Bachelors In Love

by Jestine Spooner

  “And the spotlight? That’s part of your job.”

  “A really crappy part,” he conceded.

  “Sure. Well, breaking dates to race across town ain’t no picnic. And you never make a big deal about the long hours I work, or how exhausted I am, even on my days off, or even the fact that Owen works two doors down from me.”

  Eli was quiet. He had things to say, but he was getting the distinct impression that he was coming out on top without even having to say anything. He’d be a fool to interrupt now.

  “You’ve been nothing but patient and sweet, Eli. And I don’t begrudge you your past, not in theory. I just have to learn how to put that into practice, you know?” Some of Tia’s wild hysteria was passing and she was settling back into a more typical emotion. But she was exhausted from the mood pendulum she’d just ridden. It was gonna be a long night. “I can’t believe I have to go right now.”

  “But you do,” he said softly, reaching over and taking her by the chin. He pressed a firm kiss to her precious mouth. “It’s okay. I get it.”

  She gathered her bag to her chest and moved toward the door.

  “Oh!” He stopped her. “Hand me your house keys so I can go let Ham out.”

  She froze, one foot out the door, the streetlight slanting across her face. He couldn’t read her expression for all the world.

  “I love you, Eli.”

  He sucked in a huge breath through the grin that rose like the sun over his face. He knew he was smiling like a loon, cracking his face right in two. “Is that right?”

  “Yeah.” She leaned back into the car. “That’s damn right.”

  Their mouths met in a kiss that was all press and no melt. It was abrupt and forceful. Punctuation on a moment that had been anything but perfect. It had been everything but perfect. And weirdly, that’s kind of what made it perfect.

  “Sleep over,” she whispered against his mouth.

  “Hmmm?” His eyes came open.

  “Stay at my house. Be there when I get back from work. Okay?”

  He nodded. There was nothing she could have said then that would have given him more.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Eli woke up just before dawn to Tia snuggling into his side. She was damp from the shower and impossibly warm. He glanced at the clock. “You’re home early.”

  “Yeah,” she whispered. “It didn’t end up being that bad of a night.” She stroked the messy hair off his forehead. “It’s okay though, baby, you can go back to sleep.”

  But she’d used that endearment for the first time and it had Eli’s eyes popping open like a coke can. He snuggled her into him and realized with no small amount of interest, that they were both naked. “I’m not all that tired.”

  “I was thinking, Eli,” she said as she shifted against the pillows to get more comfortable.

  “Yeah?”

  “I wanna do what you said. About controlling our story. Let’s just put it out there that we’re serious. And then we can let them drool all over it for a few weeks before they get bored. And we can just go on with our regularly scheduled programming of being serious with each other.”

  Eli smiled into the still dark room. “Tia, that’s not totally what I meant when I said that.”

  “Hmm?”

  He stroked a hand up her back, reflected on the evening they’d had. The ups and downs. The misunderstandings. How much they still had to learn about one another. And then he pulled her in closer. Felt that warm buzzy connection he always felt when they touched.

  His heart jumped a little, but he found he didn’t want to hide anything from her. “I was gonna do something a little crazy at dinner.”

  “What’s that?”

  Eli rolled away from her and grabbed his suit pants from off the floor, pulled the small velvet box out from his pocket. He swallowed hard. “I was gonna give you this.”

  Tia squinted. “I took my contacts out. Hold on.” She grabbed glasses off the nightstand and flipped the light on. She turned back to him and froze. “What the hell is that?” she blurted.

  Eli couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction.

  “You’ll have to wait to find out,” he teased, pulling the box away from her. “We’re not ready for it yet.”

  She looked up at him like he’d lost his ever-loving mind.

  He laughed harder.

  He pulled both of them up to sitting, the sheets pooling at their waists. He liked it this way, he could look down and see his newly healed scar. The one that she’d sewed up for him.

  He handed her the box. “Go ahead and open it.”

