The Perfect Catch Read online

  The Perfect Catch

  A contemporary sports romance book

  Shania Tyler

  Contents

  Copyright

  .

  1

  Chapter One

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  2

  Chapter Two

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  3

  Chapter Three

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  4

  Chapter Four

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  5

  Chapter Five

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  6

  Chapter Six

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  7

  Chapter Seven

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  8

  Chapter Eight

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  9

  Chapter Nine

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  10

  Chapter Ten

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  11

  Chapter Eleven

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  12

  Chapter Twelve

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  13

  Chapter Thirteen

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  14

  Chapter Fourteen

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  15

  Chapter Fifteen

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  16

  Chapter Sixteen

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  17

  Chapter Seventeen

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  18

  Chapter Eighteen

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  19

  Chapter Nineteen

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  20

  Chapter Twenty

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  21

  Chapter Twenty-one

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  22

  Chapter Twenty-two

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  23

  Chapter Twenty-three

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  24

  Chapter Twenty-four

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  25

  Chapter Twenty-five

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  26

  Chapter Twenty-six

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  27

  Chapter Twenty-seven

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  28

  Chapter Twenty-eight

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  29

  Chapter Twenty-nine

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  30

  Chapter Thirty

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  31

  Chapter Thirty-one

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  32

  Chapter Thirty-two

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  33

  Chapter Thirty-three

  .

  Epilogue

  .

  Publishers Notes

  Copyright © 2018 by

  Shania Tyler

  All Rights reserved.

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  .

  He’s the one man in football they warned me about.

  Stubborn, arrogant… and hot as sin.

  It took me three years to become the first female general manager.

  Can I really risk it all for one night with Major Lawson?

  Women throw themselves at me. Men want to be me.

  Football made me what I am.

  The hottest coach in the league.

  But my name went from famous to infamous with the punch of a quarterback.

  Everyone turned their backs on me.

  Except Ruby.

  Her honied voice called and offered me the one thing I wanted. A job.

  Now all I want is her.

  The only general manager in the game with curves and sass.

  I tasted her sweet lips and wanted more.

  She thinks it can’t last, but I’m playing for keeps.

  We all have secrets, and mine is Ruby.

  But I’m done hiding. This game is hard, but I’m harder.

  Ruby made me forget my past.

  Now I’ll prove that I’m her future.

  I’ll protect what’s mine, and take Ruby—and my team—all the way to victory.

  * * *

  1

  .

  .

  .

  CHAPTER ONE

  .

  Ruby

  “Bill, please don’t do this.” I hated how whiny and pleading my voice sounded, but I had to do everything I could to keep my head coach, Bill Barker, from walking out of those glass doors. The ones with my name on them, underneath the big Houston Buckskin’s logo. I’d tried so very hard to keep my name on that door since I’d become the General Manager almost three years ago.

  “Ruby, I like you,” Bill started. I fought the urge to roll my eyes or stamp my foot. If he liked me so much, why was he trying to leave? He cleared his throat and twisted the cap on his head around – a sure sign that he was flustered. “I think you’ve been a great asset to this here team. But you don’t know what they’ve offered me.”

  “Bill,” I started, making some calculations in my head. “Whatever they’re offering you, I’m sure we can work something out. You’ve worked with these guys for years. You know how close we are to winning a ring!”

  He nodded along with me, so I knew that he realized that as well. This team had been carefully crafted since I took over as GM. I knew each of the players. Knew their skills, their strengths, their weaknesses. Just like I knew Bill’s. I decided to push it a little. “Bill, if this is because they’re offering you a chance at a GM spot in a few years…”

  He started shaking his head before I even got the words out. “It’s not about that. I know that’s only a small chance. But my wife has been wanting to move out of Texas since we got here. She loves the city, the nightlife.”

  “Bill, Houston is a huge city! What are you talking about? Can’t you convince her? The nightlife is great!” Not that I would know. I’d been working myself to the bone since I got to Houston, knowing that someone would always be a step behind me, trying to take over the prestigious job. But there was a strip, right? A section of town devoted to bars and bad ideas? I hoped there was…

  “Not like the nightlife of Los Angeles. You don’t understand,” he sighed, scratching his head through his cap. “She wants theaters and movie stars and shopping.”

  The way he said it gave me a little indication that he wasn’t happy to be dragged around to a different team just based on the shopping malls in the area. So, at least there was that to go on. “What if we bring her with us to the away games? Then she can shop wherever the team lands.”

