The curiosity on his face vanished, replaced by hard stone. “No.”
“Hear me out,” I said, putting up my hands. “It won’t be like a Kyle Robbins situation.”
“How would it be different?”
“Because you don’t want it for the same reasons,” I explained easily. “And it wouldn’t be an ongoing commitment.”
“I need to be focused on the field right now. We’re only a month away from bowl season.”
“And you can be. Look,” I said, pulling his hands into mine. “One commercial. One event where you sign some sneakers. You’d probably have to wear them exclusively for a while, but it wouldn’t be forever. I can work out the terms to be whatever you’re comfortable with.”
Clay frowned, considering. “It can be like that?”
“When you’re the best safety in the nation?” I arched a brow. “It can be like anything you demand.”
He smirked, leaning his head back against the headboard as he studied me. “You’re sounding like my agent now, Kitten.”
“Maybe I will be one day.”
“Is that something you’d want to do?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Charlotte said something to me when she extended my contract. She said I’d already succeeded in proving people wrong about me, but now she wanted me to ask myself what I actually want from this so I can reach out and take it.”
Clay sat up. “I’m not kidding, if you wanted to be my agent, I’d take you in a heartbeat. I bet Zeke, Riley, and Holden all would, too. Maybe even Leo — if the showboating sonofabitch doesn’t try to represent himself.”
My heart zipped in my chest at the thought, but I waved him off. “We can talk about that later. Right now, let’s focus on getting your mom the help she needs.”
Clay sighed, pulling on my hands until I was collapsing into his arms as he laid back against the headboard again. “You’re too good to me.”
“No, you’re just not used to being in a relationship where the love and care is reciprocated.”
“It’s going to take some getting used to.”
“Good thing we have all the time in the world.”
He smiled, kissing my hair.
“Is… is Maliyah okay?”
Clay shook his head. “Only you would ask if my ex-girlfriend is okay.”
“I mean, you told her everything, right?” I frowned. “That wouldn’t be easy for anyone to hear.”
“It wasn’t,” he agreed, his gaze lost between us. “She cried, a lot, and I held her and tried to soothe her as best I could. In the end, though, she said she understood. She said she’d hurt me just as badly — which isn’t wrong. I think she was most upset by her dad,” I admitted. “And I know he isn’t happy that I told her what happened.”
“Well, I’m glad you did. She deserved the truth.”
“She did. And, weirdly… I feel like we could maybe be friends now. Not close friends,” he amended quickly. “But… friendly. Cordial. I don’t know that I could say the same for Cory, though. I think his days of acting as my standin dad are over.”
I smoothed a hand over his bicep. “What about your real dad?”
He blew out a breath. “That I haven’t even begun to tackle yet. But… I owe him an apology. I see now better than I did when I went off on him that he was just trying to help me.”
“To be fair, he could show up a little more.”
“He could,” Clay agreed. “Maybe now… he will.”
I smiled, nodding as I watched where my fingertips drew lines on his skin.
“I am a little pissed off at you, though,” I admitted after a moment.
“As you should be.”
“Not for this whole mess,” I said, waving a hand as if it was on the foot of my bed. “But you’ve known for almost two weeks that you messed up, that you wanted me back, and you waited to tell me?”
“Hey,” he said, popping up long enough to lean over and grab his book off my nightstand. “It takes time to write and print a book, okay? Even one this shitty.”
I snatched it out of his hands, smiling as I flipped through. “It really is horrendous.”
“I know.”
“But you didn’t need the book to tell me how you felt,” I pointed out, peeking up at him.
“I needed a grand gesture,” he argued. “I couldn’t just show up here with my tail between my legs.”