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Chapter One
     
     
    It all started when Tuffer Demson,
defensive linebacker for the Connecticut Kings, met his biological
mother on Christmas Eve. They broke bread once a year, during the
holidays. Tuffer met her at the diner at ten for breakfast. He
called her by her given name, since he didn’t remember her ever
being his mom. He had someone else he had called that for the past
twenty-three years, and he liked it that way.
    “ Hi, Shayna,” he said, easing his
six-foot-three-inch, linebacker body into the booth.
    “ Hi, yourself,” the blonde said. She
eyed him up and down. “You’re looking good. Kings must be agreeing
with you.”
    “ Yep.” These meetings were at her
insistence. He could’ve cared less if he never saw her again. But
his folks had taught him respect. Besides, it was only once a
year.
    “ What’ll ya have?” the server
asked.
    Shayna always ordered a
huge amount of food—the most expensive dishes too. A side of bacon
and sausage with eggs Benedict. A large, fresh-squeezed orange
juice. Maybe a sweet bun. She knew Tuffer’d pick up the check, and
he always did. She didn’t make much as a waitress, and no one gets
residuals on porno flicks, so he understood her need for a
splurge—even if it was at her son’s expense.
    In the beginning, he’d met with her
hoping to find out who his father was. But Shayna had vowed never
to reveal the man’s name.
    “ Think you’re going to the Super
Bowl?” She added cream to her coffee.
    “ We’ve got a good shot.”
    “ You get a nice, fat bonus for
winning, don’t you?”
    He nodded and sipped his
juice.
    “ A hundred grand?”
    “ Not quite that much.”
    “ Buy yourself a fancy car with that
kind of money.”
    “ I don’t need a fancy car. My SUV is
fine.”
    “ Sometimes, it’s hard to believe
you’re my kid,” she said with a chuckle, shaking her
head.
    “ My real mother and father don’t give
a shit about stuff.”
    Her eyes widened as if she’d been hit.
“Got that right. They’re better ’an me. I know. That’s why I left
you with them. I knew it’d be better for you.”
    “ Dumped me with them, you
mean.”
    “ We’ve been over this a hundred times.
Do we have to go over it again?”
    The server brought their food. There
was hardly enough room on the table for all that Shayna had
ordered.
    “ Just be honest. You dumped me because
it was good for you, not for me,” said Tuffer.
    “ I coulda left you at the police
station. I picked a nice couple. Ran a preschool. Good with kids.
You liked them. They liked you. Seemed like a good bet.”
    “ Good bet for who?”
    “ I was twenty. I wasn’t ready to be a
mom.”
    “ And Bev Demson was?”
    “ Yeah. She told me about the car
accident. That she couldn’t have kids. She was jealous I had
you.”
    “ Mom has never been jealous of anyone
a day in her life.”
    “ Yeah? Well, she was jealous of me.
She wanted you.” Shayna cut a piece of the Benedict with her fork
and put it in her mouth.
    Tuffer pushed around the scrambled
eggs on his plate. He hated going over this again, but he refused
to let her weasel out of the truth.
    “ They used the lawsuit money to start
the school. But she wanted one of her own. And you were it. It was
perfect.”
    “ Perfect for everyone except
me.”
    “ Haven’t you been happy? Bev and Ralph
are great parents. A shitload better than I could’ve been.” She
picked up a piece of bacon.
    He couldn’t deny her words. If he
couldn’t have his biological parents, Bev and Ralph Demson were the
next best thing. They’d given him everything, made sacrifices,
never complained, and treated him like a prince. 
    “ What about my father? Why didn’t he
take me?”
    “ I told you. We’re not talking about
him.”
    Tuffer banged his fist on the table.
The dishes jumped, and the coffee sloshed over the sides of the
mugs. Fear flashed across Shayna’s face.
    “ Don’t worry. I’m not gonna hit you. I
don’t hit women.”
    “ Scared