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Hannah
She’d known the moment she’d accepted the invitation to the party that Edwin would be there. It was the only reason she’d come.
Which told her everything she needed to know.
Something she’d suspected for a while but avoided thinking about.
She liked Edwin Boyle.
Really, it was more than like. It was sort of an obsession.
The first night she’d ever met him, five years ago, she’d immediately liked him. Of course she’d had no idea who he was at the time. Once she’d found out he was a soccer player, one she’d be representing, she’d shut any feelings she’d might have had for him down.
Or she’d tried.
Turns out that was easier said than done.
Edwin was funny and smart and so fucking sexy, it made her ache. As much as she’d tried to keep him as nothing more than a client, he wormed his way into her life. They became friends. Best friends, really. He was the person she called or texted when she had good news or bad news. He was the one person she wanted to talk to even if she was in a bad mood. And he was the guy who made her laugh when all she wanted to do was cry.
Ironic, considering that he’d been the one to make her cry the last two months.
At first, she was all ‘fuck him and the horse he rode in on’ when he’d asked to be switched to a new team of agents. It had stung but she’d gotten over it. When he stopped taking her calls or texts, things went from bad to worse. Why was he ignoring her? What had she done?
Only, she never got an answer.
Well, that wasn’t technically true.
He’d texted and said that he was sorry but he was just really busy at the moment.
If they’d been dating and he’d said those words, it would have been a brush-off. But they weren’t dating. They were nothing more than friends and even that was questionable. Maybe they’d never really been friends.
Maybe he’d been using her to get ahead in his career.
After all, she gave him more attention than any other client.
Because she thought they’d been friends.
How wrong she had been.
Then one day, she was flipping through the news on her phone and she came across a photo of him and a date. All hell broke loose in her heart and head.
She wasn’t sad and angry because they’d been friends. She was sad and angry because she liked him and she wanted to be the woman who was wrapped around him as they walked into a restaurant.
That was the moment that her world flipped upside down. She started thinking back through the years, to everything they’d ever talked about or done together. To all the phone conversations and late-night texts. All the times he’d been the only person she’d wanted to talk to.
To her lack of a dating life.
It had been Edwin the whole time and she’d been too stupid to notice.
And now that she had, he was gone. Out of her life. And from the conversation they’d just had, it seemed pretty damn permanent.
Yeah, coming to the party had been a giant fucking mistake.
“You look like you could use this.” Her best friend from college, Zara, shoved a tumbler of amber liquid toward her. She accepted it and without even knowing what it was, she downed the whole thing.
Bourbon.
Really good bourbon from the taste of it.
“O-kay,” Zara said, drawing out the word. “That shit is a thousand dollars a bottle but I’m sure Shane assumed people would shoot it like a free shot on ladies' night at a college bar.”
Hannah glared at her friend. “He can afford it.”
Zara shook her head. “Are you ever going to tell me what the hell is wrong with you? You’ve been a real bitch the last few months and I say that with all the love I have in my heart for you.”
Hannah laughed despite herself. She looked at her friend. They were polar opposites in every way. Where Hannah was naturally blonde, pale with freckles, and curvy, Zara was dark-skinned with stunning black hair and a trim body. But looks weren’t the only place where they differed. Hannah was as midwestern as you could get. She’d been born in Chicago and still lived there to this day. She chose a large firm thinking that was the place to be if you wanted to be a sports agent.
Zara was born in India but moved to the States as a baby, her family settling in California. She’d only moved to Chicago for college and other than her strong opinion of the pizza, she was a full-on California girl. Oddly enough she’d settled in Valley Falls after college, choosing a small firm that mainly had Strikers as clients, although it was branching out more and more.
She always told Hannah that it wasn’t the number of clients she had but how she treated them.
Hannah was starting to wonder if that was true. While Hannah was working sixty-plus-hour weeks, Zara had more free time to do the things she liked.
Like date.
Zara dated a lot.
Something she herself never did.
At least, now she knew why that was.
Edwin.
“Nothing is wrong,” she told her friend.
Zara studied her. “And this has nothing to do with the oh so delicious Edwin Boyle who was just over here talking to you before I came over?”
Busted. Zara knew the basics. That he had switched agents, but that was it. She didn’t know that he was practically her best friend. And Hannah definitely hadn’t confided in her what she’d only learned recently.
