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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHECK ON ME

ADELINE

The mood is buoyant as we eat and talk and laugh.

Penn and Sam are hilarious together. I can’t get enough of them.

And despite the awful day Sam has had, it’s obvious that he’s so relieved and happy to be here with Penn, he’s more animated than I’ve ever seen him.

But after he eats, he can’t stop yawning.

“All right, little dude. I’m gonna call it. Time for you to shower then go to bed. You need your rest. You don’t have to go to school tomorrow. I’ll be here with ya in the morning. But you need all the rest you can get to fully recover, okay?” Penn says.

“Okay,” Sam nods, fighting another yawn. “Will you get in trouble for missing training camp?”

Penn waves him off, but he doesn’t fully answer either. I hope my dad and the other coaches don’t give him a hard time about missing. I’ll have some serious words with my father if he does.

They go upstairs and I look around the main floor a little bit, appreciating how gorgeous Penn’s house is.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but his house surprises me.

There are floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere, and large white, soft couches with deep blue throw pillows and two plush deep blue side chairs are set up comfortably in the living room.

Large, colorful artwork dons the white walls, and the bar in the corner has velvet blue stools and colorful glasses.

His style is modern but comfortable and quirky.

I find myself smiling as I walk through the rooms. His dining room table is surrounded by black and white striped chairs and a fancy clear wine refrigerator looks like artwork in itself with its height and gold handles.

He’s gone for a while and then I hear Sam call me.

Penn echoes it louder and I find the stairs and go up, following the sounds of their voices.

It’s beautiful upstairs too, and the room I find them in is gorgeous.

Slanted, with a wall of windows, and beautiful woodwork on the ceiling, Sam looks tiny in the king-sized bed.

He’s propped up on two fluffy pillows, and his dark hair and eyes stand out against the white sheets.

“I just wanted to thank you for everything, Addy,” he says.

I think it’s cute that he calls me Addy like Penn does.

“You’re so welcome. I’m so glad I was able to help, and it was fun hanging out tonight,” I tell him.

He smiles and glances at Penn, pointing at him. “Don’t do anything to mess it up with her while I’m sleeping.”

Penn’s mouth drops and he pretends to be offended. “As if I could!” he says. He glances at me, cheeks flushed, and then back at Sam. “I’ll do my best.”

Sam nods like that’s more like it and I lean over and kiss him on the forehead. “Night, Sam.”

“Night.”

Penn reaches over and pats Sam’s hand. “Night, buddy. I’ll be right here if you need me, okay?”

“Okay.”

We walk toward the door and Penn turns out the light.

“Can you…check on me later?” Sam asks. “Just to…I don’t know…make sure I’m still here?”

Penn’s throat bobs and he swallows hard. “You’ve got it. I’ll check on you lots. And I’ll leave this door cracked, okay? Nobody can bother you here, my man. I’ve got top-of-the-line security, and anyone who comes after you from here on out has got to get through me first. Got it?”

Sam nods, his lips trembling. “Got it,” he whispers.

When we leave the room and walk into the hall, Penn leans against the wall and puts his head in his hands. I put my hand on his shoulder and when he lifts his head to look at me, his cheeks are wet.

“I can’t let that little boy down again,” he says quietly.

I wipe the tears from my face and follow Penn as he moves down the hall. There’s an alcove with a couch and bookshelves. Penn motions to the couch.

“You probably have to go, but if you want a glass of wine or anything, I can bring some up here for us. I want to stick close just in case he needs me.”

I sit down. “I don’t need anything. I’m still full. But I do want to talk to you about something.”

Penn tenses and sits down next to me, concern on his face.

I take a deep breath, feeling a bit shaky.

“Ever since I met Sam and you told me what’s been going on with him, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to help.

” I laugh awkwardly. “I’ve been unable to stop thinking about it.

I couldn’t stand the thought of him going hungry, but today, seeing him in pain…

we have to do something. He can’t go into another situation that puts him at risk like that. ”

“Thank you for caring. You just met him and already you care more than a lot of people would. And I agree. I can’t stop thinking about it either,” Penn says quietly.

“I know what to do,” I tell him.

His eyes widen.

“It became clear to me when I told Mrs. Murphy that I’m your girlfriend.”

His lips lift a little. “I forgot to thank you…and tease you about that.”

I laugh. “Well, you can tease me more soon because…I think we should get married.”

He just stares at me.

I wasn’t nervous before I said it, but the longer he goes without saying anything, the more nervous I get.

“Penn—” I start but leave it hanging.

He blinks. Then blinks again.

“Did you hear me?” I finally ask.

Still quiet.

And then?—

“I heard you, but it can’t be right because it sounded like you said we should get married.”

