Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Reid
“I think that’s it,” I tell Bellamy, glancing around her empty apartment. I paid out the rest of her lease, which took some convincing. Since we finally have a home game this week, every day after practice, and when she gets off work, we’ve been packing and deciding what to donate and what to keep.
“Yeah,” she agrees, as she, too, spins to look at the now-empty apartment.
I just took the last box down to my truck.
The guys offered to help, but I knew this was going to be hard for her—giving up her space to come to mine—so I wanted her to have the freedom to process her emotions without an audience.
There’s a teenage boy who lives in the apartment across the hall, and I paid him a couple of hundred bucks and an autograph to help me carry the furniture down to my truck.
I wish we were moving into a house, one that was ours alone, but that takes time.
I couldn’t wait. I needed her with me. I was too impatient to wait, and my dream girl wanted that, too.
She’s pushing back at her fears, choosing to trust me, to trust us, and that’s something I’ll never take for granted.
“You need me to give you a moment?” I ask, sliding my arm around her waist and pulling her close. She rests her head on my chest and sighs.
“No, I’m okay. This is just a big step, and it’s so fast.”
“Not fast enough,” I grumble, and she laughs.
“I’ve slept in your bed every night since we found out,” she reminds me.
“Our bed, Bell, you’ve slept in our bed. No other woman but you has ever slept there,” I assure her. She peers up at me under long lashes. The sparkle in her brown eyes shines bright, telling me she’s happy. I’ll do everything I can to keep that sparkle there.
“Let’s go home,” she says. Her voice is strong, resolute, and it takes everything I have not to toss her over my shoulder and race us down to the truck.
After leading her to the door with my arm around her waist, we step out into the hall and lock up the apartment for the final time. When we reach my truck, I open the door for her and help her inside. “What do we do with the keys?” I ask.
“I need to drop them off at the main office up town.”
“Do you want to do that now?”
“Do you mind?”
“Not at all.” I kiss her softly before closing the door. As I walk around the truck to take my seat behind the wheel, I glance up at her place and grin. She’s coming home where she belongs. If she notices my excitement, she doesn’t comment as I drive us across town.
Sunday. Game day. And I’m ready. I’ve never been this amped up to play a game, and I know why.
She’s going to be here. My dream girl is going to be up in the suite with Corie and Sloane, while Rowan will be down on the field with us.
Corie will have to step away to work some, but she’s assured me it won’t be much, and that’s okay, because Sloane will be there to keep her company.
I know that convincing her to come to the game was hard, and I’m so damn proud of her for being here.
Not just for me, but for her, too. In her eyes, the game I love ruined her life.
Now, it’s going to be a huge part of hers, and she’s facing her fears.
I wish I had the words to tell her what that means to me.
More than her just being here, we’ve agreed that tonight, after the game, we’re going to try to get Coach alone and tell him about the baby.
Not because she wants her father to know that he’s going to be a grandpa, but because I may need to take time off to be with her.
Maybe? I know for sure I will when the baby is born, but thankfully, our little peanut is due at the beginning of our off-season.
I’ll have several months to help her heal and for us to bond as a family. I’m fucking stoked.
“What’s that shit-eating grin for?” Baker asks.
“Bellamy’s here.”
“Yeah?” He smiles. “That’s great, man.”
“He know yet?” Knox asks, nodding toward Coach’s office.
“Nah, but we’re going to try to catch him to tell him tonight.”
“We’ll stick around,” Landry tells me.
“You don’t have to do that,” I tell him.
“We’re going to anyway. Besides, I know my wife will want to check on Bellamy.”
“Mine, too,” Knox agrees.
“I can stay,” Baker says.
“Nah, you go home to see my nephew. None of you has to stay.”
“What else have I got to do?” Foster says, with a shrug.
Baker looks torn.
“I’m a big boy,” I assure him. “I don’t need his blessing, but my nephew needs his daddy.”
“I’ll call the nanny. If he’s sleeping, which he should be, I’ll stay.”
Not gonna lie. Their support means the world to me.
I meant what I said. I don’t need Coach’s approval.
He has no say over her life or mine. He can make mine hell all he wants, and he has been.
He rides my ass at practice like he’s fucking me, but that’s okay, because that’s a handful of hours at best, and then I get to go home to her. That makes it all worth it.
