“Where are you?” Maverick held his phone to his ear, taking in Daisy-Mae’s office on Monday morning. He could barely see her desk’s surface, so many bouquets of flowers were crowding it. The wall to his right was partially hidden by a stack of delivery boxes and wrapped gifts.
There’d been nothing at his house. The only traffic down his gravel road was himself, his hired hand, and the occasional brave courier driver who delivered something that far out of town when he saw Maverick’s name on the package. He’d stopped doing that, though, and instead ordered everything under a pseudonym or to his mother’s.
Which meant Daisy-Mae was likely getting all of their gifts. Then again, he hadn’t been in the locker room yet today. He made a note to get there before the rest of the team so they wouldn’t tease him too hard if it was even a quarter as overwhelming as Daisy-Mae’s office.
“I’m working from home.”
“Why?” He nudged aside some lilies and set down the coffees he’d bought for them to share.
“I couldn’t get in.”
“Something wrong with your car?”
“No, it’s insane there. I got swarmed.”
Maverick moved to the window of her fourth-floor office, peering down at the crowd of reporters blocking the front doors.
“Didn’t you use your pass to go in the private entrance?” The building had a fenced and gated private lot in the back, which was monitored by a security guard.
“That’s for players and management.”
“That’s you.” Before she could protest, he added, “You have an ID card, don’t you?” Not like security wouldn’t know who she was. Men noticed Daisy-Mae, and any employee worth their salt would definitely know her now, thanks to her very public engagement to the team’s captain.
“I didn’t realize I could park back there.”
Maverick smiled. Even if you tried, you couldn’t take the down-home gal out of a woman like Daisy-Mae. It was one of the reasons he adored his fiancée so much.
Fiancée. He was still getting used to calling her that. It had only been four days, but the word hadn’t lost its powerful kick.
“Are you in my office?” she asked.
“I am. The place looks like a florist’s. You have a lot of gifts, too.”
“We do.”
He moved over to the wall and began reading the tags, telling her who some of the gifts were from. Maverick chuckled with fondness at a familiar name.
“Who’s that?”
“The first referee to eject me from a game. He says on here that you’ll need this.” He nudged the box, curious what was inside.
“Do you want to bring some gifts home with you?”
He eyed the room. “I didn’t drive my truck today.”
“It’s that crazy?”
“Understatement.” It was flattering but not surprising. The world loved Daisy-Mae almost as much as he did.
He put her on speaker while he sorted a few gifts into a come-home-tonight pile. “How’s your new desk working out?”
“Don’t laugh, but I’m actually working on the couch.” Before he could say he’d told her so, she said quickly, “But it’s only because I keep getting deliveries here, too. The couch is closer to the door.”
“And awesome to work from,” he pointed out.
“The desk is okay, but it feels…I don’t know. Formal.”
“Are you going to work from home more often?”
“The commute has lost its thrill. Especially since I’m no longer sharing it with Violet.”
“I hear you.” And it would be even less thrilling once they started a family. But he couldn’t see either of them living in the city permanently. He’d only been back in the country for a few months but had no plans to leave. “So, what are you gonna do?”
“Miranda said I can try working from home until it settles down a bit. So here I am, I guess. Then I was thinking if I can swing it financially, Vi and I can get a little holiday trailer for in the city. Although she doesn’t sound as keen as she did a few weeks ago.”
With Violet? What about him?
“A holiday trailer?” He envisioned it parked behind the arena, sort of like trailers for actors when they were working on location.
“Just something simple and cute. Not one of those big monstrosities. You can get an old one for pretty cheap, and then you park them in a campground and pay a monthly rate—”
“No.” He almost laughed, but over the years he’d figured out Daisy-Mae worked a lot of jobs, not for a lack of things to do. She wasn’t raking in millions of dollars a year like he was. “You’re the fiancée of an NHL star. You’re almost a celebrity.” He wondered if that warm gooey feeling in his chest whenever he thought of her as his fiancée would ever fade. He hoped not. He peeked through the blinds again. “We’ll get an apartment close by.” Another car pulled up, and a cameraman got out. “With a doorman.”
She laughed. “I can’t suddenly afford a nice place just because I’m engaged to you.”
“We need to protect your privacy. These reporters are here for you.”
“Because you made them think I’m pregnant!”
“Sorry about that.” He cringed, knowing his mouth had gotten way ahead of any plans they had.
