38. Colton
Chapter 38
Colton
“…I ’m saying one of us should propose.”
The clank of a weight machine being racked echoed through the room immediately as Cole sat up, looking like I’d smacked him with a dumbbell.
Xavi froze mid-sip of his protein shake, eyes wide, and slowly lowered it from his lips. “ What ?” he said. “Like, marriage?”
I glanced at the door of the arena’s gym. I’d already done two loops of the room, making sure there wasn’t another soul in here, but I was worried about that door opening at any second. And this wasn’t exactly something we could talk about at home with Annie there. “Yeah,” I said, crossing my arms and leaning back against the wall, sweat drying down my back. “One of us. Her. Married. Before the mess with the team and Elliot and her dad blows up in our faces.”
Cole blinked at me, his muscles tight from the weights, his brows raising. “Jesus, Colton, that’s not a small thing to just throw out there.”
“I know. I know ,” I snapped, immediately regretting my tone and flicking my hand in an apology. “But think about it. She’s pregnant. We’re all living together. We’re getting followed around by her psycho ex and her dad’s probably a few weeks away from just sending the goddamn feds or some shit and claiming we abducted?—”
“I am thinking about it,” Cole interrupted, his voice a little quieter now. “I just… honestly, out of the two of you, I wasn’t expecting to hear you say it. I thought it’d come from Xavi.”
“Yeah, well, apparently I’m last for everything,” Xavi grumbled, rolling his eyes as he sat down on the bench. Poor guy hadn’t stopped throwing his annoyance in our faces over being the last to say I love you .
I pushed the strands of hair that had slipped from my ponytail back from my face, a little frustrated, a little wired from saying it out loud. “I know it’s wildly fast. I know it’s insane. But she deserves the safety of it, the security,” I explained. “We know she’s going to start properly showing soon. She won’t be able to hide it under a jersey at games for that much longer. It’s only a matter of time before someone notices, and it leaks, and the team throws us under the bus for creating a scandal. But if she’s engaged to one of us? If we’re married ? It’s not some scandal. It’s just… I don’t know, unconventional.”
Xavi set his shake down on the bench beside him, blinking as he stared off into the middle distance. “We could take her with us to games without sneaking her around.”
“We could,” I agreed. “She could fly with us.”
“If we did it fast, she could get on the Fire’s insurance before the baby comes,” Cole said, his knee bouncing. “Her insurance is shit. You know they tried to claim her pregnancy was a pre-existing condition?”
“Christ,” I muttered.
Cole held up his hands. “Look, I’m good with it. I’ve already been thinking about it. But I’ve already been married, I had that privilege, so you two can decide between you who you want to do the legal part.”
Xavi stared at me, his mouth pressing into a thin line. “You want to do it, don’t you?”
I took a deep breath, not really wanting to fight about who should marry her when I was lying to myself and saying it was for convenience’s sake. But I wasn’t going to drag Cole in for even thirds if he wanted it to be between me and Xav.
“Yeah,” I swallowed. “I do. I’ve thought about it more than I probably should have, if I’m honest. I’ve wanted to since we got her back. I want to be the one standing up and saying she’s ours. But officially, on paper, if it has to be one of us, then yeah, man. I want it to be me.”
Xavi sucked his teeth, his head bowing a little bit.
“It wouldn’t mean anything would change. We could fuck off somewhere private and have a four-person ceremony. It would still be the three of us and her and our kid.” I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, hating having to shift into Serious Colton. “It wouldn’t be me taking her for myself, and I think I’ve already said that I’m perfectly content never doing a paternity test. We could all wear rings, all be symbolically married. We just can’t be on paper.”
“You’re not really giving much of an argument for you, specifically, other than you wanting to,” Xavi grunted. “I’m not worried about you taking her for yourself. I think she’d fight you if you tried.”
Cole snorted. “He’s got a point.”
“Look, we’re all crazy about her,” Xav sighed. “But I won’t lie and say I don’t want to be the one married to her legally. Plus, I’m older. The team will take it more seriously.”
“By two years. Neither of us is considered settled if that’s what you mean, it’s not like we’re squeaky clean from flames. If we were trying to make it believable, we’d have Cole do it.” I gestured in Cole’s general direction. “But it’s between you and me.”
Xavi dragged his tongue over his teeth as he looked at me. “Rock, paper, scissors.”
Cole barked out a laugh. “Seriously?”
“Fuck it, sure.” I pushed off the wall and walked over to Xav, dropping down beside him on the bench with one leg on either side. I put one hand out flat, palm up, and my other in a fist on top of it.
Xavi stared at my hands, his eyes wide, before swinging his leg over and facing me, assuming the same position.
