Page 4 of Finally Home
“Are you absolutely sure about this?” Rhodes asks dejectedly. “There’s still time to run, Starling.”
I roll my eyes and set down my mascara to look at him. “I’m sure, Rho. It was just a little fight. Besides, we’re already living together across the country; it just makes sense.”
A mix of anger and something I can’t name crosses his face before he masks it. “Just a little fight? Wren, the night before your fucking wedding he went out with his buddies, cut all contact, and ignored you for hours. Then he has the audacity to show up this morning so hungover he had to stop outside the church and puke in the bushes.”
I can feel my face getting hot as my eyes widen slightly, and Rhodes nods his head. Unfortunately, he’s able to read me as well as he always has, so he can see the embarrassment I wish I could hide.
Rhodes sighs and places a warm hand on my shoulder. “His best man is doing what he can to clean him up right now, but he made a damned fool out of himself in front of an impressive number of guests.”
This isn’t the first time Derrick has gotten too drunk and thrown up somewhere wildly inappropriate, but I thought he’d at least rein it in on our wedding day.
Six months ago, on the night of the draft, I had to pick him up from somebody’s basement at four in the morning because he was so drunk he couldn’t walk, and then he proceeded to puke all over the hood of my car, the floor mat, and in his bed. He proposed less than a month later, and if I’m completely honest with myself, I think I only said yes because he asked.
Now here we are on what should be the best day of our lives, and I don’t even know if he’ll make it through the ceremony without passing out. I keep my gaze down as I talk to Rhodes. “He’s just nervous, Roly-Coly-Oly. Trust me to make my own decisions, please?”
He sighs and hugs me gently. “I know, Starling, and I do. I just love you, and I want what’s best for you. I’ve never thought Derrick was that. And now you’re going to be across the country in Seattle with him? I’m just anxious.”
My heart races at his touch, but I shove the feeling down. Rhodes Gray is gorgeous. Standing ridiculously tall at six foot four, he has gorgeous hazel eyes and wavy brown hair that I know is as soft as it looks. I had a major crush on him when we first met, but then he mentioned wanting us to be friends and it stuck. Rho and I have spent every holiday, vacation, and spare minute together since the day we met. I’ve gone to every game, every event, everything with him, and living away from him is going to be hell.
“I’m anxious too, Rhodes. I’ll miss you so dang much, but this job is too incredible to pass up. You know that,” I say gently.
Seattle’s professional baseball team, the Sirens, offered me a full-time position in their public relations department last week, so Derrick and I will be moving after graduation next month. He was also picked up by the Sirens in December to fill out their roster.
“Alright, well, you ready then?” he asks. “It’s just about time.”
Rhodes is my Man of Honor to Derrick’s irritation, but he’s my best friend in the entire world, and it’s a very small ceremony, so I put my foot down and told him it was that, or I wouldn’t be getting married.
I take a deep breath and send up a prayer I don’t pull a Derrick and throw up all over my dress. Slipping my arm in his, I silently count to three. “Okay, let’s go.”
CHAPTER 1
WREN
Present day
The video on my screen has been playing on a loop for several minutes as Ella and I look on in horror. There, in high definition, is Derrick.
Normally, that wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary since tips and media coverage of the players are emailed to me every day. Kind of comes with the territory when you’re the Director of Public Relations for Seattle’s major league baseball team. The problem is the bench third baseman, who also happens to be my husband of four years, is on my monitor with his dick in some woman’s mouth in an alley. And that woman is not me.
“Wow,” I whisper, my hands shaking where they rest on my keyboard. “It’s already been picked up by a couple of news outlets and Bleacher Report.”
My words snap my coworker and friend out of her stunned trance, and she slams my laptop closed. “Fuck him,” Ella curses. “After all you’ve done for that selfish prick, he has the audacity to cheat on you with some damn cleat chaser in public?!” Her words are whisper-yelled, but they’re still loud enough to bring our boss out of his large, glass-walled office.
Jeremy Cross is the team’s manager, and an absolute beast of a man. He stands at over six and a half feet tall and nearly three hundred pounds, which means he looks more like a linebacker than one of the best pitchers in the country. He played for Seattle professionally for a long time before he finally retired and took the job as head coach, then eventually he was hired on as the general manager.
He’s perpetually calm and has never had a single negative word to say about anyone since I was hired four years ago, save the few asshole players who got traded after their first season for causing problems. And it’s because of his normally even keel that I’m so startled when he storms into my office looking madder than a raccoon the day after trash pickup. He stops less than six inches from me and lifts his giant arms to envelop me in a bear hug.
“Want me to kill him?” His gruff question startles a laugh out of me that quickly devolves into a choked sniffle.
I return the hug and lean my head against his chest, shaking it back and forth. “What am I gonna do, Jer? I can’t face him right now. And what about my job? God, I can’t come to work every day and be the team joke,” I whine miserably, my words nearly inaudible because my mouth is blocked by Jeremy’s large chest.
He strokes my hair gently, shushing me. “None of that now, Cupcake. You know as well as I do that nearly every single player on this team will take your side. As for your job, we’ll figure it out. You’re so much more valuable to this organization than that jackass.”.
I smile at the nickname. On my very first day of work, I wanted to make a good impression, so I stayed up way too late baking cupcakes for everyone in the office. I was so intimidated when my larger-than-life new boss grunted and left the room without a word, only to catch him sneaking six of them back to his office an hour later. He swore me to secrecy and ever since then he’s called me Cupcake.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn teary eyes to my only real girlfriend.
Ella smiles at me sadly. “Why don’t you go home for a while?” I shake my head, but she powers on. “No, I’m serious here, Wren. You’ve never taken a vacation in four years, and we’re in pre-season so you can work remotely. Let’s go to your apartment, pack your shit, and get you on the team’s jet to Charleston.”