Chapter Eleven
The Next Day…
Lexi
As I get off on the ninth story that opens to our company’s office suites, I notice a small stir in the office. The front assistant isn’t at her desk and I notice several associates aren’t sitting in their offices, either.
As I make my way further down the hall, I pass the break room. It’s packed with more people than I have seen in the break room at any given time. They're all chatting but I don’t bother to stop – I keep walking.
When I get closer to the executive offices, I hear my father’s booming voice. He’s laughing and carrying on. A smile breaks across my face because my father is such a great storyteller, and I can imagine whoever he is regaling his story to is probably eating up every word.
There’s a second voice, another one I recognize. I slowly creep to the entrance of my father’s office and sure enough, I can see Tucker and my dad laughing. Tucker is sitting on the love seat in my dad’s office, and my dad is sitting up against his desk with a golf club in one of his hands.
My dad has too many great stories to recall but even with the looming possibility of being spotted by Evans, I can’t hold back as I laugh to myself about a few of the stories my dad has told me in the past.
"Lexi, darling, come in." My dad sees me by the door.
Tucker’s eyes are on me immediately, scanning me from top to bottom. Even though I dress in high fashion every day, I’ll admit that I wore my higher four-and-a-half inch heels and a tight-fitting pencil dress with my hair down, hoping to run into Sebastian again today. Now, I’m feeling a little self-conscious standing in front of Tucker as I witness him lick his lips.
"Look who’s in town and stopped by to pay us a visit," Dad says.
"The prodigal son has returned, I see." I flash Tucker a teasing smile. I already ran from him yesterday; under no circumstances am I about to let him think he’s shaken me.
Tucker gives me a knowing smirk, but I ignore it.
"Why don’t you come in and visit with us?" Dad suggests.
"I’d love to, but this merger won’t close itself. I’d better get back to it. You boys have fun. Tucker, always good to see you."
I don’t wait for a response from either of them. I keep my composure, but I know it’s going to be "telling" soon if I don’t get out of there. Tucker knows my poker face and he knows better than anyone how to manipulate it to show what cards I’m hiding.
As I turn to leave, I hear Tucker get up from the couch and say a few words to my dad.
"Hold up, Lexi," he says as he lightly jogs towards my direction. My office isn’t far from my dad’s and it’s my safe place. I ignore him and attempt to make it to my office as he follows behind me.
He walks in, but, surprisingly to me, he closes the door behind him. My office is practically all glass so viewing privacy isn’t likely, but the glass walls are more sound resistant than you’d think… Lucky me.
"I’m surprised to see you in town," I say.
"It was an urgent thing. My great uncle passed away. I’m helping my dad with funeral arrangements."
"Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know."
"Don’t be. He lived a long life. Never had a wife or kids so he traveled the world. He saw some cool stuff."
I nod in agreement.
I turn on the T.V. to help cover up our conversation. The sports channel comes on as it was the last thing I watched before I left the day before.
"You watch a lot of this?" he asks, a little concern in his voice.
"Should I not?"
"No, I was just curious how much you keep up on pro football."
"I know enough."
He nods slowly.
"What does your physical therapist say about your knee?" I ask, a hint of guilt in my voice. Even though a hint is just the tip of the iceberg of how much guilt I feel. I need to address the elephant in the room.
"Can we not talk about this right now?" His somber eyes searching mine.
"Okay. What exactly would you like to talk about? The floor’s yours."
He shakes his head as I glances away from me.
"I wish you would have said that ten months ago in New Orleans before you ran out in front of traffic," he says.
The comment hurts, but he’s wrong. I shouldn’t have ran into that crosswalk but I couldn’t face him. Not after I had come to New Orleans to give him my heart, my future, my everything. Only to find he was with someone else.
"Luca and I are doing good. I want us to be good too."
"What do you mean? You keep saving my life. I think we’re pretty good," I say as I’m pretending to rearrange the paperclips on my desk.
"No you don’t." He pauses until I lock eyes with him. "I want to talk about that night at the bar in New Orleans. I want to talk about the night at your house after the draft. I want to talk about your senior year at the lake house. I want to talk about the drive to the ER when I thought you might die in my arms after you almost drowned." His voice shakes for a minute at the last few words.
