One Chance (28 page)

“Ready to go?” Liam asks as he slides into the driver’s seat.

“God, yes.”

“She say anything to you?” he asks as he nods his head in Kenzie’s direction as we pass my house.

“Tried to talk to me.”

“You didn’t talk to her?” he asks not sounding surprised.

“Nope.  I don’t want to deal with those two right now.”

“That’s fine with me,”
he says as he takes my hand, threading his fingers with mine.

The long drive back is the best it’s ever been for Liam and me.  We talk throughout the trip, laughing, joking, talking about his future on the Viking’s football team and what this means for us.

“Do you want to stay at my house tonight or yours?” he asks sweetly.

“I need to catch up with Quinn, so mine tonight.”

“Fine,” he says looking a little upset, though he doesn’t say anything.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, but tomorrow you’re mine.  I don’t care where either,” he says with an “I’m not kidding look.”

“Sounds great to me,” I say
, as he pulls into my driveway.  I hop out of the car and see him do the same as I go back to the trunk.  He opens it but before pulling my bag out, he pulls me towards him.

“Soon, woman.”

“Soon what?” I ask confused.

“Soon we are going to be married, I don’t want to wait years, unless for some reason you want to,” he says with an unsure look.

“Soon sounds wonderful to me,” I say as I wrap my arms around his neck.

“Good.  Then talk to Quinn and see if she can help you start planning it.  I’d like to be able to sleep with my wife every night for a little while,” he says before bringing his lips down to meet mine.

“Mmmm, that sounds like a great idea.  Let’s get married tomorrow,” I say excitedly.

“Done,” he says looking serious

“Baby, I’m joking.  I can’t plan a wedding that fast.  A few months,” I say being realistic.

“That’s about all we have babe, then I have to be in Minnesota for training.”

“We will figure it out. I promise,” I say as I pull him in for another kiss.

“I love you babe.”

“I love you too.  Now go celebrate with your friends while I go tell Quinn the amazing news,” I say as I grab my bag out of the trunk.  Liam waits until I’m inside before pulling out of the driveway.  I enter the house and the girls are all around laughing, joking, having a good time.

“What’s going on?” I ask confused.

“We were just talking about how awesome it is that Liam got signed.  That’s amazing and a huge deal.  We were thinking of throwing him a congratulations party, considering you’re his girlfriend, he would definitely come,” Annie says excitedly.

“That sounds like a great idea.”

“Hey you.  What the fuck is that?” Quinn yells as she walks towards me.

“What?” I ask
, playing dumb.

“You’re engaged?” she shrieks, causing all the girls to come rushing towards us.

“Yes, Liam proposed yesterday before the draft started,” I say excitedly.

“Oh my gosh,” she says as
she gives me a big bear hug, “we need to plan.  Did you set a date?” she asks quickly.

“Not yet, but that’s what I need to talk to you about,” I try to whisper.

“Are you pregnant?” Nikki a girl in the house asks.

“No, I’m not pregnant,” I snap back.

“Why would you ask that?” Quinn asks, looking pissed.

“Because they haven’t been together that long, yet they are engaged already,” Nikki says bitterly.

“They’ve known each other practically their entire lives,” she quips.

“Oh, well I just think it’s weird,” she says before walking away.

“Congratulations,” Rebecca says as she pushes some of the girls out of her way, “Holy shit, he did great, that’s beautiful,” she says as she admires my ring.  The rest of the girls congratulate me and ask all about the proposal, wanting details.

The rest of the evening is spent talking to the girls and going over the details of the proposal
, also with how Liam got selected a lot earlier in the draft than expected.

“Ugh, finally,” Quinn says as she falls on her bed.

“Finally what?” I laugh.

“What happened at home?”

“What do you mean?” I ask playing dumb.

“Well Brody and Kenzie, what happened?  Your text said something happened, now fill me in,” she says
, as she sits up giving me her complete attention.

“Ugh, well after everything with
the draft and all, Brody was nowhere to be found.  So I went outside to talk to him.  Quinn, he wants me to give him a chance, us a chance.”

“What?” she practically
howls.

“Sure did, he wants us to be together.”

“I can’t even imagine how your sister would feel,” she says shocked.

“Oh, she heard it.  Apparently
, she’s been trying to sleep with Liam for the past year,” I say annoyed.

“Seriously?  What the fuck?  Why?”

“She wants him and Brody wants me, so they worked together, I guess on trying to get each of us.  I’m not completely sure.”

“That doesn’t make sense, because she hated when Brody would talk to you.  Maybe she wanted them both for herself.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“How did you find out she’s been trying to sleep with Liam?”

“He came outside and heard what Brody was saying to me and called Kenzie out on it.”

“Why didn’t he tell you?” she asks confused.

“I don’t know, something about he didn’t think it would matter.  Either way, I ended up leaving because I was so pissed off at all of them.”

“But then
, how are you engaged?”

“When I finally went home
, Liam was waiting up for me.  He didn’t sleep with Kenzie, heck he didn’t do anything with her but avoid her, so I couldn’t stay mad at him.”

“Aww young love,” she jokes.

“I do love him.  It’s just going to make it awkward for our wedding because of Brody and Kenzie now.”

“God
, that’s going to be so weird.  What are you going to do?”

“I have no idea.”

“Well, when do you think you guys want to get married?”

