Page 110 of Fearlessly Us

I nod. “We do.” Glancing at Tyler and Cam, I consider my options. “Can you interrupt media?”

Cam snorts. “I mean, if we want Coach to kill us dead with a single look then, yeah, we can definitely go bust up that press conference and let everyone know Drew’s girlfriend has plans for tonight so they’ll have to save the rest of their questions for a different time.”

I roll my eyes. “The media sees enough of your faces. No one is going to perish from disappointment because the press conference lasted forty minutes instead of the full hour. You’re not that special.”

“You know they’re probably asking questions about you,” Tyler says thoughtfully. “I mean, he made kind of a big show of kissing you before the game and all that, and there were cameras everywhere. The whole city is going to want to know about the mysterious brunette who stole Drew Ellicott’s playboy heart. You’re kind of a public figure now.”

I consider that. “I mean, maybe, but when they realize I’m just a lawyer who likes neon nail polish, ice cream, spy movies, and does not give one single shit about being a public anything, they’ll lose interest awfully fast. I’m not that interesting.”

“You’re extremely interesting to me,” Sarah says loyally.

“You’re interesting to me too.” Jack comes up and wraps an arm around me, dropping a kiss to my hair. “Who says you aren’t interesting?”

“Someone says Cait isn’t interesting?” My dad appears next to Jack, my mom tucked into his side. “Anyone who convinces an entire neighborhood to sign a petition to get a stop sign installed at a dangerous corner at eleven years old and then personally delivers the petition to city hall and demands an in-person meeting with the mayor and gets it—and the stop sign—is not someone I would call uninteresting.”

“Totally,” my mom says. “And don’t forget about when you were eight and you appointed yourself head of the household. You walked around for a year with a clipboard in one hand and three pens in the other, ordering us all around like a pint-sized drill sergeant. And when you were sixteen and your school got rid of the debate team because the teacher left, you took it upon yourself to convince Jules to step in as a volunteer, recruited all new students to participate, and didn’t stop until you took your team all the way to the National Speech and Debate Tournament, which you won. Should I go on?” She smirks at me, and even though her recounting of my gold medal, take charge moments is embarrassing as fuck, I can’t deny the warmth I feel at the way my parents mention them with a kind of pride in their voices and love in their eyes, like they’ve seen me all along.

But even so…

“That really won’t be necessary. None of that is the point.”

“What is the point?” my grandma asks as she strolls up, beer in one hand and giant chocolate chip cookie in the other, looking so pleased with herself I have to stifle a laugh.

“The point is we all have somewhere to be so we need to get out of here, but we can’t do that until we have Drew, and Drew is currently stuck in a never-ending media circus.”

“Leave this to me,” Tyler declares with a nod. “Old man rule follower here might be afraid of Coach,” he says, tipping his head to Cam, who just rolls his eyes and tugs Maddy closer to him, “but I’m definitely not. Cait, I’m going in to get your man.”

“Tyler is my favorite today,” I declare.

Tyler beams at me. “Being Cait’s favorite is basically the cousin/friendship equivalent of winning the Heisman Trophy and the Super Bowl all at the same time, so I’ll take it.”

“Why don’t we all go?” my dad asks. “No one has anything left to do up here. We can grab Drew and head out. The drive is about ninety minutes, and we have to be there in a little over two hours, so we’re cutting it close, but we should be fine.”

“I called ahead,” Cam says as we all head towards the door. “Threw around some of my professional athlete clout. We don’t have to worry about parking, and someone will meet us at the gate so we can go right to the front.”

“Hot damn!” Oliver says, bouncing on his toes. “This is going to be so awesome.”

Maya grumbles something under her breath, and I snicker as I watch Oliver’s face fall dramatically, his eyes gluing themselves to her back like a sad puppy dog.

“That’s either going to be a nightmare or the best thing that’s ever happened to them both.” My dad falls into step beside me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders as we walk.

I laugh, leaning my head against his shoulder, soaking in his steady warmth. “You see it too?”

He laughs lightly. “I see everything. Just like I saw how happy you looked today when Drew did his little pole vault up into the stands. He’s good for you, baby girl.”

I swallow hard, wondering why my dad’s approval can still mean so much to me even when I’m a full-grown adult. “We’re good for each other.”

He squeezes my shoulders. “I’m proud of you, Cait,” he murmurs. “I’m so damn proud of you. Are you feeling okay?”

I glance up at him with a wry smile. “How long do you think it’ll be before you can see me and not ask me that?”

He chuckles. “Oh, I’d say it’ll be a while. Apparently I have about fourteen years of checking on you to make up for.”

“I’m sorry,” I say automatically, as we navigate the maze of the stadium towards the media room. “I should have told you sooner. Mom and Jack too. And my friends. It was stupid. I thought I could handle it myself. I didn’t know how to do it any other way.”

“You don’t have to apologize anymore, Cait,” my dad says. “You didn’t even have to apologize once. I can wish I’ve known all these years and also know you handled it the way you thought was right. Two things can be true, honey, and you get to decide when and how to let us into this part of your life. There isn’t anything you could do that wouldn’t make your mom and me proud of you, and we’re both just happy we know now. And that you have someone else in your life who loves you as much as we do. Who can give you the care and support you need when you want it and stand beside you no matter what life throws your way. No one deserves that more. There’s enough Rachel Parker in me to believe that everything happened at exactly the right time. If you hadn’t kept this secret, maybe you and Drew wouldn’t have come together the way you did, and what the two of you have is beautiful and solid and strong—the kind of love that lasts a lifetime. He loves you the way I’ve always loved your mom. I can see it every time he looks at you, Cait. It’s special and rare and the most important thing in the world.”

I sniff a little as a wave of emotion rushes through me because I really am the luckiest. “You’re the be—” The rest of the word dies in my throat as an angry voice careens around the corner.