I can’t pretend to be a marble statue when he’s on the verge of emotion that I have rarely seen since his mom passed away.
"That’s a lot of history to unpack. And I have a forty-million-dollar merger to close at the end of next week. Any chance you can give me the cliff notes?"
"This is our life, Lexi. You want the fucking cliff notes? Are you kidding me?" He runs his hands through his hair and then places both hands on his hips while he tries to regain his composure. "What you saw at the bar that night…" I try to fidget out of his stare, but he waits to continue until he has my full attention.
"It’s none of my business what I saw. You can do whatever you want," I interject.
"Yeah, I know. But it upset you. I didn’t know you were going to be there. I texted you. I wanted to see you. You told me not to come. Do you remember that?"
"Yes, because I had already bought tickets to come surprise you," I say with frustration.
He takes a second to digest the information.
"She didn’t mean anything to me. I just let you believe whatever you wanted to after you let me get hit by a car. I think we’re even."
"Not exactly. I ended your career; you only broke my heart… not exactly eye for an eye." My confession has him closing the distance between us.
He grabs both my hands into his. "You didn’t end my career. I’m ready to play. And fuck, Lexi, I don’t want to break your heart." He locks onto my eyes, but the intensity is still too much for me to handle and I’m trying to squirm out of his gaze for the second time.
"Then don’t Tucker. Just leave this alone." His thumbs smooth over the top of my hand a couple of times and I think he’s about to kiss me. But he doesn’t. He lets my hands go and takes a few steps back with a large inhale and exhale.
"What about the ring? You wore it."
"Then I gave it back."
Instantly I wish I could have taken that back, but I was feeling insecure. I had spent the entire flight daydreaming of our reunion. I had spent weeks picking out an outfit. I had put my heart on the line. I knew there was a possibility he had moved on already but I had made the decision that it was now or never.
And then I saw him… with her. My heart shattered like it never had before. I let my guard down. I believed we could make it work.
I was wrong.
My fears were solidified in that moment.
He puts his hands in his pockets and nods at me, glances down at the floor quickly, and then walks out of my office.
Tucker
I leave Lexi’s office without a game plan. I never don’t have a game plan. I head back to Tom Benson’s office to finish the conversation we had started before I’d left abruptly to follow his daughter. I spend the time trying to pretend not to be distracted by the daughter down the hall, close enough to touch.
We say our goodbyes and Tom gives me a hug with a pat on the back.
"Sheila and I couldn’t be prouder of you, buddy. A Super Bowl win and honestly, an incredible career this far. Now you and Luca are playing ball this season like old times. I think you’ll be unstoppable. Don’t worry about the knee; it’s all going to work out. You two have unfinished business. To win a Super Bowl together like you two have dreamed of since the peewee days. You’re going to find yourself there, I know it."
"Thanks, Tom. I’ll be helping my dad with my great uncle’s funeral arrangements, but I’ll still be around. We could get lunch before I leave town. Maybe tomorrow?"
"I’d like that, Tucker. Should we invite the whole gang? I think Brielle could use an outing, too. She’s been cooped up since the baby was born. And I suspect you haven’t met the little guy yet, huh?"
"No, I haven’t. That sounds great, Tom."
"Invite Sabrina and your dad, if they're available. I haven’t seen Sabrina since Lexi’s housewarming party, and it would be nice to catch up with your dad too, if he’s up for it. I’m sure the funeral has him busy though."
"Okay, I’ll give them a call after I leave here. I’m just going to say goodbye to Lexi and I’ll text you when I hear back from them."
"Hey Tuck?" Tom slips past me towards the door I’m headed for and looks around before closing it. "You and Lex…is everything okay there?"
"What?" I ask unconvincingly.
"Listen…" He moves closer and he’s using his "soft gloves" voice. As if he’s handling a fragile glass egg and not a 230lb pro athlete.