  He sighed dramatically. “It won’t work, Ruby. I’m sorry. I’ve already accepted the job.”

  “But you accepted the job here, Bill. You signed a contract!” I was grasping at straws, and he probably knew it.

  Sure enough, he frowned. “My contract is season-to-season. And I didn’t sign yet for this year.”

  I blew out a frustrated breath. He wasn’t wrong, but it was still irritating. “Because I just assumed you would re-up. We talked about it at least ten different times. You never even indicated that you were looking for another job!”

  “I know, and I’m sorry for that,” he admitted. “This job kinda fell into my lap. It’s right in the city, so Brenda will be happy. And they increased my pay and severance. And I get four pro-bowlers. Four.”

  I gnashed my teeth together behind my lip-sticked smile. “Well, if there’s nothing I can say to convince you…”

  “There isn’t.”

  “Then I guess this is goodbye, Bill. Good luck in Los Angeles. I guess we’ll see you in the pre-season games, huh?” I couldn’t help asking the question, hoping he heard the carefully placed barb. Not only had the chump tak
en a job with another team in the NFL, he’d taken it in the same division. It was the worst kind of backstabbing a coach could do in this game. He was taking all our plays, our team skills, our worries about the upcoming season to another team to give them the advantage. I was trying really, really hard not to break the pretty gold fountain pen I had in my hand – the same one that he’d given me last Christmas. The same one he’d used to sign on the dotted line for that bonus last year. My fingers squeeze the life out of that pen while I stared at him with a pretty, blasé smile on my face. Thanks a lot, Bill.

  After he left my office, I frantically called every contact I had who used discretion and could be counted on to be subtle in their inquiries. The last thing I needed was this spread around before I could explain it to the team or my assistant coaching staff. Or, God forbid, the owners. This was the last thing I needed, especially when my contract was up after this season unless the franchise offered to renew it.

  No one had any ideas. Not Dave, the sports newscaster for one of the bigger sports TV channels in the nation right now. Not Marcus, who’d always been able to give me the hot tips on who was looking for work right now. Not Sandra, who had slept with about half the coaching staff of the NFL and was willing to brag about it with me. Not even Dion, who kept the coaches in fancy hotels and cars. I was down to the last name on my list. My ex-boyfriend, Scotty Davis.

  Scotty was the head coach of the Dakota Blazers. He’d just made the transition from college to pro, and he’d been looking for a job himself until he was hired a few months ago. He likely knew every other coach who had been his competition.

  I sighed, staring at my iPhone and praying that Bill would walk back in, claiming that he’d changed his mind. When he didn’t, I tapped on my favorites bar. Even though we’d been broken up for three months, I hadn’t gotten around to deleting him from it. His handsome, toothy grin reflected up at me from the phone screen. Kill me now.

  Instead of grabbing the nearest scissors, I pressed his face and my phone started dialing his number. Placing it to my ear, I shut my eyes, hoping it would go straight to voicemail.

  “Hello?”

  My stomach dropped. Not voicemail. “Hey, Scotty.”

  “Ruby? Is that you?”

  No, someone else is calling you from my phone. Idiot. “Yeah, it’s me. Hey, quick question—”

  Before I could blurt out my question, quickly and hopefully without much small talk, he cut me off. Which was totally his style. He was the type of guy who was always thinking of what he wanted to say to you instead of actually listening to you speak. It had always irritated me, and clearly, that hadn’t changed in the last three months.

  “Man, it’s good to hear from you. I thought you’d still be bitter about that whole Kiera thing. But I was telling the dudes that you’re way too chill for that. And I guess I was right, eh?” His voice lifted, like he was smiling. He was almost always smiling. Even when he was cheating on me with supermodel Kiera Duncan, famous for both her ridiculously cut cheekbones and also for dating my boyfriend while I was dating him, unbeknownst to me.

  “No, I’m not still… bitter,” I spit out. Not sure bitter was the right word. Pissed maybe? Irritated? Wanting to hurl things at him in public? Certainly not bitter. And it irked me that he was talking to his ‘dudes’ about me, when it’s not like he’d ever talked to me about our relationship – past or present.

  “You sure, Ruby? Cause you definitely still sound a little bitter.” Scotty’s voice was almost smug through the phone. God, help me now. I pressed my thumb and forefinger to the bridge of my nose in an attempt to stop the headache already beginning to form there. Why do you have to be so… Scotty right now?