That she liked him as more than a friend.
“He was just saying hi.” That was true.
Zara frowned. “I think there is a lot more to this story than you’re telling me but I’m not going to push. Tonight is for fun and you and I never get to see each other. So let’s go get some more of that thousand dollar bourbon, sip it slowly this time and spend some time together.”
That sounded great to Hannah. Anything to get her mind off her Edwin.
They made their way to the bar where they each got a drink. Then they strolled around the party.
“Do you really like living in Valley Falls?” Hannah asked her, unsure she could ever live in such a small town. She was so used to the hustle and bustle of Chicago.
“I do, as hard as that is to believe. All I ever wanted to do was be a sports agent. I didn’t need a large company and millions of clients. I like helping people get what they want in life.”
“You always were the better of the two of us,” Hannah said genuinely.
Zara laughed. “I don’t think that’s true at all. You just had and still have loftier goals. There’s nothing wrong with that. Go take over the world.” She gestured to the sky. “I will be here cheering you on loudly and telling everyone I know her. She’s my friend.”
Hannah couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled out. “But I’m not taking over the world. I’m barely taking over a corner of Chicago.” She sighed. “I’m starting to think that it’s not what I want anymore. Maybe you had it right all along.”
“Then do something about it,” Zara said as if that was the easiest thing in the world to do.
“How would I even do that?”
“Make a change. Go out on a limb. Take a chance.”
“Are there any more inspirational sayings you’d like to throw at me?” She raised her eyebrow.
“They’re inspirational for a reason.” Zara touched her forearm. “If you don’t like your life, do something about it. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned in all these years of being a sports agent, it's that you have to fight for yourself because there are very few people out there who will fight for you.”
Hannah understood what Zara was saying but that didn’t mean she knew what she wanted to do. “I wish I was as bold as you. That I could take chances and put myself out there.”
“I wish I was as awesome as you make me sound. I’m just a person out in the world, trying her best.”
“Yeah, but you live,” Hannah said emphatically. “You try things and meet people and date.” The last word was said with an abundance of pent-up frustration.
“Is that what this is about? Dating?” She frowned. “Jesus, Hannah, if you want to date, go date. There are guys everywhere. Literally everywhere, including this damn room.”
That was part of the problem. The only guy she wanted to date was in the same room. “If only it were as easy as you make it sound.” She took a generous sip of her bourbon.
As she looked up over her glass, her eyes landed on Edwin. He was talking to Cooper Holland and his wife Mae, who Hannah had just met a few months ago. Cooper was someone who everyone at Top Athlete had tried to get over the years but he’d never been interested. He’d gone with the small firm, Sports World, that Zara worked for. The rumor mill was swirling with news that he was about to retire.
She leaned in closer to her friend. “Any truth to the rumor about Cooper?”
Zara’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “You know I can’t tell you that.”
“Come on, Zar, I won’t tell anyone. I just want to know.”
Zara shook her head but smiled as she leaned even closer. “He was thinking about it. He still has two years left on his contract but Shane and I are sitting down in a couple of days to renegotiate. Cooper doesn’t want to play full-time anymore. Maybe only half the games.”
That was interesting information but not unexpected. Hannah had watched him play the last couple of years and she could tell he was in pain. He was not getting any younger and keeping up with all the young guys had to be hard on his body. “My lips are zipped,” she told Zara and mimed zipping her lips with her fingers over her mouth.
“They better be or else I’ll be forced to have you killed and I really can’t afford that if I want to keep eating.”
They dissolved into a fit of giggles. She’d missed this. Missed having someone to talk to and laugh with. Someone who knew her almost as well as she knew herself.
Zara was one of those people and Edwin had been the other.
“Ladies.” They both looked up to see who had joined them only to find Allana Bradley and Ruby Mullen standing before them. “It seems like you’re having entirely too much fun over here,” Allana said.
“That’s the purpose of a party,” Zara said.
“She has you there,” Ruby said, laughing.
“Then we are definitely joining you,” Allana said. “If I have to listen to one more conversation about soccer tonight, I might throw a ball at someone's head.”
“I’m pretty sure that comes with the territory of being the wife of the owner,” Hannah said.
“Yeah, yeah, but does it have to be all the time?” Allana shook her head. “I swear, he dreams of this damn team.”
