Scoring the Player's Baby (WAGs Series)

by Naima Simone

  “No,” he said, with a ton of “let it go” in that reply.

  But Dom was never one to let anything go. Ronin sighed. He’d hate to have to drop his friend in the middle of the domestic terminal.

  “Are you going to call her when you get home? She’s had time to think, to reconsider. Maybe she’s willing to talk again. You are having a baby together.” Dom shot him a glance. “You’re one of the easiest-going men I know, Ronin. Give her another chance.”

  Ronin didn’t answer. What could he say to that? It wasn’t about giving her another chance. Not when she didn’t want that—not a chance, or him. He couldn’t force her to open up her heart. To take a leap of faith.

  Damn it, he wanted to be mad at her. Had tried. But he couldn’t. Not when he understood her history, past and recent. He couldn’t blame her for not wanting to risk being hurt again, when not too long ago, he’d resolved the same. Risking loving again, knowing he could very well lose another loved one, was terrifying as fuck.

  So yeah, he couldn’t blame her. Didn’t mean that shit didn’t feel like a fire poker had taken up permanent residence in his chest.

  “Getting put on your ass by those corners make you slow?” Zeph appeared at Ronin side, snatching him from his thoughts.

  Thank fuck.

  “I have no idea what you mean,” Ronin said, scratching his temple…with his middle finger.

  Zeph laughed, his grin wide.

  Ronin frowned. Yeah, he was hilarious but not that funny.

  “What the hell is all that?” Dom demanded as they neared the frozen, quiet escalators. “The airport is closed. Why’re all these people here?”

  Ronin glanced in the direction Dom stared, and his frowned deepened as he descended the steps of the escalator. Confused, he scanned the crowd at the bottom. Were those reporters and cameramen? What the hell? They weren’t doing another media session, were they? The one after the game had been enough. He was tired…

  He drew to a sharp halt halfway down.

  What…?

  Kim.

  The reporters formed a thick half arc around where she waited at the foot of the silent stairs.

  With a stack of cardboard posters in her arms. “Silent Night” by the Temptations echoed in the now utterly quiet airport from the iPhone on the floor next to a portable speaker at Kim’s feet.

  She flipped the large cue cards around.

  HI.

  His breath snagged in his throat as she dropped the card to the floor. What was she doing? Kim, who hated being in the media spotlight. Kim, who’d bolted because news of her pregnancy and that he was the baby’s father had hit the fan. Now, she stood there with that same media as witnesses to…this.

  I’VE BEEN AN IDIOT.

  Another card fell to her feet.

  I’VE HURT YOU

  AND I’M SORRY.

  He curled his fingers around the bannister of the escalator, holding tight. His heart thudded against his sternum, the pounding echoing in his head and almost drowning out The Temptations crooning about Christ the savior being born.

  Kim, whose worry was being viewed as a gold digger in the eyes of the public and media, of being reduced to a ball player’s baby mama or side chick instead of as her own independent, successful person… That Kim now stood in front of his team, a throng of reporters and cameras, and was probably at this moment live-streaming on social media, reenacting one of the final scenes of Love Actually. Making herself vulnerable. To him.

  For him.

  He swallowed. Hard.

  She dropped another card, revealing the next one.

  SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE…

  I’VE LOOKED LIKE THIS.

  She dropped that card and held a poster with a blown-up image of Kim Kardashian with a serious ugly-cry face. Snickers erupted from behind him, as it did from the journalists around her.

  I’VE COME TO REALIZE…

  THAT I’M A DAUGHTER.

  A SISTER.

  A FRIEND.

  A SOON-TO-BE-MOTHER.

  AND I’M ALSO THE WOMAN…

  WHO LOVES YOU.

  Well fuck. He recognized the words he’d said to her Wednesday.

  I’M OPENING MY DOOR.

  TO YOU.

  ONLY TO YOU.

  She dropped that card, and pure joy and wonder swelled up in him at the image on the next one. A huge image of their baby from the sonogram. The little, alien-looking, beautiful child. His child. No. Theirs.

