She tried to tell herself over and over that it didn’t matter if Rhetta backed out. It didn’t mean that Rhetta didn’t want to marry her. It just meant… well, it just meant that Rhetta didn’t want anyone to know about it. The thought made Caroline want to vomit.
Just as it was all becoming too much, Rhetta appeared in their hotel room hall. Caroline’s nausea immediately abated and she froze to the spot. No matter what Rhetta was about to do, the sight of her alone was enough to make Caroline’s body relax.
“Please forgive me,” Rhetta pleaded, her eyes wet with tears.
That was it. Caroline’s world came crashing down around her and her nausea came back even worse than before.
“Please don’t leave me.” She had promised herself that she wouldn’t beg, but she couldn’t help it. She’d get down on her knees if she had to. She wasn’t proud of it, but she would do it. “I’ll do anything. We can keep it a secret, I swear. Please, R. I swear I’ll do anything you want, just please don’t leave me.”
Rhetta’s arms were around her in a blink of an eye. “Oh, baby no.”
Caroline sobbed into her shoulder and Rhetta held her tight, rocking her back and forth and stroking her long, wavy hair. After a moment, she pulled back and looked Caroline in the eyes. “I will never, ever leave you and I would rather die than keep you a secret. Don’t you ever, ever think that. I just had a little wobble about today, that’s all. But this is what I want. I want to tell everyone that I’m the woman lucky enough to become your wife. We’re doing this, okay? You and me. Together. The way its meant to be. I’m so sorry that I made you doubt that.”
“You mean it?” Caroline asked. And Rhetta swore that she could see the little girl that they would have one day looking out of her fiancee’s eyes. It made Rhetta’s knees go weak.
“With all my heart,” Rhetta swore. “As long as you forgive me for freaking out this morning. I was always going to do this, I swear. I just needed to run my fear away, you know?”
Caroline nodded. She was no stranger to working out to overcome her emotions.
“Forgive me?” Rhetta asked.
“Always,” Caroline promised, her confidence coming crashing back. “You’re going to be my wife, R. That means forever. It means I always forgive you and you always forgive me.”
“Always,” Rhetta agreed. “I promise.”
Caroline nodded. “Then lets go tell everyone else that.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Caroline pressed the down button and stepped back, waiting for the elevator. “Here goes nothing, Princess. There’s no backing out once the team knows.”
Rhetta leant up on her tiptoes and pressed a grateful kiss to Caroline’s temple. Her lips brushed against damp hair and her lungs filled with the comforting scent of Caroline’s shampoo.
“I can’t wait, I don’t want you backing out on me,” she teased, brushing her lips against Caroline’s jaw when she smiled.
They were late for breakfast, but for once Rhetta didn’t care. When she had slipped into a shower after her run, she had tempted Caroline in with her, kissing the remnants of her doubt from every inch of Caroline’s skin. When her guilt finally ebbed away, she had held Caroline close, resting her cheek against her shoulder and soaking in the quiet comfort of being so close to the woman whose heart beat in time with hers.
“Thank you for taking a shower with me, baby,” Rhetta said, her voice soft with contentedness. “We should do that more often.”
The corners of Caroline’s mouth twitched. “We shower together plenty.”
Rhetta smiled as she picked up Caroline’s arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. “We have sex in the shower plenty. We don’t…” She struggled to find the words to describe what they had shared.
Caroline squeezed her close and kissed the top of her head. “I know, Princess.”
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Fallon and Reese smiled matching smiles at them, and Rhetta caught Fallon’s eyes flicking quickly to her ring finger and then away again, her smile turning into a smirk.
“Hey Reese, how’s my favourite girl?” Caroline greeted, her arm coming from around Rhetta’s shoulders to give the grinning girl a high five.
Reese giggled, her eyes wide as she looked up at Caroline adoringly. “Mommy said that I can have pancakes for breakfast!”
“Awesome! Make sure to thank your mommy,” Caroline high fived her again and Rhetta’s heart melted.
“Thank you, mommy!”
“Did you guys have a good day off?” Rhetta asked as Reese crushed her in a tight hug.
Reese nodded vigorously and launched into a story of her day on the beach. Caroline listened and responded animatedly to Reese’s adventures, making the little girl giggle and bounce on her feet. Fallon caught Rhetta’s eye and smiled knowingly at the loving way that Rhetta was looking at her fiancée interacting with Reese. Fallon couldn’t have been happier when Caroline had asked for her help with her proposal. Her girls had grown up with ‘Aunty Rhetta’ and ‘Aunt Ashy’. They were some of their favourite babysitters and she knew that they would be beyond excited when they found out that they were getting married. She was surprised that Reese hadn’t noticed. The ring on Rhetta’s finger was hardly discreet. The one on Caroline’s was a little subtler, but Fallon had noticed that one too. Apparently Caroline hadn’t been the only one planning a proposal.
“And then this massive wave crashed right over it and smashed it pieces!” Reese exclaimed, animatedly miming the violent destruction of her sandcastle.