This morning he’d read the speculation online about how far along she might be. The two of them were getting press like he’d predicted. Just not quite the kind they’d wanted. Although overall, everyone seemed excited by the idea that she might be expecting. One article had even run a poll on some possible baby names. Personally, he was rooting for Brayton if it was a boy.
“Leo was saying there’s an opening in his building. I’ll check it out.”
“This job is my only income stream, Mav. If I screw up—”
“What are you talking about? You won’t screw up.”
“But if I do…”
“Won’t happen.”
“What if all my ideas dry up? I mean, once we have this fan stuff all working, it’s just rinse and repeat…” Sadness filled her voice. “What will they need me for? I haven’t even been to college. I’d be the first to get the ax when they’re looking to trim my department.”
Maverick paused, considering his words before deciding to simply be blunt. “Are you freaking out?”
“No!”
“Come on, Froggy.”
She sighed at the nickname.
“Tell me.”
“I’m just overwhelmed.”
“Yeah?” He sat in one of her chairs and crossed an ankle over his knee, pulling one of the coffees from the lilies and taking a sip. “Pour it all on me.”
“Everything’s so fast, and everyone wants to know our plans. I’m used to having everything laid out and various speeches at the ready when there’s this kind of attention. In pageants I was prepared for the onslaught and it was predictable and short-lived.” Her voice shook. “I don’t know where we’re getting married or when I’m moving in or even where we’ll live. How many kids we want? I don’t even know how to act like your fiancée.”
“Just be yourself.”
Her voice was small when she said, “I don’t know how to do this. It’s not just walk on stage and smile at the lights, then go back home to being a nobody. This is…constant.”
Maverick’s heart dropped, and he sat forward. He checked his watch, calculating how quickly he could make it to her side. He had an afternoon practice, and the soonest he could be there to help settle and reassure her wouldn’t be until after supper.
They needed to get married sooner rather than later.
He also needed to fix this. And the first thing he could do was buy her some privacy and downtime.
“I’ll get us an apartment in the city and hire a driver for the days we don’t want to drive back home,” he said. “I’ll bring some of these gifts back to Sweetheart Creek tonight. Then we’ll sit down and figure out the details and make a plan. We’ll have a united front to present to those who ask.
“The publicity is good. It’s friendly. Just put on your beauty queen persona and smile and wave. We’ll get through this. They love you. And they love us together.”
She sighed. “Mav, they’re going to figure out that I’m poor and uneducated. I’m so afraid I’m going to screw up without even realizing it. This is a different world for me.”
“Whoa. You’re doing amazing things here at work and nobody is saying otherwise. You’re amazing.” Sensing she wasn’t fully convinced, he added, “You’re the only one to break my one-date rule in over four years, you know. That says a lot.”
“Yeah, because Louis said he’d kick you off the team if you didn’t stick with me.”
He laughed with her, moving back to the window. The crowd showed no hints of subsiding. “Okay, so maybe there was some outside pressure to kick us into gear. But we didn’t have any problems agreeing to a second date. Remember?”
“I guess I broke your rule, didn’t I?” There was a smile in her voice, and Maverick felt like he could breathe again.
He lowered his voice. “But also, I want you to know that never, not even for one hot second, did I ever want to back out of a date with you.”
There was authority and confidence in her voice again when she said, “We can’t move in together. Not until we’re married.”
“You’re worried about our reputations?”
“It already looks like a shotgun wedding or entrapment.”
He sat down hard, finally understanding. Daisy-Mae wasn’t afraid of the attention. She was afraid that people might see her in the way her mother did—that she was desperate and poor, and looking for a flashy life and had trapped him with a pregnancy. She saw herself as some small-town gal punching above her heart’s pay grade when in his mind he was too.
“Fine. Separate places until we get married. But you need a place closer to work, and because this is my mess, I’m paying for it all.”
She didn’t argue, and he considered it a win.
“Just, you know, don’t stretch out the engagement, okay?”
“Don’t worry,” she said warmly, “I’ll be the good wife. I’ll wait until you’re legally obligated to me before I bankrupt you.”
He laughed, knowing she’d never do such a thing, but his heart warmed as her voice turned more upbeat again.
There was just one more thing to put the icing on the cake.
“Hey, Daise?”
“Hm?”
“Landon got an offer this morning. A really sweet one.”
* * *
“No.” Maverick turned to Louis, who wouldn’t meet his eye. He turned back to Reanna. “This is my interview.”
