by King,Imani
“I was just talking to Maddy, I mean Doctor Thompson, and she indicated that Olivia had said to her threatening her job, and it’s been an ongoing thing. It’s causing some concern for Doctor Thompson, as I’m sure you can imagine.”
Jeff leaned forward. “My daughter works in marketing. Social media specifically.”
“I am aware of that,” I said not understanding the direction that he was going with his comment.
“I’ve been working with the National Football League for almost thirty years, Shane. I’ve been a general manager for almost a decade. I understand every nuance of how my team operates each and every day. If someone’s causing a problem or not good at their job, I deal with it. I get that information directly from the people who interact with those people in the way that their job is supposed to be interacted with. If someone from marketing came to me and told me that someone from my medical staff was not doing their job, I would investigate that claim, but the source of the information would immediately be called into question simply because marketing doesn’t normally work with the doctors on the team.”
I was starting to get the drift of what he was saying. “Well, that’s good to hear.”
“Whatever my daughter may think she has in terms of influence over my decision making, it doesn’t extend to the degree that she may think it does,” he said. He shrugged. “Olivia is young and headstrong and set in her ways. Just like her mother. But trust me when I say that there is not going to be any harm to you or Doctor Thompson as long as you both continue to do your jobs well.”
“Thank you, sir. That is a relief to hear.” I stood up. I didn’t see that there was any need to continue taking up his time. I thought that he might be slightly frustrated now that I had questioned his judgment. “I’ll see you on the field on Sunday.”
I made my way to the door, and as my hand reached the handle, his voice stopped me. “Sometimes, as a father, you’ll find you are a bit indulgent with your children, Shane. So, that’s my responsibility as well as my fault if my children try to overstep their bounds. But like I said, that would never interfere with my job.”
I gave a short nod of understanding and left the room before I could inadvertently offend my boss again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I regretted my earlier outburst when Shane came into my office. He had just missed Olivia leaving. The woman was insufferable. Although everything that I saw from Shane indicated he wasn’t seeing her, she never resisted an opportunity to make some off-handed comment about what Shane did with her in his free time. If something wasn’t going on, why would she be so insistent trying to prove otherwise?
It wasn’t my place to ask about the relationship in any case, and I had been at the end of my frayed rope having just gotten off the phone with my parents. I couldn’t believe that this was what we had come to. After everything that I had tried to do to help them, funneling every extra dollar I had to them, it still wasn’t enough.
Now it sounded like we had to talk about what was going to happen next. I knew my parents were upset, even though they were doing a good job of hiding it from me and Scarlet. My mom had decided to go back to Rosewood to start settling things with Dad, so I had to switch up my schedule for awhile to make sure I had things covered with Scarlet.
That was the state that Shane found me in when he came into my office. The only good thing about the entire encounter with that it had seemed to bring us closer than we had been in weeks. I had been giving him the space that he asked for, and it seemed that as he was getting comfortable with being in the friend zone with me, even though I was starting to pine more for something more. It was almost exactly like high school all over again. He had been the star player on the football team. I had been the book nerd. Still, we had managed to come together and find common ground back then. I just had to keep trusting that if we had warm feelings towards each other, it could eventually lead us to something more.
I remembered the feel of his arms around me as he comforted me. He probably had no idea how much that simple gesture had meant to me. I felt like I was falling apart. All of this time I had just myself to count on. My parents had done the best they could to help me over the years, and I didn’t take that for granted. But in the end, I had always been alone. For some reason, now I felt like I had someone else there. Granted we weren’t in an official relationship by any means, but Shane said we’d figure it out.
We would figure it out. That had a ring of hope to it that I clung to.
Scarlet was as excited as I was to go to Shane’s that evening. We had developed a routine. Shane was the one who would cook, which I always felt bad about. I had asked him to start showing me small things around the kitchen, because after his long days of training, I thought that it would be nice for him to have someone who cooked for him. But his diet was so strict that it seemed to make sense for him to take control of the menu planning. As a result, I’d even lost a couple of pounds. He had remarked on it, and not in a necessarily good way, which was kind of nice when I thought about it. Shane didn’t think I needed to lose any weight at all. He said we needed to add more carbs to me and Scarlet’s meals.
Scarlet was sitting in the living room watching TV as I moved around the kitchen aware that Shane was there up in my space as he showed me again how to dice a celery stalk.
“We are going to make a cook out of you yet,” he said with a chuckle. He had no idea that the reason I kept messing up in the first place was because of his proximity to me.
“I feel helpless in the kitchen,” I admitted.
He took my hands in his and looked at them. He examined them carefully, and I wondered what he was doing. “If these hands can make big football players' injuries all better, I am confident they are capable of putting together a gourmet spread if you just put your mind to it.”
His fingers lingered as his thumbs rubbed against the palms of my hand. I felt my breath catch in my throat, but then he stepped away. I felt a rush of heat in my core. Something had changed that afternoon in my office between us. He was warming toward me again. I was almost sure of it.
