The Game of Love: (BWWM Romance) (17 page)

Austin opened the door and started to greet Trent, but then his eyes moved to Alexandrina standing next to him.

“I made her swear to keep quiet about
Sommer,” Trent reassured.

“No offense, Drina, but you’re Jessica’s cousin,” Austin said, unconvinced that Alexandrina’s word meant anything. Her loyalty historically always lay with her family.

“I really won’t,” she promised. “I just wanted to be a part of this celebration with you.”

Austin knew that was a lie, but he didn’t press the issue. The main reason that she’d tagged along was because Alexandrina never let Trent out of her sight. A few years ago, she’d found out about a woman that he’d been sleeping with in Denver and went ballistic, almost taking his head clean off with a ceramic cleaver. Ever since then, Trent buckled down on his fidelity and she’d ramped up her surveillance.

The next reason that she’d probably tagged along was simply because she was nosy. She wanted to check Sommer out so she could compare her to Jessica, and there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t blab to her cousin once she did. If she did blab that Sommer was pregnant, it wouldn’t be long before reporters would be knocking down their door to interview her. The very last thing that he wanted was for Sommer to feel pressured, uncomfortable, or unwelcome.

But since they were already on his doorstep and there wasn’t much else he could do, Austin ushered them in. Eventually, Cason and his girlfriend
, Amelia, arrived, both who he trusted completely because they’d also kept their relationship out of the public eye for some time. Sommer and Amelia had also built a friendship that Austin had enjoyed watching develop since it helped Sommer feel more rooted in Texas. Then, it was Walter and his wife, Tank, the head coach, and a few other people in his life that he kept close.

The event carried on without a hitch.
Sommer blushed as she opened gifts, each one more unique than the other as if everyone had been in competition to have the most memorable present. Afterwards, everyone mingled and enjoyed cake, ice cream, and punch.

At the end of the evening, after the last guest had left, Emma pushed Austin and
Sommer upstairs and urged them to shower and go to bed while she, Caroline, Walter, and Arielle stayed downstairs to clean up.

After taking a shower and saying goodnight to his nieces and nephew, Austin stood in the bedroom doorway and watched
Sommer as she sat cross-legged on the mattress with a baby book perched on her stomach. As her body had changed over the past several months, she’d grown even more beautiful than he could ever imagine. The smile that had twisted his stomach into knots several times over the years had grown more radiant, the arms whose smooth skin he loved to caress had turned into the true meaning of home, and the voice that he’d always searched for in classrooms, crowds, and even other women, was the sound that centered him whenever his world tilted even slightly off its axis. He used to believe that it was impossible to love someone eternally, but the thought that he could ever stop loving Sommer, for any reason at all, was the most absurd thing he’d ever come across in his life.

“I love you,” he said from the doorway.

Her head popped up. “Huh?”

Walking towards her, he sat along the edge of the bed near her legs. “I’m in love with you,
Sommer, and I’ve fallen so far that you’d have to go all the way to hell just to pull me back.”

She closed the book and set it on the nightstand. “Really?”

He laughed. “Really.”

“For how long?”

It was the perfect question.

“That I’ve loved you? It might be a better question to ask when
was it that I didn’t.”

Her head fell and she nervously twiddled with her fingers. Then, when she looked up, her eyes were sparkling with tears.

“I love you too, Austin,” she replied, biting on her bottom lip to keep from bursting completely into tears. With a sigh, he pulled her into his arms and wiped the moisture away from her cheeks with his thumb before pressing a kiss against her eyelids.

“Why didn’t you say it before if it’s been all this time?”
she asked.

He shrugged. “Honestly,
Sommer, I don’t know.”

“Were you afraid that I didn’t feel the same way about you?”

He tilted her head and brushed a kiss across her lips. “Even if you’d told me that you couldn’t stand my guts, I’d probably keep telling you that I love you until you got sick of hearing it.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I could ever get sick of hearing that.”

“Good.” He kissed her again. “Because I love you.”

“I love you too.”

They climbed into bed and she contentedly nestled deep into his body. As she drifted to sleep, he stared at the ceiling with a small smile on his face. All this time, Jessica’s face had been infiltrating his thoughts because he’d lacked closure. It wasn’t that he didn’t love Sommer or that it was never going to be the right time to tell her. Intuitively, he’d known that telling her before completely addressing his anger towards Jessica would have been unfair to her. He needed to be assured that he was all in. And he
was
all the way in. For the long haul.

Now that they had the house, the baby, the life together, the love, and the support of their families, there was only one thing that he could think of that was still missing. One thing that was still needed to make their little family complete.

*****

“That was nice, wasn’t it?”

Trent spread a layer of toothpaste onto his brush and peeked out the bathroom door at his unusually silent wife. He found her sitting at the edge of the bed staring at the nightstand, her hands moving mindlessly together, coaxing a coat of lotion to absorb.

“Dree?”

She stirred. “Oh, I’m sorry, Trent. What were you saying?”

“That it was a nice party.”

She scooped another dollop into the palm of her hand. “Yes, it really was.”

He turned to the bathroom mirror. “Austin loves that woman, I can tell. I thought he was crazy at first, getting all depressed over one woman when women all over Texas were practically handing him their panties, but I get it now. They’re good together. Plus, and don’t get mad Dree,
Sommer’s pretty easy on the eyes.”

When she didn’t respond a second time, he spat into the sink and peered out again. “Something bothering you, baby?”

Replacing the cap on the jar, Alexandrina walked across the room and placed the lotion on the dresser. Tightening the ties of her silk robe, she shook her head.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m going to go check on Chloe.”

