Fumbled (The Girls of Beachmont #1) (20 page)

She threw her arms
around his waist and squeezed tightly and I laughed. He returned the gesture
and I swear she almost fainted.

“JT, are you ready for
training camp?” someone called out and Tabor shook his head.

“As ready as ever,” he
laughed.

After another fifteen
minutes of people calling his name and asking him to sign things, he waved at
them and said we needed to get somewhere.

As we walked to his
waiting SUV, the same obnoxious photographer followed us, but stopped when
Tabor turned around.

“Can I help you?” Tabor
asked sternly, and it was clear that help was not what he was interested in
offering.

“Danielle, how
comfortable are you dating a cheater?”

Tabor’s body tensed I
stepped back, pushing my back against his chest, giving his hand a squeeze.

“I think the better
question is, how comfortable are you being an intrusive, rude, unimportant
asshole?” I asked calmly before turning my back and pulling Tabor behind me.

He began opening the
door when we heard the guy mutter “
bitch”
under his breath and Tabor stopped moving.

“Let it go,” I urged.
“He’s not worth it.”

“That’s bullshit,” he
said gruffly.

“But it’s our new
reality. Right?”

He nodded and closed the
door behind me, and stalked over to the guy, who looked like he was wanted to
run away. Tabor raised his hands up in surrender and the man stood still. I
opened my door to get out and heard Tabor’s voice.

“That wasn’t cool man. I
know you have a job to do, but I love that woman, and she doesn’t deserve that
shit. The only reason I’m not beating your ass is because she told me not to.
How would you feel if someone insulted your wife or girlfriend?”

“I got it,” the man said
apologetically.

There was a short
conversation that took place with hushed tones, and I wished I knew what was
said. I watched as Tabor shook his hand and walked back to the car with a
boyish grin on his face. I closed my door and saw the guy disappear into the
darkness as Tabor climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Impressive,” I
complimented.

“Our new reality,
right?” he said, repeating my sentiment.

“Yep.”

D A N I

Watching Tabor pack his
stuff for training camp was tough. He would be gone for two weeks. Granted, it
was only at a hotel downtown, but I wouldn’t have as much access as I was used
to. I knew that it would be a new experience and Tabor was worth it. My heart
grew heavy watching as he prepared to leave me, but I was thankful I had work
to occupy my time and hopefully distract me.

“You all set for
tomorrow?” I asked as Tabor put the last of his clothes in his duffle bag,
shaking me out of my depressing thoughts.

“No. Because you won’t
be with me,” he said honestly.

I was lying across his
bed on my side, resting my head on my arm. I knew he’d be close and I could
call at night, but then he’d also have some preseason games that would
interfere. I had gotten used to calling and having him answer almost every
time.

“Where’s your first
game?”

“Here.” He smiled and
crawled over me on the bed, dropping his lips to mine and kissing the corner.
“Are you going to be there?”

“Do you want me there?”
I asked against his mouth before kissing him.

“Maybe.” He smiled as he
slowly moved away.

“Well, maybe I’ll be
there,” I answered coyly.

“Good.”

“How many games do you
play?”

“Four. Two home, two
away. One in New York and one in Tennessee.”

“I wish you didn’t have
to go,” I said, picking at an invisible piece of lint on his comforter. It was
the most honest thing I could say, and I needed to tell him that.

“I know. Me too,” he
said. “But we’ll be fine, right?”

“I suppose,” I said with
a shrug. “But what if while you’re gone, some tall, dark, and handsome stranger
appears and tries to sweep me off my feet?” I asked innocently.

“Then you tell him that
your tall, pale, and scary boyfriend will beat his ass,” he answered over his
shoulder with a laugh.

“Aw. Would you do that?”
I asked, batting my eyelashes and smiling.

“For you, I’d do just
about anything.”

“Really?” I asked
excitedly, sitting up and tucking my feet beneath me. “Like what?”

“I’d go to a chick
flick,” he conceded, as if it was the biggest sacrifice in the history of
sacrifices, and I laughed.

“And what else?”

“I could hold your purse
while you shop?”

“I hate shopping,” I
retorted. “What else do ya got?”

I loved our playfulness;
it made me smile, and I felt like it was something we’d done forever.

Tabor walked over to me
and reached for my hand, guiding me to my knees. I inched to the edge of the
bed and he wrapped his arms around my waist, mine going around his neck.