“Have you talked to your folks again?” he asked as he went back to the pan on the stove.
I sighed. “My mom is headed back to Rosewood tonight. She’ll be there for at least a couple of days. We have to have a family talk about what’s going to happen next. They’ve discussed moving here to D.C., but I think that would be hard for them to be away from all their friends.”
“What you think about that?” Shane asked. I sensed that there was a bit of tension in his voice.
“I think it would be great to have us all back in the same place again,” I said cautiously. “But if my mom wanted to stay back in Rosewood and start over there, I would understand.”
“She’s the one who provides your daycare though, right?”
I realize then why he was asking. “I guess I will just have to find an alternative plan then.” I didn’t want Shane to think for a second that I was going to move Scarlet away from him. That wasn’t my intention at all, no matter what my parents decided.
“You haven’t let me help with anything financially for her,” he said. “If you need to look at daycare or even a nanny, I would be happy to pay for it. It’s the least that I can do for her,” he said.
There was a part of me that wanted to resist this offer, but it was a common arrangement, wasn’t it? Men paid child support all the time for their kids. Plus, I knew that he wanted to do something on a regular basis to feel like he was contributing to her well-being.
“Thank you. I think that would be a great option,” I said, swallowing my pride in the process. I wasn’t going to have to do it all on my own. It was a completely new feeling.
I was surprised when I felt Shane’s hands on my shoulders. He turned me toward him, and I saw he had a serious expression on his face. “Maddy, it’s okay to let someone help you. I want to help you. I want to help Scarlet. It’s not a big deal. So let me help you.”
I felt the tears well in my eyes. I felt like I had been battling everything alone for so long. I wasn’t sure what he saw in my expression but suddenly his lips were on mine. I was so hungry for him. The knife that I held in my hand slipped out of my grasp and fell to the floor even as I reached up to wrap my arms around his neck.
The noise as it hit the floor startled me, and I heard Scarlet laughing.
We split apart so quickly I almost forgot that we had our bodies pressed together at all.
“Mommy and Daddy sitting in a tree. K-I-SS-I-N-G,” Scarlet sang.
I flushed and looked at Shane who had a small grin on his face. This was a conversation that I needed to have with her before anything else could happen between us.
I saw him shrug as he looked at me, and I smiled back. Whatever had happened that day, we had had a breakthrough. I felt a warm rush through my body. I gave a small nod to Shane asking him without words if he could take over the chopping, and he nodded. The silent communication between us had been growing over the last couple of weeks as well.
I walked into the living room and sat down on the couch next to Scarlet. She had a wide smile on her face. “What are you watching?” I asked, wanting to start the conversation on an innocent topic.
“Just something on Disney. I like this movie,” she said.
Given that I had seen the movie over a hundred times it seemed, I knew that it was the truth. I let her watch another ten minutes or so before broaching the topic with her. “So I know that you just saw me and Daddy kissing in the kitchen. What do you think about that?”
She shrugged. “Aren’t mommies and daddies supposed to kiss?”
Her answer took me aback in its innocence and simplicity. “Not all mommies and daddies kiss. But, I want to make sure that you would be okay with that, if me and your daddy kissed. We wouldn’t want you to be unhappy about it or think that made you any less important to both of us.”
Scarlet shook her head vigorously. “I like it when you’re both happy. It makes me happy. If you want to kiss and be happy, then that’s okay with me.”
I hugged her tightly into my chest. She nestled against me, and I kissed the top of her head. “I like it when you’re happy too, sweetie. “
“Dinner is ready!” Shane called from the kitchen. We joined him at the dining room table. The conversation over dinner had nothing to do with what had happened in the kitchen, not that I expected it to. Scarlet was animated talking about what had happened at school that day. Shane asked her a lot of questions, and I sensed that he was deliberately keeping the topic away from anything that might have to do with the topic of us. It seemed like forever before it was time for Scarlet to go to bed.
I waited expectantly in the living room for Shane. I was as nervous as I had been when I was nineteen.
He entered the room and stood for a moment in the doorway. Then he made his way over to the couch and sat down next to me. “I think that I might be ready to try something. I’m not sure exactly what, but I know that these last few weeks where you and Scarlet have been with me all the time have been some of the happiest times of my life. I know that with your parents’ struggles, you might be tempted to do something like leave D.C. and move back to Rosewood to support them. I want you to know that I think there is a future here for you too. You should know all your options.”
His words made my body and heart sing. “I’m glad to hear that. I think so too.”
His lips were on mine again, and this time, it was his hunger that I felt behind the kiss. His hands were everywhere it seemed, and I melted against him. He swept me up into my arms, and I yelped. He walked towards his bedroom quickly, and I laughed quietly when he bumped into one of the walls in his haste.
