Playing Fate (Endgame Series Book 1) (31 page)

I could kick my own ass. I planned all this before they planned the mud run and ensuing bets. I would have been fine if it was just my teammates, but I’d forgotten I invited my parents and hers . . . until I trudged up my steps filthy and spotted their eager faces.

I’m thankful I took the loss so she wouldn’t have to strip. I don’t think her mom and Jack would have been too happy seeing that monkey wrench in our plans. My parents would kick my ass. When I told them what I had planned for tonight they’d been supportive. Hell, I have a kid nothing else is going to shock them. Her parents were a bit harder to convince.
“She’s too young,” Jack had accused. “Don’t you think you should wait?” her mom pleaded.
In the end, they gave their blessing, and I forgot to postpone the festivities and their arrival. Now I have to strip and dance and stall our parents.

“Uh, guys. Change of plans.” I grimace at them.

“What? What’s wrong?” Both our moms are worried.

“Did she dump you?” My dad and his fucking wit.

“No, she didn’t dump me. But we had the mud run today.” They nod. “Well, there was sort of a bet…we lost.”

“How’d you lose? Y’all are athletes.” Jack is shocked.

“Pansy ass.” My dad throws in for the hell of it.

“Thanks. But we didn’t actually lose, I forfeited.”

“Quitter.”

“Dad, shut up.” I’m not in the mood. I feel like an ass; her parents traveled for this, and there is no way in hell I’m allowing them to witness what we planned.

“Deacon, start explaining.” My mom is holding Julie all dressed like the princess she is. She was supposed to help me with the asking, but I won’t have my baby girl over there. As much as I want to go ahead with the original plans, I love the new one. It’s fun. It’s young. It’s everything we are, and we deserve this moment.

“There was a bet. Whoever lost had to strip.
Magic Mike
, like.” My mom and Nina smile shyly. “The girls won. Your daughter cheated,” I accuse.

Nina laughs. “What did she do?”

“In the middle of the course, she took her shirt off.” My mom has to sit down so she doesn’t drop Julie. She’s laughing so hard.

“She what?” Jack explodes.

“Jack dear, she wasn’t naked, I promise you. I know my girl,” Nina comforts him.

My dad is just shaking his head. “Cheap shot. I don’t blame you.”

“I’m lost,” Nina states. “How’s that cheating?"

“Each team member had to cross the finish line unless there was an injury. When she gave us a preview of what I was going to have to endure, with an audience, I couldn’t do it. I thought I was strong enough.” My parents are crying from their laughter. Julie is following suit, with no clue how much shit she’s giving her old man. Jack nods in understanding, and Nina stands there with her mouth open.

“Thank you,” Jack says.

“Deacon Douglas, you should have let her eat crow. She wanted to play with the big boys, you should have let her. Thank you though—you’re giving her the strength to live life.” I smile recalling her telling me I’m her strength while I confessed she was my weakness.

“Nina, you’d have your daughter strip?” Jack is angered.

“I know, Saylor. They wouldn’t have been naked, and she needs to ante up. Little cheater.”

“Yeah, so it would be a bit awkward for you to see an entire team do a strip tease. We’ve implemented a new plan, and I’ll text you to come over when it’s safe. You’ll still be there to celebrate with us.”

“Not my idea of fun, I’ve changed half those guys’ diapers, I don’t need to see that.” My mom shudders.

“Well, I haven’t.” Nina slyly looks at Jack. “But it would be awkward to see you.” She points at me.

“We’ll go get dinner and wait for you to call.” I nod.

My dad comes in the room and chucks a pair of socks at me. “What are these for?”

“I don’t want you to be embarrassed about your
disadvantage
. Make the family name proud.” He looks down at my dick. It’s a wonder I haven’t needed therapy. I throw them back and flip him off before kissing Julie’s head and hitting the shower. Their amusement follows them out of the house, and I start to get nervous.

The team and Brody are all here, and we’re going over last minute instructions.

“Start with ‘Pony’ – Ginuwine version—so we keep the theme, then a small clip of ‘Wrecking Ball’ Eric Church, not Miley Cyrus, we don’t need that. End with ‘Ride’ by Chase Rice; that’s when you take center stage, Deacon.”

I wipe my hands across my pants and nod. I need a shot, but I want to be sober for this moment. “You nervous?” Mason asks me quietly.

“Yes. Fuck man.”

“Nothing to worry about.” Caden takes my other side.

“Let’s go.” The rest of the team is excited for this, and I shake my head at them. Emberlee will have one of them crying in their beer before the end of the night. I just hope it isn’t me.

