The Long Game (Seattle Sentinels #1)

Chapter Seventeen

Tucker

Meeting Tom at a jewelry store is a new experience to say the least.

This isn’t what I envisioned myself doing a couple of weeks ago, but when I saw Lexi yesterday in her office, I knew I had to up the ante. A house is a good first step but there’s someone else I am going to need to break the news to, and there’s an expectation I’ll have to meet before he accepts this.

The day of the accident on the dock, when I realized my feelings for Lexi were changing, Luca saw it. I was seventeen; she was fifteen. We were too young for this conversation. Luca made sure I knew where he stood.

"My sister’s off-limits. She’s not the girl you have around for a good time. She’s the one you have for a lifetime."

"Jesus, Luca. I’m not out to bang your sister. I called her baby on accident. I did it by mistake."

"Just shut up and let me say this. You fuck my sister, I’ll fuck you over. Are we clear?"

"Shit. Yeah. She’s not even my type."

All of it was a lie. I wanted her in every way I could have her. But she wasn’t my type. No, that girl deserves her own category. She was more than just my type. She was everything. She still is.

" The only way this goes down between you and Lexi is either with a diamond ring or a black eye. We both know you won’t commit, so lay off. Before I have to beat you to a pulp."

The jeweler puts the ring that Tom and I agreed on into a small velvet box and then wrapping that box into a Cartier store cardboard box, tying it with ribbon. I can hear my heartbeat in my ears as my forehead starts to sweat.

"I know I’ve said this a couple of times already but are you sure you want to take this step so quickly without talking to her first?" There’s something in his eyes. Something that wasn’t there yesterday when I talked with him. Is he having second thoughts about Lexi and I together?

"The ring is for Luca. I’m not planning to give it to Lexi yet. Luca told me years ago, not to start anything with Lexi unless I was prepared to make things permanent. I need him to know I’m serious. I need him to know I’m not that kid anymore. And I am not the guy the tabloids make out to be incapable of commitment."

"So, this was going on for longer than I knew. Damn it, Sheila was right. She’s never going to let me live this one down." He laughs to himself. "And, those tabloids don’t know anything about you. You're perfectly capable."

"Sheila was right?" I ask.

"I told her that you came to me asking about Lexi. I didn’t give her the whole story, but she didn’t need it. She said she knew already. Said she knew something changed the day you saved Lexi’s life at the lake. She sensed that you hadn’t realized it yet and Lexi was too young to see it. She was a little shocked it took this long for you to come to your senses. She had given up on it happening at this point. Figured Lexi would meet someone by now and you’d be out of luck." His last words seemed to trail off as he contemplates them.

"Sheila already knew. Figures," I say.

"Figures," he repeats, shaking his head.

We laugh as we watch the final ribbon being tied off.

I take the box into my hand, surprised at how light it feels. It’s like the weight of the ring lightens the heavy load that’s been on my back for God-only-knows how long.

As we walk down the street to our cars, I see a flash of beauty step out of a brand-new jaguar. The man driving wraps her hand around his arm as they head across the street to a sports bar. They both look a bit overdressed for the place, but who am I to judge, until I look at her face.

Lexi.

Lexi with… Sebastian.

And now I wonder if Tom’s words from earlier were because he knew about this.

Shit!

Tom makes the same connection I do, just a second later. Suddenly the ring feels like it weighs a hundred pounds.

"Son, are you okay?"

"Are they seeing each other?" I ask, gawking at the two walking past my vision.

"As far as I can tell it’s new, really new."

"What do you know about him?"

"Seems like a good guy." I swallow hard and Tom senses it. "But a good guy doesn’t make him right for her, Tucker. Stay on course. You have a plan… it’s a solid one."

I’m frozen in place as I contemplate rushing into that bar, shoving my ring on her finger, and fast forwarding through the timeline I set for winning her heart, instead pleading my case now.

I want to toss her tiny body over my shoulder like I used to do at the lake house and stomp out of the bar with my girl wrapped around my body. I want to torpedo inside and tell Sebastian, "Sorry man, it’s nothing personal, but that one’s mine," as I pull her into my arms, putting her into a cradle hold as I run us straight down to the courthouse fifteen miles away.

I would too, if the courthouse was open at eight-thirty at night. Why couldn’t we live in Las Vegas right now, where the wedding chapels are always open. I’d marry Lexi this second if given the opportunity.

At the very least, I want to walk in and spoil his evening by inviting myself to sit with them so that he knows I’m staking my claim. When I seriously consider taking my first steps towards the bar, Tom puts his hand on my shoulder, like he always does when he’s about to tell me something he knows I need to hear.

"Don’t do anything to make her pull away. Luca’s waiting for you to show up at his house in ten minutes. Do not be late."

Then, Tom walks me to my truck and waits for me to get in and start the engine.

I roll down the window. I need some reassurance before I drive away.

"Tom." He walks up and lays his forearm on the window I rolled down.

