway, I watch him, looking for any sign of bullshit, which is the only thing that comes out of Dean Cartwright’s mouth.

Only this time, he seems . . . sincere.

“Jesus,” I huff a laugh. “What the hell did Kennedy say to you?”

“Yeah, she’s fucking pissed. Told me she was more than happy to cut off our relationship if I didn’t apologize, so here I am, apologizing.”

I brush him off. “You’re good. I’ll let her know that you did.”

I turn back to the training room, but he stops me.

“I am though,” he says. “Sorry about it. I know you probably won’t believe me but I’m not that guy anymore. Well . . .” He tosses his head from side to side. “Unless my father is around. He tends to bring out the worst in me.”

“Yeah, your family sucks.”

“Tell me about it. Other than Kennedy, they’re all the fucking worst. And I didn’t understand how my life was shit and yours wasn’t. You had everything I wanted, and I hated you for it.”

“Me?” I ask in disbelief. “I had nothing. You were the one with all the best baseball gear. New cars. Fuck, you even took every girl I had ever liked. I showed up to games on a city bus. I shared gear with my brother and half the time it didn’t even fit.”

“You had a brother who cared about you. Who would do anything for you, and you’d do the same for him. People loved you.”

I could try to argue the fact, but he’s not wrong. Kai and I would do anything for each other, and I’ve always had the desperate need to make myself enjoyable to be around for other people. From Dean’s perspective, I was a naturally likable guy, but he didn’t know I spent my entire life making myself easy to digest. Always bringing the fun and laughs even when I didn’t necessarily want to.

“My dad threw his credit card at me to make up for being absent,” he continues. “And the one and only game he ever came to, we played against you guys, and he didn’t have a single thing to say about me afterward, but he fucking raved about you. I hated you for it. I took it out on you for a long time and I’m sorry for that.”

Across the hall, Dean holds his hand out for me to shake.

“Damn. Kennedy really did a number on you, huh?”

“I’ve never seen her so mad.”

For her I want to forgive him, but even more so, for myself. I just don’t care anymore, not when I feel like I finally have everything I’ve ever wanted.

So, I shake his hand.

“Just how pissed were you when you found out about us?” I ask, amusement lacing my tone.

“Oh, don’t even get me started. I finally had someone in this fucked-up family who I enjoyed being around and she goes and marries you of all people.” He huffs a laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. “I was livid. And not just because it was you, but because of what she went through, only to end up married to someone else she didn’t want to be with.”

“I get it.”

“But you don’t, Rhodes. I don’t know what she’s told you about growing up the way she did, but I had to sit back and watch it all. In the early years, when our parents first arranged for her to marry Connor, she used to cry herself to sleep at night. I’d hear it through my bedroom wall, then each morning, she’d act as if nothing happened. Once we got close enough, she finally admitted how unhappy she was, but in the same breath would also say she didn’t know what happiness even felt like. How fucked up is that?”

She’s happy now, I try to remind myself.

Sure, she didn’t get the job she dreamed of. Didn’t get the fresh start she wanted. Didn’t get to try her hand at dating.

But she has me, and she seems happy.

Right?

“One day,” Dean continues, “she got the courage to beg her mother to let her out of that arrangement, and she’s such a perfectionist, you know. That includes all those years she spent trying to be the perfect daughter, so you could imagine how difficult that was for her to do.

“I’ve never seen someone get verbally berated the way she was. She was called selfish, ungrateful. The list goes on. And of course, I felt guilty because the only reason she was in this predicament in the first place was because of me. I didn’t want to take over the family business, so she had to marry someone who would.”

My stomach churns at the visual of that little unhappy auburn-haired girl.

She’s happy now, I repeat to myself.

“I can’t explain how relieved I was when he ended things,” Dean says. “She finally got a bit of freedom to go do whatever she wanted, whatever would make her happy. She finally had the space to figure out what happiness looked like for her, and for the first time in her life, she was allowed to make her own decisions. So, you could imagine how furious I was when I found out you guys got fucking married and all of a sudden, Kennedy was trapped in another relationship she didn’t want.”

His words hit me square in the chest.

I did that. I trapped her in a relationship she didn’t want. I wouldn’t give her the annulment she wanted. I came up with the scheme to save her job. And for what? She didn’t get her dream job and now she’s stuck working for that piece-of-shit doctor again.

The past few days I’ve been selfish as fuck, basking in the idea that I get to have it all. Her, this city, my family.

And what does she get?

“From what she told me, she wanted to start over in a new city, get the job she deserves, and someday, hopefully meet someone. So, yeah, I was pissed when I found out that once again, it was all taken away from her. But I was wrong. Clearly, she doesn’t feel trapped. Clearly, she wants to be with you.”

“I don’t know about that.” My tone holds no inflection, my eyes fixated on the floor. I’m standing here like a zombie as too many realities I didn’t want to see are sinking in. “Maybe she just doesn’t have another option.”

“What are you talking about? She turned down that job offer in San Francisco to be with you. She had another option, and she didn’t want to take it.”

My attention comes back to life. “What are you talking about?”

“The job she didn’t take. They called last week and offered her the position. Wanted her to start shadowing the current team doctor right away. She turned it down.”

That can’t be true.

“What day was that? Tuesday?”

He thinks back for a second. “Yeah, I think so. She said she was in the training room with you when they called.”

What the actual fuck?

In what fucking world does she get to turn down an opportunity like that for me. From the moment I met Kennedy, it’s all she’s ever worked for, to become a lead doctor. Fuck, even to become a second doctor. Anything to get out of the current position she’s overqualified for. Anything to get out from working under Dr. Fredrick.

She can’t make that hasty of a decision out of nowhere. I’m the impulsive one. She’s the planner. She’s been planning this move all year.

And what? She’s staying because of me?

Holy shit. I told her I loved her right before she answered that phone call.

I’m always worried people won’t stick around once they see the real me. How many times did I tell her that?

She’s trying to stay for me.

“Shit,” Dean curses. “You didn’t know.”

Without looking at him, I slowly shake my head no. “I do now.”