Before We Kiss (Fool's Gold #14)(37)

She laughed. “I’m not sure I’d be okay with a guy who wanted to call himself that. And I don’t know if I want the whole serious boyfriend thing.”

“Why not?”

“It’s just...I don’t know. I raised my sisters so I have a sense of been there, done that. I’m not sure I want a family.”

He continued to watch her.

She shifted some more in her seat, not sure how they’d ended up talking about her instead of the party or even him.

“I do realize not every dating relationship results in a permanent arrangement or children,” she continued. “There was a guy a few years ago. I thought he was great and we were happy, but then he cheated. I broke things off as soon as I found out.”

“And?”

How had he guessed there was more to the story? “She got pregnant and they got married. About a year later he showed up, wanting to know if I was interested in seeing him again.”

“He’d gotten a divorce?”

“No,” she said quietly. “He hadn’t. Which makes him a jerk, but what really bothered me was that he thought I was the kind of person who would be interested in that kind of relationship. I didn’t like what it said about my character.”

Sam grimaced. “It doesn’t say anything, Dellina. You’re right—the guy’s a jerk and he was only thinking of himself. He’d screwed up, he missed you and he was hoping you were as lousy as he was. You told him no.”

“Are you asking or telling?”

“I’m telling. I know you and you’d never do that.”

“You’re right. I felt disgusted just talking to him. They moved away a couple of years ago. Since then, I’ve been busy growing my business. Plus this is a small town. It can be challenging to have a private life. I know from experience it’s hard to see the ex on a daily basis.”

“At least I didn’t have that,” he said. “You know I’m divorced.”

She hesitated. “Taryn gave me Simone’s book. I probably shouldn’t have read it but...”

A muscle tightened by his jaw but otherwise he didn’t react. “It’s like a train wreck,” he told her. “Impossible to ignore. Then you know about our relationship.”

“I know what she said about your marriage. I suspect much of it isn’t exactly true. At best, there are a lot of ways to put a spin on some things.”

Simone had discussed everything from her courtship with Sam to how he performed in bed. She’d detailed his frustration when he’d missed a kick, how everything was always about the team. Dellina suspected she’d wanted her ex to come off as a self-absorbed, spoiled athlete.

“For what it’s worth,” she added, “you come off really well in the book.”

“I’ve read it and you’re exaggerating.”

“I’m not. She makes it clear you care about doing the best you can in your work and your relationships. You have concerns about privacy, but why wouldn’t you? From what you’ve told me, your family wasn’t good with boundaries and there’s the whole being a sports legend.”

He gave her a smile. “Now you’re mocking me. I was good. I wasn’t a legend.”

“So modest. It’s refreshing.”

“Not modest. Realistic.” The smile faded. “I tried to keep Simone from publishing the book, but I couldn’t get an injunction. Because I was a national figure, I was considered fair game. The only good news is the judge took her advance and royalties into consideration during the settlement hearings. Simone has to send me fifty percent of every check she gets.”

“Does that help?”

He shrugged. “I send it to charity. I don’t want her money. I want her not to have published the book. But if she hadn’t been that kind of woman, things might have gone better between us.”

“Do you miss her?”

“Hell, no. She was a mistake. I was young and she knew what buttons to push.”

“You have buttons?” She picked up a pen and held it over a sheet of paper. “What might they be?”

“Sorry, no. You’re going to have to figure that out on your own. Besides, it was a long time ago.” Now it was his turn to hesitate before speaking. “I told you I was sick as a kid.”

She nodded.

“I was also small for my age. Basically invisible. I started kicking in tenth grade and I was good, but no girl wants to date some guy three inches shorter than her.”

She tried to reconcile that image with the tall, sexy, muscular man sitting across from her and couldn’t.

“There must have been a transformation at some point,” she said.

“The summer before my senior year. I grew about six inches. During my senior year I added a couple more and then I started to fill out. Add that to a stellar college football career and it all changed. At least for other people. But I was still the same guy. So when Simone came along, I was ripe for the taking.”

“I can’t imagine you vulnerable.”

“Everyone is,” he told her. “It’s just a matter of finding out how.”

She supposed that was true. Now Sam was a successful, worldly businessman, but in college, everything would have been different. He’d gone from the cliché of a ninety-pound weakling to a football god in a matter of a couple of years.