He kissed me once. “I
would…”

Another kiss. “…go to
the…”

And another still.
“…store and buy feminine products.”

He dipped his head to
kiss me again and I covered his mouth, his breath hot against my palm, and I
was laughing. I shook my head, unable to say anything, and I felt his smile
grow beneath my hand.

“You’d do
that
?”

“Baby, that stuff
doesn’t matter to me,” he answered.

“And you really have to
leave tomorrow?” I asked, still wrapped in his arms.

“Unfortunately,” he
said, looking deep into my eyes, giving me so much with one action.

I wanted to stay wrapped
in his arms forever. Instead, I opted to enjoy the short time we had left and
rested my head against his chest. The steady rise and fall as he breathed
forced my eyes shut as I cataloged it to memory. Being without those arms,
those lips, those eyes…that body, was something I wasn’t prepared for.

Tabor had everything
packed and he was waiting downstairs. We’d already had dinner, and I was
staying at his place because I wouldn’t see him for a while. There wasn’t much
left to do, but I knew we’d find something.

“We still have tonight,”
he finally said, holding me tighter.

“Tonight,” I repeated.

***

The next morning we left
his place together, going our separate directions, and I ended up at Millie’s
front door, a pathetic excuse for the woman I had been before Tabor.

“Suck it up, Dani,” I
told myself as I looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror and swiped the
tears from my eyes. “It’s not like he’s gone for good.”

I tried to hide the red
nose and glassy eyes, but I knew it was no use: Millie would see it all, even
if a single tear was never shed. I stepped out of my car and closed the door
behind me, but before I got a chance to knock, the wooden door flung open and
Millie stood at the threshold with Colton propped on her hip.

“Dani! Where the hell
have you been?” she asked.

I was quiet, trying to
stop the tears, and then it happened. I sniffled. That was all it took.

“Are you…crying?” she
gasped. “Dani, you never cry. Did you and Tabor break up?”

I shook my head and
realized from the panicked look on her face that she was scared.

“No,” I sniffled and
huffed. “He left for training camp this morning.”

“Damn, you’ve got it
bad,” she noted. “Come in and play with your godson.”

I reached out my arms
and Colton willingly came to me, dirty diaper and all. I wrinkled my nose and
made a face as I tried to hand him back to his mom, but he had a death grip on
my hair.

“He’s got a dirty
diaper, Mills,” I said, but when I looked up she was halfway to the kitchen.

“You know where the
diapers are,” she called out. “I’ll get you some coffee.”

I looked at the baby and
snorted. “Coffee in exchange for your nasty diaper hardly seems fair.”

Colton was making faces
and babbling with his hand in his mouth. I was almost tempted to leave him be,
considering he seemed content in his mess, but I knew it would be only a matter
of time until he was in full tantrum mode. When he was cleaned and changed, I
brought him downstairs to join his mommy in the kitchen.

“So tell me all about
it,” she said, handing me a mug and a huge chunk of chocolate cake.

“Did you make this?” I
asked. Millie wasn’t typically the baker, but stranger things had happened.

“I did,” she beamed
proudly.

I raised a brow and
pushed it toward her. “You taste it first.”

She pressed her hand to
her chest and pretended to be offended and then shrugged. “Fair enough.”

Her fork was loaded with
a huge chunk. She shoved it into her mouth and chewed, closing her eyes as she
enjoyed it. When I was sure she wasn’t lying, I took the fork in hand and did
the same. It was, quite possibly, the best cake I’d ever had. Millie took
Colton from my arms and placed him in the highchair, and put some Cheerios on
it before sitting down next to me. She’d taken care of everything and she was
ready to focus on me.

“Okay, so spill,” she
said, leaving no room for argument.

“Is this really going to
work out?”

“What’s that?”

“Tabor and me? I mean,
he’s got preseason now, and sure, he’ll be home in a couple of weeks and then
what? He’s got practice and games and everything else. We’re just getting
started.”

“It’s a few months,
Dani,” she said, reaching for my hand. “That’s nothing.”

“I get that this is his
career and he loves the game. I want him to be happy. But a part of me wants to
be incredibly selfish and have him all to myself.”

“Dan—”

“I know it’s
unreasonable, and that’s not what I
really
want. I’m just sad and mopey because I miss him already.”

