ROMANCE: The Surprise That Rocked Me

by Linda Wright

  “Oh… yeah,” Ian said softly. Willow grinned.

  “Someone should take his keys,” she said.

  “Already got them, no worries,” Paulie said.

  “Paulie doesn’t drink at all, so he’s usually the keeper of the keys and the one who makes sure that everyone who needs a cab has one and all of that. He’s probably saved everyone’s ass here at least once, including Coach,” Larry said.

  “So he’s the team hero,” Willow said. Larry nodded.

  “Exactly. Do you want something to drink or eat? They serve high quality bar food here, like nachos and hot wings,” he said. It hadn’t occurred to him to find out if she’d eaten before she’d come over that night, he felt bad about that now.

  “Ooo, nachos. And a coke please,” she said with a smile as she sat down on the plush red overstuffed couch behind her. She wasn’t really a big drinker, which was one of the things that kept Larry in line with his.

  “Girly drink,” Larry said with a smirk.

  “I am a girly,” she replied. Larry laughed and turned to walk over to the bar for the food order and the drinks. By the time he returned, she had three other guys sitting with her.

  “…I’ve always wondered if he does that at home too, or is that just a locker room thing,” Bo was asking.

  “Hey now, don’t go asking this beautiful woman about all of my secrets. They are secrets for a reason,” he said, handing her the drink and settling beside her. He had no idea what Bo was talking about, he was just playing around.

  “Sorry, I can’t talk about Larry’s secrets,” she said. “While he’s around,” she added for good measure with a smirk.

  “What the hell is all this?” I asked as a laugh traveled around the group perched in front of her.

  “We were just wondering how an ass like you managed to land a woman like Willow. She’s beautiful, intelligent and talented. How has she not seen through you yet?” Scotty asked.

  “Hey, be nice. He’s a sweet guy when he wants to be,” Willow said. Larry grinned.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  Willow blinked, and suddenly the topic was football at a level that was way above her pay grade on the sport. And her soda was empty, so she politely excused herself and went to the bar in the corner for a refill.

  “They’ve started talking football, haven’t they?” A female voice said. Willow turned and met the gaze of the cute blonde that was speaking to her, smiled, and nodded.

  “Yeah. It happened so fast that I wasn’t aware that it was coming,” she said. The blond smiled.

  “You get used to it. I’m Mia, by the way. I’ve been dating Oscar, the full back over in the corner of the couch, for about eight months,” she said. Willow smiled and nodded, but didn’t respond. There was something the she immediately picked up on behind Mia’s words, like a well-hidden vial of venom inside of them, which meant that she wasn’t really in a sharing mood.

  “Wow, eight months. That’s a pretty serious relationship,” she said instead.

  “What about you and Larry?” Mia asked. Willow planted a smile on her lips and took a sip of her soda.

  “Long enough,” she said, leaving it at that.

  “You know, Larry and I used to date,” she said. And there it was, the venom. Willow had to work hard not to roll her eyes as Mia watched her for a reaction. Willow didn’t really care, that was clearly before she even knew the man existed.

  “Interesting,” was what she chose to respond with.

  “Well, actually, he picked me up in a club and he and I spent a few days together. I don’t think we left the bed to do more than eat, and sometimes not even then,” she said with a laugh, waiting for a green eyed monster that wasn’t going to come.

  “Oh, so you didn’t date. He just used you for a bit and then tossed you out on your ass,” Willow said, her voice calm as she held Mia’s gaze steadily. Mia looked confused as to why her revelation didn’t have the desired effect.

  “What?” Mia asked.

  “Babe, can you come her for a second?” Larry said, calling Willow back to the couch.

  “I’m sorry, I‘ve got to go,” Willow said, excusing herself from Mia’s trap and starting to walk back towards Larry.

  “Wait a minute, did you just call me a slut?” Mia said, her voice louder now. Willow stopped.

