Chapter 42
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CAITLIN
“Literally I have never seen anything hotter in my life than when Drew jumped up onto the wall. Why can’t real men do shit like that?”
“Uh, I’m pretty sure my boyfriend is one hundred percent real,” I say to Maya, sticking a spoonful of Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream into my mouth.
When I walked into the family room after the game, one of the team’s PR people approached with a pint in hand, telling me Drew requested it be here specifically for me.
Another person appeared with a glass filled with Sprite and pebble ice and a note that said With me, you’ll always have all your favorite things, and the whole thing was wild considering he didn’t even know I would be at this game until he saw me in the stands when he was already in uniform.
Professional athletes are a different breed.
God bless them.
I glance over at the door to the family room as if I can will Drew to walk through it.
He had the best game of his career tonight, and according to Tyler and Cam, who slid in here half an hour ago, was roped into doing media afterwards, but I’m dying to get my arms around him.
To feel his hand in mine. I laugh a little at the drama playing itself out in my head because this is as unlike me as I’ve ever been.
I’m still getting to know this version of me, but I think I’m really going to like her.
“You have a boyfriend,” Sarah says with a grin, wrapping her arm around me and giving me a squeeze, like her excitement is just a little too much for her body to contain.
“A fuckhot boyfriend.” Emmy slides her arm through mine. “I mean, did you see the way he blew her a kiss every time he scored? It was the hottest, cutest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“I’m going to ignore the fuckhot part as it pertains to my brother because that is so freaking gross,” Avery says with a grimace.
“But I can’t deny the wall jump and the touchdown celebrations were so cute.
Like something out of a rom-com. Who knew the seventeen-year-old guy who gave me baths and braided my hair when I was five because neither of our parents gave a shit about taking care of a child would grow up into such a romantic? ”
Sarah’s eyes fill with sympathy as she wraps an arm around Avery’s shoulders, and I give my sweetest friend a grateful smile. “I think a seventeen-year-old guy who cares so well for his little sister is exactly the kind of guy who grows up to jump stadium walls just so he can kiss his girl.”
Sophie tosses a handful of jelly beans in her mouth and beams at me. “We can be WAGs together. I love that so much for us.”
I give her a bland stare. “What about me makes you think I would ever be a WAG? That doesn’t sound like something I would do.
I don’t even like football.” Also, I’m pretty sure Drew is about to play the last stretch of games of his NFL career, so I won’t have time to be a WAG even if I wanted to, but I keep that to myself. That’s Drew’s to tell, when he’s ready.
“Uh, the fact that the team’s star wide receiver spent the entire game looking at you like you hung the moon,” Maddy says as she walks up to our little group, still dressed in the Renegades T-shirt and hat she wore on the field.
“Doesn’t take someone with a PhD in psychology to see that man is head over heels for you, and I don’t have to be your best friend to know you feel exactly the same way about him.
” She studies me for a beat, lips curving up in a smile.
“But I am your best friend, and I do have a PhD in psychology, so I can tell you you’re wearing happiness like an impeccably tailored suit. It looks good on you, Cait.”
I grin, feeling that happiness bubbling up inside me. “It feels good,” I say, thinking it also feels good to be talking to my friends like this. Giving them pieces of me pre-Drew Caitlin would have kept to herself. “And I think that little wall jump really was the best moment of my entire life.”
Maya sighs, hand on her hip. “It was so romantic,” she says, voice a little wistful, and I know under the mildly cynical and very black-clad exterior she’s been sporting lately, Maya has the gooiest, most romantic of hearts and she deserves someone who will treat it gently and give her all the love she could ever want or need.
“My, if you’re looking for romance, you can always dial my number.
” Oliver sidles up to us and tosses an arm around Maya’s shoulders.
“I would romance the fuck out of you.” The look he gives her is a few notches up from friend joking with another friend, and when I hear Maddy’s contemplative hum next to me, I know she’s seeing what I’m seeing.
Maya rolls her eyes, shoving his arm away. “Don’t hold your breath, Little Wright. You’re way too young to handle me.”
Something about the look that flashes through Oliver’s eyes make me think he’s about to argue that, in fact, he would handle her just fine, but he seems to think better of it, shrugging as he forces his face back into something nonchalantly casual as he walks away, calling, “Your loss” over his shoulder.
