The Game Changer : Indianapolis Eagles Series Book 8 Read online

  “Hello, can I help you?” a woman behind the front desk asks when I enter the office.

  “I was hoping to catch Jill before she left for lunch,” I tell her, flashing her my kindest smile.

  “She’s in with a patient but should be done in the next ten minutes. You can have a seat and I’ll let her know you’re here when she comes out.” I don’t miss the once over she gives me.

  “Thank you,” I tell her before I take a seat. I set the drink holder down, then the bag filled with the food. I pull out my phone and scroll through some pictures posted on Instagram while I wait. So many of my teammates and friends out doing cool shit during their time off this summer. Beckett and Julia are off in Sweden. She’s meeting his family for the first time as he shows her all around for a few weeks. Their pictures make me want to visit there and see it firsthand. Maybe one day I’ll be able to whisk Jill away for a fun, romantic trip like that.

  “Hey, stranger.” Her sweet voice fills the waiting room. “What are you doing here?”

  “I thought that you could use some lunch today. A little birdie told me that you had a bit of a rushed morning.”

  “That was sweet of you,” she says, closing the distance to stand in front of me. I grab her hips and pull her closer before leaning down to kiss her.

  “I’ll let the sweet comment pass if I get to have lunch with you,” I say against her lips.

  “Come on back, we can either sit in our tiny-ass break room or go outside and sit at one of the picnic tables.”

  “I should be okay with outside, the sun hasn’t bothered me yet,” I tell her, knowing she gave me the option because of that.

  “It’s a nice, shaded area, so hopefully that will help.”

  “Sounds good,” I say, grabbing the bag of food. Jill grabs the drink carrier and I follow her down a hall, through a door that leads us down another hall with a few open doors off of it. Looking in as we pass by the rooms, I see these are the rooms with her ultrasound machines set up. We also pass by the break room she mentioned and what looks like her office before we leave through a back door. Once outside, the building has a nice little courtyard area with a few benches and picnic tables for employees of the businesses here in the building to use. We select one that is under a large tree, offering the most shade. We sit down across from one another and I pull everything from the bag.

  “I didn’t know what you’d want, so I went safe and got a ham and turkey club and a roast beef. Do you have a preference?” I ask, setting them both out between us along with the wrapped pickles and bags of chips.

  “The ham and turkey is great,” she says, reaching for it. “Thank you.” I get a flash of a smile as I hand over the sandwich.

  “You’re welcome. I also got pickles and chips.” Her face scrunches up in a disgusted look and makes me laugh at how repulsed she is about one of those things. “What’s wrong?”

  “Pickles. Yuck! I can’t even stand the smell of them,” she says, shaking her head, her nose still all scrunched up.

  “Noted. I’ll just have to eat both,” I tell her, snagging them and putting them back in the bag. I laugh at how disgusted she is over a pickle, of all things.

  “How has your morning gone?” she asks between bites of her sandwich.

  “Good, my nephew called me, and we talked for a little while. I also talked to my agent. I’m meeting him at the team offices at two today to have a meeting with the GM and team owner.”

  “That’s good, right?” she questions.

  “It’s a start. I’m sure they won’t be shocked about the news, hell, my agent told me that he’d been waiting on the call from me all week.”

  “Well, I hope everything goes smoothly.”

  “I’m sure it will, the family that owns the team, the Ericksons, are a pretty stand-up group of people. The managing partner, Laura, is actually married to our team captain.”

  “Now that you mention it, I remember reading about them. There was a big article on her when she took over as the managing partner when her dad stepped down, right?”

  “Yep. She’s worked in the organization’s office for as long as I’ve been with the team, and when David had a heart attack a few years ago, it was time to retire and hand over the reins to Laura. She’s done a pretty great job as the team’s president. Broke some glass ceilings being in her position for a professional sports team, especially one that has had such success in their relatively short existence in the league.”

  “That’s so awesome. I love hearing stories about women kicking ass, especially in such male-dominated positions.”

  “She’s definitely turned some heads. I think there was some apprehension on her part when she started dating Mark. She was married before and the guy was a total asshole. Mark was traded to us right around the time she got divorced, and he just waited quietly in the wings until she was ready to start dating again and swooped in and they’ve been together ever since. They have a couple kids now. She even went into labor the night we won the cup last year. It was kind of crazy, she was out on the ice with us for the presentation of the cup and her water broke while she stood at center ice. I’ve never seen Mark move so quickly. He had to strip out of all his gear still. Missed most of the celebration that night, but I guess the birth of your daughter is a little more important.”

  “Wow, that is pretty cool, but also a crazy place for her to go into labor. I had a patient, once, whose water broke while I was doing an ultrasound to check on the baby and the fluid level. That was an experience.”

  “I bet. What did you do?” I ask.

  “It was all so surreal. I’d just put the gel on her stomach and set the transducer on top of that. We both heard a little pop sound and she looked at me with the biggest eyes ever. We both looked down and saw the small gush of fluid. Thankfully, this was at her doctor’s office, so I stopped and popped my head out of the room to get one of the nurses and doctors. They helped her down to the labor and delivery unit to give birth.”

