Clutch Player – Cocky Hero Club Read online Nikki Ash

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Romance, Sports Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
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“Excuse me,” a mousy voice says, forcing me to look away from Harper. When I glance over, I find two women, in skimpy dresses, standing at our table. “Oh my God! It is you. You’re Landon Maxwell. My ex-boyfriend used to make me watch baseball with him and you were the only reason I made it through it. I follow you on Instagram. Would you mind taking a selfie with me?” She pulls her phone out from her bra where she was storing it. “He would die if he saw I got to meet you.”

Usually when a fan approaches me, no matter how inappropriate they are, I do my best to be polite, but when I glance over at Harper and see her brows furrowed and a frown marring her beautiful face, my stomach sinks and I no longer give a shit about being polite.

“Actually, I do mind,” I say, my gaze swinging back over to Harper, whose eyes widen slightly. “I’m on a date with a beautiful woman right now and my entire attention needs to be on her.”

The girl looks at me dumbfounded, but before she can say anything, the waitress walks over. “Ma’am, there’s no solicitation allowed in our restaurant. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Harper snorts loudly, and I chuckle under my breath. The two women huff and stomp away.

“Thank you,” I say to Bree. It’s a good thing when I called and asked for a table in a hidden spot, I told them who I was. I don’t often throw my name around, but sometimes it’s the only way to ensure privacy at restaurants.

“No problem,” Bree says, setting two new waters on the table, along with Harper’s glass of wine.

“Does that happen a lot?” Harper asks.

I could lie to her, try to downplay it, especially after seeing the way she frowned, but I’ve never lied to Harper and I’m not about to start now. “Yeah, especially the last few years. We made it to the World Series twice and won last year.”

“Yeah, I watched,” she says with a small smile, shocking the hell out of me. Her eyes are on mine as she reaches for her glass of wine, and in the corner of my eye, I see her knuckles brush across the side of the candle. Before she realizes what’s happening, the candle—with a real flame—knocks over.

“Oh my God.” She gasps, as I right it before it can catch anything on fire. “First, I drench you and then I almost set you on fire.”

“While I appreciate you trying to warm me up, I think I’ll just let my pants air dry,” I say with a playful smirk.

“This must be the worst blind date you’ve ever been on,” she says, dropping her face into her hands.

I can’t help but laugh at how worked up she is. She might be older and more woman, but she’s still the same fucking Harper I fell in love with all those years ago, which reminds me…

“Hey, Harp.”

She lifts her head.

“What happened?” I’ve already pieced it together she’s a divorced, single mom—thanks to Simon giving me that info—but I need more specifics from her.

She takes a deep breath then reaches for her wine glass, downing half of it in one gulp. For a second, I wonder if she’s going to answer me or just get drunk. But then she sets her glass down carefully and speaks. “Richard and I got married shortly after I found out I was pregnant. We tried to make it work, but it was never right. We were never right. Eventually things between us got so bad I just couldn’t do it anymore, and I asked for a divorce. Richard tried to fight me on it, but eventually gave in. We have shared custody of our two kids: Hunter and Ella.”

I nod slowly, trying to take it all in. “Richard?” I ask, raising a brow at the formal use of his name.

“Yes.” She rolls her eyes. “He’s a surgeon in Providence… Chief of Surgery. Richie was too childish, so he goes by Richard.”

I can’t help the snort that escapes. The guy always was a douche. Good to see nothing has changed.

“I can’t believe you live here.” All the years I’ve thought about her, searched for her on social media, I never imagined I would ever see her again. We had agreed we would stay friends if we ever broke up, so when she told me she was pregnant and had to cut all ties with me, I was hurt as hell. I not only lost my girlfriend, the girl I loved more than anything in the world—including baseball—but I also lost my best friend.

“We moved here three years after we had Hunter,” she says. “Richard got into medical school in Providence, so we had to move. When he took a job at Providence General, his parents bought us a house here.”


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