Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
TROLLS
WESTON
I arrive to practice Monday afternoon on a cloud.
After the coaches assess our performance from yesterday’s game, the team spreads out, getting various medical treatments throughout the facility. I do an ice bath and head back to the locker room to call it a day. The guys are in there already, and Henley takes one look at me and starts laughing. Rhodes perks up to see what has him laughing and he gets the biggest shit- eating grin. Bowie grabs my arm and turns me around so he can see my face and then he’s laughing too.
“What?” Penn asks. “What’d I miss?”
“Take another look at Loverboy,” Henley says, tilting his face toward me. He leans in and whispers, “Those bee-stung lips, pretty sure I see a hickey or two on your neck, and?—”
“Take a look at his elbows,” Bowie says, laughing.
He turns me around so they can look at my elbows and when they start cracking up, I frown.
“What’s wrong with my elbows?”
“Looking a little chafed,” Rhodes says in a British accent.
I make a face. They do feel a little raw after all our sessions. We went until the wee hours of the morning and then I started the day out right, between her legs, my new favorite place to be, and she wanted more, so I happily obliged.
I guess I’ll have to make her take the top more often . I grin and they laugh again.
“You’re going to need to fill us in,” Henley says. “Impromptu meeting in an hour?”
I act like I’m thinking about it for a second and shake my head. “I need to get home to my girl.”
“ My girl ,” Rhodes repeats.
“I heard that too,” Bowie chimes in.
“It was bad enough when you stopped going out with me to find women. Now you’re going home to your girl? Fuck my life,” Penn says.
Rhodes puts his arm around Penn. “I’ll be your wingman, pretty boy.”
Penn glances over at him and tilts his head up. “You’ll do.” He smirks.
“So easily replaceable,” I yell as I leave the locker room
“No one can ever replace you, Shaw,” Henley yells back, and I laugh as I walk to my SUV.
I call Sadie like I do all the time before I head home. She’s grinning when she answers, holding Caleb.
“Hey,” she says.
“Hey, beautiful.”
I wave when Caleb looks at the screen. He grins, but he’s distracted by something else.
Sadie’s eyes widen. “I’m liking these new perks. Some fun times in bed, being greeted with hello, beautiful …”
“I’m just getting started,” I tell her, grinning.
“If that was you just getting started last night and today…I’m gonna need to start taking more vitamins.” She laughs.
“I can hook you up.”
We stare at each other for a minute, cheesing pretty hard.
“How’s that boy been today?”
“He’s extra tired from his late night too. He’s been a little grump. I’m putting him down for his nap earlier today. Like, right away.”
“Aw, you being a grump, little guy? You ready for some sleep?” I ask.
Caleb’s lower lip pokes out and he leans his head on Sadie’s shoulder.
“That lower lip says it all,” she says.
“Poor guy. And poor you. Maybe you can take a nap too. Do you need anything while I’m out?”
“Are you coming home already?” She lifts her eyebrows.
“Yes. Usually when we win and we’re home, we don’t have to come in the next day, but they wanted to start out the season with a bang. I’m already in the parking lot.”
“Amazing. Well, hurry home and maybe you can catch some of that nap with us.”
“I can’t get there fast enough.”
I pull into my gate forty-five minutes later and the house is quiet when I walk inside. Sadie did fast work if she’s already got Caleb in bed. When I reach his room, I peek inside and he’s already out. Sadie’s door is cracked, so I take a look and she’s in bed, sound asleep too. I undress quietly and when I’m down to my boxer briefs, I climb under the covers and scoot next to her, spooning her. I’ve heard people talk about spooning, but I’ve never done it with anyone, and damn, there’s something about it. She sighs and nestles her ass deeper into my crotch and I will my dick to forget about it. Persistence is one of my strengths, so it takes a while, but I’m determined to let her sleep, and I’m tired too. When I finally crash, it’s a fucking amazing sleep.
Caleb’s jibber-jabbering wakes me up, and when I open my eyes, Sadie is already going through the door to get Caleb. I sit up and stretch and get up, walking into the other room. Sadie turns, holding Caleb up and kissing him on the cheek, and she freezes when she sees me.
“So we’re walking around in our underwear now, huh?” She grins and nods.
Her eyes do a long sweep down my body and she gets stuck on my junk. She licks her lips and points, and I look down, groaning when I see my tip is hanging out quite a bit.
“Obscene,” she whispers.
“Sorry. Not awake yet. I learned the joys of spooning and,” I point to my dick, “loves it. But I can go back to wearing pants so you’ll have something to look forward to when you undress me at night.”
“Don’t you dare ruin my fun. I’m just...” She continues to stare at me and I get harder.
I growl at her and cover myself so I don’t scar Caleb. “Just what? And stop staring. You’ll worsen the condition.”
“I’m just wondering how you can run or do anything else with all that going on,” she finishes, laughing.
I turn and walk into the other room to get my pants. “Not helping.”
Once I’m dressed, I walk back in there and walk over to them, kissing Sadie first. Caleb leans in to kiss her after he sees me doing it, and we start laughing. I kiss his cheek and he slobbers all over me too.
