Getting Lucky (The Portland Pioneers Book 2) by Beth Bolden Page B

request, but she also hadn’t wantedto remember.
    But now she owed Noah, and this was the method he’d chosen as repayment, as foolish as it might be.
    Maggie’s fingers hesitated over the keys, then she finally took the plunge, googling Noah Fox’s name paired with Tabitha’s. And she wasn’t surprised at what she found.
    Pictures of the two of them, posing together, Noah’s dark looks set off by Tabitha’s flawless blond perfection. The smile on his face seemed so much easier then, almost carefree, but like Maggie expected, Tabitha still had that sly calculation hiding behind her eyes. How anyone missed it, Maggie didn’t know. She’d been seeing it in her sister’s face for too many years, and it had broken her heart over and over again.
    The text articles were even worse. Rumors of journalistic impropriety, and not just with Noah, but with a handful of other players on the Pioneers team. All leading to Tabitha’s “triumphant” exit to return to her home of Northern California to cover collegiate athletics, specifically Stanford and Cal, for ESPN, leaving behind a flurry of questions of about exactly how involved she’d been with the Pioneers.
    There were a number of tense “no comment” remarks from Noah and a lot of defensive posturing by the Pioneers and the Pacific Northwest Sports Group. It was enough for Maggie to come to the conclusion that her sister hadn’t changed at all. If anything, she’d become more crafty and cunning, using everyone around her for her own ends. It was enough to make Maggie sick.
    She leaned back in the booth, and let her head tip back until it hit the padding. It was an absolute mystery how two sisters could be so fundamentally opposite in character. Maggie wondered, not for the first time, if maybe her own giving streak had developed in response to Tabitha’s tendency to take, take, take .
    For a moment, Maggie was almost tempted to call her mom and vent, even though they’d made an unspoken agreement never to discuss Tabitha anymore, shortly after Maggie had cut off her own communication with her. Luce King had always believed in the best of people, and her naivety had made it impossible for see her daughter for who she really was.
    Maggie, even though she was younger, had been forced into the position of juror, judge and then janitor, cleaning up Tabby’s messes as she’d made them. When Tabitha had gone off to college at USC, Maggie had finally been able to take a deep breath of relief and try to live her own life for a change. Unfortunately, Tabitha’s foibles had a nasty habit of popping up despite the distance.
    Noah Fox was just the latest in a long line of them.
    Googling him, she found a history of professional success on the field, and personal success with the women of whatever city he happened to be in. He’d come to Portland with a big contract after a few good years in Arizona, but until Tabitha had seemed to devote his free time to having as much fun with as many women as possible. Maggie was not even a little surprised by this discovery.
    Then she found the YouTube video. Someone had shot it from the stands, close to home plate. He’d been at bat, his body tightly coiled with tension as the pitcher threw one wild pitch after another. And then the pitch that had sent her stomach to the floor.
    The ball had winged its way down from the mound and had kept rising, and there was simply no time. Noah tried to get out of the way, but he couldn’t, and the ball hit him right in the temple, at the edge of the plastic batting helmet. He’d had crumpled into the dirt, obviously unresponsive.
    With growing dread, Maggie found more articles about his concussion and the subsequent inability to be cleared by the doctors for baseball activities in time for the playoffs, which the Pioneers had made for the first time ever. As far as she could find, he still hadn’t been cleared. There was even some mild speculation that his career was over and he’d be forced to