Running Away With You (Running #3) (7 page)

“Not really,” I reluctantly admit.  I’ll have to put everyone to the test.  Thanksgiving is just a few days away, and we’ll find out soon enough.

I
love Mondays.  Evan is usually off the day after a game, especially after they have a big win like yesterday.  The restaurant is closed, so we’re free to spend the entire day together. 

Evan sits on the couch, watching Sports Center recaps from yesterday’s games while I finish cleaning up from breakfast.  Holy cow, that boy can put away some food!  It amazes me he’s not the size of a sumo wrestler. 

He looks ravishing just sitting there.  His wavy hair is still damp from his shower and it’s falling in clumps around his beautiful face.  I want to consume him. 

When I’ve finished cleaning, I stand behind him, gently rubbing his broad shoulders.  The moment my hands begin kneading his sore muscles, he hunches over just enough to grant me better access to his back and neck.

I love hearing the sounds of pleasure leave his mouth.  I know I would do absolutely anything to get him to make those sounds every day of our lives.

Evan slowly raises his head and I respond by running my nails along his scalp and playing with his waves, pulling and twisting with just the right amount of pressure.  I can feel the tension leaving his body with every squeeze.

“So, Evan,” I begin, “do you know what you want to do today?”

“Nuh-uh,” he mumbles.

“It’s still raining,” I remind him as I focus on his neck muscles.  “Want to see a movie?”

“Nuh-uh,” he repeats.

“Okay, how about bowling or the aquarium?” I ask.

“Nuh-uh,” he groans. 

After the third grunt, I stop my massage.  “Come on, Chief.  Give me something to work with here.  What do you want to do today?  How about a museum?”

Evan turns around and looks at me suspiciously. “Seriously, Juliette?  A museum?  No way.  The only kind of art I have any interest in is photography – you know, the kind you might see in
National Geographic
.  Find me a photography exhibit like that, and you’ve got a deal.”

“I wasn’t talking about MoMA or the Met.  I thought we could have fun at the American Museum of Natural History – you know, dinosaurs and cavemen.  I haven’t been there since I was a kid.”  I can see Evan’s wheels turning, considering my suggestion.

“They have a planetarium, right?”

“Sure, the Hayden Planetarium.  It’s kinda famous.”

“I’ll go, but on one condition,” he warns.  There’s a twinkle in his eye, and that’s usually a good sign.  “Only if we can make out in the planetarium.”

“You drive a hard bargain, but I think I could live with that.”  Suddenly I’m getting excited.  My mother used to take my friends and me to the museum all the time when I was little.  Every time we went to the Hall of Ocean Life, I would get freaked out walking beneath the gigantic blue whale suspended from the ceiling.

My momentary enthusiasm is squelched by reality.  Whenever Evan and I go out in public, we have to be very careful about causing a scene.  We’ve been accosted by enthusiastic fans and paparazzi in bars and restaurants many times, and it’s something we have learned to live with.  Since he became the starting quarterback, the attention has only gotten worse.

“Evan, should we call the museum and warn them we’re coming?  They may want to ramp up their security,” I suggest.

“Already on it,” Evan answers as he runs through the contacts on his phone.  “I’m going to get us access to private parking too.”

I turn to head into the shower.  Once I’m halfway down the hallway, Evan calls to me, “Baby, should I make dinner reservations too?”

“Yes, please,” I call back in return.  “Find us someplace off the beaten track.  Somewhere quiet, okay?”

“Got it!” he hollers to me. 

I plug my iPhone into the wall docking station that Evan had installed in our renovated bathroom.  Originally we weren’t going to make any changes to our love nest, but as the interior designer suggested updates and upgrades, we agreed to most of them.  One of my favorite changes is the heated bathroom floor.  With the push of a button, the slate tiles beneath my feet begin to radiate warmth. 

There are a few other changes too.  The shower has been moved to the opposite wall and away from the window that looks out onto the breaking ocean.  That small change gives Evan peace of mind that our intimate moments are not on public display.  I don’t mind, really.  The glass doors on the shower give just enough privacy, but maintain a direct view of the oceanfront vista.

As my favorite playlist shuffles through songs, I find it easy to lose track of time under the rainfall showerhead and massaging pulsating wall sprayers.  When the fifth song ends, I decide I’ve been in the shower long enough.  I’ve stayed a little longer than I needed to, mostly because I was waiting to see if Evan would join me.  Not this time.

Wrapping myself in a towel, I slink into the living room to see what Evan’s up to.  He rarely lets me have a twenty-minute-long shower uninterrupted.

Evan is still on the phone, oblivious to my emergence from the bathroom.  He’s speaking in hushed tones, so it’s difficult to make out exactly what he’s discussing.  I can make out a few words like “private”, “restricted”, and “discharged”.  I’m clueless.  What could he be planning for us?  Then I hear him clearly telling the person on the other end of the line, “I don’t want her finding out.  Are we clear?”

When I hear that, I tiptoe away undetected.  He’s obviously discussing something he doesn’t want me to know about.  I step into our huge walk-in closet and take a seat on the round upholstered bench inside.  Should I be excited or worried?  I like the sound of going someplace with Evan that’s private and restricted.  It sounds exactly like what I had in mind.  But what does “discharged” mean?  And why doesn’t he want me to know?

I shake the worry from my mind.  It might not have anything to do with me at all.  Evan has been nothing but sweet, romantic, and thoughtful.  He’s given me no reason to doubt him whatsoever.  If he wants me to know what’s going on, he’ll tell me.  Otherwise, I’ll have to trust that the relationship we’ve both worked so hard to manage and maintain is as solid as ever.

