Page 48 of Chasing Clouds

“No, seriously, Reid here is my best friend”—he looks at me fondly and then back at Camille—“and I’ve never seen him as happy as he’s been over the last two weeks. They say the bigger they are, the harder they fall, and I think the earth is still suffering from the shockwaves of this one. Thanks for picking our boy—he’s the best there is. Much love to you both, and, Camille, welcome to the Tampa Tarpons!”

Cheers go up and everyone takes a drink of champagne. I follow suit but can’t take my eyes off Jack. Seriously, what is with him and Nate? I understand making a toast is expected and nice and all, but they both know what this is—and what it isn’t.

Camille squeezes my waist and as I look down into her lovely face, my heart flips over. Have I fallen? For the first time since all this started, I allow myself to briefly wonder, What if it is real? And then I mentally shake my head, reality washing away this fictitious moment we’ve found ourselves in.

“Speech, speech, speech!” comes from someone in the crowd, and heat climbs into my cheeks. Camille’s eyes widen, telling me I have to do it.

Severing my gaze from hers, I look out at everyone staring at us and take a deep breath.

“Ah, first off, a huge thank you to Billy and Missy for having us all over tonight. Your continued generosity to the team means a lot to us, and tonight, especially to Camille and me.” I look down at her and see the anxiety in her eyes. I know this is hard for her, and it’s hard for me too, knowing we’re lying to all of them. Chuckling, I look over at Jack and shrug my shoulders because I’ve clammed up. “I don’t really know what more to say.”

“Tell us how you met,” Missy says, encouraging us with a smile.

“I guess that would be a good place to start. My brother, Nate, plays tennis at Columbia University, and he and Camille have mutual friends, so they run in the same circles. I met her last fall when I was up visiting him and my mother.”

“Was it love at first sight?” another player’s wife asks.

I pause and look down at Camille. “It was something.”

We smile at each other.

“But you were engaged to someone else?”

Ah, here it comes. People want to hear the juicy story. I can’t say I blame them; I’d be curious too.

“I was,” she says softly, turning her gaze to the girl who asked the question.

“If Reid had not been at the wedding, do you think you would have married him?”

She looks at me, gives me a sad frown, and nods.

“Really? Why?” Missy chimes in. She didn’t like that answer.

Camille lets out a sigh. “Reid and I have talked about this a lot, so it’s no great secret.”

I reach over and take her hand, not sure where she’s going with this but wanting to show support.

“And y’all might think I’m crazy, but this is the only way I know how to explain it: I was on a path to marry Patrick. Our families have been friends for a very long time, and eventually it became expected. It wasn’t just me—we were both thrown onto that path, that course for our lives, and why does anyone do what they do? For years this was the plan, and we worked toward it. Deviating seemed incomprehensible. I wanted to do my part, believed I was doing the right thing even though I knew I wasn’t in love with him, and he didn’t love me either. Sometimes I feel like when we’re on a path, whether it’s with sports, an education, or a relationship, and we stick to it because we need to see it through. We need to see it to the end. Things like failure, disappointment, and regret lurk in the background, and no one wants to fail or be considered a quitter, especially when other people are involved and it impacts how much they’re committed as well.” She shrugs her shoulders.

I think more than anything, everyone in this room understands what she is talking about—the commitment, the sacrifice. Each of us has worked our entire life to get on the path of playing in the NFL, and no matter what, we were all going to see it through to the end. Hell, we still are. We’re going to play until we can’t play anymore.

“What made you do it? What made you change your mind?” Bryan asks, looking at her.

She gives him a little smile then turns to me. “When you know, you know, and I just knew. It was time to make that move, and our story needed a chance.”

Blood rushes through me at an exponentially increasing pace. More and more, I’m warming up to the idea of us being a possibility, and deep down, I want to pull her close and say, Yes, I think we should give our story a chance.

Man, am I in trouble.

Shuttering these emotions, I grin at her and break the silence. “Tell them what you did at the wedding.”

“What did I do?” Her eyes flare.

Looking up, I glance around at the guys and end on Jack—he’ll think this is the best. “After I objected and walked up to the altar, she turned around, saw me, and laughed. Stopping that wedding was the craziest thing I’ve ever done, and she laughed at me.”

The entire group starts laughing, and Jack slaps me on the back.

“No, no, no! It wasn’t like that at all!” Camille protests.