We’re all quiet for a beat, and it’s Sophie who breaks the silence. “Uh, what was that?”
“What?” Maya asks, all innocence.
Emmy elbows Maya in the side. “Oliver looking at you like he was undressing you with his eyes.”
“Or like maybe he already knows what you look like naked.” Sarah stares at Maya like she’s trying to see directly into her head.
Maya scoffs. “As if I would ever let Oliver see me naked. I’ve known him my entire life. He’s basically my irritating little brother who shows up where and when he’s not wanted and drives me crazy half the time. Like he does to Maddy.”
She looks to Maddy for confirmation, but Maddy just smiles, a wicked little look in her eyes. “I mean, he’s my annoying little brother for sure, but no part of him is related to you.”
“Also, I’ve known Tyler my whole life,” Sophie pipes in. “And I don’t have any trouble at all letting him see me naked.”
“Sal, anytime I get to see you naked is a fucking pleasure. I live to see you naked. You naked is my favorite thing on earth.” Tyler wraps his arms around Sophie from behind, pressing a kiss to her neck. “Why are we talking about my fiancée naked anyway?”
Sophie turns her head and kisses his jaw. “Because two minutes ago Oliver basically undressed Maya with a single look and we all saw it, clear as day.”
Tyler glances at Maya, tilting his head to the side in thought. “I can see it. You and Oliver would be a fun pair.”
“You would,” Cam agrees, sliding an arm around Maddy’s waist and tugging her against him. “You would eat him alive and it would be really entertaining for the rest of us.”
The noise Maya makes is somewhere between a groan and a scream. “Fucking gross, you guys. So completely gross.”
“Any idea where Drew is?” I ask, changing the subject since Maya looks like she’s vacillating between sinking straight through the floor and bursting into flames. “Is media supposed to take this long?”
Tyler grins at me. “Eager to get to your man?”
I roll my eyes. “Fuck off. I have plans for tonight, and I’d like to get those plans into motion as soon as possible. We’re in a time crunch.”
Oliver walks back up, sliding in right next to Maya, his shoulder pressing up against hers, and I smile a little when she takes a deliberate step away from him.
This is going to be so much fun to watch.
“What’s the deal?” he asks, making a show of glancing at his watch. “Don’t we have to get on the road?”
I nod. “We do.” Glancing at Tyler and Cam, I consider my options. “Can you interrupt media?”
Cam snorts. “I mean, if we want Coach to kill us dead with a single look then, yeah, we can definitely go bust up that press conference and let everyone know Drew’s girlfriend has plans for tonight so they’ll have to save the rest of their questions for a different time.”
I roll my eyes. “The media sees enough of your faces. No one is going to perish from disappointment because the press conference lasted forty minutes instead of the full hour. You’re not that special.”
“You know they’re probably asking questions about you,” Tyler says thoughtfully.
“I mean, he made kind of a big show of kissing you before the game and all that, and there were cameras everywhere. The whole city is going to want to know about the mysterious brunette who stole Drew Ellicott’s playboy heart. You’re kind of a public figure now.”
I consider that. “I mean, maybe, but when they realize I’m just a lawyer who likes neon nail polish, ice cream, spy movies, and does not give one single shit about being a public anything, they’ll lose interest awfully fast. I’m not that interesting.”
“You’re extremely interesting to me,” Sarah says loyally.
“You’re interesting to me too.” Jack comes up and wraps an arm around me, dropping a kiss to my hair. “Who says you aren’t interesting?”
“Someone says Cait isn’t interesting?” My dad appears next to Jack, my mom tucked into his side.
“Anyone who convinces an entire neighborhood to sign a petition to get a stop sign installed at a dangerous corner at eleven years old and then personally delivers the petition to city hall and demands an in-person meeting with the mayor and gets it—and the stop sign—is not someone I would call uninteresting.”
“Totally,” my mom says. “And don’t forget about when you were eight and you appointed yourself head of the household.
You walked around for a year with a clipboard in one hand and three pens in the other, ordering us all around like a pint-sized drill sergeant.
And when you were sixteen and your school got rid of the debate team because the teacher left, you took it upon yourself to convince Jules to step in as a volunteer, recruited all new students to participate, and didn’t stop until you took your team all the way to the National Speech and Debate Tournament, which you won.
