The Game of Love: (BWWM Romance) (9 page)

He opened his eyes and smiled. “You don’t know what you’ve started,” he told her, effortlessly flipping her onto her back and sliding inside of her as deep as he could
go. Crying out, Sommer dug her fingernails into his shoulders and readily took in every pulsing inch of him.

*****

The rest of the weekend went smoothly. Sommer and Austin emerged from their room only during meal times, or at the insistence of the other couples. At the end of the weekend, they said their goodbyes, drove back into town, and talked about everything under the sun, except for what would happen the day Austin had to fly back to Texas.

Unfortunately, as they sat on the front steps of Caroline Hayes’ two-story bungalow, the day had finally arrived. Austin’s flight was taking off in a few hours and
Sommer had opted out of driving with him to the airport, knowing that she would never be able to restrain her tears as she watched him walk through the gate.

“Preseason is a lot more nerve-wracking than you’d think,” he said, looking down the street. “Even though the starters only play for the first couple of quarters, one misstep can take you out of the season before it even starts.”

Sommer rested her chin in the crook of her elbow. “Yeah, that does sound nerve-wracking.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

“So, what will you be doing? Working with your mother at the bakery?” he asked.

“Pretty much.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Me, Mom, Marcie, and Uncle Reese. That and monitoring Mom’s progress.”

“Oh.” He met her eyes. “This couldn’t be more awkward, Sommer.”

“I know, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“Austin, I’m sure there’s enough sex in Texas.” She stood. “You won’t have to come back here for it.”

He reached for her hand. “You know better than to think sex was the only thing I wanted from you, Sommer. Sit down.”

She remained standing.

Since she wouldn’t sit, he stood. “Look me in the eyes and tell me that’s what you want. For me to leave and for us never to speak to each other again.”

She sighed and held his gaze until a yellow Porsche pulling up into her mother’s driveway caught her attention. As the person emerged from the car, she failed to hide the annoyance that washed across her face. Austin turned to see what she was looking at
, and then smiled broadly as the person came closer.

“Kyle Stallworth,” he greeted. “How is it that you don’t show up until the very last day that I’m in town?”

Kyle lowered his sunglasses and flashed Sommer a pearly white smile before giving his old friend a quick pat. After high school, Kyle had remained in North Carolina to play football for NC State. He was eventually drafted by Miami, where he currently held the team’s single-season record for most interceptions by a safety. The third member of the group, Darrell Morton, had made the switch to basketball and now played in Toronto.

“I didn’t even know you were here,” Kyle admitted. “I was just passing through to check on
Sommer and her mother.”

His eyes darted to
Sommer. “How’s Mama Hayes doing?”

“She’s fine,”
Sommer tersely responded.

He flashed her another smile and gave her body a quick scan. Then, he turned his attention back to Austin. “It’s good to see you, Riley. Are you heading out today?”

“I am,” Austin answered.

“Same here. I’m leaving this afternoon.” Kyle’s eyes landed on
Sommer again. “What are you doing out here anyway, Austin? The last I remembered, you and Sommer weren’t exactly the best of friends.”

Austin stepped closer to
Sommer. “We’ve made amends. Sommer and I are good now.”

“Really?” He clicked his tongue. “That’s interesting. That’s good.”

Slipping his glasses into the pocket of his tan blazer, he reached across and removed an imaginary eyelash from Sommer’s cheek, and then let his finger fall slowly, deliberately stroking her jawline in the process. Sommer jerked her head away and he delightfully grinned at her reaction.

“Hold on, Austin,”
Sommer said, moving towards the front door. “I’ll grab my keys. We can take my car to the airport after all.”

Kyle gestured to his Porsche. “No, it’s okay. I can take him.”

“I said I’ll do it,” Sommer seethed. “Austin and I spent a lot of time together these past few weeks so the least I can do is see him off.”

Austin eyed Kyle suspiciously. Even though they played in the same league, it was a rare event for them to run into each other with the exception of when they were opponents on the same field. They would probably rarely run into each other even if they’d lived in the same city
, since Kyle was a frequent face in popular nightclubs and Austin was more of a homebody. Before his relationship with Jessica, he was usually out with the guys from the team—mainly Trent and another wide receiver, Cason Allen—at restaurants and volunteer charity events. Now that Trent had married Alexandrina and Cason was engaged, it was mostly just him.

Sommer
reappeared with her purse, tossed her keys towards Austin, and didn’t give Kyle a second glance as she charged towards to the car. As they pulled out of the driveway, Kyle watched until the car disappeared around the corner, and then made his way back to the Porsche.

*****

“So, what’s the deal with you and Kyle?” Austin asked once they’d left Yearwood city limits and hit the interstate to head into Wilmington.

“What do you mean?”

“There was nothing on your face. He just wanted to touch you.”

Sommer
stretched the muscles in her neck. “I don’t know what his deal is.”

“His deal is that he likes you,” Austin clarified. “What I want to know is if he’s bothering you because if he is, we can turn this car around and I’ll handle it.”

She smiled at his defensiveness. “Its fine, Austin. He just stopped by to see Mom. Everyone’s been worried sick about her since word spread about her cancer.”

Austin wasn’t convinced. “So, why’d you decide that you could come with me all of a sudden?”

As the sadness washed over her face, he knew the answer before she even said it. He would miss her too, immensely, and although he wasn’t too fond of a long-distance arrangement, for her, he was willing to try anything.

“I want to be the last face you see,” she told him. “To make sure that you don’t forget me.”

