Reed's Reckoning

by Ahren Sanders

  “That doesn’t seem too bad. I bet it was a soccer mom or dad who either wrote it or sent the information to the online site. No one but parents refer to it as the ‘under four’ group.”

  “You’re probably right. It doesn’t bother me at all.”

  “Me neither. If that’s how we’re outed, it’s fine.”

  “I’ll go get Davis dressed.” He turns to walk out but I stop him.

  “Reed, let me do it. You need to talk to your mom. While Luke and Jack are getting ready, you have some privacy. Go to her and find out what happened last night. Then we can enjoy the day.”

  He nods his head in agreement and goes to his mom.

  When we get to the fields, I roll my eyes. Sophie and Grandma are waiting on us and Katy is decked out in her Red Hat apparel, including an eggplant colored sheath dress. She sticks out like a sore thumb. Amy is dressed nicely, but not nearly as over the top as my grandma.

  Davis is thrilled to have all these people here to cheer him on so he is an extra show-off during the game. Travis joins our crew and we holler words of encouragement while laughing. When the game is over, Katy and Amy leave for their luncheon. It’s been so many weeks now, the newness of Reed being here has worn off to the parents, but I notice a few people I’ve never seen before hanging around. Then I realize they are parents of the five to six year olds that play after us. A few of them approach Reed and he is cordial, but tries to stick close.

  We invite Miles and Travis to join us on the beach and they agree. Selfishly, I’m glad because Miles and Davis will keep each other entertained.

  The beach is extremely packed since it’s Saturday. The guys set up a tent for the kids and Reed gets my chair ready for me. He looks at me with heat in his eyes when I take off my cover up and reveal a new striped bikini that Sophie picked out. Then making sure the little boys are taken care of, he, Jack, Luke, and Travis take off towards the water with boogie boards.

  Sophie makes me tell her word for word what happened last night. Her hands twitche through the whole story and her lips set in a firm line. I watch Davis, making sure he isn’t listening, and thankfully he is involved with building a sandcastle.

  “You know I slapped her right?” Sophie asks.

  “I think Reed mentioned it, I was pretty out of it. How’d you even know it was her? You never met her.”

  “I watched you through the window and when you opened the door, your body deflated. I saw her hair and remember you describing her. Your scream and fainting triggered something in me and I filled with rage. I heard you whisper her name. It happened so fast. One minute we are on the patio and the next Luke was pulling me back. I wish I had a shot at that Alex b-i-t-c-h.”

  “I haven’t had too much privacy with Reed, but his mom told him that she got Cara settled in a hotel down the road. She will pick her up and drive her back tomorrow to Orlando. Amy instructed Cara to stay far away this weekend.”

  “Good call on her part.”

  “Yeah, I’ve always been a forgiving person, but I don’t feel so lenient this time.”

  “Nope, I would guess not.”

  We don’t talk any more about Cara, but I do have to listen to Sophie ogle Jack and his body. At one point, I tune out because all I have eyes for is Reed. His hard, rigid muscles glisten from the water and his hair is slicked back. He’s laughing with the other guys and turns to catch me staring. I try to turn my head but know I’m busted. He starts to stalk toward me but I shake my head violently.

  When he gets to my chair he leans over and drips all over me, and I squeal as I hold onto the sides of the lounger with all my strength. “Reed, no! There are too many people out here today. Not to mention the kids!”

  “Angel, I don’t really care. I want you right now,” he whispers.

  “Stop it; people are going to know what you are talking about.” I croak.

  “Oh, baby, there’s no doubt people know what I want. Any man on this beach who sees you wants this. Luckily, I’ve already staked claim. This afternoon, my shower, you wrapped around me.” He kisses me deeply twirling his tongue with mine until I need oxygen.

  He lifts back and kisses my forehead then adjusts his shorts, where there’s an obvious bulge. The other men start yelling at him from the water so he runs back down to them.