He was missing his morning coffee in Daisy-Mae’s office for this. And with things extra busy since their engagement two weeks ago, he didn’t want to miss a single moment with her. His agent had been fielding calls, and there were a lot of pulls on his time right now. It was a good thing Daisy-Mae understood his lifestyle, the fame, the busyness. She’d helped him get here, after all.
The season was ending in just a few months, and there would be one more thing off his plate until training. They’d have more time, and everything would work out beautifully again.
Except for this.
“Actually, it’s my interview,” Reanna stated calmly.
Maverick turned to Louis again, who gave a sheepish shrug. “You ambushed me? You lied? I’m the sideshow in her interview? I was supposed to be talking about the season ahead and our winning streak. What is this?”
Louis pulled him aside. “She’s agreeing to talk about things publicly. She’s going to clear your name of any wrongdoing.”
“Too little, too late.” He paced one way, then the other. He faced Louis again. “So now that I’m finally getting my life and career repaired and people are forgetting, she wants to stir it up? She’s going to tell the world we didn’t have an affair. Who’s going to believe that?”
“It’s worth a try, isn’t it?”
“For what?” Maverick asked. “I’m fine. Finally. I have an offer for a commercial. I have my health. I could retire tonight and be okay. I don’t see any reason to go on screen with her.”
“Can you please do it for the rest of the guys on the team?”
“They don’t need me. Getting engaged to Daisy-Mae increased my likability, and I’m happy. Isn’t that enough?”
“I need this.” Louis locked his gaze on Maverick’s, staring at him in a way that had him second-guessing his stance. He glanced toward Reanna, who was being fitted for a lapel microphone, getting comfortable on the white couch set in front of the cityscape backdrop. This was supposed to be his interview.
“Daisy-Mae isn’t here,” Maverick stated, crossing his arms.
“This doesn’t concern her.”
“I think it does.”
“If she were here,” Louis said, carefully steering Maverick toward the soundstage, “it would look as if Reanna was apologizing to your fiancée for going around with you behind her back.”
Louis had a point.
“This is clean. PR has vetted all the questions.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Miranda thinks it’s a good idea. A push to get you even higher. The team higher. Your team, Captain.”
“Seriously. Could you guilt me a little more?” All Louis needed to do next was bring up his mom and the crap she’d had to deal with.
His coach was giving him that steely look again. It was one he used on unruly rookies just before he benched them for half a season or bag skated them for weeks on end so they learned he was the boss.
Wait a second. “Why are you here?” Louis was in his coaching gear, not likely to be on screen.
“One minute!” called someone from over by the large cameras.
Maverick and Louis stared at each other for a long moment.
“When have I ever steered you wrong?”
Maverick sighed, unable to think of a single time. Even dating Daisy-Mae—as crazy as the setup had seemed—had been a smart move. In all ways.
“Fine. But put it on record that I hate this idea and I’m against it.” He pointed at Louis. “If things go to crap, it’s all on you.”
“That’s my boy,” Louis said, stepping back as stagehands pulled Maverick onto the set, clipping him with a microphone and directing him to sit on the couch. They tried to place him close to Reanna, but he made sure there was as much room as humanly possible. When the cameraman asked him to move further to the left, closer to Reanna, he glowered and told him to shoot from a different angle.
Reanna shifted uncomfortably, and her throat moved as she swallowed hard. Without looking at him, she said quietly, “I’m doing this so Daisy-Mae knows what a good man you are.”
“She knows without you having to tell her that. She said yes to my marriage proposal, after all.”
Maverick considered leaving.
“We’re on air in ten seconds,” someone commanded from beyond the bright lights shining on them. The show’s host appeared, quickly shaking hands and getting settled.
The intro went fast, and then the host was turning to Reanna with the first question. “You’re here today to clear the air about something, is that right?”
“Yes,” Reanna said, her voice wavering and low.
Maverick closed his eyes, hoping the camera wasn’t on him. Was she going to blow it? She hadn’t had the courage to step away from her husband and seek help a year ago. Had things changed enough that she wouldn’t bail at the last minute?
“You’re here because you’ve left your husband, Adwin Kendrik, the owner of the NHL team The Lafayette Blur?”
“Yes.”
“You’re also here because you’re coming forward about something you’ve kept private for many years. Would you like to tell us about it?”
Reanna inhaled sharply, and there was a painful moment of silence before she began talking. “My husband was abusive. He would get angry and hurt me. I’m not here to call him out on that. I’m here to clear a good friend’s name and reputation.”
