Chapter 36 – Kirby
thirty-six
Kirby
“What time did you say your parents are going to be here?” I ask her as I take down the frames on top of her bed.
It’s been two weeks since her meeting with Trent.
He called by the time we touched down in LA, four hours after the meeting, to accept her terms. Forty minutes ago, she signed the documents and she is officially divorced.
Something we celebrated by me dragging her to bed, before she stripped the sheets and threw them in the wash.
“They should be here any second.” She comes into the room wearing a pair of cutoff shorts and a white tank top. “Hey, I have to ask you something.”
“Yeah,” I say, taking down the second frame and placing it in the box.
“Every year my family has this big family vacation,” she explains, leaning against the doorjamb. “It’s usually in the summer when everyone is off.” I nod, going to the third frame. “This year they are going to Turks.”
“Oh fun.” I stop taking the frame off and look at her. “What’s going on?”
“I want to go,” she says and I laugh.
“Okay,” I say, not understanding.
“I didn’t go for ten years,” she starts to explain and I can feel her nervousness in the house.
“Baby.” She looks up at me finally. “Do you want to go without me? Either way, it’s fine.”
“No,” she refutes quickly, stepping into the bedroom. “That’s the thing, I want to go and I want you to come.”
“So we’ll go,” I state and then I laugh. “Is that what you’re nervous about? Me going on your family vacation?”
“Well, I didn’t know if you wanted to go or not, and I didn’t want to go by myself.”
“Lexi,” I say, going for the third frame, “if there are get-togethers and I can go too, great. But if there are things I can’t go to and you can still go to them, I want you to go to them.” I look over at her. “If I can’t go because of a game, I wouldn’t want you to be stopped from going.”
“Really?” she asks and then the doorbell rings.
“Really.” I put the frame down and she turns to walk out of the room and toward the front door.
I step out into the living room at the same time her father lets her go and we share a nod before he comes into the living room. I take a step to him and extend my hand. “Good to see you, Mr. Petrov,” I say and he looks at me, not saying a word and then looks around the room.
Zoe steps in. “Kirby,” she says my name with a smile on her face and comes to give me a hug.
“What is going on here?” Viktor snaps, looking at the packing boxes.
“Well,” Lexi starts, coming to stand next to me, “that is why we asked you to come over here. Can I get you anything to drink?” She tries to keep it casual, looking at her mother, who is waiting for Viktor to say something.
“No,” Viktor snaps. “What is all this?”
“I’m moving out,” she tells them as she puts her hand in mine. “I signed the divorce papers today, so I’m officially Lexi Petrov.”
“You were always Lexi Petrov.” Viktor glares at her.
“I was, but then I had a mental judgment lapse and then I was that other name.” She laughs. “But now I’m officially a Petrov again. Legally.” She looks up at me. “And Kirby asked me to move in with him.”
“And you said yes,” Viktor surmises and I inhale, trying to keep my cool, since he is her father. “Is that”—he looks at his wife—“wise?”
Lexi wraps her arm around my waist. “Well, I love him and he loves me, so it was either that or get married.”
“What?” I yelp out. “No.” I look at her father. “That was not how it went.”
“So, you don’t want to marry my daughter?”
“Well, yeah,” I backpedal, “of course, but I’m not sure—”
“That she is the one?” Viktor keeps putting words in my mouth.
“No.” I hold up my hand. “I love your daughter, more than anything.” I look at her.
“And when I feel the time is right, I will ask her to be my wife. Honestly, I would take her now.” She gasps.
“But I know she’s not ready for that, so we’ll have to settle with her living with me because that’s what she is willing to give me. ”
“Did you hear him?” Zoe asks Viktor who turns to her. “The whole time he spoke, it wasn’t about him; it was about Lexi and what she wanted.” She turns to smile at me. “You’re a good one, Kirby.”
“Pfft.” Viktor rolls his eyes. “A good one would have asked her father if it was okay.”
“Didn’t Zara get pregnant with the twins and you hadn’t even met Gabriel?” she mentions her sister.
