Read Online Broken Play by Samantha Kane - Free Book Online

and took a couple of steps toward them, a scary-as-shit look on his face. Beau grabbed his arm.
    “He didn’t mean to scare her,” Beau said quickly.
    “Hell, no, man,” Tyler said. “Sorry, Marian.” He held both empty hands out in front of him as if he were surrendering. “I thought you heard me coming.”
    “Hey, are you okay?” Tom asked starting to walk over to Marian.
    “I’m fine,” she said, a little too loudly. She was pissed, but she was also breathing heavy and her hand was on her chest, as if her heart were racing. “He just surprised me, that’s all. I don’t like surprises.”
    “Like the guy in that commercial,” Jo Jo said, laughing. “The one who jumps and squeaks just like that when he opens the door to his surprise party.” Some of the other guys in the locker room laughed, too, and the tension was broken.
    “Do not, on pain of death, ever throw me a surprise party,” Marian said, pointing at him. “I mean it.”
    “No, ma’am,” Jo Jo said. “Not me.”
    “If you’re dead, can you feel the pain?” Tom asked thoughtfully. Marian glared at him. “Just weighing my options,” Tom said, going back to his locker.
    “Now, why was Cass yelling? Again?” Marian asked, smoothing her polo across her flat stomach. Beau frowned when he noticed her hand shaking a bit.
    “Danny Smith,” Beau told her, knowing it would take everyone’s mind off Marian’s overreaction.
    Marian put a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. “Again? Seriously? Can’t you let the head office worry about Smith and focus on playing football? Would that be too much trouble, Mr. Zielinski?”
    Oh, man, she was going to push Cass too far. Beau wasn’t sure if he should intervene. He’d sort of started it, making it open season on Smith with that interview. Cass had a right to be pissed. They all did. But he could see Marian’s point, too.
    “That’s what I’d like to do,” Cass said from between clenched teeth. “But it’s pretty hard to learn the playbook and scrimmage without your star running back.”
    “I’m doing all right,” Tyler said affably from his locker. He’d sauntered over, making a wide berth around Marian when he came through the door. “It’s Smith who’s going to be playing catch-up. Ha!” He looked around the locker room with a grin. “Did you get that? The running back playing catch-up?”
    “Don’t quit your day job,” Beau said absently. He was watching Cass and Marian closely. If they went head-to-head, should he let them go at each other? It could ruin whatever it was that they’d started. A few weeks ago, Beau wouldn’t have worried about that. He would have been glad about it. But now…now that he’d spent time with Marian. He liked her. He maybe more than liked her. If Cass walked away, Beau wasn’t so sure he’d follow his play, which was unnerving. Beau always followed Cass’s lead. He felt a little unsteady at the implications. Cass had always been the only one he really wanted. But Marian made him feel like his old self again. Actually, better than his old self, stronger and smarter, and like he was somebody.
    Staying with Marian could cause him problems, problems he’d been avoiding ever since that damn sex tape came out. He was high profile right now. That could change on a dime; the press was notoriously fickle. But if it didn’t? If they got wind of what was happening between him, Cass, and Marian? It would be all over the news, and not just the sports news. Did he want to go through that again? Was Marian worth it? His head hurt just trying to think it all through.
    —
    Marian pressed two fingers to her forehead. Her head was throbbing. Tyler had scared the living daylights out of her. She was still recovering from that and she was pissed, mostly at herself for letting something so stupid scare her so much. She’d thought she was over that stupid shit; over letting someone’s innocent actions cause a panic attack. And now Cass was going