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I chuckle. “No problem.”
“And I know Vince probably won’t tell you himself, but he’s really loved getting to know you.” She reaches up and places her hand on my shoulder.
“Babe!” he chastises.
“Oh, don’t act like you haven’t been talking about him since you met him.” She looks back at me and winks. “That’s how I know he likes you. All I hear is ‘Maddox, this’ and ‘Maddox, that.’ Speaking of which, how’s it going with Penelope?”
Hayden’s ears perk up, and my stomach drops. Vince’s eyes go wide as he looks between me and his wife. “Uh, babe? Now’s not a good time to—”
Hayden cuts him off. “What’s going on with Penelope?”
Justice finally absorbs the looks on all of our faces and then lifts her champagne glass to her lips before saying, “I mean with the team. Vince says she’s been doing a great job organizing the events and such.”
I feel my shoulders relax, and I watch Vince’s do the same. “Yes, she has. The team is lucky to have her. And Liam says that ticket sales have already increased since this time last year, so what we’re doing is working.”
“Any woman who can wrangle a team of fully grown men is a badass in my book.” She drains her glass and then turns to Vince. “I need more champagne.”
“I don’t think you do,” Vince retorts.
Hayden shoves his last shrimp in his mouth. “I’ll go with you, Justice. I need more beer and food.”
Vince and I watch the two of them walk off before he turns to me, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, bro.”
“What the fuck, man? You told her about me and Penelope?” I hiss.
“She’s my wife, Maddox. We tell each other everything. Don’t worry, though. I think Hayden bought her cover.”
I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. “I hope so. I don’t need anyone else knowing about this right now. She’s already on edge about our relationship given the pictures that surfaced of me at the club a few weeks ago.” I hold up a finger and thumb with an inch of space between them. “I’m this close to breaking down her walls, man. I don’t need anything else to make her run.”
After she confronted me about the picture of me helping that woman home, I called Leslie and told her I had to lay low for a while and wouldn’t be going out. She understood, and then I filled her in on what happened with Penelope and the fact that she would be coming home with me for almost a week. She didn’t seem thrilled with the idea, but she knew that my job was on the line if I didn’t follow through with the press they wanted. She told me she just hoped I wasn’t thinking with my dick anymore.
I assured her that I’m way past that point.
We talked about how I could protect everything we’ve worked for without jeopardizing giving help to more women and men, and she suggested that I meet with the owner of the club and tell him about the program. She thought they could advertise it to their customers and have an employee be in charge of helping the patrons to their rides, eliminating me from the process entirely. I agreed it was a good idea, so after an NDA was approved, we signed a contract.
Now I feel more comfortable knowing the hotline can still serve the people it’s supposed to help. In fact, I have meetings with more club owners next week to expand the project.
It was freaking genius, and Leslie’s idea helped alleviate some of my stress. It doesn’t sit right with me that I can’t help someone myself given my personal connection to the cause, but maybe this is for the best.
Now, I’m just trying to focus on building the relationship I’ve established with Penelope, even though we haven’t seen much of each other in the past two weeks. Between practices and her assistance with this wedding, I’ve only seen her alone and in-person twice.
I’m burning for her right now, and I can’t wait until we can leave later and spend the next week fucking each other’s brains out.
I have one more week of OTAs and then two weeks off until training camp starts, and one of those weeks—five days, anyway—will be spent in Texas at my football camp. I’m both excited and nervous to bring Penelope back home, but I’m optimistic that her seeing where I came from and the things that are important to me will give her the confidence to trust me with whatever she’s holding inside.
She never speaks of her family, her background, or her life before she moved to LA. She swears she’s working on whatever is going through her mind, but the longer I feel like I have to climb this wall between us, the more my patience is wearing thin.
I want this woman. The past three months have been challenging and have forced me to adapt to a lot of change very quickly, but the biggest challenge has been Penelope and getting her to see that life doesn’t have to be lived alone.
I know that from personal experience.
Like flicking a switch, just the mention of her has my eyes searching for her again, but the entire bridal party isn’t anywhere to be found. Then the voice of the DJ asking us to take our seats so he can announce the bride and groom cuts into my thoughts just a second later.
“Listen, I’ll talk to Justice and tell her to keep her mouth shut about that for the rest of tonight, but I hope you two figure out what’s going on between you soon. You deserve happiness, man.” He stares off at his wife, who’s walking back toward us now. “Having a woman you can’t get enough of is the best. And then when you make little mini versions of the two of you?” He sighs. “There’s nothing better.”
I watch him walk away, intercepting Justice with a loving embrace before they find their seats, and that’s when it hits me: I want that kind of love. I want that kind of relationship.
And I want it with Penelope.