  Tia, like a woman in a trance, slowly opened the box like she was about to unleash a kraken onto the world. But when she did, she stared at the contents with something that looked suspiciously like disappointment. “Oh.”

  She pulled the thin gold chain out of the box. The one that Eli had stopped at a jewelry shop and picked out after he’d dropped her off at the hospital.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said falteringly, looking up at him in confusion.

  “It is,” he agreed. “I was hoping that you could wear this on it, as a pendant.” He held out his mother’s ring to her.

  Tia’s eyes went wide, filled with tears and spilled over. “Eli,” she gasped.

  Eli gathered her up, closed his mouth over hers for a second, tasted her tears. “Tia, I wanted to propose to you tonight. But after I dropped you off at the hospital, I realized that we weren’t quite ready for that.”

  Her eyes dimmed slightly.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” he tumbled on. “My heart is ready for it. I love you so much, baby. I want to be your husband. So bad.”

  “I want that too,” she whispered and almost cracked his resolve.

  He took a deep breath. “Our hearts are ready for it. But I don’t think our lives are ready for it. Do you?”

  Tia pursed her lips, those serious, luscious lips. Slowly she shook her head from side to side. “We’re still figuring out how to be together. How to fit our schedules together. How to live in the spotlight.”

  “Exactly,” he kissed her again. Eli pulled back and took the necklace and the ring from her, strung them together. “Someday, when we’re ready, I’m gonna ask you to marry me. And then you’ll wear this ring on your finger. But for now, you’ll wear it on your neck. And every time you look at it, you’ll think about how you’re marrying me someday. And how, in my heart, we’re already married.”

  Tia trembled, full on trembled, when he clasped the necklace around her neck. Well, he tried to clasp it. But he had big fingers and the clasp was ridiculously tiny.

  “Damn it,” he muttered in frustration.

  Tia laughed and took over, fastening the necklace herself and bolting up from the bed to go look at herself in the mirror. Buck naked with nothing but Elijah Bird’s engagement ring around her neck. “Oh my god,” she murmured at her own reflection. “I’m gonna marry Elijah Bird.”

  Eli grimaced. “I like it better when you call me Eli.”

  “I know,” she turned back to him. “But when I say Elijah Bird, I don’t mean Elijah Bird Star Quarterback, I mean Elijah Bird High School Mega Crush.”

  “Ah,” he grinned at her. “I can handle that.”

  ***

  An hour later, they fell, sweaty and sated, back to the bed. Her hair was everywhere and his grin lit up the room.

  “Yes,” he murmured.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. I’m just saying a general yes to the universe. And to what just happened.” He rolled to face her. “Anytime you’re naked I feel like saying yes.”

  She chuckled and rolled to one side, finding better light to admire the ring around her neck. “It’s so beautiful, Eli. And just perfect for me. How did you pick it?”

  He stroked a hand over her shoulder and spooned her. “It was my mom’s.”

  Instantly, Tia burst into tears, rolling him onto his back and laying across his chest.

  “What? Oh, jeez. I didn’t
think that was going to be your reaction.”

  “No, it’s a good reaction. I’m touched.” She took a few more soggy moments to herself before she sat up over top of him, the ring clenched in one of her hands. “I made a decision, seeing as I’m your almost-fiancée and all.”

  “Is that right?” He grinned, tracing his hands up her sides.

  “That’s right.” She cleared her throat. “I’ve decided that I want to see my almost-fiancé play in the NFL this season.”

  Eli’s eyes widened as he sat up. “What are you saying?”

  “Well, of course the decision is up to you ultimately. But if I get a vote, it would be to see you play. At least for one season.”

  “You’re sure? Even though it would mean six full months of absolute scheduling craziness? And it would mean my dad basically breaking your fingers off in anxiety when you watch the games from the luxury box.”

  “Oh my GOD!” Tia’s hands clapped over top of her head, making Ham jingle in from the other room to see what all the fuss was about. “I’d get luxury seats to the games? Now you have to do it.”