  “Amazing,” I say, a little impressed about the situation. We both fall into a comfortable silence as we finish off the remainder of our sandwiches.

  “What are your plans after your meeting?” Jill asks once she’s finished her sandwich. She balls up the paper wrapping and sets it aside as she reaches for her drink.

  “I don’t really have any. I was kind of hoping this beautiful woman who I had dinner with and the most amazing night last night might want to have dinner with me again tonight.”

  “Is that so?” she muses as she plays with her straw. “And what’s in it for the woman?” she asks, looking at me with questioning eyes.

  “So many answers to that question, but pretty much anything she’d want.”

  “So, dinner and multiple orgasms?” she says, and I about choke on my own tongue.

  “Sure,” I cough out. “If that’s what she wants, who am I to disappoint and tell her no.”

  “The way I see it is that’s a pretty mutual benefiting night for the both of you.”

  “I like the way you think.” I wink at her across the table.

  “My only rule is that an alarm gets set tonight. I can’t be late or rushing again tomorrow morning. Cassie would never let me live it down. She was already teasing me all morning. I can only imagine what she’s going to say after I come back from lunch and you leave.”

  “She gave me quite the once over when I came in with lunch,” I say with a chuckle.

  “She’s very opinionated, but I couldn’t survive without her. She’s a godsend and helps me keep things running smoothly.”

  “Sounds like a good person to have on your team.”

  “She really is. Even if I do have to remind her sometimes who’s the boss,” Jill says with a laugh.

  I look down at my watch and see that it’s almost one. We’ve been outside here for at least forty-five minutes or so. “What time do you need to get back to work?” I ask, picking up the trash from both of our finished sandwiches and placing it all back in th
e bag.

  “I should probably get back inside. I need to finish up on some notes from my last patient before my afternoon ones arrive.”

  “Sounds good, I don’t want to keep you longer than you have time for. What time will you be off tonight?”

  “I should be done with my last patient by five, and I will try and get out of here by six.”

  “Does seven work for dinner, then?” I ask.

  “Sure. That gives me time to run home and change. Should I pack an overnight bag?” she asks, the look in her eyes a smoldering fire that tells me she’d undress me right here if she could.

  “That’s up to you. Do you want to stay the night? Would it be easier if I came to your place?” I offer.

  “Either works. I have a cat, have I ever told you that? Just in case that’s a problem?”

  “Not a problem, and why would it be?” I ask.

  “I’ve found that most guys don’t like cats, and I dated one guy that was apparently deathly allergic to them, he just didn’t know until about ten minutes after coming over to my place. He ended up having to go to the hospital for the reaction. It was so bad. I never heard from him again after that,” she muses.

  “That’s a really shitty way to find out you’re allergic to something.”

  “Have you ever seen that movie with Will Smith, the one where he’s the dating guru and he has an allergic reaction while he’s out on the date?”

  “I think maybe once,” I tell her.

  “It was like that. He swelled up and started having trouble breathing. I freaked out and called an ambulance for him. Since it was only our first date, he didn’t want me to go to the hospital with him. I felt bad about it. But like I said, I never saw him again after that.”

  “I think that takes the cake for obscure date experiences. I can’t say that I’ve ever had a date end with someone going to the hospital in an ambulance.”

  “I’m glad I can bring something interesting to this relationship,” she says as we start to walk back to the building.

  “Thank you for bringing me lunch, it was a nice surprise,” Jill says as we both slow down just before we reach the door to the building.

  “Anytime. Plus, I felt bad about this morning.” I brush some of her hair off her shoulder before I slide my hand up her neck. I close the few inches between us and bring my lips down on hers, capturing them in a kiss that I do my damnedest to keep PG.

  “I should go so that you can get back to work,” I tell her once I’ve stepped back.

  “I’ll let you know when I’m leaving work.”

  “Sounds good, and how about I swing by and pick you up for dinner, then we can go back to your place so that you’ve got everything you need to make your morning go smoothly.”

  “That works for me,” she says as she heads into her building. I toss the trash from lunch, making sure to keep my pickles from the bag before tossing it. I walk around the building and to my truck that is parked in the front lot. I stop and pick up a coffee on my way to the team offices, still arriving a few minutes early. I sit in my truck waiting on Greg to pull in, so I pull my phone out, trying to decide where I want to take Jill for dinner tonight. We’ve already done Mexican, and of course the meal that I cooked for her last night. I don’t really feel like having to be all dressed up for a fancy steakhouse, so maybe one of the brewery pubs will work for tonight. I don’t get the vibe from Jill that she’d expect a fancy upscale restaurant every time we go out.

  I startle when someone knocks their knuckles on my window. I look out and see Mark Lee standing next to my truck, a shit-eating grin on his face after startling me.

  “Hey, man. How’s it going?” I ask once I’ve got the door open.

  “It’s going. Just brought the kids down to see mommy,” he says, hooking his thumb over his shoulder that’s pointing to his SUV, where his kids are buckled into their car seats.

