Double Daddy Trouble

She was a poor substitute for a mother. I wanted to tear out of here and be next to Isaac. What if he needed me? What if he was out of it and someone needed to make a decision? What if he needed surgery?

Grammy couldn’t possibly relate to what I was going through. How my heart was thundering in my chest.

Her attention was back on the game. She leaned next to one of her friends to point to something on the field.

I bit my lip, biting back the tears of frustration. I knew she was right. I knew the optics were terrible. No owner would leave during a game-scoring play, especially not an owner engaged to the man who was about to score the touchdown.

The woman who had raised me, hadn’t prepared me to be an owner. Neither had my grandfather. They prepared me to be an owner’s princess. To be the wife of a great man. Someone who would need my support. Someone who needed me to sit quietly and smile sweetly, giving him all the support in the world. They raised me to be the kind of woman to look one way, while I felt completely different on the inside.

Because wasn’t that who she was? She had been walking around, holding bitterness and resentment for her husband’s lies, while basking in the attention of being a lonely widow. She basked in the sympathies. The flowers people sent. The endless lines of muffins and cakes she adored. To her, it meant she was still remembered. She was still important to Austin.

I hadn’t seen it until now. She resented me. She was no longer the owner’s wife. She was no longer the queen of the Warriors kingdom. My ascension to the throne had kicked her off hers.

I took a step back. The nausea rolled through me. I clutched my stomach.

Steve looked worried.

“You ok, Vanessa?”

I nodded. “Just exhausted and worried. There are a lot of implications for Isaac’s injury,” I whispered to him as if I was taking him into my confidence. As if I was thinking about the team and not the man I loved. “Look, I can’t go before halftime. But can you get to the hospital now?” I asked. “Stay with Isaac. Tell him I sent you.” I eyed him. “And I’ll be there as soon as the game is over.”

It was going to be a torturous two hours, but I was going to have to wait.

Steve nodded. “I think we need to consider what our press statement is going to be before the postgame media event. Applewhite is going to be hounded.”

“Which is why it’s perfect if you go to the hospital. I want you to call me as soon as you find out anything about Isaac’s leg.”

“I’ll start on the draft when I get there. I’m sure the reporters will already be there.”

Damn it. I hadn’t thought about the reporters. Well, at least if I arrived after the game, it wouldn’t look nearly as odd.

This was all I could do for now.

I practically pushed Steve out of the box. “Go,” I urged. “Don’t forget, call me as soon as you see him.”

I turned around just in time to see Luke to throw the ball into Dylan’s hands. He took two leaps and landed in the end zone. Touchdown. I clapped my hands together.

My grandmother looked over her shoulder and smiled at me, like the cat who had snatched the goldfish from the bowl.

And I wondered if that’s who she had been all this time.

Thirty-Five

Vanessa

Hospitals always made me uneasy. The last time I had been here was the night my grandfather died.

My stomach lurched with the overwhelming smell of disinfectant when I walked in.

A nurse grinned as he walked past me. Steve had given me Isaac’s room number.

I stopped outside the door, trying to calm my nausea. Isaac needed me to be strong. I had to help him through this.

I tapped on the door and slid it to the side.

“Hi.” I smiled.

Steve was sitting in the corner typing away on his laptop. He looked up. “Oh good, Vanessa. You can approve this statement for me.”