Page 61 of Meant for Stone (Meant For)

Me: Jury just came back with a not guilty verdict.

I put my phone away, heading home right away. I shut the door behind me before I collapse at the door. Lying on my side, I watch the house turn pitch black. My whole body, which was on the go for the past two weeks, has now given out. I have no energy to do anything, not even move from the front door. I wait until I can muster up that energy to just get undressed. Leaving my clothes at the end of my bed, I slide under the covers, the tears streaming out of my eyes like a river. My pillowcase is soaked, but I just lie in it, looking at the stars outside my window. The moon rises in the sky, and I just lie here. The silence of my breathing fills the room when I hear tapping on my front door. I get up on my elbow, looking over to see it’s just a bit before midnight. I listen and again hear the tapping, so I get out of bed. My head feels like it weighs a million pounds, and my eyes feel like they weigh seven hundred pounds. I walk toward the tapping again, this time looking out of the peephole and seeing him standing there. I unlock the door in shock and disbelief, not sure this is really happening or maybe I’m dreaming again.

He stands there wearing a black suit and white dress shirt, the top two buttons open, holding a white box in his hand. “Stone?” I ask, not sure what is happening.

“Gorgeous,” he says, his voice music to my ears. When he comes in and wraps his arms around me, I collapse into them. He carries me, holding on to me with one hand toward the bed. He places the box on the bedside table before sitting on the bed. I crawl into his lap, hoping I can become one with him. That’s how good it feels to be in his arms again. He smells of his fresh soap, but most of all, he smells of home to me.

“Are you really here?” I ask through tears and sobs.

“For the next six hours I am.” He wipes away a tear.

“You came all this way for six hours?” I ask, shocked, and all he does is smirk at me.

“I would have come all this way for an hour.” He kisses my lips softly. “I figured you haven’t eaten, so I brought you cupcakes.”

I smile and wipe my cheek with the back of my hand. “Cupcakes?”

“Well, according to my sister, Zoey, and most of my female cousins, when one is sad it’s either cupcakes or ice cream, and considering I was on the plane for an hour and a half.” He reaches over to grab the white box he was holding in his hand. “I ordered them on my way to the game when you texted, and I rushed here as soon as the game finished.”

I blink twice before I say anything. “You finished the game and then came all this way?” I repeat. “And you brought me cupcakes?” He nods, and if there is any doubt in my head about how I feel for him, here at this moment, I know I have fallen in love with him.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

stone

“Ican come to the airport with you,” she whispers when the alarm rings six hours after I got there, even though neither of us have slept. I kiss the top of her head, squeezing her body to me. The heat from her naked body goes through me. Seeing the words on the screen that she lost the case made me feel so helpless. I’ve never in my life felt that helpless before. I also knew I had no choice but to get the ball rolling. I got off the ice and hustled my ass out of there in under twenty minutes. I told them I had a family thing and couldn’t do media. They didn’t ask any questions, just nodded their heads. Besides, they have twenty other people to ask. The plane ride had to be the longest. I kept checking my watch every two minutes. It was horrible. When I got here right before midnight, I didn’t know if she would be sleeping, but when I saw how destroyed she looked, all I wanted to do was hold her to me and give her my strength. Then she sat there in the middle of the bed, wearing my fucking T-shirt, as I fed her cupcakes.

“You still have two hours before you have to get to work.” I look over at the clock, seeing that my car will be downstairs in ten minutes. “You need your sleep.” I don’t want to, but I have no choice but to pull away from her. The cold air hits me right away where her head was lying on my chest. She sits up in the middle of the bed, holding the sheet up to her chest. After I fed her a cupcake, she kissed my neck, and without saying a word, she undressed me, and I made love to her. It was soft and slow, and we savored every minute. I get up and get dressed as she walks me to the door. I kiss her longingly before I have to leave. My feet drag as if I’m wearing cement boots.

Even when I walk out of the door and into the waiting car, my body that was filled with heat now feels like it’s on ice. My chest, which stopped aching for six hours, now starts a low, throbbing pain. I get on the plane and shut my eyes, dreading the whole day. Unlike when I was going there, the plane ride is over in the blink of an eye. When I get home, I send Erika, my agent, a text to call me. It’s time to do something about this situation. It’s time to end the torture. It’s time for us to be in the same fucking space. She doesn’t waste any time calling me back.

My finger presses the green button, putting it to my ear. “I want to be traded to Chicago.” I come right out and say the words instead of saying hello.

“What?” my cousin, Cooper, who is also Erika’s husband, shrieks. “Chicago? Why the hell would you want to go to Chicago?”

“Give me the phone,” Erika snaps, and I hear some rustling going on until it’s her on the phone. “Sorry, you know him, always wants in on my phone calls.”

I laugh because the two of them were best friends, and when he got divorced, they started hooking up, and since then, I think they have about twelve kids. “Whatever, I don’t care. I need you to see if you can get me traded to Chicago.”

“Stone.” Her tone goes serious. “You have one year left on your contract with Nashville, and we’ve been working on extending it.”

“Things change.” Both my legs start to bounce with nerves. My heart rate climbs, racing now. My mouth gets dry, and my hands start to tremble. “Things change,” I repeat softly.

“Oh my God, this is because of Ryleigh,” Cooper pipes in from the background, as if he just solved a mystery. “That’s why he wants to be traded to Chicago,” he deduces. “It all makes sense.” Then he shouts even louder, “Why don’t you come to Dallas? We are all here!” Yes, but Ryleigh isn’t there I’m about to say, but I stop myself.

“Cooper Grant!” Erika yells at him, moving the phone away from her mouth. “Can you go and do something besides annoy me? Like take care of our children?” Then her voice comes back to me. “Sorry.”

“Do you think you can make it happen?” I ask her, waiting, holding my breath, knowing it’s not going to be easy. I mean, I know this. I’m captain of the team. I’ve been here forever. This is my second home, but the reality is now, she’s not here.

“I can see from my end but, Stone, we have to be realistic.” I close my eyes, somehow knowing this fantasy of me being traded will come true.

“Please, Erika, you have to try,” I beg her softly.

“Okay.” Her voice lowers to match mine. “I’ll do what I can.”

“That’s all I can ask you to do,” I say. “Tell my cousin to shut his mouth about this.”

“He knows better than to open his mouth!” she shouts, more to Cooper than to me. “I’ll call you when I have something.”

---