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CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR

RHODES

Now

It’s the day before our game, and I’m about to take off for the hotel when I hear Elle on the phone.

“I appreciate your call, but…no, thank you. You don't need to change the rules for me. I broke the rules and I deserve to live with the consequences. It would ha ve been fun to be with everyone in this last home game, but I will be on the sidelines cheering my man on, front and center. No more hiding for me,” she says and laughs.

My man , she said.

Damn, am I ever glad I didn’t give up on us after that crazy night we first kissed. She almost had me convinced we’d never be together like that again, but here we are.

When she hangs up a few minutes later, I come up behind her and kiss her on the cheek.

“Cheering your man on, huh? Is that me?”

“No, it’s Bowie. He’s hot and isn’t always demanding attention.” She jumps when I tickle her side. “Of course, it’s you,” she yelps. “It’s always been you, remember? There’s no one else for me.”

“That’s more like it,” I say, dipping her back and kissing her.

I’m so grateful I didn’t stop hoping for this with her one day. It’s better than I could’ve imagined.

When I lift her back up, she pokes my side and laughs when I jerk to the side.

“That was Lisa. She called and said I could dance with the team tomorrow. She didn't realize I already had such a big career going on the side and that they were lucky to have me on the team. She hoped there were no hard feelings and said an exception could be made for this game. She also said she hoped I’d do a charity event as Zoey Archer with them in the future. I said I’d be happy to consider any charity events when the time comes.”

“Look at that, her groveling with you and you turning her down.”

“Yeah, it just felt manipulative after all was said and done. I'm tired of doing my own part in the manipulating and tired of putting up with it from anyone else. I'm ready for things to just be out in the open.”

“You won't get any complaints from me there,” I tell her, kissing her.

The game goes well. We win. One more game unless we make the playoffs as a wild card. But when I see Elle after we win, not too far from the field, I run over and motion for her to come down the rest of the way. She does, jogging down the steps until she’s at the bar separating us. I lift her over the bar and she laughs, wrapping her legs around my waist as I kiss her lips off. It’s everything.

“You look so fucking good in my jersey.”

“Way better than my cheer uniform any day.”

“Mmm. I will miss that uniform.”

When we pull away, we realize we’re on the jumbotron and that the crowd is going nuts for us.

She leans her forehead on mine and laughs. “Guess the secret’s fully out now.”

“Thank. God.”

The next few days are spent around the house, hanging out with the family. We have a great time with my parents and when Elle is out of the room, they help me work on a plan for New Year’s Eve.

Bogey is getting better each day. So far, the little guy is a pro with potty training and he's only chewed one thing but stopped once we gave him toys he was interested in. The only complaint I have about the little dude is that now, when Elle and I start to fool around, he whines at the bed like he should be able to come up and be part of things. Thankfully he’s still too short to try to watch us.

No sir, I don't think so. I'm not into sharing.

Elle thinks it's hilarious. The poor guy’s in love with her about as much as I am and follows her around like she's his favorite person. I get it, I really do.

Carrie apologized for how atrocious she acted the other night. I told her she needed to apologize to Elle too, but she hasn’t, so I don’t buy into her apology. I wanted to call the sheriff about the pictures, but Elle said not to because she wanted to just forget about everything Carrie had done and move on. I had a call with my lawyers just in case Carrie does anything else to jeopardize our custody arrangement. I’ve remained firm on the drop-offs and pickups happening elsewhere, and so far, she hasn’t fought it. I hope she won’t stir up any more trouble, but I’m not counting on it.

I work on this New Year’s Eve plan and have a restaurant reserved for the evening. The guys are all in; each one has a job. Weston is in charge of inviting everyone. Penn is in charge of getting the menu in order. Bowie is in charge of getting security lined up. I don’t think Carrie or anyone else will cause any trouble, but I want to be on the safe side. Brock hasn’t been a problem, but again, security knows to keep an eye out for him. Henley is in charge of the flowers and decorations—well, Tru and Bree are actually working on that more, but he’s helping deliver all of it. My parents are bringing Levi and watching him for the night so we can stay out late.

I invited Elle’s parents too, but I haven’t heard back from them yet.

Earlier in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve, I tell Elle I’m going to run an errand and I go to her parents’ house. I had called earlier to set this up and knew that unless they were busy, they were too courteous to say no.

Once I get to the house, I’m greeted warmly and it already feels better than the last time. I’m glad fucking Bernard isn’t around.

