Chapter Twenty-One

Sometimes, things go right in life. Sometimes they don’t, and you have to roll with the punches. As much as Ruby had been hoping Alec would be her man, she was glad she found out now that he wasn’t.

Less heartache later on.

So, he’d betrayed her. He’d given into his own ego and talked to her father without consulting her first. It was a typical Alec LeBrun move, and Ruby was only upset that she hadn’t figured it out earlier. Of course he would go behind her back and talk straight to her father. He’d taken the phone out of her hand that one time in order to tell her father what he thought of him.

He was all about him—alpha and egotistical.

She wouldn’t lament her pregnancy from him, though. What happened happened, and at the time, she was head over heels with Alec. No matter what happened, she felt secure that she could tell her baby that he or she’d been conceived in love. It was true—Ruby had loved Alec. A stupid move, but it was the truth.

Now, it was time to tell Alec it was over. She drove to the game after having eaten some saltine crackers to calm her stomach. She was moving into her second trimester and had barely begun showing, but she was feeling it a hundred percent of the way. Breathe in, breathe out. Courage, Ruby. Courage to do the right thing. After the game would be the best time to do it. She couldn’t risk going to his house and getting caught up in his web of manipulation. Before she knew it, she’d be back in his bed, getting all dazzled by his smile.

No, it couldn’t happen again.

As she found her seat and watched the game, she remembered her love of football, what had brought her to the stadium to begin with—the crowd, the lights, the smell of pretzels baking in the concession stands. She couldn’t let Alec ruin that for her. No matter what, she’d always love the sport and vowed to support the Bootleggers, no matter what.

Even if the man who’d lied to her was currently out there on that field, working his ass off for a win. Hopefully, he wouldn’t get into another fistfight now that things weren’t going too well in his world. And if he did—oh, well—it wasn’t her problem anymore now that she didn’t have a job as his publicist.

“Hey, you.”

Ruby looked to her left and spotted Camille, Heath’s wife, scooting down the seats to come crouch next to her. She sat on the step, making sure she was out of the vendors’ path. “Hey, Camille. How are you?”

“I’m good. I’d ask the same about you, but I actually already know how you’re doing.” Camille put a hand on her shoulder, looking at her with so much compassion that Ruby’s eyes widened. But then she remembered that Camille’s boyfriend, Heath Dawson, was one of Alec’s best friends.

“He told Heath I’m pregnant?” Ruby whispered.

Camille nodded. “More like bragged about it. He’s happy to be having a baby with you, Ruby. But I also know about the email your father received. Not because Alec was trying to betray you, but he’s so upset. He needed advice. And well…” She chewed her lip.

“And what?”

“And he didn’t send that email, Ruby.”

Ruby swallowed hard and instinctively pulled away from Camille’s touch. She was surprised when Camille didn’t let her go. “Camille, I know Heath and you are Alec’s friends, and you want to believe he wouldn’t do something like that but—”

“Colleen sent it, Ruby.”

Shock reverberated through her. “What?”

“Colleen’s a bitch, and we’d never be friends, but she and I have a friend in common. Someone I’ve done private photographs for before. She knows Heath and Alec are friends, and well, she’s always liked you, Ruby, so when she heard Colleen talking about what she did…”

“What did she do, Camille? And how could she do it? How did she know I was pregnant?”

Camille smiled sadly. “Look at what you’re doing right now, Ruby.”

Camille’s gaze lowered and Ruby’s did too. She immediately saw that she was holding a hand protectively over her belly. Guarding the precious creature she and Alec had created.

“Something as simple as this? She guessed?”

Camille shrugged. “She wanted to be pregnant with Alec’s baby so badly. It wouldn’t be a difficult leap to make.”

Ruby shook her head. “Alec was so proud of his super sperm. It would kill her. But the email was sent from Alec’s account.”

“They lived together for a month when they were engaged, even if they were sleeping in separate bedrooms. She had access to his email. She saw him type his password one time and even got pissed at him for it.”

“Why get pissed?”

“Because his password was REDRUBY. Ruby, Alec’s had his eye on you for a long time, apparently, even when he was engaged to Colleen.”

Ruby couldn’t blame Colleen for being pissed. But, oh my God. All that time he was with Colleen, he never belonged to her. He belonged to Ruby. He’d told her that time and again, and while she hadn’t necessarily doubted it, this was the first time she truly believed it. “She sent the email from his account, then probably deleted it from his SENT folder so he wouldn’t see it.”

“The email server should still have a record of it, not that that matters. If you still think Alec sent it—”

Ruby shook her head even as tears welled in her eyes. “I don’t. I can’t believe I ever did.”

It might’ve been November, but the chill coming over Ruby then wasn’t from the weather. It was from what she was hearing.

How could she have thought he would do something so horrible? Had the stress and confusion of the last couple of weeks so blinded her that she couldn’t believe the very man she’d loved? The very man with whom she’d created life?

“Oh, come here, hon.” Camille pulled Ruby into a hug right there in the stands.

Shame and relief filled Ruby’s heart. “Thank you so much for telling me this. It clears up a lot.”

