One

Chapter Forty-Two

WE WOULD BE LAKE AND CAGE

LAKE

Brooke and Rob left and then life got real again.

I went to a few appointments with Cage then Flint took over so I could get back to my job.

Three weeks after he came home from the hospital, the neck brace was off, but surgery was still in question.

I jumped at every chance to go to an interview about my magazine spread, or spend the day testing new legs, or anything to keep my mind off Cage and his decision. That’s what it had become—his decision.

I gave up my shoes out of grief and an instant loss of myself after my accident. I didn’t want Cage giving up football for the same reason. Of course, I didn’t want him to play either, but … free will, unconditional love, and all the necessary emotions that came with life.

“You’re home early.” Cage smiled as he chopped red peppers.

He was my new idol. The guy spent five to six hours a day in therapy, yet came home and made dinner every night with his signature dimply smile plastered to his face.

“Tired. I’m just tired.” I lifted myself onto the counter a foot from his ninja chopping.

“Well you’ve been working seven days a week for the past two weeks.” He held a slice of pepper up to my lips.

I opened my mouth then chewed it while nodding to acknowledge he was right, I’d been working too much. “So tomorrow is the day.”

“Yep.” He kept his head down, eyes trained to the sharp knife moving rapidly just millimeters from his fingers.

“You’ve made your decision?”

“We’ll find out, won’t we?”

We agreed his decision to play or retire would be his and his alone.

I requested we not discuss it, and in true Lake Jones contumacious fashion, I told him I didn’t want to know until he made the official announcement on TV.

I said I wanted to watch and find out with the rest of the world.

However, I felt pretty certain he was going to play.

He’d had too many surgery consults and second opinions for a surgery that was only necessary if he planned on trying to return to football.

“I love you no matter what you choose.”

Cage chuckled. “Good to know.”

Gah! I wanted to know, but I did not ask. My stubbornness was a living, breathing being all of its own.

“We should start planning a wedding, don’t you think?”

I smiled. “Yes. I think we should. Are you thinking spring, before training camp?”

Cage scraped the diced peppers from the cutting board to the salad bowl, a sly grin tugged at his lips. “I’m thinking we fly to Vegas and just do it.”

“Ha! My mom would disown me. Lara and Drake did the Vegas thing, and I think my mom is still pissed about it. She has this wedding dress, a gawd-awful looking thing, which was her mother’s dress.

I don’t think it was ever white, but it’s now a piss yellow.

Anyway, my mom promised her mom she’d wear it for her wedding, but after having Luke before they got married, her hips and boobs no longer fit into the ugly dress.

Soo … she promised my grandmother, before she died, that Lara or I would wear it.

Honestly, I think that’s why Lara went to Vegas. ”

Cage stuck his rice and vegetable dish into the oven. He ate a near perfect diet before his accident, but afterward, he went even stricter with it to help his body heal faster. I had to sneak my marshmallow treats because I hated the disapproving eye he gave me when I ate them in front of him.

“So you’re going to wear a piss yellow wedding dress from two generations back just to make your mom happy?”

“Yes. I’m the only one who fits into the dress, so I’m going to pair it with some kick-ass heels and wear the hell out of it so my grandmother smiles down on me and my mother no longer feels her wrath.”

He slipped off the oven mitts and grabbed the inside of my knees, spreading them so he could stand between my legs, pulling me close to him. “You’re such a good girl, Lake Jones.” Brushing his nose against mine, he palmed my ass.

I tried to play it cool, like I wasn’t dying to be intimate with him, but it had been over a month since we’d had sex and I. Was. Hungry.

I cleared my throat, snaking my hands up the inside of his shirt. “I’m not.”

“No?” His grin taunted me.

I sucked in a breath as he kissed my lower lip before drawing it into his mouth and dragging it through his teeth.

“No,” I whispered, working the button and zipper to his jeans.

“Lake …” His breath hitched as my hand slid into his briefs.

“Cage …” I stroked him as he smashed his lips to mine.

Everything in that department seemed to work just fine, but I felt obligated to check it out to be sure, and it involved being anything but a “good girl.”

Pushing him back a few inches, I eased myself off the counter and onto my knees.

“Lake …” He tipped his chin down, lips parted, breaths becoming more ragged with each passing second.

“Keep saying my name, Monaghan … it makes me so fucking wet.”

That look, the one with dark eyes searing into mine as he grabbed the counter with one hand and fisted my hair with his other, it was the reason I was on my knees, yanking down his pants and taking him into my mouth.

My f-bombs were dropped on very few occasions.

I wasn’t the dirty talker, but in that moment I felt it again—falling … falling … falling.

Fuck gravity.

We would be Cage and Lake.

We would be unpredictable.

We would be reckless.

We would push the boundaries of sanity and give normality the middle finger.

“Jesus, baby … w-what are … you doing?” His fist in my hair tightened.

I smiled around his cock, one hand gripping the base. He just realized where my other hand was—slid down the front of my jeans, beneath my panties.

“Lake …” He said it with so much grit to his voice, I lost all control, surrendering to my orgasm.

I hummed over him.

“I’m going to … Lake …”

Sliding my hand out of my pants, I grabbed his hard glutes and took him as deep as I could until I tasted his warmth spilling into my mouth.

“Fuck … Lake …” Both hands fisted my hair.

Yeah, that’s all the encouragement I needed to look up at him with my “good girl” grin and … swallow.

Another dream or premonition brought me out of my sleep, sweaty and breathless.

After putting on my leg, I made my way to the closet and slipped on my clothes.

Cage was still asleep, as most people would be at 3:00 a.m. My trip took less than thirty minutes.