Should I go on?” She smirks at me, and even though her recounting of my gold medal, take charge moments is embarrassing as fuck, I can’t deny the warmth I feel at the way my parents mention them with a kind of pride in their voices and love in their eyes, like they’ve seen me all along.
But even so…
“That really won’t be necessary. None of that is the point.”
“What is the point?” my grandma asks as she strolls up, beer in one hand and giant chocolate chip cookie in the other, looking so pleased with herself I have to stifle a laugh.
“The point is we all have somewhere to be so we need to get out of here, but we can’t do that until we have Drew, and Drew is currently stuck in a never-ending media circus.”
“Leave this to me,” Tyler declares with a nod. “Old man rule follower here might be afraid of Coach,” he says, tipping his head to Cam, who just rolls his eyes and tugs Maddy closer to him, “but I’m definitely not. Cait, I’m going in to get your man.”
“Tyler is my favorite today,” I declare.
Tyler beams at me. “Being Cait’s favorite is basically the cousin/friendship equivalent of winning the Heisman Trophy and the Super Bowl all at the same time, so I’ll take it.”
“Why don’t we all go?” my dad asks. “No one has anything left to do up here. We can grab Drew and head out. The drive is about ninety minutes, and we have to be there in a little over two hours, so we’re cutting it close, but we should be fine.”
“I called ahead,” Cam says as we all head towards the door. “Threw around some of my professional athlete clout. We don’t have to worry about parking, and someone will meet us at the gate so we can go right to the front.”
“Hot damn!” Oliver says, bouncing on his toes. “This is going to be so awesome.”
Maya grumbles something under her breath, and I snicker as I watch Oliver’s face fall dramatically, his eyes gluing themselves to her back like a sad puppy dog.
“That’s either going to be a nightmare or the best thing that’s ever happened to them both.” My dad falls into step beside me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders as we walk.
I laugh, leaning my head against his shoulder, soaking in his steady warmth. “You see it too?”
He laughs lightly. “I see everything. Just like I saw how happy you looked today when Drew did his little pole vault up into the stands. He’s good for you, baby girl.”
I swallow hard, wondering why my dad’s approval can still mean so much to me even when I’m a full-grown adult. “We’re good for each other.”
He squeezes my shoulders. “I’m proud of you, Cait,” he murmurs. “I’m so damn proud of you. Are you feeling okay?”
I glance up at him with a wry smile. “How long do you think it’ll be before you can see me and not ask me that?”
He chuckles. “Oh, I’d say it’ll be a while. Apparently I have about fourteen years of checking on you to make up for.”
“I’m sorry,” I say automatically, as we navigate the maze of the stadium towards the media room. “I should have told you sooner. Mom and Jack too. And my friends. It was stupid. I thought I could handle it myself. I didn’t know how to do it any other way.”
“You don’t have to apologize anymore, Cait,” my dad says.
“You didn’t even have to apologize once.
I can wish I’ve known all these years and also know you handled it the way you thought was right.
Two things can be true, honey, and you get to decide when and how to let us into this part of your life.
There isn’t anything you could do that wouldn’t make your mom and me proud of you, and we’re both just happy we know now.
And that you have someone else in your life who loves you as much as we do.
Who can give you the care and support you need when you want it and stand beside you no matter what life throws your way.
No one deserves that more. There’s enough Rachel Parker in me to believe that everything happened at exactly the right time.
If you hadn’t kept this secret, maybe you and Drew wouldn’t have come together the way you did, and what the two of you have is beautiful and solid and strong—the kind of love that lasts a lifetime.
He loves you the way I’ve always loved your mom.
I can see it every time he looks at you, Cait.
It’s special and rare and the most important thing in the world. ”
I sniff a little as a wave of emotion rushes through me because I really am the luckiest. “You’re the be—” The rest of the word dies in my throat as an angry voice careens around the corner.
“You answer me when I’m talking to you, son. Fucking answer me.”
There’s nothing familiar about the voice and the anger it holds, but the back of my neck prickles with awareness, a kind of knowing snaking its way through me, and then, without another word, I pull away from my dad, push through the rest of my family, and break into a run.