He catches my eye and I look out at the sprawling field to the left of the house where the sun is starting to set. Yeah, Tate, Crew, and I all called the Player’s Union hotline for workplace issues. Tenley may not have wanted to be at the center of an investigation, but none of us could just let him keep coaching and walking through life without consequences. The player hotline was our way of keeping Tenley anonymous. We figured at the very least they would interview Bryce.
“The team management confronted him and he admitted it. Blamed drinking and drugs and youth.”
“I’ve been young and I’ve never groped a teenager,” I remark.
Jordan nods. “The official line will be he stepped down for personal reasons.”
"Good." Tate nods and lifts his beer toward his dad in a motion of acknowledgment. "Thank you, Dad."
“Thank you Tate. I know you were one of those hotline calls. You’re a good brother,” Jordan says with a small smile and he turns his eyes to me. “And you’re a good soon-to-be-ex-husband.”
He laughs at his joke. Tate clears his throat awkwardly and disappears into the house without another word, which has Jordan’s chuckle fading away. He looks at me with concern in his eyes which are the same shade of blue as Tenley's. "Everything okay with you and Ten? Lawyer still getting the paperwork?"
“Yeah.” I nod and wish I had a beer now. “I actually got the divorce papers yesterday. Well, they’re at my house in Canada. Charlie, my lawyer, had them couriered there this morning. Crew signed for them.”
“Cool,” he says and leans against the white wood railing of the porch, his butt half on the ledge. “I mean, it’s weird that my daughter is divorcing her husband so she can date him, but everything about you two is pretty insane. And Tenley has always been my wild child.”
“I know our marriage wasn’t exactly your dream situation for your only daughter,” I say and lean heavily on my crutches because my knees are shaking and it has nothing to do with my recent surgery. “But I wanted you to know that I’m so glad it happened. If it hadn’t, I don’t know if Tenley and I would have really gotten to know each other. Your daughter is an amazing person and I’m lucky to have her in my life, for real.”
He smiles, but it feels slightly guarded like he's waiting for a shoe to drop. Jordan is a very smart man. I swallow and for a second the only sound is the crickets waking up in the tall grass behind the barn where Tate can't be bothered to mow. I take a long, slow breath and get to the point. "So I'd like to ask you if it would be alright… if you would approve of… I'd like to ask you if I could have your approval to marry Tenley."
Jordan blinks and I can see his whole body stiffen. “Again?”
I nod. “Yes, sir. Again. This time with all of her loved ones, and mine, present. This time for real.”
Jordan doesn't respond. In fact, he stays silent, staring out at the field in the darkening light for so long that the sound of the crickets gets drowned out by the sound of my heart pounding. Jordan stands up. He’s still in good shape and just as tall as me. An intimidating presence. I’m suddenly more than a little worried that Tate’s taunts might have truth behind them. Maybe Jordan will kill me. Jordan lifts his hand and points out at the field. “You know how easy it would be to bury a body out there? Or in the lake in the center of town? It’s essentially bottomless. A couple of dumbbells from the gym tied to the feet of a corpse and no one would find it, like, ever.”
Is this real life? I’m about to pinch myself in hopes this is a stress dream I can wake up from when Jordan bursts out laughing. “Shit. I have always wanted to do that!”
I raise a hand to the front of my chest, trying to calm my galloping heart. He keeps laughing and bends to get another beer from the cooler. He hands it to me and I take it because maybe it will calm my nerves. Jordan wipes tears from his eyes and stifles his laughter. "I never even got to threaten to kill her high school boyfriends because Tenley never brought them home. I don't even think she had a serious one. I honestly didn't want to know, but I did want to be at her wedding."
He gives me a pointed stare and I nod. I twist the cap off the beer as Jordan takes another sip of his. “I also thought that her wedding would be about ten years from now.”
I take a small sip. “I thought my wedding would be twenty years from now.”
“So why do it again, for real, right now?”
I take another sip and exhale after I swallow. I try to be as calm as the breeze swirling by us as I speak. “Because I’m madly, deeply, completely in love with her and it feels so incredibly wrong to divorce the woman I hope to marry one day.”
Jordan seems to mull that over. I take the silence as a chance to keep pleading my case. “If she really wants to wait, I will. I’ll divorce her immediately. Like I said the papers are ready. And asking you won’t be in vain because I really do intend to spend my life with her. So, if you say yes, I just won’t have to do it again in five, ten, or twenty years.”
Jordan stares at me. I can’t read his expression. I’m too nervous to read anything more subtle than a stop sign right now. He leans towards me and gently taps our bottles together. “You are a great kid. I’ve never seen my daughter so happy. You have my blessing.”
A wave of relief floods me. I smile for the first time since I told Tate about this plan this morning. He smiles. “So when are you gonna ask her?”
“I don’t know,” I say and sip my beer, finally tasting it. “I’ll figure it out when my blood pressure stops spiking.”
"Hey, Dad! Do you need me to help bury a body?" Tate's laughter trickles down from the upstairs window he's yelling out of.
“It’s all fun and games until you have to ask Chance Echolls the same question,” Jordan calls back and is met by a groan of despair from Tate.
I smile and make a mental note to stress Tate the hell out when he finally decides to ask to marry Mallory.
July – Tenley
I listen to the sound of the waves as my eyes flutter open. My first thought when Nash finally slides up my body from between my legs after using his tongue to give me a killer orgasmic wake-up call, is that I could get used to this. Oh wait, I am used to this. Nash and I have been inseparable since… well since we found out we accidentally got married. But this summer we've grown closer than I ever thought I could with a man.
After his surgery, we spent three weeks in Silver Bay. We helped Tate celebrate his day with the Cup and went to my cousin Conner and Mac's wedding. It was the cutest, most laid back lovely event at a restaurant on the water in Portland. I got to be a bridesmaid and, if I'm honest with myself, spent the whole day fantasizing about what my own wedding might be like one day. I mean, one that hasn't happened yet. A real one.
