“Don’t worry about that,” he said. “That typically happens to the players that either didn’t have anything growing up, or had too much and were never told no. I witnessed first hand what happened to my dad. He couldn’t control his partying and spending habits. I promise you that that lifestyle is the last thing I want. I just want to be normal.”
“But if you could be famous,” she said, “There might be some perks involved. Don’t tell me you don’t want to get into the hottest parties and mingle with celebrities.”
“Only if you’re by my side,” I said. “You’ll be able to navigate that world much better than I ever could.”
“My turn,” I said. “Where’s the last place you would want to move?”
“Florida,” she said instantly. “I love the beach, but the humidity does terrible things to my hair. I would look like a fluff ball all the time.”
“Same,” I laughed. “I’m not so concerned about my hair, but I hate the heat. That’s another reason why I want to go back to Colorado.”
We giggled. We disagreed about a lot of stuff, so I really loved it when we were on the same page.
“Just so you know,” I said. “I’m projected to go to New York or Washington. It’s not a sure thing, but if a pro team picks me up, it’ll most likely be either of those states.”
She grinned. “I can work with that.”
We heard a commotion from across the hall. It sounded like someone fell off the bed. We burst out laughing.
“Do you think Sasha and Reg will last?” I asked.
“I hope so,” she said. “They’re a lot of fun together.”
“Can you imagine what their kids would be like? They would be absolutely wild.”
“They would be impossible to control,” Alexa added.
“I think Reg is going to make his decision on where he’s going based on where Sasha is. Originally, he was going to follow Sam or I, but he’s totally hooked on her.”
“I’m not surprised,” she said. “He’s always followed her around like a puppy.”
We were quiet again, trying to think of a question we’ve never asked each other.
“What do you think Sebastian’s doing right now?” I wondered aloud.
“Oh, Sebastian,” she sighed. “I hope I haven’t caused him to go into hiding. There’s got to be a girl out there that’s out of options and needs to marry rich. Maybe my mom should just marry him since she’s so in love with him.”
“Then your dad and my mom could get together,” I said. “He could supply the money, and she could be completely normal!”
“Yeah, but then we’d be siblings. I don’t think I’m okay with that,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
“Okay, fine,” I said. “I’ve heard of weirder things.”
“Me, too,” she said. “You would be shocked at all of the inbreeding that happens in my world.”
“Seriously? I thought that was just for hillbillies.”
“Nope,” she said. “When marrying for money and connections is a requirement, there are only so many options. I know families where multiple siblings in one family marry siblings from another family. And weird affairs that result in secret love-children happen all the time. It can be hard to connect a family tree.”
“Aren’t you excited to get away from all that?”
“Incredibly. But I think it’s always going to be a part of me. I don’t think I can just pretend that I didn’t grow up with money. I was without my parents’ credit card for just a couple months and I didn’t think I was going to survive.”
“You don’t have any tangled bloodlines, right?” I asked.
“I don’t believe so. My dad was an outsider.”
“Did your grandma treat him like your mom treated me?”
“No, but he had money by the time they met. Maybe I should have introduced you after you get your multimillion dollar contract and starting position.”
“That reminds me,” I said. “I have a present for you.”
“You didn’t have to spend any money on me,” she protested. “I didn’t get you anything. Now I feel bad.”
“It’s nothing,” I said. “But I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and I want to give this to you.”
I reached under the bed for the box, but I couldn’t find it. I crawled out of bed and searched on my hands and knees. Finally, I found the tiny box and extended it out to her.
She gasped, wide eyed. I could see tears beginning to form, but she had a slight smile. It took me a moment to realize what she thought it was.
“Oh, God, no,” I stuttered. “I’m not proposing. We’ve been together for less than six months. It’s my championship ring. I want you to have it.”
I opened the box and placed the giant ring in her hand.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “This is a big deal.”
“I don’t wear rings and I don’t want it to sit on a shelf getting dusty. If you want to, you can wear it on a chain, like a necklace.”
“I love it,” she gushed. “Thank you.”
I felt my heart rate slow back down to normal. I hope she wasn’t disappointed that it wasn’t an engagement ring. I needed more money for that. I knew I was going to ask her to marry me one day- I was certain of that.
She was the most incredible person I knew. She was smart, funny, and sexy as hell. I wanted to give her the world, and I knew she wanted the same for me. Every day with Alexa was an adventure. We were learning new things about each other every day and she was constantly surprising me. I never wanted it to end.
Alexa
When I graduated, I knew that I had no concrete plans. I knew that I wanted to have a career, and to be with Martin. What happened next exceeded all expectations. I don’t think I even imagined that life could have so many surprises.
The day after graduation, Martin and I packed our bags and flew to New York for the draft. The unexpected happened, and he was drafted in the first round.
He was drafted to the Denver Broncos with a ten million dollar a year contract. We moved in with his mom the next week while we looked for a house.
We found the perfect house with all of the specifications I asked for. It was bigger than I even asked for, but then again, his contract was bigger than we thought it would be.