  “I think he or she has your head,” Dom whispered from behind him.

  “Shaddup,” Ronin murmured without glancing over his shoulder.

  After a long moment, she dropped the sonogram.

  PEANUT MISSES YOU.

  He barely swallowed his bark of laughter.

  I LOVE YOU.

  Those three words, so stark, written in black ink propelled him down the remaining metal steps. A roar of applause rose up, deafening in the airport, as he snatched her up, the cue card crumbling between their bodies.

  Cameras clicked and lights flashed as he crushed his mouth to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, opening for him as she always did. Giving him all of her—her mouth, her body, her heart. This time, he didn’t doubt it. Nothing could have declared her love more than this display tonight. Joy and love for this woman crashed inside him, over him.

  “How did you put all this together?” he growled against her lips, his hands cradling her face. He couldn’t resist pressing another fast, hard kiss to her mouth.

  “Quickly, and by promising a lot of favors. Including to my brother and Zephirin.” She grinned, her fingers circling his wrists and holding on. “He paved the way with your coach, who I managed to convince this would be wonderful publicity for the team. He was a harder sell than convincing the airport to allow us in after closing hours.”

  “You’re scary,” he murmured, shaking his head and meaning it in the best way possible.

  Her smile faded. “I’m so sorry, Ronin,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I pushed you away because of my own fear and issues. You are nothing, nothing like Matt or my father. And I’m sorry that I ever made you feel or think that I believed that. You’re good, Ronin Palamo. Such a good man. And I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to be without you, and not just as a father to our baby. I want you.” She pressed a kiss to his beard, his mouth, his cheek.

  “You have me, hala,” he promised. He parted her lips once more with a kiss that had his cock pounding against his zipper. God, he’d missed her. “Now guide me home.”

  Epilogue

  “Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m at the Mystic Pizza,” Kim blurted…for about the tenth time in the hour since arriving at the iconic restaurant in Mystic, Connecticut. Once more, she surveyed the upper level of the building packed with friends, family, and several of Ronin, Dom, and Zeph’s teammates on a Saturday night.

  Framed photos and stills from the movie, along with pictures of other celebrities, claimed the wall space. Booths and tables filled the medium-sized room, and large picture windows offered a beautiful view of Mystic’s quaint Main Street. Two mounted flat-screen televisions played the film, and for just a moment, she got caught up in Daisy pouring a tank full of lobster and seaweed into Charlie’s red Porsche. The woman had style.

  Ronin groaned next to her. “No, not you, too. One eighties geek in this family is enough.”

  She frowned at him, even though a warm glow spread through her at “family.” Yes, the group of friends Ronin had introduced her to—who had welcomed her with open arms—had indeed become her family. When she’d arrived in Seattle all those months ago, she’d only had Alex and Morgan. Now, the woman who had once yearned to be surrounded by loud, boisterous, loving relations had more than her share.

  “Sophia isn’t a geek,” she muttered. Then ruined the mock annoyance by snorting. “She’s more of a”—she scrunched up her nose—“connoisseur.”

  “If that’s French for geek, then okay, I’ll go with it.” He shr
ugged a big shoulder.

  She laughed, and Ronin’s eyes widened, his face twisting into a comical grimace. “Don’t do that,” he exclaimed in a horrified whisper. “That demented cackle will terrify the baby.”

  He bent his head over the almost-two-month old infant in Kim’s arms. Ori Grayson Palamo blinked his gray eyes, staring up at his father. He waved a tiny fist then tried to grasp the long dark strands hanging down around him. Ronin grinned, his love for his son obvious in the gesture and the light in his dark eyes.

  A tight fist seized her heart, and her breath caught as it usually did whenever she saw this giant of a man with the miniature, perfect, beautiful human they’d created together. He was their miracle.

  “Yes,” Kim drawled, her voice husky with emotion. “He looks terrified.”

  “He’s being brave and covering it up. That’s what us Palamo men do.” Ronin bumped his huge fist against the baby’s small, curled fingers.

