To Love a Player (26 page)

My father sat silent and a long awkward pause hung in the air. I wanted to say more, but at the same time, I knew that I had said enough. It was his turn to speak and whether or not he took that opportunity was his choice. I turned my head to look out the window while I waited for the dust to settle. Finally for what seemed like an eternity, his voice was soft but firm as he asked, "What do you want to do with your life?"

I gave him a serious look and with full confidence in my voice, I said, "I want to be a chef. I want to marry the woman you met today. I want to spend the rest of my life making her feel like the luckiest woman in the world and give you more grandchildren than you can handle. I want to own my own restaurant and make people happy with my food."

My father let out a soft sigh as he said, "Then do it."

I felt my jaw hit the floor as I was taken aback by those three words. I looked at him bewildered and he cleared his throat before he said, "I've been waiting for you to figure out what you wanted to do with your life. I only forced you into my footsteps because you never seemed to have an idea so I did what my father did and made you choose. All those times that I asked you what you wanted to do with your life, you always gave me a blank look. I've never seen this much confidence exude from you until today when you said all of that to me."

"I want you to succeed and yes, I would have loved for that to have been at Grey Enterprises, but I knew it was like putting a round peg in a square hole as you stated earlier. However, you acted like a playboy without a clue. I know it is mostly my fault. I used you to seal the deal on numerous occasions and I want you to know that I am deeply sorry for that."

I nodded silently at him as he continued, "In my old age, I've come to realize that all I want for my children is for them to be happy. When Lacey came to me, adamantly requesting you to be her chef, I was already prepared to let you follow that dream if that's what you wanted. Lacey became a designer because she asserted herself early on and I knew that standing in her way would be impossible."

"I never realized I had a choice," I said, interrupting him and his eyes were apologetic. He sighed, nodding, "I know and I'm sorry. I thought that pushing you into the company was the right thing, but I didn't want to be like my father and have regrets when it came for my time on this earth to be over. Your grandfather admitted that he wished I could have had a different path, although I was okay with being his successor. I enjoyed it, but I worked my way up and that was the difference between you and me. You never had that drive and after a time, I knew why, but you never stated what you wanted to do so I pushed you into the company while waiting for you to grow up."

My father's face broke out into a warm smile as he said, "This Mollie is something else. I've heard about her through Lacey, through Elly, and now through you. When she stood in front of me today, she had no fear and a firm handshake, even offered to shake my hand first both times. I was impressed and you know, your mother is going to love her."

I grinned, letting out a soft chuckle as I nodded. My mother was going to love her just as much as I did. My dad patted me on the back and said, "You're off the hook with the Toller project, but I'd appreciate it if you at least finish this week. Next week, I'm turning you over to Lacey and if you thought that I was tough, you have seen nothing yet."

28

Mollie

After the kids went to bed, Lacey joined Marnie and me in the den where we were opening a bottle of wine and a big bowl of M&Ms mixed with popcorn. We had chosen to watch some chick flicks and have girl talk, all of us looking forward to it.

"Okay, so spill lady," Marnie said after Lacey got situated in one of the plush chairs. Lacey nodded eagerly, grinning at me and said, "I want details too, but not too detailed since you are talking about my brother and there are certain descriptions about his body parts that I don't wish to know about."

We all laughed and I asked, "What do you want to know?"

Marnie piped up, "I want to hear about the date since you neglected to call me and tell me all about it!"

Cringing, I said, "Sorry, I had an unexpected visitor and then a crappy day which ended up with my living quarters being trashed."

"What unexpected visitor?" Marnie and Lacey both asked and I realized that neither of them knew about Scott showing up at my doorstep. I sighed and said, "You better buckle your seatbelts girls and forget about the movie."

Their attention on me had me a little bit excited as I told them all about the date and the morning after, most of it Lacey had already heard. When I finished, Marnie squealed, "Aw, that is so adorable! He definitely won points in my book. That is the first date of all first dates! Who knew he had that in him, huh?"

I smiled giddily and nodded in agreement. "I still have the note he left me that morning. It's in the envelope with the plane ticket that was fortunately untouched by Sophie's wrath."

"Where was it?" Lacey asked and I shrugged, "In a shoebox hidden way under my bed. I checked last night to make sure that it was still there and it was. She must not have wanted to mess with crawling underneath there."

"I bet she would have if she knew that it was there," Marnie said in an angry tone. I half shrugged as I said, "Probably."

