Rags 2 Pitches: A Secret Baby Sports Romance

  That was me.

  I was good at that.

  I should have told my parents a long time ago that I hated the way that they fought. I hated the idea that Dad was with another woman and that he was only home because of me. But I’d kept my mouth shut and lived in torture every day.

  “I do. But just say that he wants this too, and we decide?”

  She smiled, “Then you’ve done it together.”

  I didn’t know what to do. Or where to go.

  “Let’s just go home. I can re-book the appointment another time. But tonight, or soon, you need to talk to Ryan. Okay?”

  I nodded, feeling so confused, and it hurt so fucking bad. I had spent the whole night crying, thinking that I needed to get this done. But talking to her, I thought about it and it didn't seem so bad. It no longer felt like the end of the world.

  Chapter 31

  Ryan

  “Nicola,” I blurted out as she walked in the door. Just like her Aunt had said that they would be at the clinic. Nicola was really here. Part of me hoped that it would be some kind of sick joke. That Nicola would talk to me first, if she was really pregnant, but as soon as I got there. I realized that what her aunt had said on the phone was true. She was really pregnant and expecting my baby. I dunno, I just hadn’t believed it until now.

  Just like her dad had done with her Mum, he had thrown her out too. What kind of monster was he?

  She had tears in her eyes as she ran into my arms and I wanted to tell her off and make it known that she should never, ever do something like this ever again. I fucking wanted to hate her. But I couldn’t. She had been through so much and it would be wrong for me to punish her even more.

  “Were you really going to do it?” I asked as we cried, holding each other, and I needed to look into her eyes and know the truth.

  She nodded, “Sorry,” and then she continued to cry some more. There had been so much pain and suffering in my life. All the people that I’d loved were suffering and I never thought that the woman I loved was going through the same thing, until now.

  “Don’t be sorry.”

  I held her hand and led her back out of the waiting room. Away from prying eyes and away from an audience. The road was busy and cars were passing up and down, but I didn’t hear a thing as I looked into her eyes.

  “Just don’t do this,” I begged her. We may not have been married and my five hundred a week wasn’t going to take us far, but I just didn’t want her to have an abortion for the wrong reasons.

  “We haven’t been going out that long. It may take a couple of years or more until your get your contract to play pro. And your brothers and sister are in care. I can’t do this to you. Another thing. Another person to worry about.”

  “I don’t have all the answers, but I know one thing, if you go ahead with this, if you’d done this behind my back then you would hate me, and if I ever found out then I would hate you.”

  She nodded in agreement, there was no two ways about it.

  “There’s no fucking way that people who go to med school don’t have kids. We can’t be the only pricks going to med school.”

  She wanted to correct me and say that it was her going to medical school. She opened and shut her mouth for a minute, but then she let me continue speaking.

  “I won’t be able to live with myself if you do this. But I know from when I spoke to your Aunt on the phone that she said she would help us.”

  She nodded, as if she knew that was true. Her Aunt seemed to be the only normal person in their family. When I’d called her a couple of hours ago, she’d said that they were on the way to a clinic. She’d never said what kind of clinic, but she’d given me the address. Thank goodness for the neighbour next to Nicola’s house, otherwise I would never had had her Aunt’s number and wouldn’t have caught Nicola in time.

  “We’re going to work it out,” the determination and confidence in my voice surprised me and I could tell that it did the same thing for her too, as she looked me in the eye.

  “We?”

  I nodded, “Yes, we. But not now cause I need to sit down for a minute.”

  I’d fucking run all the way here. I was on and off that bus like I had hot coal on the bottom of my feet. I kept thinking, why the fuck did her aunt give me the address of a clinic? And then it hit me. I kept hoping that it wouldn't be true. But something inside of me had an ugly feeling that it was true.

  “What happened to your eye?”

  I was blinking like crazy, ‘cause it hurt like fucking hell. “Your dad,” I smiled as I kissed her delicately on the cheek.

  I felt stupid right there and then. Her breasts which were filling up, her constant need to stuff her face… The signs were there, but I hadn’t see them. I had been around my Mum enough times when she was knocked up. She’d even had two miscarriages, thank God. Imagine, there could have been more of us.

  “I can’t promise you the earth right now, cause I don’t have money, but I do know one thing.”

  “What, Ryan Thompson?”

  I smirked, because there was something sexy about the way she said my name. It was as if it rolled from the edge of her tongue each time.

  “I fucking love you and I can’t promise you the earth. But I do know one thing.” I took in a deep breath, “That I’m going from rags to pitches and I want you by my side.”

  Her aunt chipped in, I’d even forgotten that she was with us and she said, “Should I cancel the appointment?”

  Nicola nodded, “Yes. We won’t be needing that.”

  Then she turned and looked to me and said, “Just make it rags to riches and you’ve got a deal.” She took out her hand for me to shake it and I said, “Deal!”