Then she left, the tail of her robe swishing behind her as she padded across the hall to their daughter’s room. Slipping inside, she peeked into the crib to make sure that Chloe was soundly asleep. Then she took a seat in the nearby rocking chair and pulled out her cell phone where the screen displayed a third missed call from Jessica. Glancing at the door to make sure that Trent hadn’t followed, she pressed the button to return Jessica’s call.

“Where have you been?” Jessica answered, her voice teetering between anger and panic. “I have been trying to reach you for hours.”

Alexandrina glanced at the door again. “I’m sorry, Jessica. I was out with Trent. Is everything okay?”

She heard Jessica slam a door shut. “I saw Austin today,” she revealed. “He told me that he is in love with another woman.”

Alexandria cringed. “Oh, I am so sorry to hear that. Are you okay?”

“Of course I’m okay.” Then after a moment of silence, she added, “I am
not
okay. How can he claim to already love another woman when not that long ago, he said that he loved me?”

Alexandrina sighed and leaned back into the rocking chair. “Men, that’s how they operate. You know of the problems I had with Trent.”

“But that’s different,” Jessica countered. “Trent didn’t love those women. He only slept with them. Austin, he says he loves this woman, but if that’s the case, why have I not heard of her?”

Don’t say a word,
Alexandrina’s mind urged. Biting her lip, she listened as her cousin continued.

“I know that, after we broke up, he went to some charity event with that green-eyed violinist woman. What was her name again?”

“Victoria Ellington,” Alexandrina replied. “And it’s not her.”

Immediately, she put her hand over her mouth and prayed that Jessica hadn’t picked up on her slip. Unfortunately, it was already too late.

“It’s not her? What does that mean?”

Alexandrina pressed her lips together.

“Tell me what you know,” Jessica demanded.

Chloe stirred in the crib and
Alexadrina rose to check to make sure that she hadn’t woken up. “I might know something,” she admitted, stroking Chloe’s back. “Tonight, I went with Trent over to Austin’s. It was for a party. The girl was there.”

A sound broke through the phone as though Jessica had banged her cell
. Then a few seconds later, she reappeared on the line. “So, she is real?”

“Yes, very real.” Alexandrina refastened a button that had come loose on her daughter’s pajamas.

“Do I know her?”

“No.”

“Should I know her?”

“No. They grew up together. She’s from his hometown in North Carolina.”

Jessica paused and Alexandrina already knew what question was going to follow.

“Is she hideous?”

Alexandrina took a moment to mull over her answer. On one hand, she could tell the truth about Sommer’s flawless, radiant skin, charming smile, and captivating brown eyes, but that would only make Jessica feel worse. However, if she lied, Jessica would know. She always seemed to know.

“You’re taking too long to answer,” Jessica resigned. “That means she is gorgeous.”

“And she wasn’t even wearing makeup when I saw her,” Alexandrina added. “Very beautiful Black girl. She even has a pretty name. Sommer.”

“
Ay dios
.” Jessica touched a hand to her forehead. “So, what was the party for? Are they getting married? Was he announcing his engagement?”

“Dree?” Trent’s voice resonated throughout the hallway, startling Alexandrina to the point where she almost dropped her phone into Chloe’s crib.

“No,” Alexandrina whispered. “It wasn’t an engagement party.”

“So what was it?”

“Dree?” Trent called again. “Are you still in Chloe’s room? Did she wake up?”

Her heart thrashed against her chest as she heard his footsteps draw nearer. “Jessica, I promised Trent that I wouldn’t tell you about the party and even what you now know is too much.”

“What was the party for?” Jessica repeated.

Trent pushed open the door. “What are you up to in here?”

Alexandrina placed a finger over her mouth. “Shh, you’re too loud. You might wake Chloe.”

He entered the room and looked into the crib
, and then took a moment to run his hands over his daughter’s curly head.

“Who are you talking to?”
he asked.

“Jessica.”

His head shot up. “Dree…”

“We’re talking about this rocking horse that my grandfather made when were little,” she quickly explained. “How he spent days making sure that it was the perfect gift for our Aunt Beatriz.”

Still doubtful, Trent narrowed his brows. “And how’d that just pop up into the conversation?”

On the other side, Jessica listened intently.

“Chloe’s next birthday,” Alexandrina added. “Jessica was asking me what she could possibly get for the little girl that has everything.”

Trent eyed the phone and then his wife, but said nothing. However, he didn’t leave the room and Alexandrina knew that he wasn’t going to until she was off the phone.

“So about the rocking horse,” she said to Jessica. “Do you remember the one I’m talking about?”

Jessica closed her eyes and tried to figure out why her cousin was hinting at the wooden rocking horses that their grandfather used to hand carve.

“Drina, that rocking horse wasn’t a gift for Aunt Beatriz,” she said. “Aunt Beatriz doesn’t have any children.
Avô
only makes rocking horses for new babies.”

She gasped as realization struck her.

“Yes, the rocking horse,” Alexandrina added. “You remember it?”

Jessica’s eyes stung with tears. “They’re going to have a baby together?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Alexandrina confirmed. “I just know that Chloe would love a little wooden rocking horse, just like
Avô
used to make.”

Trent motioned with his hands that he wanted her to wrap up the call.

“But I have to go now, Jessica,” she finished. “Call me if you need me.”

There was no answer, so she ended the call and Trent ushered her back to the bedroom. She wasn’t sure why Austin had wanted to keep the mother of his child a secret in the first place, but she hoped that whatever the reason, what she just told Jessica wouldn’t do too much damage.