Eric dropped to his knees in front of her. “Emily Stone. You are the strongest person I know, that’s why I’m marrying you. What you are doing is the bravest thing I know. You are doing fine Baby, if our parents give you a hard time, then you need to let me know. I will have a word with them. She is our daughter and we will raise her how we see fit.”
Emily managed to smile through her tears. “Eric, it’s so tough. My mom was right, I’m wondering if we are in over our heads with her.”
Eric grabbed her hands. “Emily, I can’t say I understand what you are going through, believe me, I have no idea. I’m here and can do what I want and you are there with school and Emma. I wish I could do more to help you,” he said standing up and walking back towards the window. “Emily, I’m frustrated too. Not only do I feel like I’m not doing enough for you and Emma, but I’m missing out on everything. I’m going to miss all her firsts. She doesn’t know me like she knows you. I see it in her eyes when I’m home. She doesn’t know I’m her father.”
Emily stood up and walked over to him and turned him around. “Eric, she knows. I’m always talking about you, showing her pictures of us all the time. She’s only a year old, Sweetheart. You will have all the time in the world to get to know her better.”
Eric sighed. “Maybe we made the wrong decision sticking with college and maybe I should be home with you.”
“No, no, no!” Emily shook her head. “You are going to make your dreams come true. Believe me, all I hear about is how wonderful you are by every single person in town.”
Eric looked dumbfounded. “Really?”
“Oh yeah, I’m stopped by everyone wanting to tell me about your future career. I think your dad is starting a campaign around town because everyone seems to know all about you.”
Eric wrapped his arms around her. “Emily, I’m sorry. You are the one who deserves all the praise. Not me.”
Emily laid her head against his chest and finally felt herself relax and enjoy being with him. “You know, we are alone right now and it’s been a long time.”
Eric smirked at her. “Yeah, it has been Gorgeous.” He traced his fingers down her back and slowly cupped her backside. She moaned feeling his excitement as her fingers slid up his bare chest and over his shoulders. Her eyes met his as they darkened. Even though it had been awhile, she knew that look very well. As his lips approached hers, he whispered softly, “You are all mine.”
Lying in his bed later on, the sun had gone down and they were just enjoying being with each other. “Eric, I heard your phone conversation when I came into the room earlier. What was that about?”
He didn’t say anything at first. He just kept staring at the wall. “It was nothing, just one of my teammates.”
“I know you pretty well, and that didn’t sound like nothing. Please talk to me.”
Eric got out of the bed, walked over and grabbed his sweatpants. He sat quietly in his chair and just watched Emily for a moment before saying anything. “Last week, after the game, all the guys went out to a house party. I decided that I would tag along because lately I’ve been getting harassed about not being a team player because I refuse to party and I’m always thinking about Emma and you. Anyway, there were a bunch of drunken girls and they were all over me.” Emily froze as she gripped the sheet tighter around herself. She hoped she wasn’t about to hear something that she couldn’t forgive him for, not with a baby at home that she rearranged her whole life for to take care of every day.
Eric saw her face. “Emily, I swear to God, I didn’t want to be there. I was only there to shut up my teammates. These girls just wouldn’t give up. They knew who I was and they were taking wagers on who would crack me first.”
Emily kept staring at him. “And?”
Eric got up and sat next to her on the bed. “They wouldn’t let me leave. I kept telling them I have a fiancée at home but it seemed to turn them on more. Like that upped the ante so they were more insistent.”
Emily played with her engagement ring as she listened to his story. Her stomach started to feel uneasy. "Eric, what happened?" She whispered.
He sighed as he grabbed her hand. "One of them kissed me and I tried to get her off of me as fast as I could but everyone was cheering her on. When I finally got her off of me, I got the hell out of there. All my teammates were screaming at me to get back in there and man up."
Emily quickly got out of bed and started to put on her shorts and t-shirt. "So, while I'm home, taking care of our baby, you are out at parties and having people bet on who can get you to bed faster?"
Eric quickly got up and put his arms around her. "No, I'm here missing you guys all the time, waiting for my phone to ring to hear about our daughter's day. I'm here struggling with the fact that I can't be with you every single day and every single hour."
Emily started to tear up. "You don't understand, do you? I gave up this world because we wanted to keep our child. But, I feel like you are having all the fun and I'm home changing dirty diapers and dealing with Emma's every day needs."
Eric just stared at her. "Emily, this is for our future, so we can provide our daughter with the best of everything as you always tell me. I'm not here messing around on you and believe me the opportunities are there!"
“Coming here was obviously a mistake. I don’t know what I was thinking," she said as she started to gather the rest of her things. "I think I will head home tonight."
Eric grabbed her arm. "No way am I letting you drive home tonight, Emily. Are you kidding me? I love you more than anything in this world. I didn't cheat on you."
"But apparently you could have any girl you wanted. You just said so yourself!" Emily said removing her arm from his grasp.
Eric sighed. "I didn't mean that. I only want you, Gorgeous. You have to believe that and if you don't, I will take you to some of my teammates and they will explain how much I hate going out with them."