  Epilogue

  Nicola

  Ryan was true to his word. Not only did he go from rags to pitches but he turned it into riches as they signed him up for a contract with Manchester Club. He played and sweated like a pig. I stayed with my aunt for a few weeks when I first had our baby boy, and Ryan made a point of buying him the Manchester Club baby grow as his first outfit.

  Then as the proud father, he’d posted our son’s picture on his Facebook account. An enlarged picture was on the inside of his locker and safely on the bedside table, which he kisses every night.

  We have a full house, which can be a bit distracting whilst studying medicine. My aunt even got transferred up to Manchester so that she could be near her family. She said that she only stayed in London to be near me and Mum and, seeing as Mum never returned to London, she just didn’t see the point anymore. Dad spent too much time trying to divorce her. I tried calling him a couple of times, when I was having Lenny and after he was born, but he wasn’t interested and I decided that even though he was my Dad and I had put the pain of when he had kicked me out of the house behind me, he didn’t deserve my love and he certainly didn't deserve Lenny’s.

  As for Ryan’s Mum, who knows? His Nan comes to visit once in a while, but she never talks about her either. She’s one of those bad apples in the family, the one that no one talks about or acknowledges. Once in a while, I used to tell Ryan to get in touch with her and then he would remind me that Stephanie is lucky to have the smiling face that she has right now, no thanks to his Mum, and I think twice about it.

  He's right; our parents were crap and we had to learn from them so that we did a better job. I know that I’m trying and Ryan was doing the same.

  “So, I have two weeks before I start my second year. Arrh, I just hope that it’s not going to be as tough as last year.”

  She laughed as we sat on the couch watching Rodney, Stephanie and Michael play together. “Don’t do that, Lenny’s still young.”

  My aunt laughed, “He thinks that he can walk.”

  He took after his father. They have the same dark features, and I love them both the same.

  The day Ryan got his contract, we started to petition for his siblings. They were older and being taken care of, and the only thing that we needed to help our case w
as getting married, which wasn’t the most romantic setting. But we went down to the Registry Office, luckily they had a cancellation and all we needed was a couple of witnesses.

  So, we called Claire and Tony and they came down and that was it. I was just wearing my jeans and shirt and Ryan was pretty much the same. We have a photo of the day, but he promised that one day we would officially get married and I would be in my white dress and it would be a romantic setting.

  He doesn’t realize that every day with him is the most romantic setting that I’ve ever needed.

  “So, do you think Tony will come round today?”

  Aunt Marie raised an eyebrow. She was trying to be casual about it, but Ryan had already let it slip that my Aunt was dating a younger man.

  “I don’t know. Do you want him to come around?”

  She smiled, “Maybe,” and I thought about how much she had changed since she had been in Manchester. She no longer wore glasses, but wore contacts and her once brunette hair had blond highlights and was cut into a sexy short style. She had even joined the gym and worked out regularly.

  “Maybe you should call him and find out?” I teased and, as usual, Michael was listening to our conversation.

  “Yes, Auntie, call him. Like you did last week.”

  That let the rabbit out of the box. There were never any secrets when it came to Michael; he was always one step ahead of the game.

  “Call him. Maybe then he would come around, Auntieeee,” Ryan teased as he kissed me from behind the sofa.

  “I thought you were in the shower.” He had just finished training in the gym, he always said that he preferred the one at home and never took a shower there.

  “I did, but then I hated being in there alone.”

  The kids cried, “Errh!” And then he kissed me again.

  “Why do you want to pretend that you’re not seeing each other? It’s not like we all don’t know already.” Ryan said as he wrapped his arms around me, and then I thought about this summer and the fact that we had spent more time together since it was off-season. I hated the idea of us going back to the way things had been when I’d ignored him, whilst I was taking my exams and thinking about having an abortion.

  “I don’t know, because I’m old.”

  Ryan laughed, “Ten years, so what? It’s no one’s business but your own. Anyway, if anyone is good at keeping secrets, it’s Nicola.”

  I turned to face him, because I didn’t know what he meant. I hadn’t kept any secrets from him since he’d showed up at the clinic and made me realize that I would have more to lose by getting rid of Lenny than keeping him. I felt like such a fool when I thought about those times. I’d been young and naive and thought that anything that wasn’t the norm was hard work and, looking back at it, I wouldn’t trade anything for my life.

  “The test. I saw it in the bin.”

  That was when Aunt Marie got up and said, “Sorry, that’s mine.”

  Ryan and I looked at each other and I said, “It seems like not only eighteen-year-olds get carried away.”

  Then, Auntie quickly left the room. I couldn’t believe she was pregnant. I wanted to congratulate her, but it was clear that she wasn’t ready for that yet.

  “I wish the kids weren’t around right now. I would take you right here,” Ryan whispered in my ear.

  Like a flash we moved out of the living room, and Stephanie grabbed Lenny and moaned about that his parents weren't able to keep their hands off each other. He pressed his lips so hard against mine. I knew that we wouldn’t have sex right now, we would save that ‘til later, but a little tease now and then didn’t do any harm.

  “You better call Tony!” Ryan yelled out.

  He stroked my hair and said, “I love you, Nicola Thompson.”

