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I wave him away and pull out my phone, sending a message to Alyssa to see if she wants to come over for dinner.

Caroline has been talking to me every day, but radio silence from Lyss.

“I’ll be fine. I’m going to see if the girls want to come over this weekend for a talk… starting with Alyssa tonight.”

Nolan sighs and focuses on the road. “I think this Alex girl is a mistake, man. Women have a sixth sense about this shit. I mean, legit, Marie, basically your other half… Upped and left without a word within minutes of meeting the woman. She hasn’t even talked to me or Landon at all, either, which is unlike her. Something must have happened.”

I sigh and tap my fingers along the door, silent for several moments.

“I don’t know what the fuck happened, man.

They’ll come around. Alex can’t trap me in a pregnancy now.

Marie was probably just being protective, but it’s the smart thing to do.

I don’t want kids and waiting to get snipped was just dumb…

the amount of women we bang, shit it could have happened at any time. ”

We’re silent for the rest of the drive to my place and Nolan helps me to the living room. “I’ll stop by after practice tomorrow… Maybe the boys and I can get some fun cupcakes or something.”

I roll my eyes as I lay down on the soft leather cushions, holding back a groan.

How do women endure childbirth? This is nuts.

I snort to myself as I get comfortable and wince when Nolan tosses the remote at my head.

“Sure, come by anytime.” He nods at me and brings in my bags from his truck from our trip, leaving me alone once he’s done.

All alone in this stupid house.

It’s silent.

I put on a movie and saw that Alyssa replied saying she’s busy this weekend with Marie and she’ll see me next week.

I text Caroline, begging my other sister to talk Alyssa into coming by this weekend and that I have a few days off.

Me: Please? Not even any practice this weekend. I’m free until Monday morning…

Caroline: I’ll see what I can do, J. It’s not a good time for Marie, but maybe I can trick Lyss into it. Just dinner.

I stare at the TV blankly while my life spirals around me. Maybe Nolan is right…

____________

I’m up and walking, feeling almost 100% by Sunday night. The girls are finally coming over to have dinner and I’m a nervous wreck, I haven’t seen them in a week – which is the longest I’ve gone since the day they were born, aside from away games. This is absolute torture.

I ordered from their favorite restaurant and even set the table. I pulled out their favorite juices and sodas and ordered Marie’s favorite meal from the Italian restaurant from down the road for the girls to take to her after they leave. A peace offering.

By the time the food gets here, Caroline’s red Mercedes SUV is parking in the driveway. I leave the front door open for them and crush them with hugs and forehead kisses until they push me away.

They’re both just under six-feet tall, only a handful of inches shorter than me. I still can’t believe that those tiny babies Marie and I held in our arms are so damn tall, so grown up.

They were born so early and premature that it was touch and go for a while there. Shockingly the nurses let Marie and I in there every day, without my parents. Since they went right back to partying and drinking, doing drugs.

Not that it stopped during the pregnancy but it seemed less frequent.

I will never understand how someone can choose drugs and alcohol over their children, their newborn babies.

Alyssa is glaring at me as she shuts the front door, silently making her way into the dining room, following the scents permeating the air.

“Ignore her, she’s pissed that I tricked her,” Caroline winks at me and punches me in the chest. “Well, let’s eat. I’m starving.”

I frown as I follow her into the room and sit down in my chair, right across from them. “Have you not eaten? Why are you starving?”

Caroline sends me a look and shakes her head.

“Marie has more than enough food at her place, she’s trying to feed us every two hours,” she rolls her eyes and digs into her Mexican food.

I got us all some tacos, enchiladas, beans, rice, and plenty of chips and salsa.

Our favorites. “We had a late lunch but since Marie hasn’t been feeling well, we’ve been helping out more about the house. Forgot to have a snack, that's all.”

I pause my fork and set it down on my plate. “Is she ill?” I feel like standing up and demanding her address. What’s wrong with her? I feel like I’m about to panic and my heart is beating too fast.

Alyssa and Caroline share a look and Caroline clears her throat. “No…”

I glare at my sisters and lean back in my chair, straightening up to my full height. “Spill.”

Alyssa shakes her head and narrows her eyes at her twin. “No. It’s her life and we’re not going to say shit.”

I sigh, dropping the subject, shoveling my food into my mouth and pouring myself a large glass of red wine. Marie left all of her alcohol here, so I’m throwing my own tantrum and drinking it all before she can ask for it.

Serves her right. She used my credit card for her move, so I can drink her favorite wine.

“You call me if she needs help, you hear? I’m not abandoning her, ever.

If she needs help, you fucking call, because we all know she’s going to drive herself into the ground, ending up in the ER before she ever asks for a hand. ”

They both nod and we switch topics to school and work, easy topics. I don’t tell them why I have the weekend off, just that I had some downtime and decided to take it.

We don’t practice every weekend, but since we don’t have another game for a few days and with Williams still raging about our loss against the Sea Lions, he’s running us into the ground until we’re where he wants us at.

I bag up Marie’s food and hand it over to Caroline. “I got Marie’s favorite, too,” I try to smile as nicely as I can as I hand it over. “Give her a hug from me or something, okay?”

