66. Colton

66

COLTON

“ W hat are we doing?” Letty asks as I unlock the front door of my house.

“I need your help.”

“Yeah, you said that already.”

She’s standing in the middle of the living room, spinning slowly on the spot, taking it all in.

“I know it’s not much at the moment, but?—”

“It’s going to be incredible, Colt. And that view!” she says, rushing to the window and gazing out at miles and miles of nothing.

Honestly, it’s what sold this place for me. I wanted peace and tranquility, and this has it in spades.

I love my apartment, but there are reminders of the city everywhere. Here, everything slows down.

“Yeah,” I agree, stepping up beside her. “Do you think she’ll approve?” I ask nervously.

“Ella wouldn’t care if your home was a shitty trailer. She isn’t interested in your house, your money, your fame. She wants you, Colt.”

Rubbing the back of my neck, I continue to stare at the horizon.

“I know, I just…” I trail off. I’m not very good at all this talk about feelings.

“You want everything to be perfect for her. And it will be. Anything you do for her will be more than enough.”

Ducking away, I look around the room, trying to see it from Letty’s perspective.

The place is a mess. I had so many plans, but none of them came off. I guess I never really had a reason to put the effort in. It was too easy to live in my apartment and get sucked up into life as a Saint.

But now…now I have a reason to finally make this place my home.

Our home.

Tingles erupt in my belly before spreading down my limbs.

We’re going to bring up a family here.

Suddenly, I see the place in a whole new light.

“So, what help did you need exactly?” Letty asks, as she wanders through the rest of the house.

“I want to get it finished. For Ella.”

“Right.”

“I’ve got builders scheduled, and I have ideas, but I have no idea if they’re good ideas or…”

Letty stops in front of me, her large, dark eyes staring up at me.

She wants to chastise me for questioning myself, but I don’t give her the chance.

“I just want a female perspective, and Ella isn’t ready to come back yet. But when she is, I want to surprise her with…well, more than what I have here now.”

“Okay,” Letty agrees. “So what are your thoughts so far?”

Leading her through to the master bedroom, I explain my ideas for knocking a wall out and creating a much bigger space that will allow us a huge en suite and dressing room.

Currently, there are loads of smaller rooms, which, I guess, we might need one day. But right now, we need a handful of bedrooms that work for us.

“And if we do that, I’m imagining the door being here, which is good because it’s directly across from this room,” I explain, stepping into what is currently the master bedroom with my mattress in the middle.

“Yeah, this is a nice sized guest room.” She stops in the middle and turns to face me. “Not sure your guest room needs to be opposite yours, though.” Her eyes twinkle, and her lips twitch. She knows. Or if she doesn’t know, then she suspects. What do they say about female intuition?

“Maybe I don’t want guests to stay in this one. Maybe it’s going to be our sex den.”

“Right. Sure it is. Are you thinking about painting it blue or pink?” she muses as she checks out the closet.

“N-neutral,” I stutter.

When she spins back around, she’s forgotten all about hiding her smile.

“Colt,” she warns. “If I’m going down the wrong path here, you really need to stop me before I get too excited.”

I smirk. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. So, the master bathroom is next door. I want a huge tub right in the middle in front of this window.”

“Colton Rogers, get your ass back here right this second,” Letty barks, demonstrating just how easily she’s able to get the upper hand with her husband.

“Scarlett—ooof.” All the air rushes from my lungs as her small body collides with mine. Her arms wrap around my shoulders, and she holds me tight.

“Congratulations,” she whispers. “You’re both going to be such incredible?—”

“It’s early, Let,” I say, grabbing her shoulders and pushing her back. “We haven’t told?—”

She lifts her hand to her lips and mimes zipping them shut and throwing away the key.

“Ella had no idea. But it was the biggest reason she passed out.”

“So she’s been eating okay?” Letty asks, concern for her best friend clear.

“Well, no. But it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, thankfully. She’s okay, though. She’s working through everything We both are.”

“You gotta stick it out now, Rogers. There isn’t time for messing around anymore,” she warns.

“I’m not going anywhere. Ella has always been the one for me.”

“Well, yeah. We all fucking knew that,” she says with a heavy eye roll.

“Looks like I’ve finally caught up, huh?”

“We knew you’d get there. The only question was if Ella would be willing to wait. Speaking of, have you met the ex yet?”

“No,” I grunt. “I fucking want to, though.”

“When you lay him out, make sure there aren’t any witnesses and that you have an alibi.”

“Letty,” I gasp.

“What? You can take the girl out of Harrow Creek, but you can’t take Harrow Creek out of the girl. I’m not the best one for advice, though. Kane is better at that. And if you need help hiding a body, I can give you Reid Harris’ number.”

“Jesus, Letty. I’m not gonna kill him.”

“Fine. I’ll call Reid and get him to do it for you. Keeps you well out of it that way.”

