Lowell

I slug through the game because my body is still recovering from last night. And not because it was too wild or lasted all night like we used to, but because it felt that good. It lasted long enough for me to find out how much I crave her again.

Charlotte laying next to me, her body on mine, the softness and heat of her. I can almost still feel it now. If I stop paying attention long enough, I can put myself back there and not out here on the hot field, throwing play after play until we take another win.

“Press is in the stadium.” Coach comes in the locker room, making me get dressed faster.

I meet Jacob outside by the players’ den.

“Any breaking news?” He smirks. I shake my head at him not believing he can tell, but apparently, he can. Or I give it away too fast.

“Sure, yeah. I spent the night with Charlotte after we all had dinner. We were going to tell Kimberly about everything, but she already knew.”

“Kimberly?” he asks. We start walking back to the locker room inside.

“My daughter,” I say without thinking, but then I do, and it only makes me smile.

Jacob nudges me in response. “You look like how I’m sure I do with my kids. I guess play dates are in order. Fuck, I hate those. But at least I might enjoy them now.”

I chuckle. “Yeah, maybe. I’d have to ask Charlotte. And I don’t think Kimberly likes other kids very much, but who knows?” I shrug, remembering how little-girl pissed she would get at her school field day if she had to do one of those team activities or even last night with the arcade games.

“They’re all like that, man. You have to force them a little bit.” Jacob starts walking toward the press room.

“Hmm. I’ll keep that in mind.”

We finish walking the wide hall until we reach the room. He bothers me about Charlotte as we do, but I guess I don’t mind. I haven’t stopped thinking about her, and I don’t mind talking about her.

She has invaded my thoughts like before, but I was young then, and I want to do better by her now. I want that happy ending I never even knew I wanted—us together, with Kimberly, as a family. I see it so much clearer now, and I don’t want to see much else unless that’s the image I’m getting.

“How many lies do you think we’ll have to tell?” Jacob and I are in team gear, seated at the podium for the press conference. It’s him, the five coaches, and me as the quarterback.

“All of them.” We have a list of approved questions the reps might ask, and they all entail stuff the coaches don’t let us answer directly anyway. Publicity too, and our agents have a say in that. I haven’t even seen Donnie today. Usually, he is up my ass at the break of dawn on game day, but he wasn’t even here beforehand to feed me new responses for the media.

When the press conference starts, Coach starts talking everyone’s head off, and I let my mind drift. It’s still early, so I text Charlotte to see what she is doing. I wanted to stay longer, but she didn’t want to confuse Kimberly if I were there in the morning. But somewhere down the line, I want to do the whole morning as a family thing, no one ever did it with me.

Lowell: Hello, beautiful, how are you?

She takes a while to respond, up until I answer the first question about strategy for the first game. I check back and see nothing until I open it to see a picture message of me sitting at the podium right now. I look closer in the crowd and spot her in the back. I smile immediately, then catch myself and remember I am on camera. She gives me a small wave and smile. Since she is next to her cameraman, I guess she doesn’t want to draw attention.

As always, she looks stunning. Her brown highlighted curls are wild and free, her ochre skin is glowing, and her eyes are bright. Her lips look damn kissable, even all the way from here. Her creamy white sweater hangs off her shoulder, and the sight of her bare neck makes me wish I marked her up even more last night. But with all that, something about her feels off. I’m ticking the minutes until this shit ends so I can talk to her.

Soon enough, I plow through the crowd, leaving Jacob behind with questions, to get to her.

“Hey, fancy seeing you here.” I grin and try to come closer to her before she steps away. I look down at her confused and then notice I still have an audience—the press is taking photos.

“Yeah, very. It was last minute. Nice interview.” She juts her chin, looking over at the guy with her. I glance at him, but he seems unaware to me anyway.

“Thanks… let’s get out of here.” I nod at the wide-open door over the balcony for effect.

She half laughs. “Okay. But not for long, I have to relieve my sister of babysitting duties soon.”

“Fine by me.”

I walk a considerable distance from her until we are clear from prying eyes, which isn’t until I get to the parking garage and pass my car. I tug her toward me and against the door of the car, kissing her in one motion. Her surprise drifts away, and then she leans into the kiss, her hands sliding through my hair to hold me close. The heat of her waist is on my palms until I slide them down, pulling her against me as I clutch her full ass in my hands. Her taste is so sweet, my tongue sliding against hers to deepen the kiss. I inhale her like I need her to breathe, and I am almost certain I do.

“You look amazing, Char.” I release her lips and stare down into her blazing brown eyes. “I missed you.”

