For the first time since being discharged from the hospital, I actually did feel like I might fall over.
I had to fight to keep my voice even. “Let’s go then,” I nodded. “I’ll stay with you.”
I turned to start packing before spinning back around. “I have one condition.”
Will held his palms up. “Anything.”
“There’s to be No. More. Unauthorised. Carrying.” I poked his chest to accent each word.
Will smiled, every charming megawatt on display. “Wouldn’t dream of it, Bambi.”
I nearly fell over again.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
True to his word, Will didn’t attempt to carry me after we left my apartment. He didn’t need to.
Unlike my own apartment, his included basement parking and a lift, which opened directly into his very own warehouse space on the fourth floor of the building. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was aware that he earned an obscene amount of money all because he could throw a football well, but he didn’t wear his wealth like a badge of honor for everyone to see. So when I stepped out of the lift and into his apartment, I was somewhat startled by both its size and beauty.
“Wow, my whole place could fit in your kitchen.”
Will laughed from behind me but didn’t say anything. I could feel his eyes following me as I walked through the space.
It was all open plan, with high ceilings and dark wooden floor boards. One wall was floor to ceiling windows, providing a view of the street with soft sheer curtains to keep prying eyes out. The opposite wall, the one the lift opened to, was exposed brick in a warm red hue highlighted by a large abstract print. Will’s kitchen took up an entire wall and a long stand-alone stone countertop ran the length of the space, making me itch to cook like I very often used to back home. Taking up the center of the room was possibly the world’s biggest, comfiest looking couch. After the day I’d had, I wanted to lie down on it and never get up.
I turned back to Will, who was still watching me with interest. “Nice place.”
“Thanks. I’m glad it’s passed your inspection.”
I shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant, but I couldn’t keep the smile from my face. “Seems fitting for a quarterback and all.”
Will’s eyes widened. “You know, you always make a point of highlighting my
quarterback
ways, but I get the feeling you couldn’t care less about it.”
“How so?”
“You don’t act like most people do. Believe it or not, being teased for being a quarterback is something entirely new to me.”
I squirmed at his words. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I fucking love it.”
“Oh.” I shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess I’m just new to this world. I get that pretty much the entire American population follows NFL in some way, and most people in New York worship you, but American football just doesn’t
mean
that much to me. I find it hard to be awed by something I don’t even fully understand yet. Does that make sense?”
Will nodded. “Sure.”
He was still standing just outside the lift with my bags in hand, watching me curiously, almost as if he’d forgotten I could see him.
“Um, would you mind if I had a shower?”
Will blinked, shaking his head. “Of course not. It’s this way.”
He led me behind the couches and slid open a pair of full-sized double doors, revealing a bedroom occupied by a giant bed and another day bed under the window. “It’s just through here.” He placed my bags on the day bed and kept walking.
I gasped.
“What?” Will’s eyes widened in panic.
“You have a bath.”
He frowned. “Yes, I do. Don’t you have one?”
“We do, but it doubles as a shower, it’s not the type of bath you have a bath in, if you know what I mean. And I seriously love to have a bath.”
Will chuckled. “Glad you like. You’re welcome to use it any time.”
“Careful, I might take you up on that.”
He walked over to the basin, opening the cupboards underneath. “I think my sister put some bath salts or some shit in here.” He pulled a few delightful looking items out. “Feel free to use whatever you want.”
Standing, he looked at me again, his big frame filling the room. “Well, I’ll um, I’ll leave you to it.” He walked toward me and suddenly it felt like there wasn’t nearly enough room for the two of us in the small space. I shifted my body to the side as he walked past, pausing at the door.
“Just ah, be careful okay? Don’t slip or anything.” And there he went, treating me like I was fine bone china again. Seriously, how bad had the accident looked?
