Page 49 of More, Daddy (Bluebell Bruisers #3)
ONE YEAR LATER
“This trip sets the tone for the season. If you allow anything to take place this weekend, you’re allowing them to walk all over you, lie to you, and deceive you for the rest of the year.
Realize that now, and act accordingly.” I pass my phone to Denae and point to her so that all the junior coaches and team captains can see.
“Denae is going to go down the line and get everyone’s phone number.
That is my phone she has. If anyone hears a word about anything—someone sneaking booze, someone planning to leave the hotel, whatever it is, if you hear, you put an end to it and call me.
” I let my arms hang at my sides as I survey their faces.
They’re excited for this game—it’s the only away game where the athletes get to spend the night.
And this is the first year that Dean McAllister isn’t personally footing the bill.
Warriorville County finally started paying. “This is a serious gift the county has given us, allowing us to stay in a hotel instead of taking that dangerous drive home at night. Let’s show them we can still handle this responsibility, and show them we’re grateful.” I nod, and they nod in agreement.
Riley approaches me, in her track suit and cowboy boots. “Skipping the big away game yet again, eh?” She rocks on her boots, wearing a huge grin as she blinks up at me.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I glance around me to make sure the coast is actually clear, then let out a warbled sigh. “I see you spoke with Jake.”
She nearly bounces in front of me, bringing her hands together beneath her chin.
“I’m really trying not to freak out right now since I know that she could be around but oh my god yes, of course Jake told me.
” Riley steps closer, close enough for me to know she just drank a Diet Coke and ate a bag of peanut butter M&M’s, and her eyes go scary wide.
“Like he’s not gonna tell me that you’re doing a secret vow renewal. ”
My eyes veer around the gym at the antsy junior coaches and anxious team captains.
I cup my hands around my mouth. “Meet at the buses at noon tomorrow. Everyone, as long as there are no questions, you are dismissed.” I clap my hands.
“Mrs. Rivers Turner will be in charge in my place, and she will see everyone tomorrow.”
I face Riley. “Do not say it out loud again. There are too many ears around.”
Riley glances over her shoulder conspiratorially. “She’s in her room right now. I told her I’d come get the scoop on your big speech.”
In her room. Those three words are ones she’s been vying to hear ever since she became a teaching assistant and junior coach two years ago.
At the beginning of the school year, Leah Mitchell offered Briar the opportunity to take over freshman language arts now that she’s enrolled in undergrad courses at the local college.
She’s thriving, and Leah has promised that in three years when she gets her degree and is enrolled in the credentialing program, Briar will have the permanent full-time job.
And her junior coaching status? She’ll take over for JV.
In fact, she’s already in that role as the interim head JV coach since Cadence Caine decided to transfer to Oakcreek High at the end of the school year.
She finally snagged a Varsity coaching position, just not at Bluebell.
Things are going so well.
I proposed last year, and we went down to the courthouse with our friends and tied the knot shortly after. In fact, our one year anniversary is coming up, just a few short weeks away. Tonight, though, is our only real opportunity to be truly alone.
Briar always said she only wanted me, that a big wedding and a big party after made little sense because she didn’t have a big family, and for that matter, neither did I. Something small, just us, just our friends, that’s what made sense.
We did it a month after that night.
Dolly, Riley, Clara June and Maven stood as bridesmaids. Hudson, Jake, Dean and Leah stood up for me as my best men, all four of them. It was nice.
I’m lying.
It was goddamn perfect, and in the truck afterward, I held my wife and cried like a goddamn baby .
But the last year has been more than nice.
The first year of marriage is usually filled with a lot of figuring out how to co-exist with another person, learning that they don’t shut the drawer after getting a fork, and that they’re fine with letting dishes sit in the sink for a day or two. Stuff like that.
With Briar, there was a very little learning curve, and the easier things were between us as each day ticked by, the more we were allowed to play, laugh, travel, fuck, discover—everything.
The last year of being married to Briar has been the best year of my entire life.
We took that test, too.
Turns out, Briar wasn’t pregnant. She was just stressed and tired, and after a doctor’s appointment with labwork, we also discovered that she is anemic. Even now, a year on, I can’t shake the disappointment in her eyes when she saw that singular, negative line on that pregnancy test.
