“Yup.” And no one was more surprised than she was that he’d remembered her.

He rubbed the back of his neck as he gave her a considering look. “Seems like there’s a lot about you that I don’t know.”

“Well, there’s one way to fix that.” Did that sound desperate? Did it matter?

Staring at the closed executive elevator doors, he gave one of his patented noncommittal grunts and walked into the locker room.

Annoyance and hurt singed every nerve from her toes upward. What a jackass. What had she been thinking? That things would be different? No. Not with Mr. I Don’t Need to Say Anything.

He only wanted her when they were out of the tri-county metro area and they couldn’t get enough of each other. That was dangerous. It was that makes-no-sense in-love-with-love territory her mom was always in. Everything was about the flash and the fire. Then, when that settled, she got bored and found a new husband. Out went Jasper and in came Andre and then Paul and then Scott. Shelby had seen firsthand the damage that type of instant ignition could have. That’s why she’d known she had to keep Ian to just one night that turned into two. It couldn’t be three. She was too sure she wasn’t like her mom. She wouldn’t bounce back. She’d fall with a splat. She already had.

…

Ian was trying to wrap his head around the idea of Shelby’s former stepdad being Jasper fucking Dawson when he walked into the locker room and nearly slammed into a group of players circled around his dad.

He bit back a snarl, and it took longer than normal for him to get the locks in place holding down all that rage bubbling up underneath. By the time the other players went to dress, Ian was back in full control.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

His dad slapped him on the back as if he was in on the joke, the movement covering the fact that he was shoving Ian toward the door. “Can’t a man come see his boys play the game he loves?”

With a quick maneuver, his old man got him back out into the hallway. Ian could have stopped it, but he was done walking away from this man. He was done having to keep the truth on lockdown. He was just 100 percent done.

“Cut to the chase,” Ian said, looking his dad in the eyes. “What do you want?”

After a quick visual sweep of the hall to make sure they were alone, David leaned in and lowered his voice. “We need to do an interview. The three of us. Patch things up on national TV. It’ll be good for you two, and it will lessen some of my negative exposure.”

Ian laughed in his dad’s face. “Negative exposure?”