It was the most beautiful movie I’d ever seen.
But it wasn’t a movie. It was my life.
Our life.
I turned in his hold as a tear slid down my cheek. My arms looped around his neck, and he gazed down. “There I was, Romeo, going along with my boring and ordinary life. Then you came along and gave me a fairy tale.”
“No one will ever love you like I do, Smalls,” he vowed.
“I know.” I smiled. “But I’m gonna love you more.”
We met each other halfway and kissed in the center of the football field. His lips were familiar to me now but no less devastating than the first time they ever touched mine.
I might only be one girl.
I might only have one life.
But there was only one Romeo.
And he was mine.
“Get a room!” Braeden yelled down the field.
We broke apart and laughed.
“Come on!” he yelled at us again. “You can make out later. It’s party time!”
Romeo held out his hand between us, his wedding band catching my eye. “What say you, Mrs. Anderson? Can I have this dance?”
I slipped my hand into his. “You can have all of them.”
“Hells yeah.” His lips broke out in that sexy smile I loved so much.
Hand in hand, we ran across the field toward where Braeden and Ivy waited.
We were one family united.
Braeden
The heavy drum of chopper blades overhead matched thundering of my heart inside my chest. The enclosed space of the cabin was barely noticable and neither was the turbulence of a helicopter ride over the state.
I’d never been in a helicopter before, and if you asked me later about it, I’d still respond like a man who hadn’t. My focus wasn’t on the distance we were in the air, the sounds the pilot made just a few feet away, or even on my best friend who sat squished beside me.
I was sweaty, dirty, and scared as hell.
“Prepare for touchdown,” the pilot said, his voice sounding suspiciously like Darth Vader from Star Wars.
I braced myself for the second we made contact with the landing pad, a place I knew technincally we weren’t supposed to be.
What can I say? Being a star athlete in your home state had some perks.
The second the chopper touched down, Rome and I were on our feet, grabbing up our helmets, and bursting out the door. The whirring blades overhead whipped air around, and I held my breath against it and ducked my head to run toward the nearby door.
The second Rome and I were clear, the chopper lifted up again, but I didn’t look back. I barrelled through the wide glass doors and into the sterile-scented floor of the hospital.
“Labor and delivery,” I rushed out on my way past a nurse, and she pointed to the stairwell. “Up two flights.”
We hauled ass through the door and pounded up the stairwell and burst out onto the floor. Several people nearby jumped at our sudden intrusion and then stared as wel barrelled past. Whispers and excamations filled the hall behind us, and a nurse behind the station desk up ahead smiled and pointed as we approached. “Third door on the right.”
Our cleats made loud clomping sounds, and there was a high-pitched squeal when I put on the breaks outside the door and flung the door open to rush inside.
“Am I too late?” I gasped, stumbling farther into the room so Romeo could do the same.
Three sets of eyes snapped to where we stood, and then one last—the most important set—followed suit.
“Just in time,” Ivy said from the center of her hospital bed.
I filled my sight with her body, taking in everything from her flushed cheeks, long hair, and very pregnant belly beneath the blanket on the bed.
Monitors were attached around her stomach, and there was an IV in the back of her hand, covered in too much tape.
“Who put that much fucking tape on your hand?” I roared. “That’s gonna leave a mark.”
“So will the needle it’s holding in place,” Rimmel remarked dryly.
I glanced at my sister and glowered. “It’s a good thing I love you.”
“I’m fine,” Ivy assured me and held out her hand—the one without the IV. “You got here fast!”
I dropped my helmet on the floor and rushed to her side, taking her hand between both of mine. “Are you in pain?” I worried.
God, I was already feeling queasy, and she didn’t even look harried.
“Nothing I can’t manage.” She smiled.
“Until another contraction comes around,” Drew muttered from the other side of the bed.
She gave him a stern look and grimaced.
“We heard the helicopter coming in,” Rimmel said.
Romeo stepped up behind her, looking even bigger than her than usual because he was still completely dressed in his football uniform.
We both were. We literally got the call Ivy was in labor and ran off the field to get on Ron Gamble’s chopper so we’d make it here in time.
“It’s good to know people with connections,” Romeo said and kissed her on the head. Then he came over to the side of the bed to stand next to me. “You ready for this, princess?”
A nurse bustled into the room then. She wasn’t even through the door and was saying, “Where did all this mud come from!”
She drew up short when she saw me and Rome.
“Sorry about that,” Ivy said. “These two can be a little barbaric when they’re in a rush.”
Rimmel giggled.
“Oh well. Which one of you is the father?”
“Me,” I said immediately.
“Come on. I’ll get you some scrubs to change into. I don’t think you’ll be needing all those shoulder pads to meet your child.
Holy shit, I was gonna become a father today.
I tightened my grip on Ivy’s hand. “Thank you, but I think I’ll stay right here.” I wasn’t about to walk out of this room and leave Ivy’s side for the sake of my own comfort.
“I’ll take some scrubs,” Romeo said, smiling at the nurse. She blushed.
