by Aimie Grey
“I know. You deserve the best.” He leaned over and kissed me after we settled into the blue chairs.
“But how…?” I looked around in amazement. I was close enough to reach out and touch a player.
“I have connections,” he said with a shrug.
“You’re amazing. I can’t believe you did this for me.” How many guys would go to this much trouble for a girl? I didn’t want to set myself up for disappointment by reading too much into it, but this was goddamned romantic. Looking across the field at the other team, I was shocked to see his home team sitting across from mine. It was the same matchup we’d watched in the bar the night we met.
I wanted to remember this night forever. I leaned close to him and held out my phone. I pressed my cheek against his and snapped a photo of us to commemorate the event. I clicked the button again when he turned and kissed me deeply.
“Will you send those to me?” he asked. My eyes were on my phone for a few seconds as I texted him the pictures. He was taking off his jacket when I looked up. For the first time that night, I saw what he was wearing underneath. Even though his team was in the building, his jersey matched mine.
I looked deeply into the eyes of the man who had become the center of my world. My life changed forever in that moment. I realized I was desperately in love with him. My heart belonged to a man who didn’t believe in love—I only wished I could tell him.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Madison
“When did you get so impatient?” Sawyer asked me with a grin.
“Since you started coming up with elaborate surprises,” I replied. We were on a plane to California less than forty-eight hours after he had taken me on the most amazing first date in history. He’d parked his SUV at the Indianapolis airport before I realized what was going on. By that time, it was too late to argue because the tickets had already been purchased. I didn’t want to think about the massive amounts of debt he was racking up from this trip.
“You don’t seem to mind when I’m impatient for your body,” I teased. I figured we were going to meet up with my family at Disneyland, but Sawyer would neither confirm nor deny my suspicions. I began to doubt my guess after we landed at LAX and headed north instead of south.
“Do we need to pull over?” he said with a panty-dropping smile.
“I think I can wait a little longer. I just hope our destination has a bed.” I reached over to the driver’s side of the rented SUV and ran my fingers up the inside of his thigh.
“I might not be able to wait if you don’t stop that,” he said using his bedroom voice.
“I’ll stop if you tell me where we’re going.”
“We’re here,” he said as he parked the truck in front of a gorgeous house. Actually, ‘house’ was too small of a word for it; ‘estate’ might have been a better fit.
I stepped out into the warm California sunshine. “Where are we?” I asked.
“Beverly Hills,” Sawyer replied casually. He walked over to me and took my hand. He lifted our entwined fingers to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of my hand. “Are you ready to meet my parents?” he asked.
“What?” My eyes widened to comical proportions.
“My mother’s birthday is today. I want you to meet her,” he said casually. He guided me toward the house as we spoke.
“I look terrible. We just got off of a five-hour flight. Why didn’t you warn me?” I was almost in full-blown panic mode. I didn’t have time to process the possible meaning of his bringing me to meet his family.
The door opened before we had a chance to knock. “There’s my baby!” a beautiful middle-aged woman exclaimed. She clasped her hands in front of her chest. Pure love radiated from every inch of her svelte, five-foot-three frame.
“Hi, Mom,” Sawyer said. His smile took up most of his face as he lifted the woman in a warm embrace. “Happy birthday.” He planted a kiss on her cheek and then set her back on her feet.
Sawyer’s mom beamed at her son for a moment before she noticed me standing behind him. “Oh, hello there,” she said with a cautious, yet friendly smile. “I didn’t realize you were bringing a guest,” she said to Sawyer.
“Mom, this is Madison. She’s my…” Sawyer’s lips made the shape of a ‘g,’ but no sound emerged. Touched by his intentions, I decided to let him off the hook.
“Friend,” I finished for him.
“She’s not my friend,” he said. He closed his eyes and squared his shoulders in determination. “She’s my g-girlfriend.”
I wished it hadn’t been so hard for him to say, but I’d take whatever progress I could get.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Ramsay.” I held out my hand to his mother.
Shock painted his mother’s face. “I never thought I’d see the day!” she exclaimed. She took my hand and pulled me into a hug. “Call me Jeane.”
“That’s not all, Mom,” he continued carefully. “We’re going to have a baby.”
His mom pulled back and looked me over from head to toe, her eyes stalling on my flat stomach. I wondered if he’d just thrown me to the wolves.
I melted with relief when her face lit up with joy. “I’m going to be a grandma again? Am I actually going to get to see this grandbaby?”
“Of course,” I said. It warmed my heart to know my baby would have such a loving grandma.
“This is the best birthday present ever,” she said. “Now come on in and get settled. You two must be exhausted. I put fresh sheets on your bed.”
Sawyer squeezed my hand to remind me of our conversation on the ride over. “We are pretty tired. Is it okay if we take a nap before dinner?” he asked as if it were no big deal to have a woman in his childhood bed under his mother’s roof.
“Of course. Dad won’t be home for a few hours anyway, and I have some errands to run.” She paused and looked up into her son’s eyes. “I’m so glad you could make it. It’s been way too long.” She hugged him one more time. “I just wish your brothers could be here, too.”
