The first thing I notice is all the red. It's everywhere. Red jerseys, red face paint, red stadium.The stadium where the Mutiny play is impressive. Just outside downtown, it's almost shaped like the bottom half of a soccer ball."I can't believe this is your first soccer game," Geni says as we walk with the crowd toward the front gates. "They are so fun. Like nothing you have ever experienced before." Like the majority of people around us, Geni is showing her team spirit dressed in a tight fitting Mutiny jersey and matching baseball cap, long red hair pulled through the back in a low ponytail. "How come I didn't know you were such a huge soccer fan?" I ask, looking down at my plain red T-shirt. I'm lucky I found something in the team colors in my closet."Because I'm not a super fan. I love coming to games, and I definitely keep up with all the single and available players," she says with a wink, "but I don't watch on TV or pay close attention to their schedule or anything. You know
You're right.That's all the text from Nicholas says. Despite its terseness, I know exactly what he's talking about. We haven't spoken since our conversation about Homecoming a few weeks ago. I'd left him with lots to think about. But he's a good kid. His dad may be a dick, but stepdad Aaron's been around a while, and before that, my brothers and I made sure Nicky had good male role models. I text him back as soon as I pull into Quincy's lot and park my car.Me: I'm glad you think so. Now what are you going to do about it?Nicky: I asked her if she wanted to go on a real date with me. Before the dance. Me: And? Nicky: And we're going to the movies tomorrow night.Me: No expectations of sex?Nicky: Nope. I've been sitting with her at lunch a couple times a week. And we've partnered up in biology. She's actually really cool. Me: I figured she probably was. Now treat her like a lady and get to know the person she is with her clothes on before you wonder what she's like with her clothe
The first thing that pops up on the screen is a woman on a bed and a man is with her. With his head between her legs for a very long time. And now there's nipples, lots and lots of nipples. And his head is still between her legs."Still trying to convince yourself it's not high-budget porn?" I joke, trying to break the sexual tension that has sprung up again."Oh my god, this is so awkward," she replies, eyes still on the screen. Her ears turn bright red, which is apparently her version of a blush. She looks so uncomfortable. I sip my beer and munch popcorn, ignoring the woody in my pants from imagining that it's Quincy and me on the screen. When all else fails, insert humor. "Man, he's really going at it, isn't he?""Would you shut up?" She laughs and smacks my arm. "This is weird enough without you making jokes.""Sorry. I'll just sit here quietly while we watch the non-porn." She rolls her eyes but smiles anyway.Two hours later, Jamie and Claire have gone at it multiple times, all
"Daniel!" she yells as she trembles. I continue flicking and plunging, licking and tasting, until she goes still. It takes a few minutes for her to catch her breath, during which I kiss up and down her legs and back. Finally, she's coherent enough to speak again. "That was...." she says breathlessly. "That was amazing."I smile as I stand up and kiss the spot behind her ear, making her shiver. "That's just the beginning, too.""I guess it's my turn." I can hear the anticipation when she says it, but I have other things planned."Nope," I say. "I'm not done with you yet.""Watching high-budget porn turns you on, huh?" she jokes, still bent over the bed. I love that she hasn't changed positions or tried to cover up. She's not ashamed of what we've done or wanting more."Oh, it wasn't the porn. It was those damn shorts you had on." I kiss the back of her neck again, making her shiver. "And your soft, silky hair." I take a handful of it and pull her head back so I can kiss below her jaw,
I startle awake when someone slaps me across the face. My eyes are open, but nothing around me is registering.A bedroom. Not my bedroom, and not a hotel room. I get another smack, making me turn to look at my assailant. A toothless baby stares back at me, smiling and drooling.Last night comes back to me. We didn't have sex once. We didn't have it twice. No, we woke up two more times and ended up having sex three times. And it was all fucking fantastic. Even when we were half asleep.I shouldn't think about that kind of thing with a baby staring at me. That's kind of creepy, even for me."Hey, kid," I say. He really is a cute kid. "What are you doing in bed? Aren't you supposed to be in your crib?"He waves his naked arms and legs excitedly, like he's swimming. He's wearing nothing but a diaper."That exciting, huh?" He squeals. "Tell ya what, why don't we go find Quincy and see if I can't treat you guys to breakfast. What do you think of that?" He farts. I laugh. "I'll take that as
It feels like there's a sledgehammer in my head, and it's trying to demolish something, although I'm not sure what. Peeling my eyes open, the single ray of sunlight coming through my blinds makes the pounding worse. But something feels off so I power through it.I vaguely remember falling asleep while snuggling with Daniel on the couch and then waking up in the middle of the night to throw up. But the memory is blurry. Could it have been a dream?I roll over and look at the clock: 2:37 p.m.Not only have I been asleep all day, I was asleep all night. That means Chance hasn't eaten in… maybe as long as eighteen hours. Oh no!I jump out of bed, which, feeling like I do means I drag my feet over the side, try desperately not to vomit, and shuffle my way to the door. He's not crying, which makes my heart pound even harder. Oh god. I hope he's okay. How did I sleep so long? What is wrong with me? Maybe that blurry memory wasn't a dream after all. It's hard to think with my head pounding lik