  He laughed. “You’re not gonna be able to make it to all the games, you know. Not with your schedule.”

  Her eyes softened. God, how did she get so lucky to find him? Even now, when they were strictly dreaming, he was thinking about all the logistical ways to fit their lives together. “I know. But I’ll make it to a few. And I can send Jay or Marcus as my finger cracking proxy for your dad for the ones I can’t make.”

  “Tia,” his voice deepened. “It’ll mean a lot of nights away from one another. And rumors and gossip and all that shit.”

  She tugged against the necklace gently, holding his mother’s ring in her hand. “It all comes down to whether or not I trust you, Eli. Just like you trust me to work side by side with Owen.”

  “And?”

  “Of course I trust you.”

  He pulled her in for a kiss that had her sighing.

  “You know?” she started. “My anxieties were never about you. Well, not after I got to know you. At the beginning, I assumed you were a total player. But after a while, I could tell who you were. That you were in this with me. That you wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize it. My anxieties have been about the gossip sites and the paparazzi and what people will say. And I think I just have to keep reminding myself that I don’t actually care what they think. I care what you think.”

  She touched his face. “So, do you think you’re gonna play?”

  “I don’t know,” he shook his head. “Because honestly? It would be fun. A hell of a ride to do it one more time. But it’s not who I am anymore. This,” he said as he kissed the side of her head. “This is who I really am.”

  EPILOGUE

  Six months later

  “BOOYAH! That’s what I’m TALKIN’ ABOUT!” Tia screamed at the top of her lungs as she shook her booty in the luxury box high above the field. Eli had just thrown a bullet straight into the endzone, perfectly into the cradle of Jace’s hands, which effectively tied up the game with seconds left on the clock.

  When, two minutes later, the kicker sealed the deal, and sent the Stingrays to the Superbowl, Tia flung herself into Ryan’s arms. She kissed him dead on the mouth, then turned to Jay, gave him the same treatment. And then lastly to Marcus, who grinned and picked her right up off the ground where they smacked lips loudly.

  Tia knew that there were pretty much always cameras on her now, video and otherwise. She knew that gossip sites were going to have a field day with her jumping into Eli’s best friends’ arms. But she didn’t give a rip.

  Her boisterous celebrations in the box had become something of a talking point for gossip sites and announcers alike. Whenever she went to a game, she knew she was going to be on television at least once or twice. But Tia found it bothered her a great deal less these days. What did she care? She was the one going home with Eli after every game.

  A few minutes later, she and Jay and Marcus hurried out of the stadium. They had a lot to prepare for Eli in the few hours before he got home after the game. They were hosting several hundred people at a ballroom downtown. It was a congrats for the team, on going to the Superbowl, but unbeknownst to the general public, it was also a retirement party for Eli.

  He’d thrown his heart and soul into this season. Training harder than he ever had before. And they had the 16-2 record to prove it.

  But it hadn’t been a cakewalk. Between Tia’s busy schedule at the hospital and his constant jetsetting with the team, they’d only been able to see each other for a few weeks total over the last six months. They were both sick of it.

  And Eli had meant what he’d said in bed the day they’d gotten pre-engaged. Football wasn’t who he was anymore. His life with Tia was who he was.

  But it had been a hell of a season at the end of a hell of a career, and Eli deserved a hell of a send off. Which mean that Tia, Jay, and Marcus were racing all over the ballroom, setting things up and putting final touches on everything.

  Tia was still in her Bird jersey when guests started arriving. Laura had to forcibly drag her from the ballroom to go get cleaned up in the bathroom. It amused both Laura and Tia that their roles switched so much during the season. Tia had been the easy-going, relaxed one. While Laura had bitten her nails to a nub watching Jace play. Laura had actually had conflicting feelings about them going to the Superbowl. It was yet another game she was going to have to suffer through.

  But tonight wasn’t about suffering. Tonight was about celebrating.