Ruby wished she could hate Colleen for the trouble she’d caused, but she couldn’t muster up the pain it would take to feel that way. Colleen was a troubled girl who’d lost a great guy. For whatever reason, she couldn’t handle the rejection and hated that her man had always been in love with someone else.

Someone unattainable.

And that someone had been Ruby.

She cheered on her favorite team like she had all her life.

Only her heart felt utterly relieved. She’d come here with the idea of breaking up with Alec, but as it turned out, she was going to tell him she’d been wrong about him. She had pegged him for a manipulative liar, and she couldn’t have been more ashamed. The manipulative liar had been Colleen, not him. He had told Ruby about Colleen’s tendencies to be that way, and yet, she’d never thought of her one moment.

Instead, she’d blamed Alec.

There was so much fixing to do. So much starting over. But at least she knew one thing—he loved her. He’d always loved REDRUBY. She smiled into the cool November wind.

After halftime, Ruby held her breath, as she watched the Bootleggers return to the field. They were up 14-0, and yet Alec didn’t seem to be in one of his happy dance moods. Instead, he looked focused down on that field, less like a kid and more like a mature man. A man whose life had recently changed.

At one moment, she lost sight of him, but then again, the defense was set to start this quarter. More than likely, he was lost in the sideline crowd, planning his next move. As she thought about all the things she needed to tell him after the game was over, the jumbo-tron zoomed in on his face. She almost cried.

But then…

“Ruby…”

She froze, half-wondering if she were hallucinating, but then, she turned and saw his face right next to her. In the stands! A cameraman was with him, and she instantly realized it wasn’t some vision or dream. It was Alec with a microphone.

Up to something.

“What are you doing?” Her purse almost fell from her fingers. She looked around at all the smiles and cheers coming from the fans cheering his name.

“I need you to listen to me, please.”

She covered the microphone with her hand. “Alec, I know I was wrong about my dad—I know what happened.”

“I know what happened, too. I figured it out after I talked to my mom.”

“Your mom?” Ruby asked.

“Yes, she’s a pretty smart woman, you know. It’s about Colleen.”

“And the email she sent?”

“Yes. Listen, we’ll talk about it later. Right now, they only gave me a few minutes to do this. I missed you, baby. Come with me.” He kissed her cheek and took hold of her hand.

And just like that, she wanted to throw herself into his arms. He smelled like sweat and grass, but his expression was all Alec. His eyes gleamed, full of love, and she knew that grin of his wasn’t for the crowd’s benefit—it was for hers.

He tugged her along, down the steps, through the level walkways, down the spirals, all the way through the tunnels and onto the field. She could barely keep up. “Alec! I can’t run that fast.”

“Come on, Ruby!” He was running and laughing, which made her laugh, too.

This, she thought.

This is a moment I’ll never forget. This craziness borne of Alec’s crazy mind. His crazy ideas. His crazy love for her. A love that now she knew was real. Had always been, even long before he could admit it to her.

The tears started falling now, even as she ran. “I’m so sorry, Alec,” she called out, as they approached the field. “I should’ve believed you. I should’ve known you wouldn’t do something like that to me.” She held her belly, as her breath ran out, and she couldn’t speak anymore.

“Babe, you were scared, and you lashed out. It’s okay.” He pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly, all the while the cameraman was still capturing everything on the jumbo-tron. “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…see this woman right here?”

The stadium erupted into applause. Half the team wolf-whistled, and Alec grinned at her. Ruby couldn’t think, couldn’t be angry, couldn’t do anything but love this moment. Loved the attention he was lavishing on her.

How could she have ever doubted him?

“I fell in love with a woman. A woman I definitely didn’t deserve, but we men never deserve our women, do we?”

The crowd cheered through the smells of sweat and beer and popcorn, as Alec led her to the very spot where they first made love.

“Tell me you’re not going to…” She couldn’t finish her sentence. She was afraid it’d be captured in the microphone for all the world to hear.

He squeezed her hand. “I wanted Ruby for my own the first moment I saw her,” Alec said, his voice now more somber. “I saw her across the room, and I thought, ‘Damn…she’s the one.’” The stadium cheered louder. “I thought I was crazy, but I realized I wasn’t. I’d just met the woman I was meant to love for the rest of my life.”

Ruby began crying, really crying, and her vision blurred.

“I had no idea then how much that love would grow. It grew and grew into something even bigger than us.” Everyone on the sidelines looked at the big screen, and Ruby thought she looked like a swollen, pregnant, crying thing there in the jumbo-tron, but she didn’t care.

She’d been to more Bootleggers games than she could probably count. She’d been to one where it was below freezing and it was all the fans could do to pound their gloves together in muffled claps. At another one, the team had been down by twenty-one in the first quarter and it didn’t get much better after that. Hell, she’d even been to the stadium when it was empty and filled with nothing but her moans.

Yet, she couldn’t remember a time where it felt quite this quiet. Solemn. Almost holy. The fans were all in on this. Her heartbeat filled her ears.

“Watch,” Alec said.