“You saw me this morning.” She giggles, a bit in higher spirits but not quite. Tension still in her shoulders, her eyes still tense.

“So?” I walk around to her side and open her door. “Late lunch sound good?”

“Yes.” She grins. She does love her food, half of our time spent together back in college always included it.

I get in and drive to the best spot close to the stadium so I can get her back sooner.

“What’s wrong?” I finally ask her once we’ve sat down in the restaurant. A secluded spot as always, and an early tip to make sure the waitress doesn’t tip everyone off that I’m here. Sometimes it works, and sometimes I don’t have to worry about it at all. I’m only football famous, or people who watch cable television enough to have seen my commercials.

“What? Nothing.” She blinks away from me back to the menu. It can’t be that interesting.

“You seem upset.”

“I’m not. Something just happened at the salon. I took care of it.” She half smiles, and it isn’t as convincing as she may have hoped.

“Like what?” I lean forward, my legs brush hers under the small table. She shifts at the contact. When she finally looks at me and not around me, it must be the look in my eyes that gets her to talk.

“A problem with the books. Someone might be stealing from the salon.”

“Shit, that’s rough,” I say, and she nods once. “What will you do?”

“Figure out who it is without everyone knowing. I don’t want the place to go crazy or something.” She blinks.

“I get it. Are you sure that’s it?” I reach out and take her hand in mine, my thumb brushing over the back of her hand. She sighs, nodding once at me.

“Yeah.”

I know she’s lying, but I don’t want to pry, and I’m super hungry too. If it wasn’t after a game, I might have the will to keep grilling her.

We order, and I eat as we make conversation. It seems to stray back to Kimberly a lot. She must be keeping something to herself, using that as a buffer to the conversation. But it’s not like I mind since I’m learning stuff about Kimberly I otherwise wouldn’t have known yet. I’m glad she has always been a good kid and easy on Charlotte in the beginning. I still wish I had been there—the photos can only do so much for me.

“I don’t know much about you, Lowell,” Charlotte says after a while.

“Me? What about you?”

She shakes her head at me, a smile playing at her lips. Leaning forward on the table, she rests her head on her fist as she gazes at me.

“I don’t know what you mean.” I chuckle, leaning forward. Technically, I know what she means, but she is asking the question as if she needs it to convince herself of something. I don’t know—she doesn’t seem right. And I know we have only reunited, but I still knew this much about her back then, too. I know enough now.

“Why do you want to know Kimberly?”

“Excuse me?” My grin falls and is replaced with a scowl. She faces forward, her hand falling on the table.

“Why does it matter so much to you when you only just met her? Because if it’s to get to me, then…”

“It’s not. What the hell, Charlotte? Where is this coming from?” I lower my voice, leaning even closer to her enough to see the whites of her eyes as they glisten with tears.

“It doesn’t matter I only just learned about her because, let’s not forget, that was on you. I only care about now and the future, which includes my daughter. You and I… even if you hated me, I would stick around for that little girl.”

I take her hands again and get her gaze to circle back to me.

“You want to know about me? Fine. I don’t have a family. I’ve got shitty parents, but that’s not family. And a bunch of other shit I buried so deep I don’t know if I may find it again. But that doesn’t matter, it’s in the past as I said.” I squeeze her hands, she looks down at them and then sighs.

Her shoulders droop, and then she shakes her head once. When she finally looks at me, there is more resolution in her eyes than before.

“I’m sorry…” she whispers.

“What is it, Char? What happened today? Last night… you’ve felt different since I laid eyes on you today.”

She licks her lips and bites down on her bottom lip, her gaze fleeting from me to over my head until she settles on me.

“It was Donnie.”

“Donnie?” I make a face.

“Yeah, he came by the salon. He told me to leave you alone and keep Kimberly away from you. For me to stay away from you.”

To say I’m floored is an understatement. I think about Donnie and think no way would he pull something like that, but then his statement from earlier makes me think I’m wrong. Saying he would do anything to protect me as if he has free reign over my life. I wonder what else he fucking did.

“Shit, Char… I’m sorry. I had no idea. Don’t fucking listen to anything he said. I mean it.” I reach across and brush her cheek with my fingers and then cup her face. She leans into my palm and exhales softly.

“I thought I wasn’t going to but… it seems too good to be true, I mean…”

“I’m not going anywhere, Charlotte. I promise. For Kimberly, for you. I mean we haven’t had that conversation yet, but I… I want you, too, Charlotte.”

Her glossy lips play at a smile, and she takes my hand in hers, taking my other hand from her face and kissing my knuckles.

“I want to be with you, too.”