I kiss his lips. “I promise.”
We walk downstairs, where my family has taken over Colton’s house. Kingston has the television on, showing Jamison’s soccer team. Everyone offers their congratulations to Colton, and they’ve spread out food from Wok For U. The kids are eating around the table and the women are in the kitchen, three of them with babies strapped to them. Phoenix has a glass of wine in hand, and I decide to join her.
Grandma Dori is with the kids, lecturing Calista about how just because she’s a girl, it doesn’t mean she can’t hit someone back if they hit her first. Harley glances at them for a second but then shakes her head like she’ll fix that later.
“This sucks,” Harley says. “The whole reason I got pregnant was to be with you guys and now I’m pregnant alone again.”
“Well, we still can’t drink,” Brooklyn says, nodding at my nephew strapped to her chest.
“Yeah, I’m not sure about this breastfeeding gig,” Savannah says. “I mean, Liam’s getting a little jealous and Brinley won’t take a bottle. It’s all me, and when I go back to work, I don’t see this working.”
Holly nods as though she gets it. “I can pump, but Easton eats all the time. I’m not even producing enough, so we already have to supplement with formula.”
“You want to know what I can’t stand? The fact that it’s six weeks until you can have sex after you give birth and Wyatt acts like it’s a life prison sentence. I don’t even feel like having sex.” Brooklyn shakes her head.
The other new moms nod as if they want to shout “amen.”
I look at Phoenix and she widens her eyes at me. “So, sexy times in the kitchen, huh?”
Colton catches her words as he’s grabbing a beer from the fridge. He rolls his eyes and shakes his head.
I say, “Yeah. I thought I said no party?”
“Grandma Dori already had it planned. I think because you’re closing SparkFinder, she thought that you could use a party,” Phoenix says.
“Are you okay?” Brooklyn’s hand runs up and down on my arm.
“I’m good.”
Savannah chews on her lip and looks around. I catch her and narrow my eyes.
“Liam.” She tries to slide out behind Holly, but with the baby, she can’t get away so fast.
I stop Savannah. “What’s up?”
“Nothing.” She shakes her head.
“Someone call Sedona, her man just scored a crazy goal,” Kingston yells.
I stay in place with my hand on Savannah’s arm. She has a secret.
“You’ll find out tomorrow,” she whispers.
“Tell me now.”
“I can’t,” she says between gritted teeth.
“Is it bad?”
Her eyes flicker to Grandma, which means, yes, it’s bad. “No. Not at all.”
All the guys’ cheering quiets in the other room.
“Oh shit. Get up, get up,” Kingston says in a quieter voice, more like he’s talking to himself.
All of our heads turn. Kingston and Denver are on either side of the television, both with their hands at their mouths.
“What happened?” Grandma Dori stands and leaves the children to see.
They replay the play and you see a guy come in to block Jamison’s shot, hitting his leg from the side. We all watch as Jamison writhes in pain on the field. His teammates and the other team kneel around as the medical crew rushes out to him.
Phoenix slides by all of us, going to Griffin’s side. They whisper together.
“Is Uncle Jamison hurt again?” Maverick asks Phoenix.
We all turn to him. Phoenix grabs him and holds him, whispering in his ear.
“The twins are keeping secrets!” Kingston yells, pointing at Phoenix.
She turns to Griffin and he shrugs. She releases Maverick, and he goes off to play video games with Dion.
“So, Jamison might have hurt himself a few weeks ago,” Phoenix says. “They didn’t think it was anything major. He took some time off to recover, and that’s when Sedona came home for the shower. But I believe it’s the same leg he hurt before.”
We all turn toward the television and listen to the announcers, who are saying there was a rumor about him being hurt prior to this but that his team is known to be tight-lipped about injured players. The one guy analyzing the footage slows down the tape just as the other guy tries to block. You see Jamison go down, howling in pain.
“That’s an injury that could end a career,” the announcer says.
“I hope not, because Jamison’s too talented of a player for his game to end this early. Plus New York doesn’t stand a chance without him,” the other announcer says.
We all look around and Phoenix is gone. I’m sure she’s off to call Sedona. I really hope Sedona’s okay. Jamison is carted off the field on a stretcher, grasping and hovering over his leg.
Colton comes over to me and puts his arm around my waist. “This is shitty timing, but I got the key,” he whispers.
“Way to go, Magnum PI.”
The next day is the official move-out date of my SparkFinder office. I managed to make a deal with Mr. Richards, and since he didn’t have anyone ready to move in, I got a few weeks to pack up my stuff. It’s all going into Colton’s garage until I figure things out.
“What else do you have?” Colton comes in, all sweaty and delicious and manly looking.
“Um, just my desk, and the back room with the table and chairs.”
He nods and Kingston follows him to the back room.
I follow them, asking Colton, “Are you sure you’re cool with me leaving everything in your garage? I could get a storage locker or something. Maybe I should just sell it all.”
Colton abandons the stack of chairs he was going to take out and kisses my lips. “That’s ridiculous. I have enough room for you and your stuff too.”
He’s been on me about moving in, and I’ll admit—I’m at his house so much, it’s kind of stupid that I don’t. But at the same time, I can’t pay half that mortgage right now
