Chapter 48
Chapter Forty-Eight
Penelope
“Are you sure?” Decker whispers.
“It’s time.” I step away, keeping my hand in his. “Hazel, let’s sit.”
“Is this about Decker being my daddy?” Hazel runs into the living room and throws herself onto a chair.
I pause for a second but sit on the couch and tug Decker down next to me. I think he’s thrown. I probably should’ve given him a heads-up, but this is having kids. You do things on the fly sometimes.
“It’s not about Decker being your daddy.”
“It’s not?” Her face distorts with displeasure, and I rear back, surprised by her reaction. “They said it would work. That all I had to do was get you guys to spend time together, and he’d be my daddy.”
I glance at Decker. He told me about Henry Hensley’s son, Bodhi, and how he likes to interfere in couples’ relationships. He alluded that Bodhi might have had something to do with us.
“Hazel, who is they?”
She sinks into the chair, looking anywhere but us.
“Hazel.” I use my stern voice, and she peeks up, seeing that this conversation will not end until she tells us.
“The boys… Lincoln, Bodhi, and Micah. Bodhi and Micah said they got his parents together. That they just had to push them together. So…”
Decker hasn’t said anything yet, and I feel as if I’m in a dark room and feeling my way to the exit with this one. I definitely didn’t think this was what she was planning the entire time.
“How did you push us together?” I ask.
She glances at the door.
“Hazel.”
She blows out a big breath. “The hula hoop talent show. They all saw how good Decker was at the field day, and Monroe said how she overheard Hayes and Leighton talking about you and Decker. I like Decker. I want him to be my daddy.”
I turn to Decker, whose eyes are wide open.
“Would you excuse us for a minute?” I ask him. He doesn’t need to be here when I tell her she can’t just appoint someone to be her daddy.
“I’d rather stay if it’s okay with you.”
My eyebrows crinkle. “You would?”
“Yeah.” He nods.
“Okay…” I slide my hand from his and go over to Hazel, kneeling by her chair. “Listen, honey, I know you’ve been wondering a lot of things about having a daddy. And you like Decker, but you can’t just pick someone, then trick them—”
“There wasn’t any tricking on my part,” Decker says.
I tilt my head and give him a look like I got this, just stay over there. “You lied and did things to have Decker take the time out of his schedule to teach you the hula hoop. And…”
I draw a blank, unsure how to even approach this the right way. It’s honestly brilliant that a group of elementary kids are such good matchmakers.
“May I?” Decker asks, getting off the couch and coming over to the chair. When I nod, he turns his attention to Hazel. “First of all, I’m honored, kiddo. That out of everyone, you’d want me to be your daddy. But I think what your mom is trying to ask is why?”
Oh yeah, that’s a good question. Shit, I have seniority here, and he’s trumping me.
“You love Mommy.”
Decker smiles at me. “What made you think that?”
“You always stare at her. You do nice things for her. You do nice things for me. Do you not love Mommy?” She frowns.
“Honey,” I say, realizing this is going the opposite direction of what I’d like.
“Yes, I love your mommy.”
“Then why can’t you be my daddy? Daddies love mommies, and mommies love daddies.”
Not all the time, but that’s a conversation for another time.
“It’s not really up to me to be your daddy. It’s actually up to your mommy and then you.”
I fall a little more in love with him.
Hazel turns to me. “Mommy, can he?”
I smile at my daughter. “Okay, listen, Hazel, I appreciate the effort you put into this, but I need to talk to Decker alone. We will revisit the daddy thing again. What we wanted to tell you”—I sit on the coffee table and take her hands—“is that I do love Decker, and he loves me, and we are dating.”
A big smile lights up her face. “So it worked? You’re together?”
“We are.” Decker nods and returns her smile.
“But that doesn’t make him your daddy. It might happen at some point, but not right now, honey.”
Her smile falls, and she glances at Decker, her little eyebrows drawn together.
“Listen, Hazel.” He stands. “Your mom and I just have to get some things figured out. Right now, we’re telling you about us, but it has to be kept a secret because there are some adult things we have to deal with first.”
