The Wedding Deal_Heart in the Game by Cindi Madsen

Author:Cindi Madsen [Madsen, Cindi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Entangled, Amara, American Humorous Fiction, Contemporary American Fiction, Contemporary Romance Fiction, General Humorous Fiction, romantic comedy, Sports Romance, Women's Humorous Fiction, Boss/employee, opposites, weddings
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (Amara)
Published: 2019-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Subconsciously, part of the reason she’d shown up at Lance’s room so early might be because she’d wanted to talk to someone. Needed to, really. But she still wasn’t sure it was a good idea. It was so personal and possibly TMI when it came to subjects that were okay to talk about with your boss.

But tidbits about her dad had spilled out here and there already. Shannon wasn’t a good option—she’d point out that she was enabling him again, or maybe tell her that she’d warned her not to get her hopes up that he’d change, and Charlotte didn’t want to hear what boiled down to “I told you so.”

“My dad called this morning.”

Lance didn’t push. He simply waited, those long fingers still curled around her shoulders.

“He’s in rehab.” There it was. The secret she’d kept buried deep. There was a difference between telling people he was a gambler and admitting he was lost to the addiction that’d cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars, his reputation, and any chance at ever coaching again.

She slowly turned to face Lance, the desire to watch his response stronger than her instinct to hide the way it ripped her apart inside.

“Gambling?” he asked, and she nodded.

“In my attempt to win his affection, I accidentally enabled him enough to turn him from a frequent gambler to one who lost everything.” If she hadn’t been wrong about that game, the other dominos wouldn’t have fallen, not so fast and not so hard.

“That’s bullshit. You’re not responsible for any of that.”

“I don’t know. Yes, he makes his own decisions, and I think he would’ve continued to gamble no matter what, but once he saw what I could do with stats and numbers… That’s when his gambling took on a new life, one that scared me, but I didn’t stop.” A tight band formed around her chest. She’d never confessed this much to anyone. “We were finally spending time together, and it was nice. I also justified it by telling myself that when I wasn’t with him, he lost more often. But maybe losing more frequently would’ve forced him to slow down.”

“I doubt it. There aren’t hundreds of casinos out there because people slow down once they get a taste for doubling and tripling their money. Those are the stories everyone tells, of course. How they paid for their entire trip with their winnings.”

She’d heard that one from Dad and from several of his friends. “We had a good run.

But I’m sure you know better than anyone that all the facts and figures in the world don’t account for everything.”

“You mentioned the illusion of the perfect game before,” he said, reminding her that she had. To apply to love. At least that was metaphorical.

“Well, his luck ran out during the worst possible time. I could blame the refs and the fact that there were a lot of injuries and that it was the first game the quarterback performed so poorly, but it doesn’t matter why.” She reached up and twisted a strand of hair around her finger.

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