As soon as we were inside the bedroom door, he let me slide gently to the floor. It seemed like we were both in a hurry to remove as many clothes as possible, but we were unwilling to take our lips away from each other. As soon as we were both undressed, he walks me backward and gave me a nudge to push me down onto the bed. I lay back and stared up at him. He was so magnificent in his nakedness. Looking at him staring down at my body taking in every naked inch made me feel so sexy.
I gave him a sultry smile and bucked my hips in a silent invitation for him to join me on the bed. That was all it took as he sank down next to me. I turned on my side facing him. He stretched against me and pulled me into him. There was nothing quite like the experience of feeling skin against skin, and I lengthened my body as long as I could so that we touched everywhere possible. My fingertips glided across every hard muscle that I had seen and observed in the locker room but hadn’t actually been able to touch in what seemed like forever.
His hands similarly explored my curves, and I felt them move down my collarbone and cup my breasts. I arched my back as his lips followed the path of his hands and found my hardened nipple. As they teased the sensitive skin, I moaned. It was if he knew me so well. We had been apart for weeks, and both of our bodies seemed to be ready for more and as quickly as possible.
Shane flipped me onto my stomach, and I felt the nudge of his hard cock against the crevice of my butt. I scooted back swiveling my hips against it, eager for him. One hand grasped my hips and the other slid between my thighs and found my warm, welcoming center. I moaned louder this time as his fingers slipped inside of me, teasing me with several small mock thrusts.
Before I could think anything else, Shane spread my cheeks and entered me with a long, hard thrust. I felt as if I was finally complete with him inside of me. We had come full circle. Shane reached around my waist, and his fingers found my swollen clit. As his thrusts grew more demanding, he rubbed my clit faster as well, bringing the swelling crush of pleasure to the forefront. I called his name even as he climaxed inside of me. I heard his long groan as he bent over my back pulling me even closer into him.
Then I heard him whisper the words in my ear that let me know that everything was going to be all right.
“I love you, Maddy.”
That was all it took. I felt another wave of dizzying desire sweep over me. Even as I climaxed, I said that I loved him too. I wasn’t ashamed of my feelings. Scarlet and this man were my everything.
As we lay next to each other afterward, I felt his hips start to grind against my belly even though his eyes were closed. I chuckled. “Are we planning on making up for lost time?” I asked.
As I felt his lips found mine again, it was all the answer I needed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
It was the week before Christmas, and Scarlet was in a panic trying to figure out what she was going to buy Shane. We had been to dozens of stores over the last couple of weeks, and she couldn’t make up her mind and settle on one thing over another. Although we had looked at everything from a custom made jersey with ‘#1 Dad’ on the back, to slippers, to a popcorn maker for movie nights, it seemed that nothing was quite right. She wanted her first Christmas gift to her daddy to be perfect and special. I understood that, but there was no way that I could get her to believe me that no matter what she gave me gave him, he would treasure it forever.
“One more store, please?” she asked me. It had been ‘one more store’ the last three stores, and I was exhausted. We stood in the middle of the mall with all of the people doing their last minute shopping bustling all around us.
It wasn’t just the crowds that had me exhausted, though, but I hid the small smile that threatened to cross my face. I had my own special Christmas surprise for Shane. I thought that he was going to be excited. At least, I hoped he was going to be excited. Somewhere along the way, I had found an opportunity for redemption in the mess that I had created. After all of this time, I was going to give him something that I thought could partially make up for what I had denied him with Scarlet.
I had taken a pregnancy test the day before, and it was positive. It wasn’t even something that I had considered since I had been on the pill for years. But fate had a way of happening no matter what you did. I was a little
scared, but more than anything, I was excited about what this would mean for us and our family. I knew by now that Shane was incredible with Scarlet, and I couldn’t wait to see him with a tiny baby in his arms.
I wanted to tell him right away, but I decided to do it at Christmas instead. Then we would figure out how we were going to tell Scarlet together. Of course, this was all assuming that he would be just as on onboard with the idea as I was, but there was nothing to indicate to me that he wouldn’t be.
Since our reconciliation, he had been nothing but an attentive partner. He and Scarlet were getting together better than ever. We were staying over at his condo almost every night of the week now. My mother and father were still deciding what they wanted to do, and I wasn’t pressuring them. Now that they didn’t have the sinking business pulling them down like a weight around their ankles, they could decide what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives. I had a feeling that they would figure out something new to try. My parents were entrepreneurs at heart, and my mother had always wanted to open a bakery.
Either way, I had finally come to accept that it wasn’t because of me that they were in the position they were in. I wasn’t sure if I would’ve been able to do that if I hadn’t found Shane again. He was helping me see that accepting a little help was okay, but ultimately we were all responsible for our own decisions and our own lives.
“There!” Scarlet said. She was pointing at a sports memorabilia shop.
“I don’t think that’s probably the best place to find something for your dad,” I said.
“No, I know exactly what to get him now,” she said. She ran ahead of me toward the store. I chuckled at her enthusiasm and had no choice but to follow her. Once I got inside, I saw her talking animatedly to the man behind the counter. He was giving her a considering look.