  “Jesus Christ, I need sex. My nipples are tingling from that little display.” Sophie mumbles.

  I don’t respond but blush slightly and shake my head.

  “Give it to me, let go.” Reed rolls his hips into mine and I groan.

  “Not yet, I want you with me.” I tug his hair and nip his exposed neck. The warm shower spray is hitting against my side and I’m pressed against the tile wall with my legs around his waist. We haven’t washed off yet and the smell of coconut oil and salt water fills the small space. I’ve been thinking about this since he kissed me on the beach and I want it to last.

  “Oh, baby, I’ll be with you on the second one.” He moves his fingers to my clit and rubs gently on the bare skin. The sensation sets me off and I convulse around him. My fingernails scrape down his shoulder blades trying to catch my breath.

  He pulls almost all the way out and then slams back into me. I arch my back and throw my head against the wall, thrusting hips in rhythm to his, which press my breasts higher. He takes one into his mouth and bites down harder than expected and I cry out.

  “Shhh, baby. We still have a house full of people.”

  “I can’t, it’s too intense.”

  “Angel, hold onto my shoulders.”

  I do as he says and he pumps faster into me. The movements hit me in the right spot and I try to pull back but he continues. The second orgasm hits full force and I squeeze my muscles as tight as I can taking him with me. He moans into my neck and slows.

  “God, I missed this.”

  “It’s only been two days.”

  “Two days too long.”

  “Reed, are you okay? You’ve been a little off today.”

  “Yeah, Angel, I’m fine. I wanted you to know how loved you are today. You are everything to me.”

  The words hit me hard. I stare into his eyes and know Luke talked to him. “You know don’t you?”

  He sighs and holds me tighter. “Yeah, babe, I know. And I swear to you for the rest of your life, you’ll never doubt how much you mean to me.”

  Chapter 21

  Reed

  “I’m going to hit the sack. DL asked me to sleep with him so I’ll be in there.” Luke tells me and goes inside.

  “There’s a couch with a sofa bed in the den.” I tell Jack, who is finishing up his cigar. “Ari laid clean sheets and a pillow in there for you.”

  “Thanks, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you inviting me this weekend. Ari’s really something special. For what it’s worth, I’m glad you found her again.”

  “Yeah, me too. You should tell mom and Ari your appreciation. They pushed me to call you on Friday.”

  “I know.”

  “There’s a big party here on the Fourth. You’re welcome to come.”

  “I wouldn’t miss it. Think Sophie will be here too?”

  “Yep, she and Ari are tight. From what I can tell, Sophie is a nut; she may give you a run for your money.”

  “I like a little spunk in my women.”

  “Good luck with that one.”

  “I’m going in, you coming?”

  “In a minute, I need a little time to think.” I open another beer and lean back on a deck chair.

  “Reed, you didn’t know. Luke didn’t tell us for you to beat yourself up.”

  “Well, I can’t help but feel regret.”

  “Man—”

  “No, Jack, I need a little time to let this sink in.” He looks like he wants to say something but I beat him to it. “You know how many woman I’ve been with over the years? Too many to count.”

  “That was before.”

  “You wanna know how many men Ari’s been with? Me; only me. I was fucking my
way to forgetting her while she sat around carrying my child. Then when he was born, she did the best she could. She dated a few guys, but the assholes couldn’t take coming in second. So she put her personal life on hold. That’s not all, knowing what I do now, I can’t get the image of a broken Ari out of my head. It’s fucking with me. So yeah, I need a few minutes to think.”

  “I’m here if you need me.” He pats my shoulder and goes inside.

  It’s almost completely dark with the exception of the moonlight illuminating over the ocean and a small lamp in the living room. I sit for a few minutes trying to make sense of everything that has happened. Even though I can’t see, I know she’s there.

  “What do you want, Cara?

  My sister steps out of the shadows and stops a few feet away. “Can we talk?”

  “Nope.”

