Fighting For Light: A Dark Sports Romance (The Coldwell Brothers)

55. Kai

Cordi is finally starting to relax. Last night, she didn’t wake up screaming or crying— a step in the right direction. A few days ago, I ordered a bunch of flowers that come in round boxes. They delivered them, and while she was sleeping, I quietly filled our room with them. I smile at my careful work. She’s going to freak out when she wakes up. She’s on her side with a body pillow she bought a while ago. I’d rather she wrap herself around me, but sometimes she prefers the pillow, and I reluctantly accept it. I slip into the bathroom to take a quick shower and wait for her to wake up.

I’ve been doing light workouts and gentle therapy, but I won’t know if everything is good until I get another MRI on my ribs and hip. Every time I attempt to schedule an appointment, I worry about Cordi. She doesn’t want to leave the house, and I’ve been trying to work with that and help her settle back in and move on from what happened. But at some point, we will have to leave the house and get back on the road. And that’s going to be a whole different adjustment with a baby in tow. I’m more nervous about traveling with a newborn than unknown threats. Yeah, the baby is scarier.

Swiping the steam off the mirror, I brush my hair back and hear a gasp. I smile to myself in the mirror and open the bathroom door. She’s sitting up, looking all around as tears sit in her eyes. “What in the world?” she asks in utter disbelief.

“I’m wondering if I should be concerned with how I got all of these in here, and you didn’t move an inch.”

“Kai, they’re beautiful. Why did you do this? What’s the occasion?”

I shrug and lean against the doorjamb. “Because I wanted to.”

“You bought me what has to be thousands of dollars in flowers because you wanted to?”

I take the few steps to the bed, lean over, and kiss her cheek. “I love doing things that make you smile.”

She lifts her chin and kisses me again.

I pull away and get off the bed, still wrapped in my towel.

“Come here. I have one more thing to show you.” I walk around to her side of the bed and help her up, pulling her to the baby’s room.

I open the door and step to the side so she will see it the moment she walks in.

She glances at me, then walks into the baby’s room and gasps.

“You finished it,” she whispers.

I nod and press my front to her back, sliding my hands to her belly.

“It’s beautiful. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this.”

I chuckle and kiss her cheek. The rocking chair is really nothing special. It’s a classic rocking chair design, stained a dark walnut to match the crib. I bought a cushion for us to sit on. The back is slightly curved with a mission style on the top, making it look more modern to match the crib. She steps out of my hands and sits on it.

“It’s really comfortable,” she says, running her hands up and down the arms.

“Good, I figured we’re going to spend a lot of time in it.”

She smiles. “Thank you,” she says again.

I shake my head. “I wish you would stop thanking me for things that don’t need it. I want to do these things for you, for him, Cordi. Always.”

“This is my new favorite piece of furniture now.”

“Well damn, I’ll just throw our bed away and build one. Then maybe that can be your new favorite.”

She grins and rolls her eyes as she rubs her belly. Her hand stops on a spot.

“He’s kicking. I’m going to take that as he likes the rocking chair his daddy made him, too.”

My stomach flips, and I’m overwhelmed with emotion. I walk up to her, and she places my hand where his tiny little foot is pushing. The feeling is so surreal, and it leaves me in utter awe every time.

“I love it when you call me his father,” I rasp around the tightness in my throat.

“Because you are, Kai,” she says gently, and I nod, blinking away the tears.

“Thank you, gem,” I rasp.

She smiles and pats my hand on her stomach.

***

Cordi was in her office and on the phone with Mom for most of the day, planning all kinds of things for this giant wedding. It gave me the chance to set up the backyard and figure out how to cook us dinner from her cookbook. I asked her a couple of days ago if she wanted to go out on a date with me, but she shut me down. I know it’s out of fear, so I’m bringing the date to her.

Since I’ve been doing nothing but killing time, I built an outdoor table out of cedar and used the hardly-touched fire pit chairs to go with it. After setting up lights and laying out the outdoor rug, I collected flowers from our room and used them to decorate the outdoor space. Our room was starting to smell like a perfumery in France, anyway.

I cook grilled steak, potatoes with rosemary, and a special bone marrow butter for the top of the steak, with fresh green beans on the side.

By five, Cordi is still in the office, and dinner is almost done. I peek my head around the corner. She looks up from her computer, and I noticed she didn’t jump when I knocked on the door. That’s a good sign.

“Hey, what are you up to?” she asks.

“Did Mom talk your ear off?”

She smiles. “She did, but it’s all good. This is the wedding of my dreams times four hundred people.”

“She’s really inviting that many people?” I ask her. In the back of my mind, all I can think of is- security risk.

“Not that many, but it feels like it. It’s closer to about three hundred, but she told me she doesn’t expect at least one hundred people. But if we don’t send them an invitation, then they would be offended or something? Which I have to admit didn’t make any sense to me because we don’t know these people.”

I cross my arms. “That’s the politics of high society, I guess.”

“Your whole family has never come off as high society, though. Your mom walks around like a queen, though she kind of is, but still.”