  “I assure you, Scotty, I am not still bitter,” I said very slowly and precisely in the hopes that he might actually get the message.

  “Sure, if you say so.” The way he said the words told me he really didn’t believe me at all but I forced myself to bite my tongue. I couldn’t afford to spend time arguing with him. There was a noise in the background like him hacking up spit, then he asked, “What can I do for you, Ruby?”

  I couldn’t believe what I was about to say. The words stuck in my throat for as long as they could before I finally blurted them out, feeling sick to my stomach. “I actually need your help.”

  “You know I would do anything for you,” Scotty responded charmingly. There was a time when I would have fallen for that easy charm of his. There was a time when I’d have smiled and giggled at the way he winked at me and made me feel like the prettiest girl in the world. But I was young and stupid back then. I wasn’t now.

  “I’m sure you tell that to all the girls,” I said as I rolled my eyes, knowing it was true. He did say it to all the girls, and I was more than sure that he told it to Kiera Duncan more than once while he was sleeping with her in the bed we’d shared.

  “I do not!” I could hear the smile in his voice. Typical of him.

  “Never mind that, Scotty. Let’s stay on track here.” I pressed the bridge of my nose just a little harder. “I really do need your help.”

  “Name it and you’ve got it,” Scotty replied, and I was relieved that he didn’t try to make a joke about it. He always tried to make a joke about everything, even things that couldn’t – or shouldn’t – be considered funny in any way. That was another thing that had always annoyed me about him, the way he could put his foot in his mouth by simply trying too hard to be funny.

  “I need the names and numbers of all the guys who were interviewed for your position but missed out.” I held my breath as I waited for him to answer. I prayed he wouldn’t joke around about this. I needed him to be serious right now, for once in his life.

  “What on earth do you need those for?” He was genuinely curious, not simply trying to keep me hanging.

  “Please, can I just get the names and numbers?” I knew my voice was pleading but I was getting desperate. None of my other contacts had panned out. After all, I must be desperate to even be on the phone with him.

  “On one condition,” he replied, and my heart sank. Why did there always have to be conditions? Obviously, he didn’t see it this way, but he owed me. For all the press and tabloids that had stalked me for weeks after his affair. They’d almost destroyed my career, but luckily, it was true that bad press was still press. It had actually garnered me some attention in corners of the NFL that hadn’t been touched by me yet.

  I hated having to ask, but I knew it was the only way to get what I needed from him. “What condition is that?”

  “Go on a date with me,” he said, his tone unwavering and surprisingly serious. He wasn’t joking about this, and it was just my luck that this would be the thing that took the joking tone out of his voice. His words caused my stomach to churn. I couldn’t think of anything worse than going on a date with my ex-boyfriend, the man who had cheated on me with at least one other woman. One woman that I knew of. I’d be surprised if there weren’t more.

  “Don’t you have Kiera to go on dates with?” I instantly knew that I shouldn’t have asked the question, but it was right there, hanging in the space of our telephone call. I wanted to call back the words, but I hoped that reminding him of what he had done to me might force him away from the idea. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to work.

  “Kiera and I aren’t really talking anymore,” he said with the same tone as the rest of our phone call. Clearly, he wasn’t too worked up about them not still being a couple. It almost made it worse, that he’d cheated on me with someone he didn’t even care enough about to be heartbroken. Had it been worth it? All those nights that I’d screamed into my pillow in frustration because my picture had appeared in another tabloid or online blog post. I could almost imagine the disinterested expression on his face and it instantly made me want to slap him silly. I bet he had the same expression while telling Kiera about me, too.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” I told him as genuinely as I could, even though it wasn’t genuine at all. I
needed him to do me this favor more than I needed him to know how pissed I was at him.

  “So, what do you say? Will you go on a date with me?” he asked. I shook my head as I mentally cursed myself for what I was about to do. But I was pushed into the corner right now. I didn’t have anyone else to turn to, and the season and my career hung on his willingness to help me out in this.

  “Yes, I will go on a date with you,” I said, my words seeming to hang on the air. I wanted to snort in disgust at myself, playing his games again. This time, I wouldn’t get caught up in his charm. I wouldn’t fall victim to that handsome smile again. I’d learned my lesson.

  “Great. Well then, there is only one name worth giving you, seeing as I am sure you are looking for someone specific.” With a pause for unnecessary dramatic effect, he said, “The name you’re looking for is Major Lawson.”