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I’m about to jump up and race to her but I can already hear her down the hall coming my way.
“Hey,” I say, the second she walks through the door.
“Hi,” she says in one exhausted breath, dropping her purse inside the door before heading for the walk-in closet. “I'm so tired. That took forever.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. What happened?” I ask.
“We had issues getting the picture frames that we hung up to come down but the alumni guys wanted to take them home with them. So we had to call one of the stadium mechanics to come help with the rigging to get it to work. We had to wait an hour for him, and then the janitorial team wanted to know how we wanted them to take the balloon arches down. These are just first-day issues. Shawnie and I will have it better organized for tomorrow’s game, don’t worry,” she says, her voice muffled from where she stands in the closet.
I won’t have to worry… I won’t be here.
The gravity of that hits finally, now that Juliet is making future plans and I have no idea if I’ll get to stay in those plans after tonight.
She walks out in her shorts and the Hawkeyes shirt I gave her. I want to pull her into me and beg her to come to Canada but I have to go about this the right way.
I can’t bring myself to tell her how close my actions brought her to seeing the inside of a courtroom… and maybe a prison cell. My job as her husband is to protect her and I couldn’t have protected her if the Immigration office had decided to press charges instead. I would have taken her prison time if they would let me, but that’s not how it works.
The truth is, I got flat-out lucky.
As much as I want to be honest with her and tell her what’s going on, I can’t stare back into those violet-blue eyes and see her disappointment in me. If I did come clean with her, will she follow me to Canada because she feels the same obligation and duty to me as she does to her brother? The same kind of obligation and duty that led her to marry a complete stranger to give her brother a better opportunity. Will she give up her business? Will she give up her weekly visits with her brother, just to make me happy?
She might… and I can’t live with that.
As much as I don’t want to ask her to choose, I also selfishly want her with me. So I’ll let her decide and then I’ll live with the outcome that led me here.
“I feel like I could sleep for days, but I have to get up bright and early to meet Shawnie. We agreed to a last minute setup for tomorrow. Marjorie wants to do a special alumni brunch for all the old players that are in town.”
“That’s nice of Marjorie,” I say.
Though all I can think is how Juliet should be leaving with me by ten in the morning to head for Vancouver. Though, I know that even if she agrees to move, she can't do it tomorrow… she’ll have to come later to fulfill her commitment and set someone up to take over her business.
“I know we were going to celebrate your win but I have to get up so early to get to the restaurant that Marjorie wants all the food from that I need to get to sleep. Could we do a raincheck for tomorrow?” she asks.
I know there won’t be a raincheck tomorrow. Not in this penthouse and in this bed, at least.
She pushes the sheets down on her side of the bed, clicks off the bedside table light, and lays down.
I turn toward her, hooking an arm around her middle and pulling her against me.
“Mmmm,” she hums blissfully. “You feel so good. Like home.”
Hearing her say that brings me hope.
Because I am her home and she’s mine.
I could live anywhere if I got to keep her.
“Juliet?” I say softly.
Her eyes are already closed and she seems to be fading to sleep quickly. I don’t have much time to ask my question.
“Hmm?” she mumbles.
“What do you think about moving to Canada?”
She takes a deep yawn.
“Meeting your family was great but my brother and my mom—I can’t just leave them. And my business… it’s going crazy. I can’t leave now. Let’s revisit this after you retire, ok?”
