Quarterback's Secret Baby (Bad Boy Ballers) (27 page)

I found myself very heartened by Stan Keller's story. He'd done it at nineteen. All those people I knew were going to call me crazy - other than my parents, I mean - they were going to have to deal with it. As Stan said - when you know, you know. And damn if I hadn't known since I was a little kid that Tasha Greeley was the one.

I walked out of Keller's with a smile on my face, a small, red leather box in my pocket and the hopes of a lifetime in my heart.

Kaden picked me up at work in his dad's Audi. I admit it was a relief to see the broad smile on his face when he spotted me walking out of the office - I didn't know when he was going to realize he was angry at me for keeping the news of his son from him but I was sure it was coming.

"How was work, dear?" He asked, grinning, when we were on our way.

I played along. "It was fine, honey. Do you think we need to stop at the grocery store for bread and milk?"

"Maybe, but first there's something else I need to do."

"Oh?" I asked. "And what's that?"

In response, Kaden just shrugged and held his hands up.

"Keeping secrets?" I giggled. "I hope it's a good one."

Kaden turned down a road that led away from my family's house, which is where I'd assumed we were going, and held his hands up. "I think you'll be the one who decides that, cupcake."

"OK..." I replied, searching for the right cheesy nickname, "sweetie pie."

"Huh. I actually kind of like you calling me that," he chuckled.

It took a few minutes for me to realize we were heading out of town and then a few more to notice the road as it turned into gravel and the hills started to roll up on us. That's where we were going - the hills. The same hills we went to after that football game in high school and then again on the day of our prom, which seemed like a thousand years ago. Eventually, Kaden pulled up at a rocky outcrop overlooking the town.

"Is this-"

"Yeah, same place," he said, knowing what I was going to ask.

We got out and stood looking over Little Falls for a few moments.

"I bet it seems so small now, huh?" I asked. "I mean, compared to Dallas?"

"It is small, but it's home." Kaden replied, pointing into the distance. "Look - look over there, to the left of the brick building. You can see the end of the Reinhardt stadium."

I followed his direction and sure enough, there it was, the concrete curve of Little Falls' secular church.

"Oh my God, you're right. I can see it. It feels like an ancient artifact, doesn't it? Like a memory of a dream rather than something that really happened."

Kaden sat down on the ground and took his coat off, laying it down next to him and patting it with his hand.

"You'll get cold!" I protested.

"No I won't, the sun's out and my blood runs hot, anyway."

"I bet," I laughed, sitting down and experiencing a weird time-warp effect as the memories of years past crashed into the present reality. I looked up at Kaden sitting beside me - he still had exactly the same effect on me as he had when I was in high school, I was as tense with the adrenaline of attraction and love as I had been then.

"It doesn't seem like that long ago to me," he mused, wrapping one of his muscular, million-dollar arms around my shoulder. "Seems like just yesterday, actually. Except now I live in Dallas and you live here and we have a baby."

We were at ease with each other. The previous day's conversation had cleared away all the doubts and misinterpretations clouding our minds. I was just so stupidly happy to be there, beside him.

"I'm really sorry, Kaden," I started, overwhelmed once again with a feeling of guilt.

"Stop," he said, putting his hand up. "You don't need to say it, Tasha. I know it. I know you're sorry. I forgive you. I hope you forgive me my stupidities and assumptions as well."

"I do, but I think what I did was-"

"Stop!" He turned and looked me in the eye, smiling but firm. "Do you have a time machine, Tasha?"

I giggled. "Uh, no. I mean, I did have one but it broke last week."

"Damn, too bad. Well, given that neither of us has access to a working time machine I think it's OK if we just agree to do the best from now on, don't you? For ourselves - and for Henry?"

I went a little quiet at the mention of our beautiful son. He was probably at home right now, waving his chubby little fists in the air and demanding to be fed. "Yes," I replied. "OK, Kaden. That's a good idea. Although I'm not saying I'm just going to be able to change into a different person in a day. I am who I am, but I'm going to try, I promise you that."

