“I miss you too,” she says quietly, holding the phone out in front of her and leaning forward so her ponytail falls over her shoulder. “A lot.”
“Does that surprise you?” I ask, suddenly desperately curious to get inside her head.
“It should. Everything about my feelings for you should surprise me, but nothing does. It’s almost like…” She trails off.
“This was the way it was supposed to be,” I finish for her.
She nods, and her agreement lights up everything inside of me. “Yes. That. I kind of have a confession to make.”
I sit down on the bench, leaning back against my locker,happy to go wherever her fascinating brain wants to take me. I’m alone in the locker room. All my teammates are on the field for warm-ups, and I should be out there too, but there is not a force on earth strong enough to pull me away from this conversation. “Go for it.”
She smiles, a little sheepishly. “I was pretty nervous about your kids coming here for Thanksgiving.”
I grin at her, absolutely delighted by this revelation. “Were you? Tell me more.”
“I want them to like me,” she mumbles, and at her words, my heart almost bursts clean out of my chest. “It’s stupid, but I really, really want them to like me. I swear I’m not trying to insert myself into your family or anything, but I thought it would be cool if I could be, like, their friend or something. Ugh,” she groans, flopping back against the couch cushions and closing her eyes. “Ignore me. I think that might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever said. For sure it was the most embarrassing.”
“Look at me, Maddy.” I try—and fail—to keep the emotion out of my voice. “Open your eyes, baby, and look at me.”
When she does, I smile, pulling the phone a little closer. “Remember that first night at my house?”
She huffs out a laugh. “You mean the night we danced to no music in the living room and I had forty-seven orgasms and we ate all my favorite snacks in bed? I vaguely remember something about that.”
I can feel my grin spread, and my brain cycles the same three words over and over again.
I love you.I love you.I love you.
Unused to keeping those particular words to myself, they threaten to burst right out of me.
“When I said there isn’t any part of my life I don’t want you to be in, I meant it. I don’t think I’ve ever meant anything more. I don’t know anything about introducing someone important to me to my kids, because I’ve never done it before. I’ve never wanted to do it, until you. But I didn’t have to introduce you toRiley and Ethan because you met them when all we were to each other were two people who spent one perfect night together. I should have known then. I think maybe a part of me did know then.”
“Know what?” she asks, eyes fixed on me.
“That you were the missing piece of us.”
Maddy inhales sharply, her eyes glossing over, and never in my life have I wished harder for some kind of teleportation device because I need to touch her so badly right now my arms literally ache. “You think?” she asks.
“I don’t think. I know. My kids are crazy about you. I’m crazy about you. When I saw the picture Riley sent?” I break off, shaking my head. “It was…fuck, Maddy, it was everything. It’s always been my most important people in my pre-game picture. At first it was Lainey, and then my kids, and now you. You belong in that picture with my kids. That’s exactly where I want you.”
“Riley said you would,” Maddy says with a smile. “She was the one who insisted I be in it.”
“I think my thirteen-year-old is more perceptive than I gave her credit for.”
Maddy laughs. “I’m pretty sure she and Zoe could conquer the entire world before breakfast. She’s amazing, Cam. Ethan too. My entire family has taken both of your kids right into their fold, so good luck ever extracting them. We’re a possessive bunch when it comes to the people who belong to us.”
Belong to us.
I have to resist rubbing a hand over my chest. “There aren’t as many of us as there are of you guys, but we can be a possessive bunch, too.”
“Oh yeah?” Maddy draws her legs up and props her chin on her knees. Her gorgeous greens are fixed on mine, and even though I want my arms around her, there is something undeniably sacred about having this conversation on the phone. About weaving words together to convey my feelings for her. Aboutknowing no words could ever come close but trying to find the right ones anyway. Because she’s worth it.
She’s worth everything.
“Yeah. Didn’t Riley insist on you being in that picture?”
Maddy laughs again and it lights up her whole face. “She absolutely did. She’s scary when she wants something.”
I choose my next words carefully. “I think maybe what she wants…is you. Insert yourself into my family, Maddy, because I think you belong there. With me. With my kids. With us. Be a part of us, because I think we’ve been waiting for you.” My voice breaks a little at the end, and I have no idea how I’m going to go out and play football in two minutes when what I want to do is get on a plane and fly back to Pittsburgh to get all of my most important people right into my arms.