#
I spent the better part of the next hour soaking in the most decadent bath I’d ever had. Will’s sister clearly knew her bath products, and by the time I got out, my skin felt as soft as the day I was born. I pulled on a tank top and a pair of yoga pants, feeling my stomach rumble at the delicious smells coming from the other side of the door.
Will was standing at the stove with his back to me. He’d changed into a t-shirt and a pair of track pants that hung low on his hips and I watched in awe at the way the muscles in his back moved and bunched as he cooked.
He cooked
.
For me.
“There you are. I was starting to think you’d fallen asleep.”
I smiled, walking over to the kitchen. “Nearly, but it smelled too good out here.”
“I didn’t know what you felt like, so I just made some pasta. That okay?”
“More than. It looks delicious. Can I help?”
“No, you can sit.” Will pointed to the stools behind the countertop. “The whole point of you being here is to rest.”
He turned back to the stove and I took the opportunity to take in his place a little more. I’d never really put much thought into what Will’s personal space would be like, I guess because I never really expected to see it. But now that I was here, it was like being exposed to a whole new side of him.
“What’s that?”
Will turned to see me pointing to a giant cushion in the corner.
“Oh, that’s the dog’s bed.”
“You have a dog?”
“Yep.”
“You never told me that. Where is he?”
“He’s at my parents. I haven’t been home much lately. Why? You like dogs?”
“Are you kidding? I LOVE dogs. What sort is he?”
Will came over to the countertop, showing me the screen saver on his phone. “He’s a Dalmatian, and his name is Jeff.”
“You named your dog Jeff?”
Will straightened, defensive. “What? The day I got him I had re-runs of
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
on and he kept barking at Jazzy Jeff. So I named him Jeff.”
“You named your dog
Jeff Jensen
?”
Will rolled his eyes. “He’s a dog, not a kid. He only has one name.”
“How can you say that? If he’s part of the family, then he shares your last name. Face it, Will, you have a dog named Jeff Jensen. I should report you to animal control.”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that. And don’t say anything when you meet Jeff—he’s sensitive.”
I held up my hands. “I wouldn’t dream of it, besides Jeff shouldn’t be punished for the actions of his owner.”
Will placed a bowl of steaming hot fettuccini in front of me. “You’re lucky I like you, Bambi. Most people would have been asked to leave by now.”
I couldn’t help but grin like an idiot, following him over to the couch.
He sat in the middle, his long legs stretching across the coffee table, leaving me to curl into the corner. “You wanna watch something else?” Will nodded to the TV which was currently on ESPN.
“I’m good. This is yummy by the way.”
“Thanks, they taught me to cook at the school for quarterbacks.”
“Wow, you making your own QB jokes now, huh?”
Will shrugged. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
I laughed. “Seriously though, how’d you learn to cook?”
“My dad.”
“Really? Your dad?”
“Yeah, sort of. One day when I was about fourteen, my dad just invented this new rule that Sunday nights we had to cook for Mom.” He paused, laughing to himself. “He was doing it to try and give my mom a break, but the food was so bad for the first few months I’m pretty sure she hated it.”
I laughed. “I can’t imagine what my dad would do if mum wasn’t there to cook his dinners. He literally can’t boil an egg.”
“We ate soggy vegetables and burnt burger patties until Mom eventually convinced Dad to turn Sunday dinners into cooking lessons. Then once she was sure we weren’t going to poison anyone, each of us kids had to take a turn making dinner.” Will shrugged. “It sort of turned into a competition. Like everything did in our household, really.”
“I’ll have to thank your dad one day. It’s worked out well for me tonight.” I smiled at him over my bowl of pasta.
Both our heads turned to the TV at the sound of his name.
Onto the NFL and word around town is that star quarterback Will Jensen and his team have had one of their best pre-seasons yet. Are we finally going to see Jensen lead his team to victory and win that championship ring he’s so desperate for?
The show went to footage of the team training while the co-host took over.
