Chapter 28
twenty-eight
. . .
Lincoln
I couldn’t believe it was almost time to head to New York for official training camp. I had a realtor looking for homes not too far from our training facility, and my mother had already found a house not far from the city, and she’d be making the move next month.
I’d worked my ass off as far as my workouts had gone this summer, and I was definitely in the best shape of my life.
I was ready to make this change and play for the Thunderbirds.
There was only one thing that wasn’t clear, and that was what would happen with me and Brinkley and where we’d live.
She didn’t know where she was going to be, and I was determined to show her that it really didn’t matter.
Our addresses had very little to do with our relationship, in my mind.
So, I’d taken her away for a few days before our worlds were completely turned upside down.
We’d left for Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, last night, and I’d just woken up and stepped outside onto our private patio. I knew she was exhausted, and a few days away would be a good way to unplug and relax a little bit before life got crazy again.
I took in the ocean and breathed in the salty air.
“Hey,” she said as she opened the sliding glass door and stepped outside. “How long have you been awake?”
I was stretched out on a lounge chair, and I opened my arms so she could slip in right between my legs, and I wrapped my arms around her.
“About an hour. I wanted to let you catch up on sleep.”
“Well, I slept really well. This place is gorgeous. I can’t believe we have our own villa. You’re full of surprises, Captain.” She chuckled.
The waves crashed against the shore, and I kissed the top of her head. “I think we could both use a little downtime. It’s hard to unplug when you’re at home.”
“That’s very true. And we have a lot going on between the two of us.”
“We do. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” I stroked her hair, and she turned a bit, resting her chest on mine so she could look at me.
“Ahhh… the talk. I know we’ve been putting that off.”
“We’ve agreed that we’ll stay together and figure things out. But I want to talk about some options.”
“Okay.” She smiled, tucking her dark hair behind her ear. “Let me hear these options.”
“I’ve shown you some of the places my realtor sent over, but I’d like you to be more involved in the process.”
“But we don’t know where I’ll be based.”
“Regardless of where we live, we want to be together, right?”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
“Good. If we were going to be living in the same place, which we very well might be—I’d ask you to live with me. So, I’d like you to help pick the home that we live in.”
Her eyes widened. “You want to live together?”
“Fuck yeah, I do. We already do. We spend every night together. Every day together, and I was fucking miserable being away from you when I took Lionel to meet Coach Hardin. I mean, I’m glad the kid is going to be playing there, but I didn’t like being away from you.”
Her teeth sank into her plump bottom lip. “I didn’t like it either. But that was really sweet of you. And you’re giving him this amazing opportunity with the scholarship you gave him.”
Coach Hardin couldn’t offer Lionel any money this year, but he agreed to have him walk on to the team, which would fulfill this kid’s dream.
But I didn’t want him to start his life off buried in debt with student loans, so I’d agreed to cover his school and living expenses as long as he was working hard and attending classes.
“Yeah. Everyone needs a break sometimes. Lionel’s a really good kid.”
“He is. And you’re a really good guy, Lincoln Hendrix.”
“So, does that mean you’ll move in with me?”
“Of course, I want to live with you. But what if Sports Today or Football Live offer me a job that I can’t turn down?”
“Then we’ll have a place in San Francisco and a place in New York. But it’ll be together.”
“Okay. I like the sound of that. It’ll be hard living on opposite coasts, but we’ll make it work. And if one of them do hire me, I can work there for a year and prove myself, and then hopefully, they’ll let me work remotely after that.”
“It’ll all work out, sweetheart.” My thumb traced over her bottom lip. “I’m hoping to play out the rest of my career in New York. I’m not big on change, and we’ve got a really strong team and a great coaching staff. But you just never know, so we’ll do whatever it takes, right?”
“I’m all in.” Her teeth sank into her bottom lip.
“Yeah? Did seeing your brother get married give you any thoughts about your own wedding?”
“It’s funny, I never used to think about that. I’d never been in a relationship where I saw things going that way. But I’m not going to lie, it’s different with you.”
“How so?” I asked as I pulled her up farther so her mouth was right in front of mine.
“I think about it. I think about our future. How about you?”
“I never thought I’d want to be married. Never thought I’d have children. I was serious when I told my mother that she’d probably never have more than a bunch of footballs from me. But little Gracie has me wanting to put a whole lot of babies in you.”
Her head fell back in laughter. “She’s the cutest little girl on the planet. I kind of always imagined I’d be a great aunt and that would be it. But I think about babies now. I mean, not right now. We both have things we want to accomplish first. But I see them in our future.”
“A fucking little girl with your dark eyes and hair. She’ll own me, just like you do.”
“Oh, I own you, do I?” She chuckled.
“You own this, Brinkley Reynolds.” I pressed her hand to my heart.
“And you own mine.”
“So, no getting scared and running, okay? We both know it’s going to be a bumpy couple of weeks while we figure all of this out. But we want the same things in the future, and we’ll work hard to get there.”
She nodded. “I’m in.”
I kissed her hard before pulling away. “Okay, let’s eat and then go for a swim.”
“I thought we weren’t working out for the next three days. Isn’t this supposed to be a vacation?” she asked, raising a brow.
“Well, fucking you in the turquoise water feels like a vacation to me.”
“I like the way you think.” She jumped up and hurried into the room.
We ordered room service and sat outside, looking at the photos of new home listings my realtor sent over while we ate pancakes and bacon.
There were two homes that we both really liked from the photos online, and we agreed to go see them after Brinkley’s interview in San Francisco.
