“Fine. We’ll come this weekend. Hope you have enough room for all of us. I am not bunking with Jordan again. That guy has more hair products than the last woman I dated.”
Jordan’s impeccable grooming was an ongoing joke in their group.
“Fine. So long as you understand that I’m going to abandon you all in a heartbeat—for a few hours at least—if Natalie agrees to go out with me this weekend.”
A rude snort echoed over the line. “She won’t. One thing I love about that woman is that she won’t let anyone rush her. She always takes her sweet time to make a decision.”
And wasn’t that ever true? Natalie hadn’t agreed to date him right away, though he’d wanted to—badly—ever since he first caught sight of her talking with one of the Raiders’ admin staff at an event she’d catered. It was the way she laughed—with such gusto that her entire body shook and her glossy dark curls bobbed up and down—that had drawn him to her. He had wanted to make her laugh that way. It had taken a while for him to win her over and convince her he wasn’t some bad boy QB who would break her heart. But even then, she’d kept part of herself closed off, distant. She’d poured so much love into him and their relationship, he’d learned to be okay with that…until Kim had died and Natalie had locked herself inside that guarded place and thrown away the key.
He’d given up for a time, but after Adam got really sick, he realized something: while all the bargaining and begging in the world wouldn’t keep Adam on this earth, he still had a chance to be with the woman he loved. And that tear at the Raiders’ dinner… Well, it had been enough to tell him what he already knew—she missed him too, and she was close to relenting.
“She’s pretty upset, huh?” his friend asked.
“Not as much as she will be when she stops mollycoddling me because of Adam.” As much as she might want to be sweet, she had plenty of piss and vinegar in her. It was something he loved about her.
Sam paused. “You know we’re here for you, right? All the way. Not just for the whole retirement thing and Adam, but for your Natalie campaign too.”
“I know.”
“I’ll call the guys then. We’ll see you this weekend. And promise me you won’t put me in a room with Jordan just because I bitched about it.”
He laughed, and it felt good. Having a guys’ weekend was just what he needed. “What did Coach always say? Never show your Achilles.”
“If you do it, there will be retribution.”
How many practical jokes had they played on each other over the years? Everything from pouring honey into cleats when they were kids to driving off with someone’s new ride at a party they were all attending. But they drew the line at tampering with a man’s jock strap. Some things were sacrosanct.
“You’re on my turf, Garretty.”
“Oh, I’m shaking, man.”
He hadn’t realized how much he missed his friends’ banter after his self-imposed seclusion. “Thanks for not trying to talk me out of any of this or telling me I’m crazy.”
“I hope you know I never would. Put on your dancing shoes, Ace. You’re going to be boogying to Natalie’s tune for the foreseeable.”
He couldn’t wait to match her moves.
Chapter 3
Natalie had one mission in her head when she walked back into her house. Find the salted chocolate caramels she’d hidden from herself in the laundry room. Stat.
“Your daddy…has simply lost his mind,” she told Touchdown, who trotted joyfully beside her.
Then she realized she was falling back into old patterns. Talking to their dog when she was upset with Blake, referring to him as Touchdown’s daddy. Of course, Blake had called her Mommy. This had to stop.
“Touchdown.” The dog only wagged his tail. “Get used to me calling him Blake.” She moved the liquid detergent aside and rose onto her tippy tiptoes to grab the box.
Hiding food from herself had been pathetic enough. Shoving three chocolates into her mouth at one time was a whole new level. But the chocolate tickled the back of her throat and the caramel coated her tongue, and for those few precious moments, she was lost in the thrall of the chocolate O. Blake didn’t exist. Her past with him didn’t exist.
And then it was over, and her stomach turned queasy. He was back. He was living right next door. He’d built a freaking bridge to connect them and bared his soul. Again. And he was sharing Touchdown with her.
This had to be some kneejerk reaction to grief, right?
The dog nuzzled her calf. Sliding onto the floor, the candy box still clutched in her hand, she pulled the beagle’s little body onto her lap. She petted him with one hand while using the other to deliver more chocolates into her mouth.