Baller (Heritage Bay Series Book 5) Read online

  “Liam.” He jerks his head to the side. “Come here.”

  Pushing up from the sofa, I make my way over to stand beside Max.

  He gestures to the dance floor. “Middle of the floor. Pink dress. See her?”

  My heart free-falls into my stomach and my blood runs cold. Vanessa.

  The love of my goddamn life.

  My beautiful savage.

  The girl who promised me forever in front of an Elvis-impersonating justice of the peace in a little wedding chapel in Vegas only to rip my heart out and leave me bleeding in the middle of my driveway.

  “You and me, Vanessa.”

  “Not anymore.”

  Pressing my palms against the glass, the bass of the music vibrating against my fingertips, I watch as Vanessa sways her hips in time with the beat. Her brown hair falls in waves over her slender shoulders. My eyes trail over her beautiful face, head tilted back, eyes closed, and though I can’t see them from here, I picture those freckles, remembering when I’d kissed each and every one.

  My gaze slides down to her body, and I freeze when I spot a pair of masculine hands gripping her tiny waist. I’d been so focused on Vanessa that I hadn’t noticed the motherfucker behind her, holding her like she’s his.

  She’s mine.

  Pushing away from the glass wall, I ball my hands into fists at my sides. My heart slams against my chest as rage courses through my veins, igniting a fire deep in my gut. The music and laughter around the room are muted by the pounding of my pulse in my ears.

  “Liam,” Max warns quietly.

  Suddenly, I feel heat at my back. “Don’t make a scene,” Cam murmurs so only I can hear him.

  The heavy weight of heartache squeezes my chest, and suddenly I can’t breathe. “I need to get out of here.”

  “Then let’s go.” Clasping my shoulders, Cam steers me out of the room and through the back exit, leading to the parking garage.

  LIAM

  It’s been nearly five years since I’ve seen or spoken to Vanessa. Five years since she packed up her shit and hauled ass with our dog back to Florida. Five years since I broke my promise and made the biggest mistake of my life.

  “I told you she was seeing someone,” Cam says, pulling me from my thoughts as he starts up the truck and pulls out of the parking garage.

  “You also told me he was a prick,” I mumble.

  Coach still talks to Cam. It’s me he wants nothing to do with. Cam told me last year when they met for lunch that Coach mentioned Vanessa was seeing someone and the guy was a prick. I’d hoped that wasn’t true, because Vanessa deserved to be cherished and loved.

  My phone vibrates from the inside pocket of my suit jacket. I pull it out to see a text notification from Naughty Nurse and smirk as I swipe my thumb over the screen. Congrats on the win over Chicago… don’t tell my brother I said that. LOL

  I chuckle softly. Her older brother is the third baseman for Chicago.

  Thanks, I reply.

  I met Naughty Nurse aka Mia Russo last year at Private Affair over Labor Day weekend. She was sitting at the bar with her blonde friend. I caught her staring, and that was all the invitation I needed to approach her. In less than ten minutes, I learned she and her friend were both nurses, they worked at the medical center my father owned, and they lived close by. That was enough for me. It had been a while since I’d hooked up with a random woman, and I was feeling a little reckless. It might’ve had something to do with Cam telling me earlier that day that Vanessa was in a relationship with a prick. I paid for their drinks and took Mia back to her place, leaving her blonde friend with Tyge. On the way back to Mia’s, I also learned her father was the baseball coach for Gulf Coast University and both of her brothers were in the MLB.

  Apparently, I had a type.

  It was only supposed to be for one night, but the woman was good in bed, and I wanted a repeat. I invited her to my game the following day and later went back to her place for round two. I took her number, and when I came home during the off-season, I called her up.

  My phone vibrates again. Are you in town?

  I briefly consider asking Cam to drop me off at her place. An hour between her legs is exactly what I need—

  “Who is it?” Cam cuts through my thoughts.

  “Mia.”

  “Don’t do it, Liam,” he warns. “I know you’re feeling self-destructive, but don’t drag her down with you.” My best friend has always been the little angel on my shoulder urging me to do the right thing. I don’t always listen, but he’s right about Mia. “I thought you were done with her?”