I’m sure most people frequenting a twenty-four hour drug store at that time in the morning were probably in need of pain relievers or some other necessities, like cheese puffs and beer.

The older woman at the register eyed me with a slight grin as I handed her a twenty in exchange for the three-pack pregnancy test.

“Lake?” Cage’s tired voice called from the bed as I eased back out of my clothes in the closet, my box of pregnancy tests still in the bag waiting to enlighten me.

“Yeah?” I hurried back to bed.

He snaked his arm around me and pulled me close. “What were you doing?” The sleep in his groggy voice led me to believe I could say anything and he wouldn’t question it.

“Forgot to floss my teeth.” I rolled my eyes at my ridiculous response.

“K …” he mumbled, burying his face in my hair on a long sigh.

I was trapped in his arms, which wasn’t a bad place to be any other time, but the sticks weren’t going to pee on themselves. Eventually, I fell back to sleep, the kind that took an earthquake to resurrect me, the kind of sleep that didn’t notice Cage waking or showering.

“I have to leave for my news conference in ten minutes.” My side of the bed dipped.

It was that day. The. Day.

My eyes popped open to Cage reading something. I narrowed my eyes at the paper in his hands then my eyes shifted to the nightstand and the opened pregnancy test box next to a notecard.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“It says morning is the best time to do this. Your urine is most concentrated.”

I jackknifed to sitting. “What are you doing?” I snatched the unfolded insert from him.

He smirked. “You missed out on the reproductive unit in junior high health class, didn’t you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Baby, you can’t get pregnant just by swallowing. It doesn’t work that way.”

As much as I tried not to smile, I couldn’t hold it back. “Shut up, you dumb ass.” I shoved him until he moved so I could put on my leg.

“Why do you think you’re pregnant?” He stood, straightening his amethyst tie, looking mouthwatering in his black suit and white shirt.

Grabbing the box, I brushed past him to the bathroom. “Because there are two things I can’t remember very well.”

“What’s that?” He stood in the doorway. Nope, he owned the doorway. I couldn’t form a coherent thought, let alone actual words with him looking like sex in a suit.

“Mind turning around for a second?”

“You wanna see my ass in this suit.”

Dear God, yes!

“No. I’d like to pee without you watching me.”

He grinned then turned. “What two things?”

“I can’t remember for sure when I last had a period or the last time we used a condom.”

My cell phone rang on the nightstand. “Ugh!” I doused the three sticks as quickly as I could, tossed them on the counter, washed my hands, and ran to get my phone. “Hey, Mom.”

Her timing was impeccable.

“Good morning, sweetie. So this is the big day. Are you nervous?”

Cage came out of the bathroom, giving me a wink and mouthing “gotta go.”

I nodded, mouthing “love you.” We both knew there was no such thing as a short conversation with my mom. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t going to wait to see the test results before leaving, but the sports world was waiting for his announcement—so was I.

“I don’t know what I am. If he walks out on that field again, I’m not sure my heart will survive, but at the same time I love him. I want to watch him live his dreams no matter where they take him or how long they last. That’s living.” I walked back into the bathroom. “What the hell …”

“Lake, what are you talking about?”

“N-nothing. I … I have to go. I’ll call you after the press conference.”

“Lake!”

I ended the call and ran to the back door.

His truck was gone. I tried calling him.

He didn’t answer. After throwing on my clothes in less than thirty seconds, I grabbed my purse and jumped into my car.

My key fob was missing. I ran inside to the rack by the backdoor that had spare keys. My spare fob was missing.

“Dammit, Monaghan!” I stomped my feet like an errant child.

My keys were gone.

He was gone.

The pregnancy tests were gone.

Perched on the couch with my back ramrod straight, I watched the sports commentators discussing everything Cage Monaghan.

The buzz was just as I suspected. He was going to play again if the team doctors cleared him.

Of course they had an interview with a doctor who stated the huge risk it was to play again.

Even with the surgery, it would always be a weak spot in his body and another injury like it could be more devastating.

By the time the pregnancy-test snatcher appeared on my screen in front of a sea of press snapping picture after picture, all of them eager to ask the first question before he’d made any sort of statement, I had chewed off every single one of my fingernails.

I grabbed my phone.

Lake: TELL ME, DAMMIT!

He adjusted the microphone, tipping his chin down to the podium. A smirk spread across his face. He saw it. He saw my text.

“Thank you for coming today …” He took his sweet time thanking every coach, player, and doctor for their support since the accident.

Then he proceeded to thank his fans, family, and friends including Flint.

Next he discussed his love for the game and what a dream it was to be drafted by Minnesota and lead his team to their first ever Super Bowl Trophy.

“I’m young and my doctors feel if I opt for surgery, I have a good chance of getting back on the field with a promising career ahead of me. ”

I gulped again and again. It was coming …

“However, I’m in a much different place now than what I was two years ago.

Life isn’t anything if not unpredictable.

So as much as I’d like to say this has been an agonizing decision for me, I can’t.

It’s been the easiest decision of my life.

Thank you for the ride. While short, it’s been everything I could have ever imagined, but I’m announcing my retirement from the NFL. ”

There was an audible gasp in the crowd. Me? I wasn’t breathing.

“As most of you know my beautiful Lake has agreed to marry me …”

Holy shit …

He held up a stick. MY. STICK!

“Oh…” he grinned from ear to ear, dimples on full display “…and I’m going to be a dad.”

Tears. So many tears. Cameras flashed like crazy. Questions were hurled at him from every direction, but all I could do was drown in my own tears as my hand pressed to my stomach.

I did it. I got the guy.

Ben died, but I lived.