I’d tried not to think about the fact that my truck was gone. It was just an object; the only thing that mattered was that my sister was okay. “I’d be lying if I said it was okay.”
“I’m so sorry, Quinn. God, I’m such a fuckup. Why do I keep fucking up?” Her voice was laced with the same despair that I felt deep inside.
“Because I keep helping you.”
“What?”
I pushed to my feet and walked around to the end of the bed, gripping the footrail tightly. “I haven’t helped you get better. I’ve spent years putting a Band-Aid on something that needed stitches. Every time the wound opened up again, it was a little worse than it had been, but I was living in denial. I kept telling myself that this time, the Band-Aid was better, stronger, would last longer.” I swallowed the bile that was creeping up my throat, threatening to make me lose the only shred of courage that I had. “Jamie, I can’t fix this for you. Not this time.”
She pushed against the bed, wincing as she sat up. “How bad is it?”
“The police say that you’re looking at a year in prison.” The words were like acid as they left my mouth. How would my baby sister, the girl with big blue eyes and freckles on her nose, survive a year in prison? How would I survive knowing that’s where she was?
She fell back against the bed and sobbed, the sound punching me in the gut. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t sit back and watch her life crumble around her.
“I should have just died,” she moaned, her arm thrown across her face. “I’m nothing but a burden to you.”
“Don’t say that.” My voice cracked the same way it felt like my heart was cracking as I forced myself to say what needed to be said. “I would never be able to go on with my life if you died and I hadn’t done everything in my power to save you.”
“But you have! You’ve done everything. My entire life.”
“Not everything,” I murmured as I stepped around to the side of the bed and pulled her arm from her face. “Jamie. You have to go to a long-term rehab facility.”
“I can’t!” she cried. “I can’t spend months and months in rehab.”
I brought her hand to my mouth and kissed it, careful to avoid the IV that was taped in place. “Then I can’t take care of you anymore.”
The words burned, and my stomach churned.
Could I really cut her off?
I had no choice.
Georgia was right. She would never get better if I continued to make her life easy.
“Your other option is prison, Jamie. If you can’t do six months in rehab, how are you going to spend a year behind bars?”
“I don’t know!” She continued to sob, giant tears racing down her hollow cheeks and soaking the green hospital gown. “I don’t know how I’m going to do anything.”
Carefully, I settled onto the side of the bed and smoothed her hair from her forehead. “You’re going to do it with my love and support. Because I do. I love you so much. It’s always been you and me, and I will always be on your side.” I swallowed the lump and cleared my throat. “But it has to be your decision, and you have to do it on your own. I can’t fix you.” I clutched her hand between mine and brought it to my chest. “God, I fucking wish I could. I would pay any amount of money if I knew that you’d never have to fight this war again. But I can’t. You have to do it.” I pressed a kiss to her forehead as I stood. “I know you can do it. But you have to decide.”
Each step I took away from her killed me, but I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other as I walked out of her hospital room. I’d almost made it to the door when her voice stopped me.
“God sure does have a soft spot for dumbasses, doesn’t he?”
I smiled. The first real smile I could muster since this whole thing began and looked back at her over my shoulder. “Lucky for you, so do I.”
I slipped through the door and closed it softly behind me, sagging against the cold fake wood, and squeezed my eyes shut. For several minutes I stood there, fighting the urge to walk back in and tell her never mind, that I would never abandon her. When I finally felt a sense of peace, like maybe I had done the right thing, I opened my eyes.
Standing in front of me, reaffirming that I had made the right decision, was Georgia, her beautiful features lit in a sad smile.
I pushed away from the door and pulled her into my arms, nuzzling her neck and breathing in her scent. I needed her strength now more than I ever had before, and she was right there, her arms firmly wrapped around my shoulders.
I could do this. With Georgia’s love, there was nothing I couldn’t get through.
“How do you feel?” she asked when I loosened my hold on her waist.
I pressed a kiss to the soft flesh of her neck and mumbled, “That was the hardest play I’ve ever made. So, even though I feel like shit, I think maybe I just won the game.”
She tipped her head back and grinned. “Means you did it right. Lucky for you, I have the cure for shitty days.”
I cocked a brow. “What’s that?”
“Cinnamon sugar toast and Willy Wonka.”
Love surged through me. “It’s gonna take a lot more than one night of Willy Wonka to get me through this.”
“That’s okay. We have plenty of bread and I own the movie. We can take as many nights as we need to get us through this. Because we will get through it. All of us. Together.”
We.
Us.
Together.
In the span of six months, I’d gone from a guy who had nothing but a bad reputation and his kid sister to a man with the world at his fingertips and a family that cared about him. And it was all because of the woman who was staring at me, love shining through her perfect emerald eyes.
I crashed my mouth to hers, my kiss telling her everything that my mind couldn’t find the words to say. I loved her, I needed her, and I was so fucking thankful that I’d found her.
“I love you.”
31
Georgia
Six Months Later
“Did you know that prairie dogs talk to each other?” Allie chirped as she bounced on the balls of her feet. “Their language is more complex than dolphins.”