“Thanks for calling,” Doug says. He looks around and his shoulders drop a little. “Oh, Elle’s not with you.”

“No, sir, she’s not. I wanted to speak with you and Louisa alone.”

“I was hoping she would be. I’d like to talk to her. I’ve thought a lot about what you said last week, and you’re right. How can I preach love and forgiveness if I’m not loving my own daughter the way I should? And I forgive her for doing—well, you know in my eyes, what she’s doing is a sin, and I forgive her for that.”

“But she’s not sinning against you. If what she’s doing is a sin at all, she’s sinning against God, not you, so it’s really between her and God.”

He points at me. “Maybe you should be the preacher,” he says, laughing sheepishly. “You make a good point.”

“I’ll let you keep to the sermons,” I tell him, laughing.

We walk back to his study and Louisa pokes her head in the door to say hello.

“Hi, Louisa. I’d really like to talk to you both about Elle and me,” I pause and take a deep breath.

I really don’t want to botch this.

Louisa comes in and sits down and both of them look at me, waiting.

“I love Elle. Completely. I’m in love with her…and have been since the day I met her, and that’s never stopped. I’ve made mistakes. I should have let her know right away how I felt, but we had this pact going where we would not cross that line of friendship because it meant so much to us. I tr ied to hold to that and didn’t do such a good job in my agony of not being with her the way I wanted to be. I should’ve just held on and waited for her.” I lean forward. “And then Carrie got pregnant, and I knew I couldn’t mess around like that again. I wasn’t sure Elle and I would ever be on the same page, but there’s no one else I want.”

I take another deep breath and can’t tell from their expressions how they’re taking this.

“Come to find out, she loves me back. She has all along too, which is just fu—flipping fantastic. And now that we’re finally here, I don’t want to waste any time…I want to marry her.” Another deep breath. “But I would love your blessing. I know that it means something to Elle to have your blessing, and therefore, it means something to me too. I hope you’ll give it and maybe even be happy for us when we get married…if she’ll have me.” I wipe my forehead because I’m suddenly sweating like I’m in a goddamn sauna. “I kind of think she’ll say yes,” I finish quietly.

No one says anything at first. And then I hear Louisa sniffling. She reaches over to grab a tissue and wipes her face. Doug comes around to the other side of his desk and leans on it in front of me.

“I appreciate you coming and talking to us,” he says. “You guys are old enough to not need our permission by any means, but it means a lot that you want our blessing, and I’m giving it to you now.” He looks at his wife and she nods. “We’re giving it to you. I know we’ve pushed another agenda on Elle and it’s time that we stopped doing that. If she says yes to you, we will support it one hundred percent.”

“Thank you, sir. That means so much.” I stand up and shake his hand and then move toward Louisa.

She stands up and hugs me. “Thank you, Rhodes,” she says. “I’m sorry things have been strained between us. We want to be part of your life with Elle.”

“Thank you. You’re invited to Rose & Thorn tonight. I’ve rented out the place and I’m asking her to marry me there with our family and friends present. I would love for you to be part of it.”

“We'll be there,” Doug says.

I hang around a little longer, talking football with Doug. When I head home, relief and adrenaline courses through me.

I’m ready.

And I’m still ready when we pull into the parking lot of Rose & Thorn. According to the group thread, everyone’s already here as planned. Elle looks too gorgeous for words in her little black dress, as I help her out of the SUV.

But I get hit with a case of extreme nerves.

I didn’t think I was capable of this feeling anymore, but when it comes to Elle, I just always want to get it right.

“Oh my goodness, everyone's here!” Elle says as we walk inside.

She hugs the girls and when she realizes her parents are here too, she stops and turns to look at me, eyes wide.

“Did you know everyone was coming? You didn’t say it was a New Year’s Eve party !”

I cough and try to make it sound like a chuckle. “Yeah, I knew everyone was coming.”

The restaurant has a few tables cleared out, and our friends and family are either sitting already or standing around talking. There are flowers everywhere.

“Everything looks so pretty. How fun!” She does a double take when she sees my face. “Are you okay?” She studies me closer when I don't say anything.

I have trouble swallowing all of a sudden.

“Rhodes? Are you sick? You don’t look so good. I mean, you look so handsome tonight, but…are you okay?”

I swallow again and pick up a menu specially made for this event and fan my face. She pauses to look at it.

Rhodes and Elle’s Menu , it says.

Her eyes are wide.

“It’s our party?” she says, looking around nervously.

“It’s our party,” I say, nodding.