Emily looked up at him. "Ok. I'm sorry for overreacting. But, you don't understand how much I hate being in that house sometimes. I see you fulfilling your dreams and I have to hear about Sam's sex life, while I’m living with my mom and raising a child. I'm a kid too but I can't act like one because we have a one year old at home that I have to take care of. Maybe our parents were right, this was too much to handle this early in our lives."
Eric hugged her and held her close. "Emma is our life. Look around my room, there are pictures of the two of you everywhere. Emily, it hurts me too that I can't be there for you. Believe me, it sucks! I don't want to be a deadbeat parent either. I want our daughter to know me like she knows you. I know you are sacrificing your social life right now but I'm sacrificing my connection with our daughter."
"You’re right. You are absolutely right. I'm sorry about that Eric," she said hugging him tight, while looking up at him. "Kiss me."
********************
By the time Eric made it home for Emma’s second birthday, all the talk had to do with Eric’s football career. He would be entering his senior year of college and everyone was focused on Eric and the draft.
Emily had to pick up a summer class due to a failing math grade because Emma was fighting a flu bug during the year. Her parents tried to be there to help but it was hard to focus on anything but her sick child and Emily was still struggling.
As soon as Eric came home for the summer, Emily took advantage of the opportunity to catch up on school work. She spent her days in the library while Eric got to know their daughter better. Even though she wasn’t crazy about taking summer classes, it was nice to be able to focus on one thing, knowing that Emma was getting to spend time with her Daddy.
Emily returned home after school one day and headed upstairs to their bedroom. As she approached the door, she heard Eric talking to Emma.
“I know I’m never here Emma, but I think about you and Mommy all the time. I’m so afraid that you don’t know who I am and that I’m missing out on so much of your life already.”
As Emily listene
d to their conversation her heart started to break but she couldn’t walk away either.
“You are my little girl and always will be. When you start dating, I’m going to do a background check on every single guy that comes knocking on our door. Oh Baby Girl, our lives are about to change, I feel it. I’m so nervous about the upcoming draft. Your Daddy wants to go in the first round so badly.”
“Daddy, I love you.”
“I love you too, Emma. I love you so much,” he said grabbing her and putting her on his lap and hugging her.
Emily dropped her book bag and leaned against the wall. She knew how important this talk was and didn’t want to interrupt them.
Eric got up and put Emma on the floor with him as they played with her teddy bears. “One day in the near future, I’m going to buy your Mommy the biggest house and she could have a whole room just to paint and draw. She’s so talented, Emma. She has given that all up just to take care of you. I want to give her the world, Sweetie. She has sacrificed more than I have to make my dreams come true and I’m going to repay her and you one day.”
“I live in big house too?”
Eric laughed. “Of course you will! We are a family, Emma. You are going to have a room just for you and all your toys. I’m going to give you a big yard to play in too so you can have tea parties with all your friends.”
“Yay! Tea parties!” Emma exclaimed.
Emily started to cry in the hallway as she finally understood the pain he lived with being away from his family every day.
“Ok, Emma, here is my secret.”
Emily quickly got up and walked into their bedroom knowing whatever surprise he had, she didn’t want to ruin it for him.
“Hey guys,” she said as she entered the room.
“Hey Gorgeous, how was class?”
“It was good. I think I finally figured it out what’s going on in that class. What’s going on here?”
“Oh, nothing. Just me and Emma discussing our life’s dreams. Would you look how excited she gets when she sees you?” Eric smiled at them.
“Oh, she’s just silly.” Emily laughed as she picked her up. “I missed you, Emma.”
“Love you, Mommy,” she said giggling.
Emily smiled at her as she put her back on floor so she could keep playing with her toys. She turned back around and wrapped her arms around Eric.
“So, I have a surprise for you, Emily. I’ve been talking with your mom and she helped me develop it.”
“Develop what?” Emily asked smiling at him.
Eric grabbed her hand and led her down the hallway towards the back bedroom.
“Where are you taking me?” Emily asked confused.
He smiled at her. “Last year, you mentioned to me that you didn’t want to be forgotten. This is just something temporary and I promise you that I will make this a huge part of our future home.”
Emily smiled at him as he opened the door to the back room. She gasped as she looked around. The room had all her paint supplies, including walls decorated with all her paintings.
Eric pulled her inside as they looked around. “So, you have all your easels and all your supplies are sorted out and organized, thanks to your mom. I hung up all of the paintings I could find and I put a stereo in the corner, just in case you need to tune me out. I also put Emma’s baby monitor on the shelf, so you have no excuse not to be in here.”
Emily started to cry. “It’s amazing. When did you do this?”
“You’ve been at the library so much lately, which sort of made it easy. Your mom and I have been working on getting it ready for you. You deserve this, Emily. You have given up so much for our family and this is just the beginning of repayment.”
Emily smiled as she looked around the room. She finally had a place that was just hers, somewhere she could go to get away from it all. She loved it.
“Thank you, Eric. Thank you so much. This is more than I ever hoped for. This is perfect for me. I love you so much, Baby.”
