Page 2 of Protecting the Boundary
Dom grips my shoulders from behind me and leans over my right side. “Who’s ready to kick some ass this season?” With a squeeze he releases his hold on me and moves to do the same to Gabe, who’s sitting next to me. Ty comes in after him and sits in the empty chair on my right, while Dom sits in the empty chair to Gabe’s left.
“You look exhausted,” I whisper to Ty as more guys on the team filter into the room for the meeting.
“Lana’s sick, which means none of us are sleeping well right now.”
He’s got bags under his eyes, but he still looks happier than I’ve ever seen him. He pulls out his phone and shows me the latest picture of his girls—his wife, Lexi, and their baby girl, Lana. He stares at the picture with nothing but love in his eyes and my chest tightens.I never got that moment with Sydney and Kaylee. Sydney was so sick after Kaylee was born, she could barely hold her without my help.
“I can’t believe how big she’s getting already. Time fucking flies, man,” he says, still not looking away from the picture on his phone.
“Yeah, just wait until she’s a threenager,” I say, thinking about the attitude Kaylee got the other night that nearly left meshocked stupid. She’s never talked back before, and I didn’t know how to handle it.
He slips his phone in his pocket and shoots me another love-drunk smile. “Can’t wait. Hopefully, Lexi will be pregnant again by then.”
I shake my head and fight a small smile. “Have you cleared that with her yet?”
“She knows I’m obsessed with how hot she is when she’s pregnant. She said I have a breeding kink and then smacked my chest.” He still has that dopey grin on his face, and I can’t even bring myself to hate him a little bit. He deserves the happiness he’s found with Lexi.
I’ll never admit to him how jealous I am. He gets the love of his lifeandhis child. He gets to imagine a future with her where they’ll have more children.
I always wanted a big family. Sydney was on the fence. We were both only children and knew we never wanted just one child, but where I would’ve been happy with three or four, she didn’t want more than two. She said it wasn’t good to outnumber the adults, and I couldn’t argue with her on that.
Now, none of our plans matter because Kay will grow up as an only child anyway.
“Anything new going on with you?” Ty asks.
“My mother-in-law wants me to hire a nanny.”
Gabe and Dom’s conversation stops as they overhear my statement.
“A nanny—like a stranger?” Dom asks, immediately protective of his honorary niece.
“Yeah, she said there’s an agency that would do all the background checks and stuff.”
“I was prepared to scare the shit out of her future boyfriends, but I suppose we could intimidate a nanny so shedoesn’t do anything stupid with our Kay,” Dom adds and I’m already shaking my head.
“We’re not intimidating anyone.”
“Not even future boyfriends?” Gabe asks and all three pairs of eyes are on me, waiting for my answer.
“Okay to the future boyfriends, but not nannies. Larissa would never put Kay in danger.”
They all nod and murmur their agreement. Talking it out with them, even briefly, makes me feel oddly better about the whole thing.
Our coaches walk into the room, and I put aside my worry about Kay to focus on the meeting—and try to ignore the guilt eating me up that I still haven’t told the three closest people to me that this is my last year playing professional football.
TWO
I’m pretty sure I have gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe. It’s not really what I should be thinking about, especially at this very moment, considering my boyfriend of nearly two years is breaking up with me in spectacularly awkward, yet diplomatic fashion. But each time I try to move my foot, the bottom of my shoe sticks to the pavement, and it’s got me convinced I must’ve stepped in gum.
Who does that? What kind of psycho takes gum out of their mouth and just drops it on the ground like a heathen? It’s gross. They couldn’t wait until they found a trash can? There are millions of them in this city.
“Are you listening to me?” Cameron asks with that indignant look on his face that I used to find so cute. When did I stop finding it cute? Was it a year ago when he started making subtle digs about my body? Or was it around the same time I started questioning if I even wanted to pursue the postgrad degree necessary for the career path I’d chosen?
When did I start coasting through my life? I know a lot of people get senioritis, but this level of apathy feels so much worse than what I’ve seen my friends go through.
“Meredith.”
“Sorry. I got distracted.”
