CHAPTER 46 Sophie Summers
Cheering for Offense
It’s our last day on the cruise, and it’s a day at sea. We decided on a pool day for thirty-two, but there are another five thousand or so people on the ship who also decided on a pool day for their last day of the trip.
We’re alternating between sitting on lounge chairs in the water with Spencer and Grace to sitting on lounge chairs out of the water with Spencer and Grace.
I sort of pushed the fact that I caught her dad with her husband’s mom out of my head, but it’s back right there at the forefront as we hang together all day.
There are no less than twelve times that I think about telling her what’s going on, but then I remember it’s not my story to tell.
Still, it’s the two of us for lengthy amounts of time. I guess the others have more to talk about than we do. Ava and Desi are busy comparing pregnancy symptoms while Grayson and Asher talk about fatherhood and their own symptoms that come with a pregnant wife .
Miller hasn’t mentioned anything about Missy and Steve to Spencer—or to anyone else, for that matter. Maybe he forgot about it in the broken condom scandal anyway.
Is it a scandal? It feels like one.
“Do you want that someday?” Grace asks me, angling her head toward her two pregnant sisters-in-law.
I lift a shoulder. “Sure, someday. You?”
“Yeah, sure. Someday. But right now, things are so crazy with the wineries, and I’m only twenty-seven. I feel like I’ve got time.”
I nod. “Definitely. I just turned thirty and feel like I have time, too. But we’re not getting any younger, you know? What’s meant to be will be, I guess.” I repeat Cassie’s sage advice that I can’t seem to stop thinking about.
“When it’s meant to be,” she agrees.
We both lean back in our chairs. I’m in the shade despite the SPF 50 sunscreen I lathered on this morning, but laying out by the pool on a cruise ship is nearly enough to help me forget my worries.
Nearly enough.
Not quite.
We head to our room to take showers before dinner, but before I get in, I join Miller out on the balcony for a quick chat.
Or…I think it’ll be quick.
“I feel like you’re pulling away, and I hate it.” My voice is firm and direct, and if we can’t communicate about this stuff now, what will life be like when he’s actually gone for days at a time because he’s in season?
He looks surprised at my combination accusation and outburst, but he turns his eyes back to the water as he says, “I’m sorry. You’re right, and I hate it, too.”
“Then let’s figure this out. Whatever happens happens. ”
He nods. “You’re right. We need to lean into each other, not pull away.”
“I get being a little reluctant to hop back into bed, but you’re also making me feel like you don’t want anything to do with me.”
His brows dip as he looks at me with surprise. He stands and pulls me into his arms. He’s not wearing a shirt, and his chest is warm and cozy. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I love you, Sophie.” His chest rumbles with his words against my cheek, and his arms are tight around me.
“I love you, too. We’ll figure this out, okay?” I pull back and look up at him, and he looks worried.
I get it.
I’m worried, too.
But the last thing we should be worried about is where we stand with each other.
It’s been a strange few days, but hopefully we can climb out of it as we focus forward together.
We don’t have time for makeup sex, so we’ll save that for later. We head to dinner, where we plan to spend a little extra time together with the family since it’s the last night we’ll all be together.
The wait staff has rearranged the tables so we’re sort of in a triangle and can talk with more of our group, and part of me wonders why it wasn’t like this the whole time.
I glance around at everyone gathered here. Come February, will they be my family? I have no idea.
Marriage was always part of my eventual plan—pending finding the right person, of course. And honestly, I thought Miller was the right person until this whole thing happened. Now I’m left questioning so many different things, and I hate how that makes me feel .
Later this season, the Storm will face the Aces, and Miller, Tanner, and Spencer will face off against Coach Lincoln and Asher, and that’s about the closest we’ll get to being in the same room all together in the foreseeable future. And I don’t even know if I’ll be there.
“Hey Missy!” Tanner yells from our table over to the parents’ table.
“Hm?” she asks, turning away from Steve, who she was just talking to and who she’s sitting next to again, and toward Tanner.
“When the Aces and the Storm face off this season, who are you cheering for?” he asks.
The three tables between the thirty of us fall silent as we all wait for the answer.
“Since my one defensive boy has hung up his cleats,” she says, glancing at Grayson pointedly, “I’ll be cheering for offense.” She shoots him a wink.
“Good answer,” Steve says beside her, and he’s laughing and not really hiding that he’s got a thing for the Nash matriarch. Maybe I just see it because I know .
They’re both drinking wine, and I have to admit, even if we hadn’t caught them red-handed, I might’ve put it together tonight.
I wonder if they’ll say anything. I wonder if anyone else caught them. I wonder who almost caught them that first night.
I know Steve is sharing a stateroom with his mother, so that’s likely why they couldn’t go to his room.
As far as I know, Missy has her own room.
But the ship’s capacity is only around six thousand.
I mean, that’s like an entire half a percent of the passengers on this boat that are related in some way to the Nash family.
That has to increase the chances of them getting caught, even if it’s just because someone else’s room is close to hers.
“That’s great news to this offensive coordinator’s ears,” Desi’s father, Bill, says .
“Not as much for this head coach,” Lincoln yells from his table, and we all laugh.
I realize my parents are here, and my brother is not, but this is still what I want out of my future.
I want to be a part of this big family, of these celebrations of love and excitement for each other.
Even if I’ve basically avoided my parents this entire week except for a few interactions at meals or near the pool.
I want to have Cassie, Ava, Grace, Desi, and Jolene as my sisters-in-law. I want to have a huge Nash-Banks family Christmas where we each pick a name or exchange a white elephant gift.
I love this family and the feelings I have here. But most of all, I love Miller, and I want to figure out how to make it work with him.
Maybe that means working harder to find that Plan B. Or maybe this is the reality he’s going to have to face, and together we’ll figure out how we’re going to make this work. He was teetering, anyway. He said what happened scared him off from having kids. He didn’t say he never wanted them.
So maybe this was meant to happen. Maybe this was the thing that was always meant to help him figure that out.
Or maybe it was the very thing that was always meant to break us.