I rolled my eyes, but then Ivy made a sound and squeezed my hand. Her breathing became more labored and her body stiffened.
“What’s happening!” I bellowed.
Drew and Trent laughed. This shit was not funny.
“It’s a contraction,” Drew said and pointed to a monitor with a bunch of squiggly lines on it. I knew it hurt. I could tell by the set of her jaw, the grip on my hand, and the way she tried to breathe.
“Can’t you do something?” I asked the nurse. I did not like this shit. Not one bit.
“Contractions are perfectly normal,” she said and wandered over to the monitor.
She wandered.
Like she didn’t have anything better to do.
I was gonna blow a gasket. I didn’t want to see Ivy in pain.
“Sit down before you fall down,” Romeo said, and a chair hit the backs of my legs and he shoved me down.
I hadn’t realized until I sat that I’d been swaying on my feet.
Ivy’s grip loosened and she looked up at me with tired eyes. “Calm down. Everything’s fine.”
“Good thing he wasn’t home when your water broke,” Trent muttered.
I squeezed my eyes shut at the thought. I should have been home for that. I shouldn’t have been playing today.
Like she read my thoughts, she said, “You haven’t missed anything.”
Another contraction seemed to take over, and she made a sound and griped my hand. “Coming faster now,” the nurse said. “I’ll go get the doctor.” Then she glanced around the room. “Maybe we should give them some room.”
“With pleasure,” Drew said and kissed Ivy on the head. “I love you, sis, but I can’t watch this.”
She tried to laugh, but it wasn’t quite successful.
“We’ll be in the waiting room,” Trent said, and the two disappeared out into the hallway, the nurse going with them.
I h
oped she hurried the hell up with the doctor.
Rimmel rushed to the side of the bed where Drew had just been and leaned toward Ivy. “You got this. We’ll be outside.”
“Thanks for being here,” Ivy said.
The pressure on my hand was gone again, so that must mean the contraction was over.
“You cool?” Romeo asked, his hand falling on my shoulder.
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m cool.”
Romeo and Rimmel started for the door, and just as they were about to disappear, I called. “Hey, Rome.”
He glanced back.
“Maybe wait outside the door?”
He grinned. “Sure thing.”
What? He was the only one big enough to pick me up off the floor if I passed the hell out.
Okay, fine.
I needed my best friend close.
Becoming a father for the first time was the scariest thing I’d ever done.
It hardly seemed like Ivy and I had been married for five months already. It was like I blinked and it was gone. By some sheer luck (or maybe fucking hard work and a really good agent), I was drafted by the Maryland Knights. Another team tried to draft me at the same time, but thankfully, the Knights’s offer was higher, so I went to them.
I signed a solid three-year contract, and while I didn’t make an excess of forty mil like Rome, I did get well over ten.
It was more than enough to take care of Ivy and the little critter.
I still had no idea if it was a son or a daughter. Ivy was adamant she not find out. For a woman who loved to shop for pink shit, I would have thought she would have been the first to know. But she maintained it didn’t matter if it was a girl or a boy because it was mine and that’s all she cared about.
Seriously. Who wouldn’t marry that?
Romeo continued to declare it was a boy, Ivy insisted it was a girl, and everyone else was just waiting to find out who was going to be right.
Rome and I were back on the same team. We played together better than ever. The Knights were dominating already this season with the lead in just about everything. I even set a new record and so did Rome. Game attendance was up, team morale was up, and Gamble was a happy man.
It was early in the season, but I already knew we were headed for the SuperBowl.
Blanchard asked for a trade, and the powers that be worked it out. I would have played with him and managed to keep my cool. These days, it took more than an ass like him to ruffle my feathers.
I was married with a baby on the way. I had a budding career and an awesome family. I focused on that. Yeah, sometimes I still had dreams about Zach, but they weren’t like they used to be. I still worried about Ivy, but I no longer had nightmares she died the night of the crash.
Turns out telling everyone in the family and even sort of admitting to Robert that I did have a choice that night went a long way in helping me put it behind me. No one in this family judged me for the decision I made, and that made it really hard to judge myself.
It was like Ivy said. I was human. I was a real, flesh-and-bone man.
I didn’t have to be perfect. Hell, I didn’t even have to be free of the darkness I lived with all my life.
All I had to be was genuine. All I had to be was me.
Ivy took summer classes last summer so she could graduate early, so come January, she would be a college graduate. I didn’t want her pushing herself like that, but she was insistent she finish as much as she could before the critter came along.
She also started her YouTube channel, and it was already getting hits like crazy. The editor at People magazine called her, and they were currently in talks for a new style column called “The Blonde Next Door.” Ivy was really popular with the college demographic but also with the elite who followed what celebs were wearing.
I had no doubt when she was ready, she would own a piece of the fashion world. Until then, she was going to build her empire from home with my baby on her lap.
“Braeden?” Ivy said, gripping my hand.
I glanced over at her, noting the worry on her face. “What’s the matter, baby?”
“I’m scared.”
All the queasiness and fear I’d been feeling left me. I didn’t have room to be freaked out right now because I had to be strong for her.
