Fair Play (60 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Angel

I wake up hot, not just too many covers hot, but sweaty, uncomfortable hot. I’m also sporting a massive headache and cramps. The pain medicine the doctor at the hospital gave me must have worn off, and Cat is spooning behind me. Damn, that woman’s putting off the heat.

“Cat,” I murmur. My heart is pounding, and I need to move away from her hot body, but she’s got me trapped.

A grumble comes from behind me, but it’s low and very un-Cat-like. I wiggle toward the edge of the bed, and her arms tighten around me.

“Don’t go,” a voice says that is indeed not Cat’s.

I scream and thrash, even though it makes everything hurt more, until I’m off the bed. I stumble backward toward the door.

“Who are you? Get out of my room! Where’s Cat?” I yell and press my hands against the door, feeling around for the knob in the dark.

“Angel, it’s me. It’s River, stop yelling. Cat let me in a couple of hours ago,” he says, jumping out of the bed.

“River?”

“Yeah, it’s just me. Come here, baby,” he says, approaching me carefully.

I collapse into his arms and start to cry.

“Oh, no. Now don’t cry. Come on. I missed you. I’m sorry I scared you, baby.” He holds me, stroking my back up and down while I bawl against his chest.

“You . . . never . . . call,” I say between sobs.

“I didn’t want to bother you when you were so busy here.”

“I thought you didn’t want to be my . . .” I can’t even finish my sentence. I didn’t even know myself how much that was bothering me until right now. And the stress from earlier tonight is catching up with me.

“Of course not. I was trying to keep you away from all the crap I’m going through with my brother’s case.”

I’m still crying when he lifts me up to carry me back to bed.

“Shush, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. The last thing I wanted to do was make you feel like this.” He covers me with just the sheet and smooths my damp hair off my forehead.

I reach out in the dimly lit room to touch his cheek to prove to myself that I’m not hallucinating.

“You’re really here.”

“Yep, I flew all night. Cat told me she was coming out to see you.”

“So you saw her tonight?”

“Yes, she said you fainted on stage and hit your head. Are you okay?” he gently places his hand on the side of my head.

“Is that all she told you?”

His dark eyebrows draw together when he answers, “Yes, why? Is there more to tell?”

“Well, yes, I mean . . . sort of.” I’m scared shitless to tell him about the rest, but here he is, asking what happened. What better opportunity would I ever have?

He adjusts his position on the mattress next to me, moving closer to my legs and turning to face me head on.

“I have something I have to tell you, River.”

“Wait, I have something I have to tell you first. It’s really important. Can I go first?”

Hell yes, he can go first. I’m not looking forward to telling my news. I may as well let him start things off unless it’s about David and his case. Shit . . . David.

I prop myself up on my elbows, “Oh my God, did David die? Are they pressing charges on you?” 

“No, no, it has nothing to do with David. In fact, Misty sent me a text two days ago and said she was going to contact the police and tell them what he had been doing to them.

“She saw in the news that they were trying to pin it on me, and she felt horrible for getting me involved. I think she knows a few hundred people who wouldn’t mind seeing him dead. She’s going to make a list for the detective, and that should get them off my back.”

“You didn’t have anything to do with it, did you?”

“That’s a hard question. I’m not going to lie. I didn’t directly plan or have anything to do with his beating, but I didn’t stop it from happening either.”

“Oh. So it was the bikers?”

‘You don’t forget anything, do you?” he says and kisses me on the cheek.

“No, that comment you made has had me worried for four weeks.”

“I was there the day he ran into the bikers. I asked him what he did to Misty and the kids, and the bikers were . . . helpful.”

“Helpful how? I ask, but I’m not sure I want to know the details.

“I gave one of them an autograph before I saw David, and he stepped up to shake him down. He scared him into admitting to being abusive. I turned around so I wouldn’t punch him out, and when I turned back, he was gone.”

“Gone? The bikers?”

He nods, and I absorb this information. He couldn’t have stopped it if he had wanted to, and David deserved a taste of his own medicine.

“How is David now?” I ask as if it would make a difference.

“He’s home. He has in-home nursing care for a while. He has to relearn how to do a lot of things. He’s weak.”

“That’s good, I guess.”

The corner of River’s mouth puckers, and he shrugs.

“Yep.”

“So if nothing’s going on with David, what is it that you had to talk to me about in the middle of the night?”

He stands up and paces the floor, and I switch on the light next to the bed.

“River? You’re scaring me.”

He stops and faces me.

“You know I only want what’s best for you, right?”

