Stealing Home(32)

Archer grinned, spinning his coffee cup in his hands. “Anyway, Anne takes care of everything when I’m on the road during the season, and I do my best to fit in visits during home games and occasionally fly them all out to an away game.”

“And take them shopping and out for junk food. The hardships.”

He chuckled a couple of notes before his expression became serious. “You know what happened to my parents?”

Inhaling slowly, I nodded. “Only what I read in the papers a few years ago.”

I might not have known much about Luke Archer’s life before a week ago, but I did know about his parents being carjacked and murdered on their way home from celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. The whole nation knew that story as that had happened right when Archer’s career was taking off. The media ate it up, printing headlines about The Slayed Parents of Luke Archer. Sensationalizing the whole tragedy by highlighting facts of that night that should have been respected and left alone. Details about how Mr. Archer had shielded his wife with his body while an entire magazine had been emptied into them. Or how their wedding bands had been ripped off their dead bodies. Or how their hands were found tangled together, even in death.

The media had bled that story dry, and I’d guessed it was part of the reason Archer had seemed as closed off as he had. At least as he had at first, because now he didn’t seem closed off at all.

Luke continued to stare into his coffee like he was seeing something in it no one else could see. “The girls were only ten, twelve, and fourteen at the time. We had family they could have gone to, but it would have meant relocating from Oceanside, and I wanted to keep as much normalcy in their lives as possible. I wanted them to stay at the same school, with the same friends, in the same activities, you know?” His forehead creased deeper for a moment, then his whole face cleared. Like he’d just come from the dark into the light.

Lifting his cup, he took a drink of his coffee. “I applied for guardianship, and we’ve done our best to put the pieces back together. That’s part of the reason my career is so important to me. I’m responsible for three human beings, and I want them to have any door they want open to them. I want them to be able to go to the best school in the country if they want to. I want them to be able to major in something that will pay them peanuts if it makes them happy. I want them to have a totally over-the-top wedding if that’s what makes them happy.” Almost looking vulnerable, he looked at me. I wasn’t used to seeing vulnerability on him—it was a look I doubted more than a few people were used to seeing on him. “I just want to take care of them the way our parents would have.”

My eyes were stinging from fighting tears. When I’d gotten up this morning and agreed to breakfast with Luke Archer, I hadn’t known he was going to open up like this.

Luke Archer was so much more than a player setting batting records. So much more than a skilled lover. So much more.

“You really are amazing,” I said.

Archer twisted his hat back around and leaned across the table a little. His expression was playful. “Well, I know that, but would you mind passing that on to this girl I’m really into? I’m not sure she’s aware of that yet. She kind of busts my balls. When she’s not icing them.”

That made me laugh. “I think she knows.”

“Good, and while you’ve got her on the line, would you mind asking her how I’m doing on our first date? I just spent the majority of it on the phone with a heartbroken sister and bringing up my dark past. I think I’m bombing it.”

Archer’s hand was resting on the table and I didn’t realize I’d reached for it until our fingers were tying together. “She says it’s the best first date she’s ever been on.”





THE SHOCK WAS back in San Diego, and everyone was excited to be playing in front of a home group of fans. We’d all gotten in late last night, and Archer had headed back to his apartment to meet his sisters, who had gotten into the city earlier and were waiting for him, while I went home to my empty apartment. Homecomings like this reminded me why I loved being on the road so much—it made me forget about just how alone I was.

It wasn’t possible for me to go to his place with his sisters there. It wouldn’t have been possible even if they weren’t. While he was in Shock territory, cameras followed him everywhere short of the public restroom, and it wouldn’t take long for people to figure out that the petite blonde he was with was the same one in her first year as an athletic trainer on the team he played for. We’d be safer in other cities, not that safe was any way of putting it.

After spending a fitful night as a human cyclone in my bed, I decided to head to Shock Stadium a couple hours early for lack of anything else to occupy my time.

Opening the door to my apartment, I found a box on the stoop, wrapped in the Shock’s royal blue and white, along with a card with my name on it tucked under the bow. Kneeling, I opened the card:



Couldn’t sleep last night. Maybe I’ll sleep better tonight knowing you’re in this.



It was signed 'Archer' in big bold letters, which seemed like a strange way to sign a person’s name. Checking around to make sure I wasn’t about to lift a racy scrap of lingerie out of the box in front of any neighbors, I pulled the ribbon free and opened the box.