"Do I end up with the girl in the end?"

He takes in a sigh as he looks me in the eyes.

"I hope like hell you do, Tucker. Sabastian is a good guy, but he isn’t you."

I nod as he backs up onto the sidewalk again and I pull out of my spot and head to Luca’s.

A Few Hours Later…

Tucker

Finally, some good news. I don’t end up with a Luca-shaped dent in my face by the time I walk out of his house.

It was obvious the ring sitting on his table was a huge surprise. I hadn’t anticipated that Brielle would be downstairs when I got to their condo, but it wasn’t like I could ask her to leave her own kitchen. So, when I opened the box to show Luca the ring, she started sobbing. I guess a ring the size of a small planet will do that to a woman. She blamed the hormones from having Bronx. Whatever.

"I didn’t even realize you two were dating," he said confused.

"We’re not." I laughed without humor.

"She has no idea you’re interested in her?" Brielle looks like she’s about to pass out… or hit me.

"Oh… she has an idea."

Luca gave me a suspicious look. I figured he wouldn’t make this as easy as his old man had so I figured I’d have to tell him the whole story.

I explained how things had changed for me after the accident; he wasn’t surprised. I explained how I had distanced myself from his family after that summer, which he nodded as if he’d been waiting years to know what had set that in motion to begin with. I told him about how I had thought I’d curbed my feelings for Lexi by keeping "distracted" with other girls from high school. He grimaced a bit. He remembered how I was that year, too. I told him how I thought I could handle the next summer at the lake house but that I ended up kissing her on the beach. He looked a little pissed, but he was relieved to hear that a kiss was as far as I took it and that I’d lied to her and told her it was a mistake.

That might have pissed him off more than the kiss. I’d hurt her.

The one thing he told me not to do.

I skipped past all the bad decisions I’d made by going along with my dad’s college pick. He already knew that part and we’d gotten past it years before this. He told me he wished I would have told him about the pressure I was in with my dad and Ole' Miss. That he would have handled things differently. But it’s in the past now.

I also skipped past the night of college admissions when I knew he and his parents wouldn’t be home so I could confess my feelings for her, hopefully get lucky, and beg her to come to Ole' Miss with me after she graduated high school.

I wasn’t sure if he would hate me more for trying to take advantage of his sister or for trying to get her to go to school that was his arch rivalry.

Best to leave that one in the past.

He knew about the time I spent at the lake house for her eighteenth birthday. I told him about how close we had gotten those days together but skipped over all the physical stuff. I didn’t want him to blow my other knee out. He knew I had asked her to be with me and had gotten rejected.

"You? Long distance?" Luca scoffed.

"Funny, that’s exactly how your sister said it, too. But just like I told her, I'd do anything she asked me to do if it meant we could be together."

"Lexi’s wanted to work in my dad’s firm for as long as I’ve dreamed of being a football star. People don’t typically think of a conventional ‘desk job’ as worthy of giving up anything. But Lexi gave up a lot to get where she is in my father’s business."

Shame clogged my throat. The things I told her to give up. The things I wasn’t willing to do in return.

"She took early bird classes she could get out of school at lunch and work for my dad’s assistant the second half of the day Junior and Senior year. She made Acquisitions Manager in less than four years after graduating high school. Did you know the fastest anyone has become an acquisitions manager was in ten years with the company?"

Suddenly, the last day we spent together at the beach house comes flooding back.

“ Change your plans, Lexi. Come to Mississippi in September. Be with me,” I begged her, standing outside of the lake house, my bags packed and on my way out before Luca showed up.

“What?” She asked, a look of shock on her face. She wasn’t expecting me to lay it all out. “I can’t come to the University of Mississippi. Admissions are closed. I wouldn’t be accepted.”

“Ok, then move there now and you can apply next year. We can be together for the first year and then you can start school as a freshman the following year.”

Her eyebrows furrowed deeper. “And leave my opportunity with my dad? Leave what I’ve been working for?”

This is the moment I should have seen it, but all I could think of was trying to think of a way not to lose her.

“Just for a few years. Shit, it won’t even matter once I get into the NFL–I’ll support us.” I tried to reason. “You won’t have to work.”

“So, what will I do once I get into school a year behind and then you get drafted the year after that? Now I’m stuck at a college nine hours away from my family while you go off to God-knows-where to play in the NFL?”

“No, of course not. You can transfer to whatever school is the closest to where I get picked up. Or don’t go to school if you don’t want.”

She shook her head and took a deep breath. I didn’t understand at the time what I said that was so wrong. I wanted us together. I couldn’t understand why she didn’t see this as a plan to make us work.

“Let me get this straight. You want me to drop the career I’ve started, move to a college I’ve never had an interest in attending, start school a year behind schedule, move away from my friends and family to a rival school of my only brother, and ping-pong around from city to city, school to school, to chase your dreams?”

I felt her soft hands in mine.

“Can’t it be our dream?”

That wasn’t the right answer, and I could feel the moment she started pulling away.