I stare at her, wondering who Scarlett Legend really is. I know she and Kane have a dark past, but shit, she’s talking about killing someone like it’s an everyday occurrence.

“Who even are you?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at her.

“I’m joking, obviously.” She spins around and walks toward the room I want to knock into. “Kind of,” she adds.

“Anyway…” I continue giving her the official tour and attempting to explain my ideas. Just like I was hoping, she throws in a few of her own, especially when we get to the kitchen and living area.

“Open the whole thing up. If you’ve got a family, open-plan living is the only way to go. You can see what the little rugrats are doing then, know the instant they’ve gone quiet.”

“That doesn’t sound ominous at all,” I mutter.

“Trust me on this one. All these rooms are cute, but in the years to come, you’ll regret not doing it.”

“And you think that Ella will agree?”

Sure, I could video call her, walk her around and get her opinion. But I want this to be a surprise. I want it to be something that I’ve done for her, for our family, to prove my dedication.

“One hundred percent. Now, let’s talk kitchens,” she says, stopping at the counter in front of the stack of catalogs I left there. “Any ideas for style or color?”

L etty and I were still discussing details when the builder turned up, and she happily took the lead when explaining my—her—vision for the ground floor of my house.

The guy grimaced when she began demanding walls get removed. It was a far cry from what we’d discussed yesterday, but he embraced it—agreed even.

By the time we’d agreed on a plan, my appointment with Cassie, the team therapist, was looming. We agreed on an immediate start, and Letty and I left him to it.

He promised a completion date of four weeks. It seems like a lot of work for four weeks to me, but then I play football for a living, so what the hell do I know?

“Oh wow, you really don’t do things by halves, do you?” Cassie says after I’ve told her everything that’s happened recently.

“Apparently not.”

“You look good, too. Happier. Lighter.”

“I feel it,” I confess.

“After everything you’ve been through and said you don’t want, is that how you expected to feel?” she prompts.

“Honestly, no. But then…it’s Ella. Everything always feels right with her.”

“You’ve both got a long journey ahead of you. Both individually and as a couple.”

“We’re going to do what it takes. We’re not rushing things. She’s not ready to come back here yet, and I respect that. We’re just going to take things one day at a time.”

“I’m happy for you,” she says with a genuine smile. “How’s training going?”

Unlike previous sessions with Cassie, I spend almost our whole hour together talking. Nothing is forced or hard work; the words just roll off my tongue like it’s the most natural thing in the world. I want to say that it’s because in the past few weeks I’ve had more therapy than ever, but it’s not just that. Cassie is right. I’m happy. Genuinely happy. Things might still be up in the air with my relationship with Ella and certainly with my career. But for the first time ever, I know everything is going to be okay. As long as I have my girl by my side, then we can conquer whatever life throws at us. Together.

I’m about to leave the facility when familiar deep booming voices spill down the hallway, and not a second later, Luca and Kane stumble around the corner, their hair wet, fresh from the showers.

“Colton Rogers, long time no see,” Luca teases.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I hear you asked my wife to redesign your house,” Kane states.

“I wanted her advice on a few things that I thought needed a female touch.”

“Do you have plans, or did you want to grab a drink before heading home?” Luca asks.

I think of the empty apartment waiting for me and make a very quick decision.

“A drink sounds great.”

We head to a bar that’s not far from the facility. The owner is a huge Saints fan and loves it whenever any of us visits. He also ensures that we’re not bothered by any of his other customers.

We grab our usual table hidden at the back of the bar and Kane orders a round of soda. Not exactly the kind of drink I had in mind, but these guys have a game to prepare for this weekend.

I watch the two of them catching up on the training session they’ve just had, and I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face.

Luca glances over and pauses, his brow wrinkling as he studies me.

“What?” I ask.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that look on your face before,” he admits.

“He’s in looooove,” Kane sings.

“Nah, he’s always been in love. I think he’s just finally figured out what it really means.”

“You two are assholes.”

“That may be true, but we’re right, aren’t we?”

“Possibly,” I mutter before lifting my drink to my lips.

“So, how is Ella?” Kane asks.

“As if you don’t already know.”

He smiles at me. Letty might have promised to keep our secret until we’re ready to tell the world, but something tells me that Kane doesn’t count.

“Wanna hear it from you, man,” he says.

“She’s good. We’re good. We’re really good.”

“At fucking last,” Luca announces, lifting his glass in the air. “So, when are you bringing her home?”

“Soon. Real fucking soon.”

I think about our house, about all the plans Letty and I made this morning. I think about the nursery for our little one, and watching him or her grow. I picture us as a family doing all the mundane things that not so long ago didn’t interest me in the slightest, but now, they seem like the most exciting things in the world.

Ella. Our baby. Our future.

There isn’t anything more exciting than that.