Chapter 24 Miles
TWENTY-FOUR
Miles
There are certain moments in my life when I wish I were a practiced liar. I wish I could navigate awkward situations with ease.
But nope. I just stood there and nodded when Grandma said something about us sleeping together and her getting to use our guest room.
Yes, of course. Just me and my wife sleeping…in bed…together.
Which brings me to another dilemma. What does Lucy sleep in?
What am I going to do if she walks out of my bathroom wearing some lacy pajama set? A barely-there tank top and booty shorts? Because only a fool wouldn’t realize how attractive Lucy is, and my mama didn’t raise a fool.
Nope. It’s becoming all too clear to me that my wife is an eleven on a one-to-ten scale. If she walks in here wearing something like that, I’m not sure how I’ll handle myself.
Probably cry myself into a platonic puddle under my pillow.
The door to the bathroom creaks open. I grip the comforter next to my legs, and I lean forward, waiting to catch a glimpse of her in her sleepwear.
And then the door swings open, and, well, Lucy seems to be missing.
In her place is a bundled-up koala bear.
Big gray sweats, a giant sweatshirt with a hood pulled up, and her hands aren’t even visible—the sleeves are so long.
She’s wearing huge, fuzzy socks that she’s tucked the ends of the sweats into.
“Umm, is this what you usually sleep in?” I dare to ask as I take a steadying breath, trying my hardest not to burst into laughter. This was not the scenario I imagined in my head.
Lucy tips her head back and looks at me from under the hood. “I get cold at night, and I like to be cozy. What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”
“Absolutely nothing. It’s perfect.” I sigh, meaning every word. “You look like an Arctic explorer.”
She flops over to the bed—I didn’t know someone could walk so loudly in socks—and stares at the pillow I set up for her.
“Thanks.”
She slowly climbs onto the bed, and I leap up. “I’m going to brush my teeth.”
I sprint to the bathroom and do the most thorough teeth cleaning in history. I don’t want her to gag if she has to smell my morning breath.
When I return to the bedroom, Lucy is lying on top of the covers, staring at the ceiling. It’s a good thing it’s a king-size bed. We’ll probably even be able to avoid touching each other.
I slowly climb under the covers and lean back against my pillow.
“You know, when I agreed to marry you, it literally never crossed my mind that we would sleep in the same bed sometimes,” Lucy says, turning to look at me through the small hole in her sweatshirt.
I fold my hands and tuck them behind my head as I turn to stare at the ceiling. “Do you suppose we’re both likely to jump into things without thinking too much?”
Lucy chuckles. “I’d say that’s a safe assumption.”
“Do you regret it?”
“Well, I guess we’ll just have to see.”
I don’t know if I like the sound of that, but I also get where she’s coming from.
This was just a smart move on her part—a way to pay off some of her student loan.
I’m the one who’s doing this for absolute petty reasons.
Lucy cares about survival. I care about pride.
That definitely makes me the worst person in this duo.
“Does this make me a gold digger since I married for money?”
I think about it for a little bit before I answer.
I finally say, “No. I don’t think so. Or maybe being a gold digger really isn’t that bad of a thing.
I think that we forget the world is a fragile place, and sometimes, people do things out of necessity rather than what their feelings prefer.
And I’m not about to look down on someone who does what they need to do.
Besides, it was Ainsley and me trying to talk you into it. I was the one who proposed.”
A small hand pats my shoulder, and her fingers brush against my ear.
“I’m pretty sure I did the proposing. Remember, I was the one texting you about it. It’s very nice of you to take the blame. Although if we want to pass the blame, maybe we should just pass it to Ainsley.”
I turn to look at her and see a big grin on her face.
“What are little sisters for?” she says.
I chuckle at that. “I guess, sometimes, it does pay to be the oldest.”
She sighs and closes her eyes.
“Are you tired?” I ask her.
Those lashes flutter open. “No. Lying in bed next to my husband doesn’t really put my brain to sleep.”
I bite my tongue, trying to resist the urge to say something that might make her uncomfortable.
“What about two truths and a lie?” I ask her.
She chews on her bottom lip, then says, “Okay. You go first.”
“Let me think about it for a second.”
It’s deathly quiet as I stare at the ceiling and try to think of things I could tell her.
“I think I have it,” I say. “I have never eaten sushi. I’ve swum with a dolphin. I was happy my girlfriend broke up with me.”