They nod and leave after giving me quick hugs and I’m alone again. I busy myself with clearing the table and tossing the empty containers into the trash. I don’t miss doing the dishes, but I miss the meals.

I miss the house being full of my girls. Their fights, their laughter. The comedic relief at the end of a long day, the camaraderie. Love.

I pull out my phone when it starts to vibrate against my thigh and smile when I see Alex’s face on the screen.

“Hey.”

She chuckles lightly and I can hear the smile in her voice. “Hey, how’s your weekend going?”

I sit down on the couch and recline back, lightly adjusting my sore balls. “It’s going, I have two home games this week, been busy with practice. When are you coming back?”

“I’m flying back tomorrow.” She begins riddling off how boring and awful her week was working with her mother. All of the meetings, phone calls, and emails. I chuckle under my breath and hold back from saying ‘well, welcome to being an adult’.

As much as I like this woman and want to touch her, taste her, and obviously be with her, she hasn’t really worked a day in her life unless her mother demands it from her every now and then.

When I talked to Logan about her, he called her a trophy wife.

But I wouldn’t classify her as that. She travels around and helps out her mom with her companies.

She at least knows where money comes from.

“I’ll take an Uber to your house or something if you can’t pick me up from the airport. Can you help me move in tomorrow?”

I furrow my brows as I pull the phone away from my face, checking the date. “I thought you didn’t want to move in for a few more weeks since you knew you needed to travel, is everything okay?”

She sighs and I hear a door close. “Of course! I just want to finally start our relationship together, you know? My mom even had me looking at engagement rings this week,” she giggles and I frown. Severely.

“Engagement rings? Why?”

She groans, I can almost hear the pout in her voice. “What do you mean why? Isn’t that why I’m moving in? So we can get married eventually?”

I snort and laugh out loud. “Um. No, not anytime soon. I wanted to make sure that you were happy and safe while you stayed here in Minnesota. Sure we’re dating, or ‘exclusive’, but… no. No engagement. We just got together. I know that I like you and want a chance at whatever this is, but I’m… no.”

“We’ll see,” she murmurs and clears her throat. “Anyway, I’ll need some help moving my things over, preferably tomorrow.”

I lean my head back against the couch cushions and ignore my stomach clenching with nervousness and warning bells. The shit we do to get laid. Plus I’ve never lived with anyone aside from my family and Marie.

Maybe this is just what it feels like. Like cold feet?

“Sounds good, I’ll bring Nolan and Landon along with me to make it easier.”

“Um… No, just you, please. I don’t want people knowing where my family home is, you know?”

My brows furrow and I shrug. “All right… can they at least stop by here to help move everything from my truck? Maybe we can order some pizzas. Or I can cook out. Shit, I don’t have a smoker anymore. I’ll order a new one.”

She sighs and tsks under her breath. “Have you done anything since Marie took all of your stuff? Maybe you should sue her. It’s not right that she’s basically left you with nothing.”

I snort. “All of the stuff she took was hers. She still has my credit card and I allow her to use it. She never stole a thing from me.”

“Excuse me? Why does she have a credit card of yours? You told me you were never together and now I find this out?” She continues ranting and raving and I want to set my phone down.

I shake my head and bite on my bottom lip, wanting her to shut up.

“She’s been with me every step of the way, Alex.

She helped me raise Caroline and Alyssa, has been here for everything.

No matter what she’s going through right now, she deserves more than that credit card she rarely uses in her wallet. ”

She hums, still sounding so accusatory. “And she hasn’t just been there for your millions? What has she ever done for you?”

I shake my head, didn’t I just explain that?

Marie has done everything for me. “I’m not going to talk to you about Marie, Alex.

Ever. I don’t care about the issues you seem to have with her, because it doesn’t matter, you don’t know her.

She’s already moved out and is refusing to speak to me anyway.

She has a job, she’s successful and makes more than enough money to support herself.

My sisters even moved in with her because they didn’t want to be away from her. That’s just the type of person she is.”

Alex chuckles, “Well, then we have the house to ourselves still, hm? Maybe we can look at different houses, something a little bigger with a pool. Oh and a cave and waterfall? That would be wonderful. We would just need to heat it.”

I slowly blink at the dark TV and shake my head. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” I hang up before I say anything I regret.

I bought this house with Marie and the girls in mind. I wanted to celebrate my sign-on bonus when the Mavericks picked me up. I wanted to give them everything that we never had. Somewhere safe, stable. Comfortable.

I even had it custom built, the rooms perfectly tailored to what I knew Marie would love. And love it we all did… Once the girls go off to college, I’m downsizing. I don’t care what Alex has to say about it. It’ll be my name and money on the line, not hers.

It doesn’t matter if the girls are with Marie or not. This is still their home until they move away, even after that. There’s no reason to have eight bedrooms and ten bathrooms. A lounge, a separate living room… This massive backyard that’s never used. The chef’s kitchen that I’ll never cook in.

If Marie and the girls were still living here and I wasn’t settling down, I would keep the house, mostly because I know that she loves it so much.

I want to live somewhere more secluded, enjoy the wilderness. Less rooms, less square footage if it’s just going to be Alex and me, or just me if this is how shit is going to go.

I don’t want to deal with a pool, but I do need a basement gym.

It’s already a nightmare before the relationship even had a chance to start. What do I do now?