  “Please, Reed, you have to let me explain.”

  “Thought you did that last night?”

  “I was upset last night and you made me talk in front of all those people. I got flustered. If you’ll just listen, you’ll understand.”

  “Let me summarize what I heard last night and you tell me what needs explaining. A spoiled, rotten bitch manipulated you into playing the part of my girlfriend to breakup with the woman I was dating. Instead of talking to me, you believed a bunch of lies and hurt a lot of people in the process. I sat around miserable and you watched me suffer so you could join the popular sorority when you transferred. Then you let me go on a dark and dangerous path of drinking and partying right before the biggest event in my life because I was trying to outrun the pain. Does that about sum it up?”

  “You make it sound so sleazy. I really thought I was doing the right thing. Alex—”

  “Don’t—don’t mention that cunt’s name to me. And the reason it sounds sleazy is because it was.”

  “I heard what you said to Jack. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I was waiting for you to be alone.”

  “So?”

  “Mom told me his name is Davis.”

  “So?”

  “So is there any way she was trying to trap you by getting pregnant all those years ago? Could Alex be telling the truth?!”

  “Are you kidding me? No. Fucking. Way. Ari found out she was pregnant the day you approached her. The way I figure it, it was a coincidence. But I realized last night Alex was the one who set me up on my side. Somehow, she got into my gym bag, planted the ‘Dear John’ letter, and turned off my phone. I can only guess she sent the text to Ari to meet her at the diner that day. It all seems so stupid now that I didn’t find Ari and make her talk to me.

  “Anyways, if anything, I would have loved for her to be pregnant. It would have made me ecstatic. Her carrying my baby, I loved her that much.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about him? About her? About any of this going on?”

  “Maybe because I was trying to be sensitive to the fact you lost your baby and I wanted to give you time to heal and come to terms with it.”

  “So I made a mistake. Can’t you forgive me?”

  “A mistake? You call what you did a mistake? I think it goes a bit beyond.”

  “You forgave Jack, why are you making me wallow?”

  “Are you fucking insane, Cara? I hardly think you are wallowing when you keep pleading your case and insulting Ari in the process. As for Jack, I wouldn’t say I’ve totally forgiven him. His lack of judgment put a gaping hole in our friendship, but he didn’t deceive me on purpose to go Greek!”

  “You—”

  “NO! Stop talking, just shut up. I can’t deal with your bullshit right now. You asked me if we could talk and I said no, but you’re still here so let me lay it on the line for you. You had your chance to walk away, but now you will listen to what I have to say.”

  I chug the rest of my beer and reach for another one. Then swallow half it in one tug.

  “Do you remember Draft Day, four years ago? You couldn’t go, but Mom and Jack were with me. I had spoken to possibly four teams that wanted me and had no idea where I’d end up. I was swept up in the press; all the sports talk interviews, the magazine articles, my picture was on a billboard in Times Square. I was paraded around the city with the rest of the number-one class. People shouted and screamed at us like we were celebrities. It was surreal.

  “The minute Jacksonville called my name and mom hugged me, it all sank in. When I got to that stage and shook the commissioner’s hand with my new team jersey over my arm, my mind flashed to two people, Dad and Ari. Not Mom, not you, not any of my coaches, or teammates, just Dad and Ari. I became a multi-millionaire that night. We celebrated with the best champagne we could order. I partied around the city before catching a flight to my new home and team the next day.”

  “Oh my God.” Cara’s voice cracks.

  “Yeah, now let me tell you another story about that same day. A brokenhearted twenty-one year old Arianna sits on the sofa in front of the television. She makes her best friend Luke stay with her all day watching the footage surrounding the draft. She’s roughly seventeen weeks pregnant, put college on hold, and has moved home. Her life is in shambles and she holds onto her stomach everywhere she goes to protect her baby.

