LITMIR.BIZ

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night.

      “You said I had to,” she reminded him. “Or I would be, quote, ‘the biggest loser who ever lived.’”

      Roy smiled. “Clearly you have self-esteem issues if you thought you had to prove me wrong.”

      Of course she didn’t. No one in the world knew who she was as well as Lanie did. That’s what made her so damn compelling. She didn’t play games. She didn’t manipulate or strategize to get what she wanted. She was always simply who she was.

      Unlike Roy, who frequently didn’t have a clue about himself outside of being someone who could throw a ball.

      No, Lane definitely hadn’t hunted down Danny as trophy-husband material the way so many of the other wives had. She hadn’t pursued him like he was some prize to be won. Like baseball players were nothing beyond their gloves and hats and bats. And money. No, Danny had had to win Lane.

      It’s what made her different from the women currently in Roy’s penthouse, drinking his liquor and shaking their well-toned, surgically enhanced bodies. Doing everything they could to attract attention. Hoping some player would notice them and set them up for life.

      Roy saw nobody but Lane. Every damn time she was in the room.

      “Well, Danny’s not getting back in until tomorrow. Decided he needed one last golf game in Florida before the season starts next week. So I thought, what the hell.”

      A lie. Danny had been in town for two days. He was just spending his nights somewhere else. With someone else if his text was to be believed.

      That should be enough, Roy thought. Enough to end it.

      All Lane had to do was stay until Danny walked through the door with whomever on his arm. That alone should be enough to end their marriage. Lane wasn’t a person to tolerate disloyalty.

      Roy had no idea who the woman in question would be. Danny went through groupies like toilet paper. An easy thing to do when you were on the road for eighty-one nights of the season. It wasn’t as if he even tried to hide his behavior from anyone. As if he expected everyone to understand that when they were home, Lane drove him to every game, watched every play of every inning and then took him home when it was over.

      When Danny was on the road those tasks were done by some other woman.

      Of course the guys didn’t say anything. The locker-room bond was tight. It had to be to win championships. And this was a championship-caliber team, having already won two World Series and coming close again last year.

      So no one talked. None of the players talked to their wives. Or if they did, none of the wives talked to Lane. They all sat back and observed. As if it was entertainment to watch a dumb-ass twenty-six-year-old kid, who happened to have been gifted with athletic talent, shit on the princess of baseball. Night in and night out.

      Roy was done with it. When Lane had worked on his neck and shoulder recently he thought he could sense something in her. A sense that she wasn’t happy, and rather...lonely.

      Not that she would ever confide in Roy about her marriage. He was the man who didn’t know what love was. How hard would it be for someone so proud to admit she was wrong about it, too?

      Which is why he decided he had to help her. Save her, really. She didn’t want to admit she’d picked the wrong guy. Understandable. No one wanted to admit their mistakes. Fine. He’d simply force her hand.

      In front of the whole damn team.

      “Uh, you going to invite me in?”

      Roy realized she was still standing in the corridor. He thought of some of the women he’d invited. Thought of the other nonwives who had come with some of the married players.

      Hell, he thought of the women he’d paid to be here. Backups to zero in on Danny if he didn’t show up with someone else.

      Lane would see it all. Instantly.

      No. Suddenly, he didn’t want to invite her in.

       This is stupid. A mistake. She doesn’t deserve this.

      “Look, you can’t change your mind now. I’m here, I’m thirsty and, if I have enough drinks, I might even dance.”

      Not waiting for his answer, she bounced around him and he had to move to let her in or risk her pushing him out of the way.

      “At least let me walk you to where you can put your coat down,” he said quickly, taking her arm. He needed to shield her from the party. They walked the long hallway from his oversize living room into a series of guest rooms. He didn’t think. Just led her into his bedroom and closed the door.

      Shit. You screwed this up. She is going to see all those guys not with their wives. She is going to see Danny not with her. This is going to hurt her.

      Roy wanted to open her eyes to the truth. He wanted her to leave her worthless husband. He didn’t want to destroy her faith. Not in love. Not when it was so damn pure.

      “Lane, I screwed up.”

      Her eyes widened. “Wow. Did you just admit you did something wrong?”

      He nodded.

      “Because the Roy Walker I know doesn’t do that.”

      “I get it. You think I’m an arrogant ass.”

      She smiled softly. “I don’t think it, Roy. You are. But I realize it’s a little, very little, part of your charm.”

      Damn, she was actually smiling at him. In fact, she’d been treating him differently since he’d helped her father by doing a charity stint at the Minotaur Falls Opening Day Fair. Danny had been away on another one of his “trips” and someone needed to raise money for the Youth Athletic League. Roy offered his services in exchange for a few therapy sessions.

      A few hours in the dunk tank and suddenly Lane had seen something in him that she hadn’t seen before. Maybe it was that she’d learned it wasn’t true that Roy didn’t do any charity work ever—a reputation he had fostered along with his ass persona. He just didn’t make a big show of his charitable work like so many of the other guys on the team. Which is why he never said anything about the equipment and uniforms he donated.

      Only Duff had made a point of thanking him for the stuff in front of Lane.

      Which meant his secret was out. He wasn’t quite the selfish, arrogant ass he’d always presented himself as. It must have been difficult, after years of thinking he was a pathetic scumbag, for her to realize he was a better man than he let on.

      The truth was he never really cared what other people thought. With Lanie, though, it mattered.

      Only now he was about to prove her shiny new opinions wrong. Really, really wrong.

      “Lane, I would like you to leave.”

      “What?”

      “This party...I don’t think...you’re going to like it. It’s getting a little out of hand. Not your kind of thing. I’m not sure what I was thinking asking you to come.”

      How far away was Danny? Hopefully twenty minutes. Maybe thirty. Roy should be able to get Lane away before Danny got here.

      “What’s the matter? Afraid I’m not hot enough to compete with all the eye candy out there. I saw how some of those girls are dressed. The ones dancing on your coffee table. By the way, those heels will leave scratches. I know I don’t compare.”

      She didn’t compare. They were nothing. She was everything. But Lane Baker wasn’t the type to worry about the other girls in the room. She was still smiling as if she found the whole thing funny.

      She shucked her coat and he could see she wasn’t totally unaware of what type of party he might throw. Dark, skinny jeans, high-heel boots up to her knees, a silver blouse that showed way too much cleavage, in his opinion, but was conservative in comparison to what the other

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