  “Ah. I’m about to go meet with her myself,” I tell him. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he hears the news, either because of who his wife is or through the media, who will absolutely report on it.

  “Good luck. She mentioned she had a meeting this afternoon, just didn’t tell me with whom or about what. Confidentiality and all that jazz,” he tells me as I hear a kid start to cry from his open window.

  “Yeah, and so that you hear it from me and not anyone else, but it’s time. I’m hanging up the skates. My scans don’t look good, and they don’t recommend I return to playing anymore. Said I’ve already done irreversible damage and any more could be fatal.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that, JC. I know that isn’t the outcome you wanted. We’re going to miss you out on the ice. Whoever fills your line spot is going to have some big skates to fill. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you. Once the dust all settles and more of the guys are back in town, let’s get together,” he says as he opens his door and places a pacifier in his daughter’s mouth, which immediately stops her cries.

  “I’d like that, and thanks, man,” I tell him as we pull each other into a man hug. I smack him on the back before stepping back. I notice Greg’s car pulling into the lot. “There’s my agent, so it’s time to go face the music. Have fun with the kids,” I tell him, pointing back at his SUV.

  “Thanks, and good to see you. Don’t be a stranger,” he calls out as he climbs into the driver’s seat. I wave at him as I start to walk over to the sidewalk that leads to the building where I meet up with Greg.

  “Ready to get this done with?” he asks, offering his hand to me to shake.

  “As ready as I can be,” I tell him as we walk into the team offices.

  We’re shown to a conference room where we go over the terms already laid out in my contract and what the standard injury clause states that is already written in, as well.

  Once we’ve had the chance to go over things, Greg lets them know we’re ready to meet. Laura Erickson-Lee, the managing partner, and Daniel Johnston, the team’s General Manager join us. We get down to business hashing out how things are going to be handled. In the end, they decide to pay out my contract over the months that are left on it, which is fine by me.

  Chapter Eight

  Jill

  “Damn, you clean up nice,” I tell John as he comes out of his room dressed for tonight’s event. Since he’s one of the bachelors up for auction, he decided to dress a little nicer than khakis and a polo. Instead, he’s dressed in slacks and a button down. His slacks look like they’ve been custom made to fit his thick hockey thighs, and thinking more about that, they probably were. My best friend, Julia, who also happens to be engaged to a hockey player, plus her dad, who is also a former player, all have mentioned how they often have to have clothes custom made or tailored because of how strong their legs and asses are from all the hours on the ice.

  “Just trying to make sure the bids are high. I wouldn’t want to disappoint whoever wins me tonight.” He winks as he closes the distance between the two of us. I’m still nervous about his conditions on agreeing to being one of the guys up on the stage. I hate the idea that he wants me to spend his money, what if the bids get crazy high?

  “Speaking of high bids, what’s my limit? I don’t want to bid too high if someone else is bound and determined to win you out from under me.”

  “I’m not really worried about that happening. Just try and keep it under six-figures, how does that sound?” he asks, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me flush against him.

  “I’m sorry, did you just say six-figures?” I stammer slightly, repeating him.

  “Yes.” He shrugs like it’s not a big deal to drop one hundred grand at a charity event. “If it’s more than that, I’d probably have to set up a wire transfer and not put it on my credit card, and that’s just a hassle.”

  “I can’t wrap my mind around all of that. You’re sure you’re up for this and okay with that kind of thing?” I ask, needing the reassurance.

  “I wouldn’t have agreed to it, nor made the
deal with you if I wasn’t. The cause is an important one, the money will do some real good for them, so I think it sounds like the perfect way to make a donation to a reputable charity.”

  “I’m already getting nervous about bidding on something more than a few hundred dollars,” I tell him honestly.

  “Just have fun with it, and remember that I only want to be leaving with you,” he says, cupping my face and dropping a quick kiss on the corner of my mouth. “We need to get out of here if we’re going to make it on time,” he reminds me. I grab my wristlet, tucking my phone inside it, and make sure my ID, debit card, and a few smaller bills are in it.

  “Thank you,” I tell John after he opens the door and then helps me climb up into his truck.

  “Did I tell you how beautiful you look tonight?” he asks as he leans in to kiss me before closing my door.

  “Only about a million times before I kicked you out of the bathroom I was getting ready in,” I remind him. My dress is a light pink, has a semi-open back with a deep V-neck in the front. I love the details of the cross crossed straps that wrap around my torso before tying in the back. It’s sexy and revealing, but also elegant and sophisticated, and perfect for an evening as hot as it is tonight. It doesn’t hurt that it does wonders for the girls, showing them off quite nicely. Something that I don’t miss John’s eyes zeroing in on each time he looks at me.

  “You ready?” John asks once we’ve parked.

  “Of course, I can’t wait to see how the night goes, but most importantly, I’m excited to see Julia and Beckett! I can’t believe they’re engaged!” My best friend went off to Sweden with her boyfriend and came back as an engaged woman. He was so sweet and contacted me, and I got to watch everything go down thanks to technology, but I haven’t been able to see her since they got back the other day.