"Okay, buddy, give me one second, and I'll get you a new bottle." I shift him on my hip as I balance his diaper bag, my gym bag, and the key to unlock the door to Quincy's apartment. He squeals and gets hold of my nose. "Yes, I know it's big. But it's not a toy." He lets go when his attention is diverted somewhere else as the door opens. "Here," I say as I throw everything on the couch and get him situated in his ExerSaucer. "You need to get some energy out. How about you bounce up and down for a while?" Sure enough, as soon as his feet hit the floor, he starts moving them as fast as he can. It looks like he's running without actually going anywhere. One of my nephews used to do that. It cracks me up."Quincy?" I call. I check her bedroom. The shower is running so I assume she's feeling well enough to clean up. That's a good sign. I strip the sheets off the bed and throw them in the washer, making faces and farty noises at the baby when I walk by.We're guys. I know how to entertain h
Her question gives me pause. I know I should want Geni to come over and relieve me as soon as she can. I mean, I have to work again tomorrow. And we're just dating, not in an official relationship or anything. But strangely, I don't want to leave her like this. I want to stay and take care of her and the baby. It's a strange feeling. "Uh… I think we'll be okay for one more night. I have an out-of-town game this weekend, so I definitely can't stay past tomorrow.""I'll take over for you starting tomorrow night. Will that work?""Perfect." The thermometer beeps, and I pull it out of Quincy's mouth. She settles in on the couch again as I read it out loud. "One oh two point seven.""Damn," Geni says."I gotta go. I need to get some more medicine in our girl and feed the baby before my mom gets here with dinner.""Your mom is bringing you guys dinner?" Geni sounds overly excited by this tidbit of information."Her chicken noodle soup."Geni laughs. "Quincy is gonna kill you when she's coher
His eyes widen. "Oh god, no! I am nowhere near ready for that." I relax. "Good. Neither am I.""Quincy, I'm not even ready to talk about moving in together." "Sorry. I didn't mean to freak out. You started making a speech, and I wanted to make sure we were on the same page before you dropped down on one knee in front of everyone and got turned down."He smacks me on the ass. "Do me a favor. If I ever do propose, and it happens to be in public, say yes no matter what. You can break it off with me as soon as we're alone, but it'll save me the public humiliation."I chuckle. "Deal."He runs his hand down one of my cheeks to cup my jaw. "I really do love you, though, Quincy. You juked me."I smirk. "You're gonna have to teach me all your soccer lingo if I'm gonna stick around a while. I have no idea what you just said."He smiles. "I saw you coming, but before I could even get my guard up, you ran right over me and left me dazed.""That doesn't sound very good," I joke."Oh, but it is,"
5 weeks later…"What is Tiffany the tramp doing here?" I shush Geni and smack her with a towel. "She's with Rowen Flanigan.""The rookie?" she asks, taking a sip of her wine. "Since when do the players bring groupies to team parties? I thought they only had special parties with those girls."I roll my eyes and slice more cheese for the cracker platter. I'm thrilled so many players showed up for Chance's first birthday party, but they eat a lot. Daniel hasn't even started grilling yet."Be nice," I reprimand her. "They're dating now. From what Daniel says, Rowen really likes her."Geni chokes on her wine. "Does he know what she does for a hobby? He seems a little too, I don't know… virtuous for her.""The heart wants what it wants. I'm not judging."After greeting a few teammates and their significant others, Tiffany and Rowen make their way through the crowd and over to us. It's obvious Tiffany is uncomfortable. Her eyes keep darting around the room like she's waiting to be jumped. It
After talking to the court clerk and Erik's attorney, Doug returned to congratulate us on our win. We all recognized Rosemary had scored the equalizer and go-ahead goals to save this case in the last seconds, but it didn't make the feeling of victory any less sweet. From what we can all tell, Rosemary is a nice lady, who has an interesting son. She seems to care about her grandson, even though she hasn't met him yet. "Is it weird that I'm excited about his visit with Rosemary?" Quincy asks as I drive to the day care. I'm still holding her hand. I haven't let go since we got to the courthouse this morning, except to change positions. I can pretend it's because I'm being supportive of her and don't want her to think she's alone in all this, but the truth is, when she told me last night she might lose custody of the baby, I was scared shitless and needed to hold onto her as much as she needed to hold onto me."I don't think so." I turn on my blinker and wait for the light to turn green
