Quitting the Quarterback (The Nash Brothers #4)

CHAPTER 44 Cassie Fields

A Small Victory. Or a Huge One.

Okay.

Fine.

I give up.

I can’t fight this anymore.

I’ve tried. I’ve been back and forth. I’ve tried to pull back, but every time, it’s like I’m swept right back into it. And now he’s calling Lily CC ? It’s too cute. I can’t with this.

It’s like watching Tanner work with kids has changed everything for me. And when it’s my kids, it’s even more special. I’m sure the other parents are watching Lily walk over there with jealousy in their eyes. They got to watch as Tanner walked over to me to take my kid out onto the field.

It feels like a small victory. Or a huge one. It feels like the only friends I have left after the divorce are my three girls, and everyone else sits around in judgment. Well, let them judge this, then.

It’s just making me want to go public with this relationship. Not to rub it in their faces, though that would certainly be an added bonus, but because I want to take the kids to dinner after Luca’s football practice, and I want Tanner to join us. I want him to spend the night at my house once in a while. I want date nights and all the things you get to do in a normal relationship.

Instead, we’re sneaking around hoping we don’t get caught because if we do, the repercussions would be catastrophic.

And so I take the kids out to IHOP for dinner. Thursday night, I cook for them. Another week comes and goes, and then another. I watch Tanner interact with my kids on Wednesdays, and I fall a little harder each time. They love him, and I can literally see him falling in love with them, too.

It feels like we have our entire future laid out in front of us, and I can’t wait to grab on with both hands and get started on it.

I find myself daydreaming about that a lot. It might be further off than I realize. It’s not like I’ll just move into the house he shares with his brother with my kids. It’s also not like he’ll move into the house I used to share with my ex-husband to help me raise my kids.

But finding a place we can call our own is potentially in the future, and every time I sit at the after-school program and watch him call CC over to help him with cones, every time I watch him interact with Luca on the field, every time I see him giving my babies extra attention and glancing my direction to see if I caught it all…my heart latches on a little more.

I’m all the way in with him, and the more time he spends with my kids, the more I see that he’s all the way in with me, too. We haven’t talked much about it, but he knows we’re a package deal. I don’t come solo. I have kids, and I have them with me eighty percent of the time. It’s a lot to ask of someone, but we’re not at the point where we have to decide anything yet since we still have another six months or so to keep what we’re doing under wraps.

After the next set of away games, he’ll be cleared to stand on the sidelines at the home games. We won’t have our Sundays anymore, but I can tell how excited he is to get back on the field with his teammates, even if it isn’t in the capacity he wants it to be quite yet.

And this Friday, the kids will be heading to their dad’s house, and Tanner has invited me to spend the weekend with him again.

His gaze lingers on mine as we work through quad sets and hamstring curls, through calf raises and the leg press. We do some balance drills, and he’s getting stronger with every session.

He moves in to kiss me as we take a quick break, and I hold up a hand. “Rehab before romance,” I remind him, and he sighs.

“Can we just…not do that this weekend?” He sounds annoyed.

“Not do what?” I ask.

“Look, we spend a lot of time together, right? Six hours a day, give or take. I know I’m not always all that pleasant to be around, especially not for that many hours. But Cass, I love you, and I just want to spend the weekend with you . Not with my physical therapist, but with my girlfriend. The whole weekend.”

“So…no PT tomorrow and Sunday?”

He nods. “That’s right. I’ll still do my stretches, but I want to take you somewhere this weekend where we can just be together.”

My brows pinch together. “Where?”

“You’ll see.”

I narrow my eyes at him, but he’s not giving anything away.

“I can’t go too far in case the kids need me.”

“I know.” He reaches for me and pulls me against his body, and I don’t fight it. “But the Storm is in town which means Miller will be home tonight, and I want you and this gorgeous body of yours all to myself. ”

I nod. “Okay.” I’m already packed to spend the weekend with him anyway, so I see little reason not to agree to this plan of his.

When our time is up for the day, he says, “Are you ready?”

“For what? Sex o’clock?”

He chuckles. “For our weekend plans.”

I narrow my eyes at him. I’m not entirely sure what I’m supposed to be ready for, but if it’s the two of us alone for the weekend, I think I’ll be just fine with whatever it is. “Yep.”

“Then get in the Porsche because I’m taking you somewhere.”

I laugh, and I grab my little suitcase. He grabs his duffel, too, and then we head out to his car. Fifteen minutes later, we’re pulling up to a house that’s situated right on the beach. “Your weekend accommodations, ma’am,” he says after he puts the car into park.

“Cut out that ma’am nonsense. It makes me feel even more ancient than I am.”

He shakes his head, his eyes twinkling when he turns to look at me. “You’re perfect.”

I offer a very unladylike snort in return.

He taps a code into the keypad, and he opens the door to allow me to walk in first. And it’s perfection. It’s a huge beach house that he obviously rented for the two of us, and I walk through it toward the patio doors on the first floor. The large patio is steps away from the beach, and even though I’ve never lived directly on the beach, I’ve been within twenty minutes of it for most of my life.

It’s pure, tranquil perfection.

“Come with me,” he says, and he walks toward the corner where there’s an elevator I didn’t even see. We head up to the top level, and then we take a small staircase that leads us up to the rooftop deck .

I breathe in the salty ocean air, and a sense of peace washes over me.

He wraps his arms around me from behind as we both look out over the water that’s really just steps away. This deck offers tons of privacy, and yet it’s out in the open. It’s the first time he’s held me in his arms in a place other than the privacy of his own home, and it feels nothing short of totally spectacular.

I turn in his arms, and I tilt my chin up to look into his eyes.

“Something about the natural light in your eyes makes you even more beautiful than usual,” he murmurs, and my lips tip up at that.

“I was just thinking the same thing about you,” I admit, and he angles his head down as he drops his lips to mine.

We stand there on the rooftop deck kissing slowly, sensually, tenderly, under the warmth of the afternoon sun with the salty ocean air surrounding us, and I’m not sure if there’s a single scenario more perfect than this.

Until he leads me over toward one of the lounge chairs on this deck after a while. He sits, and he pulls me down on top of him. We continue to kiss there, and his hands move under my shirt to caress the skin of my back as he thrusts his hips up toward me. He’s ready to go, and feeling how hard he is beneath me is making me ready to go, too.

I move off him and slide my panties and my jeans off, and I unbutton his shorts and reach into them. His cock is hard for me, and I take him into my fist and pump up and down it a few times before I climb over him and slide him right into me.

“Yes, baby,” he murmurs, and I start to move over him as I brace myself with my hands on his chest. He reaches up under my shirt to touch my breasts as I move, and I moan when he bypasses my bra and takes my nipples between his fingers .

We find a quick rhythm and move together, pushing each other toward bliss as our bodies communicate in the language they’ve so quickly and easily learned.

I moan, and he asks, “Do you like when I touch your tits?”

“Mm,” is my moaned reply, and he rubs my nipples, which only pushes me closer to bliss.

“Your cunt is so hot for me, so greedy,” he pants. “I want to taste it, but I don’t want to stop fucking it.”

“Good thing we have all weekend,” I manage before my body starts to give way to the intense pleasure.

The sound of seagulls on the beach and the rush of water on the shore fills the air around us, but all I can focus on is this connection we share. It’s intimate and deep, and the chemistry between us is pure fire—so unlike anything I’ve experienced before. So addictive.

So explosive.

But that’s sort of the whole problem with fire.

It’s not meant to burn forever.