If I had doubts about her readiness, they were squashed at that moment. And that night, despite the fact that we’d worked all our issues out and were finally coming together, resolute and happy, she cried in my arms until she found sleep.
She was happy, she said, and they were tears of happiness. And in the morning, when the sun rose and we woke in each other’s arms, she was back to her beautiful, light self.
But I knew.
I knew those tears fell for that test result, and what it told us. And every day since then, I told myself that the moment we get our double lines, I’m going to throw her the biggest party ever.
It just so happens that our double-line moment came this morning. The only thing is, she doesn’t know it yet. And there was no actual double lined test, either .
But I know she’s pregnant. Finally, after a full year of intense, passionate, mind-blowing sex, we did it.
I’ve been tracking her cycles, monitoring her ovulation symptoms, taking careful notes in an app on my phone.
A few days ago, when fucking my girl on our sides, her nightie pulled up around her waist as she clung to the mattress, I palmed my favorite pair of tits and found them slightly bigger.
And my god, the way she whined when I grabbed them, like they were extra sensitive.
A day or so after, she complained of her coffee upsetting her stomach, and later of a metallic taste in her mouth.
Last night, after a particularly long session where she kept a toy inside of her while crawling to me and sucking my balls until I painted her sweet face, I took her to the restroom to clean her up, as usual.
While between her legs on the toilet, taking care to gently wipe her up the way I always do, I had to wipe her a few extra times.
At first I thought she was just extra horny for me, but as I wiped her and kissed her bare knees, everything slid together in my mind.
Tomorrow night, when the town is away, I’m surprising her with a vow renewal at Hudson’s farmers market property, just us. It’s the perfect setting to renew our love and to tell her that we’re having a baby.
I turn to Riley, and soak in her sunny disposition for a moment. She brings me a sliver of peace when nerves hit me that maybe, despite how much she wants it, the timing is bad for a baby.
She’s in college, tracking toward a degree, and still has two years of a credential program, too.
“What?” Riley asks, looking down at her shirt, then her pants. “Is there something on me? Is there a booger in my nose?”
I shake my head. “No, I was just… wondering how you’re do ing. Two babies back to back, cheer coach, teaching, relatively new marriage, stepmom status… it's a lot. How are you?”
She narrows her eyes, because women have that spidey sense that tells them when you’re asking them something to actually know them better and care or when you’re asking them something simply to put another thing into perspective for yourself. “Why are you asking this?”
I shrug. “Because we’re friends.”
She blinks at me. “We talk about football and make fun of Dean’s sweat patterns.” They always look like faces on his back, I swear. “We don’t talk about, like, life stuff.” She claps a hand on my shoulder. “That’s why you have Jake.”
I shake my head. “Briar’s taking classes in the evenings, has her own classroom this year, she’s coaching, she’s got me, she’s got bunco with you and the girls, she’s even been talking to her dad a few times a month, working things out with him.”
“So, Briar’s busy,” Riley says, shoving her hands into her back pockets.
“You know, Jake always tells me that when I have something to tell him, I take forever getting to the main point. But I think you guys are just as bad. Because I know you did not come to this pre-away game meeting with the thought of telling me all the things Briar does. So spit it out, Dupont.”
I shake my head. “To think that Jake is the sensitive one between the two of you.”
She taps her boot on the shiny hardwood.
“I’m just afraid of the timing for tomorrow’s little vow renewal…” I say, envisioning Briar with a round belly, our baby growing inside of her. “What if the timing isn’t right?”
Riley blinks at me, and after a moment, something shifts between us. I am not telling someone else about Briar’s pregnancy first, and I thank Riley for not pointing out the realization when it hits her. But her eyes grow wet and she takes a moment to respond.
“Oh, West.” She puts her hand on my forearm. “The timing is never right, but at the same time, it’s always right. You two will figure it all out. And you have us, too. All of us. If you need help with anything like… well,” she says, smiling, “anything. You know, with the renewal.”
Thank goodness for teenage drama, because someone approaches Riley, and I’m able to get away without too much embarrassment.