  “I was.” I’d forgotten about the last time we were together, which was six months ago, right before I went back to California. I’d spent the night at Mia’s place. I had an early flight, so I didn’t bother to wake her. On my way out, I stopped at the little table near her front door to grab my wallet, keys, and phone. The table was littered with decorative picture frames, but it was one particular picture that snagged my attention. I picked up the frame and brought it close to get a better look. It was a picture of Mia, her blonde roommate, a girl with dark hair, bright eyes, and a pregnant belly standing between them, and at the end was a very familiar redhead. A girl Mia pretended not to know on several occasions, and that didn’t sit well with me. The redhead’s name was Harper. She was Jay’s friend and Cole’s girlfriend. She was also a liar. My brother and sister were protecting her at the time, and apparently so was Mia. I didn’t like liars. And I didn’t like that my family was keeping her secrets. I was pissed at Mia for being involved and decided then that I was done with her. But after all Harper’s lies had finally come to light, I realized Mia wasn’t just protecting Harper, she was protecting my family’s biggest secret.

  Can’t exactly be pissed about that, can I?

  I text her back: Yeah, I’m with the family tonight. Will I see you at the wedding?

  “You wanna stay at my house?” Cam asks. “I was gonna stay with Emerson, but if you need me—”

  I wave him off. “Just drop me off at my parents’.” I promised my mother I’d stay over and have breakfast with her in the morning.

  Mia’s reply is instant. Yes.

  Save me a dance, beautiful.

  The light is on in the kitchen when I step inside my parents’ house. My mother is at the counter sipping from a mug. She eyes me skeptically over the rim.

  “What are you doing up?” I ask, moving over to the fridge to grab a bottled water.

  She pulls the cup away from her lips. “I couldn’t sleep.” She nods to one of the empty barstools. “Sit with me a minute.”

  Here we go.

  She’s been waiting for months to corner me about Vanessa. When Cam and I had gotten into our one and only brawl, Cam blurted in front of my mother and sister that I’d eloped with Vanessa. To be fair, I threw him under the bus first. Ever since then, my mother has been trying to get me to talk about it, and I’ve done everything to avoid it. Talking about it pisses me off because it still hurts.

  I drag a hand down my face. “I’m a little tired, Mom. Can we talk tomorrow?”

  “No,” she snaps. “Sit down, Liam.” Her tone leaves no room for argument.

  On the outside, my mother, Ella Mackenzie, is the epitome of grace. She comes from old money and is one of the wealthiest people in Heritage Bay. She’s a kind, generous, well-kept, beautiful woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, green eyes, and perfectly plucked brows. On the inside, she’s fierce with a sharp tongue and a foul mouth. She’s not a woman to be messed with, and frankly, she scares me a little bit.

  Pulling the stool from under the counter, I straddle the seat so I’m facing her before twisting the cap off the water bottle and taking a sip.

  “Your father called and said you left rather abruptly and you looked upset.”

  “Vanessa was there.”

  “I heard.” She pushes her mug aside and crosses her arms on the counter. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened?”

 
; “I screwed up. She left. That’s all you need to know.”

  “Liam, you seem to forget that I was there after your breakup with Vanessa. You were hurting and acting out in the most self-destructive ways.” During that time of my life, I drowned myself in random women and alcohol. The media was having a field day with all of it, and the bad press nearly cost me my endorsements. The real wake-up call came when my parents showed up at my house in the middle of the night to find me drunk off my ass in bed with two women. It was the look on my mother’s face that forced me to sober up and get my shit together. I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a mama’s boy. “It’s been years since then. I thought you’d moved on from it, but clearly you haven’t. You’re still hurting, and that hurts me. Talk to me.”

  I drop my gaze to the floor. “I broke my promise and I hurt her.”

  “Liam, look at me.”

  I lift my head and meet her concerned eyes.

  “What did you do?”

  I rake my fingers through my hair and blow out a breath. “When Vanessa and I first started dating, she made me promise that I would tell her if I ever needed a break from our relationship or if I found interest in someone else. She said she would rather me hurt her with honesty than to go behind her back.”