That remains to be seen but I sure hope so. It’s not every day you see a player with as many accolades as Jensen without the championship ring from either the NFL or BCS. It’s gotta hurt. I mean, he came so close he could almost taste it back in 2003. A loss like that stays with you for life, let’s just hope he can finally make it up this year.
My gaze moved hesitantly over to Will as the hosts moved on to another story. I couldn’t imagine listening to yourself being spoken about on such familiar terms, having all your career ups and downs laid out for everyone to poke holes at. It was so…weird. Will, on the other hand, didn’t seem phased at all as he tucked into more pasta.
“Will?”
“Mmmm?” He kept his eyes on the TV.
“What’s the BCS?”
Sure enough when he looked over at me, he was grinning. “You really don’t know?”
I shrugged. “No, at least not as an acronym.”
“BCS National Championship. It’s like the college football equivalent of winning the Super Bowl.”
“Oh.” I mulled this over for a while. “And, you nearly won it in 2003?”
Will laughed, shaking his head. “Clearly you’re still no closer to Googling me.”
“No, I’m not, actually. If you must know, it feels kind of wrong now that I…well…know you.” I felt the blush spread across my cheeks as we both absorbed how
well
we almost knew one another a few weeks ago. I was half expecting that Will was going to take this unintentional opening I’d given him to try to turn the moment into something more, make his move as he so often had. But he didn’t and as I watched him through my own embarrassment, I could see when he’d made up his mind to steer us into safer territory.
He stood, leaned over me to grab my now-empty bowl and headed for the kitchen. I watched as he bent and deposited the dishes in the sink before turning around. I’m not sure what I expected to happen, but the look on his face clarified that my question was not something he wanted to revisit.
He shrugged, staring down at his feet. “The game was ours to win and I majorly fucked it up is basically what happened. I feel sick every time I think about it, which is a lot considering how often people bring it up.”
Will lifted his eyes to my face and it was clear that whatever casualness he’d displayed while watching the hosts relive his playing history was just a mask for his true feelings.
“I’m sorry, you don’t have to talk about it. I…I’ll just google you…or something.”
Will shook his head, pushing off the counter to walk back to the couch. “I don’t want you to google me. I’d rather everything you hear about me come from
me
, not the internet…or some random person with a warped version of the truth.”
“I’d like that too.” I could only muster a weak smile, thinking of how much easier the past few weeks would have been if everything I’d heard that fateful night of the party had come from him.
Will opened and shut his mouth, changing his mind a few times before he finally spoke. “That stuff you heard from Bobbie, what I said about you in the locker room…” I held my breath as Will struggled to find the words he needed. “I know I shouldn’t have said it, but a few of the guys started talking about wanting a piece of you and for some reason, I just…did.”
“You don’t have to do this, Will. It’s really okay.”
Will shook his head. “No, I do. I want you to understand. I know I promised we wouldn’t have to talk about this, but I really need you to know.”
I nodded in consent to his plea.
“I didn’t even know you back then, you know? I’m never like that, I swear.”
“What, you mean possessive? Degrading to women?” I couldn’t help the edge in my voice.
He shrugged, looking somewhat sheepish. “Kind of, yeah.”
“Is that, I mean…was that all you were after?” I had to swallow back the memory of Bobbie’s words. “A fuck?”
“No!” Will looked horrified. “I mean, not once I started getting to know you. But, fuck, at the time, I wanted you like that. It was kind of all I could think about.”
We were both quiet, unsure where this awkward conversation was meant to go. I finally glanced at Will and he looked miserable. So much so that I wanted to crawl into his lap and tell him to pretend none of it ever happened.
“I’m so sorry, Em, for what it’s worth. I just need you to know it’s never been just about that for me, not since that first day we had lunch. And I
hate
that I ever let anyone think otherwise.”
I managed a small smile, not knowing what else to do. “On the bright side, at least none of the other guys have tried anything.”
“They fucking better not have.”
I laughed. “They haven’t. You have them well trained, Quarterback.”