“Alright then. Let’s go.”
We pull into the almost vacant parking lot and I pretend to take my time looking at the desserts in the glass display case, finally settling on the remaining chocolate pie.
We make our way back out to the truck and I glance at the clock. We’ll be a couple minutes late, perfect.
I stare out the window as we make the drive over to the Martinez’s’ residence, chewing on my thumb, trying to hide my excitement while Robert sings along to some song on the radio. We eventually turn down their driveway and Robert notices all the cars already there. Luckily everyone was in a rental, so he didn’t recognize any of them.
“Wow. Guess they go all out for this. Coach just made it seem like a small dinner. You ready for all this?” he asks half-heartedly.
If he only knew what “all this” truly entailed. I was ecstatic I had kept everything hidden from him. I look at him and smile, “Absolutely.”
Chapter Thirty-one
The front door swings open and Presley and I are greeted by a sea of familiar faces. Tina, Gramps, Coach, Liv and Trey, and my mother who is on the verge of crying. I look over to Presley, who has somehow shifted her way behind me, her smile stretches from ear to ear and her eyes are glassy as well. I’m over-come with emotion watching her reaction and my confusion grows by the minute. What are our families doing here? “Presley? What, what’s going on?”
“Happy Signing Day Robert. It took a little longer than you had planned, but you did it.”
“Wait. What? What do you mean? What about tomorrow’s game?”
“It’s your farewell game, Robert. Everyone you’ve played with has come in for it.”
“Wait. What!” Taking the pie from Presley I forcefully hand it off to Laura, “Here. Happy Thanksgiving.” She beams with pride as I return my attention back to Presley, picking her up, spinning her around, and kissing her in between bouts of laughter. “So the outfit changes, the nerves? It was all for this?” She shakes her head yes and I kiss her, harder and more unrelenting than the first few pecks. “I love you so much. Thank you angel.”
“I love you too.” She clings tightly to me, wrapping her arms around me and burying her face against my neck.
“Son, if you’d like to come over here we can go ahead and make you an official Texas Ranger. I’m Walter by the way, Liv’s daddy.”
I look at Liv and she just shrugs her shoulders. I have no words right now. I place Presley back on the floor and take her hand in mine as we move towards the table, my contract set out in front of me; all I have to do is sign it.
Presley whispers to me just before I sit down, “I looked over it. Everything’s in order. It’s a fantastic deal.”
I squeeze her hand in appreciation for everything she has done for me and continues to do for me on a daily basis without ever being asked. She is more than I deserve in every way.
I sit down and skim over everything, trusting that Presley would have taken care of anything major. My eyes eventually find the important part, my salary and contract length, five years, eighteen million dollars. I choke on air. This can't be right.
As if Presley senses my disbelief she leans down and whispers in my ear, “Don’t worry. Everything’s correct.”
Eighteen million dollars. I was expecting two million and would have been surprised if I earned more than that as a starting rookie.
“I know whatcha thinkin’ son. But you’re worth it. Besides I had to find some way for that girl of yours to get her fair amount. This year’s budget was already approved and when she changed our deal, I didn’t want to go in and refigure financials, so I just moved it to your contract.”
I shake my head in disbelief looking back to Presley. “Is this what you want? Is this the life you want? I don’t have to sign this Presley. I’ll give everything up if you don’t want this. We can move back to Montana, live on the ranch and I’ll replace Coach as the high school coach.” The room falls silent as everyone comes to realize the seriousness of my offer to her.
“Robert, this was always the plan, and I want what you want. As long as we’re together we’ll figure the rest of it out. But if you don’t sign that contract, then all the work you’ve put in since you were a freshman will be for nothing. I know this is what you want. Now sign the damn contract.”
She holds out a pen for me to sign with, and as soon as the pen lifts from the paper the entire room erupts with claps and whistles, but I only care about one thing. I once again look at Presley whose eyes have turned glossy. “So what does this make you?”
The smile on her face tells me all I need to know.
“It makes me your girlfriend.”
I slowly rise and wrap my arms around her waist. My lips brush against hers as I whisper, “That’s where you’re wrong.” She pulls back from me and looks confused and devastated, the room falls completely silent. “Presley, our mothers had a plan for us, albeit, it was crazy and unheard of, but they saw something between the two of us at an early age. We went years without seeing each other and somehow, someway, we found each other again.
“We had some great times as well as some pretty shitty times in our first year as a couple and I could have never imagined the pain I would cause you in the years that would follow. But you took that pain and turned it into something phenomenal. Something that not only saved me, but I know something that has saved others as well.
“You taught me how to believe in myself. How to put others needs before my own. You helped me to face my demons and gave me back the confidence I had lost. You saved me from where I was headed, and I will forever be grateful to you for that. You have never once put me second and have stood by me when I didn’t deserve you. You are my everything, Presley Elizabeth, I promise to put you first in all things, to walk beside you in life, and to be your support and strength when you need it.
“So, Presley, I guess what I’m trying to say is, will you marry me? Be my partner, my best friend, and my teammate till we’re old and gray?”