  She snickered. When Ronin had discovered they were having a boy, he’d done a victory lap around the doctor’s office, damn near knocking over the sonogram machine. His joy hadn’t dimmed in the least at “adding numbers to his side.”

  “Okay, you’ve had the little guy for five whole minutes now,” Tenny announced, appearing at Kim’s side. She stretched out her arms toward Kim and wiggled her fingers, her diamond solitaire engagement ring twinkling under the restaurant’s lighting. “Gimme.”

  Chuckling, she handed over Ori to one of his honorary aunts. Ori had only been here weeks, but between Tenny, Dom, Sophia, Zephirin, Renee, and Jason, he was spoiled shamelessly by his “uncles and aunts.” Though Tenny had started a new job with Seattle’s Department of Social and Health Services Children’s Administration several months ago, Kim couldn’t help but notice the softening and longing in her eyes every time she held Ori.

  Maybe by this time next year, there might be another baby in their circle to love and spoil.

  “I still don’t understand how such a cute kid has you as a father,” Dom said, shaking his head at Ronin. “I think that mystery is going to go down alongside the Bermuda Triangle and UFOs.”

  “See, you’re lucky I promised the wife I wouldn’t drop F-bombs, or else I might get put out of this family establishment,” Ronin warned.

  Kim’s fingers tingled with the urge to trace the piratical arch of his eyebrow. Caress the proud angle of his cheekbone. Brush the sensual curve of his bottom lip. Stroke the fullness of his beard. Damn, did she love this man.

  Loved being his wife. God, who would’ve thought she’d be married again? Much less to a football player? But one morning, about a month after her very public display of affection at the airport, Ronin had rolled over and proposed to her. Because, in his words, “I love the hell out of you, and my baby isn’t going to have my last name and his mother not have it.”

  The most romantic proposal ever.

  She smiled, remembering that day and the unseasonably warm March one a couple of months later. Ronin had married her in the backyard of his mother’s farm, surrounded by their families. It’d been intimate, small, simple—very different from her first lavish wedding. And it’d been absolute perfection.

  Their life was perfection. She’d decided to stay on at the Seattle office, and with the way she’d helped turn the Grand around, they welcomed her presence with open arms. Her father had returned to the East Coast. Their relationship hadn’t improved, but for once in her life, she was okay with it. Because it no longer stole any of her peace or self-worth. The Warriors had made the play-offs and had gone all the way to the National Football Conference championship game. They’d lost to the Minnesota Vikings, but they were already looking forward to going all the way the next year.

  Her family had grown, with Ronin’s mother and sisters. Kim adored the nosy, boisterous, hilarious lot of them. Already, Hana had demanded that Kim be a bridesmaid in her wedding the following year. And Ronin’s mother had been pronounced cancer-free only weeks earlier. Though Ronin had remained strong for his family, he’d wept tears of relief and joy in Kim’s arms the night they’d received the news.

  Yes, she’d been blessed with a life that she hadn’t thought possible for her. She slipped an arm around Ronin’s waist, and he wrapped a heavy arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Leaning against his shoulder, she smiled, completely enraptured by her husband and son. She thanked God every day for them. For all of it.

  “Shh, everyone!” Giovanna, Sophia’s identical twin, yelled, waving her hands. “Here they come!”

  Immediately, the noise in the restaurant dimmed, and a couple of minutes later, the echo of Zephirin and Sophia’s voices drifted from the stairwell.

  “I can’t believe you brought me to Mystic Pizza!” Her shriek of excitement reached the room upstairs. “Zephirin Black, you are so getting lucky tonight. I’ll do that thing you like…”

  Muffled laughter swept through the dining room, and Ronin snickered in Kim’s ear. “I hope Tenny is covering Ori’s ears.”

  Kim swallowed a laugh just as Zephirin and Sophia appeared in the doorway.

  “Surprise!” they all yelled, and Sophia eyes rounded, her lips parting. Beside her, the normally reserved Zephirin grinned widely. Kim had to hand it to the tight end. He’d managed to keep Sophia in the dark about secretly inviting and flying in all of her family and friends to the famed pizza parlor.