  “Not at all. When did the word slut ever come out of my mouth?” Willow asked.

  “You said that Larry just used me and then threw me out,” she said, angry.

  “That’s what you told me happened. Why in the world would you think that screwing for a few days constitutes dating someone?” Willow asked the more irate Mia got, the calmer Willow felt. This woman had clearly approached Willow with the intention of making her blind with jealousy, or something similar. It wasn’t working though.

  “Who the hell are you to tell me what dating is?” she squealed. Willow shrugged and settled beside Larry.

  “No one. I’m not sure why you are even exerting so much effort on me,” she said.

  “I don’t know why either, since I’ve got a man,” she said.

  “Willow has a point, why are you spending so much time talking to her about how you were with her man if I’m right here?” Oscar said. The room went almost silent, save for the music filtering up from downstairs.

  “I just… I wasn’t trying to tell her about Larry or anything,” Mia stuttered.

  “Could have fooled me,” Larry said.

  “It’s alright. Maybe she just wanted me to know that I’m not the first woman that Larry has slept with. The thing is, I already knew that. He’s not the first woman that I’ve slept with either,” Willow said.

  “But he sees me all the time. How do you know he’s not still with me?” Mia asked.

  “You do realize that Oscar is standing right beside you, right?” Willow asked.

  “I know, I’m just… saying…” she faded out, realizing that in her quest to make Willow jealous, she’d probably just ended what she had with Oscar.

  “You and I need to talk,” Oscar said. The two of them walked off to an area more private and the conversation immediate became visibly heated between them.

  “I tried to tell Oscar that she was dating him to get to me, but he thought I was just trying to be jerk,” Larry said softly. Willow sighed.

  “I hate that he had to find out like this.” She said. Larry nodded his agreement.

  “Is it bad that this makes me so happy that lost her and found you?” he asked. Willow giggled.

  “Probably,” she said. Larry shrugged against her and kissed her cheek.

  “I don’t care,” he said.

  Chapter 7

  The night out resulted in Larry and Willow’s picture being everywhere, both sports related and not. Larry was suddenly the center of attention for a lot of news outlets again, which made the two of them going out a bit more difficult, but that just meant that they had to get inventive. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that things started to get more difficult suddenly. Larry could barely get out of the complex due to media clogging the entrance, and he had no idea why.

  Until he saw the paper that day. Larry Carson’s Lover Spotted Exiting Doctor’s Office. Could This Mean A Little Larry On The Way? The headline screamed. Larry stared at the heavy ink words for almost a full minute as the PR team waited for his reaction. He didn’t say anything, he simply dialed.

  “Hey,” Willow said, the smile clear in her voice.

  “Hey babe. Remember how I told you not to come out to the house because the media was insane all of a sudden?” he asked.

  “Yeah?” she replied.

  “Someone saw you coming out of a doctor’s office and printed that you might be pregnant. Is there something that you need to tell me?” he asked. He wasn’t upset, and he prayed that was coming across in his voice.

  “I was trying to wait until I knew for sure, which I didn’t until about ten minutes ago,” she said.

  “Know what, exactly?” he as
ked. There was a slight hesitation before she answered.

  “I went in because my stomach had been feeling off for a while, and I was pretty sure an upset stomach shouldn’t last so long. My doctor asked me a bunch of questions, and then asked if she could have my permission to run one last test. This morning, she called and told me that she’d gotten the results back and that they were positive. That I’m pregnant, and that what’s been going on with my stomach is actually morning sickness,” she said carefully, not really sure how Larry would take the news.

  “So, you actually are pregnant?” Larry said.

  “Yes,” Willow said. Then, she waited.

  “So what happens now?” he asked. Well, he wasn’t freaking out, that was good, Willow thought to herself.

  “Now, I have an appointment for my first pre-natal visit in a week,” she said.

  “Day and time?” Larry asked.

  “Next Wednesday, at 2,” Willow said.

