Stacia avoided her gaze and began to clean the table. “So, how long are you staying? I haven’t had a chance to set up the guest bedroom. I don’t even know if it has linens or anything.”
“You never answered my question.” The quiet steel in her voice clued Stacia in on how this sweet woman had raised her son.
Stacia laughed, a shaky nervous sound. “I was hoping you hadn’t noticed.” She cleared the table, put the Danish away and cups in the dishwasher.
“He’s a good boy, despite everything you’ve heard. He’s had a tough life. Frankly, I’m surprised he let you in.”
Stacia turned to find Celia in the small kitchen. “I didn’t give him a chance to say no. I’m not really living here. We haven’t gotten that far. We just got in last night from Kansas City and I’m afraid I steamrolled my way in here.”
Celia was shaking her head before Stacia even finished. “No, I don’t mean that. I meant, how did you convince him to accept you publicly as his girlfriend? I must admit, I thought I had scared him off women for life.” Celia walked back to the table. “I think you need to know a few things about Jason.”
Stacia wiped her hands and sat across from the other woman, hesitant to speak but desperately wanting to understand the man upstairs. “I don’t think Jason wants us to talk about this.” Her heart was kicking her in the pants, telling her to shut up. Maybe Celia held the key to helping Jason. Sometimes, she could see a deep loneliness, a deep hurt inside of him that permeated every fiber of his being. Taking extra batting practice alone. Working out, alone. Eating, alone. He wore it like a second skin, so much a part of him that he probably was not even aware of it, but Stacia sensed it, sensed that it was the key to Jason, the key to making him happy.
The thought shocked her. Her job was to keep him clean and make the team happy not save him. Maybe Sophie was right—she spent her time trying to find someone to save, someone who would be grateful to her, someone who needed her. Jason clearly needed it, which is why she was so personally connected to this case. What would happen when the season ended and the job did too? Could she really move on with her life, pretend this affair never happened? Pretend it was all a ruse for image, for publicity, for a job?
Celia waited patiently, sipping her coffee. She finally put the cup down and looked at Stacia. “I was a young mother, taken in by a handsome face and a charming air. His father could charm the pants off anyone, and he often did. Jason gets that from him. A family was never in the cards and he took off while I was pregnant. It was hard for an unmarried, pregnant mother back then. We didn’t have the resources there are today. It was a stigma and my parents were appalled. They wanted to send me away and then send the baby away. But I was an adult and I desperately wanted something of my own. So, I kept him. We struggled for years. I worked several jobs to get by.”
“That must have been tough.” Stacia reached across the table and gripped Celia’s hand, a gesture of comfort. “I can’t even imagine it. That must have been so tough for you, and for Jason.”
Celia laughed, a resilient sound that showed the strength she’d had in raising a child on her own. “It was tough, but we never really knew. We were happy, happier than he certainly has been with all his money and fame, that’s for sure. But you know the story. He showed talent even in Little League and people started getting their hooks into him, riding his coattails.”
She paused, lost in her memories. Then she shook her head and resumed. “I fear he’s had a lot of pressure on him, more than any young man should have ever had to carry. He trusted some of those people, until he found out why they cared about him. One of his coaches even tried to date me, to be his father.”
Outrage burned in Stacia’s chest. No wonder Jason was so bitter and untrusting. “What happened?”
“His father showed up after he was drafted. I have no idea what happened, but he hasn’t been around since then. And the coach? He got a job, thanks to Jason, at a college and never looked back. Guess he never really cared about either one of us.”
They sat in silence for a few more minutes then Celia took a deep breath. “Jason has had a lot of girls trying to trap him, from the time he was in high school. Girls saw him as a ticket out of their lives. He’s avoided all entanglements, but I’m afraid he doesn’t know how to have a real relationship now, as a result. I don’t know if he ever will.”
Stacia absorbed the warning, and the hint of sadness in the other woman’s voice. The awkward silence fell again, and the sound of the shower shutting off jarred her out of her reverie. “Celia, I don’t know what this relationship is, or even if it is a relationship. It’s truly a work thing, fixing his image. Maybe it could be more, if Jason wants it. I can’t promise anything, but I can promise that I won’t take advantage of him or use him like the others. If this ends, I’ll walk away and not make him be the one to break it off.”
At the thought of the end of the season, Stacia paused, reality slamming her in the face. What would happen at the end of the season? The job would end. The relationship will have served its purpose. What next? What did she want? Did she even know?
Celia gripped Stacia’s hand, tears glistening in her eyes. “I want grandchildren and I want Jason to be happy. I’m not sure it’s in him. He’s been used and hurt too much, but if he can be happy with anyone, I’d bet on you.”
Oh crap. They were getting in too deep. Emotions, expectations. It was easier when it was just the two of them. But adding in his mother and who knows who else, that changed things. God help her if her father found out. He’d be livid.
But something else blossomed in her chest, in her heart. Could she really be the one to help Jason? And, once she did, could she really have him forever? Or were they both too opposite, too scarred to try a relationship for real?
Or was their relationship already real? It was that thought that scared the crap out of her.
*
Stacia dressed whileJason was still in the bathroom and headed home to get ready for the day, feeling a bit like a one-night stand, sneaking out of his house without saying goodbye. It didn’t feel right staying at the condo with his mother in the next room. How much trouble could he get into? Celia would keep him well in hand.
Three hours later, she sat in her office at the stadium, hearing players trickling in for the evening game, while she tried to line up interviews and other activities to showcase Jason in a good light. She knew she had Stan, but she needed something bigger, something splashy, something prime time. Too bad she didn’t have any contacts in sports, except maybe her father, as he was leading the US Senate committee review on steroids in baseball. She didn’t think she wanted his contacts and she certainly didn’t want to call him at all. He probably didn’t want to hear from her either.
She didn’t know why that made her sad. He never cared about her before. Why should this be any different?
A light knock at the door made her look up. Cole Hammonds stood in the doorway and her stomach clenched. She waved him in and he closed the door, then sat in one of the chairs across from her.
“Did you have a nice road trip?”
She smiled. “It was an experience.” She leaned back. “I’ve spent a lot of time on the road with politicians, campaigning and crisscrossing the state. We never had the experience like these guys. Schedules out of whack, weird sleep times, downtime. How do they adjust?”
“They get into trouble. Party too hard. Pick up groupies. Some work out.” He shrugged. “They’re all different. I wanted to talk to you about Kansas City.”
She nodded. “The girlfriend thing.”