Chapter 64 #2
“We brought our own flashlight, so we’ll be good up there with that, and we’ll take a turn with the charger once everyone else is done.”
“Sounds perfect.” He gestures to the kitchen. “Please help yourself to dinner and refreshments.”
“Refreshments,” Wyatt says teasingly. “Who are you? Chrissy has rubbed her hostess with the mostest all over you, bro.”
I elbow him. “They’re literally feeding us a hot meal when we have no power. Be nice.”
He hangs his head like a reprimanded puppy.
Chrissy has returned to the couch, surely exhausted from feeding several football players and a sleepless night with the storm. I walk over and offer her Arthur. “Could you watch him while I eat? I’m starving, but he’s too cute to not be held.”
She holds her arms out for him making grabby hands motion. “Gimme,” she commands, and I hand him to her. She leans back against the couch, and he immediately settles in her lap. “Are you going to keep him?”
“We have to at least try to look for his owners.”
“How long will that take?”
I look at Wyatt for any idea of how long is long enough to look for Arthur’s owner. “I don’t know. Two weeks?” he says.
I look back at Chrissy. “Two weeks.”
“That’s so exciting for you guys.” She pauses and then adds, “And sad for his people if he has any.”
“I’m trying not to get attached to him just yet,” I say.
“You guys are making a little family,” she coos with her hands clasped in front of her like that’s the cutest thought she’s ever had in her life.
“Maybe we’re moving too fast,” I laugh.
“What do you mean? You’ve already been together six months and you’ve known each other for years.”
I pause, the lying from the last couple months bearing down on my conscience in front of Wyatt’s teammates, who I consider my friends.
We look at each other for just a second like we’re deciding with telepathy who is going to be the one to own up.
In a split second I decide it has to be me.
It was my idea. I strung him along. I don’t want Wyatt’s friends to hear about our deception and think of him differently. Everyone deserves to know the truth.
“Actually,” I hedge, and all seven pairs of eyes land on me—eight, if you include Arthur. “Wyatt and I were faking it.”
Mack gasps like I just revealed the killer on his latest telenovela.
Colin looks to Wyatt as if in confirmation. I hurry to explain. “It was my idea. I wanted to fill the stands for the Moons games, and I thought that using Wyatt’s access to the Hurricanes’ popularity would help.”
“You used us?” Mack exclaims, shocked. Almost too shocked?
I hold my hands out to him wanting him to understand. “No! Of course not. Unless you guys only came because Wyatt asked you to and not because you wanted to see me play?”
Colin steps in and signals to Mack to calm down. “That’s not true, Nash, and you know it. We would have come to support you even if you and Wyatt were just friends forever. If you’re important to him, you’re important to us. No label needed.”
“But,” Wyatt starts.
My head whips in his direction. “But what?”
“I had to tell them.”
I look at all the people around me. “You knew?” It comes out an accusation, not a question.
Chrissy raises her hand. “I didn’t.” But everyone else in the room nods.
Wyatt takes a step toward me, and I take a step back. The hurt in his eyes makes it almost not worth it. “I needed their help,” he says as if that’s a perfectly good explanation.
“So they watched us kiss and hold hands and they knew it was fake the whole time?”
Noah clears his throat. “We knew you thought it was fake.” He points at Wyatt. “We knew he was actually in love with you the whole time.”
My first instinct is to be mad, but I take a deep breath and one second to think about what this really means.
Wyatt brought his teammates into this because he needed them to know what the stakes were for me.
He confided in guys he didn’t want to like for me.
Now look at us, all crammed in Colin’s house like sardines.
“You did this for me?” I ask Wyatt, tears stinging the back of my eyes. He just nods in response.
Mack speaks up, interrupting our moment. “How do we know you weren’t just using Wyatt this whole time?” Colin shoots him a silencing look, but the words are already out.
“If everyone’s telling the truth here tonight, I guess I will, too.
Our deal was that we were going to find a way to mutually end the fake dating after Wyatt’s brother’s wedding last weekend, but…
” the words get stuck in my throat, which is too clogged with emotions to speak.
I swallow hard and look at Wyatt. His friends all know, but he needs to understand.
“It turned into something real along the way. I was in denial, but something has always been there for me. Wyatt told me he loved me in Wisconsin, after his brother’s wedding, and after I told him I loved him back, I told him he couldn’t give up on the Butchers for me.
” I turn to face him now. This isn’t how I imagined telling him what I did, but it’s now or never.
“And?” Mack asks on the edge of his seat on the couch.
I smile, knowing the answer already, and everyone else erupts into hoots and hollers.
Colin claps Wyatt’s hand and pulls him in to pat him on the back.
Chrissy prances over to me still holding Arthur and wraps her arms around me.
“Welcome to the WAGs. You were an honorary member before, but this is your official welcome. Hmm, I should start making goodie bags to give out.” Knowing Chrissy—she’s completely serious.
“That’s not necessary,” Wyatt says, and I shoot him a look. If she wants to give me a goodie bag for fucking my best friend, who am I to stop her?
“Wait,” I say, and it comes out way too loud for the space.
I feel like this is the perfect moment to reveal my plan.
Everyone can hear it straight from me, and there won’t be any games of telephone.
I take Wyatt’s hand in mine. “I might have made a phone call.” His brows raise at my admission.
“Since the night you told me you love me and I told you not to be so selfless, I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how to make something work for us that doesn’t involve self-sacrifice.
And today, when we helped the Pattersons clear out all of their personal possessions, it hit me. So I called your Mom.”
“You what?” Wyatt sputters, but I march on.
“I know you have a designated parcel of Vandergriff Farms that you haven’t bothered doing anything with yet. I now have my share of a million dollars from winning the PVF championship.”
He steps into my space, putting his hand on my cheek, giving me the wherewithal to continue. “Turns out, it’s just enough money for the fee to get on a custom builder’s calendar.”
“You didn’t,” shouts Jaden from his spot next to Mack on the couch.
I shoot him a smile over Wyatt’s palm. “Oh, I did.” When he pulls me gently back to look at him, I see everything in his eyes.
I see our years of friendship, I see our time apart, I see all of our fake-dating adventures, but most importantly, I see the future.
“I want to live in Wisconsin, in that house, on your family’s land every June and July.
I realized that our careers could always take us elsewhere, but with that house we’ll have a permanent place to call home.
Something that isn’t controlled by a sports team, and doesn’t have rules about whether you can mount a TV on the wall. A place that is just ours.”
“You really didn’t have to do that. I have the money and–”
I place a small kiss on his lips to quiet him. “I wanted to. Consider it my equity in the house. You provided the land, I provided the builder.”
He smiles, and then he’s kissing me again, and I want more. I want it all. With him.
Audrey stands up from the couch. “Well, all these confessions have exhausted me.” Wyatt and I break apart like two kids caught making out in the school hallway.
I can’t believe we’re sleeping in a house full of people on what could have been the most romantic night of my life.
Oh well. We have all of eternity now, and soon we’ll have an entire Wisconsin cabin to be as loud as we want, anywhere we want.
She looks to Noah, “Babe, are you ready for bed?”
He nods and stands, taking her hand. “We’re going to hit it.” They walk together through the living room, heading for the stairs. “’Night everybody.”
“Goodnight,” we all say back.