Season of Passion Read Online Free PDF

hadn't healed, though, and Kate was still out modeling most of the time. Nothing had changed. And a month later, he decked another guy in a bar, breaking the man's jaw. This time the charges stuck and he paid a whopping fine. The team manager was frighteningly quiet.
    Maybe you should go into boxing instead of football, huh, sweetheart? Kate still thought'Tom's antics were funny.
    Look, dammit, you may think it's amusing, kiddo, but I don't. I'm going goddamn nuts sitting around here waiting for this fucking leg to heal. Kate got the message. He was desperate. Maybe about a lot of things, not just the leg. The next day she came home with a present. After all, that was why she modeled so she could offer him gifts. She had bought two tickets to Paris.
    The trip was just what he needed. They spent two weeks in Paris, a week in Cannes, five days in Dakar, and a weekend in London. Tom spoiled her rotten, and she was thrilled with having bought him the trip. They came back restored, and Tom's leg had healed. Life was even better than before. There were no more bar fights and he began practicing with the team again. Kate turned twenty-one, and for her birthday he bought her a car. A Mercedes.
    For their second anniversary Tom took her to Honolulu. And wound up in jail. A fight in the bar of the Kahala Hilton resulted in a bad story in Time magazine and a worse one in Newsweek. And coverage in every newspaper in the country. Jackpot Only the story in Time told Kate why the fight had really happened: apparently there had been a rumor that Tom's contract wasn't going to be renewed. He was thirty-two. He had been playing pro ball for ten years.
    Why didn't you tell me? She looked hurt Is it because of the fighting? But he only shook his head and looked away, as the lines tightened around his mouth.
    Nope. That schmuck who runs the team has this mania about age. He's worse than anyone else in the business. The fights aren't such a big deal. Everyone fights. Rasmussen kicks ass on more people in the streets than he does on the field. Jonas had a drug bust last year. Hilbert's a fag. Everyone's got something. But me, it's my age. I'm just too old, Kate. I'm thirty-two, and I still haven't figured out what the hell to do with myself after football. Christ, this is all I know. There were tears in his voice and in her eyes.
    Why can't you get yourself traded to another team?
    He looked at her finally and his expression was grim. Because I'm too old, Kate. This is it. Last stop. And they know it, which is why they hassle me all the time. They know they've got me.
    So get out. You could do all kinds of other things. You could be a sportscaster, a coach, a manager ' But he was shaking his head.
    I've been putting out feelers. It all comes back no.
    Okay. So you'll find something else. You don't need a job right away. We could go to school together. She tried to look cheerful. She wanted him to be happy, to share her youth with him, but her efforts only made him smile ruefully.
    Oh, baby, I love you. He folded her into his arms. Maybe it didn't matter. Maybe all that mattered was what they had. And her support did help, for a while. A year, more or less. But after their third anniversary, things seemed to get worse. Tom's contract was under negotiation, and he started getting into fights again. Two in a row, and this time two weeks in jail and a thousand dollar fine. And a five thousand dollar fine imposed by the team. Tom sued for causes of injustice. He lost. He got suspended. And Kate had a miscarriage. She hadn't even known she was pregnant. Tom drove himself nuts. In the hospital, he wept more than she did. He felt as though he had killed their child. Kate was'stunned by the sequence of events. The suspension would last for a year, and now she knew what was in store bar fights, fines, and a lot of time in jail. And yet Tom was so good to her. So sweet, so gentle. He was all she'd ever dreamed of in a man. But she could see only trouble