  “Good. Someone tell Coach I’ll be late for practice next Tuesday. I’m going to be a father. And you, Willow, you come out to the house tonight,” eh said. Willow stopped, a little shocked.

  “Really?” she asked.

  “Of course, what did you expect?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure, honestly. I figured there might be some sort of disagreement as to whether I’m actually going to have the baby or not,” she said.

  “Why wouldn’t you have the baby?” he asked Willow laughed softly.

  “I have no idea. I’ll see you tonight,” she replied.

  *~*~*

  The confirmation that Willow was pregnant caused an almost deafening roar in the media. The news that Larry was over the moon about it broke all class in a five mile radius. The media was aghast, most figuring that he would pressure her to give the baby up because it would hamper his career or his personal life, so the shock was massive when they found out that was the farthest thing from the actual case.

  Paula had set up a press conference for him to take questions with Willow by his side. She wasn’t showing yet, of course, but she looked like she was glowing, even Paula saw it.

  “So you found out that she was pregnant from the speculative story?” a reporter asked. Larry slipped his arm around Willow’s waist.

  “Willow wanted to be sure before she said anything to me. Honestly, the reason that she went to the Doctor that day was because her stomach had been upset for longer than she thought it should be, and she was afraid something was wrong. Pregnancy never occurred to her,” Larry said, echoing their first conversation about it.

  “Is this going to affect your football career, now that you’re going to be a dad?” a female reporter asked. Larry paused, thinking.

  “I think I’m going to let Willow field this one,” he said. Willow turned to him, shocked.

  “What? Um, it’s not really something that we’ve talked about,” she said, a little off guard.

  “Just say what you’d want to happen, if it was completely up to you,” he said.

  “Wow, you seriously trust her,” a male voice called out, causing a round of soft laughter.

  “Yeah, actually I do,” Larry said, motioning for her to move closer to the microphone.

  “Okay… Like I said, this isn’t something that Larry and I have discussed, so please don’t take this as set in stone. But, were I to have my way, Larry would continue to do what he loves and play football. That means that little Larry and I travel to as many of his away games as we can, and that we’re at every home game, and that when he’s here, he is in Dad-mode unless he has something to do for the team. As excited as he is about being a father, I don’t think it’ll be hard to get him to be in Dad-mode,” she said with a smile, another laugh traveling through the crowd.

  “Miss Willow, can I just say, that was a wonderful answer. Thank you for putting every football fan’s fears to rest,” the reporter who’d asked the original question said. Willow smiled and nodded.

  “No problem at all,” she said before stepping back to allow Larry back to the podium.

  “Any other questions?” Larry asked. They’d been at it for about forty five minutes and he was starting to get tired of standing, honestly.

  “Are there any plans to get married?” someone called out. Larry and Willow exchanged a look.

  “That’s something else that we haven’t actually discussed. But, I would like for Willow to move to the house with me. I’ve got plenty of room for a little one, and she’s got months to plan a nursery and find a nanny to help her, if she chooses. As far as marriage,” Larry said, turning to face Willow as his sentence faded out. He wanted to ask her to be his wife, but he felt that this was something that didn’t belong to the media, not yet. His proposal was for her, not for the flashing lights and pushy microphones of the world.

  “As far as marriage, you all will find out when we are ready for you to know, and not a moment sooner,” Willow said, smiling up at Larry as if she’d read his mind.

  “Exactly,” he said.

  Chapter 8

  Willow became a celebrity over the first few months of her pregnancy. She was wanted for interviews, modeling opportunities and pJohnuct pitches galore. Most of the pJohnuct pitches, she turned down. She’d do the interviews and the modeling jobs without problems, especially since most of them were either with Larry or about Larry. She liked that she was pulling in more of her own money now, even though Larry told her that he wanted her to rest up through the pregnancy. She was independent, and making her own was important to her, even if a lot of the opportunities that presented themselves were because of who she was tied to.

