Page 37

37

Holt

Ziggy’s crying again.

It’s early, early morning. Pitch black. And she’s huddled on the other side of the bed, crying quietly.

I scoot over behind her and wrap her in a hug, ignoring the ache in the growing bruise on my face.

“Go back to sleep,” she chokes out. “I’ll be okay.”

I’ll be okay .

We didn’t hear from either of her parents again after the banquet last night.

I heard from several teammates over text.

Total shit show and we’ve got your back were the basics.

Ziggy’s not going to be okay.

Not until we work this out with her family.

Her family isn’t like my family.

Her family loves her. I believe they want her to be happy. They just have a few hang-ups getting in the way .

“I’m going to talk to your parents as soon as the sun’s up,” I tell her.

“ No .”

“Ziggy—”

“They hurt you . They hurt me . They owe you an apology. You don’t owe them anything. You don’t have to be the bigger person here.”

She’s not the only person who thinks so.

As soon as the sun rises, there’s a knock on my door.

It’s Silas.

He holds up a brown paper bag. “Ziggy like chocolate?”

“Is it chocolate-covered potatoes?”

He stares at me for half a second before he’s on his phone, texting Porter to grab chocolate-covered potatoes on his way.

“Don’t want company,” I tell him.

“Tough shit. You’re the kind who’s gonna try to say sorry for something you don’t need to be sorry for, so we’re all taking turns babysitting you.”

Ziggy’s so in support of the plan that the next thing I know, my pregnant girlfriend is cooking breakfast for half my team.

If they’re still my team.

If I’m not fired.

“Holy shit, no wonder you fell in love,” Tatum says after his first bite of eggs Benedict. “Can she date all of us?”

Crew smacks him in the head. “Don’t be an asshole at the captain’s house. He’s had a rough summer.”

Ziggy smiles down at her belly and rubs it gently.

Tater Tot must be kicking.

The guys are in and out all day.

Ziggy tears up approximately every fifteen minutes .

I hug her approximately every five minutes.

Kiss her in front of my teammates.

Claim her.

Help her cook. Do the dishes.

Wait for a phone call from headquarters.

Realize that all of these guys who are here today are putting their necks on the line for me.

It’s enough that I have to step out of the room so they won’t see me getting choked up.

But I don’t want to be the reason any of them get fired. I don’t want to be the reason any of them get traded.

I don’t want them to choose me over themselves.

And when we still haven’t heard from Ziggy’s parents by late Sunday night, I’m getting worried that that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

“Do not cave first,” she whispers to me as we snuggle in bed together. “Please. Please . Give them three more days.”

“What difference will three days make?”

“I’m not going to work tomorrow.”

“Ziggy—”

“I don’t work for people who try to control me.”

“Zig, I get that, but are you sure this is the best way to do it?”

“No.” She cuddles closer. “But I’m still so mad that I can’t think about them without crying. I’m tired of crying. I need three more days. And they need to realize if they’re going to make me choose, they won’t like the outcome.”

I stifle a frustrated sigh.

There’s a problem.

I want to fix it. I know how to fix it.

I go see Roland, I apologize, I tell him I quit, and I tell him he can come to grips with me dating his daughter and letting her be an adult, or he’s going to lose her.

Not a threat.

Just the actuality.

She’s leaving her job, isn’t she?

She’s here, isn’t she?

But no one else in my life wants me to fix it my way.

Not immediately anyway.

“Goldie’s introducing me to the people who run Sarcasm Cellars,” Ziggy says. “It’s a little winery up in the mountains. Fletcher did an ad for them last year. They’re looking for a new regional sales rep. I’d be interested even if I wasn’t furious with my dad right now. It gets me back into the wine industry, and Goldie says she wouldn’t recommend them if she wasn’t sure they’d be good about me needing maternity leave.”

I kiss her hair again. “If I told you I’d take care of you and you didn’t have to work?—”

“I’d tell you I want to work.”

“Thought so.”

“And I’m also grateful that you’d offer.” Her hands slide down my back.

I offered before to marry her for her cooking and to give her benefits for the baby.

If I did it again now, I don’t know what she’d say.

I know I love her. She’s put color and laughter and life back into my world. I’d go to the ends of the earth to make her happy.

But proposing to someone who’s being thrown back into family turmoil just as she’s getting through the grief of losing her best friend isn’t going to make her life better.

Even if I’d feel better knowing she truly has chosen me .

Not to spite anyone else, but because she wants me.

“Thank you for being you,” she whispers against my chest. “And thank you for wanting me back.”

A shudder ripples through me. “I can’t resist you.”

She kisses my pec, then my neck, then tilts her head up to kiss my lips.

Making love to her is so easy.

So right.

The rest of the world doesn’t exist when I’m inside her and she’s panting my name and raking her nails down my back.

But the rest of the world exists Monday morning when she finally gets a text from her mom.

Why aren’t you at work today? Why aren’t you talking to us? Are you honestly choosing a man over your family?

She tears up, but she doesn’t cry.

And she texts back I’m not the one making me choose .

Fletcher and Silas show up.

The rest of the team are at their off-season jobs.

Ziggy’s mom doesn’t text back.

And I’m about to crawl out of my skin.

I can fix this.

I can fucking fix this.

Unless I can’t.

Ziggy catches me at the sink, doing dishes after lunch, and hugs me hard from behind. “Thank you for giving me two more days.”

And that?

That’s why it’s worth it.

She knows this is hard.

She knows she’s asking a lot .

And she’s showing up to support me in my own struggles too.

Because that’s what someone who deserves you does , Caden whispers in my head.

I didn’t even know her four months ago, and today, she’s my everything.

Today, I’m putting my entire career on the line for her.

Regrets? Caden whispers.

It’ll depend.

It’ll depend on if I cost her having her family.