And suddenly, there, on the screen, were videos of her. Of Ruby on the sidelines laughing with another publicist. The camera panned from her to Alec as he was lining up for a play. But he wasn’t paying attention to the ball being set on the line of scrimmage. Instead, he glanced at her like a distracted boy. After the plays, he still glanced at her. In fact, in every shot, he was looking at her.

One clip ended, and another began. Over and over, Ruby saw Alec’s distraction. Over and over, the camera revealed her smiling face. One video after the other captured Alec’s fascination with his own publicist, the ginger in the crowd.

Ruby felt like her knees might give out, and it wasn’t because of the sprint through the stadium. How had she not noticed him looking at her all that time? How had she not realized she was the object of his affections, not the football, not the opponents, not the cheerleaders or the fans. How had she thought, the whole time, that he was a mischievous playboy interested in everything but her?

The proof was right in front of her.

Ruby knew Alec was an expert at getting people to like him. He was a charmer who knew when to turn up a smile, when to put on irresistible puppy eyes, knew how to make reporters love him. But she never knew that his hijinks had been mostly for her, to get her attention and respect, to get her to look at him. Now it was clear as day.

Ruby never considered that his showmanship had all been for her benefit.

Because there on the screen, bigger than any movie she’d ever seen, was the same man she’d always loved. But instead of a devilish smile, instead of an end zone dance or an acknowledging wink, when gazing at Ruby, he was just Alec. Nothing more.

Just a man in love.

Another clip started and this one was from an after-game interview still on the field. It must have been a win, because he gave that classic smile that made everyone fall for him. The reporter asked him a question, but he was too distracted and his face shifted behind him.

Still standing there catching her breath from the stairs and losing it from the scenes unfolding before her eyes, Ruby and all seventy thousand people in the stadium finally saw what caused the shift in Alec’s attention. In the video, Ruby passed behind him. His eyes followed after her until the reporter repeated her question for the fifth time, and Alec looked at her like he forgot entirely she was there.

The whole crowd laughed. In the next clip, Alec tried to wave to her in the stands and she didn’t see and he awkwardly tried to pretend that he was smoothing back his hair. Ruby felt tears spring to her eyes. Her eyebrows creased in confusion when what would be a different clip came up on the screen. A recording of the draft. She remembered the day clearly. Cameras had been everywhere. Even in the clip that was playing she could count at least fifteen others. No audio, but this one zoomed in on Alec who’d just been selected by the Bootleggers. He was listening to Ruby talk, nodding along in his new jersey. Ruby remembered how much her legs had shaken walking up to him to give him her pitch to hire her as his publicist.

She knew a thousand others had already done the same and thought the chances of him picking an unheard newbie were slim to none. But she’d been damned determined to try. She’d told him, “Hey. All those other guys are blowing smoke up your ass. Pick me if you want someone to push you, challenge you, and make you your best.” It’d been a bold thing to say, but she’d been real with him a hundred percent.

In the clip, she offered out her hand and Alec smiled and shook it before she turned around and left. Ruby remembered running straight to the bathroom after that. But the clip didn’t end there. Alec turned to his mother, who’d been sitting just a few feet away, and said something. Ruby was surprised when it changed to Alec’s face on the screen, in the locker room clearly recording himself.

“Hey, there, Miss O’Brien,” he said. “I found this video of the first day we met and I wanted to show it to you.”

Ruby stood frozen.

“There at the end, I know you can’t hear it, and I’m guessing you can’t read lips, though who knows. You’re full of surprises. But I’ll tell you just in case.” On the screen, Alec smiled. “I said, ‘Her. It’s her.’”

A peanut shell dropping would have sounded like an explosion in that moment.

“You asked me to prove it to you, Ruby,” he said. “That was me. This is me. I’ve always wanted you. Always will. And now, I’m asking you…” Alec dropped to one knee, and Ruby’s hands flew to her mouth. She let out a sob when she watched Alec get down on one knee in front of her.

Oh, my God…

He pulled out a small box from inside his sweaty football pants. She would’ve laughed if this wasn’t the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to her. “Ruby, Red, babe…I’ve loved you from the first moment I met you. I love you so much I’m dying with it. I can’t breathe or live without you. Marry me, Ruby. Marry me and make me the happiest man on this earth?” Looking into her eyes, he said, “Ruby O’Brien, I love you.”

She cried harder when he opened the small velvet box and found her ring inside it. A beautiful, sparkling huge ring that she couldn’t examine too closely at the moment, because of how hard she was crying. All she knew was the ring’s sparkles looked like starbursts through her tears.

“Yes, I’ll marry you, Alec.” Ruby sniffed, wiping her tears then laughing.

“SHE SAID YES!” Alec shouted into the microphone, slid the ring onto her finger, then lifted her into the air. He twirled her around and around. The crowd cheered, music played, and Ruby couldn’t stop laughing. He tossed the microphone over to the cameraman and whispered in her ear, “I love you, Red. The baby is only the cherry on top of everything, but make no mistake, you’re my fucking delicious sundae.” He kissed her.

And life was absolutely perfect.