Chapter 35 – Knox
thirty-five
Knox
I feel the bed dip and the coolness from the covers being moved then placed back on me.
I hear Kylie moving about the room as my eyes fly open.
The room is still dark as I turn my head on the pillow.
I’m in the middle of the bed on my back, my chest still warm from where her head was lying on it not too long ago.
One arm is outstretched to the side, while the other one is over my head.
Movement from the side has me turning my head to see her walking out of the bathroom wearing the yellow robe she wore yesterday.
“Morning,” I mumble as she walks in front of the bed toward the bedroom door.
Her hair is pinned on top of her head. “Morning, did I wake you?” she asks me, coming to the side of the bed and putting one knee into it.
“What time is it?” I ask.
“A little after seven. I didn’t set the alarm because I didn’t want the noise to wake you up.” I smile at her thoughtfulness. “I’m going to go and make myself a coffee. Do you want one?”
“Yeah,” I tell her, “that would be good.” She nods as she comes onto the bed for a quick kiss before walking out of the room.
I toss the blankets off me, going to the bathroom and slipping my boxers on before I walk in, wash my face, then head back out to the bed.
I get back into bed, propping the pillows behind me and sitting up.
My phone on the bedside table starts to ring.
I reach over for it and see it’s Josephine.
“Hello,” I answer in the middle of the second ring at the same time Kylie walks back into the room.
“Daddy.” Nora’s voice fills my ears. “Daddy.”
“Hey, sweetheart,” I reply, watching Kylie as she gets back into bed with both cups of coffee in her hands. She tries not to spill it as she hands me one of them and then goes to sit beside me, curling her feet under her. “Are you getting ready for school?”
“Yeah, and tonight we are coming to your house.”
“I’m picking you up after school,” I remind her. “What do you guys want to eat for dinner?”
“Macaroni and cheese,” she says, and I laugh as I take a sip of the coffee Kylie made me, draping my arm over her legs, “in the oven.”
“Okay, I can do that,” I agree. “Have a good day at school. I love you. Now, let me speak to your brother.”
I hear her calling Westley as I look over at Kylie, who just smiles at me, as he comes on the phone. “Hi, Dad.” His tone is not as bubbly as his sister’s.
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” I chuckle as he groans. “I’m picking you up after school.”
“Yeah.” His answers are all one word before he passes the phone to Vincent, who sounds even more tired than his brother. I don’t even get one-word answers from him, just grunts.
By the time I hang up with them, I’m chuckling and shaking my head, tossing my phone to the side.
“I have the kids tonight.” I look over at her as she sips her coffee.
“Want to come over and have dinner with us?” I ask her, knowing I should be treading lightly into the water instead of jumping into the deep end.
“That sounds like fun,” she replies and leans in to kiss my lips. “Are you sure they are going to be okay with me being there?” she asks me and my eyebrows pinch together. “Intruding on Dad time.”
“I think they’ll be fine,” I assure her and don’t follow it up with “they need to get used to having you around, since you are going to be around a lot more now.”
“Then if you think it’ll be good, I’ll be there. What are your plans for the day?”
“I’m going to go into the arena for a bit,” I tell her. “Meet with the doctors and see what the plan is.” I lift my cup to my mouth and take a sip of the coffee. “You?”
“I’m going to go into the office for a few hours. I have a couple of things to do today.”
I take my cup of coffee and turn to place it on the bedside table, then grab hers and do the same thing before turning and pulling her on me. “I’m going to miss this,” I admit to her. “Waking up with you. Going to bed with you.”
“It’s for one week.” She straddles me. “I’m sure we will survive it.”
“I don’t think I’m going to travel with the team this week,” I mention to her, “so I’ll have the kids the whole time.”
“Well, that usually happens when you have the kids and are home, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I’m not going to be going to the Wednesday game either.”
“Oh,” she says and looks away, “so you’ll be able to come see me for my birthday.”
I sit up straighter. “Your birthday is this Wednesday?”
She nods her head. “Yup,” she clips, as if it’s not a big deal.
“Were you not going to say anything to me?” I ask her.
