Page 69 of The Long Game

"I don’t know how this season will go, and I’m not guaranteed another one after this. I want to be prepared for life after football. I want to do it here. In this house. Across the street from the place that brought me the most peace I’ve ever known in my whole life. This feels like home."

You make this house feel like home.

Lexi thinks for a second as she chews her bite of pizza.

"Ok, but I haven’t done a residential remodel in a few years since my mom and I stopped doing little projects on the side. I’m not sure if I’m the right person to take this on for you."

"Of course, you are. I saw those sketches you drew up in high school, the night I came to your house after college admissions."

Her eyes flare at the memory of that night. How I had her pushed up against the wall. Her hot little ass in my hands and the temptation of an empty house.

"I want those sketches, Lexi. I want your version of this house." I can see she’s mulling the idea around.

"You’ll have full creative license. The only thing I ask is that I want to look over the details with you. Tile color for the backsplash, wood flooring, granite slabs for the kitchen. You can pick your top three, but I want to make the final decision together."

"Wood flooring? This house has pristine original floors. Please don’t tell me you’re going to rip these up. I don’t think I can survive watching that happen."

"Ok, wow, hold on. I already said you’d have full creative license. Do whatever you think should be done here. I saw your remodel of the Keizer Resort in Seattle and your Lilly Pond Resort in San Diego. You have incredible taste, and I know you’d do it here, too."

"You saw both of those? When were you in San Diego?"

I didn’t want to tell her that I had met a woman at that resort. She was a journalist that was present at one of our media coverages. She was staying there and had invited me over for a "night cap". When I walked into the resort, I remembered Tom talking about it.

Walking into that lobby, there was something so familiar about the space. Then I recalled Tom had told me that this specific acquisition was one of Lexi’s first deals, and that she had overseen most of the design work herself. It made sense.

The lobby of Lilly Pond Resort was irrefutably Lexi Benson. There was something about that space that took me right back to the lake house. I was reminded of the last week we’d spent together there.

I walked through the lobby wondering what she was doing at that very same moment. Was she with someone right then? Did he make her happy? Was she headed into a resort to have a one-night stand with some random guy she met on one of her work trips? Likely not, Lexi was smarter than that.

The thought of an unnamed man’s hands on her when they should be mine almost made me turn around and walk out of this resort, book a flight to wherever she was and demand that she agrees to be mine and only mine.

I knew what her answer would be. The same one she’d given me repeatedly.

I didn’t remember much about how I got to the journalist’s room after that, but somehow, I had ended up there. We fooled around for a little while which helped temporarily get Lexi off my mind, but when she asked me to stay the night, I knew she was hoping we’d sleep together before the night was over.

I enjoyed myself, but I wasn’t in the head space for sex. Not when Lexi and the week at the lake house was trying to flood my memory again.

I made an excuse about an early flight and left her hotel room, doing my best to make sure she didn’t feel rejected. A pissed off journalist wasn’t good for business.

In the end, it bit me in the ass. She seemed happy about our time together when I left, but a few days later, the magazine she worked for printed a blurb about how I was a cold hard player with a tin man heart. That commitment was nowhere on the horizon for me.

"The Lilly Pond was completely you. Your dad told me that was your design. I was impressed. It reminded me of the lake house for some reason."

"It did?" She looks away for a moment. "That was my inspiration. I can’t believe you saw that in my design."

I smile at her. This is what I needed her to see. I needed her to see that I’m paying attention this time.

"See how compatible our tastes are? I know you can do this for me. And I don’t have the time to do it. You know the house already and you know me. Design the house the way it wants to be seen."

Another gem I’m pulling out and dusting off from our previous conversations we had as kids. She looks at me and shakes her head with a smile.

"Design the house the way it wants to be seen, huh? Where did you get that little pearl of wisdom?"

"An incredibly talented and stunningly beautiful girl told me once, sitting on a dock, while I asked her why she wanted to be an architect."

"Stunningly beautiful?"

"The most beautiful woman I’ve ever set my eyes on."

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