Fair Game: A Football Romance (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Adam

Last night was unexpected in so many ways. Before Vinnie, I had every intention of formally asking Amethyst to marry me. Every year without her made that proposal less a reality and more a distant dream.

When I woke up yesterday, it was nowhere on my list of things to do. I’m glad it magically penciled itself in. Spontaneous proposals are more romantic, or so I’m told. Roman’s girlfriend is always bringing up marriage. She’d kill for a spontaneous proposal from him, but I think she knows as well as I do it’s never going to happen.

Roman isn’t the marrying type, he likes the convenience of a casual girlfriend without the hassle and maintenance. His words, not mine. Roman’s a great guy, he’s my best friend and another one of the few who know about my secret blackmailer.

“What are you thinking about over there?” Amethyst says, slinking her hand around my bicep.

“I was thinking about marrying you.”

“Oh great, you didn’t change your mind already, did you? Because I already told Brea and there’s no going back now.”

She’s lying on her stomach in a star position with her hand on my arm. Harper is on her other side, also spread out like a star, but she’s sunny side up with her fingers wrapped in Ame’s hair.

I cover her hand with mine on my arm. “You told Brea?”

“Yep.”

“What did she have to say?”

“What did she not have to say? She’s happy, curious, shocked, and a million other things, typical Brea.”

“You know she’s probably on a flight to Virginia right now, right?”

Her head pops up. “No, she better not be. We need to figure out what’s going on with Vinnie first. She could be in danger.”

For some reason Whoopie Goldberg’s line from the old movie Ghost with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze comes to mind. “Molly, you in danger girl.”

I smile and Ame swats at me, “You’re not being serious, Adam.”

“No, no, I am sorry a line from a movie just popped in my head when you said Brea was in danger.”

She flops her head down, and I hear a muffled ‘Molly, you in danger girl” from her pillow.

“You remembered,” I say.

“How could I forget, we watched that movie a thousand times in high school.”

“And another thousand in college.”

“What was it about that movie?” she asks.

“It was so unbelievable, it was believable. I’d like to think that if something happened to me I could still be with you in spirit, keeping you safe, watching you live your life.”

“Always trying to keep me safe, even from beyond the grave.”

“You better believe it,” I say, kissing the top of her head. “Now we need to get up. Grant text me a while ago that he has a lead on Vinnie’s whereabouts and he and his guys are moving in on him.”

“Shouldn’t we stay here then? It is a safe house, ya know,” she says with a little sarcasm and a little sass.

“I know that, smarty pants, and yes it’s safe, but it’s also driving me crazy. I want to go home and see about the fire damage and check on Casey and Lady. They brought Casey home yesterday, she had some smoke inhalation but she’s supposed to be fine.”

“What about security? Do you think somebody will try something else? Is Harper safe from that creep? And we still don’t know where Cherry is.”

“Grant has a security team he’s sending with us and they will be at the house too, he’s got us covered. Kareem was arrested this morning for kidnapping, drug trafficking, and human trafficking. He’s going away for a long time and Cherry …”

I don’t want to tell her that Grant has a body for me to ID at the morgue. He thinks it might be Cherry. I hate that woman, but I never wished her dead.

“What about Cherry?” she asks, untangling Harper’s fingers from her hair. She sits up and crosses her legs in front of me.

“Something’s wrong, I can tell. You have that thing in your voice and that groove between your eyes,” she says, reaching out to smooth my frown line away with her thumb.

“I’ll tell you later.” I glance at Harper, who is beginning to wake up, and Ame understands it’s hush time.

“Good morning, Princess,” I say when Harper’s eyes flutter open. It takes her a few seconds to figure out where she is and who she’s with. Sadly, waking up in a strange place doesn’t alarm her. I’m sure it happens a lot.

“Hi, Daddy. Hi, Ame, I’m hungry.”

Adam and I chuckle. Nothing like getting right down to business in the morning.

“We’re going home today, how about we have breakfast when we get there?”

“Home? To your house, Daddy?”

“To
our
house, Princess. You’re going to live with me for a while now, is that okay?” She jumps over Ame’s lap and throws her arms around my neck, squealing with delight.

“Yes, I love your house. Daddy, can Ame come too?”

“Of course, Ame can come too. Hey, that reminds me. We have some news to share with you.”

“You do?” Harper says, sliding back onto the bed between Ame and I.

“We do?” Amethyst asks with wide eyes. We haven’t had time to discuss telling Harper about the engagement, but I can’t think of a reason to wait.

“Yes, Harper, Daddy and Amethyst are getting married.” We both sit holding our breath, waiting for her response. Cherry used to fill her head with thoughts of reconciliation and becoming a big happy family, so this might cause some confusion.

“Okay, cool,” she says, all calm and reasonable like she’s thirty instead of five.

“That’s cool with you?” Ame asks.

“Yep, I like you and Daddy likes you. Do I get to be the flower girl and wear a pretty dress and throw flowers on the ground?”

“Sure, you’re the only one for the job,” I say.

“Cool, I have to go pee,” she says, scooting off the bed. Well, I guess that’s all taken care of, we’re getting married, no big deal, and Harper’s going to be the flower girl.

Ame inches off the bed too.

“You’re leaving too?”

“I’m going to throw our things in the bag and make sure she brushes her teeth. I’ll be back to help you up to the bathroom in a minute. Sorry, she’s quick and her bladder’s smaller.”

“I’ll be right here.” It’s not like I can get up and leave. I sigh and check my phone for a text from Grant about his arrival time. I want to go home. This place is like an underground time capsule. The air is so stale and there’s no place for Harper to spread out.