“I love you too, Emily.”
Before heading back to Syracuse, Eric was constantly on the phone. Agents were calling him and trying to win his business. On top of that, magazines were calling for interviews and Emily was having trouble trying to get Eric to focus on his family.
As they laid in bed the night before he left for school, they embraced each other.
“This is the sucky part. I hate leaving you guys and I finally feel like I have a connection with Emma.”
Emily sighed. “I know. But it’s almost over, this is our senior year. We did it and just think a year from now, you will be a professional quarterback and we will be married.”
Eric smiled and kissed her. “Baby, I can’t wait. I can’t wait for us to buy our first house, to give Emma a huge yard to play in, that’s what I want.”
Emily turned on her side and traced her fingers over his cheek. “I just want us to be a complete family. No more of this going away crap or living with my mom. I want to fall asleep in your arms and wake up in them every morning in our own home.”
“I want that too, Baby. You have no idea how perfect that sounds,” he said as he kissed her. His fingers trailed over her cheek as he deepened the kiss. Her moan encouraged him to continue, so his fingers moved down her the rest of body, lingering on her smooth skin. “Emily, I love you so much and all I want right now is to feel you against me.”
Emily turned so she could kiss down his chest. “I love you too, Baby,” she said as she removed his pajama bottoms. He smiled at her as he pulled her up into his arms. Emily softly called out for him as her world exploded around her.
“I love you, Emily,” Eric moaned back.
“I love you, too, Eric. Please hurry back home, ok?”
Eric smiled and nodded. “You got it.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Eric’s senior year of football was in full swing. He was the starting quarterback and was having a perfect season. He picked an agent to represent him and teams were scouting him like crazy.
Emily and both of their families managed to make it to a few games but it was too much for a two year old. The girls were circling Eric whenever they could and Emily couldn't bear to watch it. She decided to sit out the rest of the season and concentrate on her studies.
Late one night after Emily finally got Emma to sleep for night and she realized that she couldn't focus on her text books anymore, so she got up and headed towards her art room. She turned her radio on low and reached for Emma's baby monitor. She grabbed her paints and started a new piece. She lost herself in her painting as her mind entered a different dimension where she was calm and could leave behind the worries of school and the pressures of having an extremely popular fiancée.
Emily wasn’t sure how much time had passed when she finally put down her brush and realized she was staring at a reflection of herself. She had painted a young woman who looked sad and deeply troubled.
She just stared at the painting. Anyone looking at it would realize that it was Emily and she didn't look happy. The girl staring back at her just looked miserable. Emily knew she had some deeper issues to contend with but she didn’t want to upset Eric right now. She headed back to bed, checking on Emma first. She was sleeping peacefully as Emily leaned over and kissed her forehead.
The next day, Emily returned to her art room and looked at the painting she did the night before. Already knowing the answer, she whispered to herself. “Why are you so sad?” She closed her eyes and started to cry as her mother walked in.
“Emily? What’s wrong?” She asked as she rushed to her side.
Emily wiped her eyes and shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“You are not fine. Talk to me, please,” her mother pleaded as she turned toward the painting. “Is that you? Is that why you’re crying?”
Emily sighed. “I don’t know. I just started painting late last night and this was the end result. It looks like me, right?”
“Yes, why is she…why are you, so sad?” She corrected
herself mid sentence.
Preferring to distance herself from the truth, Emily replied, “I think she has a lot on her mind. She struggles with life everyday wondering when her family will be complete. She dreams of being happy but doesn’t know how to get there."
“Emily, you may not realize it but your emotions really came across in this painting. I can feel your pain. Why don’t you open up to me? You know all new moms struggle. When I had you, I cried all the time because I couldn’t figure out what made you happy. I felt like a horrible mother and a complete failure. Your father was too busy trying to make partner so I was alone with you a lot and very overwhelmed.”
Emily stood up and looked out the window. “Mom, the big difference for me is that my future husband is three hours away from us, and the center of attention on every football talk show. He did an interview the other day and when he was asked about his personal life - his response was that his focus was on football and the draft. It’s like he’s embarrassed by us and happy to forget his responsibilities here. I have dreams too, Mom.”
“Of course you do, Emily. You need to talk with Eric. He’s still your fiancée, and I’m sure he’s going through a lot right now with all the media hype and the scouting. Plus, I’m sure his father was behind that interview. How many times in two years has he seen Emma?”
Emily nodded and looked back at the painting. “I don’t want to become her, Mom. I want Eric to be here with us, I want him to be a successful professional football player but I also want to be able to paint and sell my art. I keep thinking that you were right when you said that we were too young to put ourselves in this situation. And maybe things would be different if I felt like Eric and I are still in this together, but it’s not like that anymore. He’s there living the dream and I’m here trying to hold it all together. I understand that now, and I love that little girl too much to think about what life would be like without her, but why do I have to do it alone? I’m trying to give her the best of everything but there are some days where I just can’t help feeling sorry for myself,” Emily explained crying.
Everlasting Love (Now & Forever) Page 3