Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Yeah,” she agrees, as she, too, spins to look at the now-empty apartment.
I just took the last box down to my truck. The guys offered to help, but I knew this was going to be hard for her—giving up her space to come to mine—so I wanted her to have the freedom to process her emotions without an audience. There’s a teenage boy who lives in the apartment across the hall, and I paid him a couple of hundred bucks and an autograph to help me carry the furniture down to my truck.
I wish we were moving into a house, one that was ours alone, but that takes time. I couldn’t wait. I needed her with me. I was too impatient to wait, and my dream girl wanted that, too. She’s pushing back at her fears, choosing to trust me, to trust us, and that’s something I’ll never take for granted.
“You need me to give you a moment?” I ask, sliding my arm around her waist and pulling her close. She rests her head on my chest and sighs.
“No, I’m okay. This is just a big step, and it’s so fast.”
“Not fast enough,” I grumble, and she laughs.
“I’ve slept in your bed every night since we found out,” she reminds me.
“Our bed, Bell, you’ve slept in our bed. No other woman but you has ever slept there,” I assure her. She peers up at me under long lashes. The sparkle in her brown eyes shines bright, telling me she’s happy. I’ll do everything I can to keep that sparkle there.
“Let’s go home,” she says. Her voice is strong, resolute, and it takes everything I have not to toss her over my shoulder and race us down to the truck.
After leading her to the door with my arm around her waist, we step out into the hall and lock up the apartment for the final time. When we reach my truck, I open the door for her and help her inside. “What do we do with the keys?” I ask.
“I need to drop them off at the main office up town.”
“Do you want to do that now?”
“Do you mind?”
“Not at all.” I kiss her softly before closing the door. As I walk around the truck to take my seat behind the wheel, I glance up at her place and grin. She’s coming home where she belongs. If she notices my excitement, she doesn’t comment as I drive us across town.
Sunday. Game day. And I’m ready. I’ve never been this amped up to play a game, and I know why. She’s going to be here. My dream girl is going to be up in the suite with Corie and Sloane, while Rowan will be down on the field with us. Corie will have to step away to work some, but she’s assured me it won’t be much, and that’s okay, because Sloane will be there to keep her company.
I know that convincing her to come to the game was hard, and I’m so damn proud of her for being here. Not just for me, but for her, too. In her eyes, the game I love ruined her life. Now, it’s going to be a huge part of hers, and she’s facing her fears. I wish I had the words to tell her what that means to me.
More than her just being here, we’ve agreed that tonight, after the game, we’re going to try to get Coach alone and tell him about the baby. Not because she wants her father to know that he’s going to be a grandpa, but because I may need to take time off to be with her. Maybe? I know for sure I will when the baby is born, but thankfully, our little peanut is due at the beginning of our off-season. I’ll have several months to help her heal and for us to bond as a family. I’m fucking stoked.
“What’s that shit-eating grin for?” Baker asks.
“Bellamy’s here.”
“Yeah?” He smiles. “That’s great, man.”
“He know yet?” Knox asks, nodding toward Coach’s office.
“Nah, but we’re going to try to catch him to tell him tonight.”
“We’ll stick around,” Landry tells me.
“You don’t have to do that,” I tell him.
“We’re going to anyway. Besides, I know my wife will want to check on Bellamy.”
“Mine, too,” Knox agrees.
“I can stay,” Baker says.
“Nah, you go home to see my nephew. None of you has to stay.”
“What else have I got to do?” Foster says, with a shrug.
Baker looks torn.
“I’m a big boy,” I assure him. “I don’t need his blessing, but my nephew needs his daddy.”
“I’ll call the nanny. If he’s sleeping, which he should be, I’ll stay.”
Not gonna lie. Their support means the world to me. I meant what I said. I don’t need Coach’s approval. He has no say over her life or mine. He can make mine hell all he wants, and he has been. He rides my ass at practice like he’s fucking me, but that’s okay, because that’s a handful of hours at best, and then I get to go home to her. That makes it all worth it.