“Do I need to tell Chloe that she can always come to me if she needs to leave her husband?”
Emme glanced at me before turning her attention back to Grace and Ben, who were not at all interested in keeping to Audrey’s schedule. “I’m sure your sister knows that.”
I stared off into the distance for a moment, watching cars creep by as the sun sank lower into the horizon. I wanted to say something more about leaving marriages and money—even if I really didn’t want to talk about the end of a marriage with the woman I was trying to convince to stay married to me—but then I felt her grow tense.
“Ryan.Do not fucking leave me.”
Emme balled her hand in the back of my shirt and I found her iron-jawed gaze staring up at me, silently pleading for help. I glanced around and found Teddy and Clara headed straight for us. After a second of flat-out annoyance that this fucking guy thought he deserved a second of my wife’s attention, I looped an arm around her waist and smacked a kiss to her temple. I knew what he was doing and I knew I could do it better. “Let me take this one.”
Teddy strolled up with Clara’s hand clutched in his, all swagger and inch-thick confidence as if he hadn’t spent that whole housewarming party avoiding me. He stuck out his hand like we were old pals with, “Good to see you, man. How’s it goin’?”
“Not too bad,” I said easily. I took his hand but refused to end the shake first.
“That’s a really cute dress,” Clara said to Emme. “You always look so beautiful and put together.”
“Thanks. My stylist gets all the credit.” After a moment of both Teddy and Clara blinking at Emme in surprise at that remark, she added, “You look great too.”
Teddy skimmed a glance down my wife’s body that I didn’t appreciate at all. Then, “Seems like you’re doing all right, Em.”
I hooked my arm around her shoulders and turned her toward me. She reached up and gripped my forearm, tightening my hold and putting her engagement ring on display all at once. “Couldn’t be better,” she drawled.
A group of fans chose that moment to approach us, and when they asked for photos with meandEmme, I said, “Yeah, no problem. I’m sure my friend Teddy here would be thrilled to help.”
Clara snatched their phone from his hand with a teasing comment about him taking the worst photos. Over the next ten minutes, half the taproom got in line for a pic and she happilyaccepted every device they handed her while Teddy’s expression grew darker. He repeatedly crossed his arms, braced his legs, worked his jaw. And he never once took his eyes off Emme.
I wasn’t sure who the fuck he thought he was, glaring at her like that but I knew it was time to put some permanent distance between us. The audacity that led him to approach us in the first place needed to be drained like the abscess it was.
I played with a lot of guys who made a habit of cheating and I’d always chalked it up to the ego trip of the game. It seemed like a lot of trouble for a short-lived benefit but I knew other guys didn’t see it that way. They liked having it all but they also felt like theydeservedit. That they were entitled to the wife holding it down at home and the women hanging around the hotel bar after an away game.
It hadn’t hit me until now but Teddy was no different than any of them. He expected everything and it killed him that Emme was better off now. I could see the screws twisting in him and the hostility rolling off him in waves.
Yeah, we’d put a stop to this tonight.
When the photo line wound down, Clara pointed over her shoulder. “It looks like they’re going to open gifts soon. We should find a place to sit.”
After a weighty pause where he completely ignored his fiancée, Teddy asked, “How’s the backfield looking this year? Any word on Hersberler?”
Emme glanced up at me, lips pulled together into a delicious pout while I debated how much of a shitstorm I’d stir up if I started a fistfight. “We had a good time with those boys on Nantucket, didn’t we?”
“We did,” I said, grinning down at her adorable face.
“Let’s have them over some time this week,” she said, her eyes sparkling. I played along because that was the game and I needed to stop fantasizing about throwing this guy off the deck,but I kind of loved the idea of having my guys over and letting Emme verbally slap them around while feeding them her home cooking. It filled something inside me that I didn’t know was missing. “Everyone’s in town, right? Pick a day that works and I’ll cook. Bet they’d love my fried chicken. Like a last supper before they have to get on their training camp diets.”
“You don’t need to do that,” I said, and I wanted her to know I meant that. Even if this entire conversation was a work of fiction to fuck with Teddy, I meant it. She didn’t exist to serve me. That wasn’t our relationship. I wasn’t this shitbag ex of hers, I wasn’t the husband Audrey ran from, and I wasn’t her father. “You have enough going on with the end of the school year. I’m not adding dinner for half a football team to your list.”
“But I want to,” she said, and I wanted more than anything to lean down and snag her bottom lip between my teeth.
“All right, I’ll make it happen.” I settled for a quick kiss. From the corner of my eye, I saw Teddy cross his arms again. “But I’m helping.”
“Just as long as you remember I’m the quarterback in the kitchen,” she said.
I let myself drown in her dark, endless eyes. “As if I’d forget.”
Teddy cleared his throat. “Well, we’re gonna get a drink,” he said through a forced smile.
“Great.” I tipped my chin toward the bar. I knew he heard the indifference in my tone when he blinked away. “Have fun with that.”
But this dog didn’t know how to die because he added, “Nothing for Clara though. We’re not telling everyone yet but we figured it would be obvious by the end of the night since she’s not drinking.” He rested his hand on her belly and she beamed up at him like the dawning sun. “We’re due at the end of November.”
