“What are you doing?” She smacks my chest when I stand.
Instead of answering, I reach around her and pull open the door. I take her hand and hold her as she gets back into the truck. I give her another kiss—because I can—then shut the door.
When I get back into the driver’s seat, I have no doubt there’s a shit-eating grin on my face, but I don’t fucking care. This is my girl, and she needs to be treated like a queen.
She has a huge smile on her face, and she’s shaking her head. “You’re too much, Archie Griffith.”
“Nah, darlin’. I’m just yours. Now give me those lips again. I missed you last night.” I lean in closer, then wrap my hand around the back of her neck, pulling her toward me.
Her mouth opens to me, and I slide my tongue into her mouth, tangling her tongue with mine. She moves her hands into my hair and holds my head in place, deepening the kiss.
She pulls away after a few minutes, breathing heavy, but there’s a soft smile on her lips. “I missed you too. Should we just skip breakfast and go back inside?”
My hand moves from her neck, and I tuck some of her hair that’s fallen into her face behind her ear. “There’s nothing I want more, but I’m starving, and I need to get you and the baby fed too. And I think we need to talk about some things, don’t you?”
She takes my hand in hers and nods. “No, you’re right. I want to talk some more about what we need to do before the draft. I was thinking about it a little this morning before you got here.”
Releasing her hand, I pull out of the parking spot, and we start for the restaurant. I set my hand back on her leg as I drive.
“Okay, I want to hear about what you think, and I need to have some idea on what you have left to take care of here andhonestly if you’re ready for all of this right now. I know it’s a lot, and I want you to feel good about the choices you’re making.”
The place I’m taking her to isn’t far, so within ten minutes, we’re pulling into the parking lot.
Once we’re seated and we’ve ordered our food, I take her hands in mine. “Talk to me, baby. Tell me how you’re feeling today.”
She squeezes my hands. “I feel pretty good. Much better than yesterday. What happened in Arizona really rocked me more than I thought it did, but I didn’t realize just how bad until I got back, you know. And then I felt like everything was happening all at once, and then add in fears about the baby … so I’m thinking I might have had a slight panic attack or something. Thank you for being patient with me. I understand that you’re going through all the same things, and I don’t think I’ve been taking that into consideration, and I’m sorry for that.”
“Darlin’, I hope I’m proving to you that you aren’t alone in all this. I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there when you were in the hospital. It truly kills me to think about you being there by yourself. And I’m not gonna lie—you know I’ll be gone a lot during the season, so we’ll need to make arrangements for those times so you aren’t alone with the baby. I just ask that you talk to me and not shut me out. Go through what you need to go through, but let me stand by you while you do. Can you do that for me?” I pull her hands up and kiss her knuckles.
“I can do that. So, I think this is a good place to start talking about what I think I should do to support you. I have a meeting with my coach tomorrow, so I’ll discuss my options with her, but I think it’s best with everything going on that I take a medical hardship so I can finish the school year. Although I’m sure with, like, six weeks left in the school year, it’s already covered. But this way, it will be on record.”
“Are you sure you’re good with this decision? I want you to feel good about it. You asked me about resentment yesterday, but it’s really me who should be worried about you resenting me.”
“Archie, no. I’ve thought about it a lot after our appointment and our talk yesterday and getting a good night’s sleep. Then when you mentioned your trainer not being available … well, it just felt like it was my turn to be there for you the way you’ve been for me.”
“No. Your school and golf scholarships are too important to you.”
“Yes, but now you and the baby are what’s important. And I will become a doctor. That won’t change. But let’s be honest—I’m not going pro. Golf has given me amazing opportunities, and that’s good for now. Besides, it’s not like it’s gone forever. You know, people play golf into their seventies.”
I shake my head and smile. “I suppose you don’t see a lot of forty-year-olds on the football field.”
“And you don’t see a lot of men who have the chance to play in the NFL. And you only get a few chances to love on your newborns before they’re grown. I mean it, Archie, this is what I want.”
“Emma, this means more to me than you know. I’ve been working on this all morning. Trying to figure out a way to stay here so you can finish, but also get the training in that I’ll need. The only solution was that I was going to just go back and forth between here and my parents’ house. The other thing we need to factor in here is the doctor, but I suppose we take one thing at a time for now?”
She nods. “Let’s get through the meeting with my coach and see what your options are, and then we’ll make arrangements for what works for us.”
“I love you, baby. I know this is chaos right now, but it will all settle down.”
“Ha! No, babe, it won’t. You’ll get drafted, and then we’ll have to find a place to live while you’re training with your new team. And, oh, we’ll be having a baby during all of that too. It’s not gonna settle for a while. But I love you, so we’ll make the chaos our bitch.”
“Damn right, baby. That’s my girl.” I laugh a little too loud.
“So, what else do you need to do today?” she asks, pulling her hands from mine to take a drink of the water the server just set on the table.
“My mission is to serve you, baby, so whatever you want to do is what we’ll do.”
“Well, I have class at one and three, but then I’ll be done. Coach told me to take this week off for practice, so I’ll just head home after class. But I was thinking … maybe we could go look at some baby furniture. I know we don’t have an actual house to put the baby in, but I feel like it might be fun to look. What do you think?” Her eyes are bright, and she looks genuinely excited.