“I’m sure it would have come up during the day.
It’s not a big deal.” She kisses my lips and gets off of me.
“Now I’m going to go and take a shower.” She shrugs the robe off her shoulders.
“Are you coming?” she asks me. She doesn’t have to ask me twice before I’m out of the bed and she’s over my shoulder.
My hands come up to slap one of her ass cheeks. “Knox.”
“That’s for trying to hide that it’s your birthday from me,” I tell her, smacking her again.
“What was that one for?” She laughs.
“Because I wanted to.” I put her down on the counter and step in between her legs, grabbing her face in my hands.
“You’re beautiful,” I tell her softly, and we spend a good amount of time making out before she’s pushing down my boxers and gripping my cock.
I slide into her, both of us moaning as I fuck her slowly.
She gets out of the shower before I do and then wraps herself in a towel, and I watch her walk to her closet.
I turn off the water, getting out and drying myself off when she walks back out wearing a pair of black pants with a small slit in the front that hits right above her ankle with a long-sleeved beige sweater.
She steps up to her side of the sink and pushes her sleeves up as I slip on my pair of boxers and watch her get ready.
I kiss her shoulder, leaving her to put on her mascara as I head to the bedroom and grab the black joggers I changed into yesterday when we went for lunch at Kirby’s.
I’m putting on my sweater when she comes out and I see her hair is down and curled as she smiles at me.
“Do you want me to drop you off at the arena and then come and pick you up?” she asks me as she is putting on her earrings.
“I can drive,” I tell her, and she stops what she’s doing.
“Did the doctor give you clearance to drive?” she asks me, her tone tight. “I didn’t think so.”
She doesn’t wait for me to answer her. “So I’m going to drop you off. I’ll go to work and then when you are done, you either call me or you have Kirby drop you off at my office. Then we’ll go and get the kids.”
“You are going to drive me to get the kids?” I ask her.
She tilts her head to the side, folding her arms over her chest. “How else are you going to get the kids?”
“I was going to drive.”
“You were knocked unconscious two days ago,” her voice goes higher, “and you had a headache yesterday.”
“Baby,” I say softly, “I think I’ll be good to drive today.” The glare on her face makes me want to laugh. “But I’ll ask and see what the doctor says.”
“Thank you.” She storms out of her room and then walks back in wearing a pair of nude high heels. “Now, let’s go before I give you another concussion,” she throws over her shoulder at me.
She drops me off at the arena and I meet with the team doctor. “When was the last time you had a headache?”
“This morning,” I admit to him, “but less than yesterday.”
“I don’t want you doing anything this week,” he tells me. “We’ll assess next week, but the minute you start to have a headache, it starts back at day one.”
“Got it. What about driving?”
“They say twenty-four to forty-eight hours to make sure you aren’t getting dizzy spells.”
“I didn’t have any to begin with.”
“Then you can start driving tomorrow, to be safe,” he informs me. I head in to talk to Coach, who tells me to get the fuck out of here and go rest.
I pick up my phone and call her. “It’s been thirty minutes,” she huffs out, and I can hear her shoes clacking away on the cement.
“I was told to go rest, so I’m going to get someone to drive me home,” I explain to her. “You do what you need to do and then come to my house. I have to get the kids at four.”
“Let me grab my laptop and stuff. I’ll work from your house; it’s not like I have to be in the office and you can sit on the chair under me and then feel me up.” I smile. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“I’ll go and grab something to eat,” I tell her as I walk into the team kitchen.
She gets there thirty minutes later and I’m waiting for her outside.
I get into her SUV and head home. She sets herself up at the kitchen table as I lounge on the couch.
When it’s time to get the kids, she gets into my SUV with me and drives toward the school.
We wait side by side as the school door opens and Nora comes out first.
She rushes over to me. “Daddy!” she screams my name and lunges herself into my arms. I grab her and kiss her neck before she looks over. “Kylie, you came to pick us up?” she asks.
“I did.” She smiles at her.
“Daddy can’t drive until tomorrow, so Kylie is helping me,” I explain and Nora wiggles out of my arms.