"So who was the unexpected visitor?" Lacey asked, putting popcorn in her mouth. Rolling my eyes, I sighed "Scott."

"What?!?" Lacey asked almost choking on her bite and Marnie looked confused. I explained, "Scott is Sophie's twin brother, but not as crazy."

"And he's so hot," Lacey admitted, blushing. My mouth dropped open in shock as I squealed, "Lacey!"

She shrugged sheepishly and said, "I can't help it, if I were young woman, I'd be all over that," I couldn't believe what I was hearing, although I agreed with her about Scott being hot. I was attracted to him physically, but it would never go beyond that.

"Huh?" Marnie asked, feeling out of the loop. I laughed, "Scott's a kind of guy that would leave you hot and bothered, and not in a good way. He's more of a player than Callen was."

Marnie groaned, rolling her eyes as she became impatient with me. She threw an M&M at me and said, "Please continue!"

I settled down and continued, "Anyway, I left here on Monday night and I was about to get into the hot tub when the doorbell rang..."

"And you answered it?" Marnie asked, appalled. "You do know that's how girls in the horror movies get killed right?"

Shrugging, I admitted "That thought did cross my mind, but I figured that I was safe once I saw who it was. I was slightly confused, but safe. So I let him in and he claimed that he brought me dinner, but it was ice cream; my favorite by the way."

"Sounds like a decent guy," Marnie mused and I perked an eyebrow at her. She took a sip of her wine, peering at me apologetically as she did so. I continued, "Anyway, I let him in, he tried to flirt but I shot him down and then I decided to let him stay. We got into the hot tub for awhile and just talked."

"Just talked?" Lacey asked surprised and I nodded, "Yep, just talked and I don't really remember what it was about, but I got to know him a little bit. Saw a glimpse of the real Scott behind the charm, it was nice and I firmly believe that we'll be good friends despite his sister's craziness. Which by the way, he mentioned that I would need someone on my side when she came back because she could be pretty ruthless. I didn't realize it would be so soon."

"So what happened?" Marnie asked and I took a sip of my wine. When I finished, I said, "We got out and changed back into our clothes. He dished up the ice cream and we watched a movie. We ended up falling asleep during it, he slept on the couch and I slept uncomfortably in the chair."

"And this was yesterday morning?" Marnie asked slowly and I nodded, taking a deep breath as I continued, "Yeah that was yesterday morning and I sent him on his way. Callen called and had been told by Sophie that Scott was over at our house all night. He assumed the worst, partly because he couldn't get a hold of me because my phone was charging in my room all night. Once we talked through it, we were fine."

"And then he came home for you," Lacey gushed and I nodded, "Yeah, he did and saved me."

"Saved you?" Marnie asked and I told her about the afternoon that I had prior to his arrival. "He walked in the door and all of a sudden, everything was calm. I was calm, Jace stopped being sick, and Mara became human again."

"Aw," Marnie smiled and I nodded. The memory of him walking through the front door played in my mind, making me smile wistfully. Shaking my head to clear it, I said, "Yeah, it gave me a surreal mental image of what it would be like married to him and him coming home to his family. It felt very natural."

"Aw," Marnie and Lacey chorused together. I blushed as I took another sip of wine and said, "I know, right? But is that weird, though? I mean, we are just started dating, but I could see my future with him right in front of me."

Lacey gave me a knowing look and immediately my eyes honed in on it as I said, "Spill it."

"He was having the same images and let me tell you, he's thinking about it," Lacey smiled. Marnie gasped, "What? You don't think he'd...do you?"

"No, no not that. He knows it's too soon for that, but I know he wants to," Lacey said, casting a look in my direction. Callen was really ready to make that leap? A small shiver coursed through my veins as I glanced down at my left ring finger, remembering the way he held it last night.

Marnie smiled sweetly and said, "So what else happened?"

Looking at Lacey, I said, "Lacey might want to plug her ears for this." She gave me a curious look and then it clicked as I laughed. Marnie's eyes got wide and said, "Really? Was it good?"

"I'm going to get us another bottle of wine while you two discuss this," Lacey laughed as she left the room. I grinned widely at Marnie as I nodded, "It was by far the best, Mar, I mean THE best I've ever had."

"Wow," Marnie mused and I nodded, finishing off my last drop in my glass. I leaned against the couch cushions as I said, "And it was so full of love, which I think made it that much better. It was amazing."

"Aw, that is so sweet," Marnie said and perked an eyebrow up as she asked, "So, how many times since then?"