“Oh heck, okay, so you’re going to make it tricky.” She leans up on an elbow, rests her head in her hand, and faces me. “I’m going to say the lie is…the sushi. Because it’s unreasonable to go your whole adult life without trying it.”
“Nope. It was the middle.”
“Well, that’s unfortunate. I was hoping you had a special connection to people who have pet dolphins, because they’re my favorite sea creature.”
“Sorry. No friend with a backyard aquarium.”
“You were happy your girlfriend broke up with you?”
“Yeah. She left me for Preston, and honestly, we just hadn’t clicked. I think my pride was hurt more than anything. We hadn’t been dating long, and I don’t blame her so much as I blame Preston.”
Lucy reaches over and pats my stomach. “Good for you for being mature enough to recognize that.”
I watch that hand patting my abs. “Did I just get a good boy from you?”
Lucy freezes mid-pat and then flops back against the pillows, cackling with laughter. “Oh my gosh.” She waves a hand through the air as she gasps for breath. “I’m so sorry. It’s a habit.”
I roll onto my side so I can watch her. She’s shaking with laughter.
“Every time I give a shot, I pat the dogs and tell them, ‘Good job,’” she says when she finally stops laughing.
“Well, I feel good about myself.” I grin down at her.
“You would.” She snorts.
“Okay,” I say. “Your turn.”
She leans back against the pillows, wiggling to get comfy. “Okay. Cats are my favorite animal. Willa is my half-sister. I haven’t spoken to my mom in five years.” She sits up abruptly. “Actually, can I take that back? That was way too dark—”
I reach up to grab her shoulder and pull her back down to the pillows. “No, you can’t take it back,” I say quietly. “I started it by bringing up something heavy, and I told you. Now, I want to hear yours.”
She turns her head slightly and stares at me. “My family is really not that interesting or important.”
“If you ever want to talk about it, I’m here,” I tell her firmly.
Lucy grasps the blanket, pulling it tight under her chin. “When we were in high school, we found out Willa was the product of an affair.”
I swear under my breath.
“Yep. And it wasn’t like Mom even got caught in the lie.
She told my dad when they were in the middle of a fight.
I have happy memories of when we were young.
Mom and Dad seemed to get along. But the more famous my dad got, the weirder and more controlling my mom got.
The strange thing is, Dad doesn’t care about any of the fame. He just likes his job.”
Famous?
“What does your dad do?”
“He’s a head coach in the NFL.”
“Would I know him?”
“If you follow a lot of football.”
I want to quiz her more about her dad, but that wouldn’t be helpful right now. “So, your mom didn’t handle the rise to fame very well?”
“That would be the understatement of the year. She wanted to use it to make connections, meet people, and become somebody. Or at least have her daughters become somebody. But when Dad wasn’t working, he wanted to be home.
He didn’t want to be vacationing with random people or going to parties.
He wanted to take Willa and me rock climbing or biking.
” She laughs. “Or he’d be holed up in his study, working on strategies and practice plans for when he was back with the team. Willa got her work ethic from him.”
I smile at that. Willa spends more time working at my company than I do.
“It’s safe to say, the family imploded after that.
Dad buried himself in work and hardly came home, and then Mom filed for divorce.
She got her five minutes of fame in the newspapers and ate it up.
But it turns out that an NFL coach’s divorce isn’t exactly the news of the year, so any attention she had from it was short-lived.
Once Willa had her license, Mom moved to the Hamptons and left us to fend for ourselves. ”
“You didn’t go move in with your dad?”
“He traveled a lot for work. He worked year-round at that point.”
“So, you guys raised yourselves for the rest of high school?” My voice is tinged with a dangerously angry tone.
Lucy laughs. “It’s not as dramatic as that. We were sixteen and seventeen. Mom still made sure all of the bills were paid and that we were taken care of financially. It’s not like she kicked us out or anything.”
I look her straight in the eye. “She abandoned you. And so did your dad.”
She opens her mouth to refute what I said.
“No. No excuses for them. What they did was wrong. I don’t care if you had almost graduated. That’s still neglect.”
She snaps her mouth closed.
“Would you leave our future children alone?” I ask with a soft smile.
“Never,” she answers immediately.
“See? That’s because you’re a wonderful person, and you’d be a fantastic mother.”
She smiles at me. “Our children?”
I grasp her hand in mine and adjust my pillow with my other hand. “Lucy?”
“Yes?”
“Go to bed.”
The bed shakes with her laughter. But she squeezes my hand, and I fall asleep with a smile on my face.