“I did.”

He sits up straighter. “Oh.”

“Hear me out. You saw how she jumped on me being your girlfriend, and you’ve said she’s talked about you not being a family unit…we can fix that easily by getting married. Totally legitimate and noble reasons, but it’ll cut through a ton of red tape…”

“Wouldn’t that be marriage fraud?”

Now my eyes widen. “What? No! This is the opposite of fraud. This is, like, ethical fraud, I mean, marriage. Ethical marriage, if that’s a thing.

You want to adopt him one day, right? But you’re a single guy with a hectic job and the system doesn’t exactly love that.

They want stability, a partner, blah, blah, blah…

so we get married, they give you custody of him, and it solves everything. ”

“Married,” he echoes. “As in vows, rings, signing legal documents.” He makes a face.

“Yes.” I scratch the back of my neck. “We wouldn’t need to do the whole big wedding thing since it’s just for Sam.” I grin and hold out a hand. “You can pick out a cake though. I mean, we don’t even have to get cake. But we do want to make it look real in every way possible.”

“I want cake,” he says, turning to face me. “Do you mean it, Addy? You’d really do this for us?”

“Absolutely.”

“This is crazy.” He laughs.

“I know. But is it a good crazy?”

He takes a deep breath and shakes his head. “Why would you do this? Do you realize what it would mean? What you’d be giving up? At least for a little while?”

“It’d be for the best reason.”

“It feels like a huge sacrifice on your part,” he says.

“One I’m offering to make.” I lean in. “At least think about it.”

He laughs again. “That’s the craziest part.

I am thinking about it.” He reaches out and brushes the hair out of my eyes.

“I can’t believe you’d be willing to do this for us.

” He shifts. “I’ve never considered myself good marriage material, but there’s no one else I could imagine doing this with but you.

What about your dad? The team? I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize your relationship with your family or your job. ”

“I think we make sure my dad gets to know Sam. We won’t tell anyone what we’re doing, but if the truth ever came out, they’d understand why.”

“What if you can’t stand living with me? There’s plenty of room here, but…I really can take care of Sam on my own. We don’t have to do it for long, right? A year, maybe two…until everything is finalized.”

“I’d love to be part of Sam’s life, so count me in on that. As far as everything else, it can just be a marriage on paper.” Even as I say the words, my heart is galloping ahead of me, too excited for a marriage on paper. Which is a problem, but one I will deal with later.

“I mean… yeah , a marriage on paper.” He scoffs, but his lips are twitching. “Marry you? I hardly know you.”

My mouth falls open and I laugh. “Oh, Preacher Man. I think it’s safe to say we’re not strangers. Your lips know me well anyway.”

“You’re just so forward.” He tries to keep a straight face, but when I smack his arm, he starts laughing. “So when do you…propose we do this wedding?”

“This weekend? Or…tomorrow night?”

I can tell he wants to keep teasing me, but he just nods instead. “No one will believe you fell for me this fast,” he finally says.

If he only knew.

I lift my shoulder in a shrug. “So we tell everyone we met in the Bahamas. It was love at first sight, but we went our separate ways…until I showed up here and we just couldn’t fight our feelings any longer.”

His eyes burn into mine and I have to physically hold onto the couch so I don’t jump into his lap instead.

That would not send the right message.

“That could work,” he breathes. “Do we tell anyone we’re getting married or just go do it?”

“What’s that saying about asking for forgiveness later?

” I say, laughing. “Not that we need anyone’s permission, but I think it’d be easier to just go for it.

We could invite friends, but I feel like there’s more opportunity for things to go wrong that way.

I think we’d have to keep it completely between us and not tell a soul, especially not Sam, what we’re doing. ”

He winces. “I’d feel so bad lying to him though. And my friends.”

“Me too. But we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t have to. The system has made this an impossible situation.”

He sighs. “You’re right. And it would be worth it, knowing we didn’t have to worry about losing him ever again.

” He reaches out and takes my hand, squeezing it.

“Thank you, Addy. You should think about it for a few days. Really think it over. Decide if this is something you can do. I’ll completely understand if you change your mind. ”

“I won’t change my mind.”

“Okay, but promise me you will think about it. And if you still feel this way on Friday, we can move forward.”

“By move forward, do you mean get married?” I ask playfully.

He reaches out and tickles my side, which sends me jerking and clamping my hand over my mouth when my laugh is a little too loud.

“So forward,” he says, laughing. He looks at me and shakes his head before starting to laugh again. “I can’t believe this. You’re serious?”

“Good idea, right?”

“You could’ve thrown in flowers to really seal the deal,” he says.

I give him a flirty grin. “Turns out we didn’t even need ‘em.”