Her eyes light up and she smiles, leaning over to kiss me. I lead her to the table in the middle before I lose my nerve. I sure hope she likes this surprise. She’s been talking about everything being out in the open, but this might’ve been going too far.

She hugs Greer and Wyndham from Serendipity on the way and waves at Calista across the room.

There’s an elaborate flower arrangement from The Enchanted Florist on the table and Elle leans in to smell it before sitting down.

“Everything looks so beautiful, Rhodes.”

“You do most of all.”

Her cheeks flush and I feel a surge of energy, my nerves falling away.

I sit down and there’s a microphone next to my place setting. I lift it, making sure it’s on, and stand up.

“Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming! I promise I'm not gonna do much talking tonight, except to let you know a little bit about why you're here, and then we’ll just have fun for as long as we want. Thanks to the staff at Rose & Thorn for opening up your place to us tonight. You’ve been so accommodating and we’re grateful. And thanks again to all of you for coming to spend New Year’s Eve with us.”

I look at Elle and she’s smiling up at me with such love in her eyes, it nearly takes me out.

I take a deep breath and look around the room, my eyes landing on the table next to ours. Levi is sitting between my parents, and Elle’s parents are across from them. My dad gives me a slight nod, encouraging me.

“I think any of you who have spent any significant amount of time around me knows how much I love Elle Benton.”

The room erupts into cheers, mostly coming from Penn, but Henley, Bowie, and Weston are doing their share too, as well as the other guys from the team.

“For over thirteen years now, we’ve been best friends. And it's only been recently that we have crossed over into much, much more.”

Again, with the whistles.

I laugh and Elle does too. She looks so happy and it emboldens me to keep going.

“I, for one, could not be happier about the much, much more. We had to keep it on the down-low for various reasons, so a lot of you have not even seen us together as a couple yet, but I wanted to let you know that I am so in love with this woman !”

The room explodes again, and I hold up my hand, shushing everyone.

And then I get down on my knee and there’s a holy hush, the only sound being Elle’s gasp. When I take the ring out of my pocket, her eyes are already filling with tears. She holds onto my hand and I can feel hers trembling.

“Rhodes,” she whispers.

“Is this okay, love?” I ask .

“It is so okay,” she says, her laugh shaky too.

“I love you with all my heart,” I tell her.

“Say it in the mic,” someone says.

We laugh and Penn rushes over to hold the mic for me.

“Do you wanna be heard?” he asks quietly.

“I want the whole world to hear this, but it’s only important if you do,” I tell Elle.

“Let us in on it,” Penn says.

Elle laughs and nods happily. “May as well, since we’re all here.”

“Now you’re talking.” Penn holds the mic close to both of us.

“Being with you has made me the happiest moth—man alive,” I say, rushing to clean up my language with the kids that are here. “Every day with you has always been enough, but now, every day, knowing that you love me back, holding your hand and living by your side…there isn’t even a word for how happy and content you’ve made me.”

There are lots of Awws over that.

“But the one thing that would make me the happiest is if you'd be my wife. What do you think? Will you marry me, Elle Benton, and be mine forever?”

“Yes,” she says, crying. “Yes!”

I glance over at Levi and he’s ready. He runs over with a flower and lifts it up to Elle.

“Be mine foh-evah too?” he asks.

She leans down and puts her forehead against his. “Forever and ever.”

He beams and I think there are a dozen sniffles going around the room, mine included. We all share a hug and when Levi goes back to sit down, Elle pulls my face to hers and kisses me .

Everybody claps as we kiss and kiss and kiss, until someone says, “Get a room!”

We break apart, laughing, and I hold up the five-carat princess-cut diamond ring. She stretches out her hand and I slide it on.

“Oh, it's so pretty, Rhodes,” she whispers. “I love it. I love you.”

I kiss her again, and then I stand up, leaning over her chair, until she lifts onto her feet and stands flush against me, returning my kiss. The girls throw flower petals on us.

That was their idea, not mine. But I have to admit, it's a festive touch.

We spend the rest of the night with our family and friends. The tables are cleared out and Rose & Thorn turns into a makeshift club. We dance with Levi for a long time and then my parents take him home to put him to bed.

When the countdown begins, I yell, “There’s no one I’d rather be bringing in the new year with than all of you!”

In Elle’s ear, I add, “But as long as you’re with me, I have all I need.”

My lips are on hers when the clock strikes midnight.

And then I take her home and ring in the new year in the best way—making love to her all night long.

Life is just getting started.