I laugh through most of it. It’s not humiliating for Caden, Mace, and me. We’re used to them. But Brody and the team, they’re fucking eating up the attention. Avery is ‘making it rain’ as she keeps reminding us with her shouts. I don’t think my girl is as drunk as our friends, but I can’t tell because her eyes devour me. There isn’t a morsel of my skin that hasn’t been fucked by her eyes.

For us being a well-oiled machine on the field—only two losses—we suck at trying to keep rhythm. I can’t focus through the laughter, the pelvic thrusts, the pseudo break dancing these guys are doing to impress the girls. Fuck, even Brody brought a piece of metal pipe, and I don’t think he pulled off the effect he hoped he would. He looked like a cheap pole dancer who should have retired thirty years ago. Channing Tatum didn’t give him his dance moves.

Saylor is wiping tears; Avery is dancing with us . . . standing tall on the coffee table, fully clothed. Emberlee shouts, “Take it off!” I can’t. I have a ring in my pocket, and I’m not risking losing it. Shit just got real. The song switched, which means I’m front and center. I feel frozen, but somehow I’m in front of Saylor. Straddling her legs, pulling her hair, giving her a genuine lap dance has both of us
excited
.

She can hide hers while mine is working hard trying to poke her in the eye. “Hey there.” She laughs and lets me gyrate against her. I kiss her gently, savoring everything about this moment.

Everything.

The music ends.

The voices quiet.

The stares turn to us.

I drop to my knees.

I take her hands in mine.

I watch her watching me.

I pull out the ring and feel like I’m floating.

“Saylor Lewis, will you marry me?” Collective gasps, sighs, murmurs begin, but I only have ears for her. Nobody else matters.

“Yes. But I would have moved in without a ring.” She leans forward and grasps my face between her hands. “I love you, Deacon Douglas.” She takes my lips just as she’s taken my heart.

“Did you finish your project?” I ask her while she is packing the last of her room.

“Submitted it this afternoon. Fingers crossed.” She decided to write a marketing campaign for her stepdad’s software company, and Jack fell in love with it. Before submitting to her professor, he decided to implement it. His business is up thirty-two percent in sixty days, and he’s fielding offers from three different companies.

“We’re going to start our sophomore year married.”

“You’ve already started your senior year of high school with a pregnant girlfriend. I think you like scandals.”

“Funny girl.” I smack her ass and carry boxes over to my house. Our house. I come back to find her staring at the papers I gave her last week. “You gonna sign those?” She sighs. I hand her a pen.

“I don’t know. This isn’t why I gave you the money.” She’s stubborn. I wasn’t taking her money, she refused to put it in a college fund for Julie, so I opened an account in her name as a wedding gift. She’s fighting me tooth and nail.

“I know, Saylor. Don’t spend it. When we graduate, it could be start-up money for one of our businesses. Keep investing it.”

“You could still be drafted.” I shake my head. That’s not my life. I love my major, and it affords me to work in different organizations if I choose.

“You just want to see me in the uniform.”

“Daily.”

“Well you have three years to enjoy it,” I tease her.

“You sure you want to be married so soon?”

“I would have married you yesterday. You sure?”

“Positive. I love you.”

“I love you. I have something else for you.” I hand her the papers I had drawn up last week. We can’t sign them until after the wedding next week, and I hope I’m not being presumptuous.

She opens the package and reads. Her eyes fill with tears, her hands begin to shake. “Are you fucking serious?”

“If you want. There is nothing I want more, and I know she feels the same.
Ma ma ma ma
.” Julie began using that term with her three weeks ago.

“I’ll be her mom.” She weeps as she stares at me.

“You’re already her mom. This just legalizes it.”

“Yes.”

“We can sign them at the wedding and have them notarized. It’s pretty simple. Adriane signed her rights over a while ago, so I petitioned the court on your behalf.”

“Can we have a party when it’s done?”

“Like a birthday party?”

“Like ‘I’m a mommy’ party!”

I kiss her nose. “Whatever you want, Shortstop. Whatever you want.” I’ll live up to those words because that’s my goal. That’s
my
dream.

“You ready for a ball and chain?” Mason asks from the front of the church. I should have put Caden next to me so I didn’t have to listen to him the whole ceremony.

“I’m ready to be married,” I correct him.

“You know you’ll never get a man card.”

“That’s fine because every time she screams my name, and we both know that’s a lot, that’s validation I’m a man.” I smirk at him while he scoffs.

“Pop. Pop. Pop,” Julie begs him. I swear if he has her doing tricks like a dog I’m going to knock him out. In front of God and everybody. Our guests consist of our parents and the rest of the crew’s parents. That’s it. Exactly how we wanted it.