He also paid off his mom’s mortgage so her paychecks could be spent on better things than bills. She was beyond thrilled to have her son and his girlfriend around.
Unfortunately, not everything was perfect. We had been talking for months about having me meet his dad. Martin hadn’t seen him in years, and thought this would be the perfect time to make amends. After putting it off and making excuses not to go, we finally picked a date when we would visit him. We found the halfway house he had been living in, and Martin even talked to him on the phone to set up a time to meet. Then the accident happened.
Just three days before we were supposed to meet, his dad got into a car accident. He had been drunk, and went the wrong way on the highway. He was speeding, lost control, and hit a semi truck.
The truck driver was okay, but the crash killed his dad. The first time I was in the man’s presence was at his funeral. It was a hard time for Martin, especially because his new team reminded him so much of his dad. It took some time, but he got through it, and even funded a wing of a rehab center in his name.
My mom finally came around to having Martin around more. They’re certainly not close, but she speaks cordially with them. He convinced me to spend a few weeks with her over the summer, and it wasn’t that bad. My dad and Martin are practically best friends, though.
I secretly think my dad wanted a son, but my mom wasn’t going to have any more children. My mom and I get along a lot better these days. Our relationship will still need time to heal, but we talk on the phone every couple of weeks.
The most unexpected thing happened soon after graduation. We moved to Colorado, and I felt sick all of the time. Martin thought I just had altitude sickness from being in th
e mountains. I didn’t think much of it, but after talking to Sasha, she convinced me to take a pregnancy test. I was pregnant!
We aren’t sure, but we think the condom broke on the night of graduation, when we were too drunk to notice. I blame Martin for that little oversight.
At the time, I was pretty upset. I didn’t think I wanted to have a child so soon. Martin was really great, though. After I went to the doctor to confirm the pregnancy, I told Martin that night, thinking he was going to be angry. In fact, he cried tears of joy.
I had never seen him cry before, so of course I turned into a blubbery mess. He had to run to the store to buy a pint of ice cream to get me to stop.
Since I decided to hold off on getting a job, I took classes to get my teaching license. Now I’ll be able to work whenever I’m ready. I followed Martin around to a lot of his games until I was too pregnant to fly.
Because of my bloated belly, I couldn’t try out to be a cheerleader. I was a little disappointed, but the excitement of the baby made up for it.
We had our daughter, Nikki, at the beginning of the off-season. It was perfect timing, because I couldn’t have imagined giving birth without Martin by my side. He was so great and attentive.
I won’t lie, I was pretty annoyed when I was having contractions and all of the nurses were fawning over him. He gets recognized all the time. For the most part, I’ve gotten used to his fame.
Our daughter is absolutely perfect in every way. I could spend all day looking at her little face. I was so worried that I wouldn’t know what to do with a baby, but between the books I read, Martin’s mom, and motherly instinct, it was a breeze. I mean, it was really hard at first, but I had a ton of help. Luckily Martin was around most of the day, so he spent his time talking to our daughter about football. Martin’s mom moved in with us for a few months and was an absolute angel.
My parents visited as much as possible, and I think having a granddaughter softened my mom a bit. She hates the idea of being old enough to be a grandma, but adores shopping for cute—and crazy expensive—outfits for Nikki. Nikki is just as happy wearing Burberry as she is in a football jersey. I’ve already promised her that when she’s old enough to make her own decisions, I’ll let her participate in any activity she chooses. Martin also agreed that we weren’t going to force her to play sports, no matter how much we wanted her to.
After I found out I was pregnant with Nikki, both Martin and my parents wanted us to get married. Martin got a ring, but I refused to get married, just because there was a baby involved. I wanted both of us to be sure we were ready for the next step.
He kept asking me, once a month at first, and then would check in on a weekly basis. I kept telling him no because I wanted to make sure everything was right. In retrospect, this seemed a little mean of me, but I think it made us really decide what we wanted in a marriage.
In the fall, Martin was asked to come back to Princeton to be recognized as a former athlete, now in the pros. Of course, I went with him, and we brought Nikki along. I wanted her to see where mommy and daddy met. Little did I know, our parents were also in attendance.
At halftime, the announcer gave a short speech about Martin’s college career as our little family walked out on the field to wave to the crowd. All of a sudden, the cheerleaders came out and brought him a little box.
He got down on one knee and proposed to me with our parents, our daughter, and my old squad surrounding us. I couldn’t say no if I wanted to, since there were thousands of cheering fans around.
I knew right then that the moment was perfect. This man constantly surprised me and I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life. We’re planning our perfect wedding for next summer in the mountains, near Aspen. I expected my mom to have a venue already booked, but I think she learned her lesson about making plans for me. I wasn’t really someone whose life followed a plan.
Being the girlfriend of a professional athlete was not what I expected. I thought it was going to be crazy parties every weekend and a hectic schedule. In reality, we stay in and watch movies and play with our daughter.
Martin travels for away games every now and again, but he’s really not gone a lot. He’s a great father and always has enough time for his little girl.
