Page 29 of Arrogant Rucking Player

“Oh yeah! The one with the monster trucks, and…” Brady was off and running with his current obsession.

“Yeah, that one.” I coughed into my fist.

Nyla was still watching me. “What are you doing?”

“What?” I tried to look innocent and completely fucked it up. “I know I haven't known you for too long, but?—”

“Mason.” Nyla folded her arms. “There are better places to break up with me.”

“What?” I squinted at her. “Sh– No.No.That's not what I’m— Dammit.” I dropped to one knee and managed to extract the ring box from my pocket at the same time without fumbling the velvet. “This is the opposite. I’m just better with actions than I am with words.” I took a deep breath when she said nothing, though her eyes widened. Actually, Icouldn't remember the last time I left her speechless outside the bedroom, and I wasn’t sure if that boded good or bad right now, so I just ploughed right ahead. “It’s been a few weeks, no, a month since we met.”Okay, words aren’t my only weakness. Let’s add math in there too.“It’s been a massive whirlwind. I fell in love with you fast, Nyla. And I’m not letting go anytime soon, not unless you tell me you don't want me around. I love you, and I love Brady. You’re both the two most important people in my world. Honestly, I can’t imagine my world without you in it. This afternoon, I nearly screwed up a game because we were talking in the middle of it. And after that try, you two were the first faces I looked for. You say you don’t have a family but…I think you come preloaded with one. If you want it. So…” I managed to inhale part of a breath and flicked the ring box open to display the solitaire emerald cut diamond set in a bezel that she’d be able to wear for work, or so the jeweller assured me when he designed it. “I’d love it if you would marry me. And let me maybe try out being Brady’s stand-in dad, if you’d let me, and if that’s okay with him.”

Please.

Nyla stared at me with her mouth open while my knees ached and my thighs throbbed. Somewhere inthe back, Leon threw the floods on for the parking lot and blinded me. I still didn’t move.

Please say something. Please react. Please, please, please.

Please.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Brady piped up from the back of the car, his mouth full of hotdog.

“Shhh,” Nyla hushed him and turned back to me. “I— I thought.” Nothing else came out, and her mouth closed.

“I know,” I managed, wondering if I would ever be able to stand upright at this rate or if I'd have to roll out of the crouch. “You’ve got all of my heart, Nyla. I promise. And all of my family, too. Every part.” Both my team and my actual family had adopted Nyla straight in, which was typical of both of all the people I loved, probably because they gave love the same way I did.

Openly and unconditional.

I wondered belatedly if that scared the shit out of her and if I should have maybe prepared a different sort of speech.

“Yes,” she whispered.

I blinked. “Can you say that again please?”

She caught my wrists and hauled me upright. Several things popped and I hoped nothing hurtbecause I was a bit numb all over. Nyla grabbed my shirt and pulled me down for a long kiss. “I said yes, Mason,” she whispered.

“Oh, good.” I gathered her into my arms, crushing her into my chest and inhaled the cloud of frangipani and other sweet things that seemed to float around her in a giant cloud. Turning her in my arms, I managed to wiggle the ring onto her finger the way Hansen coached me, and then kissed the tips—my own touch, not his. “Because I really do love you and didn’t want you to say no.”

She snuggled into my shoulder, her tears dripping onto the back of my hand. “I thought?—”

“I know. I’m terrible at this stuff.”

She shook her head. “No, you’re not. I’m just really ruined.”

I shrugged. “So, we have some healing to do. All of us. And we do it together, okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered back. “I—” Nyla took a deep breath, and her words ran together. “Iloveyoutoo.”

“I know, gorgeous.”

My girl might be a bit broken, but I hadn’t lied to her either. That really was okay and I was here for her every step of the way, whatever that looked like. I kissed her again until something nudged my thigh.

I looked down to find one of the training balls I’d been missing for the last week proffered out the window of her car by sticky hotdog sauce fingers.

“Uh, Mason? Since you’re gonna be my new dad, can you sign my ball, please?”

---