Breakaway (28 page)

“I hope I haven’t messed up my Stars for Reading for next
year. I love doing that. Helping those kids.”

“People will have forgotten by then. Or you can help kids
some other way.”

He grimaced. “And I almost lost you.”

“Almost.” She smiled, trailing her fingers down the side of
his neck and under the collar of his shirt. “I’m sorry I wouldn’t talk about
it. I had to think things through. I was upset when you told me and I had to
calm down and get rational again. It’s hard to be rational when you’re all
emotional. It hurt so much, Jase. It still does. That she’s having your baby
when that’s all I wanted.” Somehow telling him that, sharing that with him,
made the pain lessen just a bit. Not much, but a bit.

“It will happen, I promise you. Whenever you’re ready.”

Her throat closed up again and she nodded.

“And I wasn’t exactly rational when I went out and got
stupid drunk and then dropped my pants in a restaurant.”

“Please don’t do that again.”

“I won’t.” He gripped her tightly. “I promise, I won’t. That
was the last time I ever act so irresponsibly. Without thinking through the
consequences of my actions. I’ve been such an irresponsible idiot.”

“No you haven’t.” She grabbed hold of his shirt and gave it
a sharp tug. “I don’t want to hear you say things like that. You got drunk and
did a stupid thing, but you are not stupid. And you are not irresponsible. You
didn’t blame anyone else for what you did that night, you took responsibility
for your actions. You showed up every week to help those kids read. You take
responsibility for every loss your team has. Yes, your job is a game, but you
take it seriously—you know you have responsibilities to the team, to the
owners, all the businesses that depend on you and especially the fans. And you’re
taking responsibility for your child.”

She took a breath and let it out, long and slow. “I was
ready to let you go,” she said softly, breathing in the fresh, masculine scent
of his recent shower. “Because I knew you had to look after your child. I know
parents have to make sacrifices for their children. But there are some
sacrifices that you shouldn’t have to make. And I didn’t want you to do that.”

“I’m glad you realize how special I am.”

She swatted his chest, but laughed. Then her cell phone
rang. She leaned down to grab her purse from the floor and dug around in it for
the phone. It was the realtor.

“We have to get together to go over this offer,” he said.

“Oh, yeah.” She sighed, not wanting to move off Jason’s lap.
“Okay. I’ll meet you at my place in an hour.”

“Who was that?” Jason asked as she snapped the phone shut.

“My realtor. I listed the house and there’s an offer
already.”

Jason had gone very still. “Uh…Remi…”

Regretfully she slid off him and stood, straightening her
sweater.

“The offer…” He stood too. She looked up at him, tipping her
head to one side. “The offer is…from me.”

She gave her head a shake. “What?”

He held her gaze.

“You made an offer on my house? You want to buy my house?”
She squinted at him.

“Yeah.” He smiled, showing lots of white teeth, and shoved
his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “I saw the For Sale sign and
realized you’d decided to sell. Uh…are you okay with selling it? ‘Cause I kinda
had the feeling your sister was pressuring you to do it.”

“I’m okay with it now.” She sighed, pushing her fingers
through her hair. “I’m sad about it, yeah. I love that house. It was our home.
But I realized you were right and I need to let them deal with the consequences
of their decisions. If things with Jasmine and Ethan don’t work out, I’ll be
there for her, sure, but she’ll have to deal with it. And Kyle too. He wants to
go away this summer. If things don’t go well at college, he’ll have to figure
out what he wants to do with his life.” She paused. “It’s hard. I still feel I
should be there for them.”

“You will be.”

“Yeah. But not rescuing them. Just supporting them. There’s
a big difference.” She straightened her shoulders. “And I already started
looking for an apartment near school. But Jase…” She frowned. “Why would you
buy the house?”

“So you can live there.” He stepped toward her. “I didn’t
know if we’d ever be together at that point, but I hated to think of you being
forced to leave your home. I know you love that house. So I just had the crazy
idea that I’d buy it and you could live there.”

Her breath stuck, her heart pattering, feeling very warm and
dizzy, she just stared at him. She could not believe what she was hearing. He
wanted to buy the house? For her? That was crazy.

Crazy nice.

“You can’t do that,” she breathed, trying to get air into
her lungs.

“Why not? I can afford it. It’d be like an investment. Real
estate’s supposed to be a good investment, that’s what my financial guy tells
me. Plus there’s some tax benefit or something.” He waved a hand. “Which I
definitely need.”

“I…I don’t know what to say.” Her mind wobbled, words
clogged up in her tight throat. Nobody’d ever done anything like that for her.
She was always the one looking after everyone else.

He shrugged. “You don’t have to say anything. But…” He
looked endearingly uncertain, big shoulders up at his ears. “Maybe…if you think
it’s rushing, you can just stay living there and I’ll keep my apartment, but
maybe one day…I could move in with you there. When you’re ready.”

Her heart expanded, ready to burst out of her chest. “Oh,
Jase.”

He pulled his hands out of his pockets and took one giant Jason-sized
stride toward her and set his hands on her waist. He kissed her, a slow, gentle
kiss. “I want to marry you. I want you to have my babies. I want to live
together even though I know I’m asking a lot of you. My life’s not easy—lots of
travel, lots of stress—”

“Lots of injuries,” she murmured, remembering how nervous
she got for him every game. Would she ever get used to that?

He made a dismissive face. “And on top of it we’re going to
have a child who’s not always with us and you’re going to have to put up with
my ex being in our lives but…god, Remi, that’s a lot to ask. But it’s what I
want.”

“Lots of women do it,” she murmured. “People divorce, have
blended families. It’s not easy, but it’s not like we’re the only ones it’s
ever happened to.”

“Yeah.” He breathed out a long slow exhale. “After all you
just said, though, I don’t want to pressure you or rush you. I understand. I’ll
wait until you’re ready.”

“Thank you, Jase. I would like to wait a while before we
live together. And I know it won’t be easy sometimes. But we’ll make it work.
Right?”

“Right.” He hugged her close. “I feel bad dragging you into
a mess like this. You didn’t ask for this. All you wanted was fun.”

“No,” she said, smiling up at him through her tears. “All I
wanted was you.”

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