"I’ve suspected there might be something growing between you two. You know…more than just in a friendly way." I smirk at the idea of something "growing". He isn’t wrong there. Any time I see her or think about her.
I furrow my eyebrows. I’m not going to volunteer anything.
"Come on, Tucker. I’ve noticed the way you look at Lexi since you were about nineteen. Didn’t seem relevant at the time. You were going away to college. But I saw it in your eyes again today when she came by my office. There also seems to be some missing puzzle pieces from the accident in New Orleans but I’m not trying to pry, son."
There’s no point pretending with Tom. He’s the one I would have come to years ago to ask for advice. If the panties I was trying to get in weren’t his daughters.
"I know you two spent some time together in LA, after the Super Bowl, and didn’t want any of us to know about it. Seems like something’s going on there if you ask me."
I don’t know where he got his information but although I won’t offer damning evidence, I’m sure as hell not going to lie to the man.
"She doesn’t exactly make it easy to sweep her off her feet." I laugh, putting my hands in my pocket, trying to hide how uncomfortable it is to admit my feelings about Lexi to anyone else beside her.
"That’s my girl." He laughs. "She’s driven, motivated… focused. Not unlike you. But I’ve seen the way she looks at you too. She’s a little harder to read but there’s a devotion in her eyes that I’ve never seen in them with anyone else. I’m not sure what it means, but there you have it." He shrugs.
"I’ve tried. More than once."
I toss up my hands like a referee made a bad call.
"There’s always an excuse but mostly it seems to boil down to the same thing. She doesn’t want either of us to change a single thing in our lives to make us work. How do I argue that?"
"You don’t argue. You're not a lawyer, Tuck. You're a football player and a damn good one. Use the skills you do have." He pauses.
"If the defense keeps blocking your play, you don’t just forfeit…you come up with a new game plan. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?"
He takes a second and puts his hand on my shoulder.
"What I want for you, at the end of the day, is what’s best of you, Tucker. I always have, I always will. I also want what’s best for my daughter. You two aren’t in elementary school anymore. It took me a minute to wrap my mind around it after my assumptions about Los Angeles when I called the front desk of the resort she was supposed to be at, and they said she hadn’t checked in. Sonia let it slide that she booked Lexi a flight to LA instead, but I never asked Lexi about it, it wasn’t my business. If what’s good for you and what’s good for her just so happen to be the same thing…well kid, Sheila and I would welcome you with open arms like we always have. You’re already a son to me. It wouldn’t take any getting used to on our end. Luca, on the other hand, you’ll have to work that out on the field I suspect. Good luck."
I put my hands on my hips and stare down at the floor trying to process his advice and realize I should have asked years ago. It’s too frustrating to think of all the years I’ve missed with her. I’m liable to bust a hole in the drywall if I focus on it for too long.
I focus back on him. I need to ask a question and I need to see his answer in his face.
"How would you feel about me as a son-in-law?"
His eyebrows shoot straight up. He wasn’t expecting that, and I wasn’t expecting to ask him either.
I’m not sure what I’ll do if the answer isn’t what I hope for but his answer determines my next move.
"Well Tucker, I don’t think there is another man on this planet I trust with her more than you. Between her almost drowning at the lake house and the accident in New Orleans, I know you take her safety as seriously as I do."
"I’d die for her. And I wouldn’t think twice." I blurt it out but it’s the truth and for once, it feels good to say it out loud.
"I’m afraid it’s not me you have to convince. She’s fiercely independent these days and she showed up with a chip on her shoulder after the accident in New Orleans. You’re not a father yet but someday you will be. And if you're blessed enough to be given a daughter to care for…" He puts both hands on my shoulders now. "I hope you get the chance to look into the eyes of a man worthy of taking over your post–guarding the most precious possession you have ever received".
Tears start to well in my eyes. I’ve never consciously considered that Tom Benson wouldn’t think I was worthy of his beautiful daughter. But I guess the thought was tucked in there deep, buried by my overzealous confidence.
"So, what are you going to do now?" he asks.
"I’ve got a sister to call about a house," I say as I turn to leave.
"Smart play," he says as I walk out of his office and towards Lexi’s.