Maverick nearly snorted. Good friend? He hadn’t heard from her in months, and she’d ambushed him to get him here instead of speaking to him like a reasonable human being. She’d ruined him and left him hanging.
He understood her actions, but to call him a good friend was an outright lie.
“I behaved in a way that hurt Maverick Blades.” She reached for his hand across the space, but he stared straight ahead, keeping his hands clasped between his knees. “He was there for me. The times that the press photographed us together were times he was protecting me. Taking me to a safe place—a-a-a hotel.”
Well, that sounded bad. Apparently, her answers to the questions hadn’t been vetted.
“He stepped in when I wasn’t safe. He knew what was going on with me and Adwin, and he helped me stay safe.”
“Maverick?” The host turned to him. “Did you ever go to the authorities on Reanna’s behalf?”
“She begged me not to. She felt the risk to her safety was too great.”
“Could you elaborate why?” The host turned back to Reanna. “Maybe help other women who are listening and find themselves in the same situation?”
“I-I-I’d lose everything if I left Adwin.”
“How so?”
“Everything was in his name. I had nothing. And he told me that’s what I’d get if I ever left him or went to the police. He threatened to hide our assets so I’d never get a dime.”
“But your safety…” the host asked.
“Maverick tried to help me leave, but the press skewered him.” She stared straight at the reporter. “Adwin targeted him and his career.”
Maverick sent up a silent prayer that she wouldn’t cause him any new enemies, both in the world of the NHL and with the press.
“I was so caught up in my own world I didn’t fully understand what was happening to Maverick. He took the brunt, but I couldn’t step up and say that things were…” She closed her eyes for a moment. “The rumors made it bad at home, and I was afraid if I said anything—anything at all—about what was going on with Maverick and Adwin that everything would come out and that I’d get hurt. Badly.”
“And what about Maverick?” the reporter asked gently. “He was hurt.”
A tear escaped Reanna’s left eye.
The reporter turned to Maverick. “You almost lost your career?”
Maverick gave a small nod. He didn’t want to talk about it, but seeing as Reanna was having a breakdown to his left, he continued. “My reputation took a hit, and people have treated me differently. I was traded, and I was pretty close to losing my career this year. Thankfully, the Dragons are doing a lot better than we were at the beginning of our season.” He smiled, trying to lighten the mood. Reanna was sobbing quietly, and he wasn’t sure what to do. Nobody had prepped him for this. He didn’t want to add to Reanna’s burden, but he wanted this stupid reporter to know that he and his colleagues had damaged his career.
“I think the worst part is that a lot of people assume the worst of me. People who didn’t know me.” And some who did.
“Do you regret keeping your silence?”
“I think stepping forward would’ve made things worse. Not just for Reanna, but for myself. Nobody would’ve believed me, especially when I couldn’t say why I was taking a married woman into a hotel. Even though I always left a few minutes later. There were never timestamps on any of the images that were published.” He stared at the host for a minute. “I’m sure there are people who will watch this today and won’t believe us. That’s the power of the press. People believe you when it’s more interesting than the truth.”
The host toyed with his question cards, skipping one.
“I told Reanna I’d keep her secret, keep her safe, and give her time so she could extract herself. Going public was never my call to make.” He turned to Reanna. “And I’m glad that you’re in a safe place now.”
“He’s suing me,” she said, her voice tight. “I’ll get nothing. I should have left earlier.”
Maverick turned back to the host, afraid he’d say something he’d regret.
“You seem very calm,” the host said. “Are you angry?”
He saw a flash of Louis’s jacket out of the corner of his eye and caught himself before falling into the trap that was being laid. NHL Star Angry at the Decimation of his Reputation!
“If I could go back in time, would I have chosen a different path? No. I have a mother. I have a fiancée. Both are women I love very much. If someone was hurting them and there was somebody who could step in and help but didn’t because it might come at a personal sacrifice…?” He shook his head. “Sure, I sometimes wish someone else had stumbled upon Reanna and her problems.” He gave a weak smile before growing serious again. “But I’m not the kind of man to turn his back. And I’m lucky I have a woman who knows who I am and loves me. She didn’t need this show to tell her why.”
They went to break, and Maverick removed his microphone. Without saying goodbye to Reanna, he stood and walked out, his quads shaking with pent-up anger. There was only one person he wanted to spend his time with right now, and if he was lucky, maybe he could still catch her for a late morning coffee.
* * *
“Sorry, I have to take this. It’s my agent again.”