“Did you know that opossums can eat up to five thousand ticks in a single season?” I countered.
Her eyes lit up as she shook her head. “Wow! That’s so many.” She turned to her mother and planted a hand on her hip. “See! I told you that opossums weren’t gross.”
“Nope. Not gross at all. I have a little opossum named Henry that comes to visit me every night.”
Allie’s eyes widened, and her mouth fell open. “Mama! Can I have a pet opossum?”
“Not a chance!” Brooke groaned. “You’re lucky I let you keep your prairie dogs.”
She looked over her shoulder and then back to her mother. “I’ll go ask Uncle Aiden!”
Before Brooke could object, Allie skipped away. “Thanks a lot.”
I stifled a giggle. “Sorry.”
Brooke waved a hand. “I swear to God, if Aiden shows up at my house with anymore rodents, I am going to send Allie to live with him. He’ll be singing a different tune after a week trying to raise a girl.”
I looked over my shoulder to where Aiden was standing next to Quinn, the two of them in deep conversation. When Allie slid between the two of them, interrupting whatever it was they were talking about, Quinn’s face lit up in a wide smile.
It never got old, seeing him happy.
The last few months had been hard and full of changes, but through it all, Quinn had smiled so much more than before, and every time he pinned me with his beautiful sapphire eyes, a cheesy grin spread across his handsome face, I was reminded how damn lucky I was to have him.
“What’s it like?” I murmured as I looked back to where Griff’s beautiful blonde wife was seated next to me in the press box.
She tipped her head to the side. “What’s what like?”
“Being a mom and a wife? Raising a child and having a care
er?”
The line between her brows faded as she glanced down to the field, where her husband was playing in the biggest game of his career.
“A lot like the game of football,” she said, still watching the players below us. “The most exhilarating and frustrating thing I’ve ever done.”
My stomach fluttered, and I covered my belly with a hand. Would I feel the same way? Would it be as rewarding for me as it seemed to be for her?
“How did you manage to balance it all?” I prodded.
She finally tore her gaze away from the field and pinned me with a stare. With an arched brow she said, “With a lot of help from my friends.”
I nodded. Brooke was lucky to have Mel, and I was happy to be able to call them both my friends. Before the season started, Quinn had planned a getaway for his buddies and their families. It had been three days of the guys trying their hardest to relive their college days while I got to know Mel and Brooke. It had only taken an hour of talking to them both to know that we were going to be good friends, and we’d immediately made plans to get together as often as possible after that.
Brooke’s hand covered mine, and she leaned in close. “Are you pregnant?”
I looked around to make sure that no one had heard her question and then swallowed hard and nodded.
Brooke squealed, and I clapped a hand over her mouth. “Shhh! Quinn doesn’t know.”
Her eyes widened with understanding. “My lips are sealed.”
“We obviously weren’t planning this. I mean, I just got a new job.” I twisted my fingers together. “But my mom worked from home when we were kids, and it was nice having her there. I can’t imagine not staying home with my kids. And then, you know, Quinn’s career. I mean, obviously, he’s doing well here, but what if he gets traded and I have to leave my family? That would crush my mother. This will be their first grandchild, so you know they’ll want to spoil her. Or him. It doesn’t matter what it is, although I think Quinn would probably like a boy. I’d like a girl. I don’t know anything about raising boys. And my house. Oh my gosh, it is not baby proof at all. There are stairs and corners and a big stone fireplace. Maybe I should sell it and buy something safer. What if it’s too soon? Do you think it’s too soon?”
My heart was galloping as my mind spiraled out of control. I’d just taken the test a couple of days ago, but I’d forced myself not to think about it at all until I told Quinn. But saying it out loud to Brooke had broken the flood gates and every worst-case scenario that I’d ignored for three days came rushing out.
Brooke’s hand squeezed mine. “Woah, calm down. Take a deep breath.”
She eyed me as I did what she said, and when she seemed satisfied that I wasn’t going to have a meltdown in front of her, she smiled. “This is all going to be okay. I promise. When are you going to tell him?”
“I wanted to tell him tonight, after the game. Didn’t want to upstage Griff’s big day.”
Brooke laughed. “You mean like Aiden did?”
“Exactly.” I chuckled.
“Tell me this: how do you feel about having a baby?”
“Uhm…” I paused. How did I feel about it? I glanced back at Quinn and caught him staring at me. He gave me a lazy smile and winked, and every ounce of love that I possessed swelled in my chest. “Amazing,” I said as I turned back to Brooke. “The only thing I love more than Quinn is the thought of having this baby with him.”
Quinn
“Any update on your court case?” Aiden took a long pull from his beer after Allie finished begging for a opossum. The man had promised he would see what he could do, and I’d made a mental note to tell Georgia to quit telling everyone about Henry. Griff was going to kill us all if Allie spent the next six months begging for an oversized rat.
I groaned. That had been a fucking pain in my ass, dealing with my arrest, but luckily, my lawyer had been worth every penny I’d paid him. “Gonna have to do some community service, but it was my first offense, so I’m not looking at anything too serious.”