"I don't want you to be a different person," he told me, squeezing my knee. "I want you to be exactly who you are. I know your father did a number on you - on all of you - but you need to believe that I love you, that I'm here for you, that whenever you worry or feel alone you can tell me and I'll do everything I can to reassure you."

I leaned my head against his shoulder, warm in spite of the nippy weather and asked: "Do you even know what a big deal that is to me?"

Kaden turned his head down to look at me. "I think so."

"Really," I continued, "I think that's all I ever wanted from the people I loved - reassurance. It's why my family is so tight, we're all so conscious of what it feels like not to have it."

"I know, Tasha," he whispered, kissing my forehead. "I know. It took me awhile to figure it out, but I've got it now. That's actually kind of why I brought you up here."

"Is it?"

Kaden shifted his weight slightly, so we were facing each other and I sensed that something important was coming. At the time I thought it was words. It was, but it was so much more than words.

"It's funny, isn't it?" He said, running a single finger down my cheek. "Everything used to seem so difficult - our problems so insurmountable - didn't they? And they're not. They're really not."

"How do you mean?" I asked and then watched, baffled, as he got up on one knee.

"I mean," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small box, "that we can make this work. That I don't want to do anything with my life except that - to be with you, to be a father to Henry - that we both need to stop being such chickenshits and just admit we should be together."

It was the box that changed my mental state from confused to weepy to overwhelmed with emotion in about three seconds flat. Was it really happening? Was he really doing what I thought he was doing?

"You - uh, I think you need to stand up for this part," he said, grinning and helping me to my feet.

My knees were shaking. So was my voice. "I don't - Kaden, I don't think I can stand up."

He looked up at me as he knelt back down. "Yes you can."

And because Kaden Barlow said I could stand up, because I loved him and believed in him, I could. He opened the small box as I watched, squinting as the setting sun caught the diamond just right, temporarily dazzling me.

"Oh my God, Kaden," I breathed. "Oh my God..."

"Hold it together, Tasha. Just - I need to say this. Let me say this."

I reached down and cupped his face in my hands, blinking furiously as the tears threatened to blur my vision. "OK," I told him, fighting to stay in control. "OK, Kaden."

"I love you, Natasha Greeley. That's the first thing I need to say. I love you completely. And you love me, I know you do. Whatever roadblocks life has given us or will give us, we can overcome them together. I want you to be happy and fulfilled and to live your life knowing you are loved, that I am always going to be there to catch you if you stumble. You're the only one there has ever been for me. Even if you say no, I want you to know that this is something I have to do. I can't live the rest of my life knowing I didn't even try. Will you marry me?"

"Yes," I said, more of a breath than a word, a response that came without any need to ponder it or turn it over and over and over in my head. Because Kaden was right - we could overcome the things that stood in our way. Love is precious - I'd always known it but the past few years had shown me in a way intellectual knowledge couldn't.

He stared up at me for a good few seconds before speaking again. "What?"

"Yes," I said again, louder that time. "Yes, Kaden. Yes, yes, yes. A thousand, billion times yes."

And then he took my trembling hand in his steady one and slipped the ring onto my finger. I curled my fingers, laughing with joy. "It's too big!"

"I know it is - the jeweler said we can easily have it resized."

I knelt down and we wrapped our arms around each other tightly, fiercely. Who knows how long we stayed there, clinging to each other in the dry, yellow grass, our hearts pounding with love. When we finally pulled away enough to look at each other we were both smiling so hard I thought our faces would break.

"Did we just do that?" I asked.

"We did," Kaden responded. "We fucking did. And now we have to do the rest. Together."

We got back into the car and I looked over at him as he maneuvered it backward down to the dirt road we'd driven in on, overwhelmed with love. I knew he wasn't glowing, but he seemed to be. All the sunshine in the universe seemed to be shining on him, my perfect, patient, gorgeous man.