“Soon.”

“How soon?”

“Hell
, Liam wanted to get married tomorrow,” I state laughing.

“Really?  Wow, well I guess it makes sense, he leaves shortly after school
is over.”

“Yep, so this way we can live together as husband and wife before he has to go to Minnesota.”

“Do you think we can pull this off in a month’s time?”

“A month?” I ask shocked.

“Yeah, sweetie he leaves really soon.  Let’s get this show on the road,” she says as she grabs her laptop. “What colors do you want?”

“Blue, definitely blue.”

“And what other color?”

“I don’t care.”

“How about blue and silver?”

“That works,” I say
, as I move over to her bed to see what she’s looking at.

“Where do you want to get married?”

“I don’t know.”

“Haven’t you ever thought about your wedding day before?”

“No, not really,” I answer honestly.

“Oh my goodness.  Well that’s about to change,” she says as she pulls up site after site with wedding ideas and suggestions.
  For the next two hours we go over venues, color schemes, types of wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, you name it, and we cover it.

The next morning can’t come soon enough, and before I know it
, I’m out the door and heading to class.  Liam and I missed two days of class to go home for the draft, so now it’s back to reality.

“Don’t get too comfortable with that ring on your finger.  He’ll never marry yo
u,” Meg says in a venomous tone as she approaches me on campus.

“What Liam and I do is our business, no one else’s,” I say as I walk away.

“You’ll see, just you wait,” she yells, as I continue on my way.  I head to my next class trying to block Meg out of my mind.  She’s just jealous; I keep trying to tell myself.

After my final class of the day, I rush out wanting to get home and relax for a little while.  I get home and the house is quieter than usual, but it’s Thursday and that seems to be pretty common for this day of the week.  I grab a bottle of water and head up to my room.

I no sooner lie down on my bed and my phone beeps alerting a message, “Hey babe, I’ll be over around 5:00 p.m.,” it states.  I look at the clock and it’s already going on 4:00 p.m.  I type back, “Great, see you then,” and hit send.

“Sup bitch,” Quinn says as she drops her bag and flops onto her bed.

“Not much, just relaxing.”

“Has Kenzie or Brody called or texted you?”

“Nope.”

“What are you going to do about your wedding?”

“I don’t know.  Oh, I ran into Meg today, she told me my wedding will never happen.”

“No she didn’t,” she says with a concerned look.

“Yep, sure did.”

“Well
, forget about her.  Did you decide where you want to get married?”

“Yeah, I think I want to get married at home.”

“Okay, that’s a good start.”

“Yeah, I called my mom and told her
, so her and Denise are going to start working on some planning now too,” I say, feeling thankful my mom’s there to help.

“Good.  Are you going to ask Kenzie to be in your wedding?”

“How can I?”

“I don’t know.  Do you think she would cause a scene?”

“Hell with her, I don’t know anything anymore.”

“I’ll kick her ass,” she says a little too excitedly.

“I bet you would.  You’ll be up beside me, so I know she won’t get too close.”

“Damn straight.
  Who knows, maybe it would be better to have her up there, then you know she can’t do something stupid.”

“I don’t know yet.  I know my mom and dad are going to flip when they find out what she’s done, but I don’t have the heart to tell them.”

“You are too kind for your own good Hails.”

“I know
, I wish I was a bitch, life would be so much simpler.”

“It’s not
, trust me,” she says with a coy smile.

Quinn and I continue our conversation
, losing track of the time, until Liam pops in the door.

“Hey, what are you ladies up to?” he asks as he walks over to me to give me a kiss.

“Wedding stuff,” Quinn answers.

“Good, so what are your thoughts?” he asks as he sits beside me.

“Colors are blue and silver, getting married at home, our moms are planning some of that stuff.  Quinn’s my maid of honor.”

“Sounds good to me, anything I can help with?”

“You want to help?” Quinn asks shocked.

“
It is my wedding too, so yeah, I’d like to be a part of it,” he says in all seriousness.

“Great.  I need you to tell me who your groomsmen are going to be,” I state.

“How many do we want to have?”

“I’ll
leave that up to you.”

“I thought we wanted a small wedding,” he asks with a look.

“We do.”

“So why not either two or three then?”

“That sounds perfect.  Who will your two or three be?”

“
Max, Spence, and maybe Isaac.  Who were you thinking?”

“Quinn,
Ashley, and either Rebecca or Kenzie.”

“Really?” he asks surprised.

“I figure if she’s beside me, she can’t cause too much trouble.”

“Good point.  Maybe I should have Brody beside me then.”

“What do you think?” I ask honestly.

“I think they are going to cause problems no matter what, but we can’t worry about them.  This isn’t about them, this is about us.”

“He’s right,” Quinn pipes up, “No matter what they do, you have to ignore them.”

“
That’s fine with me,” I state.

“So when do you want the date to be?” Quinn asks Liam.

“I said I’d marry her
today,” he says without missing a beat.

“Stop, we have to have a wedding.”

“I know, but I graduate in three weeks, so we need to figure some things out quickly.”

“I know,” I say nervously.

“I think there’s some things we need to discuss too,” he says looking serious.

“That’s my cue to leave,” Quinn says as she stands up, “I
’m heading over to Mark’s, so I’ll see you tomorrow,” she says as she leaves.