I put my arms around him. “You’re worth more to me than a fat bank account. After a while, it all becomes obscene. You’ve seen our financials. We’re set for life. Neither of us wants for anything material. And the one thing we want, we can’t have until we give up the game.”
Brody’s hands massaged my back, and it felt so damn good, I arched into his touch. “I’m not ready to do that, Dev. I’m not even thirty. Is that gonna be a problem for you? I know we’ve got a couple of Super Bowls, but I wanna keep playin’.”
“Not a problem at all.” I kissed his neck, loving that he’d kept the tradition of growing his hair out in the off-season. The silky waves tickled my cheek. “I know you’re not ready to retire. Me neither.” Something Ezra had mentioned niggled on the edge of my brain. “It might be a wild idea…”
“Gee, when have I heard that before?” Brody chuckled, and I nipped his ear.
“I’m serious. Brody, let’s do it.” Excitement mounting, I rested my hands on his shoulders and gazed into his beautiful blue eyes.
His brow puckered. “Do what? Take the trades?”
I shoved him. “No.” Heart pumping madly, I hesitated, then blurted out, “Let’s get married.”
His lips kicked up in a grin. “Very funny.”
I dug my fingers into his shoulders, holding him steady. “Do you see me laughing?” I held his startled blue eyes with mine. “I’m serious. Marry me. I love you, and I want to finally know we’re together. Legally.”
Brody’s lips parted, his breaths coming in short puffs. “Dev…how…what…what’re you thinkin’? How the hell do you think we can get away with this and no one’s gonna find out?”
“We make everyone sign an NDA, and if necessary, pay them a ton of money to keep their mouths shut.”
“Bribe them?”
I couldn’t help smiling at Brody’s shock and kissed him.
“Don’t think of it as a bribe. It’s more like a payment for services rendered. Or, in this case,notspeaking.” The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. “We can get a license and ask Ezra to handle the arrangements for us. It’ll be Ezra and Roe, and we’ll fly your mother in. We don’t need anyone else.”
“I—I don’t know what to say.”
The confusion in his face hurt, and I had to take a step back, gather my thoughts and not snap. “You don’t want to marry me?”
“Of course I do.” He grabbed my arm. “Just not in a way that we have to sneak around about it.”
Frustrated, I shook him off and walked away. “Don’t you think we’ll always have to? If we wait until we retire, then come out, we’ll still be hounded by the press, both good and bad. We won’t have a moment’s peace. If we do it this way, it’s a chance to have it quiet and keep it to ourselves as long as possible.”
Brody crossed the room and cupped my face in his hands. “You’re serious.”
“I am. But you’re not sure.” And it killed me.
He crushed his mouth to mine, kissing me until I lost my breath. “I’m sure I love you. I just need some time to think about the way we’re gonna do it.”
I brushed my lips to his. “Time is something we have plenty of.”
Instead of returning to our bank statements, I began to research marriage licenses. “I bet we can get married without having to file the certificate. That would solve all our problems.” I clicked on some links.
Brody peered over my shoulder and grunted, pointing at the screen. “Nope. Says here that in New York, if you don’t file the license, your marriage isn’t valid.”
“Well, gay marriage is legal in every state. Let’s look. One of the fifty has to work for us.”
The sun had inched toward the horizon by the time I finished. Brody set a beer in front of me, and I blew him a kiss and took a long grateful drink. He stretched his legs out.
“Find anything useful?” He put the bottle to his lips.
“Yeah. That it isn’t as easy as I thought it would be.”
He grinned. “Nothing worthwhile ever is.”
I arched a brow, still a little hurt by his earlier negativity. “So you’re on board with this now?”
