Chapter 29
Dreams do come true...sometimes.
“Hey, I’ll be expecting a call any moment from Coach.
Answer my cell if it rings while I’m in the shower,” Grey called out when he peeked his head from the bathroom door.
I sat in the middle of the hotel bed, the sheet covering my naked body as I finished an organic chemistry assignment.
We’d been locked together at the hotel since Saturday night, and it was Monday morning.
After almost sexing on the beach in the cold air without a condom, we decided to find a hotel away from the condo and be with each other.
I’d turned my cell off, anticipating contact from Carter and Chelsea.
I’d already told my family that Carter was fine, so I didn’t expect any calls from them. I didn’t want any distractions.
I only wanted Grey.
“Is he going to be pissed that you didn’t go to practice?” I asked.
Grey decided not to go to his morning practice, opting to stay in bed with me. I had to make him promise to go back tomorrow. He seemed reluctant to let me out of his sight.
“I’ve never missed practice in four years. He’ll live. There are some things more important than running.” He grinned, and for the first time in a long time, he was happy.
I made him happy.
Grey had been my grumpy best friend with a rare smile, who tended to see the glass half-empty instead of full, though he would argue he was a realist. I had no idea he’d been carrying such trauma inside.
I knew his parents’ relationship had been troubled.
I’d even witnessed his mother’s fiery temper, but to pull a gun with intent to use on his father explained Grey’s troubled relationship with his parents.
And also why marriage scared him. I would be patient with him. Maybe convince him to go to therapy.
“Now, I know you haven’t had any sleep. Nothing is more important than running,” I half-teased.
“Nothing is more important than being with you.” He walked over to me in his naked glory and kissed me. His tongue savored my mouth before he pulled back. “I love you.”
“Love you, too.” I grabbed his chin to plant another kiss. “Go shower and let me finish my assignment before we go another round.”
He winked. “I can be super quick.”
“Later, dude. I’m hungry.” My stomach growled as if on cue. “See?”
Grey kissed me again before he went back to the bathroom.
We’d planned to grab lunch after I finished my assignment due today.
Then, we would talk about whether we really had a future.
We’d been sleeping and sexing for the last day and a half like we were on borrowed time.
And maybe we were. Nothing had been resolved between Carter and me.
Chelsea was a non-factor that I still needed to deal with, if for nothing else, to resolve the lease.
I didn’t want to live with her anymore. Most importantly, I was still pregnant and hadn’t yet told Grey.
His cell rang while he was in the shower, and I saw Tatiana flash across the screen. Tatiana was one of the best runners in the country on the track team with Grey. We’d spoken a few times over the years, and she’d always been cool with me.
“Oh, my God, you won’t believe what I just heard,” her shrill voice announced.
I answered, “Hey, Tati. This is Darren. Grey told me to answer his phone. What’s up?”
“Oh...Is he around? I want to tell him myself.” Tatiana’s tone sounded accusatory.
“Yeah, in the shower, but he’s expecting a call and didn’t want to miss it. You want me to tell him to call you when he’s out?” I asked without thinking that my words implied intimacy.
“How’s Carter?” She asked abruptly. “We’re all worried about him. No one saw him on campus today.”
“He’s fine. Probably be back on the field by Saturday,” I tersely replied, disliking how she dropped Carter’s name in the conversation to remind me I had a man or to fish out if he and I were with each other now. “So, you want me to tell Grey to call you back?”
The phone left my hand to Grey’s ear. He still dripped from the shower, a towel around his lower body. “Hey...what’s up?”
“Where are you? I stopped by your place.” I could hear her as if I still held the phone to my ear.
“I’m out with Darren. Did you call for anything else?
” He half-turned away from me, and it dawned that she was the woman he’d been seeing.
The woman he spent nights with. There might have been more than one woman, but she was his teammate.
Someone with whom he spends a lot of time during practice and at meets.
Tatianna shared his love of running and his dream.
Her surprised hurt that I answered the phone, grabbed me through the phone.
She grew silent, probably trying to piece together what I had said and what he just said. I shook my head at him in warning, and his forehead dipped in confusion. Tatianna started speaking again, “Umm...Darren said you were in the shower. Where are you?”
Grey glanced at me, and worry etched across his face. “I’m out. I’ll call you later once I get home.”
“Don’t bother,” she barked.
“Okay, I won’t,” he replied calmly, making it clear to both of us who he preferred.
Trying to remind myself that he had every right to be with another woman, I moved to the other side of the bed to give him privacy. He reached for my wrist to keep me from getting up and implored forgiveness in his hazel eyes.
“Is there anything else you want to say?” Grey asked Tatiana.
Silence loomed heavy between us as Tatianna probably internally battled whether to argue with him or pretend Grey didn’t matter to her. Finally, she spoke with some excitement, “I just wanted to be the first to tell you that you made the team.”
“What?” Grey’s eyes widened, and a slow, glowing smile graced his features.
Tatianna repeated with more energy. “You made it to the Olympic Trials. I asked Coach to allow me the honors since I’m going too.”
One lone tear trailed down his face, and I clasped my hands together, watching him, loving him even more as his long-wished-for dream came true.
She asked, “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
He shook his head, opened his mouth, and words didn’t exit.
I took the phone. “He’ll call you back.” I clicked off without waiting for her response to pull him back in bed with me to hold him tightly.
My arms held firm as he lay his head between my breasts and sobbed.
I rubbed his back soothingly. Allowing him to release all the years of sacrifice and hard work that had finally paid off.
I whispered, “You did it, my heart. You did it.”
After his tears subsided, he said, “I have to leave for Oregon in two weeks, and I’m there until June. If I make it, then it’s Rio.”