“He seems happier now,” Sadie says when we get downstairs. “I guess he just needed a nap.”
“It’s a great day out there. Feel like getting in the pool? Might be one of the last days for it.”
“I think we will,” she says.
My phone rings as we’re giving Caleb a snack and I try to swallow my bite of apple before I answer. “It’s my agent. I should take this.”
Sadie nods and I walk out onto the patio as I answer.
“Hey, Joan.”
“Helluva game last night,” she says.
“Aw, you watched? Thank you.”
“Of course, I watched, big guy. You’re my bread and butter.”
I chuckle. “It was a good game. Nice to get back out there.”
“I bet. So I’m sorry that I’m not only calling to congratulate you about the game,” she says.
I pause mid-walk. “Your tone doesn’t sound great.”
“It’s probably nothing serious, but there have been some rumblings online…surmisings about your relationship with Sadie, and things about Sasha too. I just wanted to touch base with you again about all of it. You’re not dating Sadie, right?”
“Well…as of last night, I am, yes.”
I hear her say shit under her breath.
“Why does it matter? What’s this about?”
“It’s just getting ugly online. You know how the trolls can get. I’d maybe avoid taking it public for a while. Let this die down a little first.”
“What are they saying?”
“Are you sure you want to know? I wouldn’t recommend you going to look for yourself, so if me telling you keeps you from doing that, then I will.”
“I try not to read what everyone’s saying, good or bad.”
“Smart boy.”
“But I’d like to know what we’re dealing with here.”
She sighs. “Okay. They’re saying things like Sadie and Sasha are both gold diggers and that Sadie should be ashamed for going after her sister’s man…and the worst…are we sure Sasha’s car accident was really an accident? And it’s the way it usually is with athletes and the media—they’re going after Sadie the hardest.” She pauses and I can hear a car honking in the background. “You want my two cents? I’d recommend you give it at least another…how long has it been? Seven months? I’d give it a good five months before I’d be seen with her publicly, and?—”
“That’s the rest of the season,” I interrupt, heated.
“I’m just telling you what I think you should do. You don’t have to take my advice, but if you don’t, I hope Sadie has thick skin.”
“ Fuck .” I tug my hair hard and walk to the pool, pacing around it. “Sasha was a one-night stand. I only met her the one time. I was drinking too much and she came on to me at a party and I went with it. I can’t regret that night because I have Caleb, but there was never going to be anything else between me and Sasha. If I’d met her even a few months later, when I wasn’t being so reckless and stupid, I would’ve turned her down like I have the hundreds of other women who have offered to sleep with me since then.”
I hear Caleb and turn to see Sadie and Caleb in their swimsuits. Sadie’s pale and I don’t know how much she heard, but enough to upset her.
“I have to go, Joan. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“All right. Let me know if you want me to do anything in the meantime.”
“Thanks.”
I hang up and look at Sadie carefully. “How much of that did you hear?”
“From fuck on. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but you sounded so upset, I rushed to see if you were hurt or something and then I sort of froze when I heard the rest,” she says.
“I’m sorry. I was angry and I shouldn’t have said any of that. You look really upset and rightfully so. Which part is upsetting you most?” I move toward her and pause when she takes a step back.
“All of it?” She laughs and her eyes fill with tears. “And no, I don’t. I have no right to be upset about any of it.” She shakes her head and wipes her face quickly when the tears start falling. “The way you talked about Sasha. You’ve never said any of it quite that way to me before, and it makes me wonder what you really thought of her. It’s like I’m torn in two with how to feel about it. I want you to have liked my sister as a person, but I’m in love with you and I don’t want you to have ever liked her…but you have a baby together!”
She takes a deep breath and a choked sob comes out of her. I want to put my arms around her and make this go away, but I also feel warm inside because she said she’s in love with me.
“And hundreds of women? Hundreds? How am I supposed to ever compete with that?”
Caleb looks at her solemnly and pats her cheek. “Mama.”
She hugs him closer and cries harder.
“There’s no competition. I only want you,” I say.
“Why would you even say all of that to Joan? What’s going on?”
I exhale and move toward her, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “I’ll tell you, but I want to make sure you heard me. You don’t have to compete with anyone. I love you .”
“We’ll see how you feel when you’re traveling and all amped up the way you were last night, only I’m not there to fuck all night.”
It stings a little that she’d think she was only a body for me last night, but I know she’s just hurt right now.
“I’ve never had a night with anyone like ours last night,” I tell her. “Nothing even close. This is crass, but I was a one-and-done kind of guy. And I hope this doesn’t sound negative about Sasha, but we were both only there for a good time that night. I know I’ve said this before, but I want you to understand that even if I met Sasha today, I don’t think she would be what I would look for in a partner. There has been no one that I’ve wanted anything more with…no one, Sadie, until you.”
She takes a deep breath and sits down on one of the loungers. I sit on the one across from her and tell her about the rest of my conversation with Joan.
And fuck my life, she agrees with Joan and wants to keep our relationship a secret.