“I’m home, family!”
As upbeat as I attempt to make my tone, the only response is deafening silence, louder than the exhausted quiet from my teammates on our return flight from Toledo.
Maybe my favorite women are bummed the winning streak is over, too.
I try again. “Normally, I wouldn’t be so happy about a loss, but I feel like that was some damn good football we played today.”
I drop my duffel bag at the door, then toe off my shoes while trying not to crush Evie’s yellow roses in my other hand while I wait for our mothers to give me the usual pep talk.
“It’ll be better next week. You can’t win them all. It was a good game, no matter what.”
But, not a word is thrown my direction.
The Moms continue to watch the TV, wine being passed back and forth between them. They’re drinking straight out of the bottle like a couple of teenagers. They don’t even look at me.
Tough crowd tonight. Way more intimidating than a stadium, packed full of fans for the opposing team, screaming for my death.
“How, uh…how was Evie today?”
I expect the words “frustrated, cranky, in pain, at her wit’s end” to be tossed around.
Four days post-op, and she was still in agony. Bleeding like crazy.
When I suggested missing the game to stay home and take care of her, she threatened to cut my dick off.
That was the most she’d said to me since I confessed to having Mallory keep tabs on Jackson, and that I hadn’t been with another woman since college.
She wouldn’t even answer my phone calls from the road.
“Disappointed.” My mom’s answer stabs me. “As am I.”
“Why?” My heart thrashes in my chest, preparing for the worst-case scenario. Did they have to take her back to the hospital after I left? Has the doctor already called the game on this option?
Evie’s mom lifts a chilling gaze to mine. “How dare you drag that poor girl back into her vile brother’s life?”
Oh, shit.
Evie must have told them everything.
When I said we needed to work on our communication, I didn’t mean she should rat me out to our mothers.
They stare me down until sweat dampens my back, which has definitely met the wall.
I might be feeling like a wayward kid, but I refuse to apologize for doing everything in my power to keep Evie safe. “It was the best option I had. Not even a PI could tail him as closely or know what’s really going on in his head. Mallory’s given me otherwise unattainable intel.”
“All while my daughter thought you were having affairs with other women.”
Damn. She’s not pulling her punches this evening; Evie clearly spared no detail. “I can’t read Evie’s mind! I didn’t even know she overheard my phone calls! She should have come to me with her suspicions!”
“Yes.” Diana nods, but her expression remains severe. “She should have. She’s currently having a time out to think about her choices.”
I blink several times, wondering if I sustained a concussion the team doctors didn’t catch when they cleared me for the flight home.
When neither of The Moms offers anything else, I tear across the living room. “You can’t treat us like this! We’re not children!”
“Then stop acting like it,” my mom snaps. “Go to your room. I want you to consider the ramifications for all the lies you’ve told in the past year.”
If Evie wasn’t already fucking pissed at me before, she surely will be after this treatment while I was gone.
Sure enough, when I peek into the bedroom, she’s sitting on the bed, her arms crossed over her chest and a definite pout on her lips.
Her eyes widen when I step fully into the room, closing the door behind me.
She tries to pull her shirt off, but freezes and winces in pain instead.
That wasn’t an expected offering, but okay.
“Baby, stop. I’ll help you.” Two steps, three, until I’m at her side. I place the flowers on the night stand, then realize she’s trying to rip off my jersey.
She hasn’t been to any of my games yet, so she hasn’t had a chance to wear it.
Or hasn’t she?
A slow smile spreads across my face that I can’t help, realizing she’s been wearing it in secret. “You didn’t want me to see you in this?”
“You weren’t supposed to be home yet, and I didn’t know I was going to get grounded to my bedroom to fend for myself,” she grumbles.
“I didn’t know I was going to be double-teamed when I walked in my own front door.” I help her shed the jersey, anyway.
She’s gotta be sweating in this thing.
“Why don’t you want me seeing you in my jersey? My name still looks damn good on you.” Especially in that spot just above the curve of her hipbone, imprinted on her skin for all time.
She squints her eyes at me and seals her lips shut.
I know when I’m beaten. There’s no way I can fight three women at the same time.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I let you think I’d been sleeping around while we were apart. I’m sorry you overheard my phone calls with Mallory and thought the worst. I’m sorry I went behind your back. I’m not sorry about doing anything I can to keep him away from you.”
“You had no right.”
“I have every goddamn right. I love you. I’m your husband. I would give my life for yours.”
She sniffles.
That makes me feel lower than everyone yelling at me. When I look up, her eyes are squeezed shut, tears running down her cheeks.
I brush one away, but she jerks back.
Which obviously causes her more pain.
And definitely causes me pain.
