Kickin' It (Red Card #2)(33)

I immediately relaxed.

“Parker!” He held out his hands. I took them and leaned in as he kissed me on the cheek.

I liked him.

He seemed relaxed.

And he was wearing black jeans and a T-shirt instead of a stuffy suit. I kept imagining my old coach in these situations—pinstriped suits, expensive shoes, cologne, the whole stupid package.

But this guy? He seemed comfortable in his own skin. Yeah, I really liked him.

“Matt.” He shook his hand. “Sorry for such short notice, but your assistant said you had already landed. I didn’t realize my new assistant coach would be able to make the meeting, but his plane just landed as well.”

“Wow, I didn’t know you were looking to hire on.” Matt shrugged and offered his hand to the other man with slicked-back dark hair. His back was still to us, and then he stood and turned.

I stumbled backward, partially hiding my body behind Matt.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Erik held out his massive hand to Matt. I could see when Matt put two and two together because he squeezed Erik’s hand longer than necessary while I forced a watery smile.

“I think I’ll just use the restroom really quick,” I said lamely, trying my best not to black out as I made my way toward the bathrooms on other side of the restaurant.

I shoved my way inside the women’s restroom and braced my hands against the countertop as nightmares assaulted me.

“Stop saying no, Parker.” He kissed my neck. “Nobody else does . . . Just think of where I could take your career.”

“No.” I shoved against him. “I can’t, I’m not like that.”

“Yeah, you are . . .” He gripped my ass as his length pressed against my body in a predatory way that confused me, made me feel wanted but wrong about the situation. I’d always idolized him. “I see the way you look at me, the way you want me.”

“No.” Did I? Did I look at him that way? Did I do something wrong? He was fun, and I’d always loved my coach and would have done anything for him.

He reached under my shirt and cupped my breasts. “Come on, Parker, we both want this, you know we do.”

I ran into the stall and dry heaved, careful not to get anything on my pretty dress.

I stared at myself in the mirror. Don’t be that girl anymore. You’re not that girl anymore.

I fixed my hair. At least I could be calm on the outside while I freaked out on the inside. Maybe I could send Matt a quick text that I needed to leave early. It was just dinner and drinks. Anger surged through me, I knew better, dinner and drinks? If I blew them off I could ruin other offers. Erik must have known that too, otherwise he wouldn’t have risked it. A sickness washed over me again, like he had his hands all over me, like he was doing it in front of Matt and showing Matt how easy I was when I knew I wasn’t.

Why the hell was he even here?

He was supposed to be far, far away!

At my old school!

Not here!

Was he the one that suggested the interview?

The more I thought about it, the sicker I got.

I shoved the door open just in time to see Erik leave the men’s restroom.

I quickly walked down the hall but felt him behind me every step of the way, and when he reached for my wrist, I jerked away, wanting to slam him into the nearest table.

Polite.

I had to be polite.

Tears stung the backs of my eyes.

Why was it impossible to be polite in a world full of monsters who looked like they just walked off a magazine cover?

“What?” I pasted a smile on my face. “Did you need more toilet paper?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Something between you and Kingston?”

“My agent?” My eyebrows shot up. “Why would you think that?”

“He’s training you, he doesn’t train his athletes, not typically, and he watches you.”

“Everyone watches me,” I said in a sarcastic, angry voice. “’Cause I’m so pretty.”

“Still such a sarcastic bitch, I think that’s what I missed most . . .” He leered at me in my dress. “Nice of him to get you all pretty for us. I bet he got you ready in the way only a man like Matt Kingston can. Why is it that you’d sleep with him to get ahead and yet with me—”

“Everything okay here?” Matt saved me, saved the entire day as well as Erik’s life by showing up.

“Ah, just catching up. She was one of my favorite players, you know.” Erik grinned dumbly.

“Right.” Matt scratched the back of his head. “I punched my favorite coaches too, it’s an athlete thing, but you wouldn’t really know, though, since you were in the league, what, a day?”

I almost choked on a laugh at Erik’s purple face. “Listen, Kingston—”

“We actually have two other meetings to get to,” Matt interrupted. “So we should get back to the table before you get fired from another job, hmm, Erik?”

“I wasn’t fired.”

“Yeah, alright, our secret.” Matt winked as he led me back to the table. I sat as close to him as humanly possible and dug into the bread basket to keep myself from yelling at Erik or throwing my nearest utensil.

The other coach, who I found out was named Billy and had five grandsons, gave me another warm smile. “So, the rumor mill is filled again with talks about you, my dear. Your talent is of course incredible, and I’ve even heard from your old coach here that the whole fight incident was blown out of proportion, and now that I’ve met you, I can only agree that you aren’t that sort of person. You’re refreshing, and the stats don’t lie.”