I scoff. “Don’t tell me you don’t miss living with your teammates or that you enjoy driving across town to work out.”
His eyes bore into mine. “Moving out of the football house is no hardship. Sure, I enjoyed the camaraderie, but living with several giant, stinky manchildren who don’t clean up after themselves is not the jackpot some think it is.”
I laugh and look down, but he lifts my chin. “There’s no place I’d rather be than with you, okay? We’re having twins. Two freaking children. They’re as much my responsibility as yours, and yes, this year will be tough, and I’m sure we’re going to argue and lose our shit from time to time, but I just need us to commit to eventually coming back to the table to talk, okay?”
Olly’s steady expression immediately calms me. “Okay. Yeah, I can do that.”
“As far as Amelia is concerned, she’s just pissed I broke up with her, so that’s sour grapes talking. Don’t listen to her.”
“Can I ask what happened between the two of you?”
He thinks about it a minute. “The more success she achieved, the meaner she got. And she leaves a mountain of devastation in her wake. It didn’t help that she hated my best friend’s girlfriend. It’s ironic Amelia brought up that douchebag who attacked Sienna, since that was in part Amelia’s fault for being a busybody. We ended up getting in a huge argument because of it, and I broke things off. And then, afterward, she really betrayed my trust, so I can say, definitively, that I’m not interested in anything she has to offer.”
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t delighted to hear he’s over her.
Since we’ve never discussed it before, now that we’ve brought up previous girlfriends, I’m dying to know more. “Have you been in many serious relationships?”
He shakes his head. “Not really. I usually broke things off if they didn’t understand my commitment to football. That has to come first. That’s the whole reason I’m at Lone Star in the first place. If I blow football, I blow my scholarship, I let down my family, and I let down myself. For a giant nerd who barely knew his left foot from his right, figuring out that I was good at this one thing made my whole life make sense.”
“I get that. But Olly, you’re good at a lot of things.” I brush a long strand of hair out of his eyes. “Weren’t you a math whiz in middle school? Didn’t you win all those academic competitions? I mean, you’re a horticulture major, aren’t you? That’s major smart people stuff right there. I’m pretty sure if you didn’t have football, you have a dozen other things you could do. Don’t get me wrong—I have nothing against the sport, and you do look pretty hot in those tight white pants, but no one would love you less because you didn’t play.” His stunned expression makes me laugh. “What?”
“I’m not used to you lavishing me with compliments.”
“Shut up.” I shove him. “Don’t get used to them.”
We sit and watch the sunset. I lean back and drop my head on his shoulder. It feels so good to just be with him.
Once it’s dark, he whispers, “In the future, can we talk about money and big expenditures? It’s not that I want to tell you what to do. I just think if we work as a team, if we put our heads together, we can get more done and solve the larger problems.”
“I hate when you make sense.”
He laughs and nuzzles my neck. The air has gotten cool, and I shiver in his arms.
“Can I confess something?” It’s hard to speak when he nibbles on my ear, but I nod. “The only reason I haven’t fucked you into oblivion on every flat surface I can find is because you want to go slow.”
When I don’t respond, he clears his throat. “Which I am completely down with. I think it’s smart not to jump headfirst when we have so much going on. I’m going to be an optimist and say it’s good that Amelia gave us shit. If we can’t handle her crap, I don’t know how we’ll survive the NFL. At the end of the day, I’m gonna need you to trust that I’m not going home with other women. That I’m not tucking dollar bills into strippers’ G-strings after games and living a double life. To trust that when I take a photo with fans, there’s nothing nefarious under the surface.” He turns my face so I have to look at him. “I can’t say what’s going to happen down the road. I’m not a fortune-teller. But I can promise I’ll always be faithful. That you can count on.”
My eyes sting, and I nod. “Thanks. I appreciate my monogamous, non-boyfriend, baby daddy committing to me like that.”
He chuckles. “Maybe we should upgrade?” Ducking to run his nose against my neck, he whispers, “We could be monogamous, special friends who kiss.”
“That…” He licks my skin, and everything in my body lights up. “That sounds reasonable. Just kissing, though, right?”
“Just kissing. Until you ask for more.”
My body is screaming for more, but before I turn my face up to him, I promise myself that kissing is the only thing on tonight’s menu.
33
OLLY
Beautiful, sweet, feisty Maggie is in my arms, and all I want to do is devour her.
When she turns those big brown eyes up to me, I could smack myself for not pursuing this sooner. For not dealing with our shit so we could be friends and work toward something more years ago.
Because this woman is incredible. I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather be partners with when it comes to our children. She’s gonna be a fierce mama bear.
I’m crazy about her now. I can’t imagine how much more enthralled I’m gonna be when she’s accompanied by our two little humans.