“We met him,” Viktor retorts. “Besides, we are not talking about your sister right now.” He looks at Lexi. “We are talking about you and your choices.” His voice goes higher.
“Okay.” I hold up my hands. “Respectfully,” I say to him, “let’s bring the tone down a bit.”
I’m expecting Lexi to tell me not to talk to her father like that. “Yeah, respectfully,” she repeats.
“Watch your tone,” Zoe says to him. “Now, sit down because our daughter obviously has something she wants to tell us, or she wouldn’t have invited us here.”
She starts to move to the couch and then stops. “Oh my God, are you pregnant?” She looks at Lexi.
“No,” she says at the same time I mumble, “I wish.
“What?” I say, throwing my hands up. “How cool would that be, us having a baby?” I ask her and she bites down and her jaw gets tight.
I’ve thought about it each and every single time I’ve seen her with Jagger.
I lean in and whisper in her ear, “Seeing you pregnant with my baby turns me on like never before.” I move away from her ear seeing her cheeks getting pink.
“Not now, but if it happens,” I say loudly.
“Can we move in with each other first?” Lexi says to me, walking over to the couch.
“Anyway, that is not why I called you here, and I didn’t call you here to discuss where I’m going to live either.
The reason I called you here is because I signed my divorce papers officially today.
” She sits and her mother claps her hands together in celebration.
“And with that, I got the house I hate and the apartment he used to have affairs in.” Viktor looks to the ceiling and I’m sure he is holding on by a string, especially when he was told he wasn’t allowed to go there and break his neck.
“Anyway,” she continues and he looks back at her.
“I’ve obviously decided to sell both of those, along with my wedding ring and engagement ring.
And with the profits, I’m going to use half of the money to open a women’s shelter for battered and abused women in Arizona.
” She stuns us all. “The other half will go to the children’s cancer unit.
Since Kirby and I will be living there in the off-season and then once he retires. It made the most sense.”
“Wait a second.” I hold up my hand. “Who says we are going to be living there? You hate it there.”
“I don’t hate it there. I hated being there because it felt like it was my prison, but you have your house there and Kylie says you love it there.” She shrugs. “So I want to go back there, with you.”
“We don’t have to do that.” I put my hand on her knee. “We can do that anywhere. As long as you’re there, I don’t care where we live.”
“Good,” she says. “I feel the same. I spoke with Cheryl, who is going to help run the shelter for me when I’m not there, and then I’m hoping to take a more active role once big man over here hangs up his skates.”
“Shouldn’t you keep some of that money for you, just in case?” Zoe asks and she shakes her head.
“I have everything I need. I’m going to keep this house and rent it out,” she tells them.
“Plus, I get alimony, which I plan to use to start building my real estate portfolio.” Which again shocks me since she never spoke to me about it.
She gets up. “Now, I have to continue packing since the movers will be here tomorrow morning, and we have a dinner thing tonight with Kirby and a couple of his teammates.”
“Well, what can we do to help?” Zoe asks, getting up, and the four of us work side by side to pack up her house. It doesn’t take long since she is only bringing her clothes and a few special mementos.
When we walk out of her house, she hugs her parents and we make plans to get dinner tomorrow after my game.
I pull into the garage and look over at her smiling.
“Welcome home, officially.” I kiss her lips and then slip my hand in hers and pull her into the house.
The lights are off, and then when she walks into the living room, I hear the roar of “Surprise!” fill the house.
She takes a step back, not sure what is going on, and I step in behind her. “Surprise, baby,” I whisper in her ear and look around to see that Sofia did not fuck around.
“What is this?” She has her hands over her mouth as she looks around.
“It’s your divorce party.” Kylie rushes up to her first. “The brute over here”—she points to me—“had me write the words ‘not’ on the ‘single and ready to mingle’ napkins.” She moves out of the way as her aunt Zara and uncle Evan come up to her to give her a hug.
Matthew and Max are next, with their wives, Karrie and Allison.
Then she sees her sister, Zara, and she bends her knees and looks like she’s going to sit on the floor. “You didn’t think I’d miss this party, did you?” She picks her up from the floor. “Come on, let’s get you changed.”