I ran my hand through the thick curls on his head. “When...not if...you make it.”
Grey smiled against my breast. “You’ve always believed in me. Never doubted I could do it. What am I going to do without you?”
“You can’t do shit without me.” I laughed and swiped my tears, my heart burning at our reality. Though big and vast as the sky, his dream was still not big enough to include me. “But you’ll learn.”
Grey looked up at me. Even with swollen eyes, I’d never seen a more handsome man. Maybe because of his love for me, which radiated through him. “I’m sorry.”
“No, no. You don’t have to apologize. I’m the one person you don’t have to apologize to.
This has been your dream forever and a day.
You are going to leave here in two weeks and not look back.
Our journey as friends has come to an end.
We love each other too much to pretend otherwise,” I said with certainty and finality.
His long sigh held much regret, pain, and heartache, and I smiled bravely as if my heart remained intact. Without breaking eye contact, Grey placed my laptop on the side table and grabbed a condom before spreading my thighs and settling over me. “She doesn’t mean anything.”
“She does mean something to you, and it’s okay.” I smiled even as tears fell down my face. “I know you love me in ways that can’t be explained because that’s how I feel about you.”
Grey protected us before sliding deep within, slowly filling me with every hard and thick inch.
His muscled, naked body pressed tight against my soft, naked one.
I scooped my arms underneath his arms, needing to get even closer to him.
Kissing his lips, his neck, his chest, his face, and his back to slide my tongue into his mouth.
He groaned as I opened my legs wider, and his hands moved to grasp my thighs to push in and out of me.
Each stroke brought me to higher and higher sexual peaks while he captured my every pant and moan in his mouth.
Our bodies were so attuned to one another that we moved like old lovers, instinctively knowing just what to touch to tease and tantalize.
Knowing when to slow down to prolong our release or when to let go.
I hated that we found love so late and wasted time being friends when we were so much more.
Hated that since we were no longer just friends, we would soon be no more.
Tired of crying, when my eyes began to well up, I bit his neck and sucked and sucked, needing to have evidence on his skin that I existed. ..that our love existed.
My sadness manifested as aggression, which only spurred Grey to do the same.
He fisted my hair and jerked my head to feast on my neck as if he had suddenly transformed into a vampire, and I was his entranced victim.
I reveled in the joining of our bodies. The forcefulness of his thrusts, the scintillating feel of his chest rubbing against my stiffened nipples, the strength of his hands on my thighs, and the passionate depth of his warm hazel eyes as he professed that I was the only woman he had ever loved.
As my body began to coil tighter and tighter, and I met each pelvic thrust, I urged desperately in his ear to fuck me harder and harder.
To unleash every single drop of frustration and passion inside.
To impale me until I still feel him even hours after we are no longer one.
Grey began thrusting at breakneck speed, exertion beading sweat across his forehead.
And when I lost control of my fucking senses and shrieked in ecstasy, he pumped even faster.
His grunts became louder until his body spasmed into a pleasurable abyss.
THAT DAY, WE NEVER left the room and never said another word.
Instead, our bodies remained entwined, and no further words had to be said because we knew each other.
He would leave for months to train, and I would go on with my life.
I would graduate from school and raise my baby.
A baby he wouldn’t know about until he returned from the Olympics.
Right or wrong, I would withhold this truth, though I’d never held a secret from him.
I knew he loved me enough to give up his dream to be here with me, whether the baby was his or Carter’s.
I wouldn’t make him choose because I loved him that much.
We lived out of that hotel for the next two weeks in this fantasy world where all that existed was him and me.
We only spoke of the past and the present.
The future was too painful to discuss. I managed to hide my nausea, which, thankfully, didn’t occur often.
We argued about whether I would be with him as he packed the rest of his belongings in the condo.
With money from sponsors, he’d paid the remainder of our lease.
Chelsea and I could stay or sublease. He’d spoken with Chelsea and told her his plans.
She asked about me and if I was ready to talk, which I wasn’t.
Didn’t know if I would ever be ready. Chelsea had been staying with a guy she’d been dating after Carmello walked away for the second time, but planned to return to the condo.
I would be living with my sister and her husband until I graduated.
“Chelsea won’t be there. Getting the rest of my stuff won’t take me long.” He nudged my shoulder as we walked to his car after finally checking out of the hotel. Grey planned to drop me off at my sister’s, finish loading the car, and hit the road.
“I don’t want to run into Carter.” Carter had reached out to me once via text, saying we needed to talk, and I’d responded that I would call him soon.
I worried about what would happen if he saw Grey and me.
I didn’t want to hurt him, and I wasn’t sure if I still wanted to be with him.
Or even if he wanted me after I went ghost. We would talk again, and I would accept whatever he decided regarding the baby.
But that talk wouldn’t happen until after my doctor’s appointment on Friday, which had already been rescheduled.
“It’s a Wednesday morning. He’s probably in class or in Dallas.
And I want our last memories to be good in our place.
I already made a batch of Sprite Floaties that’s waiting in the fridge.
” Once we settled in the car, he interlocked our hands and added quietly, “I’m not quite ready to say goodbye. ”
I nodded. “If his truck is there, I’m not going in.”
“You can’t avoid him forever. No matter how everything started, he loves you.”
“How can you know that?” I asked, though most of me believed that Carter loved me. He had been good to me in the weeks we’d been a couple.
“Game, recognize game,” he wryly commented with a sad smile.
I should’ve figured that Grey had his reasons for having me return to the condo with him. I should’ve realized that he would intervene just as he did at the beginning. When he opened the door to our place, Carter waited expectantly on the sofa.