by Alexis Anne
“And you?”
“I’m neither of my sisters. I’m too laidback to be like Eve but not laidback enough to be like Cassandra. I love to travel but I also love to come home. I like working with people. I’m not sure about anything else.”
He reached over and snagged my hand, holding it gently inside his. “Can I tell you what I think?” He squeezed, drawing my attention back up to his eyes.
I held my breath and nodded because I was a little bit scared of what he was about to say. What did he see when he looked at me? I had a feeling it was so much more than anyone else ever saw—and that was both exciting and a little bit terrifying.
“You’re smart and capable and you love people. That’s why you love to travel.”
“Oh it is, is it?” I smiled. He knew. I think he always knew my soul.
“Yep. You get to know everyone, you try every weird food offered, learn every dance. You’re not afraid of looking out of place. You love the human experience.” His eyes lit up as he waved his free hand. “How else can you fully appreciate that if you don’t travel?”
“I like that description of me a lot better than wanderer.”
“That’s because you’re not aimless. Which brings me to my other favorite part of you.”
I blushed. The heat in his eyes alone was enough to make me feel naked in front of this man, but he was also undressing me with his words. He saw me in the same way I saw him . . . past all the layers and misconceptions, down to the heart that drove us.
“And what’s that?”
“You chose to be an athletic trainer because you have a special gift. I knew it in college, that’s why I requested you. Some trainers are brilliant with the body, but they very rarely understand how much the mental game factors into our health. You get that, June. You grew up with it and because of that, you understand the ego, the single-minded focus to play, and you aren’t the least bit afraid or star struck by the athletes you work with. Add in the fact that you seem to see the human body as part of a bigger picture the rest of us don’t get, and you’re this amazing super trainer. There is absolutely nothing aimless about you. You have a huge heart and a soul that wants to soak up the entire world.”
“Wow,” I breathed. No one had ever seen me this way. Not my family, not my friends.
“You are an amazing woman, June. I see it and they should, too. If you want to travel more, do it because you want to. Stop trying to fit into the ideal they have for you.” He pulled my leg until I was flat on my back. “And if your job is too constricting, then come work for the foundation we dreamed up when we were two young, naïve kids who thought they could fall in love.”
25
Five years earlier
T hey were still yelling. They’d been yelling for over thirty minutes. It was awful. Roman slid across the bench until our thighs touched. He took my hand and held it on his leg. It was comforting. “They know we’re adults, right?” he asked.
That was clearly a big fat no.
“All’s fair in love and hate.”
“That’s bullshit.”
I shrugged. It might be bullshit but we were listening to the truth of it. George and Cecil arrived ten minutes before Mom and Dad, and the screaming hadn’t stopped.
I was stupid.
Roman was pathetic.
No one seemed to care that we could hear them. They were so consumed with their own hate that our sanity was of no concern.
“None of it’s true,” I said, looking up at him. My father had just yelled that Roman was a hack who would never last.
He gave me a squeeze. “Babe. I know. Do you?”
I shrugged. “I know.” But there was so much. Some of it was starting to make me think.
Did I have any idea what I was doing?
“No.” He turned. “You’re letting them get to you. Stop it.”
“I’m not.”
“You are. Your light is gone.” He kissed me. “Bring it back.”
“My light?” What was he even talking about?
“You glow.” He ducked his head like he was confessing something he shouldn’t. “Normally you’re filled with happiness and confidence. It’s very attractive.”
Well this was new information. “And now?”
He touched my forehead. “You’re frowning. The light isn’t gone but it’s dimmer and that’s a damn shame.”
Well that . . . that was lovely. “How do you block this out?”
He gave me a sad smile. “I don’t. But I also remind myself they’ve all lost their damn minds. Do you hear them? King George is calling Coach Williams a loser. Really?”
I cringed. Poor Coach. He didn’t deserve any of this. His reward for giving us a shot—for giving me the opportunity to get the experience I needed—was to be berated by four immature adults with an anger problem.
“We could really make them lose it. We could tell them we’re dating.” It was a terrible, fantastic idea and the rebel inside me wanted to do it just to watch them explode.
Roman studied me for several beats. “No, June. We’re not stooping to their level.”
“But it would be fun.”
“No. It wouldn’t.” There was a threat of anger in his voice.
“I’m sorry.” I was only thinking of how good it would feel to piss everyone off.
He lifted my chin so that we were eye to eye again. “I don’t ever want them to come between us.”
How was that possible? What were we going to do? Run away and never come home? Because that was probably the only scenario in which Roman and I were together and our angry parents weren’t involved.
“We need to be real. You have a big career ahead of you—”
“So do you.” He dipped his head when I tried to look away, catching my gaze and bringing it back. “Your career. My career. Not theirs.”
The doors flew open and Dad came storming out. I’d never seen him this angry and that had me scattering away from Roman. Honestly, I was a little scared of Dad when he was like this.
“It’s okay, babe,” Roman murmured low enough that only I could hear it.
“Get away from my daughter.” Dad was so loud it echoed off the walls.