He wanted to laugh. If ten years apart hadn’t erased her from his memory, what did she think would happen now? Especially, now that he’d tasted her?

“Do you really think I could?”

She smiled. “Of course not.”

They engaged in light conversation for the rest of the ride, skirting around the issue of Kyle. Austin still wasn’t satisfied, but he made
Sommer promise that she would call him immediately if Kyle gave her any trouble. She’d waved away his request at first, but then after realizing that he was serious, she’d promised.

Austin held her by the hand as they walked towards his gate and he took a moment to revel in the fact that no one was trying to take his picture or get his autograph. The minute he landed in Texas, he knew that would change. He’d be thrust back into the public eye and celebrity lifestyle, and it would only make him miss the
small town privacy even more. It was one of the good things about being a professional football player—he was hidden behind a helmet for much of the game, so there were still parts of the world he could escape to where his celebrity wouldn’t follow. He was grateful for those moments of reprieve and knew that he wouldn’t stay away from home for another ten years. It felt good to be around people who simply knew him as Emma’s once badger-toothed, autumn-eyed boy that a solid pair of braces and weight-lifting equipment had done a world of good.

“I think this the furthest that I can go,”
Sommer told him, looking around. Her grip on his hand tightened. “Austin, I have to say goodbye now.”

At that moment, those were the seven most dreaded words that he’d ever heard in his life.

There were tears on her cheeks. As she tried to wipe them away, more fell in their place. “Thank you, Austin, for this bit of happiness in one of the most difficult times of my life,” she told him, her voice laden with heartache.

Austin felt his chest swell. There was no way that she’d seen them as just a fling and the evidence of that was tumbling down her cheeks. So, why was she being so stubborn? Even if every odd in the world was stacked against them, he was still willing to try. This wasn’t fate. Fate said that there would be a way for them to be together, regardless of their fears or circumstances.

“This isn’t goodbye, Sommer,” he vowed. “And even though I’ll miss your laugh, your smile and even the way you roll your eyes,” she laughed and lowered her eyes, “I won’t say goodbye.”

He cradled her face and pressed their lips together for what he hoped wouldn’t be the last time.

Picking up his carry-on, he made his way through the gate. As he entered the tunnel, he turned and gave her a final wave, dropping his hand only when she disappeared from sight.

Chapter Four

Two months later

There it was frozen on the screen. Sommer had managed to remain in denial even after the several mornings she’d woken up feeling as though bricks were falling onto her head. Even when she’d missed her second period, she’d calmly gone to an out of town drugstore, picked up a test, and did not pass out when the display showed a hard plus sign.

T
here was no denying it now. A few minutes ago, before she left the office to grab some paperwork, Dr. Stella Anim had shown her the baby.
Her
baby. Well, it wasn’t much of a baby since she was only about nine weeks along. It was more of a bundle of little blips on the screen whose bumps would soon turn into a head, arms, legs, and a tummy. Yet there, growing inside of her, was the life that had begun a little over two months ago.

Then there was the issue of the father. Nine weeks ago, she’d been writhing underneath Austin’s meticulous lovemaking at the historic bed-and-breakfast. There was also no point between him throwing her onto the bed and filling her ever so slowly, that she remembered inserting her diaphragm. So that, coupled with the fact that she hadn’t been with anyone else since then, made it clear who the father was. The issue, of course, hadn’t been the “who.” It was the “what” she would do now that she had this piece of information. She and Austin hadn’t spoken since that day at the terminal
. Though he had called several times, she wouldn’t answer because her feelings were too strong for a long distance fling. If she and Austin were going to be apart, she didn’t need random conversations full of emotion to confuse her.

“I’m sorry, Stella. I forgot my jacket,” a woman’s voice at the door said. When she spotted Sommer laying on the table, she quickly apologized and backed out of the room. Then, a few seconds later, she came back in.

“Is that you,
Sommer?”

Sommer
looked up into the matching amber eyes of Arielle Riley-Wells, Austin’s older sister.

“Arielle. Hi,” she greeted with a nervous hug. She then grabbed a few tissues off of the desk, wiped the remaining ultrasound goo from her stomach, and pushed up into a sitting position.

“Sommer, are you pregnant?” Arielle asked, her eyes darting to the screen.

“Something like that,”
Sommer answered. “But you can’t tell anybody, Arielle. Not yet.”

Arielle smiled and gave her a tight squeeze. “Of course not, honey.
But I hadn’t heard that you were dating anyone. Actually, correction, Ma hasn’t told me that you were dating anyone.”

Sommer
smiled. As her mother and Emma Riley’s friendship had grown over the years, the pair had eventually shifted their focus to playing matchmaker for their children. Emma was currently in the lead with her success pairing up of her biomedical engineer daughter with her husband Justin Wells, a successful attorney.

“It’s a guy that I’ve been seeing for a little while,”
Sommer lied.

Arielle eased down into a nearby chair. “Is he from here?”

“New York. I met him on a day trip to Raleigh. He was in North Carolina on business.”

Arielle wiggled her eyebrows. “Is he gorgeous?”

Sommer thought of Austin’s face. “Very.”

“What does Ms. Caroline think of him?”

Sommer hesitated. “She hasn’t met him yet. She doesn’t know.”

For some reason, that information didn’t surprise Arielle. The more she got to know
Sommer, the more she realized how private and secretive she could be.

“Are you planning to tell her?”

“I will,” Sommer reassured. There was no way that she could hide her pregnancy living under the same roof with her mother. “It’s just that, because she hasn’t been doing well, I’ve been trying to keep the focus on her.”