Tears hold steady on the rim of her eye lids, and as much as I want to dry those eyes of hers, I lower myself down to one knee and those tears break free while I hold out Gram’s ring to her.
Her hand reaches out to me and I’m quick to take it, placing a kiss along the backside of it. She shakes her head no and suddenly hushed whispers move around the room. I know my girl and my smile never faulters. “I promise to be there till the end.”
Shooting up rapidly, my arms wrap around her body tighter than I’ve ever held her. She trembles in my embrace as we lose ourselves in a deep and passionate kiss, no end and no beginning. Time stops and it’s just the two of us as we cling to one another, tongues working in perfect unison to convey love and commitment. I can feel her tears run down her cheeks and I brush them away with my thumbs as we break our seal and my lips dance across hers. “So I guess this makes you my fiancé?”
“I guess it does.” She looks down at the ring as I slide it on her finger, looking back to me eyes wide. “Is this—”
“The ring Gramps gave Gram. Yes. Fifty years of love and devotion in one unending circle.”
We look over at Gramps and I swear the old man is crying. I release her hand from mine, and she runs over to him, throwing her arms tightly around his neck as I follow behind her.
“Thank you.”
“She would have wanted you to have it, peanut. Your gram loved you two together so much. She always had faith that one day you would settle your differences and reunite. She knew the night we took her to the hospital that things would change between you both.”
Gramps looks between the two of us and I’ve never seen his eyes so soft as I take in his interaction with Presley.
“She was a smart woman.”
“Don’t I know it. You’re a lot like her you know.”
“I am?” I chuckle because now that he’s said it, I can see so many of Gram’s mannerisms in Presley.
“Your gram had to bust my balls and put me in my place
too.”
I laugh because I can only imagine the struggles she had with him.
He claps my shoulder a few times, “The two of you are gonna be just fine.”
We say our thank yous and Gramps heads over to talk to Coach about something. I stand behind her, my arms wrapped securely around her middle while a few more people come over to congratulate us. We’re in the middle of talking to our mothers when a sound that could be associated with a wild banshee tears through the kitchen and into the living room. I look at Presley, both our eyes wide in terror.
“Oh. My. God!” Liv comes barreling towards us, Presley braces herself against me preparing for impact. “P! You know what this means right? Double weddings! Joint honeymoons, and babies together!”
Presley laughs but I don’t give her enough time to respond.
“Absolutely not Liv. The wedding and especially the honeymoon are all ours. Alone.”
Liv rolls her eyes at me and I notice Presley blush; my sweet, hidden vixen with a dark insatiable side.
“I fucking love it when you do that,” I whisper to her before nibbling the sensitive spot on her neck until she shudders out a mouse like squeak.
“All right everyone. Dinner’s ready.” Laura announces to the room. We make our way out to the porch finding our place at one of the two long dining tables that have been set up and decorated in burlap with fresh herbs and candles.
Wine bottles are placed every three seats or so, a red and a white add the finishing touch to an understated elegance. Martinez wasn’t lying when he said there was always too much food left over, even with a good twenty or so people, it looked as if we hardly touched anything.
As the afternoon turns into evening, I notice Presley looking exhausted as she watches the Cowboys and the Redskins’ game. She’ll cheer every now and then, and I notice her smile each time number fifty-eight does something well, an old client perhaps, she hasn’t shared that part of her life with me and I don’t ask.
We say our goodbyes and Trey and Liv follow us home. The drive back is quiet and as I look over at her, noticing her admiring her ring. Her fingertips brushing lightly over the center stone, and around the halo, a smile radiates from her before she rests her head against the door. She doesn’t need to speak for me to know what she’s feeling, she has an aura around her that says it all.
I look back at the road and she soon breaks the silence.
“You have to report by February 5th, and I want to go down to Texas with you as your wife.”
My wife; the Cheshire cat has nothing on me or the grin that threatens to consume my entire face. Had you asked me four months ago if Presley Donovan would ever be my wife, I would have laughed in your face and then told you to go fuck yourself. But hearing her say those words sends my heart into overdrive.
“Robert, what if we got married in a month? I don’t want to wait any longer to start a life and a family with you. The only people I want at our wedding are the people who were with us today. It should be an intimate affair, not a business gathering. We could get married up in Montana, spend Christmas there and then head down to Texas after the new year. My assistant lives down there and I bet she would love to go house hunting for us and take care of everything. What do you say?”
Two things; one, I had no idea she had an assistant, she seems so hands on with everything, and two, she’s absolutely perfect. “If that’s really what you want, then let’s do it.”
“You’re sure? You don’t mind having a small wedding?”
“Pres, we could go to the JP tomorrow and I’d be perfectly okay with it. As long as you’re there, that’s all I need.”
She dips her head, and even in the evening light I can see her rosy coloring. I was never a fan of pink until I saw it on her.
“Where do you want to honeymoon? We could do that in between Christmas and Texas.”
“I’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights.”
“Then the Northern Lights it is.”
She runs her hands up my neck and I lean into her touch. “I love you. And I’m in love with you. And tonight I don’t want to talk about any of this with Liv. I’ll tell her everything in the morning.”