  Willow got the marriage question a lot more than Larry did. Mainly from female reporters who thought that by palling around with her on national TV, she would simply slip up and spill the beans. Paula said that one of the many things that she liked about Willow was that she needed minimal coaching, not spreading her business was just in her nature. Meaning, she didn’t simply slip up and spill the beans and she never would.

  She had moved out of her place and moved in with Larry, and it had turned into an excellent decision for her. He gave her his credit card and told her to start looking for baby furniture, and that money was no object, but she still hadn’t had the heart to use the card yet. Larry would laugh and pull her close, telling her that was one of the many things that he loved about her, and assuring her that it was okay. In fact, earlier that morning had been the first time that she’d finally decided on something, and even then it was simply having someone come in and paint the room for her. She’d decided to wait until he got home from practice to make sure that the color was okay with him first. The fact that he’d then be there to see her use the card and verbally approve for the millionth time that it was okay was not lost on her.

  Larry had come home the other night with some elastic waistband jeans. She hadn’t said a word about the fact that her pants were beginning to get a bit uncomfortable, but he’d said that he’d noticed little things, like her fidgeting when she sat down and the waistband pressed against her stomach or the fact that she’d wear pajama pants more than anything else recently. It was the little things like that that made her smiled and love him even more.

  “Babe? Are you home?” Larry said, like he always did when he got in. It was like his version of ‘Honey, I’m home’.

  “Back here,” Willow yelled from the den, where she sat comparing various shades of yellow.

  “What in the world are you doing? It looks like a paint swatch monster threw up in here,” he said, laughing and hugging her gently from behind.

  “I want to get the baby’s room painted. I think once I pick a color, maybe it’ll be a bit easier for me to pick furniture,” she said.

  “It would also help if you’d stop thinking that you can’t use the card that I gave you for the sole purpose of you actually using it,” he said, a tease in his tone.

  “Shut up. Help me pick a shade,” she said. Larry leaned over her shoulder.

  �
��Yellow is good, since we’re being gender neutral,” he said absently. They’d decided not to find out the sex of the baby, so they were being careful about what they were buying. “I like the pale yellow better than the bold yellow. That one makes me think ‘girl’ a bit too much,” he said. Willow nodded and tossed aside the other swatches.

  “Agreed,” she said. Larry reached across the counter and handed her the phone.

  “Now stop being a wuss and call the painters. I know you’ve already picked one out,” he said with a smirk. Willow huffed an adorable sigh. So what he was right. She snatched the phone from him as he laughed softly and went into the kitchen while she called and scheduled.

  “They’re coming out tomorrow to do the estimate,” she said as Larry returned, beer in hand. He grinned and nodded.

  “Good. Now, I’ve got some good news,” he said. Willow turned to face him and smiled, giving her his full attention. God, he loved her so much.

  “Tell me,” she said.

  “Coach and Paula pulled me into a meeting today at the end of practice. Apparently, the higher ups have re-evaluated me and decided that I am too valuable to the team to take a chance on my moving on to someone else in a few months when my contract comes up,” he said.

  “Ooo, this sounds promising,” Willow said. She knew that Larry really loved the city and the team, and didn’t want to leave. If this was what she thought it was, they were going to celebrate.

  “They’ve offered to extend my contract, and raised my salary as well,” he said. Willow leapt up off the stool, wrapping her arms around Larry’s neck.

  “That’s great news!” she said. Larry wrapped his arms around the woman and the baby that he loved and smiled.

  “I am so excited. You know that this is all because of you, right?” he said. Willow scoffed, looking up at him.

  “Liar, this is because you’re amazing,” she said. Larry shrugged.

  “I am pretty awesome, yeah. But it was you that made me want to be better, to stop being a prick and thinking that I’m the only person in this world that matters. You are the reason I get to stay in the city I love, with the team I love and the woman I love,” he said. Willow smiled, her face flushing.