“Woah!” Caroline enthused. “That sounds totally awesome. I wish I could have seen it!”
Butterflies stirred in Rhetta’s belly and she suddenly wanted nothing more than to spend their next day off with Reese. “Maybe next time, Caroline and I could go with you.”
“Really?!” both Caroline and Reese asked at the same time, their faces a mirror of excitement.
Fallon laughed at them. “Sure. How about you could take Reese out for a few hours next week? Hell, the whole day if you’re up for it.”
“We’d love to,” Rhetta answered for them. Caroline’s eyes lit up and the butterflies in Rhetta’s belly went wild. Not for the first time since Caroline had proposed, she wished that they didn’t have to wait so long to start a family. She wanted it now. Wanted it the moment they got married.
“It’s a date then, little tiger,” Caroline grinned, messing up Reese’s hair to make her roar like the tiger on her t-shirt. They were Reese’s latest obsession and she, Nessa, Natalie and Lavender had all had a roaring contest with her at dinner a few nights before. They had, of course, let Reese win. Though getting Natalie to back down had been a battle.
The doors pinged open and Reese rushed out.
“Walk, don’t run!” Fallon shouted after her. “Your breakfast isn’t going anywhere.”
“It might be!”
Caroline, who had been about to run after her, stopped dead in her tracks. Rhetta bit back a laugh and bumped her shoulder against Caroline’s.
“Come on, tiger.” She patted Caroline’s stomach. “Let’s get that smoothie in your belly before all the good ingredients are gone. I don’t want you pouting all morning when you have to settle for cereal.”
The reminder of the limited fruit and vegetable supply overrode Fallon’s warning and Caroline dashed off towards the breakfast room. Rhetta laughed, shook her head and set off after her with a giggling Reese at her heel.
After they had gotten their breakfast and had made sure that everyone was present, Caroline stood, hugged Rhetta close to her side and cleared her throat. The team was far too preoccupied with their breakfasts and catching up on what they had done on their day off to notice. Luckily for Caroline, Denise caught her eye and whistled loudly, bringing everyone to attention.
As soon as all of those eyes were focused on them, Caroline lost her voice. Rhetta noticed, but didn’t take over for her. She wanted Caroline to be the one to do this. So she squeezed her hand wa
ited for Caroline to begin. She knew that Caroline would be alright in a moment.
The reminder that Rhetta was by her side gave Caroline all the confidence that she needed. She took a deep breath and began. “I – we – have an announcement to make.”
“Oh my God, Rhetta’s pregnant. I knew it!” Nessa shouted from the back of the room, causing everyone’s attention to immediately go from Caroline to Rhetta.
Rhetta snapped her gaze away from Caroline and glared back at the room. “Why does everyone keep saying that?! Do I look pregnant or something?”
Caroline couldn’t stop the laugh from bubbling out from her throat.
“What are you laughing at?” Rhetta snapped.
“How stupid someone would have to be to think that you look pregnant,” Caroline answered smoothly. Then she whispered, “Not that you won’t look super hot when you are pregnant, because you totally will. I’m going to find it even harder to keep my hands to myself than I do now.”
Rhetta’s cheeks coloured. “Oh.”
Caroline kissed her cheek before turning her attention back to the room. “No Nessa, Rhetta isn’t pregnant. Do you really think that I’d let her train with you bulldozers if she was?”
Rhetta let the ‘let’ part of that sentence go for now, choosing to focus on the cute aspect of Caroline’s protectiveness. Something told her that when she did get pregnant, Caroline was going to drive her insane with overprotectiveness.
“Plus,” Caroline continued, taking Rhetta’s hand in hers and bringing them up to her chest, making sure that Rhetta’s ring was on show. “Rhetta’s classy, so I gotta do things right.”
Charlie was the first to scream. She leapt up from her place beside a grinning Janine and launched herself at Caroline. Caroline let go of Rhetta’s hand just in time to brace herself for impact. Charlie crashed into her, squealing and wrapped her arms around Caroline’s neck. Caroline’s remaining nerves fell away and she hugged Charlie back tightly.
“I’m so happy for you, Caro,” Charlie whispered. “You owe me a dance at your wedding, you hear? Don’t think that I forgot that I didn’t get one at mine.”
Caroline closed her eyes and tried to stop herself from crying as she felt the full force of Charlie’s love and happiness for them. Around her, she heard the cheers of their friends and the congratulations that Rhetta was receiving behind her.
“Thanks for believing in me,” Caroline whispered back, her voice quavering.
When they pulled apart, Caroline turned to see Rhetta being twirled around by Farah before being crushed between Vanessa and Fenton. Farah tugged Caroline towards her and hugged her so tightly that Caroline could barely breathe.
“I better be a bridesmaid,” Farah breathed.
“My one and only,” Caroline swore. “I wouldn’t be here without you, Whit. I would never have made it to the national team. I would never have met Rhetta.”
