Page 82 of Twist of Fate
“Do your parents like Torey?”
“Yeah.” She smiles warmly. “They’re really great with her. The first Christmas I brought her home, she was so nervous. She didn’t trust that parents could be so?—”
“Loving?”
She nods. “It’s sad, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but I learned long ago that blood doesn’t make you family—love does.”
“You are right, and I can’t wait to make Torey officially part of mine. But I have no idea how to ask her. I don’t want to ruin this. I want it to be perfect. Like, really fucking perfect.”
I tilt my head. “It doesn’t matter what you do or how you ask; it will be perfect because you two are perfect together.”
She nervously bites her bottom lip. “Do you mind if I ask how Theo proposed? I just want to cross it off my list, since?—”
I laugh, and I can see her visibly relax. “It wasn’t the proposal that doomed us, Shea. But now that I think back, it maybe should have been a sign.”
“Why?” She leans in as if I’m suddenly Yoda and ready to reveal the secrets of the universe.
“Theo has one of those personalities, you know?”
“Really?” She snickers, and I roll my eyes. “I didn’t notice. The lad is a professional footballer. Of course, he has one of those personalities. It’s called an ego.”
“Well, I always played it off as confidence. The way he flaunted his skills in games and at parties, or how he seemed to dominate every conversation.”
“Ugh, gross. Please tell me that the conversation I walked in on earlier wasn’t the start of you two getting back together.”
“What? No! He cheated on me. I’m never getting back together with him.”
“Okay, we’re circling back to that later, but for now, I have a proposal to plan, so I need you to stay on track. Continue.” She waves a flamboyant hand in front of her, signaling me to proceed, and I chuckle.
“He proposed to me at a soccer—” Her brow lifts, and she clears her throat. “At afootballmatch.”
“Okay…”
“Before Theo transferred to Real Madrid, he played a season for MLS in Chicago. It’s where we moved after college. He was a little bitter about it, to be honest. He thought European teams would be lining up to sign him.”
“Sounds kind of ungrateful if you ask me.” She shrugs.
I didn’t say anything at the time, but I felt the same way. It was one of his major faults. I understood that athletes are competitive, and that was often what drove them to success, but Theo never seemed content with anything. He always wanted more.
“Anyway, he proposed to me during halftime. His teammates dragged me out onto the field, lifting me onto their shoulders. When I got there, I was nearly blinded by the camera crew he invited to capture the moment. When it came to the actual proposal, he mostly addressed the crowd instead of me.”
“Bollocks.”
I nod. “Our proposal was a publicity stunt.”
“Do you think maybe he just got excited and lost focus?”
“No, it was literally a marketing stunt.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’d always talked about marriage, but it was something I expected we would get to in the future after he settled into his career. But, after not receiving the offers he wanted, his agent suggested that boosting his social media presence might help—that nowadays, athletes are celebrities as much as anything else. And what gets more clicks than a good romance story?”
“Stop.” Her expression turns sympathetic.
“Our proposal went viral, and his name went viral with it. He received the Madrid offer shortly after.” I shrug before meeting her gaze. “Look, it doesn’t matter whether you go big or small as long as it’s for her. She’ll love it because it’s you standing there asking. But, just to be safe, don’t do it at a football game.”