I know it wasn’t a conventional first few years out of college, especially from someone as career-focused as me. While my friends were backpacking through Europe or going to loud concerts, I was at home reading stories about puppies and kitties.
Martin’s mom babysat for us a lot, and we went to our fair share of celebrity-filled bashes, but we always wanted to come home early to kiss Nikki goodnight.
I wouldn’t have traded the way things turned out for anything, though. We got just about everything we ever wanted in life, just all at once. It wasn’t always easy, but it was worth it.
If someone had told me as a youth where my life would have taken me, I would have laughed. For that matter, if someone told me my life would be like this before my last year of college, I wouldn’t have believed it. I learned a while back that there’s no point in trying to control where things are headed.
If I would have stuck to the plan, I would be miserable in the Hamptons, gossiping with other housewives. Now, I’m soon to be married to a professional football player and the love of my life. Our daughter is everything I ever wanted, and we have everything we could possibly want or need at our fingertips.
If I knew anything for certain, it was that rigid plans only led to pain and disappointment. I decided to live my life open and willing to make the best of whatever opportunities popped up.
It was working pretty well for me so far.
If you liked this, keep reading the rest of the Pass To Win series!
Book 1-Touchdown: A Bad Boy Sports Romance
Book 2-Line of Scrimmage: A Secret Baby Sports Romance
Book 3-Between The Tackles: A Bad Boy Sports Romance
Book 4-Fourth and Goal: A Bad Boy Sports Romance
Book 5-Game Winning Catch: A Secret Baby Sports Romance
One More Kiss
Julia
You understand this goes against doctor-patient privileges, don’t you?”
“I do, Doctor, and I wish that I didn’t have to go down this road, but there aren’t any other options at this point,” I said for the second time. This time, I pulled out the folded pages and set them gingerly on his desk. “The judge, however, agrees with me. I need to know if my mother is a risk to herself or others.”
He leaned back, the buttons on his silk shirt straining against an ever-expanding gut. I couldn’t believe what I’d gone through just to find out if my mother was mentally stable. The past few years had shown me a lot, a great deal of things I never would have imagined about her. I finally had to draw the line, and I was about to find out if all of my work had been worth it. Otherwise, I had no choice but to accept that maybe I was the one with the problem. That just didn’t feel right though.
“Julia,” he said with a sigh of relief as he read over the papers. “I am so happy that your mother has someone who cares enough to go through all of this. To be honest, I was struggling with not speaking out anyway. If this had failed, I don’t know what I would have done.”
My heart started to race. Dryness overtook my mouth as I struggled to speak. “Then you think there is something wrong with her?”
He slowly nodded his head. “I know that there is. I’d brought in a specialist to assess her condition—under the veil of anonymity, of course.”
“Sure,” I muttered. I was still in shock that he was going to help me at all. “You know I’ve been taking care of my mother since before my father passed. I’m just worried that she isn’t the woman she claimed to be. The longer I am here, the more I notice just how controlling she is. And I don’t mean just normal stuff either.”
I shuddered at the memory I had of just a few short months ago. Everything had seemed normal. Or at least as normal as my life could ever become.
Littl
e flashes of guilt would leap out and surprise me, and on that particular morning, it was walking past the park that triggered it. Margarete sighed and tugged at my arm as I stopped briefly to watch the children playing. One little girl, in particular, grabbed my eye. She was about nine years old. The same age as Amy. Even her dark complexion and raven hair matched my own sweet daughter’s.
“For Pete’s sake, hurry up, Julia, or we’re going to be late getting to the market.”
I turned my attention back to my mother, whom I’d only ever called Margarete. “Sorry. I was just watching the children. That little girl looks so much like—”
She dove in before I could finish the sentence. “Don’t you worry about things like that. Some day, you’ll have a family of your own. I don’t know what you would do if you ever lost me.”
Her words dragged up guilt that competed with anger. “Margarete, I have a family. Don’t you remember them?”
Her cold eyes peered into mine, sending a chill over my shoulders. “My dear child, after everything you have done, you don’t honestly think that man would ever take you back, do you?”
“I don’t know,” I said. She was a cruel and controlling woman, but I’d never heard her speak of Amy with such disregard. I’d grown accustomed to the scornful glares and jealous interruptions when I got the occasional update on my daughter, but it had never been like this before.
“No,” she said as she started walking again, pulling me along. “You burned that bridge and there is no going back. It’s better this way. It always has been. You know it’s a daughter’s duty to take care of her parents. If you’d only come a few weeks earlier, how different things could have been.”
Her voice trailed off and I pushed the memory of Amy out of my mind. I didn’t need her to continue. I already knew what truth she was going to say. My father’s death rested firmly on my shoulders. It was my cross to bear for the rest of my life. She hadn’t been strong enough to care for him in the end, but I had been unwilling to split up my family. I wouldn’t make that mistake again. I would never leave my mother’s side.
Second Chance Draft: A Second Chance Sports Romance (Pass To Win Book 6) Page 26
