“Callahan,I swear to God, if you don’t stop making googly eyes at your wife, I’m firing your ass,” Coach Dunn shouts.
Unfortunately, his threat only makes me smile harder.
My wife.
It took quite some time to lock Layla down. True to her word, she was anti-marriage from the first moment I brought it up as a possibility. I knew she was attempting to protect her heart, so I was patient. It was finally meeting Layla’s mom where the pieces started falling into place.
When her father died, Layla decided never to get married. She figured if she wasn’t married, she wouldn’t have to suffer like her mom did. After I told her mom I had every intention of marrying Layla, her mom was ready to coordinate a team attack.
My stubborn woman held her ground for quite some time, and it was only during a heartfelt visit to a Children’s Hospital outside of Denver where Layla claimed she had an epiphany about marriage. We’d gone together to visit some children in the cancer ward, and a little boy asked if Layla was my wife. I’d replied, “She’s more important than that. She’s my soulmate.”
The following day, she told me she was ready for me to ask her.
I, of course, made her wait a while.
What kind of man would I be if I immediately proposed? She needed to sweat it out for a bit. Wonder if I’d changed my mind, or when I might pop the question. Only when she relaxed and stopped looking over her shoulder every two seconds, expecting some outlandish proposal to jump out somehow, did I finally get down on one knee. It wasn’t public, with lots of people, and we didn’t have any kind of engagement party right after. It was the two of us, sitting on the couch, watching another thunderstorm come toward our building. It was quiet and perfect.
Our wedding, however, was neither of those things.
Layla had her heart set on holding the ceremony outside, at sunset, which meant a summer wedding. It’s beyond challenging to figure out logistics of a wedding when the bride and groom are part of a major league baseball team that plays from April until October. Adding another element was the fact that I had my entire Bridge Point team to invite as well, and finding a day where we could make it work was impossible.
But thanks to a scheduled afternoon game between the Raptors and the Bears, we managed to leave the stadium in a caravan, heading just west of Denver to the very same park where Layla and I went hiking that fateful day when she fell, leading me to follow her home and kiss her. With almost three hundred guests, it took seven luxury coaches to carry us all to where we were holding the ceremony. In an attempt at keeping some traditions alive, Layla went up early to get dressed and have her hair and makeup done, while I traveled with everyone. I hadn’t been okay with us sleeping apart the night before our wedding, so she made me get up at the crack of dawn to leave in the morning. I hadn’t seen her in twelve hours, and I was impatient as fuck to get to her.
And after everything that went wrong, all we could do was laugh.
My dad’s tux measurements were wrong, and he wore trousers that rivaled capris.
Layla’s veil blew off her head during pictures before the ceremony, and when she went to retrieve it where it landed in a grove of aspen trees, she discovered a wasp nest full of angry wasps. They stung her a bunch of times. Thankful for no allergy, her best friend Denise, as well as Jamie’s now-wife Audrey, trailed around behind her with ice packs and a first aid kit.
A server tripped, dropping red wine on Layla’s mom’s dress.
A thunderstorm blew through while we were saying our vows, soaking everyone. We looked like drowned rats while laughing hysterically, almost unable to repeat after the minister — JaxMitchell, who was all too thrilled to fill that role after getting ordained online.
Some of the catered food never arrived, but thankfully, all of the liquor did.
Other than the bite we fed each other, Layla and I never got an actual slice of our cake, and I’m pretty sure we barely ate the food either.
My entire Bridge Point team melded so well with the Raptors team; it was hard to believe they’d battled well into the bottom of the ninth inning before Jake hit a grand slam that cleared the bases, winning the game for us. He told me afterward he did it so we could leave early, and that it was his wedding gift to us.
It was the best fucking day of my life.
I remember looking over to see Layla, giggling with a bunch of girls, hands thrown in the air as they danced to something Taylor Swift, and I knew life couldn’t get any better than that.
The following day, I marched into the GM’s office and officially announced my retirement at the end of the season. He immediately offered me a coaching job, which I happily accepted. I get to continue traveling with my wife? Yes, please!
It’s fitting that we’re back in Chicago for this trip. Layla told me she has a surprise for me after the game, and I’m secretly hoping it’s a walk down memory lane at the hotel I booked for us. I wouldn’t mind a little blindfold action again. Truth be told, we’ve whipped it out on occasion since then, and I’ve even been blindfolded myself. Layla was right when she said it heightens all the other senses.
In all honesty, it’s been such a joy watching her blossom the past two years. Her confidence has grown tenfold, and she has no problem telling me what she wants or needs, both in and out of the bedroom. Her praise kink is still going strong, and she responds so beautifully to me, allowing me to be in control. The breeding kink I didn’t know I had is getting worse. I’m determined to have one of my guys break through her birth control, come hell or high water.
“Yo, Max,” Jake calls, motioning for me to sit next to him on thebench. Jake Holloway is growing into one hell of a ball player. He helped the Raptors almost make it into the playoffs last year, their first time in over a decade. We’re hopeful this year they can win the league outright or qualify for a wild-card slot.
“What’s up?” I ask as I plop down.
“Did you see more women have come forward about Morales?” he says quietly, his eyes darting to where Layla stands.
Thanks to support from the Raptors, Layla decided to schedule a press conference, where she announced what Morales did to her. Within twenty-four hours, half a dozen women had contacted her, and within weeks, the list grew to double digits. The crimes crossed multiple state lines, and Morales was arrested in Houston after three women came forward with enough evidence to convict him. Not only did he commit crimes that resulted in multiple felony convictions, but the women all banded together to file a civil suit.
In the end, over twenty women participated in a civil lawsuit against him, led mostly by my brave wife.
