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Chapter 19
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Heath needed Lyric out of the way. For what he was about to do, he really needed some one-on-one time with her parents. Otherwise Lyric was bound to have an actual stroke. And he just didn’t want to risk damaging that big, beautiful brain of hers.
“And while I talk to them …” Heath pulled Cherry Cherry’s keys out of his back pocket and handed them to Lyric. “Why don’t you go to Starbucks and pick us all up something? I’ll take care of things with your parents.”
“I don’t know. I feel like I should be there with you when you talk to them.” She sounded desperate, and he tried not to take it personally.
“Don’t worry about it, darlin’, I got this.” He really did … just probably not in the way she thought.
She still looked skeptical, but he was blocking her way back toward her dad’s room, so what else was she going to do but say, “Okay, I guess you can handle it on your own.”
“Take your time,” he said, dropping a quick kiss on her lips before ushering her toward the front entrance. He waited until she’d stepped outside and the doors had closed behind her before heading back down the hall to Bowman’s room. He wasn’t going to tell her parents the truth, and he wasn’t going to let her do so either.
Not yet, and if he had his way, not ever. He knew she was afraid this whole thing was getting out of hand. And maybe she was right, maybe it was. But he didn’t give a damn. Not when he had a chance to plan the most perfect wedding San Angelo had ever seen.
Some would say that wedding planning should start with a bride who was actually on board with getting married, but Heath figured those people were just lacking in imagination. A surprise wedding was so much more romantic.
And yes, he knew he might have trouble convincing Lyric to actually marry him, but he had until the actual day of the wedding to make that happen. And besides, who else was she going to marry?
He and Lyric were meant to be together.
After spending nearly six hours making love to her and laughing with her and listening to her, it was all so clear to him. He was in love with Lyric and probably always had been. In high school, it was Lyric he’d run to with his problems and Lyric he’d missed when the Wright sisters had turned their backs on him, and it was Lyric he’d thought of every time loneliness set in.
She was the one … his one. He’d always thought being in love would be smothering, but it was just the opposite. It was freeing. He was just the same person, only better.
Did he make Lyric a better version of herself?
While he wasn’t sure if she was in love with him now, he figured he had time to convince her. He’d brought the Fort Worth Wranglers back from a twenty-one point deficit just in time to win the Super Bowl; surely he could convince an offbeat astrophysicist that she should marry him. He didn’t believe in giving up, and he sure as hell didn’t believe in losing.
Besides, if these last few days had taught him anything, it was that his life didn’t work without Lyric. From the moment she’d plopped down next to him on that plane, he’d been happy, truly happy, in a way he hadn’t been since he left San Angelo all those years ago.
No self-doubt … no troubled past … no restlessness about the future. Lyric brought out the best in him.
He wanted to believe that he did the same for her. And while this wedding might not be real for her yet, he’d never wanted anything so much in his life.
His cell phone buzzed in his back pocket. He pulled it out and checked the screen. Barry Lamont for about the milli
onth time. He couldn’t face the Wranglers’ team owner just now … not yet. He knew he’d played his last professional football game, knew that he’d never throw a seventy-yard pass into the end zone ever again. And he was coming to grips with it. He was. He just needed a little more time believing he was still a football player. A little more time being Heath “the Deuce” Montgomery.
If he picked up the phone, it was all over. He’d be out of a job … out of the public eye … out of the only life he’d ever known. And he wasn’t ready for that yet, wouldn’t be ready for it until his new life was on the way to becoming a reality.
He shoved the phone back in his pocket just as he pushed open the door to Bowman’s room. “I sent Lyric out for Starbucks. Now, where were we on those wedding cakes?”
This felt right … it had to be right. Lyric was all he had.
She would come around.
His palms wouldn’t stop sweating. If she didn’t, he’d end up standing at the end of the aisle embarrassed and alone. It was a chance he was willing to take.
“Is everything all right between the two of you?” Livinia looked nervous.
He smiled and waved off her concern. “Lyric just wanted to point out that putting people on the groom’s cake was a bad idea. Especially when you cut into it, since it’s red velvet and all.” He grinned at his hopefully future mother-in-law. “That’s my Lyric, literal and practical to the end.”
“You know her so well.” Livinia Wright matched his grin. “I’m so glad she dumped Rob for you. I would never tell her this, but we didn’t like him. He was very …” Her face screwed up like she’d just sniffed the world’s stinkiest cheese, and she looked at her husband.
Bowman took over for his wife. “He was an ass. Arrogant as the day is long and belittling to my baby girl. Vinny,” he covered his wife’s hand with his, “had to keep me from punching him more than once. And I only met the bastard twice.”
