Free The Perfect Storm (The Blake Boys Book 6) by Rhonda Laurel Page A

good job post-football. You didn’t have to expand to Denver, but I know you did it to give some of us jobs. It’s hard to find your new life’s work when you been a pro-football player. You did that, and you helped a lot of other people to do it too. You finally divorced that horrible, bitchy, self-indulgent wife of yours and you’re here with a gorgeous woman who’s intelligent and can play cards. From where I’m sitting, your life still looks pretty damn enviable.”
    “I keep telling everyone that Sam and I aren’t together.” He sighed.
    “You’re sweet on her. It’s plain as day.”
    “To everyone but her, maybe.”
     
    * * *
     
     
    They bid everyone a good night and headed back to the house. Sam drove, as promised. J.J. looked around at the sights, proud of the work he’d done here. He still had roots and there was a part of his life that would forever be entwined with Denver.
    “So, a lot of your old teammates have jobs because of you.” Sam said.
    “You’d be surprised how many players don’t have a backup plan once they retire from the game. They needed direction and I was able to help.”
    “That is an incredible thing to start a Blake Enterprises subsidiary here so they could move on with their lives.”
    “Half of them were builders and worked in construction. It wasn’t a leap that it was good for business.”
    “You’re a good friend.” As they neared the stadium, Sam looked at him. “Want to stop at the old stadium and look around?”
    J.J. looked at the stadium. It had been years since he’d stepped foot in the place where his football career had crashed and burned.
    “I’d rather go back to the house…and kick your ass at Scrabble again.” He laughed.
    “Never gonna happen, Blake.”
    They played Scrabble, drank too much wine, and talked for hours about his glorious football days. Each time he felt like he wanted to kiss her, he’d take another gulp of his wine. Sam’s knowledge of the sport was refreshing. She hadn’t been lying when she said she’d seen him play. Her analysis of his performance was that of a sports announcer. When he began to lament how it all ended, she reminded him of how much he’d achieved since leaving the sport. She even said the greatest moments of his life were yet to come. When they retired to bed, J.J. hadn’t felt that good in a long time. He didn’t try to kiss her, but his body buzzed just the same as if they’d made love for hours on end. There had to be a way around the whole conflict of interest thing because she worked for Regency. If there wasn’t, he’d find a way a pummel through it, just like he did every other obstacle in his life.
     

CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    Sam dressed comfortably in a pair of jeans and her work boots for her visit to the Twelve Horseshoes Ranch. It had been a month since the trip to Denver with J.J. and she’d been kind of sad to see it come to an end. They’d been having such a great time, and she’d learned so much about him. He was a driven man who knew what he wanted out of life. But he seemed different when they touched down at the airport. She was half expecting…something else when they said goodbye at the airport.
    The Regency installation team had already visited the ranch and implemented the changes she requested, which included handprint recognition pads for all the residences. She was there to make sure everything was installed and to do a few test runs of the system. She drove through the gates of the ranch, behind a construction truck that made a left about mile in while she continued straight to the main house. Examining the structure of J.J.’s new house was one of the things on her to-do list. His house would be outfitted with the most up-to-date security tech money could buy.
    As soon as she parked in front of his parents’ house, rain began to fall. Of all the days for a storm to pass through Texas, it had to be on the day she had to meet him for the final assessment. She closed her