I followed behind Sawyer as he carried our shared suitcase up the staircase. “This is the fanciest house I’ve ever been in,” I whispered. “I’m afraid to touch anything.”
He laughed. “I grew up in this house. I guess I never thought of it as fancy.” He stopped at the third door on the right side of the long hallway. “You can just keep your hands on me if you’re really worried.”
He pushed open the door to a room as large as my living room and kitchen combined. “Here it is,” he said as he set the suitcase on the floor just inside the door.
“It doesn’t really look like a teenager’s room,” I said. The room was sparse with clean lines and masculine colors.
“That’s because I lived here until I was twenty-five.” I detected a slight rosy hue creeping up his cheeks.
“Oh, wow.” I didn’t know what to make of that tidbit of information.
“Yeah, I know.” He pulled me into his body and closed the door. “I’ve never had a girl in here before.” He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine briefly. “I’ve had so many fantasies of fucking you in here.”
“I thought you were tired.” I ran my hands up his chest. “Aren’t you uncomfortable with the thought doing it in your parents’ house?” I certainly was, but—as usual—my body didn’t give a shit about what I thought of the situation.
“I’m going to be way more uncomfortable if we don’t do it.” He guided my hand to the straining bulge in his pants.
“I wouldn’t want that,” I said and then melded my lips to his.
*
“When’s the baby due?” Sawyer’s father, Robert, asked as we sat in the living room after Jeane’s heavenly birthday dinner.
“The end of April.” I smiled when Sawyer laid his hand on my belly.
“You’re early in your second trimester now?” Jeane asked. I nodded. “You’re so lucky to still have your figure. I was already in maternity clothes by that time when I was expecting Thomas. With Finn, I think I
started showing the day after I got pregnant.” We shared a laugh; however, I felt bad that Sawyer couldn’t hear her telling stories like that about him.
“My mom didn’t show until she was eight months along. I guess I inherited her roomy hips.” I smiled at the thought of my mami. I missed her so much. “I just hope it’s warmer by the time I start to show. I might be able to get away with wearing some of my sundresses and not have to buy maternity clothes.”
“Shopping for maternity clothes is half the fun of being pregnant,” Jeane said. I didn’t really enjoy shopping, and even if I did, I couldn’t afford a new wardrobe. “The only other enjoyable part is shopping for the baby. Are you going to find out the sex?”
I looked at Sawyer. “I’d like to. I don’t think I can wait that long.”
“You’re the mommy. You can have whatever you want,” Sawyer said with a warm smile. “I want to know, too. It will make it easier to settle on a name.”
“Do you have anything in mind?” his dad asked. “I think Robert is a mighty fine name.”
“No offense, Dad, but I kind of want the baby to have his or her own name, if that’s okay with Madison, of course.”
I was feeling a lot of pressure and wanted to move on to another topic. “We still have a long time to decide. Maybe we should wait to choose until we meet her.”
Sawyer seemed to pick up on my anxiety. He was incredibly in tune with my feelings, even though we’d only been actively together about a month if you counted the week after the attack.
“How’s Finn doing?” Sawyer asked. “Has he come to his senses yet and kicked Kristy to the curb?”
His mother’s face hardened. “No, not yet. They are on some sort of second honeymoon right now.”
I felt like an intruder as the tension in the air increased exponentially. I could tell there were many things being left unsaid for my benefit. “I’m getting pretty tired. I think I’ll head on up to bed if that’s okay,” I said.
“I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t realize it was so late,” Sawyer said with concern in his voice. He grazed my temple with his lips. “Go on to sleep. I’ll be up in a little while.” He walked me to the staircase, where he gave me a proper goodnight kiss.
I admired the photographs hanging on the wall as I climbed the stairs. Sawyer was an adorable child and even cuter during his self-proclaimed ‘awkward’ phase. I stopped at the top of the stairs to examine what must have been a fairly recent family portrait. Everyone looked so happy to be together—everyone except for a woman standing in the center of the back row. The coldness evident in her expression was completely out of place with the rest of the Ramsays. I leaned in to take a closer look.
“Holy shit,” I muttered to myself. Kristy Henderson.
*
“I thought you were going to sleep,” Sawyer said when he came to bed a few hours later.
“Did you know?” I asked. I couldn’t help the bite of anger in my tone.
“Did I know what?”
“Did you know that my Kristy was your Kristy?”
“She is not my Kristy,” he growled.
“You didn’t answer my question.” He had to have known, or he would have denied it by now.
His shoulders rounded as he sat on the edge of the bed. “I found out the night you were attacked. It was her idea to go to the club. I only went along to spend time with my brothers.” He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “I figured it out when she started talking shit about you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” My chest hurt as I wondered what else he was keeping from me.
“I was afraid you wouldn’t want to be with me if you found out I was related to her.” He diverted his eyes.
I really didn’t want to have any kind of connection to her, but Sawyer was worth it.