  “So she watches me all day strut around New York City with a smile on my face and women screaming for me. When my name is called, Ari watched me hug mom, fist pump with Jack, and head to the stage to start my new life. She loses it. Her heart swells and breaks again at the same time. She watched the man she loved so much achieve his dream and at the same moment move on without her after promising her the world.

  “So she’s surrounded by Luke, Sophie, and her grandma now and is inconsolable. Her tears soak through her best friends shirt and sobs shake her body. For the first time in a while, she isn’t holding her stomach to protect our baby, she is too stricken. Her grandma noticed the blood first. Ari was bleeding and they were concerned she was having a late miscarriage. She refused any sedative in the ambulance and became stoic. She thought she killed our baby. Thank God, she was okay, but she was put on bed rest for a while and also given a mild anti-depressant. The doctor wanted her to see a psychiatrist, but she declined. She vowed to everyone in her life she would get better and be the best mother to our child. She later told Luke, she knew when my name was announced, our lives and dreams had been a fairytale she would never see come true and she hated herself for believing them. She never really questioned where my supposed girlfriend was because of the idea of an open relationship.”

  “That is devastating.”

  “You think that’s bad? Let me finish up this little bedtime nightmare for you. Ari did get better. She read books about parenting and healthy pregnancies. She did everything in the world to keep my baby alive after almost losing him, which she found out could have resulted in hemorrhaging and killing her too. But even though she was taking care of herself, she shut down emotionally. No one could get through to her. Her grandmother had a stroke and begged her to find me to let me know, but besides the draft, Ari’s last memory was of me taking a girl into my room when she showed up at my apartment to tell me about the baby. So when my son was born, he had only one parent listed on his birth certificate, and it isn’t me. My own flesh and blood is legally listed as having a mother only.”

  I finish my beer and reach for another. My run is going to suck in the morning, but hopefully Ari will go easy on me. We sit without saying anything, but Cara cries quietly. When she starts to hiccup, I can’t take anymore.

  “Go back to your hotel, Cara. I’ll drop Mom off after brunch.”

  “Where does this leave us?”

  “Right now, there is no us. I’ll let you know if I’m ready to talk.”

  I leave her outside on the porch and lockup the house. I turn off the small lamp and watch Cara walk around the house in the darkness. The engine of mom’s car starts in the driveway and I listen as she pulls away.

  Jack’s watching TV in the small den, he looks at me and sits up when I walk in. “I heard your
conversation.”

  “Was that because you’re nosy or because I was loud?”

  “I didn’t know who you were talking to so I opened the window for a sec. When I realized it was Cara, I shut it. But not before I listened to you retell the story. It was more devastating listening to it come from you than Luke.”

  “Yeah, probably because of how much I love her. He may be her friend but it’s a different scenario when you love her like I do.”

  “I can see that. So what’s next?”

  “Hopefully to have her in my hot tub tomorrow night when all you fuckers are gone and tell her how sorry I am. Then I move to the next phase in my plan.”

  “Gotta hear this, it outta be good.”

  I smile and him and fill him on the steps in ‘Operation Matthews’.

  Chapter 22

  Ari

  We had an eventful and emotional day. It was hard to sit with Reed while he retold the story of my breakdown, but he wanted his mom to know the extent of the damage Cara had been a part of. When we went for a run, it helped ease some of the tension, but he was still on edge. Luke decided to stay and go to the beach again but Jack left before we went to brunch.

  Amy doted on Davis and cried when we dropped her off. She promised to come a few days before the Fourth of July so she could help Katy and me with the food. I learned really quick that I would need triple the amount of food with the football players that were coming. Bobbie called and informed us that Lamar and Dwayne bragged about the party to a few other guys and the list of players grew.

  Davis fell asleep unusually early, but then again he had an exhausting weekend. As soon as we laid him down, Reed turned on the hot tub and told me to put on my suit. The idea of relaxing in the warm water sounds wonderful and I want the time alone with him. He’s been distracted all day.