  She rolls her eyes toward the ceiling. “Please tell me you didn’t cheat.”

  “I didn’t cheat.” I scratched my jaw. “But I did meet someone.”

  She inhales sharply through her nose. “Liam.”

  “It was Milana,” I add.

  Her brows dip in confusion. “I thought—”

  I shake my head, cutting her off. “I met Milana at my birthday party. She came with her friend, some chick Cam had been messing with.” I wave my hand. “Anyway, long story short, we became friends, and whenever I was home, we’d hang out. I’d never been strictly friends with a woman before, but I really liked hanging out with her. At the time, I’m not sure how I felt. I was attracted to her, but I didn’t want to have sex with her.”

  My mother’s brows pinch together.

  “I know it sounds like a bunch of bullshit, but it’s true. Milana was cool. She had this energy about her, and I was drawn to it. One night she invited me over for dinner. Afterward, we were out on her deck just talking, and out of nowhere, she leaned over and kissed me. I told her I had a girlfriend, and as soon as the words left my mouth, I realized what I’d done—what I’d been doing. I fucked up, and I broke my promise to Vanessa. Milana apologized, and I left.”

  Her expression turns sympathetic as she places a hand over mine. “Oh, Liam Aaron Mackenzie, you’re a special kind of dumbass. I don’t even know what to say about any of this except that I raised you better than that. I’m very disappointed, and honestly, my heart is a little broken for Vanessa.”

  I close my eyes briefly, absorbing the sting of her words.

  “I know, Mom.” Standing from the stool, I move over to the french doors overlooking the pool. “But I was a twenty-four-year-old dumbass,” I admit, shoving my hands into the front pockets of my dress pants. My attention moves to the pool house, which holds a lot of memories of Vanessa. I haven’t stepped foot inside there in five years.

  “Why the secret marriage?”

  I turn to face her. “It wasn’t planned. I took her to Vegas for her twenty-first birthday. We got a little drunk….” I shrug, leaving her to figure out the rest. She shoots me a look. “We weren’t that drunk,” I correct myself. “We knew what we were doing.”

  “Have you spoken to her at all since the divorce?”

  I shake my head. “I haven’t spoken to her since the day she left. Not that I haven’t tried. Vanessa is very stubborn.”

  “Pot, meet kettle,” she quips. “I still don’t understand why you hid your marriage and why we had to find out years later. You’re worse than your sister.” She rolls her eyes. “At least she called us.”

  “We wanted to tell our families together. The season was almost over, so we decided to wait until we came back to Heritage Bay.”

  “That was a bad plan, Liam. There’s no way Coach Abbott would’ve been okay with you whisking his only child off to Vegas. You’re lucky he didn’t kick your ass.”

  I won’t tell her how close Coach came to kicking my ass the day I showed up at his door looking for Vanessa. The whirlwind of emotions stirring in his eyes—a mixture of hurt, anger, and betrayal—is something I’ll never forget.

  “I trusted you with her,” he growled, shoving me back a step. “You promised me you wouldn’t hurt her.” Another shove had me stumbling backward down the steps of his front porch. “You have no idea what you’ve done to my baby girl.” He jabbed his index finger in the air, his voice wavering. “I asked you nicely to let her go, and now I’m telling you. Let. Her. Go.”

  Seeing the pained expression on his face, I had no choice but to respect his wishes and leave, but letting her go wasn’t so easy. Neither was the guilt of hurting the only girl I ever loved. So I spent years apologizing to her voice mail.

  With a heavy sigh, my mom stands from the stool, grabbing her mug and taking it to the sink. “I think it’s time for you to move on, sweetheart.”

  I move to stand beside her, leaning with my backside against the counter. “I have moved on.”

  She rolls her eyes. My mom thinks I’m a manwhore, and maybe I was for a short time, but that shit got old real fast. Despite what the tabloids say or what my family thinks, I don’t sleep around. I’m an athlete, and when I’m out, I’m constantly surrounded by women. It doesn’t mean I’m fucking them. I’ve only been with three women in the last year, and one of those women is Mia.