“At first I was too preoccupied with your condition to worry about it,” he said. “Then when things worked out between us, I didn’t want to give you a reason to leave again.”
“It’s not your fault that your brother is stupid.” I took his face in my hands to bring his eyes back to mine. “It really hurts that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me.”
“I’m an idiot when it comes to relationships…or whatever this is between us. Please, give me some leeway to make mistakes. I promise I won’t make the same one twice.”
“What if she had been here tonight?” I couldn’t imagine what might have happened.
“I made sure she wouldn’t be. If she had been here, we would have stayed home, and if she shows up, we will leave.”
“You would have missed your mother’s birthday for me?” My irritation was replaced with warmth.
“Of course. I couldn’t go that long without you.” The look in his eyes warmed my heart. I wondered if he was beginning to change his mind about love and relationships.
“You have to be tired,” I said, really hoping he wasn’t. “It’s almost four in the morning our time.”
“I’m never too tired to be inside of you.”
“Thank God for that.”
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Madison
Ethan and Charlie came over for dinner a few days after we got home from California. “I thought Brianna was coming, too,” I said as my guests came in the house.
“She’s spending the night with a friend,” Charlie said. Ethan took his hand and led him into the living room where they sat down together on the love seat. I smiled when Ethan rested his arm across the top of Charlie’s shoulders.
“This might be the last night of good weather for a while, so Sawyer wants to grill. Does that work for you?”
My two friends looked at each other and came to a silent agreement. It felt as if they had been together for years instead of a couple of short weeks. “Sounds great,” Charlie said for the pair. “I’ll go see if Sawyer needs any help.”
I could see the excitement and indecision on Ethan’s face after Charlie had left the room. His knees were bouncing like a kid with a huge secret.
“Spill it,” I said.
“I wasn’t sure if you would be comfortable talking about this kind of thing with me,” he said.
“I’m really happy for the two of you. You’re one of my closest friends in the world; you can talk to me about anything.”
“I know it hasn’t been very long, but I think he may be the one.”
I felt the smile spread across my face. “That’s amazing!”
“I think tonight might be the night, if you know what I mean.”
“Are you nervous?” I asked.
“A little—more excited than anything. I don’t want to be rude, but we probably won’t be staying very long.”
“No problem at all,” I said with a knowing grin. It worked out well for me, too. The earlier they left, the earlier I could get Sawyer out of his pants.
“Yeah, I didn’t think you would mind.”
*
“How much longer?” I asked. I stuck my bottom lip out at him. “You’ve been working for hours.” With Peyton and Olivia gone, I didn’t have anything to keep me occupied while Sawyer worked. Ethan and Charlie hadn’t been around since they came over for dinner several days earlier. It wasn’t difficult to guess how they had been spending their time.
“I haven’t gotten much done in the past couple of weeks,” Sawyer said.
He’d been camped out on the couch grading papers all evening. I knew it was my fault, since the only thing he’d gotten done lately was me. He looked delicious in his oxford shirt and khakis. The wire-rimmed glasses he wore when he worked inspired all kinds of naughty teacher fantasies.
“Patience, Madison,” he said in his authoritative teacher voice while keeping his attention on his work. “Give me another hour, and then I’ll be all yours for the rest of the night.” He didn’t know what that voice did to me.
“But, I’m horny,” I whined. I don’t know what had gotten into me, but I knew exactly what I wanted to get inside of me.
I knew I had made a
small dent in his defenses when he shifted in his seat. “I need to get everything finished. My last day is only a couple of weeks away.” He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I have to be caught up on grading and have interim report cards done.”
I wondered if he was intentionally trying to drive me crazy. Two could play this game. He put his glasses back on and returned his focus to the stack of papers on his lap. I raced upstairs and stripped down to my red, lacy panties. I pulled one of his white button-down shirts from my closet and fastened two of the buttons just below my breasts. I tied the shirttails at my waist and threw my hair up in a sloppy bun on top of my head.
He glanced in my direction when he heard me coming down the steps. His double-take was almost comical. He threw his papers on the floor as he watched me saunter in his direction. I straddled his lap, making sure to rub my breasts against him as I settled into position. I took his glasses from his face and put them on mine.
“What do you think?” I asked coyly.
“I think you look like a sexy librarian.” He swallowed so hard I could have heard it across the room. “I also think I’m going to fuck you.”
“Okay, but after that, I get to fuck a sexy college professor.” I slid the glasses back on his face.
The tone of his mood quickly softened. He gently took my hands and looked up into my eyes. “No, you will not be fucking a sexy college professor,” he said quietly. The calm intensity in his eyes wasn’t fueled by lust. “Only me. You are only going to be with me.”
I knew he hadn’t misinterpreted the meaning behind what I’d said. I searched his eyes for confirmation and quickly found what I was looking for. He was making a declaration. He was trying to tell me that he was seriously considering a future that had been off limits before.
I leaned forward and placed my lips gently on his. His mouth moved with mine in a seductive dance. I ran my fingers through his soft hair.
“How fond are you of these panties?” he asked against my lips.