I turn cold. Doug immediately stands. "Mrs. Cope," he says. "I'm Doug Linus, Ms. Watson's attorney.""Oh good," she says. "I'm glad you're here. That makes this so much easier. May I sit?" She gestures to the bench perpendicular to us. There's just enough space for her to sit next to Daniel. I look at Doug. He shrugs, putting the decision squarely on my shoulders. Do I want to talk to Erik's mother, or do I want to wait to get into the courtroom?Frankly, I'm afraid of what will happen in that courtroom. So I nod. She smoothes her skirt as she sits and crosses her feet at the ankles."First things first," she says without wasting any time. "How is my grandson?"I look at Daniel for reassurance. I'm not sure why she wants to talk to me, but at least she's asking about his well-being. Erik didn't even do that."He's, well, he's wonderful." I smile as I think about the toothy grin my sweet baby boy gave me this morning. "He's eleven months old, and he's just the most wonderful, loving ba
"Let's go over what's likely to happen in court today."Doug, my attorney, stops the idle chitchat and gets down to business. I feel like I've been taking deep breaths all morning, mostly because I feel like I can't breathe at all. The pressure on my chest is unbearable. Daniel squeezes my hand and puts his arm around me, rubbing his other hand up and down my arm. He made good on his promise to call in a personal day today. This, after he basically held me all night long. I tried to get a good night's sleep, but instead I was restless and cried out several times. Daniel kept holding me, murmuring encouraging words into my ear in a soothing voice. I feel bad that I kept him from resting well, but more than that, I'm grateful he was there to get me through a tough night.He was still there this morning when my alarm went off. He was already up, had coffee made, and had even gotten a suit from his apartment so he could help me get the baby ready to go this morning. When he'd said he was
I bite back a grin. What she doesn't realize is how painful the weeks without her were. I already learned my lesson the hard way. I won't make that same mistake twice."The pattern has changed," I say. "I didn't see it before, but now that Blanca has pointed it out, I can do something about it. I'll have to keep it in the forefront of my mind when life throws a curveball at me. Sometimes you may have to call me on it, but now that I know it's there, I can fix it."Quincy takes a breath. Ironically, I feel like I'm holding mine."I really missed you, you know?" I say.She reaches up and caresses my cheek. I close my eyes and relish the feel of her touching me again. "I really missed you, too."I slide to my knees and hug her around the waist. I probably look like a total pussy in front of her, but I don't care. I can breathe again. She's giving me another chance.We stay like this for a few minutes, me hugging her, her running her fingers through my hair. I'm so content, if I wasn't hyp
"She's a producer at a local TV station. Every once in a while I have to call her about getting some press if there's something the coach wants covered on a weekend when the PR department isn't in." She averts her eyes. "Look, I admit I watched some terrible porn and spanked the monkey one too many times." That earns me a small smile. "But I didn't disappear because I was bored with you. I vanished because I was afraid."I let that sink in for a minute plus I needed a break. It's hard for me to admit all of this to myself. Admitting it to someone else is even harder. "Quincy, please look at me. My entire life, everyone told me I was just like my dad. I used to take pride in that. I couldn't wait to be old enough to get married and have a family, to treat them the way he treated us. I don't know why he decided to have an affair and why that woman became more important than the rest of us. One day, the man I admired, someone a lot like me, well, it turned out he was a fake." I move to s
She stares at me, looking beautiful but tired and thin. There are circles under her eyes. Did I do that to her? The guilt I already feel doubles. Once again, my automatic instinct is to flee, but I stay strong. I'm not leaving until she kicks me out."What?" She breaths out the word.I clear my throat and quickly lower the flowers to my side. "Um, I'm, uh, I'm nervous. Let me try this again." I lift the flowers again. "I'm sorry. I'm here to ask you to forgive me. I miss you."She takes the bouquet from me, still looking wary at my unexpected appearance. We haven't seen each other in over a month. Her concern is understandable, but I'm determined."Can I come in?"She thinks for a moment then moves aside so I can enter. I shove my hands in my pockets as she closes the door behind me. The apartment looks like I remember it, with baby toys sprinkled around the room, like she hasn't had time to clean up yet.I follow her as she goes to the kitchen, gets a vase out of the cabinet, and fill
I hum and run a finger over Chance's eyebrows and down the bridge of his nose. He finished his bottle a while ago and has been asleep ever since, but I can't muster the desire to put him down for the night.I think about how much he's changed in the last nine months since I got custody of him. He's longer and not nearly as chunky as he used to be. All the crawling and pulling up is quickly burning off his baby rolls. His facial features are more distinct. He still bears a striking resemblance to my dad's baby pictures, but Chance looks more like, well, himself.His pouty lips move in a suckling motion, like he's dreaming of his bottle. It always warms my heart when he does it. It's a sign a baby feels safe, loved, and content.Lucky him. All I feel is terror. Tomorrow we go before a judge, who will decide where Chance will live for the next seventeen years of his life. A judge who will determine if the man who didn't care enough to acknowledge his own child can now parent that child a