Page 57 of Mine Forever
“Yeah, you just never went into it.”
I meet her eyes. “Yeah, we didn’t talk too much after that.”
Our gaze holds for a moment before I look away. “Anyway, at the time I wasn’t ready to talk about it. Especially with all bullshit the PR for the team was spewing. It was for the great All-American image the clubhouse wanted me to portray. I mean, I played America’s game. My wife was a former beauty queen.”
Pausing, I raise my gaze to Eden, who’s staring down at her bottle. “Anyway, we weren’t happy. Heather was…”
How does one speak ill of the dead? Even if it’s the truth? I’m going straight to hell for what I’m about to say, but I’m being honest. “Heather was a demanding, spiteful bitch.”
Eden’s jaw drops. “Wow. That isn’t at all how any of that came across.”
I nod my head once. “Yeah, the PR department for the clubhouse certainly earns their salary.”
“I guess so.”
“Anyway, things weren’t great. I wanted a divorce, but stupidly I didn’t have a prenup?—”
“Wha—”
“Don’t ask. Anyway, I knew she’d try to take me to the cleaners. So I had to play my cards carefully.”
I look down at my hands, slowly uncurling them.
Once upon a time, my right hand held a baseball like it was an extension of my arm. But it would never hold a ball in quite the same way again.
Sighing, I continue. “Then she told me she was pregnant. I was happy and yet I also felt…trapped. And I can remember thinking to myself that it seemed odd since by this point, we hadn’t been sleeping together much anymore. But there had been one random night…”
Eden clears her throat and shifts in her seat. I glance up and grimace.
Her lips are pursed together as though she’s tasted something sour. I can’t say I blame her.
If she started talking about any of the guys she’d been with since me, I’d lose my shit, no doubt about it.
Hypocrite much, Hanover?
“The point is, I knew I couldn’t divorce her yet. I mean, she was about to have my child. She said she was about two months along. I went with her to the doctor’s appointment, heard the heartbeat, and…”
I clear the emotion from my throat. “I knew without a doubt I had to try and make it work for the sake of the tiny peanut on the screen whose heartbeat raced in my ears.”
The ultrasound is something I’d filed away deep in the recesses of my brain. After everything that happened, it was just too much to think about. “I need more beer. Want one?”
She nods and stands as well, picking up our plates. “How about we get this cleaned up before you continue?”
It’s as though she senses that what comes next will be hard.
She doesn’t know the half of it.
I’d never told a soul what I’m about to tell her.
The strange thing is, I trust Eden implicitly, despite our rocky past.
We clean up the dishes and kitchen in silence. But I need to hurry up and get this off my chest before I slide all the way back to that dark place I’d been in right after the accident.
I grab the last two bottles of beer, and in silent accord, we head into the living room.
In spite of one wall of the room overlooking the yard and the ocean beyond it, the large, open room is dim as the storm rages outside.
To save energy, we light a few candles instead of turning on the lights. They cast a warm glow in the room, throwing shadows of the flames on the walls around us.
