He didn’t respond; he just pulled me into an embrace. I tried not to melt.
Later, after we were both freshly showered and dressed for sleep, we lay in his Alaskan king bed. Being silly, I star-fished, stretching both my arms and my legs as wide as I could. “I am still not touching you,” I commented as he chuckled at my antics. “Where do you buy sheets to fit this big ass bed?”
That made him laugh. “Why? You thinking about getting one for the crib?”
“Absolutely not.” I rolled over so that I was closer to him. Not touching, but closer. “It’s just me in my bed. I don’t need all this . . . real estate.”
He reached out and pulled me even closer to him. My hand landed on his chest, and our knees made contact. “I like you, Wyn.” He shook his head like the idea of that surprised him and pleased him at the same time. “I don’t know if I’ve been in the league too long, if I’ve been spending time with the wrong women, or what. But you’re like, a breath of fresh air, and you got a brother feeling like he needs to be on oxygen.”
I felt the heat rush to my cheeks in a blush, before I leaned over and kissed his lips lightly. We’d done that a couple of times throughout the day—kissed each other’s lips. I was developing a slight addiction for his lips. They were soft and full. “You say sweet things,” I told him.
“Before I go out and buy your ass a ring, tell me something about Wyndi. I know how you got started doing what you do for a living. I know you were raised as an only child and that your grandfather is a live wire.”
I giggled. “Understatement.”
“But tell me what you like to do, besides whup ass at golf. You like to travel? Shop? Listen to murder mystery podcasts? Women seem to love that. Both of my sisters are always talking about some cold-case podcast they listen to.”
“Nah, I’m too scary to listen to murder mystery anything.” I shook my head vehemently. “I like to travel, but I don’t do it asmuch as I would like. I like to shop, but I was on a no-spend fast for most of this year.”
“What’s that?”
“You know how people fast from certain foods? Like, they’ll go on a juice fast or an all fruits and veggie fast? I went on a fast from spending unnecessary money. Anything that wasn’t mandatory, like food, bills, or personal essentials—I didn’t buy it.”
“Okay. What made you do that?”
“You know I’m self-employed. I don’t have a safety net or anybody to back me up if things go south financially. So I’ve been working to put myself in a more stable and solvent position. I wanna get into real estate. I’ve been saving to buy my first piece of rental property.”
“That’s what’s up, Brown Eyes.”
He seemed really impressed, which made me feel good right up until I remembered that I blew a good portion of what I’d saved for a down payment. “Yeah, I was doing good, until I stupidly went into my savings to pay for the birthday my . . . he’s not even really my ex. Until I threw away money on the party that Preston didn’t even want.”
“You wanna talk about that?”
“Not really,” I admitted. “I did something dumb as hell that I wish I could forget. Unfortunately, every time I revisit my goals and my gameplan, I’m reminded that I postponed my own future for somebody who was never supposed to be part of it.”
“Listen, the last thing I wanna do is talk about Wilcox’s bitch ass, but I gotta ask. What made you do that? Were you trying to take the relationship to the next level? Were you trying to prove, . . . I don’t know, . . . something to him?”
I chuckled humorlessly. “Actually, I was trying to be supportive and make him feel better. The party was a last-minute decision.” I sighed. “About a month before his birthday,he thought he was getting a new endorsement from a tech company about some new headphones that were coming out. Not to put his business in the streets?—”
He cut me off with laughter. “I’m the streets now?”
I had to laugh. “You’re definitely not the streets. You know what I mean. Not to tell his business, but he’s in one of those . . . stereotypical family situations. He made it out the hood. He’s the only one in the entire family that has money. They lean on him for everything financial. Blah. Blah. Blah. When he found out about the opportunity for the endorsement, he was floating on cloud nine. He thought it was the perfect fit for him, because he thinks music and dancing are his things.” I rolled my eyes at the memory of Preston. “You know he likes to make all those TikTok videos. Anyway, the meeting was a couple of days after that video of him leaving that club all drunk and belligerent surfaced.” I eyed him. “The company decided to go with another player. You know? I think he kicks the field goals.”
I smirked.
“Apparently, Preston didn’t take the news that he lost the deal well. I mean, he really could’ve used that money. And not only did he not get the deal, but it went to the person he hates the most.”
“Dayum. He hates me the most, huh?”
I sucked my teeth. “He really dislikes you, Kaynaan. Anyway, losing that opportunity threw him into a tailspin. He was just . . . grief-stricken. He practically cried. And he would whine to anybody who would listen. At one point, his mother reached out to me. She went on and on about how she hoped I had something big planned for his upcoming birthday because he needed to be cheered up. As far as I was concerned, Preston and I were just having fun. I was planning to take him to Ruth’s Chris or something, and that was about it. But his mother was so persistent, and he was falling deeper and deeper into his funk.When he started talking about wanting a threesome with me and somebody else for his birthday present, I honestly thought it was the depression talking.”
He jumped in right there. “He asked you for a threesome under the guise of it being a birthday present?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit.”
“I didn’t take him seriously. I decided to give him a party.” I huffed out a sigh. “I should’ve said no to the threesome, wished him well, and chucked the deuces.”
