Ballers: His Game (Ballers Series Book 1)(56)

I go to answer her but my phone rings again with the same number and photo. I want Tam to always trust me so I answer the call and place it on speaker. Tam shifts from my lap to sit across from me cross legged.

“Hello,” I say into the phone.

“Hey honey, how are you,” a woman says through the phone, with a heavy southern drawl.

Tam crosses her arms and lifts a brow at me. “I’m sorry, but who is this?” I ask.

“Aw Bradley, don’t tell me you forgot about me. It’s Beth, didn’t my picture come up? We look so great in it,” she chirps.

Tam gives me the stink eye and I press my lips and roll my eyes at her, holding up my phone and point to the picture. I then let my mouth fall open as if to say, ‘really, this looks good.’ Tam covers her mouth to stifle a laugh that bubbles up.

Beth continues, oblivious to the fact that I am not paying her any attention. “I meant to call you sooner, but I’ve been out of the country. I just returned last night and I was so thrilled to hear you would be meeting on Daddy’s yacht this afternoon,” the woman coos.

It clicks in that moment. Beth, from the meet and greet when I found Tam and Ellie. I haven’t thought about her since. I barely paid her attention that day. No wonder I didn’t remember her.

“Listen, I’m already running late for that meeting. I need to go,” I say as politely as I can. I have no intention of ever answering another of her calls.

“Oh that’s fine, I’ll just see you when you get here,” she purrs.

This gives me pause. I was told that this was just for men. I scowl and say into the phone. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, the wives decided to join you all at the last minute. Daddy thought it would be fun if I came along so you wouldn’t be the odd one out,” she says enthusiastically.

“Well if they decided to invite the wives then someone should have informed me so that I could bring my fiancée,” I bite out.

“Oh you mean the lawyer,” she says snidely.

The pissed look on Tam’s face only pisses me off more. My blood is boiling right now. “I don’t know if I sent you some type of wrong message, but I am engaged to the only woman I am interested in. You and your daddy have a good time on that boat. Something has come up. I won’t be making it today,” I growl before I hang up.

“Babe, you were invited by the owner to that lunch, you can’t not go,” Tam says with true concern in her voice.

“The hell I can’t. Everyone is aware I’m engaged. Why the hell would they not tell me things changed, let alone invite some woman along for me,” I fume. “Tam if I have learned nothing else playing this sport, I have learned that the head office likes to play their own games. I go along for the most part, but not when it comes to my family. This bull won’t fly with me.”

“Brad, you can’t just –.”

“Yes. I can,” I cut her off. “Now come here. I want to rub your tummy and talk to our baby.”





Chapter 23


I feel like a bull caged in a room with the walls painted red as I storm my way into the locker room. I’m so pissed off I can’t even see straight. I tear into the locker room and toss my helmet at the wall. I have seen and heard a lot in this league but this takes the cake.

I am usually the mellow guy in the locker room so all of the guys take pause at my outburst and watch with open mouths. I turn and lock eyes with Ellerie and he instantly reads me. I give him a curt nod and he nods back.

“Ten minutes,” he says and I nod again.

I need out of this building and I doubt it will take me ten minutes to get my shit and leave. I storm towards the shower stripping from my uniform as I go. I am showered and dressed faster than I have ever been before.

Fuming I leave the locker room heading right for the parking lot. People are calling my name and asking questions but I ignore them all. The only person I acknowledge is Ellerie who is sitting in his Jaguar behind my truck, waiting for me.

“Your place,” I call over my shoulder as I move pass his car and jump into my own truck.

Ellerie and I have become close over the last few months, on and off the field. If I can trust anyone with what I have to say I know it is him. I just don’t want to take this to my house. Tam said she would be working from home this week and I don’t want to stress her over this.

When we pull into Ellerie’s driveway I am still wound tight and raging to release this pent up tension. I just need to say this shit out loud to make sure I haven’t imagined it all. I know I did not just sit through that meeting in my coach’s office. I didn’t hear any of the words that were said to me. I must have gotten hit during practice or something.

“Okay, what the hell is going on,” Ellerie asks as he retrieves two waters from the refrigerator and hands me one.

“They want me to postpone the wedding,” I growl.

“Wait what?” Ellerie says with a sour look on his face. He looks so much like Tam in the moment.

“Apparently that is what the head office wanted to talk to me about on that little boat trip I didn’t make it to. They were going to suggest,” I say using air quotes. “That I do things a little more quietly and maybe even start to be seen in public with someone else a few times. Now they just want me to postpone the wedding. ‘It will be best for the rest of the season,’ as they had coach put it.”