Page 54

fifty-three

Cole

It is way too fucking early to be awake right now. I peer at the alarm clock beside the bed and see that it’s just before nine in the morning.

Rory and I didn’t get to sleep until after five. We’ve had less than four hours of rest, so why the fuck am I waking up right now?

When I hear the doorknob turn and our friend’s voices start to filter into the room, it all clicks.

“Stop!” I shout, causing Rory to stir awake beside me now. “We’re, uh… not dressed for visitors at the moment.”

We’re actually not dressed at all, but I figure I’ll spare my sister the trauma.

“Oh God,” I hear Lo say from the entryway. “We’ll be in the hall!”

The door shuts loudly behind them, and I breathe a sigh of relief that we weren’t seen in our current state.

“What’s going on?” Rory mumbles, still sounding half asleep.

“All of our friends just decided to drop by, and I spared us from being caught naked.”

Her eyes go wide. “Shit! I’m glad you woke up.”

“Me too,” I murmur, pulling her in close. “I’m not sharing you with anybody. Nobody gets to see my wife’s stunning body except for me.”

Rory just smiles and rests her head on my bare chest. “Oh my God, we actually got married.”

“Yes, we did.” I kiss the top of her head, where her hair now sits in a high bun instead of the low one she wore at the altar.

Because we got married.

Rory Fisher is my fucking wife.

Scratch that—Rory Pierce is my wife.

“We obviously need to get dressed,” she says, facing me. “But what are we telling them about the whole marriage thing?”

“We can tell them or keep it to ourselves. It’s your choice, Rory girl.”

“Maybe we don’t tell them yet. Last night was really rough, so I don’t know if they’ll be ready to hear it anyway.”

“We’ll hide our rings in the drawer for now, then.” I stand from the bed and help her to her feet before pressing her body against mine as I wrap my arms around her lower back. “We won’t tell them that we got married, not yet. We don’t need to acknowledge anything that happened after they left the room last night.”

“Okay,” she breathes.

I press a soft kiss to her lips before we quickly get dressed. Since the only regular clothing I have is what I wore yesterday, I slip back into my jeans and T-shirt while Rory pulls out a pair of leggings and a tank from her suitcase. We hide everything we bought on the Strip so they don’t question why there’s a white dress and lingerie on the bedroom floor.

Now ready, I peer out into the hall, telling our friends to come inside.

They all file in, bringing what appears to be breakfast and coffee.

Once they all take positions around the room, I break the silence. “For future reference, please give us a warning when you’re going to come by.”

“I did.” Harlow crosses her arms. “I texted you and told you we were going to bring breakfast and see how you were both holding up.”

I pinch my brow. “I didn’t wake up until you guys were at the door, so I completely missed that.”

“I’m sure you guys didn’t get much sleep last night,” Ella says. “I wouldn’t have been able to sleep after that.”

“Considering they had to get dressed when we got here,” Lane smirks, “I don’t think that’s the only reason they were up so late.”

“Yeah, we’re not getting into that,” I say, steering the conversation away from our sex life. “Where’s Sage, though, man?”

“Hotel has childcare. I have someone watching her in my room right now so I could be here for you two.”

“Thanks, guys,” Rory smiles softly. “We’re doing better than we were last night.”

I grab the coffees they brought, taking the black one for myself and handing the chai latte off to Rory.

“Have you guys heard from Skip at all since last night?” Ari asks.

Rory sighs. “No. He hasn’t reached out to either of us. I’m hoping he just needs time.”

“I still can’t believe he blew up the way he did,” Josh says. “Even more surprised that Knox was the most outspoken of us when it came to defending you.”

“He was?” Lucia questions, a curious look on her face. “Knox never even talks to us.”

Knox sighs and rolls his eyes. “Cole is my girlfriend’s brother. I’m not going to just let him get berated, especially when it’s over something as ridiculous as him falling in love with someone Skip thinks he isn’t good enough for.”

Harlow leans up and kisses his cheek. “It was very sweet, Knox.”

“I’m willing to bet Knox got rewarded last night,” Josh laughs.

Knox shrugs while Harlow blushes like she always does.

So that’s confirmation.

Ew.

“Anyway,” Rory says, “we appreciate everyone having our backs.”

“We’ve got your back while Cole’s got your front,” Ari snickers.

“Come on, man. Don’t talk like that to my wi-… girlfriend.”

All the air has been sucked from the room.

Our friends all stare at us, eyes wide and mouths agape.

You could hear a fucking pin drop right now.

Rory is the first to cut the silence, looking right at me and placing her hand on my thigh. “Well, you lasted two whole minutes. That’s longer than I expected.”

“Something I’m sure he’s used to hearing,” Lane smirks, trying not to laugh.

I level him with a look.

“I’ve never had to say that,” Rory says deviously. “Cole has some great stamina.”

Harlow whispers to Knox. “Ugh, did we sound like that when we got together?”

He chuckles and kisses the top of her head. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure we did.”

She sighs. “Moving past that.” Lo looks right at Rory and me now. “Did you just call Rory your wife?”

Rory and I stare at each other before giving ourselves up in defeat. Can’t talk our way out of this one.

We stand up from the bed together and walk over to the drawer before sliding on our rings and holding our hands out for our friends to see.

“We kind of got… married overnight,” Rory answers, eyes never leaving mine.

