Page 181 of Restricted List

I sigh, reaching to the nightstand to grab it before saying, “Oh shit…”

“Is everything okay?” she asks, worry lacing her tone.

“Yeah,” I reply. “But my parents are FaceTiming me right now. I never told them what happened, so they’redefinitelycalling to ask about the whole restricted list thing.”

“I’ll scoot over then so they can’t see me.”

I kiss her quickly before she moves over, and I answer my parent’s call.

The faces of my worried parents fill the screen. “Cole!” my mom shrieks. “What’s going on? Why are you on the restricted list?!”

My dad pipes in now. “What your mother meant to say was, ‘Hi, Cole. How are you? Also, why are you on the restricted list?’”

I give a hearty chuckle. “It’s a really long story, honestly…”

“We have time.” My mom crosses her arms.

“Well,” I sigh, “it starts with me admitting that I’ve been seeing someone since right before Christmas…”

“What?!” my mom yells as my dad winces from her volume.

“Vivian,” he says. “He can hear you just fine.”

“Why didn’t you tell us you were seeing someone?!”

“It was a… secret thing. We kept it secret from most people, but Skip found out about it Friday night.”

“Why does he care about your dating life?” my dad questions.

“Oh, you’ll see,” I laugh lightly. “But before I tell you who she is, I should probably also tell you that we got… married.”

“What?!” my mom shrieks even louder as I show off my wedding band. “I’mnothappy to find out that not only has my son been seeing someone without telling us, but he’s apparently alsomarriednow. But before we get into that further, this doesn’t make sense.”

“She’s right,” my dad agrees. “None of this explains why you ended up on the restricted list.”

I sheepishly rub the back of my neck. “You’ll understand as soon as you meet my wife.” I take a deep breath and look over at Rory. “Ready to talk to your in-laws?”

She just smiles before slowly sliding in next to me, joining me on the phone screen. “Hey, Viv. Hey, James.”

“Rory!” they both shout in unison.

I throw my arm around her shoulder and look into her eyes. “Yeah… Rory is my wife.”

“That explains why Paul lost his mind then,” my dad says.

“Yeah,” Rory sighs. “Friday night was bad, but my dad talked to us last night. He knows he overreacted, and we’ve cleared all the air between us. He’s actually pretty excited to have Cole as his son-in-law.”

“I can’t believe Rory is my daughter-in-law,” my mom says happily. “We’ve always loved Rory.”

“I love her, too,” I smile before kissing her temple. “I’ll be back on the field tonight, though. Paul and I are going to do a press conference before the game to address everything.”

“What is it with my kids not telling me about their relationships?” My mom shakes her head. “We had to find out about Harlow and Knox from the tabloids. And now you’re married when we didn’t even know you had a girlfriend!”

“Sorry,” I admit. “I didn’t really want to keep it from you. We just couldn’t have too many people know because we were afraid of what would happen if it got back to her dad. Skip was alwaysveryclear that none of us were to go near his daughter.”

“Yes, but I’m irresistible,” Rory teases, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

That pulls a genuine laugh from me, and I give her a soft kiss as I hear my momawwfrom the other end of the video call. “Very irresistible, even if I did resist you for almost four years.”

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