“I need a hug,” she hears from the side, and when she turns her head, she sees Matty there, and that is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
She literally sobs in his arms as he whispers something in her ear and she nods her head.
“I’m here until eleven and then I have to get on a flight to head back home. ”
“You came,” she croaks out when she lets him go, “all this way for me.”
“Lexi.” He looks at her. “I would scale Everest for you.” Then he looks at me. “After him, that is.”
“Let’s get her changed,” Zara urges, pulling her toward our bedroom. I watch her go and then turn to look at everyone. Zara comes out a couple minutes later. “You can go and get changed also,” she tells me. “I think she’s still in shock.”
I walk to the bedroom and open the door and stick my head in. She’s sitting on the bench in front of our bed. “You okay?” I ask her, walking into the room and she looks up at me with tears running down her face. “Baby.” I squat down in front of her.
“You planned that party?” she asks me and I look at her. “Like, you called Sofia.”
“Well, I couldn’t exactly plan a party like this without help.” I smile at her and put my hand on her cheek.
“But you called her—”
“Your mother gave me her number,” I cut in.
“You called my mother?” she asks, sobbing.
“Baby,” I say. “Lexi.” I kiss the top of her head as she cries.
“Do you know how big that was?” she asks me, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand.
“No.” I laugh. “I just figured it would be a nice thing to do.”
“No, Kirby.” She finally stops and smiles through her tears.
“For ten years I can count on one hand how many times he spoke to my family.” I look down at the floor.
“For ten years I’ve had birthdays that he would sometimes forget, and then other times make a big deal about it just in front of people.
But never…” She shakes her head. “Never did he reach out to my family to invite them to one.” Her bottom lip quivers.
“So you have given me in one day what he never gave me.” She leans forward and kisses my lips.
“You accept them, craziness and all, and never, ever back down.”
“Baby, they make you happy,” I finally say. “They are a part of you, of course I accept them. They may not like me half the time, but it’s not about me, it’s about you. It’s about making you smile. It’s all about you, baby.”
“I really want to do dirty things to you right now.” She gets up and I shake my head. “But my whole family is in your house.”
“Our house,” I remind her. “It’s our house.”
“That whole sentence, and that is the only thing that bothered you about it.” She shakes her head. “My whole family is here.”
“Almost,” I tell her. “Couple couldn’t come because they were playing, like Dylan and Michael. But they said they are going to help celebrate you this summer.”
“Kirby Materson,” she says my full name, “I love you so much. You are too good for me.”
“Oh please. Go get changed. They are waiting for you.”
She nods her head as she rushes to the bathroom, where I know her aunt Zara hung up the dress she bought her.
She is in and out of the shower by the time I head back in there.
I’ve showered and I’m sliding on my black dress pants when she walks into the room.
“Can you zip me?” She holds the dress to her chest, and I kiss her shoulder before zipping her up.
She turns and I take her in. Her hair is parted down the middle, very much like the first time I met her.
The dress is strapless and black and hugs her every single curve.
It looks like it dips in the front, showing off just a touch of skin.
It goes until her mid-calf, but there is a slit on her left side that goes all the way to the middle of her thigh.
Silver beading starts at the left hip and moves all the way up diagonally and then forms a flower that takes over the whole right side where her breast is.
She has diamond earrings that hang down to her shoulders, and she is wearing her black strappy heels that I love.
“How do I look?” she asks me and I slip my jacket on and smile at her.
“More beautiful than I’ve ever seen you look,” I answer her honestly.
“You have a lightness in your eyes now that radiates all over your face, and I plan on spending my days making sure that the look never goes away.” I grab her hand in mine and kiss the top of it. “Now let’s get out there, shall we?”
“I’m so excited,” she chatters when we walk out of our bedroom and she is giddy like a kid in a candy store.
I get to the steps that lead to the party and I whistle so I can get everyone’s attention. All eyes come my way when I say, “I present to you the newly divorced but still not single”—I wink at her, holding up the hand I’m holding—“Lexi Petrov.”