“And how exactly do you manage to get out of that? I’m sure she already has a million and one things planned for you two to discuss.”
Presley fakes a pathetic cough, batting her lashes in my direction looking coy as hell. I chuckle, shaking my head at this mischievous little thing sitting next to me. “Suddenly I’m not feeling so well. I think I need Dr. West to pay a house call.”
“Oh, doctor is it?”
She giggles, biting her lip and batting her eyes with the flutter of a hummingbird.
She amazes me on so many levels. The same woman that takes the term “ball busting bitch” as a compliment is the same woman that can let down all her defenses and turn into to a playful kitten, one who on the regular enjoys being man-handled and controlled in between the sheets. I’m still trying to figure out how the hell I got so lucky. “I think the doctor is off tonight, but I know of a new fiancé who is more ready to take care of his soon-to-be bride.”
I lean forward over the center console, my eyes focused on her with a fire like intensity, my lips brush against hers and a hand slams hard against her window eliciting a blood curdling scream as she jumps in her seat, instantly grabbing her chest only to find Liv wearing a creeper’s smile standing outside her door. “She’s your friend,” I whisper under my breath before she opens the door.
“Sweet Jesus, Liv. Was it necessary to give me a heart attack tonight?” I haven’t heard that tone from her since I saw her on the field my first day as a client and yet it doesn’t faze Liv in the slightest.
“You were taking too long and I didn’t want to watch you two play tonsil hockey all night.”
“You could have gone inside,” I growl out as I make my way out of the truck.
“Shut your face, Robert,” she calls out to me, her eyes firmly locked on me as I make my way to Presley. “You should be on your knees right about now thanking me for giving you this blessed opportunity. I’m your own personal saint and you better start acting like it.”
I roll my eyes in her direction; she’s not wrong, but damn do I hate it when she’s right.
“Now come on Pres, we have hours of stuff to discuss. I’ve already started your wedding website and have your “To Do” calendar ready to go.”
Geeze the woman wastes no time.
“Liv, not tonight. I’ve got a headache from trying to keep everything a secret these last couple of days and I just really want to go to bed.”
Liv looks between the two of us with a knowing scowl.
“I promise we’ll do it tomorrow.”
Liv’s bottom lip sticks out profusely before she points her perfectly manicured finger in my direction. “And you mister! How come you didn’t warn me. I was in the restroom and nearly missed the whole thing.”
“Sorry Liv. I didn’t really know when I was doing it. I always saw myself proposing right after getting signed. I had no clue I was walking into a Rangers’ contract this afternoon.”
Presley looks shocked at my revelation. “You did?”
“Yea. Gramps gave me the ring right before we left, and I’ve been caring it around in my pocket ever since.”
“Aww. Y’all make me sick. Just like high school.”
Presley and I laugh as we make our way inside. She heads straight for the bedroom while I get Liv and Trey set up in the guest room. I grab some Ibuprofen and a bottle of water on my way through the kitchen. Presley told Liv she had a headache, so I need to at least make it look like she does to ensure Liv leaves us alone tonight. We say our good nights and Trey offers me a final congrats and a bro hug before being pulled into the guest room by Liv. I shake my head and am glad their room is on the opposite side of the house; apparently wine makes Liv frisky.
I close the door to our bedroom and find Presley already snuggled in bed wearing her favorite pa
jamas, definitely not where I envisioned tonight going. “I brought you some Ibuprofen,” I say as I make my way over to the bed.
“Thank you.” I hand them to her and shuck my clothes, I watch as her eyes trail over my body watching every move until I’m in bed next to her and she’s snuggled against my side, her fingers drawing figure eights over my chest and running down my abdomen.
“What is it?” I know that move. It’s been years since I’ve felt it, but whether we want to admit it or not, we know everything about the other.
“You still want kids, right?”
I pull her tighter to me, “The more the better.”
“I’m gonna get off my birth control. I texted my doctor this afternoon and she set up an appointment for me first thing tomorrow morning. There’s a doctor she recommends in the area and he’s just going to come here.”
She looks up at me to judge my reaction.
The only thing she receives is slow sipping kisses as I hold her chin angled up to me. “Fantastic,” I whisper against her lips and feel my cock pulse with excitement.
“It’s not gonna happen overnight, I’ve been on it for years, but with the wedding so soon, I just don’t see any harm in it.”
“The sooner the better, Presley.” I roll her on her back and hover over her, my weight resting on my forearms as her green eyes stare up at me. “I can’t wait to knock you up.” I try to keep a straight face but can’t. The minute she starts laughing, I follow suit.
“You’re ridiculous. And please don’t ever say that again. We’re not teenagers.”
“My mind still is. And a certain piece of me wants to start practicing tonight.” I waggle my brows at her, and she pushes me off of her.
“No. Your first game is tomorrow, and I need you in tip-top shape.”
“I thought I wasn’t your client anymore.”
“You’re not, but if you fuck up this game tomorrow, you’re not getting fucked tomorrow night.”
Ohhhh, my girl thinks she can control me now. “So is this how it’s gonna be? No sex before games?” She’s dead wrong.
Tag Forever Mine Page 28
