Chapter 23
Courtney
I’m going to feel this in the morning,” Shannon groaned, placing her hands on her lower back and stretching.
“Who you telling,” I agreed.
When Doc said she’d put together a team workout during the off-season after learning we didn’t have anything official, I was
looking forward to something structured. Not playing overseas like normal, and being injured, I was worried about getting
too lax, but after today, I was convinced Doc had a hidden sadistic side she didn’t show during the regular season. And she’d
recruited our strength and conditioning coach Marni over to the dark side.
“Are y’all still whining?” she said as she walked out of her office, grinning like she hadn’t just tried to kill us.
“Nah, Doc. Next time you and Shae fighting, don’t take it out on us,” Renee said.
“Hey, don’t put that on me,” Shae said. “Her mean ass had nothing to do with me. I was good last night. Great even,” she added
with a wink.
We all collectively pretended to gag at her implication. She walked over and planted a big kiss on Doc while flipping us off.
A couple of us threw towels at her back.
“My eyes,” Shannon yelled, and everyone cracked up.
“Haters, the lot of you,” Shae said. Doc whispered something in her ear that made her grin wide.
After getting cleaned up and collecting our stuff, we headed out. It was nice to be with the team and I did appreciate Doc
putting together the workout. I usually wasn’t here, but it gave a sense of normalcy that I’d been missing since my accident.
“Lunch?” Renee asked.
“Hell yeah, I think I sweated off like twenty pounds thanks to Doc’s torture,” Shannon said.
“Sasha?”
I was about to add to the lunch conversation when the sound of my wife’s name got my attention. I had to have misheard. But
when I looked around, sure enough my eyes eventually landed on her. My beautiful wife was leaning against my car, holding
a large bouquet of roses. It was a chilly day, but seeing her warmed me from the inside out.
My steps slowed as the team greeted her then shot me side glances and sly grins before heading off to their cars. “What are
you doing here, Sash?”
She thrust the flowers toward me. “These are for you.”
Slowly, I reached out to take the bouquet from her, confusion settling on my face. “You got me roses?” A slow grin took over.
“I don’t think anyone has ever bought me flowers.” I lifted the two dozen long-stem red roses to my nose and took a long sniff.
I’d given her flowers before and had bought them for previous girlfriends, but the gesture had never been returned. I never
put much thought into it, but getting this unexpected surprise, to be thought of, it made me feel seen, heard. It made me
feel appreciated. “Thank you.” I slipped my free hand around her waist, pulling her in for a soft kiss. “But why?”
She played with the zipper on my jacket. “I just . . . I know, I mean I’m startin’ to understand how I’ve been.” She blew out a breath and looked up at me. “I’m sorry. I love you, and don’t wanna be a battle.”
Sincere apologies weren’t Sasha’s strong suit. Admitting she was wrong . . . not really her thing. And I’d been okay with
that part of her for so long.
Until I wasn’t.
After our talk went sideways, as they always tended to do, I had resigned myself to trying to figure out how to accept her
where she was. Yet she was here, meeting me where I needed her to be. Baby steps. Practice. That’s how one got better at anything,
with practice, if they were willing, and she was showing me she was willing.
“I love you too, baby. We were going to get some lunch. Let me take you out?”
“Oh, well, I’m comin’ from brunch, remember, so kinda full. But we can head home and I’ll make you somethin’. Okay?”
I smiled and leaned down for another quick kiss. “Deal.”
I cut my eyes over at the bouquet on my passenger seat. I don’t know why getting flowers made me a little giddy, but it did,
and I liked the feeling.
I glanced over at the flowers again. She’d bought me flowers. She’d shown up at my work with flowers to apologize.
She’d made an effort.
She’d made the first move.
However, I knew things weren’t going to change overnight. Practice. Work. Perfecting my game required consistent effort. I
never let myself get complacent. I had to apply that same mindset to my marriage. Which was something I hadn’t been doing.
It was amazing what slowing down and spending real time with the woman I’d chosen to make my wife brought to light. A readjusting of priorities. Or rather seeing them from a different perspective. Providing for my family had more than one meaning.
Though not having consistent money coming in was still stressing me out. Luckily, we’d gotten our championship bonus, and
my agent had secured two brand deals that came with sign-on bonuses. The bank and investment accounts had breathing room.
It helped keep me from feeling like I wasn’t doing enough.