Things were coming together.
We had a plan.
I pulled on my swim trunks just as my girl came around the corner wearing a white bikini and a white cowboy hat on her head. Her tan skin glistened, and I wanted to kiss every inch of her gorgeous body.
We walked down the few steps to the private beach beside our villa. Brinkley dipped her toe in the water. “Oh, it’s a little chilly.”
I picked her up and flipped her over my shoulder because I was not waiting one more minute. She squealed and tossed her hat onto the shore as I ran us out to deeper water, dunking us both beneath the surface.
When we came up, my hands were on her waist, and she was laughing and swiping at her eyes before pushing her long hair away from her face.
“I guess that’s one way to get used to the water.” She gripped my shoulders and wrapped her legs around my waist.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I said as I nipped at her mouth. “Fuck. I didn’t bring a condom. I had big plans of what I was going to do to you out here.”
She smiled as she ground up against my erection. “I told you that I went on the pill. I’ve never been with anyone without a condom before. You’d be my first.”
“I haven’t either.” I ran my tongue down her neck, and her head fell back. “I’d love to feel you with nothing between us.”
“Me, too,” she whispered, her hands in my hair as she pulled my mouth to hers.
I was standing chest-deep in the dark turquoise sea, the sun shining down on us, and this gorgeous woman wrapped in my arms.
Our tongues tangled, and I moaned into her mouth as she continued grinding up against me.
My cock swelled, and we continued making out for what felt like hours but was probably more like minutes.
My hand moved between us, pushing her swimsuit bottoms to the side and stroking her a few times before shoving my trunks low enough to free my eager dick.
“Is this what you want, baby?” I purred into her mouth as I teased her with my tip.
“Yes.” She pulled back to look at me as I positioned her above me, and she slowly slid down, taking me in, inch by glorious fucking inch.
“Holy fuck,” I hissed. She was wet and tight and everything I’d ever wanted.
Her hooded eyes closed, her head fell back, and she took me all the way in. Her breaths were labored, and I gripped her hips and moved her up slowly at first.
We found our rhythm, and I pumped in and out of her as she rode me like a fucking stallion.
I tangled my hands in her hair, tugging her mouth back down to mine, and kissed her hard.
Desire built.
Faster.
Harder.
With a need I’d only ever experienced with this woman.
My woman.
My hand moved between us, and I circled her clit because I knew she was close. Her nails dug into my shoulders, and she tightened around me, and I couldn’t hold on another second. She shattered right before my eyes, and I went right over the edge with her.
My entire body quaked as a guttural sound escaped my lips.
She rode out every last bit of pleasure, and I continued thrusting into her.
When our breaths slowed and her gaze found mine, she smiled. “That was amazing.”
“You’re fucking amazing.”
She chuckled. “Let’s do that again soon.”
“Any time, sweetheart.”
Cabo had been exactly what we needed, but now we were back to reality, and the pressure was getting to both of us.
This looming timeline that I’d be leaving in a few days, and so much was still up in the air with her.
She’d flown out to interview with NFL Today, and she really liked them; however, she didn’t want to be pigeonholed to only one sport.
But she was keeping them on the back burner.
“So, you’re going to be in New York. That’s so far away,” Tia said as Brinkley and I shared a FaceTime screen with her. We’d made a day trip to meet her in person when we got back from Cabo, and she liked to FaceTime often, so we’d been talking daily ever since.
“Yeah, but you’ll come to a game, and we’ll keep talking as much as we can, okay?”
I spoke to Romeo often now, too, and the two of them had become family in a matter of a few weeks.
“That sounds like a plan. Brinkley, you’ve got your big interview coming up, right?”
“Yep. And Lincoln is coming with me, so that will make it less stressful for me, having him there.”
“He gets to go into the interview with you?” she asked.
“He does.” Brinkley chuckled. “I have that story I wrote about him, and they want to print it, as well as offer me a long-term position. But I think with the story being about Lincoln, they requested that he be there, too.”
I had red flags going off that they’d asked me to come along.
It was not the norm, and as far as I knew, they didn’t know we were a couple.
The one thing Breen fucking Lockhart hadn’t done was expose our relationship, which I was grateful for.
Not because I didn’t want it out there, but because I wouldn’t want to do anything to hurt her career.
So, in my opinion, it was odd that they’d asked her to bring me along to the interview.
Brinkley had a one-track mind, and Sports Today was what she considered the gold standard of her profession, and she wanted it.
She wasn’t going to question anything they asked of her, but I sure as fuck would.
“I know you want to work there, but I think it will be hard for you guys to live so far apart,” Tia said as she tucked her hair behind her ear.
“We’ll do whatever we need to do,” Brinkley said.
“Oh, man, you guys are so freaking cute. Well, big news. I broke up with Leo. He never makes time for me.”
I raised a brow. Teenage dating advice was not really my strong suit, and it was the last thing I wanted to talk about.
“How’s the weather?” I asked, and they both laughed.
“We’ll talk about Leo later, when it’s just us,” my girlfriend said. I loved that she’d made such an effort to get to know Romeo and Tia. It meant a lot to me.
“Perfect. Call me later.” She blew us a kiss and ended the call.
“She reminds me so much of myself at that age,” Brinkley said.
“Damn, baby. I would have been all over you when I was a horny teenage boy.”
She moved toward me, standing between my legs as I sat at the kitchen table. “And now you’re just a horny man, huh?”
I laughed. “Only for you.”
And that was the damn truth.