Celia pulled into one of the reserved parking spaces at the stadium and cut the engine. She glanced over at Evan. “Ready?” He looked out the windshield at the proximity of their space and the stadium entrance and whistled in appreciation.“These must be some tickets you have.”She smiled. “I told you they’re good.”They got out and Celia led the way. Normally she would have gone in through the players’ entrance, but she didn’t want to tip her hand just yet, so they headed through the main gate just as everyone else did.Evan waited for her while she went through security and had her bag screened and then they had their tickets scanned and walked in the direction of the field.Since she’d handled the tickets, she knew he hadn’t seen them and she couldn’t wait to get his reaction to the behind the home plate VIP tickets she’d scored from Noah.Several minutes later, and after navigating two entrances, they entered the field above the home plate. She flashed her tickets and an usher led

Celia paced the Maddox conference room. Her nerves were wound tight, and she’d meticulously gone over every little detail of her presentation. The televisions out front had mock-ups created by the media folks. An endless stream of Reese Enterprise promotion ran on the video monitors and the art department had framed several print-ad options and displayed them in the conference room. With fifteen minutes to go time, the other members of her team had assembled. Tension was high but so was excitement. Ash had congratulated her on landing the biggest client for Maddox thus far, but he’d acted distracted and distant. Celia wondered if he was indeed having issues with the rumored girlfriend.The others had all been quick to add their congratulations. No contract had been signed, but they all seemed convinced that after this morning, Reese Enterprises would be in the bag. She hoped they were right.Noah had called last night after an extended dinner with Evan. Apparently after barbeque the

Tuesday morning, Celia took the coward’s way out and called Brock to schedule vacation time for the rest of the week. He didn’t like that she was hiding. It was no way to face the issue, but after hearing how horrible she sounded, he didn’t argue the matter further. The rest of the day she spent moping around her apartment, alternating between anger and fits of upset.Wednesday, she packed a bag and headed for the one place she knew she could lick her wounds in safety. Her dad’s house.He took one look at her and held out his arms for a giant bear hug. She needed it. Never had the comfort of home felt so good to her than now.He sat her down and cooked her a huge breakfast, because in his book, there wasn’t anything that couldn’t be cured by a big, home-cooked breakfast.All the time she ate, he sat beside her, eating his own food in silence. He didn’t pry or demand answers. It was what she loved most about him. He never intruded into his children’s lives. No, he didn’t have to. He

She let him pull her down beside him on the couch, even if she was still horrified by the fact she was wearing a robe, with nothing on underneath, and she was wearing a wet towel on her head, for God’s sake.But when she looked at him, she promptly forgot all that. All she knew was that she loved this man, and she’d do anything to make things right between them.“I’m sorry,” she said in a low, shaky voice.He pressed a finger to her lips. “Shh. I don’t want to hear that word cross your lips. It’s me who is sorry. I was an ass. I said despicable things to you.”Her eyes widened, and she felt the ridiculous urge to cry again, as if she hadn’t done enough of that in the last few days.“First, I want to talk about this,” he said as he drew out the dreaded newspaper clipping from his pocket.She froze, her stomach seizing with dread.“Don’t look like that. I don’t believe a word of it. But it’s obviously an important part of your past. It hurt you and it’s affected a good portion of our re

“I’m his father. I’ve got every right to take Thomas with me.”“We’re responsible for him, Mr.. Harper. His mother left him with us for the day and…”“His mother took him from me. He’s my son!” “You need to sort this out with your wife.”“She won’t let me have him but she dumps him with you people who are nothing to him. Nothing! I’m his father!”“We’ll have to call the police if you take Thomas.”“Mr.. Harper, this is not a good move. If you end up in jail, you’ll never see your son.” That was Erin’s voice, gently pleading reason.A high crazed laugh derided any reasonableness.”There’s justice for you. I do nothing wrong but I lose my son and my cheating bitch of a wife just gets him given to her.”“You have to take this to the family court,” Erin pressed.”You’ll get a fair hearing.”“Nothing’s fair!” The exploding anger cracked into spurts of tears as grief and despair poured from him.”She’s told a stack of lies about me to her big-shot lawyer. I’ve got no chance except this. No cha