“But you might be my daddy, right?”
“Hazel, I promise you—and you can ask your mom, I do not make promises I cannot keep, so believe me when I say—that one day I will be your daddy.”
“Yay!” She jumps off the couch and into his arms. He holds her as she buries her head into the nook of his neck.
He looks at me over her shoulder, and I nod because yes, one day he will be.
Of that I have no doubt. We just have to tackle one problem at a time.
The first problem being the asshole who isn’t returning my phone calls or emails, which I guess is his right.
But I don’t want any secrets between Decker and me when we get married, and there’s an urgency to get this handled.
Which is why I want to handle another problem right now.
Hazel draws back. “Can we go get ice cream tonight?”
“Sure,” Decker says.
And he thinks I’m the softie.
She gives me a hug, then runs upstairs, saying she has to change her clothes.
“She’s so you.” Decker gets up off the floor and sits on the couch.
I swivel around on the coffee table. “We need to talk.”
“I think I did pretty good there. And you know I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But, Decker, now that we’ve told Hazel, and we’re committed to this going the distance, I don’t want any secrets between us—except the obvious one I’m still working on being able to tell you. I want to explain why I never came back to your hotel room three years ago.”
We’d run into each other at the All-Star game and made plans to grab a drink together since it had been so long since we’d seen each other. One thing led to another, and our evening ended in his hotel room.
I see the old him wanting to emerge, wanting to close the gate between us. But instead, he says, “Okay…”
I run my palms down my legs and sit up straighter. “It was an amazing night, and I only slipped out while you were sleeping to get us some food. But as soon as I shut the hotel room door, Foster was coming out of his room.”
“I forgot he was there,” Decker says, probably recalling that they were on the same team. He told me that night it was the most uncomfortable game he’d ever played. “Did he say something?”
I shake my head. “He just stared at me, then your door, and made a sound and shook his head. It wasn’t a good sound.”
He frowns. “I didn’t think it would be.”
“I got all up in my head, started spiraling. I didn’t want to get between you guys.
A video showed the two of you talking during the game, and I thought, ‘There’s no way I can get in between them again.
’ I thought he’d always be between us—whether you had a relationship with him or not.
And what if we did try to make it work, and I introduced you to Hazel?
What if she fell in love with you and then you left?
Seeing Foster scared me. Because I felt that if it came down to it, you wouldn’t pick me.
You’d have to choose, and I would be the one left behind like all the times before. ”
Decker takes my hands and pulls me over to him, positioning me on his lap. “You don’t have to tell me any of this. I put that shit aside the minute we started this.”
“I know, but now with Hazel…”
He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. “It’s okay. It’s only been a few months. It was a long hard road to get here. I understand that it will take some time for me to earn your trust.”
I shake my head. “That’s just it… when you told Hazel you’d be her daddy someday, I didn’t feel any fear. I knew it was the truth. I’m not scared anymore, so I want you to know something else.”
“Okay.” He waits patiently for me to finish.
“I know you may get offers from other teams, that the Colts aren’t promising anything. What I’m saying is that wherever you go… we go.”
“Pen.”
“Yes, Decker. We’re not going to do this cross country. So, don’t worry about any of that when you’re talking to other teams. Make the best choice for you, and we’ll be by your side.”
He nods, although I know it will be one of many times I have to reinforce my point.
Hazel runs down the stairs in a new outfit and digs into her backpack from camp. “I forgot. Look what Bodhi gave me today.” She rummages through and comes over, handing something to Decker. “One of the bakeries is making these.”
Decker looks at the All Hands on Deck #HandsOffDecker cookie in the shape of a hand and shakes his head.
“Everyone wants Decker, Hazel, but guess what?” I pat Decker’s other leg, and she crawls up on it.
“What?”
“He’s all ours.”
She smiles at Decker and wraps her arms around his neck. “Yeah, he is.”
I kiss his temple, and we all share a hug.
No matter where we land, we’ll be together.