Daisy-Mae nodded, understanding that this was part of the package of Maverick’s amended reputation and their public engagement.
Maverick stepped outside the Longhorn Diner to take the call.
Over half a dozen offers for various deals had come in since Reanna’s little tell-all to the press last week. They’d paid her sweetly for her story, of course.
Various outlets had approached Maverick to tell his side of the story, but he’d declined. Thankfully. Things had turned into a full-on zoo since Reanna went public.
And thanks to Daisy-Mae mentioning the Peppermint Lodge after her engagement, Cassandra was also being swarmed. Although, they were all offering to help at the Ray-Blades wedding.
They didn’t even have a date yet and, at this rate, were more likely to elope like Miranda had on New Year’s Eve. And that would be lame. She failed to understand the appeal of modern elopements.
Frankly, though, the attention on her and Maverick was overwhelming. The worst of it was feeling like a third wheel around him. She hadn’t thought about what it might be like once they’d mended his reputation and the world saw him the way she did. Sometimes she wondered if he even needed her any longer. Which was silly thinking because he loved her and was marrying her—eventually. He was just really, really busy.
Daisy-Mae continued eating her salad and garlic bread, waving over Mrs. Fisher.
“Can I get a refill, please?” She tapped her empty glass of sweet tea.
“You betcha, hon. How are things going?” She tipped her head toward the window where they could see Maverick pacing on the sidewalk out front, ear to his phone.
“Good. How are you?”
“That man hasn’t been able to sit down and finish a meal all week.”
They’d only been in three times, Maverick determined to shoehorn in coffee or a semi-proper date with her. She appreciated his efforts, but Mrs. Fisher was right. His phone never stopped ringing, whether they were in for a quick coffee or a meal. Daisy-Mae had suggested Maverick’s agent stack up the list of things he wanted to talk about and do it all in one call. But apparently he already was.
And since Maverick was looking at some sizeable deals, Daisy-Mae didn’t want to get in the way of him striking while the iron was hot. Some of them could set him up for the rest of his life.
By the time Daisy-Mae finished her meal, Maverick returned. He sat across from her, looked at her empty plate, then down at his own untouched meal. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
His phone rang again, but he silenced it.
“You need to answer that.”
“No, I need to pay attention to you.”
“Your attention is going to be on what you might’ve missed by not taking that call. Go ahead. Take it outside. I’ll have Mrs. Fisher pack up your meal.”
Maverick’s smile tightened. He didn’t seem happy, but he complied.
Daisy-Mae waved down Mrs. Fisher to pay for supper and get Maverick’s boxed. While she waited, she tried to remember what her father had told her at the away game earlier in the week. He’d been passing through on a trucking route, and Maverick had scored them both front row seats to watch him play. Her father had loved being so close to the action, and he’d let it slip that he admired her patience. When she’d expressed her confusion, he’d explained that it was easy to jump into something with someone. It was a lot harder to wait, to trust, to believe that the right person was going to come along and that you’d find that enduring soul-level love.
He believed she’d been waiting, not that nobody wanted her. How could her two parents see her so differently? His words, along with Maverick’s efforts to spend time with her, had lifted her up, made her remember that all of this insanity was worth it. She’d waited. And she’d been rewarded with the right man.
This insanity was just…temporary. Difficult, but temporary.
“Hey, stranger.” Laura, Levi Wylder’s fiancée, slid into the seat across from Daisy-Mae as Mrs. Fisher set down Maverick’s packaged meal. Laura was a retired fashion model who was brokering deals around the globe as she wet her entrepreneurial feet. She reached across the table, her eyes lighting up at Daisy-Mae’s ring. “I haven’t even said congratulations yet! You’ve been so busy.”
“I know. You too. Hey, how was…” Daisy-Mae tried to recall the last place she’d heard Laura had gone but realized she was well out of the loop.
Laura waved off the question. Her gaze flicked to Maverick through the window, then back to Daisy-Mae. “I couldn’t help but notice that Maverick’s coming up in the world—lots of deals and attention right now?”
Daisy-Mae nodded, careful not to show her current annoyance with how busy it kept him. She was lucky. She was grateful.
“It’s tough.”
“What is?”
“It’s just tough.” Laura pulled her hands into the sleeves of her sweater. “You’ve got this new relationship and then suddenly your life explodes in the way you had been hoping it would for years. But the timing is sucky.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Her belief that Laura had been empathizing quickly turned to concern. “I thought you and Levi were splitting time between being on the road and at the ranch?”