  “Damn, those Camellias are pretty,” Marcus said to Jay as he took a sip of champagne and watched Laura and Tia re-enter the ballroom after they’d gone and gotten all dolled up.

  “Sure are,” Jay agreed. He watched as Eli strolled into the ballroom from the other direction, his hair wet from the shower and a suit casually unbuttoned.

  Eli made a beeline for his gorgeous woman who wore a long red dress that she’d known would make him smile.

  “You trying to jinx us?” he asked as soon as he got close to her. He plucked at the material of the familiar dress. Tia didn’t like the dress for some reason, but he really thought she looked beautiful in it.

  Tia laughed. “I thought maybe we could change this dress’s luck. Besides, there are sure to be a few of your old flames at this party. I figure this dress has been there done that. It’s good armor.”

  Eli laughed and rolled his eyes, bringing her into his arms. He felt that buzzy warmth. That feeling she always gave him. She grinned up at him and Eli took the moment to look around at all the people.

  He spotted a few of his teammates and they all looked excited and amped for the Superbowl. He’d already told them all that he wouldn’t be staying on next year. Now he was gonna have to tell the world. It was a bittersweet moment for him. He’d miss the game, the competition, the sense of purpose. But he wouldn’t miss the proximity to the press. The microscope. The show.

  He was ready to have privacy with Tia. To fade from the public eye.

  Eli reached down and toyed with the ring on her necklace. Lately he’d been itching to get that ring on her finger, but he figured they had a few things to cross off their lists first. The Superbowl for one.

  Eli’s fingers brushed against Tia’s heart and he felt the connection there. The one that he’d felt even that first day in the hospital.

  “You know, I used to attribute this feeling to you being my surgeon,” Eli said.

  “What feeling?”

  “You don’t feel that?” Eli asked, partially teasing. “That wire that zings between us? The constant connection?”

  “Oh, that old thing.”

  “Yeah. Well, I used to think I had that feeling because you’d taken some vital part of me during the surgery, kept it for yourself. I felt like I had to be close to you to have any chance at getting it back. To feel whole.”

  “And now? Do you still think it’s because I was your surgeon?”

  “No,” he shrugged. �
�Now I know that’s the way it feels when you know that someone will take care of you. You never took anything, I gave it to you. Because I knew you’d treat it well.”

  “And what was it that you gave me?” Tia murmured against Eli’s lips, already knowing the answer.

  He smiled, his same creased, face cracking, handsome-friendly-sexy smile. “My heart.”

  “Je-zusss,” Marcus muttered into his beer bottle from where he watched Eli and Tia across the party. He was happy for his friend, he really was; he couldn’t have found a better girl. But to Marcus, there was a thin line between public affection and just plain showing off.

  He knew he was jealous. Not because Eli was the one who’d gotten Tia, although that hadn’t not stung a little bit. But because Eli had a girl and they fit together so well. Marcus was far, far past believing that was possible for him. He was a hard man with a hard past and hard tastes in women.

  The women who’d kept him company over the years had all had one thing in common: they hadn’t been able to handle him. As relaxed and playful as he could be in his friendships, he was intensely passionate in his relationships. And it was just too much for pretty much anyone he’d ever been with.

  That was alright though. He had his friends and he had his work. One thing for the soul and one thing for the mind. His heart was just going to have to wait.

  “You need another drink?” Marcus asked Jay, although he already knew the answer. Jay rarely drank, and when he did, it was with a strict one-drink limit.

  “Nah, man. You go ahead.” Jay watched Marcus move toward the bar. He sighed. Jay was sick of these damn NFL parties. He’d weathered his fair share at Eli’s side. Now that Eli had Tia, Jay was starting to hope that he could start ducking out of these.

  The large glass doors that lined the ballroom revealed the inky black night and Jay found himself wandering toward the cool winter air that flirted with him. Two barely dressed twenty-somethings stumbled across his path, clutching each other and giggling. One of them made bedroom eyes at Jay, but the other one was already pulling her across the ballroom toward some football player or another.