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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

NOT SO BLISSFUL

PENN

I don’t know how I manage to concentrate on anything but Addy over the next few days, but somehow I do.

Sam had football practices over the weekend, and then each day, we get him off to school and then head to the training facility.

Our first preseason game is tomorrow night and I think we’re ready.

My parents pick Sam up from school, and Addy and I have started driving to work together.

I work out while she preps food for the day, and then during our practices, she’s setting it all up so it’s ready when we pile into the cafeteria.

Everyone loves her already, and no one has had anything but positive things to say about us being together.

I’m still getting teased a lot for settling down, but that’s to be expected.

Sometimes she’s done a little earlier than I am and vice versa, but so far, it’s been seamless.

We’ve had nice dinners with Sam and last night, my parents joined us.

It’s fun to see everyone interacting with each other.

I’m happy to say that my parents and Addy are hitting it off, and Addy and Sam—they seem connected at the hip more every day.

It’s all feeling very domesticated and I’m shocked by how okay I am about all of it.

I thought I would have a freak-out by now, and I am floundering a bit to know what comes next, but I’m just trying to be in the moment and enjoy the now.

If I think too hard about everything, I might panic a little because it’s just all so fucking great.

Like, too great for words.

Like, speechless great.

Because after we do all these normal things during the day, then at night, she works me over until I’m senseless in bed.

Last night, we had barely shut the bedroom door after telling everyone goodnight and our clothes were off within seconds.

I took her against the bedroom wall and then carried her to the bathtub while I ran a hot bath.

She stepped into the water and then sat down, spread her legs, and motioned for me to come closer.

When I did, she pulled me into the water, and it was the most epic night yet.

I’m ashamed to say that I’ve wondered how people can just want to be with one person. No one has ever made me want to go back for more, even if the sex between us was a positive experience.

But every time I’m with Addy, I’m already craving her more. I can’t wait for the next time, while I’m inside her. It’s absolutely insane.

Now, I get the appeal of honeymoons.

Getting back to her in our bed…whoa, did I just say our ?…is all I think about.

I’m even starting to get the appeal of married life.

Being bare and honest with someone…trusting that person.

Okay, slow down, Penn. Slow down.

I’m surviving on less sleep than usual but energized during the day. Coach Evans is watching me like a hawk, just waiting for me to mess up, but I’m not. He even had me run extra laps since I had the “audacity to marry his daughter,” and I did them with a huge smile on my face.

He didn’t like that, but it’s okay.

Addy is my good luck charm.

And a whole lot more than that.

But again, I’m not going to think too hard about it all.

We’re in Addy’s car on the way home now.

She wanted to drive today because she knew my schedule was extra intense.

She surprises me more and more with all the ways she’s thoughtful.

Her cooking is phenomenal, and I keep insisting that she doesn’t have to cook when she’s at home since she’s doing it all day, but she says she loves it.

I had flowers delivered to her office this morning with a note that said,

You’re making me so happy, Siren.

Love, Penn

I felt a little ridiculous afterward, overthinking the mush, but she found me when I came back in the building, all sweaty from practice, and she dragged me into her office, kissing me until I was weak in the knees.

She glances over at me and smirks.

“What is it?” I ask.

She just lifts her eyebrow, which makes me suspicious. Her eyes flit to the dashboard and I follow her gaze before bursting out laughing. A little pink plastic flamingo is sitting on the dashboard staring at me.

“Capone,” I breathe. “He followed me.”

“Capon a ,” she corrects. “She couldn’t stand to be away from you another second.”

I laugh and pick it up, squeezing it and watching its form go back into shape. When I glance at Addy again, I’m serious and her smile drops.

“Is this going okay for you?” I ask. “Us? The past few days? Anything we need to talk about, or…improve on?”

Her lips twitch and she turns back to the road. “I can’t think of a single thing we could improve on at the moment…”

I lean my head against the headrest. “Excellent. So what you’re saying is you are happy with the way we are spending our days…and nights?”

“ Especially the nights.” She grins at me. “But the days are pretty fun too.”

“Agreed,” I say, nodding. “Okay, good. So…just tell me if you need to switch things up at all or…if you see room for improvement.”

She frowns slightly. “Are you needing to switch things up?”

“No, uh, not at all.” For some reason, I go all stuttery.

“Um, as I said in my note, I am so happy and I love what we’re doing.

I just want you to be feeling good about things too, and well, I didn’t expect it to be quite as great as it really is, but I’d understand if you didn’t feel as great as I did because… yeah, it’s a lot, but?—”

She reaches out her hand and puts it on my knee. I place my hand over hers and trace little lines over her skin, her touch grounding me.

“Penn, I’m happy too. Let’s just try to keep communicating about it, okay? Please say the minute you want something different, and I will too.”

I nod. “Cool. Yeah, I will.”

But inside, I’m thinking, there’s no way I’ll want this to end, so I really hope you don’t either.

When we pass the gate and she pulls into our driveway, Mrs. Murphy’s car is parked in front of the house.

“Shit, looks like we’ve got a drop-in visit from the social worker,” I tell Addy.

She looks at me with as much dread as I feel. “You think your parents are okay with her right now?”

“I think so, but we better get in there.”

We both rush out of the car and go in through the garage.

When we walk into the kitchen, Mrs. Murphy is sitting next to Sam at the bar, and my mom is leaning against the kitchen counter.

There are chocolate chip cookies on a pretty plate and Sam is in the middle of dunking one in a glass of milk when they notice us.

“Hey, you guys!” Sam says happily. “We heated up the cookies Addy made last night and they’re so good!”