“But at least he’s doing it next to you,” Ruby said, saluting Allana with her champagne glass.
“Can we not talk about sex when half of the people here,” Zara indicated to herself and Hannah, “aren’t getting any.”
“First,” Allana said in a very stern, very ‘I’m a principal and you need to listen to me’ voice, “no one mentioned sex. And second, you both could have any guy in this room.”
That made Hannah freeze in place. She didn’t just want any guy. She wanted Edwin.
Zara laughed. “I just said basically the same thing to Hannah. Although, she has this stupid no dating athletes rule.”
“It’s not stupid,” she chimed in. “It’s in my contract.” Although she’d never wanted to date a client or athlete. That is until she realized she was half in love with Edwin. Now she was tempted to throw the rules out the damn window.
If only he would speak to her.
“You have a clause in your contract about not dating athletes?” Ruby asked with a raised voice. “That seems kind of backward.”
“Says the woman who refused to let herself like a player thanks to some preconceived notions,” Allana said.
“Oh, this sounds like gossip and I love gossip,” Zara said.
Hannah couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m assuming it’s not relevant any longer since she’s happily in a relationship with Dallas Ramos.”
“Oh, I know and please don’t take this the wrong way, but that man is hot.” Zara fanned her face. “Like seriously hot.”
Ruby laughed. “I’m not sure how I can take it the wrong way since I’m in complete agreement. In fact,” she held up her hand, wiggling her fingers for them to see, and there, on her ring finger just so happened to be a huge diamond ring, “he’s no longer just my boyfriend. He proposed a couple of days ago.”
Zara and Hannah squealed in delight, each of them pulling on her hand to get a better look at the glittering ring. Even Allana, who seemed to already know the news, joined in on the excitement.
“This is so exciting,” Hannah said, her mind immediately drifting to Edwin. Dallas was his best friend so not only would he already know about the engagement, but he’d most likely be the best man at the wedding.
A wedding she probably wouldn’t even be invited to.
Fuck, she needed a drink.
For the next couple of hours, she drowned her sorrows in alcohol and laughter. Allana and Ruby introduced her to person after person, and she made contacts with players or athletes that she would have never come in contact with if she hadn’t been invited to the party. She also flirted a little with a guy named Dan who just so happened to ask for her number.
Overall, the night was a success.
Except it wasn’t. Not really.
The whole night, she looked for Edwin. He was always talking to someone and always laughing. She spent every minute of her time dreaming up different scenarios in her head about what would happen if she made a move.
And as the clock counted down until it was a minute to midnight, she said fuck it and went in search of him.
If there was ever a time to make a move, it was when you were slightly tipsy and entering a new year.
She turned a corner and found him alone, leaning against a wall.
“Hannah,” he said, and was it her imagination, or was he a little breathless? Maybe it was all the alcohol she’d consumed.
“Why are you hiding back here instead of ringing in the New Year with your friends?” she asked. God, he looked good. He’d unbuttoned another button on his shirt and now she could see more skin then earlier in the night. Plus, he’d rolled up his sleeves.
Jesus, was there anything sexier than a man’s forearms?
“I could ask the same about you,” he said, his eyes searching hers.
“I was looking for you.” Alcohol. Bringing honesty to the forefront for hundreds of years.
He pushed off the wall just as she took another step toward him. They were mere feet apart. He was so close that she could see his jaw tick.
She wished she could touch it, feel it under her palm.
“Let’s go back out there with everyone else,” he said, his voice low.
That fucking voice. That low, deep, sexy as fuck voice that she’d listened to night after night on the phone. How had she been so blind to what she’d been feeling?
“I don’t want to go out there.” She lifted a hand, placing it on his chest.
His breath caught.
Behind her, the party was counting down to midnight.
“Ten!”
She could feel his heartbeat through his chest.
“Nine!”
She swallowed as his eyes bore into hers.
“Eight!”
His breathing sped up.
“Seven!”
She bit her bottom lip.
“Six!”
His hand reached out, landing on her waist.
“Five!”
She curled her fingers, gripping his shirt tightly.
“Four!”
He closed the distance between them.
“Three!”
She begged him not to stop with just her eyes.
“Two!”
He pulled her against his hard body.
“One!”
She lifted her mouth to his.
And so, on the first second of the new year, Hannah Temple was kissing Edwin Boyle.
She owed alcohol a thank you card.