Cole got up and took the two steps it took to be our referee.
“Rock.”
“Paper.”
“Scissors.”
“ Shoot. ”
I stared down at our positioned hands, my heart thumping wildly in my chest as I stared at what he’d played. Neither of us had gone for paper — we’d at least learned from that. But Xav had clearly been hoping I hadn’t.
He threw scissors.
And I had rock.
Cole let out a low whistle and patted me on the head like a child. “Colton wins.”
Xavi’s eyes were glued on our hands, his body unmoving. For a fleeting second, I worried he was about to punch me, but then his lips twitched at the corner and he let out the smallest breath of a chuckle.
“You know,” he said softly, his voice low, his hands lowering, “I really thought losing would bother me more than it did. But I actually feel okay about this.”
I didn’t think about it. I just moved.
I wrapped my arms around him, tugging him in close. “I’m proud of you, man. That’s growth. Real growth.”
He snorted into my chest. “Because I didn’t deck you?”
“Not just that,” I laughed, letting him go.
“I’m genuinely impressed, Xav,” Cole smirked, ruffling Xavi’s hair and sending little flecks of sweat flying. “You sure you’re good?”
He nodded once. “Yeah. I feel fine.”
I couldn’t stop the grin spreading across my cheeks. “So we’re all okay with me doing it?”
Cole and Xav glanced at each other before Xav gave a small shrug. “It was your idea. You’re the most impulsive if we don’t count throwing punches. Kind of feels right.”
Cole gave me a small, slow nod. “She’ll say yes.”
I swallowed. That hit somewhere deep. Unexpectedly deep.
Xavi nudged me gently with his elbow. “Since I lost, can I plan it?”
I chuckled and pushed up off the bench, careful not to knee him as I swung my leg over. “Yeah, man. Go for it. All yours. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
————
My phone buzzed in my pocket as Cole and I walked back to our cars in the parking lot of Peach Arena, the sun tipping at an angle, long shadows breaking up the harsh rays. I slipped it from my pocket and tucked the phone against my ear, glancing at Cole before speaking.
“Hey, sweetheart,” I said, nerves suddenly springing up in my stomach. I’d never been nervous to talk to her, to talk to any woman, but knowing what I was going to do made me feel like I’d run a marathon the moment I spoke to her. “What’s up?”
Cole stopped as he heard me talk, a brow quirking up in my direction.
“Hey,” she said down the line. I could practically hear the smile in her voice. “Did you talk to Coach Casey?”
“Oh, shit,” I faked, my lips twitching upward as I kept walking toward the car, Cole falling back into step beside me, his ear craned in my phone’s direction. “Completely slipped my mind. Guess you’ll have to go alone to your scan.”
“ Colton . Please tell me you’re?—”
“Of course I talked to him,” I chuckled. “I didn’t tell him exactly what it was for, but I’m cleared to have the day off. Don’t worry.”
“You asshole,” Annie hissed, but her voice shifted into laughter. “Had me scrolling through my contacts looking for Coach Casey’s number myself.”
“You literally made me set a reminder last night. I wasn’t going to forget.” I stopped just short of my Lexus. “We’re just leaving the arena now. Want us to grab dinner?”
“Oh my god, please, a Pub sub,” she blurted. “Buffalo chicken tender. Provolone. Ranch. Like, a lot of ranch. Wait, can I eat provolone? Let me check?—”
She went quiet for a second.
“Where’s Xavi? Why’s he not with you?”
My gaze flicked to Cole. Shit. She must have been looking at our locations — we’d set it up two days ago as a safety measure with the whole Elliot situation, but it was backfiring. “Where’s Xavi?” I parroted, hitting Cole’s chest to feed me a good enough lie.
Cole’s eyes went wide. “Uh… Shit, tell her he’s…” He pulled out his phone, opening up the tracking app.
“Are you trying to come up with a lie?” Annie deadpanned. “I can hear Cole.”
“No, of course we’re not trying to come up with a lie,” I lied. Cole zoomed in on Xavi’s location. Jesus. “He’s at Hobby Lobby.”
“I can see that. Why is Xavi Moreau at Hobby Lobby?”
“Can Xavi not have hobbies?”
She laughed, full and bright in that way that made my chest ache. “Colton. Seriously.”
“Listen, sweetheart, if you’re that keen to ruin a surprise, then I guess I’ll just have to tell you that?—”
“No! No, no, no, I like surprises, please don’t ruin it!”
I smirked. Knew it would work. Cole laughed, able to hear her objection even from a few feet away. “Okay, okay, I won’t ruin it,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Can you eat provolone?”
“Yeah, I can eat provolone.”