I feel my eyebrows pull together in confusion when he asks this silly question.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you. What’s this about?”

He sighs deeply and sits back down, taking my hands in his.

“You know that night we spent at my sister’s when we borrowed a few condoms from their drawer?”

“Uh, yes, it was the first sex I’d had in years and the best sex I’ve ever had. How could I forget?”

“Okay, well last night, we were at Mom and Dad’s for family dinner, and I thanked her for letting us use her bed, and I told her we borrowed her condoms.”

“Yeah?”

“She freaked out because Allen poked a hole through all of those condoms when they decided to have another baby, some kind of ceremony or something. I don’t know.”

He bows his head and places his hands on my knees. I close my eyes and try to grasp what he’s telling me. We used damaged condoms, multiple times, six weeks ago. So that’s how this happened.

“I’m so sorry, Angel. I never meant for this to happen. You have to believe me. I want kids, but I know your career comes first. I would have never sabotaged that for you.”

“We’re having a baby,” I say quietly.

“We don’t know that. You might not be. I mean, maybe I have slow swimmers or something. I brought a couple of tests if you want to take them.

I reach over to the bedside table for a small strip of pictures where I left my phone and keys when we got back from the hospital. I hand him the ultrasound images of our baby, and he stares at them. His hand grips my knee hard when he realizes he isn’t telling me something I don’t already know.

“We’re having a baby?” he whispers.

“We are.”

He looks up at me with tears brimming in his eyes.

“How long have you known? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I just found out tonight.”

“Tonight? Why?”

“I fainted during my performance, and I had an episode of bleeding. When we went to the hospital, they did blood work and an ultrasound to make sure I wasn’t pregnant.”

“But you were?” He reaches out to cup my cheek with his big hand, and the threatening tears stream down his face.

“Are you all right? Is the baby okay?”

“Yes, the fall caused the bleeding, but everything looks perfectly normal.”

He is quiet as he grasps the reality of what I’ve just told him.

“What about your career? Things are getting hot here. Cammie has so many plans.”

“I love you, River. More than I’ve ever loved a man before, and we have been given a beautiful gift. I would never give it back. Dancing was my whole life until I met you, but I can always dance. I’ll just take a year off. If they don’t want me when I come back, it wasn’t meant to be.”

“You’ve wanted this your whole life. I don’t want you to give up on your dream.”

“That dream was one-dimensional. My new dream is 3-D.”

It’s amazing how easy such a life-altering decision is to make. It’s not even a decision. It’s just how it is.

“3-D?” he asks.

“You and me, a baby, and dancing.”

He lays his head down on my flat belly that still has a million butterflies fluttering inside it for him.

“You hear that in there, baby Kelly? We are going to be a family. I’m going to have to share you with my Pretty Dancer.”

My eyes well with tears of joy and utter relief when I listen to him talk to our tiny baby.

“Do you think you’ll be okay with sharing?” I ask, threading my fingers through his dark curls.

“That’s what family is all about—sharing, loving and supporting each other. Of course I’ll be okay sharing you with our little peanut. We’re a team. We gotta stick together.”

“Team Kelly. I like that.”

He turns his face to mine. “Does that mean you want to be an official Kelly too?”

“Who’s asking?”

“I am,” he says, sliding off the bed onto his knees.

“Angel Marie Williams, will you do me the extraordinary honor of marrying me?”

I don’t answer. I sit up and wrap my arms around his neck.

A few minutes later, I hear his muffled voice say, “So that’s a yes?”

“That’s a big fat yes.”

“I love you, Pretty Dancer.”

“I love you too, Football Man. How are we going to do all of this? How are we going to juggle your football career with my dance career and a baby?”

“I don’t know, baby, but we will. Somehow, we will.”

“What if we can’t?” I ask.

“I don’t believe in
can’t
.
Can’t
is just a word people use when they’re too scared to give it their all. I’m giving us my all. No matter what it takes, our relationship is the receiver, and I’ll call a Fair Catch every single time to protect it.”

“You know I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say.

“When a receiver is focusing on catching the ball, he’s vulnerable to all of the defenders coming toward him. But he can call a Fair Catch, and nobody can touch him when he catches the ball.”

“Are you always going to speak in football terms? Because I like it. It’s hot.”

“If you speak in dance to me. You know I love that."

“It’s a deal. Nobody’s going to know what the hell we’re talking about, though,” I say.

“It's the super-secret Team Kelly language, only meant for us."

"Just us."

"You and me and a tiny dancer."

"Or a tiny football player."

"I love the sound of that."

Epilogue

Five Years Later

“My ticket says Moscow. I’m supposed to be going to the United States.”