I held up four fingers and Marnie's eyes went wide right as Lacey walked in with a new bottle, filling up our glasses again. She shot me a questioning look as she asked, "You're done talking about having sex with my brother, right?"

Laughing, I nodded as I said, "Yes, I'm done."

"Good because while I am extremely close to my brother, I'm not quite ready to hear about how good he is in bed. In my mind, he is still a six year old who loved to run around in his Superman underwear while wearing a red cape." Lacey laughed and I blurted out in laughter, "Oh please tell me that you have pictures of that somewhere?"

Lacey chewed on her cheek as she thought and said, "I think my mom does, so when I'm there this weekend, I'll check and find the good ones."

She looked over at Marnie, asking, "So, do you have any good romantic things happening in your life?"

Marnie shrugged, taking a sip of wine to avoid the subject. I smiled knowingly at her and asked, "How's Brock doing these days?"

She rolled her eyes at me, but I could see a hint of a grin on her lips. Lacey's eyebrows peaked with interest as she asked, "Brock? I'm sure that I may have some pictures of him in his superhero underwear when he was younger, too!"

"I'm not with Brock," Marnie said, shaking her head and I noticed a hint of sadness in her voice. "We went out a few times and slept together a few times, but I don't think that it'll ever be anything more than that."

"Why not?" I asked, curiously and Marnie shrugged in reply. She watched her wine swirl around in her glass and said, "We have this 'Friends with Benefits' thing going on. We love hanging out together, but not with all the strings attached. My mom loves him though, she thinks he is the best guy ever and has told me that we're going to get married someday."

Lacey grinned, saying, "He is a good guy, but sadly it may take a while before he settles down. He had a serious relationship with this awesome girl for about three years and one day, she just broke up with him. Didn't give him a reason, just told him that she didn't want to be with him anymore. About a month later, she packed up all of her stuff out of the apartment they shared and left."

Marnie nodded as she said, "He told me about that."

"She just left?" I asked and Marnie nodded, "Yep, he said that he came home and she was sitting at the table crying. He got concerned and asked her what was wrong. She told him that she couldn't do it anymore and fell out of love with him. Without another word, she left."

"Poor guy," I said, feeling sad for him and Lacey nodded as she said, "That's why he is the way he is. He's afraid of getting too close and if he feels like he is then he backs off before he gets burned."

She gave Marnie a soft smile as she said, "If you really like him, just be patient. He'll come around."

Marnie nodded, a small smile drifted across her face. I looked at Lacey and asked, "Can I ask you a personal question?"

Lacey smiled as she replied, "Sure."

"Is Eli Elly's father?" I asked, slightly cringing in embarrassment. Lacey shook her head slowly as she replied, "No, I didn't meet him until she was four years old. Ellyson's dad was my high school boyfriend, who passed away in a car accident when she was two. We were engaged to be married once we were both done with college."

Lacey had a far off look in her eyes as she smiled, continuing, "Jason was so great, even from the beginning. Most guys would have taken off when they found out they were going to be a dad at 17 years old, but not my Jason, he embraced it head on. When I was freaking out, he just held me in his arms and said that no matter what, we would get through it together and he wasn't going anywhere. We loved each other so much and having Elly just added to it. My parents were not happy about it, at first, but once that little blue eyed blonde hair beauty came into this world, she had their hearts wrapped around her little fingers. His parents, of course, were furious, so he moved out and lived with my family. At my parent's old house, they had this space above their garage that we finished into a little apartment and then we lived in it."

"Eventually, his parents came around, but Jason stayed right where he was. We both finished high school early, and then Elly was born. I can still picture his face when she came out; it was so full of love. When he first saw her, he had long forgotten that he wanted a little boy and just radiated with joy. He looked at me like I had given him the world on a silver platter as he held her in his arms. It was hard to get her away from him," Lacey chuckled softly, wiping a tear from her face and continued, "We moved into the apartment and started school later that summer. Everything was great, perfect even, and it was that way for two years.  You begin to wonder how you got so lucky to have this amazing guy so full of life, who loves you with everything that he had.  Our future looked bright."

She dropped her head, taking a deep breath before she looked back up. I moved over to the arm of the chair she was sitting in and began to rub her back as she smiled, "Sorry, I haven't talked about this for a long time."

"You don't have to continue, its okay," I smiled softly, feeling my own eyes filled to the brim with tears. Lacey shook her head, saying, "No, it's okay. I don't mind."