I smile at him, pausing to squeeze his shoulder and kiss my mom’s cheek before reaching out to shake Mrs. Murphy’s hand. My dad walks in then and we all say hello.

“Thought I’d stop by and see how it’s going,” Mrs. Murphy says. “Sam was telling me about the party you had over the weekend. It sounds like a lot of fun.”

Addy and I share a look and nod. Do we look nervous? I think maybe so. I try to relax my shoulders and reach out, taking Addy’s hand, hoping that I made that look casual too. Fuck. Why am I so bad at this? Where is this swagger that Sam was talking about? That I’ve always been known for?

“We had such a fun night,” Addy says, smiling up at me. “Sam helped a lot with everything too. And it was great having our family and friends with us.”

“Seems like everything moved really fast,” she says.

I think I audibly hear both of us gulp and can’t look at Addy right now or I’ll surely look like a deer in the headlights.

“We thought so too!” My mom laughs. “But we’d heard about her months ago, and that was unusual…for our boy to be talking about a woman he met at all is not the typical.” She laughs and glances at my dad.

He nods too. “Yep, it was a first for sure.”

“And then we saw the two of them together and,” my mom shakes her head, smiling dreamily, “it just all felt meant to be.” She lifts her shoulder and glances at Mrs. Murphy.

“Jeremy and I only dated a month before we eloped, so it wasn’t that far-fetched to us, that they’d do the same thing.

The fact that she’s his coach’s daughter makes it a little more complicated…

” My mom’s eyes crinkle as she beams at Addy and me.

Mrs. Murphy turns to look at us. “Oh, I didn’t realize that. What’s the connection there?”

“My dad is one of the coaches for the Mustangs, so he works closely with Penn. That’s kind of how we met. I went with my parents to the Bahamas when they went for a player’s wedding, and I enjoyed a mini vacation while they did the wedding activities.”

“And I was the officiant for the wedding and practicing what I’d say at the ceremony when we met by the beach.” I smile at Addy.

Her eyes never leave mine and it feels like we’re back on that beach, consumed with each other the way we were that night. “He was so nervous about the wedding that I took him to flamingo yoga to try to calm him down, but that didn’t work.”

I hold up the little flamingo she just gave me. “One of the flamingos—Capone or Capona, depending on who you ask—took a hatred or a liking, again, depending on who you ask, to me, and we ended up running for our lives.”

Addy snorts and Sam cracks up. “Capon a just wanted to give you a little kiss,” she says.

“You didn’t tell me this part!” Sam says, handing me a cookie.

I hold it up and pause before taking a bite. “Because I wanted to scream like a baby when that thing stood over me. Something I’d rather forget.”

Sam loves that. “Lost your cool in front of the girl. That should’ve been the sign right there that you were hopeless over Addy.”

I point my cookie at him and then glance at Addy. “He’s not wrong.” I take a bite of the cookie and can’t resist groaning. “And she makes the best cookies. The best everything.”

She leans into me and it feels natural to wrap her back against my chest, so I do.

But then I’m thrown when Mrs. Murphy says, “Well, Sam, I have another foster family who is interested in taking you. How would you feel about that?”

Sam shoots an incredulous look at me. “I’d feel terrible about that. I want to stay here. Why do you keep trying to keep me from Penn?” His voice cracks at the end and I move closer to him. Addy comes with me, and we both hover next to his chair.

“It isn’t that I’m trying to keep you from him.” Her tone is apologetic. “I just want you to be in the best possible home.”

“This is the best possible home. I don’t know why you’re being so hard on Penn.” Tears fall down his cheeks and he brushes them away angrily with his fists.

“Hey, buddy, it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.

” I look at Mrs. Murphy. “Maybe you can tell me what I can do now to improve Sam’s situation here.

Do you want to check his bedroom again? Hell, you could spend the week with us here and see how we’re running the house.

But please don’t put him somewhere else.

I know we’re still trying to work things out to make everything permanent, but he belongs with us.

He’s settled in school and our routine, and coming by here and threatening to move him will only cause more stress. ”

“I’m not threatening—” she starts.

“I know you’re just doing your job and you want to protect him.

But it’s my job to protect him now too and I’m going to do that, even if it means from you.

My lawyer has said things are looking good.

I have a friend who’s a judge in Landmark Mountain that I’ll reach out to as well, to see if we can make this come together even faster.

I want to adopt Sam and I don’t want the two of us looking over our shoulders, afraid that you’re gonna come drag him out of here. ”

“Don’t you mean the three of you?” she asks. She dips her head toward Addy.

“Yes, of course. The three of us. We’re all in this together,” I say, feeling defeated.

Addy reaches out and rubs my arm.

Mrs. Murphy writes a few things in her notebook. “Thanks for your hospitality,” she says, standing up. “I’ll be in touch.”

We see her to the door and I put my hands on Sam’s shoulders as we watch her pull away.

“I’m going to fix this,” I say, but it sounds hollow.

I’m afraid Mrs. Murphy isn’t buying into this with Addy and me, and I can’t blame her.

Later, after Sam is in bed, I call Sutton Landmark, Weston’s brother-in-law. He’s a judge in Landmark Mountain, and he promises to put in a good word for me.

“From what I can see, things are lining up in your favor,” he says. “I hear congratulations are in order, man. I’m happy for you. And it’s an added benefit—being married will only help.”

That’s what we were hoping , I think.

But all I say is, “Thank you. And I really appreciate your help.”

“Sam is a good kid and he’s crazy about you. I want to see you guys together. I promise, Penn, I’ll be all over it.”

“Thank you. Really. That means a lot.”