We are in France, where I’ve just spent a month dancing
Swan Lake
for Maison Nationale de la Danse, and I want to go home and see my husband.

“Je suis désolé, Madame. Permmetez-moi de verifier.”

I sigh deeply. “Merci,” I say.

My daughter pulls on my hand, and I let her lead me away, praying the agent straightens out our flight.

It’s our five-year anniversary, and if this French guy doesn’t get me there, I’m prepared to throw one hell of a hissy fit.

“Mommy, look at the fountain. It has crystal rocks on the bottom of it.”

We make our way toward the center of the airport terminal, and lo and behold, there is a fountain with crystals sparkling from under the water.

“It’s beautiful, London. How did you know this was here?”

“Daddy showed me,” she says with a mischievous smile that I’ve seen many times on her father’s face over the past six years of our marriage.

“Daddy hasn’t been here with you, sweetheart, but we were in Russia last fall. Is that what you’re thinking of?”

She’s seen more places in her short five years than most people have their entire lives, traveling with her father and me.

No two people have ever had such a hectic schedule as River and me, but we make it work, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s at times like this, when things aren’t falling into place as planned, that I yearn for the life of a stay-at-home mother and wife.

“No, Mommy, he showed it to me today,” she says and jumps up and down with wide, excited eyes.

“What’s going on here, little lady?” I ask, tilting my head and narrowing my eyes at her with suspicion.

I’m convinced that London is going to explode with elation when I feel warm hands slide over my eyes from behind.

“Happy Anniversary, Pretty Dancer.”

I shriek, drawing the attention of all the travelers entering and exiting the Paris International Airport.

“River! You’re here. How did you get away? I thought you had—” His mouth covers mine, quite effectively shutting me up with a kiss that curls my toes and heats my core.

When he allows me up for air, London takes both of our hands.

“Let’s celebrate!” she shouts.

“But, our tickets? I thought we were meeting you at home.”

“Nope, change of plans. We are spending the weekend here, and then you can go directly to Moscow for your class instead of coming all the way home first.”

“So my tickets aren’t wrong?”

“Nope, I slipped the ticket guy a tip to play along.”

I playfully slap his chest, and he slides his hands down my back to my ass.

“You’re not going to get into trouble for being gone so close to your first game?”

“Nope, I got Coach’s permission.”

“Well aren’t you just sneaky?”

“Me too, I’m sneaky too, Mommy. I kept it a secret the whole time.”

“And we’ve been here four weeks. That’s excellent secret keeping,” I say, complimenting my beautiful daughter.

London is the perfect combination of River and me. She has my grace and poise, and she has her father’s quick wit and intelligence. Not to mention, she’s drop-dead gorgeous and a very successful child model, with a little help from her daddy.

London has as many obligations as River and me, so we decided on a home school program for pre-school, although none of it has been done at home.

“Let’s go to the secret chateau that Daddy rented for the weekend and have a secret dinner and tell a certain someone a really big secret,” River says.

I don’t know about the secret chateau or dinner, but the really big secret we have to tell her is that she is going to be a big sister seven months from now.

“I know one of those secrets,” I say conspiratorially.

“Oh! Daddy, you promised you wouldn’t tell her anything. We shook on it and everything,” she says and wags her finger at him.

“I didn’t tell. This is Mommy’s and my secret for you.”

She places her hand on her hip and taps her foot while she thinks about this.

“Okay, I like surprises. Let’s go!” she says.

She’s been begging for a sibling for three years, but the timing had to be perfect for our hectic lifestyle.

There’s never a perfect time to have a baby, but now is as good as ever. I have a light schedule for the next eighteen months, so we figured we had better strike while the iron is hot . . . and boy, was it hot.

For two people who don’t live in the same house, state, or even country most of the time, we sure found a lot of creative ways to make a baby.

We spend time at home every year for six weeks during River’s off-season, Katherine and Frank insist that we stay with them in their house, even though ours is minutes away.

It’s my favorite part of the year—family dinners, kids running everywhere, screaming and laughing and oodles of love.

My parents and my sister even join us for family dinner occasionally. Things aren’t ideal for us, but they are better than they ever have been, so I can’t complain.

Misty and her kids are always there too. They came back from Italy, where they were hiding from David, when he went to jail for drug trafficking. It turns out he wasn’t just an abusive husband and father. He was a lowlife drug dealer too.

Our life consists of one long, crazy scrimmage where we have to scrap and fight for our time together, and sometimes, River calls a Fair Catch to protect us like he said he would six years ago.

The End
.