I look down quickly, wondering if what he felt was physical.
He quirks a brow. “Caught ya.”
I shrug. “As you said, nothing I haven’t already seen.”
His jaw actually drops at my comment, and I feel unstoppable.
But before we take this any further, I need to clue my brother in to the media shitstorm coming our way.
Nick picks up on the first ring. “Need the chopper?”
I pause. “You have a helicopter? Actually, don’t answer that. I’m calling because I just got off the phone with Damien.”
“Shit. Luisa!”
I roll my eyes. Of course my brother is looping in his wife. He knows she would rake him over hot coals if he failed to retell the conversation accurately and wants her to hear it straight from the source.
“It’s Daisy. She spoke to Damien,” he says, slightly out of breath. Sucker probably ran up the ridiculous number of stairs in his brownstone.
“Shit. Daisy, are you okay? Do you need us to come up there?” Luisa asks.
Luke’s booming laugh takes us all by surprise. “Oh, she’s fine, all right. She told him to fuck off and threatened him if hedecided to smear her name in the media. Which he probably will find a way to do, given that he’s a grimy excuse of a man.”
Silence.
“Did Coach just laugh?” Nick whisper-shouts into the phone.
Luke rolls his eyes. Looks like I’m rubbing off on him.
Well, I actually did this morning.
“Anyway,” I say, more to myself than anyone else. “I wanted to give you a heads-up. And he also admitted to fucking his secretary and models who are fond of cocaine. And he mentioned that dad was playing some role behind the scenes in keeping me compliant for him. So all in all, it was a pretty informative phone call.”
“He fucking cheated on you?” Nick shouts through the phone. “He dared disrespect you and put you at risk for—fuck. Daisy, do you want us to send a doc—”
“No need. They never fucked,” Luke says, a bit too smug for this conversation with my brother.
“I—what? I don’t know how I feel about knowing that information. Luisa, how do we feel about this?”
She clears her throat. “Well, first, we feel relieved. I will have follow-up questions, answers to which I will not be sharing with you, my dear husband. But honestly…” She pauses. “There was no way Daisy was getting dicked down with the way she’s been acting all year, so I guess it tracks?”
I feel my cheeks go bright red as my brother goes on about not needing to hear those words in regard to his little sister ever again.
While Luke runs his thumb over his bottom lip, lost in thought.
When his heated eyes meet mine, I can only imagine he’s thinking about his wake-up call this morning.
“Yeah, so this has been great. But I’m gonna go now and act like that last part of the conversation didn’t happen with mybrother on the line. Okay? Cool. Thanks. Love you guys. And sorry in advance for whatever shit Damien slings our way. Bye!”
“Wait!” Luisa says, sounding more businesslike. “Thanks again for setting up the new pitching coach with everything he needs, Luke. Especially since you’re the one who unexpectedly took time off for the first time since you signed your Monarchs contract.” There’s a sly tone in her voice.
I look at Luke. “I thought you guys were off because of weather delays?”
“We are,” Luisa answers for him. “But that doesn’t mean the team doesn’t have scheduled practices and tapes to go over with their manager or that they don’t have to come up with strategies for the lineup of teams on their calendar. C’mon, Daisy, you’ve been around long enough to know that the boys don’t just show up on the field on game day.” She chuckles.
“Right,” I draw out as I look at an unapologetic Luke.
He shrugs, even though she can’t see him. “Gotta use that time off at some point, right, boss?”
