Pace looked at the tux and grinned. “Ha.”

Sam glanced at him. “You’re not going to be smiling when you read these.” She dropped some newspapers on his table. “If it was up to me, I wouldn’t have brought them to you, but Gage insisted that you were a big boy.”

“That I am.” He grimly eyed the latest sports news, more of him being a druggie. Perfect.

Sam put her hands on her hips. “I want to offer you some advice.”

“I don’t—”

“Get over it. You’re getting your appeal and the retest tomorrow, and when the results come back, you’ll be proven right. End of story.”

“Only if I’m truly clean. But if that first test was accurate and I somehow really ingested, I could conceivably test positive again.” He shrugged. “Either way, people will always remember that I was accused of using.”

“People are idiots. We’ll get past it—somehow. I promise.” She turned to Wade, who was still just standing there. “And since when are you allergic to big fancy fund-raisers with all the fixings including sexy woman and good food?”

“I’m not.” Wade snatched the tux and headed toward the other room to change. “But we’re taking the stairs, even if it’s to the roof. No elevators.”

“Done.”

Later that night came yet another knock at the door. Tired of people, Pace considered not getting it, but on the off chance it was someone bringing him food, he made his way through the house. He pulled open the door and came face-to-face with the woman of his dreams.

“Two things,” she said quietly. “Well, three. One—I’ve never lied to you. Not once. Never will. Do you believe me?”

He looked into her eyes, which were filled with frustration, exhaustion, and a genuine warm affection for him. “Yes, I believe you. Actually, I believe in you, I always have, I just happen to be an ass when I’m in pain. I’m sorry for that. It comes naturally to me.”

“Not going to disagree with you there. Can I come in for thing two and thing three?”

“Sure.”

She walked into his living room and turned to face him. “Thing two. I told you how I wrote about Alex, because what he was doing was wrong. I would never do the same to you because you’ve not done anything wrong.”

“I know you wouldn’t. Holly—”

“I wouldn’t hold back, though, if you had. You should know that.”

She was looking at him, really seeing him, like so few did, and right then and there he realized something. She was one of the few people in his life who didn’t want anything from him, didn’t expect anything other than complete honesty at all times. Added to that heavy fact was that he really cared about her, deeply, perhaps more deeply than he’d ever cared about anyone before.

Ever.

He knew she was nearly done here in Santa Barbara, and in spite of him doing everything in his power to push her away, he didn’t want her to go. “I’d never ask you to hold back, Holly.”

“Good.” She took a deep breath. “Because I can’t hold back on the Ty thing. I won’t hold back. Thing three—he’s using, Pace. And it’s wrong.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“I talked to him. I also talked to Red.”

“I heard. Tried to kill him, did you?”

“That old stinker is too stubborn to die. You remember Tucker’s bag, the one he dropped on the floor right there?” She pointed to the corner of the foyer where there were still a stack of duffel bags, minus the one she was talking about. “The one I got the packet from?”

“What about it?”

“It was Red’s. I don’t know why Tucker had it,” she said, watching his face carefully. “I’m guessing he was bringing it to his dad.”

“Actually, yeah,” he remembered. “The next morning.”

“I told you that I think Tucker’s vitamin company also sells natural stimulants. I think Tucker is supplying Red, who is supplying Ty. I still don’t know how you accidentally got some, but—”

Pace put a hand to his suddenly throbbing temple and backed to the wooden bench in the foyer, sitting heavily. “I know how.”

“You do?”

“If I hadn’t been so out of it from the surgery, I’d have remembered sooner . . .” He was quiet a moment. “I drank Ty’s water.” He lifted his head and met her gaze. “The day before my surgery, at the team meeting, right before my pre-op work. We’re always grabbing each other’s drinks, and Wade had said . . .” Wade had told him to go for Holly, to let her into his life to give him something more than just baseball. “I was unnerved about it,” he said now, softly. “And I downed Ty’s entire water bottle.”

“He didn’t tell you what he had in it?”

“He made a crack that it was a good thing we’d already been drug tested earlier in the season. He didn’t know I was to be tested again. Hell, I didn’t know then either, not until after the meeting.”

“He joked about it?”

Pace let out a heavy breath. “Yeah.” He looked at Holly, who was clearly thinking that Ty should have told him the truth, or at the very least, warned him. If not then, then certainly when Pace had tested positive.

Tucker could have said something, too.