11. Hope You Understand
HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND
“ I ’m not sure what I expected of your house,” Warren said two days later.
Emma was surprised that he wanted to stay at The Retreat for a few more days to get to know each other better.
“What did you think I lived in?” she asked. “Come in.”
They were in her foyer now and he was toeing his sneakers off, leaving him in small white socks that she hadn’t even known he’d had on under his sneakers.
“I imagined you were in a mansion,” he said.
“Nope,” she said. “I struggle to keep this clean, but it’s not that small either. Since it’s just me, it was more about the location.”
She needed the water. That was where she did her best work. Sitting anywhere she could look out into nature.
“It’s a great location,” he said. “Even hidden back some.”
“It’s difficult to find property on the island. I’ve been here for about six years now. The people before had done some work to it, so I didn’t have to do much more than put my touch on it.”
Which was a good thing because she wasn’t in the mood to wait any longer to get in it.
“Where did you live before?”
“In my parents’ house on the island. They spend the bulk of their time in Boston for my father’s job. Now that is a mansion, or at least by most people’s standards.”
“I’m sure it is,” he said.
“It was my grandfather’s house years ago,” she said.
“My Uncle Charlie didn’t want it. He raised Hunter and Hailey in Boston and they had another smaller home on the island when they were here.
My Aunt Melanie didn’t want it either. She said it was too big and she and my uncle work in Boston too, so my mother ended up with it. ”
There was no reason to say that her mother wrote her first several bestsellers in that house. It was a place for her to get away and create at her own pace.
She couldn’t say those things to anyone. Or at least no one that wasn’t a family member since her mother’s pen name was a secret.
“Is your grandfather not alive any longer?” he asked.
“Oh, he is, and going strong. But he downsized a long time ago. There was no reason for him to stay in that big of a house. I’m the only one who lives on the island full time in my immediate family. I had plenty of space there, but I like this better.”
Her house was a little over two thousand square feet, not counting the finished basement.
She had the average-sized first-floor setup.
Open kitchen to a large family room and dining room that overlooked the water in the distance. She was higher up and had to walk down to her little beach.
She had an office on the first floor that she only used when she was live with her readers so she never gave away her location.
Her sunroom was her favorite spot in the house with the half bath close by. She hardly left that spot if she could avoid it.
Upstairs were three bedrooms and two full baths.
Simple and good enough for her.
“The view is spectacular,” he said. “I don’t know if I’d ever leave this spot.”
They’d stopped to look out of the glass doors in her family room.
“I spend most of my time in my sunroom,” she said. “Close enough to the kitchen and half bath.”
They walked to that room. “Do you sit in that lounge chair to write?”
“Do the butt indentations give it away?” she asked, moving over and rubbing her hand on it. Why hadn’t she noticed that before?
“Maybe just a little,” he said. “I can see why you’re a hermit living here.”
“If I was going to not leave my house, I wanted it to be a place that felt better than the outside world. Or one where I could still see a little of what was going on.”
“Can you see any neighbors?” he asked, walking out to her deck. It could be accessed from the sunroom or her family room.
She followed him out there. “Not right now,” she said. “In the winter, when the leaves are all gone, you can see the houses and if they are outside hear them, but they aren’t on top of you either.”
“I don’t enjoy having a lot of neighbors either, but I’ve got them. None on top of me, but close enough.”
“I bet you live in a mansion,” she said, laughing.
He shrugged. “No,” he said. “But I’ve got space.”
“Did you have any plans today?”
He’d checked out of The Retreat today and came over. She felt bad that they spent so little time together yesterday, but she had an obligation to her readers to get online with the time already set.
Then once that was done, she ran to the store to stock up on food so she didn’t look like a complete loser in his mind.
After that, she marched around looking for dust in all the places she never thought to clean just because she didn’t spend time in those rooms.
When three o’clock arrived, she was exhausted but still drove to The Retreat. They had dinner again in his room and spent more time talking.
“No,” he said. “I don’t.”
“I didn’t make any plans,” she said. “We could find all sorts of things to do on the island, but I also know you might not want to be seen either. We don’t know what or where this is going and do you want that knowledge out?”
“Not really,” he said. “I hope you understand.”
She laughed. “If anyone can understand, it’s me. I don’t need my picture or face linked to you to just have you stop coming around.”
“I don’t plan on that,” he said. “But it does bring up another point.”
“If I’ll go see you?” she asked. Emma knew this would come up.
She’d already said she never left the island. He didn’t live on the island.
“I think it’s a reasonable question,” he said. “Training camp starts at the end of July. I’m not going to be able to get away as much. Before that though, I’ll be at the facility working out and meeting with coaches.”
“What do you do now?” she asked, looking at his toned arms in his fitted black T-shirt.
He looked rakish to her.
She pursed her lips, wondering where that word came from to pop into her head.
“Meaning, where do I work out?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“At home. I’ve got a big gym in the lower level of my house.”
“I bet you watch a lot of games in a big theater room too,” she said. “As part of your training.”
“I do,” he said. “During the season. Not as much now, but I will. Things will change from last year to this year. Tells and moves that a defense had last year won’t necessarily be the same this year.”
“Interesting,” she said. “So that means you’ve got to change things or moves too?”
“Some things, yes,” he said. “I can’t always change my natural mechanics, but plays will change. That’s a given.”
“You have to learn all new plays? How many plays are we talking about?”
He laughed. “Is this research for your book?”
“No,” she said. “Maybe later on. I’m not sure. Right now I want to know about you.”
She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the loveseat in her sunroom. “There are hundreds of plays in a full playbook each year. For each game I could use a hundred or so throwing, twenty or thirty running ones. I’m not sure I keep track.”
“And you have to call all those plays yourself?”
“No,” he said. “There are coaches that do that. But I have to know the plays they are calling.”
“I don’t think I realized how smart players had to be to know those things.”
“We aren’t all just a bunch of dumb jocks.”
“I honestly played little sports,” she said. “I was the nerdy kid with my face in a book.”
“I don’t think there is anything nerdy about you,” he said.
“Not really,” she said. “But I’m not very athletic either. Roark played sports.”
“Did you go to school on the island at all?” he asked.
“No. We lived in Boston because of my father’s job. I’ve spent a lot of my life here and pretty much all my summers. I just love it. It’s the lifestyle I always wanted. It’s nothing like what you live.”
Which was something she’d been thinking about for the past twenty-four hours.
She wasn’t so sure she could give up this life of hers.
She could work anywhere, she knew that, but she didn’t know if she wanted to.
Did that make her selfish?
Probably.
“I live it because I have to,” he said. “When I retire, I can go or do what I want.”
“Do you know when you want to retire?”
Her research showed that on average, a quarterback had retired or would be by Warren’s age, but he had two more years left on his contract.
“I have an idea,” he said.
“And you aren’t going to share it,” she said. “Got it. We aren’t there and it’s not my business.”
“I’m not trying to be a dick,” he said.
“Nope, you’re not. We are two people who live different lifestyles who have the hots for each other.
We both have to ask what we want out of it.
Some action in the sheets and a person to call up when we want it again?
A companionship that means we might not see the other much?
Or a full-blown go-for-it relationship knowing there are a lot of obstacles in the way. ”
“Damn, you know how to rain on a parade,” he said. “I’m not sure I expected that of you.”