Page 58 of Passing the Red Line
Crap, I’m actually considering this.
“Fine,” I say the word and I see his eyes brighten up. “I will take your offer into consideration, and I will tell you what I decide once you tell me what this whole surprise is.”
“I’ll show you, but I won’t tell you,” he slaps a kiss against my lips and gets up from the bed. “Get your ass up and in the shower, Solis. We have places to be, and decisions to make.”
I like that he uses the Solis last name and not Anderson.
“I hate you, Rodriguez.” I throw out as he walks out of the room.
“Right back at you, hermosa. Ahora, apurate.”
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
Christian
“Can I ask you a question?”Eliana asks as I make the last turn toward my surprise.
“You can ask anything you want,” I say, turning into the empty parking lot, surprised that she hasn’t noticed where we’re going yet. Or maybe she has and isn’t questioning yet. At the very least I thought she would notice that there aren’t any cars around.
“If your wife or your child were to ask you to stop playing, would you?” She asks, her voice a lot smaller than it was a few minutes ago.
I know why she is asking me this question, it’s steaming from everything she told me last night, but it’s still a little shocking to hear it.
Never did I have to think of an answer to that question. Did I ever think about getting married and having kids? Yeah, but I honestly thought I would be retired before settling down. Possibly have a kid or two if life went that way. I started thinking more about it when Liam and Chloe and Emma, but it wasn’t like an eye-opening experience for me.
It takes me a second to think of an answer to give her. A hard yes is on the tip of my tongue.
If asked by a loved one, wife, child, parent, life partner, to give up the game I would. No second thought about it.
The word starts to form on my lips but Eliana stops me from saying anything.
“You know what, don’t answer that. Of course the answer is going to be no. I wouldn’t want to give it up either. Especially if it was something that molded you. I wouldn’t want to give up photography.” She starts shaking her head, and right bore I’m about to refute her answer she changes the subject, finally realizing where we are. “Why are we at the boardwalk? And why is it so empty?”
As she looks around I contemplate going back to the conversion at hand, but I don’t know if me telling her will bring back some of the emotions that she was feeling last night. And I want her to have fun today, so I hold back.
“I rented it out,” I say, turning off the car.
“You rented it out? You can do that during the summer?” She asks, her eyes wide.
“Apparently when you offer a big chunk of money, you can,” I say, getting out of the car and walking over to the passenger side.
“Why would you do that? You know how many kids were probably looking forward to coming today and having fun?” She throws out, but still takes my hand to get out of the car.
“Calm down, I’m not that cruel. There are still kids coming today, it’s only ours for a few hours this morning. And for the rest of the day all tickets will be free.”
“Why would you do that?” she asks again, lacing her fingers with mine.
“Because I wanted to do something for you that made you smile at least a little bit. I had it planned for a while, but then last night happened and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity. I always had fun here as a kid, it was one of my favorite places, when it wasn’t packed, so I thought it would be something fun for us too, even though we might be able to get on all the kiddy rides.”
I wanted to make her feel happiness instead of the sorrow that she was so vocal about last night. And if things don’t work out for us, and she doesn’t move in with me, then maybe she’ll have a fun memory of our summer together.
“You’re doing this for me?” She asks, bewildered that I would even think of something like this.
I’m not that much of an asshole.
I drop her hand and go to cradle her face. “Yes,” I say, placing a kiss against her lips. “For you.”
“Who knew you could be so sweet?” She says, kissing me back.