“Rory is my wife,” I add. Her eyes flutter closed, and she smiles so sweetly.

But the moment is far from quiet.

Our friends are raucous, running over to inspect our hands, congratulating us, and saying how happy they are.

“My brother and my best friend got married!” Harlow cries. Literally cries, with tears streaming down her face. She’s always worn her emotions on her sleeve. “I’m so happy, but I’m so sad I wasn’t there to see it. Why didn’t you tell us?!”

“It wasn’t really planned in advance,” Rory replies sheepishly. “We didn’t even talk about it until you guys left last night.”

“How did that even come up?” Lucia says, taking my wife’s hand and inspecting her ring. “He even got you an engagement ring!”

“He kind of called my dad his future father-in-law last night, and the conversation progressed from there. We decided we didn’t want to wait.”

“And I got an engagement ring when we were at the jewelers picking out our wedding bands. I proposed to her on the Strip before we went to the chapel. She deserved to be engaged first, not to feel like this was a rushed wedding we weren’t thinking clearly about.”

“Because you’re so damn sweet,” she says lovingly, standing on her tiptoes and gently kissing me.

“Shit,” Ari says. “Even I think this is cute. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce.”

“Are you going to be a Pierce?!” Lo asks excitedly.

“Yes,” Rory says, smiling brightly and pressing her head against my chest. I wrap my arms around her and pull her tight, just holding her in my arms.

“I think Rory Pierce has a nice ring to it,” I grin. “And everyone will finally know that you’re mine.”

Ella smiles. “I can’t believe this is the same woman that literally told us before the season opener that you weren’t getting married after Lo said she was going to be her sister-in-law one day.”

“Never been more happy to be wrong,” she says sweetly, looking only at me.

We didn’t go about this in the traditional way, but I wouldn’t change a fucking thing.

Rory owns my heart, and as long as she’s my wife, I’ll be the happiest man alive.

“Did Sage finally fall asleep?” Rory asks as she steps out of the bathroom after her shower.

Tonight’s game just ended, but we didn’t end up watching it. I couldn’t bear to see it when I couldn’t be there with my team. And since I was told not to come to the stadium, Rory stayed behind, too, and we watched Sage together here.

She was having trouble falling asleep, but I settled her down while Rory rinsed the day away.

I can’t lie and say that I don’t enjoy this glimpse of our future.

A domestic life where we’re hanging out at home, taking care of our child.

I’ve never wanted anything more.

Rory sits beside me on Lo’s bed since Sage is sleeping in hers while we wait for Lane to return. “Yeah, I got her down.”

“Did you sing to her again?”

I smile at her. “I might have. Works like a charm.”

She grins and leans her head on my shoulder. “Do you want to see if they’re showing the game highlights on ESPN?”

“Yeah,” I sigh. “I want to see how the guys did.”

Rory grabs the remote, turns on the TV, and flips to ESPN. We watch for a few minutes before the anchors mention tonight’s game.

If you could call it a game.

Stars lost 10-2 tonight to the Raptors.

I don’t want to say it’s because of me because the rest of the guys are just as good, if not better, but I think Ella may have been right about team morale being low. Based on the way the anchors are talking, that’s spot on. They’re saying the guys didn’t look like they had their heads in the game tonight and then said something I didn’t expect to hear.

They questioned if that had anything to do with Cole Pierce ending up on the restricted list.

I knew word would get out, but I didn’t think about how it would feel when it did.

It’s a shitty feeling, especially when my only crime is loving my Field Manager’s daughter.

They now cut to a clip from Skip’s media interview after the game.

“Your team was undefeated before tonight,” a reporter states. “But you lost this game by eight runs. What happened between last night’s game and this one?”

“Baseball is a game of losing,” Skip says gruffly. “Even the best teams have seventy losses in a year. This is just one of ours. We’ll be back stronger tomorrow.”

Another reporter pipes in. “Paul, we’ve all seen the news about Cole Pierce being placed on the restricted list. He’s the World Series MVP—what happened that took him out of tonight’s lineup?”

“Next question, please.”

“Will Pierce be back for tomorrow’s game?” another reporter chimes.

“That’s undetermined.”

“Do you think taking Mr. Pierce out of the lineup lost you the game tonight?”

“Okay, I think that’s enough questions for tonight,” Skip says before quickly standing from the table and stalking out of the room.

I don’t notice how I’m just staring ahead blankly until Rory puts her hand on mine. “Are you okay, Cole?”

I clear my throat. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“It’s okay if you aren’t,” she says reassuringly. “I know how important baseball is to you.”

“I’ll be okay, Rory,” I say, squeezing her hand. “I promise. You’re far more important to me anyway.”

She smiles gently before kissing me, letting me forget my problems for just a moment.

We’re interrupted by a knock at the door.

“That must be Lane,” Rory says.

“I’ll grab it.” I stand from the bed, stride to the door, and swing it open, eyes widening in surprise. “Skip… hey.”

“Dad?!” I hear Rory say desperately, sprinting over to join us.

“Hey,” he says, rubbing his neck uncomfortably before gesturing at me. “Glad to see Cole is here right now, actually.”

“Really?” I say lowly.

“Yeah,” he sighs. “We should talk.” Skip looks between us before his eyes narrow as he studies Rory’s hand. His eyes then jump to my own hand before bouncing back and forth, and he swallows hard. “Seems like we have a lot to talk about…”