Her blue gaze swims with more tears when she levels me with it. “I was finally in a good place. I was getting my life together for me. Not just so you wouldn’t worry anymore when I walked out that front door for good. I made peace with what I thought I knew.”
“But, you didn’t know the whole story,” I argue, not liking where this is headed one bit. If she’s calling it quits, that explains The Moms’ extra sour moods. “I cheated on you once. I already told you, I’d never survive that again. There will never be anyone for me but you.”
“I am never going to feel worthy of that,” she admits. “No amount of therapy will change it. In fact, thinking you’d been with so many other women actually made it easier to handle when I thought you’d finally found one worthy enough to share more than sex with. Like, you just had to keep trying out different options until you found the perfect one.”
I honestly don’t know how to respond to that.
Evie continues, “I opened my heart to you once. Even though I knew it was a risk. I thought you trampled on it, and I closed it off again. You pried it open. And then…and then Jackson happened, and the roles were reversed. You closed yourself off from me, and I had to fight my way in.”
She doesn’t pull away when I caress her cheek this time. I got out all my demons and confessions. Now it’s her turn. I won’t interrupt.
“College was…” she rolls her lips between her teeth, fighting for air and holding her stomach to combat the pain. “College was a nightmare. I can’t pretend anymore what I did was only for you. It was to protect myself, too.”
Oh, I’m painfully aware of that fact. And, I’d be lying if I said I thought either of us was completely over cheating on each other…yet.
“And this last time?” Evie’s whole body shudders with what must be an excruciatingly painful sob. “This time I was better. I was ready to give you up. I was ready to move on. I can’t give you my heart again, Rob. Even knowing it was all a misunderstanding, I just can’t.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat to speak. “Can’t? Or won’t?”
“I can’t,” she cries. “I can’t. It won’t end well.”
And yet she was wearing my jersey, obviously watching my game since she couldn’t attend in person. She’s in our bed. She didn’t give up and have the hysterectomy. She opted for a painful surgery that gives us hope we didn’t have without it.
I take her damp face in my hands, resting our foreheads together. “If you can’t give me your heart back, then I’ll just have to take it back.”
She shakes her head, but I don’t let go.
“Yes, I will. You said it yourself. You’ve already given me three downs. Well, this is fourth and inches, baby, and we’re too close to not give this last play our all.”
“We should punt,” she sniffles.
I pull back and gasp in mock disappointment. “No one punts with inches to the goal line. Come on, Falls. You know better than that.”
“Don’t. Don’t smile at me that way.”
Oh, yeah. I’ve got her right where I want her. She never could resist my dimple.
“What?” I stretch my cheeks wide. “Like this?”
“I hate you.” She pouts some more.
“You love me.”
“I hate that I love you.”
Déjà vu. I could swear she’s said that exact same thing to me before.
“Well, I love loving you, and I’m going to keep doing exactly that, whether you want me to or not.”
“You’re not giving me a choice this time?”
I rise from the side of the bed and strip off my suit to get more comfortable as I think about her question. “Your choice is whether to accept my love or not. I have zero choice on whether to give it.”
Evie eases herself back to rest against the headboard. “Ugh. I empathize all too well with that sentiment.”
I’m not stupid enough to let my gleeful chuckle loose. Mentally, I’m doing a victory dance.
She’s not calling the game, yet.
And, I have some serious groveling to do.
Knowing that, I stretch out on the bed beside her, staring back at her as intently as she gazes at me.
She breaks, first. “Now, what?”
“Got any bright ideas for how to entertain ourselves until we’re not grounded anymore?”
A hint of a smile pulls at the corner of her mouth. Like the sun struggling to break through the cloud cover, she fights to keep a straight face, but slowly crumbles until she’s holding her stomach and gasping for air. “Oh, God. Don’t make me laugh. It hurts too much.”
“Okay, okay. No joke wars, then.” I catch her hand in mine and rub a soothing trail up and down her arm until her body relaxes again. “I guess sex is off the table, too.”
She aims a glare at me. “You didn’t win today. No victory BJ for you, anyway.”
Now, I’m the one laughing. She wouldn’t have been able to do that even if we had won the game. “I wasn’t planning on asking for anything, either way. Besides, shouldn’t it be winners’ choice? What if I don’t want a blowjob after a good game?”
She raises an eyebrow like she can’t believe the words that just came out of my mouth. “I thought you enjoyed that tradition? What do you want, then?”
No way am I going to admit no guy in his right mind would refuse a gorgeous woman putting her mouth on him. I wasn’t always in my right mind, and I did actually refuse her attention for a long time. No need to dredge that up, though. “Remember that bucket list we made for you at the hospital?”
