Page 89 of The Blame Game

“Huh. I had no idea. I thought Mitchell’s last name was Nash.”

“Mom’s birth name, apparently. Mitchell wanted to make it on his own merit. Not be accused of nepotism.”

Surprised, Dom raised an eyebrow. Like the league wasn’t full of nepotism. “That’s admirable.”

“It is! And I run into the same issue with him as I do with Birdie. Why would he do it? I mean, he doesn’t get paid what you guys do but we do pay our staff fairly. And revenge? Who on earth would he be getting revenge against? It makes no sense.”

“What other motives could there be?” Dom asked. “I mean, don’t they say the three big ones are money, revenge, and—”

“Love,” Kate finished for him. “But who would Birdie or Mitchell be in love with that it would make them sell out the team?”

“No idea. Colton and Birdie seem happy together to me.” Not that he was any expert on relationships.

“They do to me too.” Kate drummed her nails on the desk.

“Is Mitchell dating anyone?”

“I think he might be. He hasn’t spoken about it but I did see him talking to a guy once. I was headed out to my vehicle and they were arguing.”

“Wow. Even I’m not so cynical about love that I assume that any two people arguing are in a relationship.”

Kate laughed. “No, that wasn’t what made me think they were dating. They kissed after, like they were making up after a brief fight.”

“Ahh. Yeah, that makes more sense.” Dom grinned. “I was going to say, I thought you were happy with that husband of yours.”

“Oh, we have our moments too,” she said, laughing. “I occasionally question if it would be worth going to jail if I strangle him and I’m sure he’s thought the same about me, but we always work it out.”

Dom laughed too. “From what I hear, that’s pretty normal.”

Not that he would know. He’d never had a normal relationship in his life. Just a hidden boyfriend in LA and now whatever it was he had with Shea.

Which, honestly, felt remarkably normal if Dom ignored the part where he paid Shea for sex.

Which, there was nothing wrong with that.

Dom had never felt ashamed of paying someone to get his needs met. It was mutually beneficial and if people would stop being so precious about sex and get over their hangups, it would probably do the world a lot of good.

But even he could admit that it probably wasn’t a typical way to start a relationship.

This wasn’t Pretty Woman.

And if anyone was playing Julia Roberts here, Audra would be a much better fit than Shea.

Which made him Richard Gere, Dom supposed. He thought ruefully of the damned streak in his hair that grew thicker with every year.

At least he hadn’t gone totally silver yet.

“Dom?” Kate said and he focused back on her.

“Yeah. Sorry. Just tired.”

He’d slept well next to Shea but it still hadn’t been enough hours of sleep. And his fucking back was killing him now, despite Kate’s comfortable chairs.

Kate cleared her throat. “Well, unless you have something else you want to discuss, I have a lot of work to do.”

“No. I’m set. Thanks for not yelling at me too much.” He knew that for some inexplicable reason, Kate had a soft spot for him. And she never got as mad at him as she did with the other guys.

“Well, you make too many more bad decisions and I might change my mind,” she teased, her eyes twinkling. “Now, out of my office! Scoot!”

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