Page 51 of Who’s Playing You (In The Nick of Time #1)

NICK SOBA

I never would have imagined what referring to Scottie as my wife on what turned out to be national television would lead to.

I mean… sorry not sorry.

We’d barely gotten to the sideline when my mom’s phone was blowing up. She answered and stepped away from us so she could talk, but I could hear the screaming coming from the other end of the phone.

My dad, Scottie and I looked at her as her facial expressions gave nothing away. After what felt like a lifetime, but was probably only thirty seconds, she passed the phone to me.

“It’s for you,” she simply said.

I handed my dad my helmet and took the phone, “Hello?”

“You married my best fucking friend?! And you didn’t even TELL ME?!?! What in the actual fuck Nick?”

Oh.

Nat was watching the game.

I forgot that I hadn’t told her the news yet… oops! And I hadn’t thought about the fact that Scottie was in frame and being broadcast across the world standing next to me. All that aside, Nat would get over it if she was actually upset.

She would have to.

I was more concerned if this would upset Scottie or not.

“I, ahh, so here’s the thing…” I began.

“Nicholas Joseph Soba, I cannot believe you. Or her! How could you not tell me!?!”

I needed to rein her in before she got hysterical and too worked up because she wouldn’t listen to anything then.

“Would you calm down? Listen to me. It’s not like that, alright?

” I said as I took a step away and turned my back to my parents and Scottie, trying to get as much privacy as I could get for this dumpster fire of a situation.

“Not like what ?”

“This isn’t about you Nat, okay? This is about us . Not you.”

That shut her up because the other end of the line went quiet, so much so that I took the phone from my ear to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.

Quietly she then said, “I’m listening.”

“Thank you,” I began. “It’s new, okay?”

Before I could continue Nat jumped in and started yelling again, “You told the world that she’s your wife , Nick! That’s not new!”

“That was more me projecting, putting it out into the Universe - if you want to get technical. Scottie isn’t my wife, yet .

But she will be,” that’s when Nat tried to interrupt again.

“Nat, listen. Stop, okay? This isn’t the time or place - for me - to get into this whole thing.

I need to get off the field in a minute and have a few more interviews and meetings that I need to do before I can take Scottie home, but I’ll call you tomorrow and answer any questions you have. ”

I continued, “All you need to know is that Scottie and I are relatively new. But I love her. She will be my wife as soon as she says yes. She just met mom and dad today as my girlfriend . And I guess I jumped the gun with the reporters but they were being assholes.”

I then mumbled, “Jumped the gun or just wishful thinking - call it what you will.” Hearing Nat let out a sigh, I continued, “The reporters were getting very aggressive and rude, I was trying to protect Scottie and get her away from them. She doesn’t like big crowds to begin with, so I knew she was uncomfortable just being down on the field, and then all these people were in her face.

I was trying to shut them up and get them away from her. ”

My sister put out a little growl on the other side of the phone. “Assholes,” she muttered. “That’s Scottie’s worst nightmare. I’m surprised she was even down there.”

“Exactly,” I said in response. “But she came down for me . With mom and dad.”

I gave it a moment before I added, “Nat?”

“Yeah?” she reluctantly answered.

“We weren’t keeping you in the dark on purpose.

We’ve been in our own little bubble, getting to know each other, ignoring everyone and everything else.

During this time, I was also trying to figure out the best way to tell you that felt inclusive to you and your friendship with Scottie.

I obviously failed miserably doing that, and for that I’m sorry. This isn’t how I wanted to tell you.”

After letting that sit a moment I continued, “Except for me now, I think you’re the most important person in Scottie’s life. You mean everything to her. If you don’t approve of us, I think you might literally crush her.”

I heard her sniffle on the other end so I continued, “Nat, I hope you put your own feelings aside in thinking we were keeping you in the dark because we weren’t.

I hope you believe what I’ve told you. When Scottie learned who I was, you were her first concern.

She was so worried about how you’d feel…

but Nat? I love her. And I’m the luckiest guy on Earth because she loves me too. ”

Now Nat was full-on crying. “Well,” *sob*, “you’re definitely an improvement from that idiot ex-husband of hers,” Nat said as she laughed through her tears.

I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped from me, and I realized how tight my body had become waiting on her response.

“You better fucking believe it,” I said in response. “Nat, she’ll want and need you when I do propose. You’ll be the maid of honor. And if I have it my way, you’ll be an aunt soon too. We want you involved in all of this.”

“Fine,” she conceded. “As long as you admit one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“You admit to me right here and now that you’ve been obsessed with her since she first came home with me from college,” she said, thinking she could make me admit to some big secret that I was harboring and that it would make me embarrassed.

“Don’t think that I didn’t notice you hanging around when she’d come home with me, or the conversations you’d have with her when I wasn’t around. ”

But I fully admitted that, and loving the word choice that Nat made.

“Nat. You wouldn’t believe the depths of my obsession for Scottie, even if I told you half of it,” I admitted. “And I guess I wasn’t as sly as I thought. I did take every opportunity to spend time with her, yes.”

Not understanding the true depth of my truth she half-yelled back, “I fucking knew it! You were all puppy dog eyes for her, following us around and trying to get her attention.”

“Well, do you blame me? She’s beautiful, smart, talented, funny, kind, and literally one-of-a-kind.”

“I can’t argue with that. But also, dang, Nick! I didn’t think you’d fess up so easily. Props to you. But I get it,” she let that hang. “I get it. This has been a long time coming for you. She was oblivious though, wasn’t she?”

I laughed. “Completely.”

Nat snort-laughed. “Figured.” She then let out a heavy breath. “Fine. I forgive you, and only you. I was never mad at Scottie anyway. I could never be mad at her. She doesn’t have a mean or deceitful bone in her body.”

“One-hundred-percent.”

“M-hm. Well,” she let out another sigh. “In that case, you have my blessing. However,” she said and raised her voice slightly. “Three things. First off, you and I are most definitely having another conversation.”

“Done.”

“Second, tell Scottie to call me tomorrow. She and I also have to talk.”

“Done. And third?”

“Third. You break her heart and I will break your legs and ruin your pro football career. Are we clear?”

“Crystal.”

“Good talk. Oh, and nice game.” And with that she hung up on me.

I turned around to three of the most important people in my life looking at me expectantly. I handed my mom her phone and took Scottie’s hand while giving them all a smile.

My mom broke the silence, “So how’d that go? Is she going to…”

I waved her off. “Ahh, she’ll be fine. We’re cool.”

Three sets of disbelieving eyes stared at me.

“What? She’s totally fine with everything, with us being together,” I said as I looked at Scottie, to which she raised her eyebrow at me.

“She is! She expects a call from you tomorrow though. And, ahh, we have an understanding, which is that if I hurt you that she’s basically going to ruin me.

So there’s that. But at least we have an understanding. So it’s all good.”

I beamed at them. Like this wasn’t some big deal.

I then grabbed my helmet from my dad, laced my fingers through Scottie’s and said, “Come on, let’s go.”