My eyes glance up at the suite, and I see her standing there with Sloane.
They’re laughing, and when she catches me staring, she waves.
I can’t see it from here, but I bet her cheeks are a gorgeous light shade of pink.
Turning back to the field, I get my head in the game.
We’re up by four, and there are only three minutes left on the play clock.
Defense is on the field, and I watch as one of our linemen sacks the quarterback from Washington.
“Fuck yeah!” someone roars. I don’t know who, but I’m agreeing with him as I slip my helmet back on and jog out onto the field. We need to score again and bring this win home.
In the huddle, Knox calls the play. “Rampage on three!” he shouts.
We all place our hands out, stacking them on top of each other, and shout, “One, two, three, Rampage!” before we break into our positions.
I line up next to the right tackle, getting into position.
I’m balanced, focused, and ready. Knox calls out the play, taking the snap from our center, Thomas Keen, and I explode off the line, brushing past the linebacker and pumping my fist, cutting left to the center of the field.
Knox pulls his arm back and tosses a Hail Mary to Landry, just as he’s tackled to the ground.
We made it to the red zone.
Twenty more yards to move the ball to the endzone.
Blood rushes in my ears. It doesn’t matter that this is a preseason game. I’m an athlete and a competitive asshole. I want to bring home the win. For me, for my team, for my dream girl, who faced her fears to watch me play the only thing I’ve ever loved, until I met her.
Fuck.
I’m in love with her.
I knew I felt strongly for her, but it’s standing here on the field, doing the job that almost made me lose her, when I realize that I love her more than the game—more than anything.
My eyes glance up at the suite, and I grin before getting back into position, keeping my head in the game. I’m bringing this fucking win home.
Keen snaps the ball when Knox calls the play.
Space is tight as the defense closes in quickly.
They know they have to stop us, but what they don’t know is that my girl is here watching, and how big a deal that is.
My eyes scan the field, and I fight for a spot, right between the safeties, to slip through.
I turn in time to catch Knox’s gaze as he launches the ball in my direction.
Hands extended in the air, I snatch the ball, stepping just out of reach of a defenseman, and over another as my legs sprint the final eight yards to the endzone.
Touchdown Rampage!
My teammates jump on me, and then Landry appears, shaking his ass for the crowd, and I can’t leave my boy hanging. We do a little jig, and I glance up at the suite, pointing to my girl. This one’s for you, Bell.
Back on the sidelines, I pull off my helmet and suck down some water.
I watch as Washington tries to score, but our defense holds them.
On their final drive, the clock counts down to zero.
Mark that as a win for the Rampage. Media swarms us, but I manage to skip past them all.
With my helmet in my hands, I jog off to the locker room.
Landry loves that shit, and Knox, well, he’s the face of the team, and I have no doubt his wife is on her way to him, if she’s not already there, to take pictures for social media.
We have a team photographer, but I can’t blame the girl for using that as an excuse to get to her husband.
By the time they make it to the locker room, I’m climbing out of the mandatory ice bath and rushing to take the world’s fastest shower.
I’m zipping up my bag, anxious to meet Bellamy in the hallway.
I showed her where to go, and Sloane, who knows the drill by now, is with her.
I’m not worried about Bell. I just want to see her.
Wrap my arms around her, kiss her, maybe even tell her that I’m in love with her.
I can’t stop my grin from forming at the thought.
“Montgomery!” Coach Warner bellows.
I fight the urge not to roll my eyes. “Yes, Coach?” I ask, keeping things professional.
“Ice bath.”
“Already done.” He narrows his eyes at me, and I hold his stare.
“Gotta go see my girl,” I tell him. He needs to know that I’m hers, and she’s mine, and no amount of riding my ass is going to change that.
His face is red, and he knows he has nothing else to bitch at me about, because I give him all of me when I’m on that field, and at every practice.
I wonder if that vein in his forehead will pop out when he finds out his daughter is living with me and having my baby.
I wave to the guys and push out the doors with my bag slung over my shoulder. I spot Bellamy and Sloane instantly. They’re standing against the wall, at the end of the hallway, almost as if they’re trying to stay hidden. I’m sure Bellamy didn’t want to run into her dad.