“Is Brody forcing you into this?” He swallows. “Does he have blackmail on you?”
“Forcing me into a relationship with another adult?” Hannah’s laugh is fractured. “I’m not having this conversation with you.” She turns to me. “I’ll wait for you at your place. I don’t want to be here.”
“Of course.” I fish out my keys from my pocket and take off the one to my condo. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Hannah turns on her heel and leaves the two of us staring at each other.
“I trusted you,” Grant says, wiping his nose and ignoring his teammates making their way to the locker room. “And now you’re dead to me.”
I don’t offer him a rebuttal knowing this isn’t my battle to fight. I sigh and brush past him, doing my goddamn best to fake my enthusiasm for the cameras while feeling like complete shit.
FORTY-FIVE
HANNAH
It takesBrody two hours to get home. By the time he does, I’m in his bed. I’m wearing one of his big T-shirts and doing the crossword puzzle with his glasses on my face, squinting at the paper I’m holding in front of me.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he says from the doorway.
“I’m getting a jumpstart on your crossword puzzle,” I say, and he smiles.
“Can I join you?”
“Sure.” I pat the mattress, propping the pillows behind me so I can look at him. “How were the celebrations?”
“Not as celebratory.” Brody gently takes the crossword puzzle and pen out of my grasp, setting them on the bedside table. “Are you okay? There was a lot that just happened.”
“Do you want me to be honest with you?”
“Always.” His fingers back quick work of unknotting his tie. “You can tell me anything you want.”
“I’m really upset by Grant’s reaction. I know he’s coming from a place of love, but it’s my life. I’m an adult who is free to do whatever I want, however I want to do it. Hearing him insert himself into a conversation where he doesn’t belong sucked,” I say, watching Brody take off his suit jacket and shirt. “Andthe things he said about you?” I shake my head. “That was inappropriate.”
“I’m not saying that I’m on his side, but I see where he’s coming from.” Brody’s shoes and slacks come off next, and when he’s left in his briefs, he sits next to me on the bed. “He’s a protector. He’s protected you for most of his life, and now, there’s someone else who is protecting you. And it doesn’t help that it’s a man fourteen years older than you who he’s known for quite some time.” He takes my hand and kisses my knuckles. “I know the difference in our age doesn’t bother us, but to other people—especially your brother, who was completely caught off guard by our relationship tonight—it’s jarring.”
“This is my fault. Running into your arms like that with your players and cameras around? I didn’t think of the consequences.”
“Hey. It’s no one’s fault. We could just as easily say it’smyfault, because I could have had a conversation with him in private where I told him how I felt about you,” he says, and I sit upright. I yank his glasses off my face and shove them with the crossword puzzle. “What’s wrong?”
“You told Grant that you love me,” I whisper, and Brody’s Adam’s apple bobs. “Is that true?”
“I know what I told Grant, but I also know what I told you that night we spent with Liv. I said I’d be here whenever you were ready, and we don’t have to talk about this if you’re not?—”
“I love you too,” I blurt, and his jaw goes slack. “I love so many things about you, I could probably make a list. But I want you to know that I love you too.”
The second the words leave my mouth, I’m instantly lighter. It’s like I’m floating on the clouds, indescribable happiness hitting me in the dead center of my chest when Brody threads his fingers through my hair. When he brings my mouth to his,kissing me in a way that’s so different from how he’s done in the past, but still so achingly familiar.
“Say it again,” he murmurs against my lips. “Tell me one more time, Hannah.”
“I love you. I-I’ve felt this way for a while now, Brody, but I told you I’m scared. I’m so scared, because this started as something purely physical.” I put my hands on his chest, his heart racing as fast as mine. “Because I have no clue what I’m doing. Because we don’t care about the age difference, but I recognize that you’ve lived a whole life before me, and I worry I’m not going to be enough for you.”
“Not enough for me?” His thumbs wipe away the tears I didn’t know started to fall. “You don’t know, do you, sweetheart?”
“Know what?” I ask, and Brody pulls away. Gives my hand a squeeze and stands. “Where are you going?”
“Give me a second.” He disappears into his closet, and I hear it’s shifting around. The scrape of a hanger and something falling to the floor. When he returns, he’s holding a notebook and a shoebox tight to his chest. “I want to show you something.”
“Is it your sex toy collection?” I ask, making a joke because it feels like my feeble, fragile heart might crack in two.
