The Comeback of Roy Walker. Stephanie Doyle

I promise, if I see the other players getting a little handsy with the bunnies, I won’t say a thing. I took a cab so I can get my drink on and unwind.”

      She walked toward him, but he still had his back to the door, shutting out the party. Shutting her in.

      “Let’s get out of here, then. I’ll take you someplace else. You can get your drink on there and I’ll make sure you get home safely.”

      She blinked at him. “You’re going to leave your own party?”

      “Yeah. Why not?”

      She huffed, her hands on her hips, and shook her head like he’d exasperated her again. He did that to her a lot it seemed.

      “Roy, I thought the whole point of this party was for you to make a new start with the team. Get to know them for a change. You said this might be your last season.”

      “It is my last season.” There was no negotiating that. One more year, then he was done. Thirty-two years of age, the best in the game right now. This was how he was leaving baseball. On his terms.

      “I figured you wanted to do something different. Get along with the guys.”

      “Why? I’m leaving. It’s not like I’ve ever been friends with them before.”

      She rolled her eyes. “Then why throw this big party?”

      He couldn’t tell her truth. “As a going-away thing, I guess. But I don’t expect anything to change in the locker room.”

      Where he had his bench, his locker, his privacy. No one bothered him beyond an occasional “Hey, man, you got an extra bar of soap?” It was his thing. Roy Walker, loner.

      “Roy.” She sighed. “You don’t always have to be alone, you know. If you just let people in a little, you’ll see we’re not all bad.”

      “You want in?” he asked, his voice suddenly rough with truth. “I’ll let you in.”

      He could see her expression change. Like she understood what he was offering. More than he’d ever offered any woman before. A good thing, then. Lane would get angry at the suggestion he wanted something more from her. She might slap him. Certainly she would storm out the front door in indignation.

      How long until Danny got here? Ten minutes? Maybe he would blow off the party completely. Happy with the company he was with currently.

      “You know it can’t be me,” she said tightly. She clasped her hands together. Didn’t look at him. “I’m married.”

      And there it was. So obvious, so bald it almost made him gasp. She’d said the words like a death knell. Like she was trapped in a cage with no escape. It was his mission to save her.

      “Get unmarried.”

      She jerked then, as if he’d hit her. When she looked at him, the tears in her eyes almost broke his heart.

      “I can’t. I can’t fail. Duff wouldn’t—”

      “Duff would understand. He loves you. He would support you no matter what.”

      “You don’t get it.” She shook her head, her hair brushed her cheek. A cheek he so badly wanted to touch because it couldn’t be as soft as he imagined. Nothing could, right?

      “Then tell me.”

      “When Duff lost Mom he made us all promise we would try harder. That if we married, we wouldn’t make the same mistakes he made. That we would find a way to be happy. Danny and I...we can be happy. Again. I have to believe that. I have to.”

      Roy pushed away from the door and advanced on her. He watched her, waiting to see what she would do, but she didn’t move. Until he was close, so close their thighs were nearly touching.

      “What if there is something else? Someone else.”

      She put her hand on his chest. She wasn’t pushing him away, but it was her signal to stop. So he waited and just breathed her in.

      “I can’t...”

      “I can.” Without another word his head dropped and his mouth was on hers. And it was like no kiss he’d ever felt before. Not even his first. This was the thing he wanted. For so long and he hadn’t even realized it. Now she was here, and he was kissing her and—

      “No!” She backed up, almost stumbling to get away from him. “This is not who I am.”

      “Lanie, I know that.” God, how he knew that. Her loyalty was unquestionable. But she had to see that with Danny, it was undeserved.

      If she gave it to Roy, if he could have it, he would revere it and never betray it.

      “Don’t call me Lanie,” she said. “You can’t call me Lanie and you can’t... I shouldn’t have come. This was a mistake.”

      “Lane, I’m sorry.” Roy ran a hand through his hair. This wasn’t how it was supposed to play out. He was supposed to be saving her. Not taking her. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I know you would never do that to him. But you have to know though this wasn’t some half-assed pass. Tell me you know that. At least give me that.”

      She stared at him and he hid nothing from her. She might as well see it. Might as well know what she meant to him. What all those conversations and outings together had meant to him.

      Everything.

      “I need to leave.” She grabbed her coat and he didn’t stop her. After all, wasn’t this what he wanted. Her storming out before Danny got here?

      Only it was too late.

      She opened the door and on the other side was her husband. Who had a woman with long blond hair, wearing a halter dress and stiletto heels, pressed against the wall. His hand was on her breast, his tongue was in her mouth and he was grinding against her.

      He stopped kissing the woman. “Dude, we’re going to need your room for an hour.”

      Then Danny turned his head, saw his wife and the expletive that fell from his mouth was totally accurate.

      “Lane, what the hell? Dude,” Danny shouted at Roy, “you said no wives!”

      As this weird buzzing noise filled his head, Roy tried to think through what was happening. The crazy thing was he really hadn’t expected the plan to work so well. Here he was, this grown man, not some actor in a soap opera, who had devised a nefarious plot. It should have completely backfired.

      Only nope. It had worked to absolute freaking perfection. Which, of course, meant that it really did backfire.

      Lane faced Roy. Not her cheating husband. Roy. “You knew he was coming? You knew he was coming with someone?” Her voice had a raw, harsh quality he’d never heard from her before.

      Since it was hard to form words while his head still buzzed, he simply nodded.

      “You did this? To me? On purpose? I thought—I thought we were...friends.”

      Friends. She thought they were friends. She cared about him at least that much.

      He’d had that and now he’d lost it. He could see it in her face.

      “You bastard.”

      The word hit as if she’d stabbed him in the gut. Yes, he’d done this on purpose. He’d humiliated and inflicted pain upon the only woman he thought could ever really matter to him.

      Roy held up his hands as if to remind her she knew what an ass he could be.

      He could see her shake as she approached him and he kept his hands down, opened himself to whatever she would say next.

      She slapped him. Hard, across his cheek. As punishment, it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.

      “I hate you for this. I hate you, Roy Walker.”

      Then she walked