Making a Comeback. Kristina Mathews

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СКАЧАТЬ out of his head. Maybe he should have taken that offer from Toronto. Canada would be a lot better than somewhere like Japan and it would get him away from the lovely Annabelle Jones.

      But if he wasn’t here for her, she’d have no one. Or her ex-husband would have to take care of her. He couldn’t let that happen. He hadn’t spent too much time around Clayton Barry, but he didn’t trust the man. The last time he’d seen his former owner had been shortly before his suspension. He’d made a compliment to Barry about his wife and the look on the other man’s face was almost enough to make Cooper believe he’d been behind his surprise drug test. But that would be counterproductive, since Cooper’s downfall had resulted in FITNatural’s downfall, and the loss of large sums of money for Mr. Barry.

      Maybe he felt a little guilty about his crush on Annabelle. He wanted to blame her husband for a mere coincidence. Because if she was his wife, he’d have a hard time with any man who even looked at her.

      It was time to get back to work. He should hit the gym, find a mound to throw off. But he couldn’t leave Annabelle and the girls alone. Those kids were something else. They’d chatted all morning while they were making breakfast—about their teacher, their favorite movies, and even how they got to see their Uncle Marco win the World Series, even though he wasn’t really their uncle.

      They talked a little bit about their dad, but it was clear they were much closer with their mother. They did mention he’d met them in Dallas for Christmas and had promised to take them to Disneyland when he finished his “hearing test” and sold his “vitamin company.” He could only assume they meant the hearing for FITNatural and its involvement in the steroid scandal that had started with his own suspension. He wasn’t about to correct them.

      What would Annabelle think when she found out he was the one who’d brought her husband’s side business to the attention of the league? And how much was the dissolving of the company going to hurt her and her children financially?

      Had he truly believed his agent’s assertion that turning in evidence against FITNatural would convince the league to reduce his suspension? Not when the new commissioner had taken office with the vow to clean up baseball “once and for all.”

      At least the union had prevented the hundred-game suspension for first-time offenders from passing before last season, but he was certain increases were coming. Not that it would have mattered. He’d missed that many games after all, with the fifty-game suspension and then the surgery that ended his season three days after the trade.

      Cooper took his frustration with the whole mess out on his weight bench. He turned up the music and started lifting. More than he’d been lifting, but he had added frustrations to work out, especially with Annabelle so close. So close, yet so far out of his league.

      The iPod shuffled to a quieter song and he thought he heard the doorbell.

      Shit. Annabelle or the girls needed him. He dropped his weights and nearly sprinted to the door.

      “Hi.” Annabelle stood on his doorstep with a smile and the bottle of healing lotion. “I tried this stuff on my shoulder and it works. It really works.”

      “Good. I’m glad.” He was also relieved she wasn’t here for an emergency. “It’s all-natural. Really, not just as an advertising claim. It’s made by a little old lady from—”

      “Pasadena?” She interrupted him with a wide grin and a twinkle in her beautiful blue eyes.

      “No. Mendocino.” Why did she have to be so great? Funny and sweet and appreciative. Why couldn’t she be more like her ex? A spoiled, rich asshole.

      “And have you met this little old lady personally?” She still had a smile on her face. Or most of her face, the left side didn’t quite go up as much as her right, with the giant gash on her face.

      He clenched his fists to keep from reaching for her. “Yes. I have. She was at a farmer’s market and she charmed me into buying a whole case of the stuff.”

      “Well, I’m glad you did, because it really does help.” Annabelle moved toward him, as if she wanted to come in. Or tell him a secret. “But I can’t reach my back. Would you mind?”

      Oh hell.

      He stepped back so she could come in. She smelled of lavender and rosemary and eucalyptus and something even sweeter.

      A hard rock song blasted from his weight room speakers.

      “Let me go turn that off.” He moved down the hallway and she followed.

      Annabelle stopped in the doorway of the dining room he’d converted to a home gym and laughed. “Is that me? I don’t remember them doing a poster of that cover.”

      “They didn’t. I had it done.” It had been ten years ago and he still hung the framed picture in every place he lived. “A buddy of mine worked at this place that could turn anything into a poster for twenty bucks.”

      “Twenty bucks, huh?” She gave him a look that might have been disapproving, if not for the way her eyes crinkled at the corners and her lips twitched trying to hold back a smile. “That’s some pretty expensive artwork.”

      “I paid another thirty for the frame.” He stood there feeling every bit the twenty-one-year-old who’d been so obsessed with Annabelle he’d convinced his friend to risk his job in making the poster when he didn’t have the rights to the photo.

      “Fifty bucks, huh. Quite an investment.”

      “I was young. I wanted to class up my first apartment.” He wondered briefly if she would have been interested in him back then. Would she have even looked twice at an up-and-coming ballplayer who thought he was the next hot prospect?

      “I was even younger.” She approached the poster he had hanging over his weight bench. There was something almost wistful in her tone. “I was so young.”

      He watched her study herself and wondered what she must be thinking. Probably that he was some kind of stalker and she would be calling her lawyer when she got home.

      “So you really do use me.” She laughed, turning around to show an amused grin on her face. “Does that help you add cardio to your workouts?”

      “Huh?” He was surprised at how lightly she was taking this.

      “You know, getting your heart rate up?” Her gaze drew over him, settling just below his waist. “Among other things.”

      “Look, Annabelle, I didn’t mean to…”

      “To what? Get off on my picture?” Her gaze narrowed. “Objectify women?”

      “I just liked the photo. I liked it a lot, so I had it blown up.” He felt like a real jerk. “And I kept it because it reminds me of a time in my life when I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing.”

      “And you think I did?” She laughed again. “I was so young. So naïve. It’s hard to believe I’m the same person.”

      He moved closer to her. Couldn’t help himself.

      “Annabelle.” His voice sounded funny to his own ears—strained—as if he couldn’t believe he was standing here, with her, having this conversation with the one woman he’d СКАЧАТЬ