  “I think he wants his mom,” Tenny said, passing a crying Ori back to Kim.

  Poor baby. He’d been startled by the sudden noise. Before she could cradle him close, Ronin scooped him out of her arms and placed him on his shoulder, crooning to him and rubbing circles over his back. Her ovaries executed perfect cartwheels then exploded in a sparkly shower.

  Catching her stare, Ronin winked at her. Hell, she couldn’t wait to get back to their hotel room to do that thing he liked…

  “What is this?” Sophia asked, shock still warring with joy on her lovely face. She turned to Zephirin. “What—”

  Her question ended on a gasp as the tight end sank to one knee in front of her.

  “Sophia, no one who knew our story could call it…conventional.” A smile flirted with his lips, and considering what Ronin had told Kim about how the other couple met, that was an understatement. “Yet, my life has been more exhilarating, joyful, more…complete since you entered it. I don’t like to think about a time when you weren’t beside me, loving me, supporting me, believing in me. And I can’t imagine not waking up to you every morning, not having the comfort of knowing you are by my side. I was created to love you.”

  He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small black box and opened it. Sophia gasped, her hands covering her mouth. Even from across the room, Kim could glimpse the big, sparkling diamond nestled inside. Wow.

  “He’s obviously overcompensating for something,” Dom murmured.

  Ronin coughed, covering a laugh, and Tenny popped her fiancé in the gut.

  “Sophia Cruz, would you do me the great honor of becoming my wife and wearing my ring and sharing my life?” he asked, never removing his gaze from her face.

  Sophia released a loud sob and threw herself at him. Thank God the man was big enough to catch her, or they would’ve both crashed to the floor.

  “Yes, damn it! Yes!” she yelled, and Zephirin’s crack of laughter echoed in the air, along with deafening applause from everyone in the restaurant.

  Sophia’s parents and sister rushed the couple, along with Zephirin’s grandmother and sister, whom he’d flown in from Louisiana.

  “It’s all good,” Ronin said, a smile curving his lips. “This is good.”

  Kim glanced at Dom and Tenny beside them, wrapped in each other’s arms, then at Zeph and Sophia, newly engaged, in love, and smothered by their family.

  Turning to the man she loved with all her heart, she rose onto her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to her son’s back and then to Ronin’s mouth.

  “Yes, it’s all good.”


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  Acknowledgments

  Thank you, Father, for never failing me. You are my guiding light, my creative source, my everything. There are times when I think I can’t find another word, write another book, and I write. I can’t do it without You, and I don’t want to.

  To Gary. You have been my rock, my cheerleader, my butt-kicker (not literally! LOL), my life coach, my chef, my personal foot-rubber. I love you so much for just being you. And for loving me, deadline craziness and all!

  To Tracy Montoya aka Slayer of Conflict-Beleaguered Manuscripts. Or should that be Conflict-Free Manuscripts? I think both fit me. LOL! Thank you for always challenging me to do more, go further, and be better. You’ve been a teacher as well as an editor, and I appreciate every time you’ve gone to bat and balls-to-the-walls for me and my books. If only we could work past this man-bun thing…

  To Rachel Brooks. Thank you for being not just a wonderful agent, but my champion and cooler head. And for encouraging me to live my best writer’s life. I’m still having T-shirts made saying that. Don’t worry, I’ll give you credit. LOL! I’m excited about all the things ahead!

  To Andie Rutledge. You have been my Seattle Yoda. Or rather, “Seattle Yoda, you have been.” Hah! Thank you for tirelessly answering all my questions about your hometown. This series would never have the flavor of this beautiful city without all your input as well as your love and enthusiasm. Don’t be surprised when I show up on your doorstep. Have my guest bedroom ready!

  To Sharon Amdur-Goodroe. Thank you for giving me the best reason EVAH for a man to rock a man bun. LOL!

  To Debra Glass. Your critical eye; invaluable advice; insightful critique; and beautiful, huge heart has helped me write every book in my career. And has gifted me with a precious friendship. I love you!