Jessica stared at Austin.
“What?” he asked.
“You’re just going to let her talk to me like that?”
“Jessica,” he began, massaging his temple, “For somebody that had nothing to say to me when she was sailing on a yacht in the middle of the Atlantic, and didn’t want to even talk to me afterwards, I’ve been seeing you a lot lately. What are you even doing here? You don’t come to places like this.”
She cradled the base of her throat. “I came here because I missed you, Austin. I remembered that you took me here for one of our dates, so I stopped in because it makes me think of you.”
Suddenly, he gestured to the seat next to Arielle. “Sit.”
“What?”
“Sit. I want to hear what you have to say.”
Arielle shot him a look, but he ignored it as Jessica slid onto the padded leather seat and placed her oversized purse on the table.
“Here’s your chance, Jessica, and this will be the only chance I’ll give you. Talk.”
She glanced nervously between him and Arielle, and just as he expected, she had nothing to say.
“I don’t know what—”
“Why’d you run off with Remos?” Austin interrupted.
“I think we all know the answer to that one,” Arielle argued.
“You’re right,” Austin agreed. “Why did you leave me then? Is that a better question?”
Surprised, Arielle glanced at her brother. The evidence of the hurt Jessica had caused by walking out on him was still evident on his face. People who pretended to care about him and then turned out to be exactly who they said they weren’t had always been his Achilles heel. It also didn’t take a psychiatrist to figure out that it had everything to do with who their father had been.
“I don’t know, Austin,” Jessica answered, and some of the driest tears that Arielle had ever seen began to form at the corners of her eyes.
“How long were you involved with Remos before the tabloids spilled your little secret?” He pressed.
She bit her lip. “Four months.”
“So, you were sleeping with me at the same time you were screwing him?”
He didn’t wait for an answer.
“Why didn’t you return any of my messages after I found out?”
Arielle folded her arms, also waiting for an answer.
“I was ashamed, Austin,” Jessica cried. “I didn’t know how to face you knowing what I did, so I just avoided it and hoped for the best.”
“And what was the best?”
“For you to forget.” She fished a tissue from her purse and dabbed gently at her eyes. “I just hoped that with time, you would forget about me. Forget about what I did. I know I’d hurt you because you’re a good man, Austin. You treated me like a queen and I didn’t even want to meet your family. I refused to cancel minor engagements to come to your games. I lied to you. I kept things from you. All I could hope was that you would forget about me and move on.”
Austin smiled as an image of Sommer skated across his mind. “Well, you got your wish.”
Her tears instantly dried up.
“I’ve moved on. I got over you.”
Both Arielle and Jessica stared at him.
“She’s perfect for me, and I love her,” he added.
“Who is she?” Jessica demanded.
Standing, he tossed a few bills onto the table and nodded towards the door. “Ready to go, Arielle?”
Arielle exaggerated the grin that spread across her face, glad that Jessica had been put in her place. Now, she was curious about who it was that Austin claimed he was in love with. She would be disappointed that it wasn’t Sommer since she’d always dreamt that the two would end up together, but Sommer had been away on vacation for the past few months and was most likely with the father of her baby anyhow. Either way, she was happy for him. She was happy for them both.
“Right behind you,” she said, taking one last look at Jessica. Wrapping an arm around his waist, they continued to chat as they left the burger joint.
When they got to the house, Austin spotted the SUV parked in the garage which meant that Sommer and her mother had made it back and were hiding upstairs like they’d planned.
Inside, his mother was on the floor playing with the twins while Aria and Isabela danced to music coming through the stereo. Arielle rushed over and jumped right in, eliciting giggles from both daughters. Austin watched them for a moment, even more excited than he was before, and then ran upstairs to get Sommer. When he saw her, it was as if he hadn’t seen her in ages, and he wrapped her up in a hug before pulling her in for a deep kiss. When the kiss finally broke, she blushed and glanced at her mother.
“No need to be embarrassed, baby,” Caroline reassured. “You’re already pregnant. There’s not much more damage he can do.”
Austin laughed, brushed a kiss across Caroline’s cheek, and then led them both by the hand down the stairs. When they reached the main room, Arielle was the first to spot them and let out a shriek that he was sure had cracked a few of the glasses in the cabinets. Emma eased up off the floor and her mouth fell open when she spotted a pregnant Sommer with her son’s arms lovingly wrapped around her from behind.
Arielle sprinted over and grabbed Sommer up in a hug. “I saw you,” she accused, tears in her eyes. “I saw you at Stella’s office. Are you trying to tell me that you were actually sitting there pregnant with my first niece or nephew?”
She paused.
“Niece,” both Austin and Sommer answered, and Arielle looked as though she would pass out.
Emma was now beside them, still in shock. From the very first time they met in preschool, when Austin had asked Sommer to play race cars with him and she’d tossed the cars clear across the room, Emma and Caroline joked that they would end up married one day. Then, with the way she would always catch Austin staring at Sommer with that little smile on his face when he thought no one was paying attention, completely hypnotized by her, both women began to realize how real the possibility of their children ending up together could be.
Her eyes darted to Caroline. “You knew all this time and kept it from me.”