Evie opens her mouth to respond, snaps it shut, then furrows her brow. “Actually…no. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Well, this promises to be an amusing game of distraction, then.
I climb off the bed, fish my phone out of my suit jacket, then find the note I made that day before handing the evidence over to Evie.
Her mouth drops open and her eyes go wide. “Anal play?”
How shocked would she be if I’d typed exactly what she said?
I reclaim my spot on the mattress and read over her shoulder. This list looks much more appealing now that she isn’t thinking these items are never going to happen. Or that they’ve already happened for me.
“You should see how red your cheeks are right now, babe. It’s adorable.”
She blinks slowly at me. “There’s nothing adorable about this list. What did they give me? Horny out of my mind pills?”
She’s so fucking cute. I can’t laugh nearly as hard as I want to for fear of jostling her too much and causing her more pain, but damn. It’s a struggle to breathe.
“Well, well, well. Look who kissed and made up.”
Evie rushes to hide the phone behind her back at the sound of her mother’s voice in the now open doorway.
The whole situation only makes me laugh more.
Until my mom steps up beside Diana, her arms crossed, no happiness on her face whatsoever.
Oh, shit. We’re in trouble.
“We’re calling an end to this little,” my mom gestures with her index finger between me and Evie, “arrangement.”
What the fuck? I sit up on my side of the bed. “Uh, no. There is no end.”
“Oh, yes.” Diana nods. “There is. Your little bet is over, all negotiated terms null and void.”
Out of the corner of my mouth, I whisper, “How much did you tell them?”
Evie shrugs. “Everything.”
Double shit. Triple. Grand slam.
We’re so screwed.
Still, if we want to be treated like adults, then we have to act like them. “You can’t void our terms. We made them, not you. Besides, we still have four months to go and we already met all the goals we set for each other.”
“Well, we’re setting new ones,” Mom retorts.
Evie gives me a questioning glance on the side. “Why?”
“Because we want grandbabies, and if you two are going to be parents, then it’s time to grow up and handle your own shit.”
Whoa. I don’t think I have ever heard Diana swear before.
Evie sighs. “Mama…”
“Don’t you ‘Mama’ me. Now, listen up. Going forward, you two will respect each other as husband and wife. That means no going behind each other’s backs.” She points at me. “For any reason.”
“You will support each other in all things.” Mom points at Evie. “That means going to as many games as you can attend.”
The Moms take turns listing their new demands. Things like clearer communication, team effort, united front. It’s a cross between the pep talk I hoped for earlier and an ass-chewing for playing a shitty game.
“Do you think now would be a good time to point out they don’t have any grounds to tell us how to have a successful marriage, considering neither of them did?” I mumble.
“Do you think today seems like a good day to die?” Evie hisses back.
Noted.
“I heard that,” my mom snaps. “And that is why we have every authority to tell you what will break your marriage apart. We’ve already lived through it, and we love you both too much to see you suffer the same fate we did.”
“Point, Moms,” Evie whispers.
“Now,” Diana seems to turn into an entirely different person right in front of my eyes, her gentle, motherly demeanor returning. “It’s time for your next round of medication, and then you both need to get some rest. We’ll be leaving in the morning, so you’ll be on your own to care for each other.”
I stretch back out on the bed after our mothers clear out, meeting Evie’s bewildered gaze.
It’s pretty much a mirror of what my own expression must look like.
“What the hell just happened here?”
Evie purses her lips. “I think they gave us an ultimatum. Although, I’m not really sure that’s any different than what we already did with each other. Maybe they need to still feel like our parents, even though we’re adults?”
“If YiaYia were here, she’d have been on our side.”
“She says we have a year to be married in the Church or she’s disowning us.”
“Well, then. I guess we have some more work to do.”
Evie raises an eyebrow at me. “I did not hear the words wedding planning once in this evening’s speech. We might be able to get around that detail.”
We clam up when Diana returns with Evie’s meds.
Later, lying in bed in the dark beside my wife, I still can’t believe this day happened.
“Fear.”
Evie sighs. “No. No, no, no. I’ve had enough for today. I can’t handle anymore. Tell me your fear, want, and don’t want tomorrow.”
I raise up on my elbow, gazing down at my gorgeous wife. Her hair’s grown out and her curls are everywhere. Just like I used to dream while we were apart. “Hear me out. Fear: We’re going to turn into our parents. I want you to promise me that we won’t let that happen. I don’t want to be bossing our adult kids around like they’re idiots. We won’t do that, right?”
Evie’s sly smile lights up the darkness. “If they need it? You bet your sweet ass, we will.”
Two things ping in my brain.
My wife thinks I have a sweet ass. Score.
My wife just talked about kids like they’re a sure bet.
I’ll take those odds.