Catch by Michelle Congdon Read Free Book Online Page B

beginning to repeat one another so when we were finally able to stand, I was ready to raise my hands in joy. Of course I didn’t, but judging by the looks of my teammates and the other people around me, they were in similar positions.
    Just as I stood, my eyes made contact with an unexpected figure. My face immediately dropped. What the hell is she doing here? And why is she sitting with Rupert Montgomery’s family? All of a sudden, it hit me. Mr. Montgomery did have a daughter… It couldn’t be.
    I felt Annabelle tug at my arm but I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t believe the odds. Was Evangeline Rupert Montgomery’s daughter?
    Evangeline refused to look back my way, and I continued to watch her in disbelief until she left the doors of the church. Did it bother me slightly? Yeah, I guess it did a little. It was the first time I wasn’t sure how to react, considering the circumstances.
    During the wake, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. They followed her as she glided gracefully around the room and spoke with fellow mourners. What I knew of Evangeline Montgomery was only what everyone knew, that she’d been the sole survivor of the accident which claimed her mother and her eldest brother. She had been brought up by her grandparents and had very little to do with her father or the impressive family empire. She must have moved back to New York when her father fell ill. That explained the strange phone call outside the club when I met her.
    While I watched, I sensed her awkwardness around the people she spoke to, but I admired the way she pushed through despite feeling uncomfortable. At times, I even caught myself smiling and had to snap myself out of it before anyone thought I’d gone crazy. I was thankful I hadn’t allowed Annabelle to attend the wake and dropped her home right after the funeral. She’d never let me live this down.
    “Oh, no. You aren’t possibly considering going home with one of these women tonight, are you? It’s a damn wake, Baby.”
    I blinked and turned to the voice beside me. “What? No! Are you out of your mind?” I looked at Bucky in disbelief and disgust, stunned he even suggested such a fucked-up idea.
    “Then who the hell have you been staring at for the past hour, and why do you have that stupid look on your face?”
    “What stupid look?” I challenged.
    Bucky took a sip of his rum and cola while continuing to stare at me in a peculiar way. As soon as he lowered his glass and swallowed what he had in this mouth, his lips twisted into a calculated grin. “Then who’s the girl?” he asked.
    I shook my head and turned away, not bothering with a reply. I was thankful when I heard Donny ask Bucky a question about some old movie. With Bucky distracted, I now had the chance to go back to watching Evangeline.
    It didn’t take me long to spot her, although I instantly regretted doing so.
    She was sitting not too far away in a lounge area with Connor Montgomery, who I now knew was her brother, and a group of football players from both the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets. I found myself gritting my teeth and fighting every part of me not to storm over there and ask what the hell she was doing hanging around a bunch of jackasses. Well, there were a few good guys within the group, but the one with his arm draped around her was certainly not one of them. Nick Kowalski was his name. He was the king of scum, a rotten piece of shit who didn’t deserve to still be playing professional football.
    Earlier the year before, his girlfriend at the time accused him of hitting her. The cops were involved, and it blew up all over the media. When the time came to go to court, his ex suddenly dropped all charges and refused to speak. She was paid off to keep quiet, that much was evident, and it meant he kept his football career, but that didn’t change the way I felt about him. I despised men like him. Well, that’s if you could even call him a man.
    I noticed Evangeline suddenly rise and make