He shook his head. “Shouldn’t have taken the rap in the first place.”
Jamie had begged me to let her confess to the drugs being hers, but it wouldn’t have made a difference. There was no point in putting her through anything more. She was already in enough legal trouble of her own. “You do shit you shouldn’t do for the people you love. You, of all people, know that.”
“Touché, Miller. How is she, anyway?”
“She’s doing surprisingly well. She wanted to come today, but I told her no.”
Aiden frowned. “You told her no? I bet she was pissed.”
“Oh, totally.” Jamie had been in rehab for six months, and even though she’d completed the program successfully and could come home at any time, I’d stuck to my guns about not enabling her anymore. It had killed me to tell her that she couldn’t stay with me if she came home now. I’d pushed for the treatment facility to make her enroll in the mandatory year-long program, but they’d let her sign up for six months. I guess, though, that when Jamie had seen how serious I was about it all, she’d decided to stay for a while longer. I couldn’t think of a time when I’d been prouder of her, and I was hopeful that the next time I drove her home from rehab would, in fact, be the last. I tried not to be overly optimistic, but it was really hard when you cared about someone to not want to believe the best in them. Jamie was showing so much progress that I really thought this may be the end of our horrible battle. “She’s where she needs to be. There will be more Super Bowls.”
He laughed and elbowed me in the ribs. “Yeah, but who knows if you’ll ever get to play in one. Although, you did have a pretty decent season. Maybe she can catch you in next year’s Pro Bowl.”
“Ha. Ha. Whatever, dude, our team was pretty damn good this year. Griff’s was just better.”
The media had had a field day when they’d found out that the teams newly acquired running back was dating the team’s newly hired head coach. The speculation that it would cause conflict had given us the fuel we needed, and we’d made it to the playoffs, first time in years. It was the single best season of my career, with no fumbles and twenty-one touchdowns.
“Yeah, you weren’t bad, I guess.” He patted my shoulder and tipped his chin across the room to where Mel had joined Brooke and Georgia. “How are things with you two?”
“Pretty damn good. They’d be better if you hadn’t upstaged me earlier,” I grumbled.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
I patted the pocket of my jeans. “I was going to propose to her tonight, after the game, but you ruined that. I thought this was supposed to be Griff’s big day, then you go and get down on one knee in front of the entire world.”
Aiden’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “You were going to propose? You two haven’t been together long enough for that.”
“Oh,”—I smirked—“am I supposed to wait nine years like you did before I finally come to my senses?”
“Asshole. You know we had a lot of…obstacles in our way.”
Aiden and Mel had definitely taken the long way to get their happy ending.
I looked at where Georgia sat with her back to me, her long auburn hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail. “My whole life I’ve wanted a family, and she’s given me that. Her parents and brothers have welcomed me with open arms. I don’t need anymore time with her to know that I want her to have my babies and spend my life showing her how incredible she is.”
“Well, when you know, you know,” Aiden said, patting me on the back one more time before excusing himself to go grab another beer.
I watched as Georgia’s head fell back, her mouth open in laughter at something Mel had said.
She was beautiful.
She was fiery.
She was so damn funny.
And tonight, after we celebrated Griff winning the Super Bowl and Aiden and Mel’s engagement, I’d take her home and in her perfectly landscaped garden, I’d get down on one knee and make her
mine.
Because no matter what happened in the future with my sister or my career, as long as I had Georgia by my side, I could face anything.
Epilogue
Griff
Seven Years Later
Brooke’s shrill scream from the bathroom jolted me out of the afternoon nap I’d just laid down for. I jumped out of bed, my mind foggy from sleep and crossed the large bedroom.
She screamed again as I threw the door open. “Are you okay?”
“Oliver!” she shouted around me, her face ghostly white. “Get in here!”
I looked around the oversized master bathroom for the cause of her panic, but there was nothing but a discarded bathing suit on the floor. “What is it?”
“Your son!” she said, her hands clutching the towel that was wrapped around her body.
She didn’t need to say another word. Our seven-year-old son was the joy of our lives, the baby that we weren’t ever sure we’d be able to have. He was also a total boy, completely different from Allie in almost every way. “Ah, what’s he done now?”
“Ol-i-ver!” she yelled again. “Get in here!”
A second later a blonde haired, crystal blue eyed little boy that was the perfect mix of Brooke and myself came skidding into the bedroom, his cheeks pink from too much sun. “Mom!” he shouted. “I can’t find Tofu!”
He was shirtless, a bathing suit that was a size too big barely hanging on to his skinny hips. There was a trail of sand behind him, no doubt falling out of the netting of his swim trunks. “I just went to feed him and he isn’t in his house!”
Brooke’s eyes narrowed on our panic-stricken son. “That’s because he’s in my shower!”
The fear that was etched in Oliver’s face melted away as he pushed his way into the bathroom and slung the shower door open. “Tofu!” he breathed as he reached in and picked up the crested gecko from the cool tile. “How’d you get in here?”
The Hardest Play Page 22