Caroline chuckled. “And it was so hard, Em. I wanted to show you all the things I’d bought for my granddaughter and gush over what she might be like.”
Emma pulled Sommer in for a loving hug and kissed her on the cheek. Then, she pinched Austin on the forearm.
“For keeping secrets from your mother.”
“Ow, Ma.”
She smiled and he bent to also receive a kiss on the cheek.
“When’s the baby due?” Arielle asked.
“In eight weeks,” Sommer answered.
She quickly calculated in her head. “That’s close to the championship game, isn’t it?”
“She’s due the week after,” Austin answered. “But I’m not worried. I’ll be there for both.”
Sommer leaned into his chest. “Austin’s been putting up the best numbers of his career, so I know they’re going to the big game. And, once they do, Dallas is going to shut the house down. I’m actually hoping she arrives before the game so that she can be there for Daddy’s victory.”
He kissed the top of her head and received a chorus of “awws” from the three women.
“So freakin’ cute,” Arielle screamed.
“What are you going to name her?” Emma asked.
“They won’t say,” Caroline answered.
“We want it to be a surprise,” Austin added.
“More surprises?” Emma placed a hand over her heart. “I’m still reeling from this one. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am about the baby, about the two of you.”
The doorbell chimed.
“I’ve also invited some of the guys from the team over,” Austin added, walking towards the door. “Then, because I know you two want to buy gifts, you can throw Sommer a baby shower later.”
“But you can’t buy any more gifts,” Sommer said, turning to
Caroline. “You probably cleaned out the entire state of North Carolina.”
Caroline innocently shrugged.
Austin opened the door and started to greet Trent, but then his eyes moved to Alexandrina standing next to him.
“I made her swear to keep quiet about Sommer,” Trent reassured.
“No offense, Drina, but you’re Jessica’s cousin,” Austin said, unconvinced that Alexandrina’s word meant anything. Her loyalty historically always lay with her family.
“I really won’t,” she promised. “I just wanted to be a part of this celebration with you.”
Austin knew that was a lie, but he didn’t press the issue. The main reason that she’d tagged along was because Alexandrina never let Trent out of her sight. A few years ago, she’d found out about a woman that he’d been sleeping with in Denver and went ballistic, almost taking his head clean off with a ceramic cleaver. Ever since then, Trent buckled down on his fidelity and she’d ramped up her surveillance.
The next reason that she’d probably tagged along was simply because she was nosy. She wanted to check Sommer out so she could compare her to Jessica, and there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t blab to her cousin once she did. If she did blab that Sommer was pregnant, it wouldn’t be long before reporters would be knocking down their door to interview her. The very last thing that he wanted was for Sommer to feel pressured, uncomfortable, or unwelcome.
But since they were already on his doorstep and there wasn’t much else he could do, Austin ushered them in. Eventually, Cason and his girlfriend, Amelia, arrived, both who he trusted completely because they’d also kept their relationship out of the public eye for some time. Sommer and Amelia had also built a friendship that Austin had enjoyed watching develop since it helped Sommer feel more rooted in Texas. Then, it was Walter and his wife, Tank, the head coach, and a few other people in his life that he kept close.
The event carried on without a hitch. Sommer blushed as she opened gifts, each one more unique than the other as if everyone had been in competition to have the most memorable present. Afterwards, everyone mingled and enjoyed cake, ice cream, and punch.
At the end of the evening, after the last guest had left, Emma pushed Austin and Sommer upstairs and urged them to shower and go to bed while she, Caroline, Walter, and Arielle stayed downstairs to clean up.
After taking a shower and saying goodnight to his nieces and nephew, Austin stood in the bedroom doorway and watched Sommer as she sat cross-legged on the mattress with a baby book perched on her stomach. As her body had changed over the past several months, she’d grown even more beautiful than he could ever imagine. The smile that had twisted his stomach into knots several times over the years had grown more radiant, the arms whose smooth skin he loved to caress had turned into the true meaning of home, and the voice that he’d always searched for in classrooms, crowds, and even other women, was the sound that centered him whenever his world tilted even slightly off its axis. He used to believe that it was impossible to love someone eternally, but the thought that he could ever stop loving Sommer, for any reason at all, was the most absurd thing he’d ever come across in his life.
“I love you,” he said from the doorway.
Her head popped up. “Huh?”
Walking towards her, he sat along the edge of the bed near her legs. “I’m in love with you, Sommer, and I’ve fallen so far that you’d have to go all the way to hell just to pull me back.”
She closed the book and set it on the nightstand. “Really?”
He laughed. “Really.”
“For how long?”
It was the perfect question.
“That I’ve loved you? It might be a better question to ask when was it that I didn’t.”
Her head fell and she nervously twiddled with her fingers. Then, when she looked up, her eyes were sparkling with tears.
“I love you too, Austin,” she replied, biting on her bottom lip to keep from bursting completely into tears. With a sigh, he pulled her into his arms and wiped the moisture away from her cheeks with his thumb before pressing a kiss against her eyelids.
“Why didn’t you say it before if it’s been all this time?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Honestly, Sommer, I don’t know.”
