Playing for Keeps (Texas Scoundrels) Read Online Free Page A

sticking out of the tops. She sat, not certain her legs would hold her much longer.
    “Wow,” he whispered. Excitement mingled with the wonder in voice. “I want to meet him.”
    Dread and panic filled her. “Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “Not going to happen, Slick.”
    “Mom, I have to meet him.” He looked back down at the picture in his hands. “Jed Maitland is so cool.”
    She came up off the bed and took the frame from him and set it back on the pine bookcase. “He’s not cool, Austin. The public image may be, but in reality the man is a jerk.”
    “That’s just stuff his publicity people make up. He’s epic, Mom.”
    Yeah, he was epic, all right. An epic screw-up. Fast cars and even faster women flocking around him, anxious for any scrap of attention the hot shot jock would pay them. There was the paternity suit, which he’d settled out of court. And the time he’d been in an accident, wrapping his Ferrari around a telephone pole. He’d been charged with driving while intoxicated. A concussion had been the cover up, and miraculously, the charges were dropped amid a flurry of press coverage.  
    No. Jed Maitland was not the type of man she wanted influencing her son.  
    “He doesn’t even know you exist,” she said, trying to remain calm. All she wanted to do was rant and rave, especially if it would keep Austin away from his natural father.
    Austin shrugged and grinned. That killer Maitland grin. Her heart nearly stopped.  
    “So. We’ll tell him.”
    She gaped at her son. “No, we won’t.” She’d had enough of this conversation and headed for the door. “I wouldn’t even know how to get in touch with him.”
    Hoping that was the end of the discussion, she left the room. She needed tea. Something soothing, something to take away the fear and the panic. How could Austin even ask such a thing?
    Easy. His father was a hero, a legend. Of course he’d want to meet him.
    Screw tea. She needed vodka.
    “I do,” Austin said from behind her.
    She stopped and gripped the railing. Slowly, she turned. “You do, what?”  
    “I know how to get in touch with him,” Austin clarified, then ran back to his room.  
    She couldn’t move. Her feet wouldn’t carry her another inch. Slowly, she sank down until she was sitting on the top step. Austin’s wanting to meet his father was one thing, but it was another matter altogether if he actually knew how to find him. How could she plead ignorance? How could she tell him it was simply too difficult for her to talk to the man, to tell him that she had adopted his son? An adoption Maitland could easily contest considering he'd never been informed he even had a son, let alone one who was given up for adoption without his consent.
    A wave of defeat washed over her as she stared down the carpeted stairs to the imported marble-tiled entry. She mentally outlined the design, trying not to think. Crossing her arms, she settled them on top of her knees, then rested her chin on her forearms. Defeat. She’d been doing nothing but admitting defeat all day and she was tired. Tired of fighting, tired of losing, and too worn out emotionally to deal with this latest turn of events. How could she compete with the hero worship of a man who wasn’t even worthy of the adoration?
    She tilted her head as Austin rushed toward her, a dog-eared sports magazine in his hands. He skidded to a stop and plopped down beside her on the top step, shoving the magazine in front of her. “He has a spread out at Possum Kingdom Lake. They did this article on him with pictures and everything.”  
    To emphasize his point, he tapped the picture of Maitland leaning nonchalantly against the railing on the deck of a monstrous home. The heather-gray Property of Ole Miss Athletic Department t-shirt he wore emphasized a finely tuned body she couldn’t help but admire. The faded, ripped at the knee jeans hugging muscular thighs didn’t hurt, either. Wind tousled dark hair and a killer smile