They sat down around the table that Sam had reserved for them and gave their orders to the waitress.
“She was totally flirting with you,” Rhetta huffed once the young blonde woman was out of earshot. She couldn’t have been more than twenty years old and she was barely covering enough of herself to stop her from being arrested for public indecency. Even in LA.
Caroline frowned, utterly perplexed. “She was?”
She had barely noticed their waitress. She had been too distracted by how adorable Rhetta looked with Sumaya’s head pillowed on her lap.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she slips you her number when she comes back with our drinks,” Sam agreed. Not that he was worried. He had seen Caroline surrounded by women in bikinis on the beach and only have eyes for Rhetta. He was pretty sure that their waitress would have give Caroline a lap dance to even get Caroline to notice. And then it would only be to politely decline.
The waitress appeared a moment later with their drinks and sure enough, she slipped a pink piece of paper into the pocket of Caroline’s shirt and winked at her before retreating back into the café.
Rhetta rolled her eyes. She had to try very hard not to call the woman something decidedly un-feminist. She settled for scowling instead. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Caroline, she just wished that for once people wouldn’t assume that she was straight. Maybe then Caroline wouldn’t get hit on so much when they were out together.
Caroline retrieved the phone number from her pocket, screwed it into a ball and left it where their waitress would see it discarded on the table.
"I already have my Princess," she said smoothly as she pulled her chair closer to Rhetta’s and put her arm around her fiancée’s shoulders, making sure that no one would question who she was with.
Rhetta smiled and pressed a kiss to her cheek. A lot of women flirted with Caroline, but Caroline never once let her eyes stray. She always made Rhetta feel like she was the only woman in the room. Rhetta just hoped that Caroline knew that Rhetta could never imagine being with anyone but her. She was marrying her after all.
“Well aren’t you two sickeningly cute?” Sam teased. He loved spending time with his sister and Caroline for just that reason. It was impossible to go away from them not feeling came lighter and happier than before.
Rhetta looked up at Caroline and bit her lip, silently asking for permission to tell Sam their news. Caroline’s answer came as an almost imperceptible nod and sweet peck on the lips.
“Speaking of Caroline and I,” Rhetta began, unable to hide her megawatt grin or keep her voice from coming out as a squeal. “Guess what happened last night.”
She held up her hand and let her engagement ring catch the sun.
Sam screamed and took Rhetta’s hand to get a closer look. “Oh my God! I can’t believe this is finally happening! Oh my God, look at that ring! Dang, girl, that is one nice rock!”
Rhetta was giggling. “She did a pretty good job, huh? I don’t’ even want to know what dent this beauty has put in our finances.”
Caroline’s cheeks were flushed pink with a blush and Rhetta leant over to kiss them. Sam watched as Rhetta gave Caroline a nose-crinkling smile before kissing her deeply. Only when Caroline’s hand came up to caress Rhetta’s cheek did Sam notice that Rhetta wasn’t the only one sporting a ring.
“Is that..? Oh my God!”
Rhetta broke the kiss and held out Caroline’s hand for Sam to see.
“What can I say? I was getting tired of waiting for Caroline to put a ring on it. A girl can only wait so long,” she laughed, watching Sam’s mouth drop open.
“Wait, wait, wait. Rewind. Who proposed to who here?”
“I proposed to her,” Caroline said proudly.
“It was so romantic,” Rhetta gushed. She recounted the story of their picnic on the beach with such enthusiasm that Caroline had to blink furiously to stop herself from shedding a tear. It meant the world to her that she had given Rhetta her dream proposal. She couldn’t wait to give her her ream wedding too.
“Have you told mom and dad yet?” Sam asked when Rhetta had finished.
“Not yet,” Caroline answered for her. “We wanted to tell you first. We’re going to Skype both of our families when we get back to the hotel.”
The thought suddenly made Caroline nervous again. Sam noticed.
“Did your wonderful fiancée tell you about her little conversations with me, mom and dad over the last week?” Sam asked. When Rhetta shook her head and Caroline blushed, he continued. “She asked for our approval to ask you to marry her.”
Rhetta melted. She turned and gazed at Caroline with wide, damp eyes. “You did?”
Caroline fidgeted, not sure whether or not she was in trouble. She wanted to clarify before Rhetta got mad at her. “I didn’t ask for permission to marry you. Only you could give me that. I just asked for their approval to ask you. I wanted to do it right. I wanted to make sure that when I got down on one knee, I had your family’s approval.”
Rhetta made a soft, happy noise and leant up to kiss her softly. “That is the most romantic thing that anyone has ever done for me.”
She had always been conflicted about the whole ‘asking permission’ thing. On the one hand, she thought that it was incredibly sweet and she was a sucker for tradition. On the other hand, someone asking her parents for permission to marry her made her angry at the implication that she or any other woman was property to be traded. Caroline had gotten around that in the sweetest way. She had given the the tradition without the sour aftertaste.
