Page 79 of When He Plays

Husband. Oh, wow. I actually married him.

Jezebel was going to freak out.

Chapter Sixteen

“I like you, kid. Really, I do. But this is not the time for you to linger and give me some long life story. This is more of a cut-to-the-point-and-then-get-the-hell-out situation.” He’d let Jake into the suite. Just as far as the den. His voice held bite, and Logan knew it because Jake stared at him all wide-eyed. Not like Logan could help his tone. No getting around the bite. Every cell in Logan’s body wanted him to be someplace else, with someone else.

Back in the bedroom, fucking my wife.

“I got it,” Jake finally stopped his long, rambling talk to get to business. “I got picked up by the team.” A lop-sided smile split his face.

Then he was charging at Logan. Hugging him.

Hell. Logan wrapped an arm around the kid. “Of course, you did. They would have been idiots not to grab you immediately.”

Jake hugged him harder. “You did this.” He eased back. Gazed up at Logan. Logan had the kid in height by about five inches. “I know you did. You got them to pick me up⁠—”

“I didn’t do a damn thing but get you the tryout shot. You earned the spot yourself. Just like you will earn everything else that comes your way. Get that in your head. You don’t owe me. You don’t owe anyone.” Jake needed to understand this to his core. “You’re making your own way in this world, and if anyone ever tries to guilt you—if your old man comes calling one day, demanding some of the fortune that you will make when you hit the majors, you don’t give him a dime, understand? You send him back to me. I’ll take care of him.”

Jake’s lower lip trembled.

The kid’s eyes were filling with tears. Logan hated dealing with tears. “What in the hell?”

Jake hugged him again. “You’re a better father to me than he could ever be.”

Oh, shit. But Logan hugged him, too. “Get out of here, punk. Go throw some balls or something.” He pushed the guy away. “I need to spend time with my new wife.” Just how many times could he say that and enjoy it? Oh, a million. Easy. “My wife is waiting on me.” Look, he’d done it again. For shits and giggles, he would be using that “my wife” phrase as often as humanly possible.

Jake retreated. “You really got married?”

“Damn straight.” Though did it count as really married if he had not gotten around to the consummation part yet?

“You don’t have a ring.”

Leave it to the kid to notice that important fact. “She does. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I’ll get a ring today.” Or tomorrow. Or just—soon.

“If it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, then how did you have a ring ready for her?”

Because…

Forget the because. “I just did. I’m cool that way.”

I had pulled it out of my safe before we went to the meeting with Ares. After I spent one night in my suite with Charlotte, I pulled out the ring. One single night. Not fucking. Just being with her. After that one night, I pulled out my grandmother’s ring, and I looked at it for too long, and I just shoved it into one of the hidden pockets in my tux without even thinking about it.

Sometimes, it wasn’t about thinking. It was about feeling.

“I could tell the way you looked at her,” Jake blurted. “In your office that day. I knew she was more than just some PA.”

“When you see opportunities in life, you grab them. You don’t let them go. That’s life lesson number forty-eight for you.” He’d been giving Jake life lessons for years.

“Yes, sir.” Jake lingered.

Had he missed the part about Logan’s wife, waiting?

“I, um, heard you sent word that you wanted to know everything that happened in the kitchens yesterday. Kitchens, all the restaurants. The hotel’s main kitchen for room service delivery, everything.” Jake rocked forward onto the balls of his feet. “Also heard that your wife went to the hospital.”

Logan didn’t even blink. “What do you know?” Leave it to Jake. That kid—as a side effect of working so many odd jobs for Logan, Jake had friends all over the hotel and the casino.

“I know two things.” His shoulders straightened. “First, I saw someone in the room service area that shouldn’t have been there. This was, um, the night after you moved your lady into your suite.”