“Sure you would,” Farah reasoned. “You and Rhetta are meant to be. You’re soulmates. No matter what, you two would have found each other. Nothing and no one could have stopped that. Everyone who knows you two knows that.”
Caroline knew it was true. She could feel it every time Ail looked at her. They really were meant to be. Being together forever always seemed like a daunting prospect in her previous relationships, but with Rhetta it didn’t feel anywhere near long enough.
“How does it feel,” Farah asked, “being engaged?
“Like we’ve never been closer. I didn’t think it would be so different, but it is. Every touch, every kiss feels… I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like its rawer, emotionally, but it feels more like home, like its forever.”
She was crying now and she didn’t care. Farah was too.
“Damn, Caro,” Farah choked. “Way to make a girl feel lonely.”
They both laughed as their hug ended.
“Think I can get my fiancée back now?” Rhetta asked with a teasing smile. Her eyes were twinkling and it made Caroline’s heart swell with pride and love.
Rhetta did something then that she very rarely did in the company of their teammates. She looped her arms around Caroline’s neck, leant up into her and kissed her, sensuous and slow. A chorus of ‘awww’s rose around them and Caroline, emboldened, wrapped her arms around Rhetta’s waist and kissed her with everything she had.
It was a credit to the poignance of the moment that those members of the team who would usually whistle and hoot such a display, held their tongues.
The first group of the day got ready for their interviews after breakfast. Caroline had been allocated to the afternoon session, whilst Rhetta had been assigned to the morning session. Which meant that Rhetta made her way to her coming out without Caroline beside her to hold her hand. Fenton had offered to swap but, honestly, Rhetta didn’t know whether she would be able to hold it together if Caroline was there watching her. She always got a little tongue tied when it came to talking about Caroline, and having her there to hear it would only make that worse.
It helped that there were puppies to play with, curtesy of Perinnel.
“She likes you,” Perinnel smiled, nodding to the puppy sleeping peacefully on Rhetta’s lap. She smiled that bright smile of hers and Rhetta couldn’t help but smile back. “She won’t just sleep on anyone you know.”
Rhetta crinkled her nose and looked down at the sweet puppy that had already grown so much from the tiny little pup showering Perinnel with kisses in the first photos.
They were alone in the makeshift makeup room, waiting for Fenton to finish her interview. Rhetta was trying not to think about it, but she couldn’t get her mind to settle on anything else. Not even her wedding day.
“What are you going to say?” Perinnel asked after a long stretch of silence, a nervous eagerness in her wide eyes. She looked so young sometimes, so innocent. She reminded Rhetta of a young R, before her name had been said in the same breath as Denise Little and Marilda Johnson. Rhetta was sure that Perinnel had a bright future ahead of her. One that might well establish itself in the next few months.
“Nothing big about me. I still want the focus to be on on me as an athlete, but these interviews are supposed to show the person behind the player. When they ask about me and my life… When they ask about what inspires me…” She smiled and pressed a kiss to the puppy’s head. “That’s Caroline and Sam. I can’t talk about my life or who I am without talking about them. They inspire me to never give up, to never stop striving to be a better me. But more than that, they make me happy. I get to do the job I love with the woman I love by my side and the best brother in the world cheering me on from the sidelines.”
She looked up to see Perinnel grinning. “And here’s me with only puppies to talk about.”
Rhetta’s full belly laugh was interrupted by the opening of the door.
“Miss Morsten, we’re ready for you now.”
For a moment, Rhetta’s nerves froze her chest, holding her breath in her lungs and rendering her speechless.
Perinnel lifted the puppy off of Rhetta’s lap and handed her a white pebble of the kind that was scattered around the beach on which Caroline proposed. On the back were four simple words.
I love you, Princess.
That was all Rhetta needed to see her through.
“You not going to eat tha- Ouch!”
For the first time in camp history, Caroline wasn’t eating her lunch. Even before her first cap she had managed to polish off a portion and a half. Now she couldn’t touch a bite.
“Caro,” Charlie said softly, placing her hand on Caroline’s shoulder.
Caroline looked up to see Natalie rubbing her arm and glaring at Charlie.
“Take me for a walk?” Charlie asked. “I always get a little nervous before these things.”
Caroline appreciated the lie. She knew that Charlie was far too much of a pro to be bothered by a US Soccer interview.
She nodded and Charlie held out her hand to help her to her feet.
“It’s
gotta be rough, being out here when you know that she’s in there doing one of the biggest and hardest things of her life,” Charlie said as they stepped out into the hotel gardens. They weren’t very big, so all they had to walk around was a square of courtyard around a trio of palm trees. But Caroline could smell the salt in the air and she swore it was better than liquor at calming her nerves.
“The roughest,” Caroline admitted.
Charlie squeezed her arm. “She’s strong.”
Caroline smiled. “The strongest.”
Charlie rolled her eyes. “I get it, you think that the sun shines out of her ass.”
“Charlie!”
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