Page 82 of Ruff and Tumble

“Okay,” she repeated with a nod. She also got up and began moving around the kitchen, though most of that was to start tossing half-full pots and pans into the sink. “You’re right that it’s going to be messy, and I have my work cut out for me, but when has that ever slowed me down?”

“Really? Just like that? After banning me from Dad’s hospital room and ‘forgetting’ Amara’s request for me to visit the kids and acting as though I’m basically holding my finger over the button that holds our father’s life in the balance?”

She winced. “Yeah, that was a shitty thing to do.”

“Agreed.”

Her wince turned into a grimace. “You don’t have to be so smug about it. It was an impossible position. It’salwaysbeen an impossible position, trying to be your manager and your sister at the same time. A good manager wouldn’t have let you get anywhere near that hospital while the playoffs hung in the balance.”

“A good sister would have been the first to let me in.”

Not surprisingly, this criticism had a way of causing Regina to flare up in her own defense. She was always quick to rise to temper, especially where he was concerned. “It’s not always easy, you know. To find where the line is. To walk it by myself.”

He knew how she felt. Keeping to that line hadn’t been easy for either of them. He was looking forward to erasing it.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about it now,” Regina added. She spoke more gently this time, as if she, too, was envisioning a world where they could just be siblings. “And I wouldn’t have kept you out if he’d been in any real danger. You have to know that. The second he took a turn for the worse, I would have called you. Even if it was in the middle of a game.”

Cole thought about holding on to his resentment a little longer, but there was no point. If they could go back and change things…what? Would he have refused to pick up a football the first time it was offered? Would she have renounced the family name and baked pies for a living instead of becoming his manager? The idea of Regina lovingly rolling out crusts in a frilly pink apron was enough to have him forgiving everything. She’d have been awful at it.

“Have you talked to them about this yet, by the way?” Regina asked suddenly. “Mom and Dad, I mean.”

“No, but I’m going to head over there next.” He sighed and rubbed a hand over his mouth. “They aren’t going to be happy.”

“No, they’re not.”

“You’re not happy about it, either, are you?”

“What I feel doesn’t matter. Is it going to be harder for me to build my client list if I lose the great Cole Bennett? Yes, obviously. Am I going to miss my ten percent of all your earnings?” Regina grinned. “Heck yeah. But with any luck, I’ll convince all your big sponsors to transfer your contracts over to Garrett. You won’t miss them. What’s a few million dollars to someone as obscenely wealthy as you?”

He couldn’t help laughing. That sounded more like the Regina he knew.

“And it won’t change things between us, right?” he asked. This was the last and most important consideration—the thing that was weighing heaviest on his heart. “I mean, things will be different, but not a lot, right? You and me…Miaand me…”

Anything the least bit managerial or laser-shark-like about Regina disappeared in a flash. For the first time in a long time, she was just his sister.

“Nothing will change between you and Mia,” she said, her reaction vehement to the point of caustic. “I mean that. You are the most important man in her life, and I hope you always will be. I know you’ll probably have a family of your own someday, and you won’t be able to give her as much of your time, but—”

“Never,” he promised. Honesty compelled him to add, “Well, that’s not true. I want to have tons of kids, but Mia will like that. She can order them around the way you used to do with me.”

“Tons of kids?” Regina echoed. “Really? That’s your dream of the future?”

He only shook his head, unable and unwilling to give voice to all the things he wanted. None of them mattered if he couldn’t have Hailey. Every time he tried to picture what happened once football no longer took up the majority of his time, all he could see was her. Her house full of sports memorabilia and puppies. Her naked body poised unabashedly on top of his. Her freckles. Her smile. The way her hair never quite stayed where she put it and how quickly and easily she’d seen through all the bullshit that was the life of a professional quarterback.

The look on her face as he’d ruined all his chances with her not just once but twice.

“She doesn’t really hate you,” Regina said as if reading his mind. “I only said that because you’re a moron.”

“She might not hate me, but she doesn’t like me very much.”

“Yeah, well. Neither do I. But we’re family, and that’s all that matters.”

* * *

If Cole thought his conversation with Regina was difficult, it was nothing compared to the one he had with his parents.

His mom cried. His daddidn’tcry, but only because anger took over long before sadness had a chance.

“After everything we’ve done for you, all the sacrifices we made.”