Page 62 of Coast to Coast

“No,” I said, quickly looking away from the road and briefly making eye contact before concentrating on it again. “Thank you,” my voice was hoarse with emotion, as that increasingly familiar tension in my chest made it difficult to utter the words.

Was it normal for someone I’d known for such a short period to be able to be so important to me this quickly? Yeah, she was responsible for my son, but so much more was brewing here. Even when she made relatively minor statements, her words had the potential to wound me or heal me. Fuck, I hope I never did anything that would make her want to hurt me because she’d destroy me.

Pulling into the parking lot of the local pizza place, I noticed Mariana and Alex’s car.

“Looks like we have company,” I said, pointing through the glass at my teammate and his wife. “Okay with you if we sit with them?”

“Sure. I’ve kept in touch with Mariana while I was in Boston. She and I have been planning what we’re all going to do after the first pre-season game.”

“Really?” I asked. I hadn’t thought about the demand our fake dating sham would have on her. But the WAGs were a tight-knit group; at least Mariana did her best to make it that way. It shouldn’t surprise me that Callie would be responsible for contributing to the plans.

“Yeah. Also, sad news about Kayleigh and Damon. I heard she took off back home when she saw Damon signing a woman’s shirt.”

“Yep,” I said, frustrated to watch my friend and his girl deal with the same stupidity. Kayleigh was a great girl in so many ways. She couldn’t keep her jealousy in check. That wouldn’t work for them long-term. And it wasn’t reasonable for her to expect Damon never to talk to female fans; I was there, and he wasn’t doing anything that should have raised red flags. I signed hats, jerseys, and photos all the time, and talking to female fans didn’t mean I was attracted to them or wanted to date or fuck them.

“Is he okay?” She asked as she got out of the car and went to get Crew out of his seat.

“He will need to be. After this past summer, I think he thought they would make it, but it sounds like they didn’t work on the real issues.”

Callie stood with Crew on her hip. She’d already unhooked him from his seat.

“What are we telling Alex and Mariana?” she asked me as I walked over to her to take Crew and carry him inside. I liked how seamlessly we handled the everyday work of managing a toddler.

“Well, since they both know about the fake dating, I think we could let them know that we are seeing where things go, okay?”

I kept to myself that I’d already shared it with Alex, which would lead me to let her know we discussed pre-gaming.

She nodded as she held the door open, all three of us walking into the restaurant at the same time.

“Hey, look who’s here,” Mariana said, Lucy and AJ perking up when they saw Crew. I set him on the floor, and he ran to see his friends.

Alex stood and pulled over a second table, flagging the waitress and signaling for another highchair for Crew.

Callie gave Mariana a quick hug before taking her seat and making small talk about her flight. When the high chair arrived, I picked Crew up and placed him in it before sitting next to Callie. I squeezed her thigh, and she sent me a long lingering look, something not missed by Alex. He lifted his chin and crooked his head, and then smiled.

I leaned over, pressing a kiss to Callie’s temple. Alex’s eyes widened in understanding when she leaned into me without changing the subject. Mariana continued to talk with Callie, though her smile was noticeably brighter.

We ordered a cheese pizza for Crew the next time the waitress came back around. Pizza was one of the few things he would eat without an argument. It didn’t even have to be good pizza; I could toss tomato sauce and cheese on an English muffin, and he’d eat it.

CALLIOPE

As much as I enjoyed Mariana’s company, Tom and I had built up our expectations for how the night would go, and I was more than a little anxious about getting back home with him. Hopefully, playing with his friends would help tire Crew out enough to go down to bed easily after his bath. The change in time from Eastern Standard Time to Mountain was setting in for me, and I couldn’t imagine how the toddler hadn’t lost his shit.

We ate quickly and practically dragged Crew away from his friends. It seemed like he had gotten a second wind. After strapping him into the car seat to go home, Tom and I sneaked another quick and unsatisfying kiss in the front seat, yet again interrupted by Crew’s demands that we hurry up and go.

When we arrived home, Tom took Crew and immediately started running his bath while I returned my belongings to my room. Once I heard the bathwater stop running, I turned on my shower, planning to rinse off after a long day of flying.

“Kiwi!” Crew pounded at my door as I was getting dressed after my shower. I had struggled with what to wear; I wanted to wear something that would set the mood but also be modestenough to wear around Crew. Ugh, there was nothing, so I settled on shorts and a tank top.

“Almost ready, buddy. Go start reading your book with Daddy,” I called to him as I piled my curls on top of my head in a messy bun.

“No, Kiwi, come too,” he demanded. Crew’s stubbornness was both his best and worst quality. It would make him successful later in life, but right now, it was a lot to take.

“Ok, I’ll be right in,” I agreed, taking one more quick look at myself in the mirror before opening my door and joining Tom and Crew in the living room. Crew had a small stack of books in front of him, and I gathered that he had planned to read all of them before he went to sleep.

Tom lounged shirtless on the couch and wasn’t shy as his gaze crawled up my body, burning a trail of want and desire. I guess the shorts and tank top worked for him.

“Have you already had the video chat with Kelsey?” I asked, attempting to gauge which stage we were in the bedtime routine.

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