I chuckle, rubbing my chin. “Mom has always been good at making connections and playing the long game. It’s part of the way my father got to his position, anyway,” I say, and Cordi scrunches her eyebrows. “Okay, enough about that. You need to go upstairs and get ready for our date.”

“Date? Kai, I told you I don’t think—“

“We aren’t going anywhere except the backyard.”

She tilts her head and looks at me carefully.

“Come on, we’re going to be late to our dinner reservation at La Cocina Kai.”

A smile grows on her face, and she shuts her laptop and stands slowly. “Alright, how long do I have?”

I check my watch. “Twenty minutes?” I suggest.

She kisses me on the cheek. “I’ll make it ten.” She walks past me and right up the stairs.

I wait at the bottom of the steps, then run to the workout room, where I hung up a suit and tie. After dressing, I slip into one of Cordi’s aprons before cooking anything else. The first course is a salad with couscous and other stuff I found in the fridge. I fill Cordi’s newly purchased plates, then check the cheesy potatoes roasting in the oven. The steaks are wrapped and resting while we eat our first course.

An open flame in California this time of year is a wildfire waiting to happen, so I turn on the electric candles. The moment I step through the slider, I see my wife coming towards me through the hall. Her hair is down, and she’s wearing a form-fitting crochet dress she got recently that dips down in the front, showing off her cleavage that I could get lost in. My eyes make their way to hers, and she’s grinning at me.

“Eyes up here, daredevil,” she says, her tone is smoky and sensual.

“What happens if I keep them there?” I ask her, eyes going back to her chest.

“Then we would have to skip the beautiful dinner you made us,” she says.

“I can live with that,” I mutter.

She steps closer to me and chucks my chin with her fingers. “I want to know what you made.”

I kiss her briefly and lean back. “You’re beautiful, mi amor.”

She blushes, and I kiss each tinged cheek. Then I clear my throat and open the door.

“Bienvenue senora Coldwell a la cocina Kai,” welcome Mrs. Coldwell to Kai’s Kitchen, I tell her, gesturing for her to step outside.

She gasps and looks at me over her shoulder. “This is beautiful,” she says, taking a second.

“I’m glad you like it, baby.” I hurry around to pull the chair out for her. “Okay, hold on. I have to go get the first course.”

“There are multiple courses?” she asks, surprised.

I nod and run back into the house. I set our salads on the table and sit across from her.

“I hope you’re hungry.” My chest feels light as I take in the sight of my wife.

“I didn’t eat much. Your Mom gave me five minutes to find an apple before she plowed into the timing for the after-party. And, yes, you might be thinking it was called a reception. You would be right, typically, but what she has planned is a full-scale after-party, in my opinion.”

“That should be interesting. I have to admit, I loved our little party with just the family. But at least you’ll have your mom there this time.”

“Yeah, when I called to tell her everything, she was more upset she didn’t know I was pregnant instead of married. In fact, she wasn’t surprised at all that you and I got married.”

“Did you tell her I’m not—“ I cough, choking on the food. I don’t like saying it out loud, but the fewer people who know, the better.

She shakes her head and takes a drink of her water.

“No, as far as she’s concerned, you knocked me up and married me in a version of a shotgun wedding.”

I grin and lift my shoulder. “If you weren’t already pregnant, you definitely would be by now.”

She bites her lower lip.

“You’re so dirty,“ she says, chastising me.

I wink and lean in. “I’m absolutely filthy, Cordelia,” I whisper, even though there is no one to hear us.

She licks her lips, and her eyes flare with interest.

“Okay, next course,” I say, shaking the desire from my mind.

She clears her throat as I grab her plate and walk them back into the house.

I come out with our steak and the sides and set the plate in front of her.

“My mouth is watering just looking at it. Maybe you should cook dinner more often,” she says.

“I figure I should start practicing at this point.”

“Such a good husband and father. What more could I ask for?”

“So much more, Cordi and I’ll get it for you, too.”

Cordi cuts the steak and slips it past her lips. “Delicioso,“ she says in a bad Spanish accent.

“We will work on the Spanish.” I chuckle. “So your mom is okay with everything?”

She takes a bite of the potatoes, smiling and wiggling her shoulders. “Yeah, I think so. I mean, that ship has sailed in every single way that counts, so there’s no reason to be mad about it. She’s looking forward to the second wedding, though.”

“Good, so she won’t totally hate me then.”

She barks in laughter and looks at me with mirth and love in her eyes. “She absolutely hates you, but I couldn’t care less what she thinks. It’s part of the reason I didn’t tell her I was pregnant, to begin with. It was a conversation I didn’t want to have with her.”

“That’s fair. I hardly know the woman, but she is no peach.”

“Nope,” she says, her lips popping the P.

We finish dinner, talking about the baby and the wedding, and she’s been smiling and laughing the whole time. I can see my Cordi is coming back to me. She never left, but that darkness was holding on, and it’s finally starting to let go. We continue cracking jokes, and my heart is so full. I’m completely overwhelmed by what we’ve built together. They are all such good things, and the feeling of having so many good things in my life is foreign to me. But it’s something I want to get used to. I don’t want to think about that little worm of doubt digging a hole in my heart. I don’t want to think about the unknowns. I want to drink in this moment with my wife and add it to the list.