Roman stepped back, his hands in the air. “You need to calm down, sir.”
“You need to shut up.”
“You’re scaring her.” Roman tried to step toward me again but Dad became a wall between us.
“Do not ever speak about my daughter ever again.”
“She has a name and her own life. She’s more than just your daughter.”
My jaw fell open in surprise. Had Roman just put my dad in his place? Oh no . . . Dad was going to kill him. I lunged for his arm and wrapped myself around it. “We should go home, Dad.”
“You little self-righteous prick.” Dad stepped back, all while sneering at Roman. Mom walked out just in time to see the very end of all of this and of course she thought the worst. It was written all over her face.
Everything was falling apart.
“In the car, June. We’re taking you home.”
Taking me home? “But—”
“Car. Now.”
26
Present Day, Tampa
I knew our story was going to be headline news. I knew it would be interesting to a few. I’d hoped it would be a blip on the radar. One horrible day of unwanted attention followed by a few days or weeks of confusion from our angry families.
I was naïve to expect things to be so simple.
For one, the article was well written. For two, it was well placed. And for three, it just so happens that in a country without a monarchy, our hungry public is always on the hunt for a family to crown.
And as of this morning, Roman and I were the newly appointed royal couple of the tabloids.
In a way I was flattered by the way we were portrayed. The article was written a lot like a romance. It introduced us as the star-crossed lovers, then detailed the family feud, our histories, and the legendary place our story h
eld in the world of baseball. Our fathers were the villains while Roman and I were the heroes, overcoming hate with love.
The pictures were pretty incredible too, and I fell for Roman just a little bit harder. He was doting, a man clearly in love.
People were eating it up and demanding more. It wasn’t going away and I had serious doubts it would fade on its own. But that wasn’t my immediate problem. Oh, no. All I could focus on for the foreseeable future was the angry mob of Daniels waiting for us when we got home.
“No. Nope. Not gonna do this. Turn the car around!”
Roman didn’t turn the car around.
“Let’s go back to the airport. We can pick anywhere in the world and just go!”
There was no mistaking the entourage of cars parked on the street outside my house. My parents were there. Jake and Eve were home. Plus there was a rental car that I assumed belonged to Cassandra. I mean, why not call in the entire family when the youngest has gone off her rocker and turned traitor?
“We’re facing this head on,” Roman said so calmly that I hated him a little bit.
“But we’re so happy. We walk through that door and it’s over. Not forever, but definitely until we pass out from exhaustion.” And most likely the rest of the week. Or month. Hell, they may even drag this out for a year or more. I’d heard of those families that couldn’t get past a bad marriage. I didn’t want begrudging Christmas dinners or forced birthday celebrations. If they weren’t going to forgive me then I didn’t want to see them. I wasn’t one of those people who could plaster on a fake smile and pretend things were fine when they weren’t.
“Stop thinking,” he said. He pulled the car into the driveway and shut off the engine. “You have absolutely no clue what’s going to happen so stop running through worst case scenarios in your head.”
“I know exactly what’s going to happen,” I grumbled as I sank further down into my seat. “Fire is going to rain down from above the minute my father sees us together.”
“This is our life. Our house.”
I sat up straighter. “We haven’t talked about that. Holy crap. We haven’t even talked about where we’ll live.” I buried my face in my hands. “People are supposed to do this stuff before they get married!”
“What stuff?”
I shot him a glare. “Uh, I don’t know, things like where they’ll live, whether they want kids, if they have rules or habits or desires that are deal breakers!”
“June.”
I really hated how calm he was. “What?”
“I love you. We’re going to live here, where we’ve been sleeping ever since we got together, where you have history.”
“Don’t you want to start over? Somewhere without history?”
“No.” He shrugged his shoulders. “We’re next door to your sister and your nieces. I like our bed and I like you. I’ll move in here.”
“Living next door to Eve is one of the problems.”
“It won’t be if we go inside and take care of this.”
“Stop being so damn calm!” I yelled. “For the love of God, freak out a little!”
“Why?” He snagged my hand as I waved it through the air, pulling it to his chest. “I’ve got exactly zero things to freak out about. I have you. Everything else will work out.”
“What if it gets violent?” I didn’t really think that it would but . . .
“I can handle myself. And I highly doubt Jake will let your father or anyone else get out of hand, either.”
He had a point.
It was time.
“Fine. I’m ready.” But I didn’t move.
“On the count of three?”
I whimpered. “One. Two. Three.” This time I actually forced myself to move. One foot in front of the other. Roman was at my door by the time I stood up and I was grateful for his arm to lean on.
“Oh, one more thing.” He held up a jewelry box, then opened it. Inside were three rings. “This one is mine.” It was a simple wide silver band with no embellishments. It was understated and unmistakably him.
I slid it onto his ring finger. “That’s sexy.”
He flexed his hand, arching an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
“Oh yeah. You are so getting laid tonight.”