"I love you," I said, still laughing, as we began the drive back into town. "I'm sorry, I feel like I'm going to explode with it, Kaden. I'm just going to keep saying it, I think."

"Good. Now, where are we going? Back to your house to tell your family?"

I hadn't even thought about that and my first instinctual response was to say no, to institute some process of easing them into it. But that was the past me, always worried, always anticipating a bad reaction.

"Yes," I replied, brave because Kaden loved me and his love gave me the freedom to try on this new bravery. "Let's tell them."

Alisha greeted me at the door with Henry in her arms and immediately knew something was up.

"Why are you two grinning like a couple of fools?" She asked, handing Henry to me. "He's fussy - wondering where mommy is. Probably wondering where daddy is, too."

I handed my fiancé his son. "I'm going to help Alisha with dinner. I'll bring you his bottle."

When dinner was ready and we were all getting seated around the table, Rosa looked at me and then, slowly, over at Kaden.

"Why are they so happy?" She asked, turning to Alisha and Ray.

"I don't know," Alisha replied, "maybe they just won the lottery?"

I'd been thinking we would wait until after dinner but Kaden, holding a content Henry on his lap, spoke up: "Nah, it's better than that."

That got everyone's attention. All eyes were on us.

"Daddy?" Rosa asked, turning to Ray. "What's a lottery?"

"How about I tell you about that later?" He replied. "I think auntie Tash and Kaden have something to tell us."

Did they know? I could see the anticipation on all the faces around the table. Kaden pushed his chair back and stood up and I heard CeeCee make a small, excited noise.

"Yes," Kaden said, looking back and forth between me and every member of my family. "We do have some news. Miss Natasha Greeley - your daughter, sister, aunt and-" he looked at Henry, "your mother, has decided to marry me."

I looked around the table. Seconds passed. They hadn't known. Alisha was the first one to react, leaping up from her chair and screaming: "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"

She raced around to where Kaden and I were sitting and threw her arms around us. Kaden nodded. "Yes, I'm serious. Tasha - why don't you show her the ring."

And then suddenly everyone was shouting and laughing and hugging at once. Ray wheeled my mother over to me and she was crying. Which made me start as well.

"Tash," she said in her raspy voice, "my beautiful girl, my baby. Congratulations."

It went on like that for over an hour, a lot of happy tears, questions, answers, laughter, and hugs. When we'd all calmed down enough for him to get a word in edgewise, Ray stood up with a glass of lemonade in his hand and Alisha jumped up to make sure everyone had some in their glass.

"Well," my brother said, nodding at Kaden. "It's not official yet but it might as well be. And I know us Greeleys can be a bit standoffish with outsiders but you're one of us now. Welcome to the family."

Kaden stood up and held his glass in the air. "You love Tasha. You're protective of each other. Sure I might have thought it a little bit of a hindrance when I was an arrogant kid at Reinhardt, but I get it now. I love Tasha, too. And I swear I've never met a group of people more invested in being there for one another. It's an honor to be a member of this family and to say to you all here, now, that from now on my priority in life is going to be keeping her - and my son - happy. Thank you for being so wonderful. And for not asking for any selfies."

The guys sat back down and Alisha and Ray served dessert - warm banana bread straight from the oven. As we were chattering and tucking in, CeeCee's voice rose above the others.

"Where will you live now, Tash?"

I could hear the worry there, and in it I recognized my own worry, my own fear from what was already, strangely, starting to feel like a former life. Kaden jumped in.

"I have another two years in Dallas, and I'm going to call my agent tomorrow and tell him to get me to Kansas City after that - doesn't matter if I have to take a pay cut. As for what Tasha's going to do, well, that's up to Tasha. I've managed to survive without her so far and if it takes another two years then it takes another two years. Kansas City is just about an hour from Little Falls, so you don't need to worry that I'm going to steal your sister away to the big city so you hardly ever see her. Do you think Tasha would let that happen?"