Page 55 of Catch
“I’m fine. I just need to…” I paused not really knowing what I needed to do. “I need to leave. I’ll see you all in the morning.” I tapped my leg and Crowbar jumped up. It was the fastest he’d moved all day. He probably felt my anxiety. I grabbed my bag and locked my office.
I was at their house in twenty-five minutes. I cracked the windows for Crowbar and told him to be a good boy and to wait in the car for me.
Parker opened the door. She’d been crying and I had to ignore the need to pull her into my arms. I was going to kill Grayson if he was responsible for it.
“Come on in. We’re in the living room.” Her voice lowered. “The girls are upstairs in bed.”
Grayson was sitting with his head in his hands. When he looked at me, I knew he had been crying, too. Ah, fuck. It would be a matter of time before I started. Crying was my weakness. I sat on the couch and watched as he rubbed his hands over his face several times. I was legit worried.
“What’s going on?” I asked Grayson. I was on my last nerve. I looked at Parker. “Seriously, somebody needs to start talking and fast because I’m about to freak out.” She sat next to me and took my hand. I didn’t pull away because she obviously needed me, but I also didn’t want to get my ass kicked. I looked at Parker in alarm.
“It’s okay,” she said.
Grayson stood and leaned against the fireplace. His crossed arms told me it would be a while before he broke down. I was trying to ignore the feel of Parker’s warm hand in mine.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked.
“Physically fine,” Parker said. She slowly let go of my hand and stood next to Grayson. “We need your help and we don’t know what to do without catastrophic fallout.”
Well, that scared the living shit out of me. “Okay. Talk to me.” I leaned back on the couch as though I was a friend who casually stopped by even though I was sweating and my stomach kept contracting out of sheer nervousness.
“We’ve been living a lie,” Grayson said.
“Okay.” I nodded as though I understood completely but still had no idea what was happening. Parker must not have told him that she told me about their open marriage.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” he said.
I shrugged as though it wasn’t a big deal. “Start at the beginning. That’s always the easiest.”
He made a noise that was a combination of a laugh and a sob. “First of all, I love Parker and Violet and Rose. I don’t want anyone to doubt that.”
“Okay.”
“But I can’t go on like this,” he said.
“Like what?”
“The pressure is too much. I just can’t do it.”
“Do what? Be a husband? A father? A football player? Please narrow it down a bit.” I tried hard to keep the panic from bubbling up again. All those options were different kinds of catastrophes. Parker was calmly rubbing his back.
“We’ve decided to get a divorce,” Parker said.
I was floored. “Okay. What happened? Why now?”
“Back in college, I met someone,” Grayson said. “But I was with Parker and we had a dream of making it to the NFL and having the perfect family. I was on a path that was decided for me years ago.” He started pacing. “Now I don’t know what to do.”
“Do you want to get back with that person? Is that what this is about?” Who was this person? He nodded. I leaned back in relief before what he said really sunk in. “Wait. You want to divorce your wife to be with someone else?” I blew out a deep breath. So many feelings were swirling inside me. I looked at Parker. “How are you doing?”
She gave me a weak smile. “I’m okay. This was a choice we both made. It’s a long time coming. But we need your help because this is killing him and I don’t want him to lose everything over this.”
I was shocked that she was so supportive of him. Again, I didn’t know the rules of an open relationship, but I was pretty sure successful ones didn’t end with divorce. Parker stood there, cool and calm with her tears in check.
“Does the divorce have to happen now? I know that sounds insensitive, but you’re at the tail end of the season. A divorce now will affect everything in your life from the game to how people treat you socially. Remember when Jakob Phillips had an affair and left his wife? It came out in the middle of the season. The Packers never won a game with him as starting quarterback. They benched him and eventually released him.” I realized it sounded like I was more worried about our careers than the personal lives of the people in this house. “I’m not trying to be dismissive of everything you’re going through. But you do have responsibilities outside of this house.”
Grayson groaned and rubbed his hands over his face. “I know. And I’m going to retire to minimize the damage. I just need to get to the end of the season.”
“That’s why we called you. We need help navigating the fallout,” Parker said.