  I replied and said, thinking about the fact that we were married and had a baby, “I love you Ryan Thompson. Just remember when those young girls start to make a play for you that you’re all mine.”

  He laughed, “You have my heart. It only stops beating if I’m not with you.”

  “Let it beat forever.”

  That was a promise I made to him. That I would never leave him again.

  “I can’t wait for the kids to go to bed,” he growled as he started to hold on to my ass.

  I closed the door and purred “That never stopped you before.”

  He grabbed me and said, “I need another shower. This time, not alone!”

  I followed him into the shower, making sure that we locked the door. My Aunt was probably on the phone trying to think of ways to tell Tony that she was carrying his baby. He wouldn’t dump her, not like the other jerk she would get her happy ever after. Just like I was about to get mine now in the shower with Ryan.

  ###THE END###

  ***Bonus Sports Romance Book***

  Saving Kayla

  About Saving Kayla…

  I’m being stalked by a dead man. I’ve been living in the shadows for years, running from a past I didn’t choose, running towards a future that can never exist.

  My only means of survival?

  My fists.

  I try to flee, but I am captured by Chase's sultry lips. He says he can protect me, but I know that’s not true.

  And, after one night of passion, I have to make a choice: do I bring him into my nightmare, or do I push him away and save his life?

  I can’t stop running.

  I can’t escape the past.

  I can’t stop giving myself to the one man that I never should have touched.

  I don’t deserve him.

  It’s better that I keep running, because if I don’t, his life will be in danger too.

  And that's a risk that I'm not willing to take.

  Chapter One

  Kayla

  Mom said that no one would come looking for us. She had it all planned. The main thing we needed to do was get out of the house.

  I was only eight when I started to learn karate, right after the first time he ever hit me. I said to myself that if I could get a black belt, then I would have the strength to fight him off.

  The more I trained, and the further I got along with my karate, the more sure I was that I could give him a run for his money and surprise him when he used his fists on me.

  But the moment he was about to hit me, the nerves settled in. I forgot everything that I had ever learned as fear took over not only my body, but my mind too.

  Most days I was bruised, but he’d developed a habit of beating up Mom and then, when he got bored, he would race into my room and continue what he’d started. I’d tried running away a few times, but when your dad is on the force, you don’t get very far. He’d always managed to find me. I even hated Mom for marrying and having a baby with a monster.

  The day had arrived, and it was time for us to leave. “Mom, are you sure about this? There must be someone who can help us,” I said as she prepared Dad’s favorite meatloaf - and poisoned it to the core. I sat on the kitchen stool and watched her.

  “Yes, darling. I told you, it's all planned.”

  I shook my head. “But, that is too much of the stuff. Besides, when they find him dead and us not here, they’ll come looking for us.”

  She nodded as she moved her bangs from her eyes. “It’s too much. We only need a little bit more than normal. Otherwise, it will show that there’s too much in his system.”

  That was when he walked through the door. As Mom heard it open, she smiled and put away the poison; it was in a salt shaker. We never ate salt with our food. He loved the stuff. As he put his hand gently on my back, he smiled. “Evening. My two favorite ladies are here, and I can smell my favorite dish.”

  He was right about that last part. It was his favorite dish. I nervously tried to smile as he held on to me and expected a warm smile. I knew one thing: we were far from being his favorite ladies. We hated him so much, and we couldn’t wait for the nightmare to end. Which would mean the end of him.

  “We have to wait a little while,” Mom
calmly repeated as she had so many times before when she told me the plan for the meal. We had to wait until the poison took effect. Neither of us would have any meatloaf. Mom had made sure that it was all for him. She had planned tonight well. She made up some story that we were fasting for the church, that we could only eat fish for the whole month. He would be too selfish to ask us why there was only meatloaf on the table. He never questioned us about church. I never went with Mom; I had always gone alone. I never asked where she went. I always assumed it was to help with the plan or something. Dad didn’t care that there was only meatloaf on the table for him, and no fish.

  “Good girl, Sadie, you put on the dress that I bought you last week,” Dad said to me as I sat down at the dinner table. I didn’t know that that would be the last time someone would call me by my real name. I smiled at him and pretended I was in one of my drama classes. I was putting my acting skills to use.

  I hated wearing that dress he bought me; it was for a little girl. I was sixteen years old, and he had bought me a long pink dress with a big bow across my small breasts. No doubt to hide them. The dress was one size too big for me and it looked horrible. I had tied my hair in a bun just so that I could look innocent. Like my age, as he politely put it. Not like the girls in my class who, according to him, looked like they were working the streets. That was an exaggeration. No one was wearing hot pants or miniskirts to school. Our principal would never allow it.

  Yet Dad had a way of making everything that he didn’t approve of seem as if it was wrong. The dress was so old-fashioned, with ruffles and mini-bows at the hem of the dress. I looked as if I was going to a costume party with an ’80s theme, rather than having dinner in my own home with a monster, aka my dad.

  “You look so pretty.” Mom smiled, avoiding looking at me.