“Were you afraid that I didn’t feel the same way about you?”
He tilted her head and brushed a kiss across her lips. “Even if you’d told me that you couldn’t stand my guts, I’d probably keep telling you that I love you until you got sick of hearing it.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think I could ever get sick of hearing that.”
“Good.” He kissed her again. “Because I love you.”
“I love you too.”
They climbed into bed and she contentedly nestled deep into his body. As she drifted to sleep, he stared at the ceiling with a small smile on his face. All this time, Jessica’s face had been infiltrating his thoughts because he’d lacked closure. It wasn’t that he didn’t love Sommer or that it was never going to be the right time to tell her. Intuitively, he’d known that telling her before completely addressing his anger towards Jessica would have been unfair to her. He needed to be assured that he was all in. And he was all the way in. For the long haul.
Now that they had the house, the baby, the life together, the love, and the support of their families, there was only one thing that he could think of that was still missing. One thing that was still needed to make their little family complete.
*****
“That was nice, wasn’t it?”
Trent spread a layer of toothpaste onto his brush and peeked out the bathroom door at his unusually silent wife. He found her sitting at the edge of the bed staring at the nightstand, her hands moving mindlessly together, coaxing a coat of lotion to absorb.
“Dree?”
She stirred. “Oh, I’m sorry, Trent. What were you saying?”
“That it was a nice party.”
She scooped another dollop into the palm of her hand. “Yes, it really was.”
He turned to the bathroom mirror. “Austin loves that woman, I can tell. I thought he was crazy at first, getting all depressed over one woman when women all over Texas were practically handing him their panties, but I get it now. They’re good together. Plus, and don’t get mad Dree, Sommer’s pretty easy on the eyes.”
When she didn’t respond a second time, he spat into the sink and peered out again. “Something bothering you, baby?”
Replacing the cap on the jar, Alexandrina walked across the room and placed the lotion on the dresser. Tightening the ties of her silk robe, she shook her head.
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m going to go check on Chloe.”
Then she left, the tail of her robe swishing behind her as she padded across the hall to their daughter’s room. Slipping inside, she peeked into the crib to make sure that Chloe was soundly asleep. Then she took a seat in the nearby rocking chair and pulled out her cell phone where the screen displayed a third missed call from Jessica. Glancing at the door to make sure that Trent hadn’t followed, she pressed the button to return Jessica’s call.
“Where have you been?” Jessica answered, her voice teetering between anger and panic. “I have been trying to reach you for hours.”
Alexandrina glanced at the door again. “I’m sorry, Jessica. I was out with Trent. Is everything okay?”
She heard Jessica slam a door shut. “I saw Austin today,” she revealed. “He told me that he is in love with another woman.”
Alexandria cringed. “Oh, I am so sorry to hear that. Are you okay?”
“Of course I’m okay.” Then after a moment of silence, she added, “I am not okay. How can he claim to already love another woman when not that long ago, he said that he loved me?”
Alexandrina sighed and leaned back into the rocking chair. “Men, that’s how they operate. You know of the problems I had with Trent.”
“But that’s different,” Jessica countered. “Trent didn’t love thos
e women. He only slept with them. Austin, he says he loves this woman, but if that’s the case, why have I not heard of her?”
Don’t say a word, Alexandrina’s mind urged. Biting her lip, she listened as her cousin continued.
“I know that, after we broke up, he went to some charity event with that green-eyed violinist woman. What was her name again?”
“Victoria Ellington,” Alexandrina replied. “And it’s not her.”
Immediately, she put her hand over her mouth and prayed that Jessica hadn’t picked up on her slip. Unfortunately, it was already too late.
“It’s not her? What does that mean?”
Alexandrina pressed her lips together.
“Tell me what you know,” Jessica demanded.
Chloe stirred in the crib and Alexadrina rose to check to make sure that she hadn’t woken up. “I might know something,” she admitted, stroking Chloe’s back. “Tonight, I went with Trent over to Austin’s. It was for a party. The girl was there.”
A sound broke through the phone as though Jessica had banged her cell. Then a few seconds later, she reappeared on the line. “So, she is real?”
“Yes, very real.” Alexandrina refastened a button that had come loose on her daughter’s pajamas.
“Do I know her?”
“No.”
“Should I know her?”
“No. They grew up together. She’s from his hometown in North Carolina.”
Jessica paused and Alexandrina already knew what question was going to follow.
“Is she hideous?”
Alexandrina took a moment to mull over her answer. On one hand, she could tell the truth about Sommer’s flawless, radiant skin, charming smile, and captivating brown eyes, but that would only make Jessica feel worse. However, if she lied, Jessica would know. She always seemed to know.
“You’re taking too long to answer,” Jessica resigned. “That means she is gorgeous.”
“And she wasn’t even wearing makeup when I saw her,” Alexandrina added. “Very beautiful Black girl. She even has a pretty name. Sommer.”
“Ay dios.” Jessica touched a hand to her forehead. “So, what was the party for? Are they getting married? Was he announcing his engagement?”
The Game of Love: (BWWM Romance) Page 12