A text is waiting from Grant, but it’s not the one I’m expecting.

Grant –
I told the Medical Examiner you were in a wheelchair and he said you could ID the body with a photograph if you want. I’m pretty sure it’s her though. I’m sorry.

There is a photo attached. I can see the edge of it at the bottom of my screen. All I need to do is scroll down to see it. I’m not prepared for this. I thought I had a couple hours, and even then I didn’t really think it would be her.

I glance out the bedroom door to make sure the girls are still busy before pressing my thumb against the glass to move the picture into view.

There lying on a cold embalming sink with her head propped in a stand is the mother of my child, Cherry Smith, or whatever her real name is. All the legal documentation from our custody trial listed her as Cherry Smith, but I always knew that was her professional name.

She’s dead and I feel nothing, not grief or elation, not even indifference; just void nothingness. She was a bump in the road of my life that made it more difficult, and now she’s gone.

Me –
That’s her, you can put my name down for confirmation.

Grant –
Okay, I need to speak to you in person privately.

Me –
Ame and Harper are changing, we can be ready in twenty.

Grant –
Text me when you’re ready to go, I’m walking Killa.

Killa, what an appropriate name for that damn dog.

Me –
Okay.

I wonder how Cherry died? I didn’t see any cuts or bruises in the picture. And I wonder who did it. The why I can probably figure out on my own. Cherry was a conniving prostitute with her nose in everybody’s business. Sooner or later, people get tired of that.

I can’t tell Harper for a while. She needs to get settled in with us first. We can give her a foundation so when her world is rocked, she won’t fall. She’s got plenty of support now; we will get her through this.

“Okay, everything’s packed, you ready to get up?” Ame says, plopping our bag on the floor next to the door.

“Where’s Harper?”

“Sitting at the breakfast bar having a granola bar. She’s too little to wait for breakfast.”

“You’re really good with her.”

“She’s a sweet kid, and she’s yours, so,” she shrugs her shoulders as if being mine made her more lovable.

“So do you want to shower here or wait until you get home?”

She blushes at the mention of showering, and I smile. Last night’s virtual fantasy is one she’ll never forget. When I get this brace off, I’ll be sure to make it a reality she never forgets too.

“I’ll wait to use my shower at home, it’s bigger.”

She stops zipping her purse for a moment. Wow, that sexting really affected her, didn’t it?

Harper saunters in the room dressed in dark jeans and a cream-colored sweater with a matching beret. Her jeans are tucked into Ugg boots that match her sweater, and her hair is combed to one side and braided.

She’s looking more like the daughter of an athlete than the daughter of a whore today, and I love the transformation.

“You look beautiful.”

“Thanks, this is all new.” She throws her arms out wide and spins in a circle, showing me every angle.

“Yes it is, and we will get you new everything when we get home.”

“Everything?” she asks

“Yep, everything.”

“Did you finish eating?” Ame asks her.

“No.”

“Okay, go finish up while I help your daddy up to the bathroom.”

When she’s out of earshot, I whisper to Ame, “Cherry is dead.”

She’s bent down putting the breaks on my wheelchair to keep it from sliding away when I get into it. She stops to stare at me with her lips parted until the shocked expression changes to disgust.

“That’s not funny.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Oh my God, you’re serious.”

“Yes, but I don’t want to tell Harper for a while. I want her to put down some roots at our house before snatching the rug out from under her world.”

“How, when? Oh my God, that little girl, left without a mother at such a young age.”

“I don’t know. Grant wants to talk to me.”

“Are they sure it’s her?”

“I identified the body, it’s her.”

“We better get moving then.” She helps me into my chair and after fifteen minutes of listening to her murmur
this can’t be happening
, and
I can’t believe this
, we are all ready to exit the sardine can and breathe some fresh air. 

I text Grant
Ready to go
and he texts back
Coming down.

Thirty minutes later we pull up in front of my house. Nothing looks askew from the front. The smoke is gone and all of the water they used to fight the fire has been removed or frozen.

Professionals were brought in to remove the smoke smell from the main house, so it smells normal. It doesn’t look like anything happened in here, but I can see the charred broken woodpile through the patio doors in the kitchen from here.

Lady barrels down the hall when we arrive, wagging her tail and whining for attention. The world would be a better place if people were more like dogs. You always know where you stand with a dog. If they miss you or love you, they will lick you to death at the door. If they don’t like you, they growl and you back away, simple.

Harper and Ame take Lady upstairs, and Grant pushes me into my office so we can talk. When the doors are closed, I ask, “So how did it happen?”

Grant takes a seat across from my wheelchair in front of my desk and leans forward with his elbows on his knees, steepling his fingers. He sighs deeply before he begins.

“Cherry wasn’t who you thought she was.”

“Yeah, no shit, she was a prostitute with a fake ass name.”

He shakes his head and leans back in his chair, scrubbing his face with his hand, “No, that’s not what I mean. She was an undercover agent for the FBI.”

“A what? No, she was a whore, she told me herself. I got her pregnant, she left Harper with that animal Kareem.”

No way, he’s got this wrong, Cherry was a dirty, gold-digging hooker.

“That was her cover. Getting pregnant was not supposed to happen, she messed up. She left Harper with Kareem because he’s undercover too. They used the arrest to bring him in yesterday. Cherry left Harper with him because she knew he was a cop and he would keep her safe. He was getting ready to put her into witness protection if Cherry wasn’t found, and that’s why he colored her hair.”