“I think we need to take a step back and think this through. You’re in college nine hours away and I’ve got this incredible opportunity. I think we need to stay focused on the dreams we’ve already set out for.”

“Are you being serious? After what just happened the last few days? You want to go back to just being friends?”

“Let’s just see how the next couple of years go. After you get drafted, we’ll see where you end up. We’ll see where I am with the company.”

“I’m tired of waiting, Lex. I know what I want.”

I rubbed my forehead at the memory of the day that everything with Lexi went south.

She was trying to tell me and I missed it.

"Shit," I mutter to myself.

"She never told you any of this?" Luca asks.

"Fuck no! But I guess I should have known."

"Keep it down will ya," Brielle scolded playfully. "It took me forty-five minutes to get Bronx down tonight. I tried to get him down early so I can be down here when you came in. I didn’t realize you were bringing a meteor in a box."

"Shit, sorry Brielle. I’ll be quiet."

I thought through the stuff Luca told me and so much of why Lexi held back from me. It made sense. But I also knew the biggest reason. She thought I wouldn’t give up the "player" lifestyle.

"I was in college her Junior and Senior year. I didn’t see the work she was putting in. And I was too consumed with my own goals I was chasing to notice much else anyway. I didn’t see what the big deal was. I didn’t see how she couldn’t get a job with her dad after we moved home… after my years in the NFL. Or by that time, I thought we’d have kids and she’d want to stay home with them."

"Damn. You’ve been thinking about marriage this whole time?"

"No, or I don’t think so? Hell, I don’t know anymore. This situation has been a train wreck since day one. But I swear to you Luca, since the time she and I spent those days alone at the lake house, I’ve never seen a glimpse of my future and not seen Lexi standing in it with me."

Since my mom died, I never actually considered marriage. It wasn’t that I’d sworn off the idea, but I saw what my dad went through, and I just never gave long term relationships a consideration before.

Giving your heart to someone would equate to pain. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but eventually.

I used football as an excuse for so long and because I was good, no one questioned my motives to focus on football and football only. Well, except for recently when the media started labeling me a serial dater, incapable of a committed relationship.

They called me a man whore, and it wasn’t untrue… but I’d slowed down quite a bit since college. And since the accident in New Orleans, I haven’t been with anyone. It’s a personal record, of sorts.

"Honest to God, Luca, I haven’t seen myself spending ‘life after football’ with anyone but Lexi. Hell, I wanted her in this football life with me. She told me in Los Angeles that she wanted more time to make this big promotion. I couldn’t understand how she could choose a job over us. Hearing you lay it all out like that, I’m a fucking idiot." I ran my hands through my hair again and braced my back against the chair, folding my arms across my chest as I stared at the diamond ring perched inside the velvety jewelry box.

Did I even deserve Lexi? I’d been obsessed with her for so long now and I was questioning if I ever really knew her. If I’d ever actually taken the time to get to know her.

I had done everything wrong and now, any animosity I held against her for not running into my arms years ago, was gone as I realized the biggest obstacle we had, was me. Just like she had said.

I sat there for a second debating whether I should still follow through with my plans. Maybe she’d be better off without me. Maybe she needed someone more attentive to her. Someone who would have pulled their head out of their ass a long time ago. I always knew she was talented. I always thought she could do anything, be anything, she wanted to be.

I may or may not be good enough for Lexi, but I’m a selfish bastard and I’m going to pursue her with everything I have until she tells me she doesn’t want me ever again, and not a minute before.

"I can’t believe my dad went with you to pick out this ring," Luca said as he held the small ring box in his hand, gently rotating it to see the facets sparkle in the light of the kitchen chandelier.

"Me either. Guess your mom told him it was about time I came to my senses."

Brielle and Luca both laughed

"Of course, she would have known before us. She’s a goddamn wizard." Luca laughs. "She pegged Brielle and I the first time she met her. Brielle hated me with the burning power of three suns."

"That’s not true!" Brielle demands.

"Shhh, you’ll wake the baby," Luca says in a sarcastic, teasing tone.

Brielle leans over for a kiss, squeezing his cheek as they both laugh.

I hoped in five years’ time, I was sitting in our kitchen, in the McKinny house with our baby asleep upstairs and I was kissing Lexi at our breakfast table. I’d been longing for one person for half my life and now that I’d given into it, I’d happily trade all the lingerie models for a domesticated Lexi any day. And I would have years ago if she would have let me.

"I better get going." I stand to leave.

Brielle was the first to stand and walk around the circular breakfast table to hug me goodbye, squeezing me tight, the way all Brielle’s hugs end.

"Good luck. We’re rooting for you," she said.

I nodded and smiled, less sure of myself than when I was buying the ring.

Between Sebastian and the stuff Luca told me, my confidence took a hit. But it was half time; there was still a lot of game left before this thing was over and I needed a pep talk from the coach to get myself back on track… and I knew just the man for the job.