“I know. It’s okay, now. In just a few minutes, you’re going to have the baby in your arms and fear will be the furthest thing from your mind.”
She smiled, a little of the anxiety slipping away. “Having a baby takes a long time. I’ll probably be pushing for hours.”
What the what?
Why hadn’t anyone told me this! On TV, it was a bunch screaming and then a crying baby. All in one scene!
I should have known this shit was suspicious when I walked in and Ivy wasn’t screaming.
Thank God she wasn’t screaming.
I shook my head and made a sound. Then I leaned over the bed and spoke directly to my wife’s stomach. “Listen up, critter,” I said. “Don’t you be making your mother suffer for hours before you decide to come out. Football players don’t dally at the one yard line.”
I nodded and then glanced up. Ivy was watching me with an amused expression.
“What?”
“The one yard line?”
“He knows what I mean.” I defended. “Football’s in his blood.”
Another contraction took over, and her face clouded in a mask of pain. Just as I was about to get the nurse, she came into the room with a doctor wearing a pair of gloves and a cap on his head.
He did a few things down below that I didn’t care to watch and then glanced up with some surprise in his eyes. “I think it’s time to have a baby.”
My stomach flopped.
Another contraction ripped into my wife, and she whimpered.
Everything started happening at once, and people were telling her to push, and she was squeezing my hand until I was sure the bones were shattered.
And then the sound of crying filled the room.
My heart literally stopped.
The doctor scooped up a little baby and placed it immediately on Ivy’s chest.
“It’s a girl!” he said.
Ivy started crying and pulled the baby close. “Oh my goodness,” she crooned. “Look how beautiful you are.”
The sound of her mother’s voice made the baby stop crying. Her eyes—which were deep blue—focused on Ivy and held on.
“Braeden,” Ivy whispered, unable to take her eyes of the baby.
“You did real good, sweetheart,” I said, brushing the hair from her face.
The baby knew my voice, too. She turned to me immediately and her lower lip wobbled.
I literally felt like someone ripped my heart right out of my chest.
I had a daughter.
“Let me clean her up a bit and ger her weight.” The nurse reached for the baby, and Ivy tugged her closer. I grabbed the nurse’s hand and glared.
The nurse didn’t seem put off by my animalistic behavior. “I’ll just be right there.” She pointed across the room. “Then you can have her back for a minute before I take her to the nursery.”
“What the hell does she need to go to the nursery for,” I demanded. But I did it softly. I didn’t want to scare the baby.
“A general checkup. You can come with her.” The nurse assured me.
I grunted, and Ivy relented and handed over the baby.
She started crying again, and Ivy started fretting.
I got up and towered over the nurse, watching her with my daughter, making sure she treated her right.
“Well,” the nurse said to her as she worked, “you’re definitely gonna have a hard time getting away with anything with this one around.” She thumbed a finger at me.
“Watch her head,” I ordered.
The nurse laughed. “I can assure you I’ve had lots of experience.” When the baby was wrapped up in some generic blanket, she picked her up and held her out toward me. “Want to hold your daugh
ter, Dad?”
I blanched. She wanted me to hold her?
Oh fuck.
I’d never held a baby before.
She started fussing again, and I didn’t like it. My instinct was to reach for her, and I went with it. “Watch her head,” the nurse said, and I gave her a dry look.
When the nurse stepped back, I stood stiffly, staring down at the tiny little bundle in my arms. I was afraid to move, afraid to breathe. Holy crap, she was smaller than the damn dog.
The baby was still fussing and her lip was wobbling.
“Now don’t be doing that,” I told her softly. “Just tell me what you want and you’ll have it.”
The baby stopped fussing and looked at me. I smiled.
The nurse laughed. “Daddy’s already wrapped.”
“Is she okay?” Ivy worried from the bed as the doctor still worked around her.
“She’s perfect,” I whispered and walked over to show her.
“You both are,” Ivy said, looking at me holding our daughter.
I sat close to the bed, staring down while the doctor and nurse finished with Ivy.
“Is she okay?” I asked, worried when the doctor pulled off his gloves.
He pulled the mask off his face and smiled. “Mother and baby appear to be doing great.”
The nurse nodded. “You, my dear, had a quick labor for a first time.”
It was because I told the baby. We had an understanding, my daughter and I.
“She’s going to be okay, then?” I asked again, wanting to be sure Ivy was all right.
“Yes, just fine.”
“Gimme,” Ivy said and held her hands out to the baby.
“She likes me,” I told her.
She smiled. “I never had any doubt, but I want my daughter before you get to go with her to the nursery.”
I sighed. “Fine. I guess since you did all that pushing and shit.”
The nurse laughed. “Does she have a name?”
“Critter Walker,” I said, gently handing the baby to my wife.
Ivy made a rude sound. “Not.”
“I’ll give you just a minute with her, but then I really need to take her to the nursery.”
“Thanks,” I said, watching Ivy with my daughter.
I thought I understood love before, but this was a whole new level. Seeing my wife holding my baby was something so profound I was momentarily struck silent.
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