Page 82 of Worth the Risk

HUDSON

Truthfully, while players get to head home and be with their loved ones for a few days, I know I don’t get to enjoy bye week the same way. Sure, my schedule is a little lighter than normal, but I will still need to strategize the season so far.

At least I get to head to Lake Spark, and I know Piper is already there, as she headed up first thing in the morning since she was already on the north side of the city to see her grandmother.

Arriving at my house, I open my car door and take a deep breath of lake air. The leaves are falling, and it’s been a few weeks since I’ve been here. I’m happy Piper is keeping the house alive in my absence.

When I arrive inside the house, it’s quiet. I know Piper is here, though, because she sent me a text, and I can tell she had a coffee in the kitchen.

“Piper?” I call out her name.

I drop my small bag on the ground and throw my keys onto the side table before I nearly jog up the stairs to my room.

Arriving at my bedroom door, I stop in my tracks when I see that Piper is sleeping peacefully on top of the blankets with one leg hooked over a pillow and her arms splayed over her head. Her heels are on the floor next to the bed. The light from the windows makes it clear that it’s the middle of the day, which makes it all the more amusing that she fell asleep, because she doesn’t nap.

Slowly, I approach my bed and the corners of my mouth tug just as my hand lands on her back to give her a soothing stroke. The mattress dips when I sit next to her. As much as I don’t want to wake her… I need to. Our conversation can’t exactly wait.

She must sense my presence, as she begins to slither in her spot, a groggy noise escaping her mouth.

“Hey there, sleepyhead.”

Her eyes flutter open, then she adjusts to the fact I’m in front of her. The moment she registers that I’m here, she sits up.

“I must have dozed off.” She yawns and stretches her arms over her head, causing her shirt to rise and her belly button to be on show. “Crap.” Her hand comes to her forehead. “I was planning on surprising you with something new.”

My brows knit together. “New collection new?” I’m hopeful.

“Something like that. I think we’ve established I’m not really good at timing surprises.”

I swoop her hand into my own. “It’s okay.”

Her eyes connect with mine, and after a beat, she begins to speak. “Hudson, I’m sorry if I’ve been out of sorts, or rather cautious of a lot of things.”

“I don’t want you to feel like you have doubts.”

She squeezes my hand. “The thing is, I don’t have doubts. I know that because it seems my life has been slowly interweaving with your own. I’ve been setting up the steppingstones this whole time. I just needed to think clearly and realize that.”

Her words are confident and everything to me. I kiss her hand like a gentleman would, but make no mistake, my plan to show her my satisfaction with her words is aligned with the brain of a dirty sailor.

“How did you realize it?”

She smiles shyly at me because she knows I like when she says it. “I’m insanely in love with you.”

“What a coincidence, because I feel the same.”

“That’s good because I’ve kind of decided that I’m going all in on a future with you. I know I want to be waiting for you at every opportunity, and by chance, the old suit shop went on sale, so I decided to phone a realtor and make an offer. I don’t know if I’ll get it, but I gave it my best shot.”

I can’t control the approval flooding my face. “That’s… great.” It’s commitment that she wants her life here with me.

“I think so. I could really make it a boutique and base for all my online orders. Plus, an endless supply of coffee from Jolly Joe’s across the street. And an easy commute home, because that’s what it feels like. Here, I mean, with you. Home.” I love her words. They thrill me, and it unlocks the chains that have me trying to sit here politely and listen.

I pat her arm with my hand, an indication that she needs to scoot over. But side by side is not going to happen, I need to be between her legs with her eyes on me as I drive myself inside of her.

I coax her thighs open and walk my arms forward and swing my legs up onto the bed until I’m between her legs, with my head resting on her stomach.

“It’s not easy. I know that. But I wouldn’t have let us continue if I didn’t think you had it in you to be by my side,” I admit.

She rakes her fingers through my hair. “You take care of people, guide people, but right now, let me do that for you.”

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