“You are so perfect, baby,” she whispered against Caroline’s lips, kissing her again. “I can’t wait to be your wife.”
Caroline shivered.
“So,” Sam interrupted before they started making out in public. “When is the big day?”
They hadn’t talked about any specifics yet. Rhetta wanted it to be as soon as possible, but she also wanted it to be perfect. And with the Algarve Cup and then the World Cup coming up in quick succession, it didn’t really leave a lot of time for wedding planning.
“Soon,” Rhetta said, turning to Caroline. “I hope.”
Caroline grinned. “Really? I thought you might want to wait until after the Olympics.”
“You really think I could wait that long? ‘Fiancée’ might be better than ‘girlfriend’, but its got nothing on ‘wife’.” Rhetta pouted. Even with all of the other distractions, she wanted them married before the end of the year. She had different ideas for what she wanted to do after the Olympics. “Do you want to wait?”
“Pfft,” Caroline scoffed, winking at Rhetta and giving her a charming smile. “As if I could. We’ll have to think of something else to do after the Olympics then, huh?”
Rhetta giggled. “Good minds think alike.”
Sam got the distinct impression that they had once again forgotten that he was there. He couldn’t blame them, though. Not when they looked so happy. They really were the perfect couple.
* * *
Caroline plopped down on the sun lounger and threw her arm across her eyes dramatically. She had just finished phoning in their room service order after four hours of Skype conversations with their families. She was exhausted.
“Poor baby,” Rhetta said as she sat herself across her fiancée’s lap. “You all tuckered out?”
The sun had set almost three hours earlier and Rhetta had spent the last ten minutes lighting up their secluded balcony with the candles she had bought whilst Sam and Caroline had taken Sumaya for a walk on the beach. Tomorrow their lives would once again revolve around soccer. She wanted one more night when all that mattered was her and Caroline.
Caroline pouted and nodded her head.
“So tuckered out that you didn’t notice anything romantic about our balcony?”
Caroline’s eyes immediately snapped open and took in the candles. “Crap, babe. I’m sorry.”
Rhetta smiled, kissed her nose and got to her feet. “Come on, stud. Up you get.”
Caroline’s pout came back as she stood. “You throwing me out already?”
She watched as Rhetta seated herself at the back of the sun lounger and patted the space between her legs. When Caroline sat down, facing away from her fiancée, Rhetta tugged her shirt over her head and placed a kiss between her shoulder blades. There was a pause and then the sound of a bottle being opened. A moment later, Rhetta’s oiled hands began massaging her shoulders.
“Oh God,” Caroline groaned, leaning back into Rhetta’s hands. “What have I done to deserve this?”
“You mean apart from proposing to me?” Rhetta pressed another kiss to the back of Caroline’s neck. “It’s been a long day, stud. I wanted show you my appreciation before we start the circus over again tomorrow. I have to take good care of my fiancée. Especially now she’s a superstar keeper.”
Caroline laughed. “You aren’t going to let that go, are you?”
“Not when there’s every chance that you’ll be getting some starts in the next few games,” Rhetta reasoned. Now that Caroline was holding steady as the team’s #2 keeper, there was more chance than ever that she would be standing on the pitch for the national anthem. “You saw how impressed the coaches were with you at practice yesterday.”
“Another cap against a team that doesn’t even make one shot on goal, maybe,” Caroline huffed. “I might as well be on the bench as between the goal posts in those games.”
“Your chance is coming, baby,” Rhetta promised her. “I can feel it.”
What they didn’t know was that Caroline’s dreams of starting were just about to get a whole lot better.
CHAPTER TWELVE
When Caroline woke the next morning, Rhetta was not in bed beside her. Neither was she in the bathroom, nor on the balcony.
When she was sure that Rhetta wasn’t in their room, Caroline picked up her phone and checked for texts. There were none.
With a defeated huff, Caroline padded into the bathroom and started to get ready for breakfast. Only when she lifted her eyes to her reflection did she notice the hotel branded post-it note stuck to the mirror.
I couldn’t sleep and I didn’t want to wake you up, so I’ve gone for an early run. Don’t go for breakfast without me! I don’t want anyone seeing your ring before we have a chance to tell them together. I love you!
Your fiancée Xxx -
Caroline frowned. Rhetta never had trouble sleeping. Well, not in the morning. She was a bit of a night owl, so sleep was sometimes hard for her to come by at night, but as soon as the night before became the morning after, she was out like a light. If her alarm didn’t wake her, she could easily sleep in until midday.
Which was why Rhetta being up and gone by 7am had Caroline worried. The last two days had given her enough confidence in their engagement not to worry that Rhetta was having second thoughts about that. What worried her was that today was interview day. Today was coming out day.
And Rhetta was nowhere to be found.