Last she’d heard, his brothers Myles and Cole had stepped in to fill the hole their older brother was leaving each time he went away with Laura. It had sounded as though it was working well for everyone.
“We are. And it’s great.” Her face had lit up at the mention of Levi’s name. Daisy-Mae wondered if she did that when someone mentioned Maverick.
“Oh. Then good.”
“But it’s not always easy. And it was a definite adjustment for both of us. Especially Levi. He was such a hermit.” She laughed, her affection obvious. “You should have seen him in New York the first time. He looked so uncomfortable.”
She reached over and gave Daisy-Mae’s hand a tight squeeze. “Hang in there. It’ll all settle out. Love is worth the bumps in the road.” She leaned back again, her tone slightly scolding. “But make sure you speak up for what you want. Boundaries are important. It’s too early for you to…” She stopped, smiled, then shook her head as though tossing away the advice she’d been about to give.
Daisy-Mae let out a shaky breath. “Too early for me to feel resentment?”
Laura gave Daisy-Mae’s hand another squeeze. “Just be patient and keep the lines of communication open. Be kind. Be honest.” She returned to her spot across the room where she’d been having supper with April Wylder.
Daisy-Mae took a moment to collect herself, then gathered her purse and Maverick’s meal. Things would settle out. They’d find a new pattern and it would all be okay.
At the door, she met Maverick as he was coming back in.
She took one look at him and braced herself for more disappointment. “What’s wrong?”
He inhaled, looking down the street before shutting his eyes tight, then releasing them to look back at her. “I have to go.”
“What do you mean?” They were supposed to be having supper, then going through the wedding invitation samples and then head to Cassandra’s to consider her lodge as their venue. This was the second time they’d had to cancel.
“That campaign for the skates. Their photographer has emergency surgery booked in two days and wants to squeeze me in now, so the whole thing doesn’t get pushed back by a month.”
Daisy-Mae tried to remember what his schedule was like and what this change might mean.
“I have to fly to New York tonight. Tomorrow morning we’re doing the shoot.”
“But you practice tomorrow morning.”
It wasn’t like him to miss practice. Not for money.
“I can miss one.”
Was it just one, though? She feared it was the thin edge of the wedge.
“Why can’t they hire a different photographer?”
They had planned their wedding around hockey. Their wedding. And now this was pushing aside their wedding planning and hockey?
“I don’t like this.” She caught herself. “But it’s not my decision, not my career. So, go. Get the photos taken.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you going to call Cassandra and tell her we’re canceling again?” If he was the one always pulling out, he needed to be the one facing the disappointment from everyone. Yes, as his partner, she should be more giving, but she was working two jobs and commuting several days a week as well. Plus trying to plan their late-spring wedding with him.
It was like Laura said, boundaries.
If she kept taking over more and more things from his life, she’d soon be drowning. If he was saying yes to every deal that came across his agent’s desk and expecting her to bend around it all, then he at least had to sort out how to make it all happen. She wasn’t his assistant, and that wasn’t the kind of relationship she wanted to have with the man.
“Anything you decide with Cassandra is fine by me.” He planted a kiss on the top of her head.
“No. No way. I am not planning our wedding without you. If you don’t help, there is no wedding.”
“Daisy-Mae,” he said with a hint of impatience.
“No. Because right now, I don’t even know if you would be able to carve out the date and make it.”
Maverick looked at her in shock.
“I am not your mother or your assistant. I can’t be superwoman. I’m not willing.”
He looked miffed.
“I like to think I’m supportive. I come to your away games when I can. I flex my schedule around your practices and games so we can sit and chat or commute together. But I can’t do all of this. I’m not going to put my entire life on hold––”
“I’m not asking you to.”
She felt the statement hit her like it was the lead-in to a breakup speech.
“Look, we’re a team,” he said, the vein on his forehead bulging. “I got you that apartment because you needed it, and it would make your life easier. I’m not even staying there because you don’t like how it might look to the public. And I appreciate you looking out for me. I really do. But I need you to help me out a little, too.”
Daisy-Mae closed her eyes, realizing he had a point.
He didn’t want to break up, he was just frustrated too. They both needed to give and take, and he was doing his best even if it felt like it wasn’t enough.
It was all just so exhausting.
“I’ll talk to Cassandra. But the next appointment we make with her needs to be in pen. Not pencil. And maybe…” She waited until she had his full attention, hating that she was about to suggest this. “Maybe we need to push the wedding date back. Just until things settle down.”