Game for Love

She was going to walk away from him before they got a chance to see what could have been.

And she would never believe that he loved her.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Mrs. Taylor, I stole your wish for your grandson and turned it into a horrible lie. I’m so, so sorry for what I’ve done.”

A

Surprisingly, he’d respected that decision.

The other surprising thing was that his grandmother didn’t look particularly upset about her confession. A

Shouldn’t his grandmother be more upset than anyone?

“The truth is, honey,” Eugenia said as she reached for A

“Yes,” A

“I know.”

She couldn’t believe his grandmother wasn’t defending him. “What do you mean, you know?”

Eugenia sighed, shaking her head. “Just because I love my grandson doesn’t mean I don’t see his faults. He’s bullheaded. Sometimes it’s a good thing, like when he was chasing his dream to make a career out of football. But other times, he gets an idea in his head and follows it straight into a dead end.” To A

A

“Oh yes. He spent a night in prison once, too.”

A

“Nothing much. Drinking from open containers. Talking back to police officers. His father was just like that when he was young. Too much energy and nowhere to put it. That’s when his father started flying, real fast planes that could take all he could give.”

A

She needed to get their focus back on the apology. “I really am sorry about letting you believe my relationship with Cole was something it isn’t. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me one day.”

“Oh, honey.” Eugenia patted her hands again. “I appreciate you coming all this way for me, but I don’t think you really want me to forgive you for falling in love with my grandson. I think you should forgive yourself first.”

“How can I?” A

“Cole made his mistakes. And now you’ve made yours.”

A

“I know you’re hurting, honey, and I know my grandson is the reason for that. But I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you. Like he’s finally seen the sun, like he finally believes it can shine down on him.”

A

“Oh no. My boy has never been able to get a lie past me. He loves you, honey. Fu

A

“If you could, would you take it all back? If I could clap my hands and send you back to Friday night and make sure that you never met my grandson, is that the path you would take?”

A

But the words just wouldn’t come.

“Or,” his grandmother said with such kindness, such understanding, “would you have loved him anyway?”

* * *

“I’ll never forgive myself for what I did to you, Grandma.” A flash of pain shot through him. “And to A

“I’m angry with you, Cole. A

“I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks.” And it was true, he never had. It was what had made him impenetrable. “I only care about you.” His throat was almost too tight to say,

“And A

“I still love you, honey. And the last time I saw someone as full of love as A

Holding nothing back. No matter what.”

“I made her lie for me.”

“Cole.” His name was a warning on his grandmother’s lips. “Don’t keep on with the lying. Don’t keep getting yourself in trouble. Yes, you benefited from the lies. But so did she, otherwise she wouldn’t have gone through with it.”

But the fact that A

“I need to let her go she can have a normal life, marry a guy who’s good enough for her.”

A guy he would dream of killing with his bare hands each and every night.

“I know you think you’ve broken her heart. But little cracks, that’s all there are in it right now. You want to really see it break, you go ahead and let a better man have her. I thought you were smarter than this, Cole.” His grandmother hadn’t talked to him like this since bailing him out of jail his freshman year at college. “Do you really not see that your entire future is A

Are you really going to just up and throw it all away? You’ve fought before, honey. Fight again.

Fight like hell to fix what you’ve done wrong. And when you get back on the straight and narrow, don’t ever look back. Only forward.”

Word for word, it was what she’d said to him when he was nineteen. How could he have forgotten?

Playing football had been important, had given him a purpose, a reason to feel good about himself in the morning. Football had been more than just his livelihood, it had been his everything.

But he could play a thousand more games, could keep getting up in the morning, keep depositing those big checks into his bank account, and it wouldn’t matter.

Not without A

Because she was his everything.

And he was going to get her back. Somehow, some way, he was going to convince her she needed to be with him.

When someone knocked, Cole looked up expecting to see A

Please, God, no. Not this, too.