  “Do you know how hard it is for me to date?”

  I’m being serious. Most women I meet aren’t looking for a relationship. They’re looking for someone to pay their bills and pretty up their Instagram account. When I chose to play ball, I became a commodity.

  “What about Mia? She’s a great girl.”

  “Mia is a great girl,” I agree. “But she’s not the girl for me. I think I need a break from women altogether so I can just focus on me for a while. Seeing Vanessa tonight messed with my head a bit.”

  Turning to face me, she leans a hip against the counter and crosses her arms over her chest. “I love you, son, and it’s my job as your mother to worry. I hate that you’re alone. I hate that you’re hurting. I just want you to be happy. Everyone is moving on with their lives, getting married, having babies. If that’s not something you want, it’s okay. It’s your life, and you have the right to live it the way you want. Just as long as you’re happy.”

  “I’m not alone. I have Tyge.” I smirk, and she purses her lips. “I promise I’ll be fine,” I say, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before heading up to my old room.

  Fishing my phone from my pocket, I pull up Vanessa’s contact and press Call before I can change my mind. It’s been nearly a year since I last contacted her, and like every other call, this one will most likely go unanswered.

  VANESSA

  Early morning sunlight filters through the slits of the blackout curtains covering the hotel window, pulling me from a peaceful sleep. Stretching, I roll to my side, and a warm body curls up behind me, his chest pressed against my back.

  “Good morning, fiancée,” Jake purrs in a deep, gravelly voice, nudging his morning erection against my naked ass.

  “Mmm,” I hum.

  His lips glide over the bare skin of my shoulder. “What time is it?”

  I reach for my phone on the nightstand and check the time before setting it back down. “It’s 7:05 a.m.”

  “Shit.” Tossing the covers back, he scrambles out of bed. “I have an eight o’clock tee-off with your dad, and I still need coffee,” he calls over his shoulder before disappearing into the bathroom. A moment later the shower turns on.

  Lifting my left hand, I study the beautiful three-karat diamond decorating my ring finger. A pang of guilt stabs me in the gut.

  Jake and I met two and a
half years ago when I took a job at Florida Regional Hospital where he works as a trauma surgeon. We worked together for a few months before he asked me out. I was hesitant at first, given he’s ten years older and shares a young son with his ex-wife. That was a lot of baggage for me being in my early twenties and having very little experience with relationships or children. Not to mention I was carrying my own baggage.

  But Jake was persistent.

  And charming.

  Over the course of our two-year relationship, we fell in love, moved in together, and now we’re engaged. I honestly hadn’t expected him to propose. Jake and I didn’t talk much about marriage, only that it would happen one day, when we were both ready. I’m not ready. This is definitely an “it’s not you, it’s me” situation. When Jake proposed at dinner last night, in front of my dad and his girlfriend, Kelly, I couldn’t say no. He’d obviously put a lot of thought into it if he included my dad, who’s not exactly Jake’s biggest fan. But to be fair, after everything that happened with Liam, my dad is overprotective.

  I love Jake, and he makes me happy, but I don’t know if I’m capable of loving him the way a wife should love her husband. I guess you could say I’ve been content the last couple of years. It’s been nearly five years since Liam and I broke up, and I’m still harboring a lot of hurt. I’m afraid—no, I’m terrified of having my heart broken again, especially when it hasn’t fully healed. Truthfully, I’m not sure it ever will.

  Instead of joining Jake in the shower, which will only make us later, I decide to hold off and shower at Dad’s. I quickly brush my teeth and wash my face before gathering up my toiletries and tossing them into my overnight bag. Slipping into a pair of white shorts and a light blue tank, I pull my hair up in a messy bun, then finish packing our things.

  The bathroom door opens and Jake steps out through a cloud of steam, a towel hanging loosely on his waist. He has a nice body. Neither of us spends much time in the gym, but we both try to get a morning run in at least five days a week. My gaze drifts over his well-defined chest, lightly spattered with dark hair, down to the knot of the towel situated under toned abs.