When I emerge from our room, I notice that the rain has momentarily stopped and Evan is outside with Maddy, throwing around a Frisbee.  Evan’s phone is sitting on the kitchen counter.  My hand is itching to grab it and check his recent calls.  It would be so easy.  But it would also be so wrong.  I’m warring with my own conscience.  I have no reason not to trust him, but I’m so damn curious it’s killing me.

My resolve begins to weaken.  I look out the window, and Evan is still playing with Maddy, showing no sign of coming back inside anytime soon.  Cautiously, I pick up the phone and hold it in my hand.  I swipe the screen, type the passcode, and stare.  I decide to look.  My imagination will bother me all day and I’m quite certain there’s nothing incriminating to be found.

Just as I’m about to check the call log, the phone rings in my hand.  Adam’s name pops up, stopping me from snooping. 

I answer the phone cheerfully. “Hey Sparky, what’s up?”  I started called Adam “Sparky” after he helped me to escape from my burning house, just like in the story of
Sparky the Fire Dog
we learned in elementary school.  He hates it, which makes me like it even more.

“Hey, Jette.  I’m calling you guys with another wedding offer.  Celebrity News Network just made an offer of one and a half million dollars to televise the wedding live on their channel.  It’s the biggest offer so far.  What do you want me to tell them?” he asks.

This is the third offer we’ve gotten.  TMZ and E! both made offers that we quickly turned down without a second thought.  “Give them the same response we prepared for the others.  I’m not turning my wedding into a three-ring circus.”

“I had a feeling you’d say that.  It’s a lot of money to turn down, though.  I just want to make sure before I respond.”  I can hear him tapping away on a keyboard, probably drafting our response.

Before he hangs up, I decide to dig for a little dirt.  “So, Sparky, is anything new?  What do you and Emmy have planned for today?”  Maybe he’ll let something slip. 

“Emmy and Reese are going shopping, their usual Monday routine.  Marcus is coming over to watch last night’s Knicks game.  You know – same shit, different day.”  He sounds bored with the conversation.  I don’t think he’s hiding anything.

Evan slides open the door and Maddy comes barreling in, heading straight for her water bowl.  He mouths to me, “Who is it?” and I silently answer, “Adam.”  He shrugs his shoulders and taps on his watch, telling me we’re losing time.

“Listen, Adam, Evan’s done and I think he wants to leave.  I’ll tell him you called.”

“No problem, Jette.  Have fun at the museum.  Bring me back some Astronaut Ice Cream,” he chuckles as he hangs up the phone. 

“What did Adam want?” Evan asks as he finishes off a bottle of water.

“Well, we got another offer to get married on TV,” I tell him.

“How much this time?” Evan asks.

“One point five mil,” I tell him.

He cocks an eyebrow at me and asks, “What did you tell him?”

“What did you want me to tell him?” I ask.

“Juliette, there’s no way in hell I’m getting married on national television.  It’s bad enough that they show me in the locker room barely out of the shower – I will not have them broadcasting us making our wedding vows.  I hope you told him no.”  He looks at me with a cautionary expression.

“I did.”  He looks immediately relieved.  “Did you tell Adam we were going to the museum today? He asked me to bring back some of that silly Astronaut Ice Cream.”

He nods. “I called him while you were in the shower.  He has contacts in their security department.”

“Oh yeah, security.”  When I originally suggested a trip to the museum, I was thinking that we were normal people making normal plans.  On a chilly, rainy day, going to the museum seemed like a great idea.  But now that I stop and think about it, there’s nothing simple about an NFL quarterback going to a public place in the middle of football season.  Now the museum will probably need to call in additional security, all because I’m bored.

“Evan, we don’t have to go.  We can always rent a movie and stay in all day.  It might not be such a good idea to drag you through a crowded museum right now.  I wouldn’t mind.”

Evan is now standing directly in front of me.  He takes my chin in his hand and tilts my head up to look at him.  He looks at me with such devotion, it makes me feel even worse for having suggested he put himself on display for my entertainment.

“We are not going to stop living our lives just because it may get a little complicated.  My life will always be complicated, as long as I’m in the NFL.  This is what you signed up for when you agreed to become my wife.  We’re not going to hide – got it?”

I can’t help but smile, mostly because he’s right.  We can’t hide just because things aren’t simple.  Life with Evan is many things, but simple and easy are not among them.  “Got it,” I agree.

“Good.  Then let’s get that adorable ass of yours in the car so we can go.  We have one stop to make along the way, so let’s hustle.” 

I stretch up on my tiptoes to kiss him before I ask, “Can I ask where we’re stopping, or is it a secret?”

“I hope you don’t mind, but I thought it would be fun to bring another girl on our date.”  I shoot him a look of warning.  He had better be kidding.  “She’s never been to the museum before and I want to see her face light up when she sees her first dinosaur.”

“This date of yours, she wouldn’t happen to be in preschool, would she?” I ask.

“Not today she’s not.  I called my sister Callie and asked her if we could take Regan with us.  She agreed, but we have to take your Kia and Regan’s car seat.”  He looks at me for approval.  “I hope that’s okay.”

I wrap my arms around his neck.  “It sounds perfect.  Let’s go – she’s waited long enough to go on a date with her Uncle Evan.”

“And her Aunt Juliette,” Evan corrects me.  I don’t have any brothers or sisters.  I didn’t think I’d ever be lucky enough to have anyone call me Aunt.  I like the way it sounds.  Another gift Evan has given me – a family.  If he never gives me anything else but this, I will have lived a full and rich life.

Causing a Stir