Page 64 of The Man in the Cottage

"Can I ask you something?" Kelly says.

"Anything."

"The trust. From your grandmother. You said it's how you've been living." She twirls pasta around her fork. "Are you okay? Financially, I mean. With the suspension and everything."

"I'm fine. I was smart with my money—or I got smart, after Grandma talked some sense into me. I have savings, investments. The trust is just a cushion." I shrug. "Even if I never play again, I'll be okay."

"If you never play again." She sets down her fork. "Is that something you're seriously considering?"

"I don't know. Maybe." I push my plate away. "Being back with the team—it didn't feel right. It felt like putting on a costume that doesn't fit anymore. And being here, with you..." I look at her. "This is the first time my life has made sense in years."

"You can't give up your career for me. That's too much pressure."

"I wouldn't be giving it up for you. I'd be giving it up for me." I reach across the table and take her hand. "You just happen to be part of the life I want. The life that doesn't include ninety-hour weeks and cameras in my face and people waiting for me to fail."

"What does that life look like? The one you want?"

I think about it. Really think about it, in a way I haven't let myself before.

"Quiet," I say. "Steady. A place like this, where no one knows my name. Work that matters—building things, fixing things, being useful in ways I can see and touch." I squeeze her hand. "And you. You're in all of it."

Kelly doesn't say anything. Her eyes are bright, and I wonder if I've said too much, pushed too far too fast.

Then she stands up, comes around the table, and sits in my lap.

"That sounds like a good life," she says.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She cups my face in her hands. "I want that too. All of it."

I kiss her, and we’re so tangle up in one another that the pasta goes completely cold. And I don't care about any of it.

When Kelly finally goes to bed and I walk back to the cottage, the night is cold and clear and full of stars. I stand on the porch for a moment, looking at the main house, at the light in her bedroom window.

I meant what I said. She's it for me.

Now I just have to figure out how to build the life we both want.

Chapter Nineteen

Kelly

I find out from Nicole.

It's Saturday morning, and I'm in bed with my laptop, trying to squeeze out a few hundred words before Travis comes over for breakfast. My phone buzzes with a text, and I glance at it without thinking.

Don't google yourself.

I frown at the screen. That's not how Nicole usually starts a conversation.

What are you talking about?

Just don't. I'm calling you in five minutes.

My stomach drops. I know I should wait, should let Nicole explain, but my fingers are already typing my name into the search bar before I can stop them.

The results load. And my whole world tilts sideways.