* * *
“Hey Morsten, wait up!”
“Morsten!”
“Morsten!”
Oriole Fenton’s voice finally broke through when Rhetta stopped to cross a road. She turned to see Oriole jogging after her and waited for her to catch up. She didn’t want a running partner, but she couldn’t exactly ignore her.
“You’re out early,” Oriole yawned, her eyes squinting against the brightening sky.
“I could say the same about you,” Rhetta panted. Her heart was thundering from her jog turned full out run and her lungs were screaming from the surprisingly cold morning air. If they had full training scheduled for that day, she would have been in trouble.
“I’m not the one whose been going at it since 6:30,” Oriole countered as they headed back towards the hotel. “What’s up, Morsten? Don’t tell me there’s trouble in paradise.”
Despite the fears that had been going around and around in her mind since she had woken up that morning, the mention of Caroline brought a smile to her face. She still couldn’t quite believe that they were engaged.
“No. There’s definitely no trouble in paradise.”
Her smile turned so shy when she said it that Oriole had to try very hard not to be distracted by it. Something was clearly bothering Rhetta, despite her current smile.
“Then what’s got you stress-running when you would usually be clinging on to your beauty sleep?” Oriole asked, taking Rhetta by the arm and steering them over to a bench.
“It’s nothing,” Rhetta lied, turning her head to avoid Oriole’s gaze. She was embarrassed that she was so scared. Especially when she had been so certain. Backing out now would break Caroline’s heart. It would break her own heart. The closer the big moment got, the more it felt like she was hiding. Like she was trapped.
“Morsten.”
Rhetta shook her head. It was too much.. “I don’t think I can do it.”
“Propose?”
Her heart sank like lead when she heard Oriole say that. She couldn’t let her think that for even one minute.
“I want nothing more than I want to marry Caroline,” she said fiercely.
“Then what?” Oriole asked again. “What can’t you do?”
“Come out,” Rhetta whispered, her cheeks colouring as she said it. She was embarrassed. Ashamed, even. Especially in front of Fenton.
She didn’t have to look to see Fenton’s posture stiffen. “Fuck. I forgot that was today.”
Rhetta played with the string of her hoodie. “Yeah. I think Caroline had too.” She laughed mirthlessly. “Well until she wakes up alone. I’m sure she’ll remember pretty quickly after that.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
Rhetta nodded, swallowing.
“Why did you want to come out in the first place?”
Rhetta sighed. “Lots of reasons. Caroline is one of them, obviously. It was breaking her heart a little more everyday.” She looked down at her feet, scuffing the dusty pavement. “Sooner or later she would – will – leave me. She can’t hide forever. It’s not who she is. It’s hurting her. It’s hurting me too. One day it will all get too much for her. She’ll resent me, then she’ll leave me. And that… That’ll break me.”
Fenton didn’t say a word.
“Another reason is that I’ve been letting myself – and Caroline – show more affection and be more coupley in public. It feels so good, Fenton. Having her wrap her arms around me when we’re standing in line or her arm around my shoulders when we’re walking down the street. It gives me butterflies every time. Then if we get married, how can I keep that a secret? I want that fairytale big white wedding. I want all of you there. I want to wear a fancy white dress. I want a big party afterwards in a marquee with lanterns and a band. I want to walk towards Caroline with everyone I know’s eyes on me. I want them all to see how much I love her and how much I’m hers and always have been. I want to have a family with her and I know that will be impossible to hide. I can’t keep a baby a secret and I can’t deny that Caroline would be their mom. That wouldn’t just hurt her, it would kill her.”
She bit her tongue before she could say that even if she did keep it from the world that Caroline was their baby’s mom too, she hoped that there would come a time when their little boy or girl looked so much like Caroline that she couldn’t hide it. The thought made her smile, if only for a moment.
“The last reason is that I think that it might help some people.” She blushed. “You and Lori and Denise do so much for people, just being who you are. But-”
“None of us are exactly girly girls.” Oriole finished for her.
Rhetta’s blush deepened. “I think… Maybe if there had been someone more like me that I could look up to… Maybe life would have been easier, you know?”
“I think you’re right,” Oriole agreed. “Honestly? I think that if it would make a difference to even one person’s life, it’ll be worth it. Sure, it’s terrifying. I know that more than anyone. Well, except maybe for Denise. But I do know,
Rhetta, and I know that after I finally did it, my whole life changed. It made me a happier me. It felt like there was this cage that I had been living my life in, and suddenly the bars were gone.”
“Yeah?”
“I think you already know what you’re gong to do, Morsten,” Oriole prompted. “If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be out here.”
Rhetta’s heart skipped a beat. If she was honest with herself she had known what she was going to do all along.
* * *
It was almost 8.30am and Caroline had been pacing for the past ten minutes. Her insides were tied in knots.
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