“We’re having macaroni and cheese for dinner,” she tells her and Kylie just smiles at her.
“That sounds delicious.” She squats down in front of her. “Does he put bacon in his?” Her eyes go big, and she looks over at me.
“No,” she says, as if I was holding out on her. “Can we do that?”
“Sure.” I look back at the door as Westley comes out with Vincent next to him, both of them walking side by side with their backpacks slung over one shoulder.
“Hey.” I give them both hugs and fill them in about Kylie driving me.
We get home and it’s crazy how easily everyone gets along.
I work on the sauce as Kylie cuts up the bacon and fries it up.
We sit at the island as we eat, and the kids tell us about their day.
After dinner, I take Nora up to take a bath as Kylie cleans up, and when the kids are all down for the night, I cuddle with her on the couch.
She lies down in front of me, her leg cocked over my hip.
“You are the best dad.” She runs her fingers down my cheek.
“I wish I had a dad like you.” I look into her eyes.
“A dad who I knew loved me with his whole heart.” I wrap my arms tighter around her.
“I never had that,” she says softly, and this is her giving me a piece of her.
“My step dad would be proud of me, but that would usually come when he would tell me to do something I didn’t want to do, but I did it anyway.
Like when I wanted to go on my school ski trip, but he didn’t want me to go.
Then told me he was going to take me to Europe to ski anyway.
” Her voice trails off. “So I stopped asking him to go and he was proud that I was mature enough to understand. I was eleven,” she continues softly, “and he never took me skiing anyway. But he did take me to the country club, and I impressed a couple of his friends with my manners, so that got me a big side hug from him.”
My stomach tightens when she laughs, but I know the laughter is fake. “Baby,” I say softly, the anger running through me, “that’s fucked up.”
“You have no idea,” she replies and then puts her hand on my chest and looks down at it. “I had no one to shield me from any of it.”
“I’m so sorry you went through that. I wish I could have been there to shield you from all of it.
My sister and I were very close growing up.
” She looks up at me. “She moved out here when she came to visit. When I went to tell her that I found her husband fucking my wife, she looked at me and blamed me.”
Kylie gasps, “What?”
“Yeah, if I hadn’t asked him to do me so many favors when I was away, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“That’s bullshit,” she snaps, angry for me.
“She took him back,” I share softly. “I don’t know how she did it, but she took him back.
My parents have swept it under the rug and are pretending that it didn’t happen.
I just can’t do it. I refuse to sit at a table with him.
I refuse to sit at a table with my sister, knowing she blames me. I just—”
“You shouldn’t have to sit at a table with them.
You are allowed to have your pain and not be around the one person who brought the pain to you.
” She’s tapping her finger on my chest nervously.
“That would be like me going to have dinner with my father and mother, if they were still alive.” She shakes her head. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” I admit to her. “It sucks, but it is what it is.”
“Fuck them,” she declares, making me laugh and kissing my neck, “for making you feel less than you deserve to feel.”
“Fuck them also,” I tell her. “Your parents.” Her eyes go soft. “For not loving you the way you should have been loved. For not seeing how perfect you were, even back then.” She sighs. “Next break we get, we’re going skiing.”
“Are you crazy? I don’t know how to ski and I’m too old to learn.”
“Nonsense,” I retort. “It’ll be fun.” She shakes her head and gets up.
“I’m leaving. It’s getting late and the last time you took me on a trip, it did not end well.” I look up at her, not wanting her to go. Actually hating that she has to go.
I get up off the couch and walk her to the front door. “I have to make it up to you.” I put my hands on the side of her neck.
She puts her hands on my sides. “You don’t have to make anything up to me.
” She looks up at me. “Sleep tight, Knox,” she says.
The minute she says that my stomach gets tight and my heart feels like it’s in the middle of my throat.
I bend my head to kiss her and then watch her walk down the front steps with her things in her hands.
I step out onto the porch as she gets into her SUV and pulls out of the driveway.
I hold up my hand. “I’m going to make it up to you every single fucking day,” I vow as she smiles at me and drives away.