Page 48 of Turn Me On
“Do you play golf?”
I scoff. “I’m a pro athlete. Course I do.”
“But are you any good at it?” he presses.
My eyes widen in outrage. “You doubt me?”
He shrugs in a challenge. “Not every ballplayer can handle every stick.”
“Oh, I can handle it. And I can’t wait to show you.”
He nibbles on the corner of those delicious lips but stays on track. “Good. Priyam has business in the U.S. during the next few weeks. He’s coming to San Francisco in a few days, then goes to New York. We can play a round with him before your game against the Devils on Wednesday evening,” he says. “I’ll fly up.”
My heart takes off at a sprint. I get to see Maddox soon. I count down the days until our—
Ah, hell. Was my head really going there? It’s not a fucking date. It’s golf with my agent and my prospective big money sponsor.
“I’ll be there,” I say, trying to keep my focus on the game. I’m here for business, not pleasure.
“Good,” Maddox says. “My parents are in the area, so I’m going to see them later that night.”
“They live there?”
He shakes his head. “No. But they have a case they’re working on in San Francisco. So they’ll be there doing some pro-bono work for a firm.”
“Are you close with them?” I ask.
“Not really. But they don’t always agree with my career choices.”
I jerk my head back. “Do they hate sports? Does not compute.”
Maddox laughs, shaking his head. “They’re die-hard Cougars fans, actually.”
I hiss. “Blasphemy.”
“Well, I do love all baseball teams. All sports teams, in fact.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re apan-sports-ual,but you told me the truth about your baseball love,” I joke.
“And you’re keeping that between us.”
“Mad, everything between us isjust between us,” I say. But I want to know how on earth his parents could not like his career. “Do your folks not know how badass an agent you are?”
He smiles, and I fucking love when he gets slightly bashful. “They were corporate attorneys. I learned golf because my dad wanted me to be able to do business with billionaires and CEOs on the course, like he did. Then when I was in college, he was corporate counsel for a media king. This man owned networks, e-commerce sites, and a sports team. My father helped him expand his business worldwide. But a few years into my dad’s work for him, allegations came out that the man hit his wife. My father felt responsible, I suppose. He saw the light, so to speak, and decided he would never work for someone like that again. He and my mother left corporate law to become family law attorneys, working with underprivileged women and children. They wish I were a family law attorney too, rather than a sports and entertainment lawyer. They said that’s not why they sent me to undergrad.”
“Do they want you to work with them instead of repping athletes?”
“Pretty much.” He sounds defeated. “They don’t like that I work in such amoneyfield. But I donate to plenty of causes that matter to me—helping families who need it, helping rescue animals, and environmental causes. But they’ve never masked their disappointment over me working in this field.”
I sigh, a little hurt for him. “That’s such a bummer.”
“I wish I could make them happy without giving up what I love to do, but I can’t. So at least I try to take them out to dinner when our schedules line up,” he says, a man resigned to his reality.
“I’m sure they’re proud of you in their way,” I say optimistically. “How could they not be? Their son is this brilliant agentandattorney who strikes killer deals for his clients.”
“Knock wood,” Maddox says.
“I have faith in you.”