He shook his head, then pulled out the next ring. “They call this an infinity band, which I thought was appropriate because of the whole forever thing.” He slid it onto my ring finger. Then he held up the third ring. The engagement ring. “Wes can’t be trusted with much, but he got this right. I sent him a picture of my grandmother’s ring and asked him to find something close,” he said as he placed this ring beside the infinity ring.
“It’s gorgeous.” And larger than I would have picked for myself. I went up on my tiptoes and kissed him. “And thank you for my dream wedding.”
He pulled my hand to his lips and kissed my rings, sealing them in with his touch. “It was enough?”
“It was exactly right.” And now I felt a hundred percent more prepared. As if the rings had the power to give me courage. “Let’s get this over with so we can go back to living life our way.”
He took my hand. “Just remember, we’re in this together.”
If only it were that easy.
The minute the door opened they were on us. Luckily we had an ally. Eve physically put herself between my parents and us. It was a standoff in the foyer.
“Why is he here?” Dad sputtered, his face turning redder by the moment.
“If you let us actually walk inside we might be able to explain.”
“You are inside. Explain now.” He was being completely unreasonable.
“Dad,” Eve sighed. “We talked about this. You will sit. You will be quiet. You will follow the rules or Jake and Greg will escort you out. Do you hear me?” She was using her scary mom-voice. She meant business.
Dad glared at her. “Yes, I hear you.” Then he stormed into the sitting room and claimed the armchair.
Mom followed close behind, shooting strange glances my way.
“I’ve done my best and laid down some rules, as you can tell.” Eve pulled us into the kitchen. “Zoe and Marie are next door with the girls. Jake and Greg are going to wait in here unless you’d like them to be part of this?” She looked at me questioningly.
“That’s up to you guys.” I shrugged. “I don’t know how much you’ll enjoy this conversation.”
“We’ll wait in here,” Greg said. “We can hear everything but get to make faces. It’s best all around, really.”
“Is Cassandra here? I saw a rental car.”
Eve sighed in exasperation. “She’s next door, too. She’s here for moral support but doesn’t want anything to do with this.” She waved her hand at the sitting room and made a face. “And I don’t blame her.”
So everything was set. Mom and Dad, Roman and me, and Eve playing referee. This should be interesting.
“One more thing.”
I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like this thing, whatever it was. “What is it?”
She glanced at Roman, then back to me. “George and Dad have restraining orders against each other now.”
“What did they do?” I hissed.
“Is George here?” Roman’s hand tightened on my arm.
“He is,” she said evenly. “Mom and Dad were staying here. They heard the sound of glass breaking and when they walked outside all of the windows on the car had been shattered.”
“Why do think it was him?” Roman asked.
“Rusty threw him out of dinner for harassing Dad. So of course Dad followed him outside.”
I groaned. “What are they? Five?”
“They’re angry, June. They’ve been angry for two decades and instead of letting it go, it festers. So now there are restraining orders. I just thought you should know how things have been while you’ve been gone. It hasn’t been fun.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Just . . . talk to them.”
So we faced the firing squa
d. Dad followed the rules and listened without interrupting as Roman and I relayed our story. We started at the beginning. How we met in college and immediately clicked. That we fell in love but fell apart because the stress was too much.
Roman explained how he never stopped loving me but waited until he was ready before he came back in to my life. I even got to explain how amazing Aim For Athletics was before they noticed.
“What is that?” Mom shrieked.
“What?” I held out my hands looking for a spider.
“On your hand?” she yelled much louder this time.
Eve grabbed my hand and held it up with a gasp. “You’re married!” She shot over to Roman and picked up his hand, too. “That’s where you’ve been!”
I thought Mom was going to faint. “You got married? To him?”
“Have you heard nothing?” I said around Eve who was back, staring at the rings on my hand. “He’s amazing. I love him. And yes, I married him. I’m his wife.”
“You’ll just have to get divorced,” Dad said quietly.
“I’m not getting divorced. I married him because I want to be married to him. I want to live with him, grow old. All the things the two of you have done? I want that chance too, and the guy I picked is Roman St. James. I’m twenty-seven years old. Get over it.”
That was the wrong thing to say.
Dad stood up.
“Jake!” Eve yelled. We both thought Dad was about to lose it.
Roman was in front of me in a flash. “You need to calm down, sir.”
“And you need to explain why you stole my daughter.”
“He didn’t steal me!” I yelled. “Open your ears. I am a grown woman, Dad. I’m smart and fully capable of determining if I love someone. I love him. Why is that so hard to understand?”
Dad grew eerily quiet. Jake and Greg stood just behind him and Roman moved to my side, standing just a fraction of an inch in front of me.
“I have not asked much of you girls,” he finally said. “My years on the team were hard on you, but I tried to make it up to you. You never wanted for anything. I sent you to college. I’ve supported all your choices in careers, friends, and homes. All I’ve ever asked for in return is your loyalty to this family. Family first.” My heart cracked open. He didn’t care that we were in love or that Roman was his own man. All that mattered was that I’d married a St. James. “You’ve broken that trust, June.”
