Page 189 of Need You To Choose Me

“Dad!” Levi yells from the entrance to the field, Daniel behind him. “C’mon, we’ll be late.”

His excitement is palpable, and I can’t help but chuckle. “Yes, Coach. You don’t want to be late, now do you?”

A deep rumble comes from Blake’s chest, his irises darkening with need as his lips claim mine in a hard kiss. “Can’t leave without my good luck charm, can I?”

I shake my head. “Once a jock, always a jock.”

“Exactly, you don’t mess with what’s working.”

I bite the inside of my cheek, trying to hold back my laughter because, hey, who was I to complain?

“You head to the field. I need to use the bathroom.”

Blake chuckles. “Again?”

I pinch him slightly. “Don’t you tease me. Yes, again.”

Blake lifts his arms in surrender. “Fine. I’ll see you later.”

With another quick kiss, he follows after Levi while I make my way to the bathroom as two ladies are exiting. We say hello as I slip inside and go into a stall where I do my business. I’m just finishing dressing when the door to the bathroom opens.

“Did you see who just showed up?” Lucy Donovan chuckles, clearly amused.

My hand pauses at the doorknob, not sure if I should go out or stay.

“I didn’t think she’d come after what happened the other day,” another voice joins in. Probably one of Lucy’s friends.

What were they talking about? Who showed up?

“Rose was always good at pretending everything was perfect,” Lucy snorts, which has a few other women giggling. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”

“I heard John came to her parent’s house and was yelling in front of it, demanding she come back. It’s what everybody’s been talking about,” another mom chirps in, her voice slightlymuffled by the running water. “Can you believe it? His agent just dropped him, and she does what? Leave the poor man?”

Rose left her husband?

I still remember that interaction I witnessed a few weeks ago between the two of them. That day, she asked him to come. Not for herself but for their son, and he turned his back on her. How many times did he do that? I don’t remember seeing him once at any of the games or school activities. Hell, even when they were out in town, it was always Rose with Kyle.

Lucy smirks. “That just confirms she’s been after one thing, and now that her husband doesn’t have any chances of making it into the NFL, she’s cutting her losses.”

“At least I left him. You can’t say the same thing, now can you? What was it? Husband number two? Or was it three?”

The silence that follows Rose’s words is almost deafening.

“The next time you gossip about somebody, you should probably check that you’re actually alone,” Rose continues, her voice even.

There is some mumbling from the women as they scurry out of the bathroom, the door shutting firmly behind them.

Rose lets out a shaky breath, cursing softly.

Slowly, I unlock the door and peek out. She looks up immediately, her gaze meeting mine in the mirror. Her face is pale, and there are dark circles under her blue eyes.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Rose runs her fingers through her hair. “We need to stop meeting like this.”

I let out a nervous chuckle. “Tell me about it.”

The corner of Rose’s mouth lifts for a moment in a half-hearted smile before her face turns serious. “I shouldn’t have said that, but my mouth was faster than my brain.”

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