“It’s not like you won’t
see him. He’ll still be around all the time, and something tells me that his
free time will be spent with you.”

I looked at Millie and
smiled because I knew she was right. Tabor would spend as much time with me as
he could because he loved me. He was as miserable about the situation as I was,
and oddly, that made me feel better.

***

I had no idea what I was
in for or what “camp” entailed, but I quickly learned. Tabor called every night
before he went to sleep, and every night I heard about the grueling practices
and drills. We barely spoke for fifteen minutes because he was too tired and
had to get up early the next morning. And I tried not to sound too disappointed
when the call ended.

My first experience as a
football player’s girlfriend came a week after camp started, during the opening
preseason game. To say it was a strange experience would be an understatement
considering that people in the stands seemed to know me. Not necessarily my
name, but sitting in the stands with Marta, who flew in to be there for Tabor,
there were whispers of “that’s his girlfriend.”

Mid-way through the
game, I watched in horror as he made a tackle, only to be hit by another
player. He stayed down for a bit before climbing to his feet and getting back
to the game. Marta wrapped her arm around me and told me what was going on
while trying to calm my nerves.

Everyone was right: I
hated football.

“He’s fine,” Marta said
in her soothing tone. “See, he’s already back up.”

“I don’t know how he
does it,” I said.

“He’s been doing it for
so long, he just knows,” she said.

“But what if he gets
seriously hurt?” I questioned, but instantly regretted the worry I saw on her
face.

“
If
that happens, you go to Larkins General Hospital and meet him
there. Just say you’re there for Tabor and you’re his sister or something so
they let you see him.”

“Gross,” I said, making
a gagging noise.

“If you want to see him,
you’ll lie through your teeth. And if that doesn’t work, just find Wilson.”

I refocused on the game,
but watching the person I loved going head to head against men of equal or
greater size terrified me. It was a lesson in etiquette sitting next to Marta,
who kept her chin up and cheered on her son. Without a word, she showed me how
I needed to carry myself, though it would take some practice. But spotting
photographers with their zoom lenses as they tried to catch us together made it
hard to adjust to the spotlight I was thrust in.

And of course there was
always Fangurl, with the biting news stories related to Tabor and me. After the
first game, she came out with a clever story.

Teacher Shows Hunter How It’s Done

We’ve learned a little more about JT Hunter’s latest fling.
We’ve heard from multiple sources that Hunter isn’t the only man in her life.
While we don’t yet have the details, teacher, Danielle Miner is rumored to also
be seeing a high-profile CEO. But don’t feel bad for him, because it appears
she and the football hunk have an open relationship. Mr. Hunter, if you’re
reading this, call me. I’m game.

Guess it goes to show, men like JT Hunter like open-minded
women.

Fling? I was considered a
fling? My sister had to talk me down when I called her screaming about the
blatant lies this person was spewing. Everything about that article made me
look like a tramp and I hated it.

“Hey babe,” Tabor’s low
voice soothed through the phone.

“Hey,” I answered.

I spoke to him when he
got a break in the middle of the day, but it wasn’t enough. It was never
enough.

Without Tabor, my condo
was quiet, my hands were lonely, and I missed him like crazy.

“What’s wrong?” he
asked, the concern etched in his tone.

“I’m fine,” I lied.
“Just missing you.”

“I miss you,” he
responded before continuing. “If I flew you out here, would you come?”

“It’s only a few days,
right?”

“Yeah,” he said, and I
felt bad for his obvious disappointment. “But I wouldn’t mind training so much
if you were here.”

My heart swelled and I
wished he were in front of me so I could climb into his arms and never leave.
It was disturbing how quickly I’d come to depend on his presence in in my life.

“I wouldn’t mind
either,” I admitted.

“So come out here.”

“I really can’t…but you
know, it’s hardest at night when I have time to think. During the day, I’m busy
enough that I’m not obsessing,” I told him.

“I know what you mean.
But I’ll be home soon,” he said, giving me some perspective.

“Soon.”

By week two, I was a
seasoned pro. Or at the very least, good at pretending. His second game was
away and I watched it with my parents, cringing with every crushing blow and
tackle—it didn’t matter who was on the receiving end of it.

After two weeks of Tabor
gone with no visits, I was excited when that game ended because it marked the
end of hotel stays. But I got an early surprise when obnoxious sports
commentator Kip Stanley caught him as he was leaving the field to interview him
after the game.