Sasha surprisingly hadn’t gone on any shopping sprees since the last one, so that had been good, and with Mya overhearing
our argument, despite me telling her to keep focus on her studies, she’d called to say she’d gotten an on-campus job to help
minimize costs. She knew it wasn’t going to cover much, but it did mean I wasn’t responsible for all her living expenses.
She’d finished her explanation with some BS about being an adult and needing to learn independence. I hated she’d had to overhear,
but I loved the sentiment behind the intention.
Being intentional.
My gaze drifted to the roses again. Sasha and I needed to do the same.
We’d only covered two topics on the checklist, and had shelved both the topic of kids and finances after the talks devolved
into our same old, same old.
Practice. It would take practice.
We would adapt. We would make a game plan.
When we reached our townhome, I let Sasha pull in first, then I parked beside her. I grabbed my roses plus my bag from the
passenger side of my car, bumping the door closed with my hip just as she was coming around to greet me.
“Do we have a vase for these?”
“Yes, babe, we do. They’re in the garage cabinet over there.”
I juggled the flowers and my bag so that I could slide my arm along her waist and pull her to me. “Thank you again for these. I’m feeling all girly and shit getting flowers from my lady.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “You a mess, but—” She stretched up on her tiptoes and placed a soft kiss on my chin.
“You’re welcome. You deserve to feel girly. And appreciated. And I should make that clear more often.”
I slid my hand down to rest at the curve of her ass. “Is that so?”
My beautiful wife smiled sweetly as she squeezed my ass. “Yes. Now, I’ll grab a vase. You head in.”
As soon as I entered Vuitton’s barks carried from upstairs. I swear that dog’s hearing was precise as hell when he wanted
it to be. Like when he’s been locked up and hears a human coming home, which means his freedom. I dropped my bag on the bench
then set the bouquet on the island before I headed up to release the spoiled beast. By the time I got back downstairs, Sasha
was arranging the roses in the vase she’d brought in. Vuitton bolted out the back door as soon as I opened it for him.
“They really are beautiful,” I said on my way to the fridge.
“I’m glad you like them.”
I pulled out the fixings for a sandwich.
“Gimme a sec and I’ll do that.”
“Nah, I got it.”
Sasha made final tweaks to the arrangement, and then disappeared upstairs, returning with her laptop just as I finished making
my sandwich. She shifted her weight from side to side as she hugged the computer to her chest. “Do you still wanna get to
know me?”
I couldn’t resist taking another long inhale of the roses, their fragrant scent bringing me an immense level of joy. “Hell
yeah.” I settled on the couch, kicking my feet up on the ottoman. “What we starting with?”
She strolled to the back door, opening it for a whining Vuitton. “I haven’t looked over it a whole lot, to be honest. But I wanted to revisit us talking about the finances.”
“Uh, a’ight.”
Sasha dropped her computer onto a cushion, but didn’t sit. Instead, she paced in small circles with me and Vuitton watching
her movements. She blew out a heavy breath before she started speaking. “I understand what you said about the away games.
I really do, but I’m still gonna feel my feelings about things. There’s no gettin’ around that. It’s who I am, but I’m goin’
to work on it.”
I chewed slowly, to keep myself from jumping in, letting her get out whatever she had to say.
“I don’t think about the bills, Courtney. I’ve never had to since we’ve been together. You take care of everythin’, and I
don’t ever have to worry because I trust in you. But it shouldn’t have to all be on your shoulders.”
This time I did butt in, sitting up from my relaxed position. “I have it handled.”
She stopped moving and faced me head on. “I know you do. But as I look around the house and, in our closet, which is mostly
my stuff . . . when you were gone, I sat in our closet and had a bit of an aha moment. I wasn’t seein’ past what I wanted
in the moment. It’s my comfort zone. It’s the things that I’m used to gettin’. Things made me feel better.”
She dropped down beside me.
“But they were a temporary fix. Things filled the void when my folks weren’t there and so when you’d leave . . .” Sasha looked
down at her nails, pretending to closely examine the detailed snowflake designs.
Well, shit. All this time I believed Sasha simply had a shopping habit.
When I met her, she’d made good money dancing and handled her own, which is why I’d made it my mission to ensure she could continue living her lifestyle.
Her extra spikes in shopping when I’d go away for games I’d just chalked up to spite.
Learning that it had more to do with her having some sort of separation anxiety made me feel like shit for getting pissed
at her. I sat up and placed my plate on the ottoman then pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Baby, I’m sorry. I truly didn’t
think me being gone affected you so deeply. I just brushed it off as you being—”
“Dramatic.”