Chapter 9

9

LUCA

I get to Zach’s office before Victoria the next day, but he’s on a call. Preston hasn’t arrived yet, either.

I sit in front of Zach’s desk while he irons out the specifics of a media appearance for one of his athletes. That’s one thing I don’t look forward to and never have. Some of my teammates are naturals on camera; I’m not. Zach scheduled a photoshoot for tomorrow, and I’m dreading it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch someone walking past the glass walls of the office, and I glance over, hoping to see Victoria. It’s just a stranger, though.

My foot taps restlessly on the floor, and I take a deep breath.

Will she show up? At some point, she’s got to come to her senses and bow out of this thing, right?

Not that she’s given me any real reason to worry. If anything, she’s been the one pushing things forward, so I don’t know why I’m stressing. I’ve just had too many experiences where the people I was counting on disappear when I need them most. I don’t like relying on others, and everything is riding on Victoria.

It’s ten minutes past our scheduled meeting time when she appears in the hallway. My foot stops tapping at the sight of her, and I let out a sigh of relief. Her blonde hair is big and wavy, and she’s half-running to the door in heels. She looks at me and smiles as she opens it, and Zach hangs up at the same time.

“So sorry I’m late!” Victoria shuts the glass door behind her.

“You’re fine,” I say as if I wasn’t imagining the worst. “Preston isn’t here yet.”

Zach, who’s been scribbling down some notes on a Post-It, glances up. “It’s a phone meeting.”

“Oh.” I look at Victoria, who clearly didn’t understand that point, either. Not like it matters much.

“I’ll call him and put him on speaker,” Zach says, scrolling through his contacts and tapping one. The line starts ringing. “Just remember, we don’t need to bog him down with specifics about how everything went down with you two. He just needs to know enough to push the visa through. Okay?”

I open my mouth to ask for clarification because I don’t think I quite understand what Zach means, but Preston picks up the line.

“It’s just off the fairway next to that tree,” Preston yells in a slightly muffled voice. “Hey, Zach,” he says, his voice loud and clear. “How’s it going?”

“Great, thanks. What course are you playing?”

“Hole thirteen at Pebble Beach.” Preston’s voice gets softer again, like he’s yelling but holding the phone away from his mouth. “That’s not yours? Right, you had the Callaway, didn’t you? Nope. I don’t see any others around. You might have to take a mulligan on this one. Let’s let this group play ahead while I take this call.”

“He’s golfing,” Zach explains to us.

“You there?” Preston says into the phone. “Sorry. Last-minute client meeting.”

I share a look with Victoria, who seems to feel similarly to me about the supposed urgency of this client meeting that takes place on a world-renowned golf course.

“No worries,” Zach says. “Thanks for taking the time to talk. I know you’re crazy busy. I’m here with Luca and Victoria in my office.”

“Hey, guys,” he says in a friendly voice.

We both respond with our own greetings.

“Let’s dive right in, shall we?” Preston says. “I saw you started the paperwork I sent over, which is great. From what Zach says, we’re on a real time crunch here.”

“That’s right,” Zach confirms. “You’re confident we can make it happen, though?”

“Yep! Here’s what I need from you as soon as you can get it to me, Luca and Victoria: joint bank account statements, some pictures of you two together, a couple of support statements from friends and/or family, a lease agreement with your names…”

I look at Victoria, whose eyes are wide. My gaze shifts to Zach, who seems to understand our concerns.

“Quick question, Preston,” he says. “Luca and Victoria’s relationship has been…a bit of a whirlwind.”

“Ah, okay.” There’s a pause. “How fast has this whirlwind been spinning?”

“Very fast,” Zach says. “It’s more like a hurricane. A love hurricane. Theirs is one of those rare love-at-first-sight, can’t-wait-to-get-married situations.” He winks at us.

“Uh- huh ,” Preston says, clearly pondering this characterization.

“So, a lot of these things you’re mentioning, Luca and Victoria simply don’t have. Yet. Isn’t that right?” He looks to us for confirmation even though he knows perfectly well we have nothing.

And now I think I get it. When Zach said not to bog down Preston with specifics, he meant we’re supposed to give him the story we plan to give everyone else.

Zach prods us with an impatient raising of the brows.

Victoria clears her throat. “That’s right. We…knew it would be difficult to tie the knot once the draft happened, so we figured, why wait?” She forces a laugh, and Zach smiles encouragingly at her.

“I see,” Preston says. “So, are you not living together?”

“No,” she says, clenching her teeth.

“Not yet,” Zach amends. “With Luca’s future up in the air and with the current lease restrictions they’re operating under—occupancy limits and contract termination fees and all that—they figured it made more sense to wait. But once Luca knows where he’s headed, that’ll change.”

My brows shoot up.

“Gotcha,” Preston says. “Well, in that case, we’ll just include a statement explaining the situation, then once that lease or a sale contract is signed, we can add it to the file.”

“Perfect,” Zach says. “We’ll have a similar issue with these other things you mentioned. They haven’t been sharing finances yet.”

“Ah…”

My stomach is tight, my heart is beating fast, and my knee is bouncing up and down again. I hadn’t realized how much extra documentation we’d have to provide with this application. Documentation we don’t have. Not all couples share bank accounts, right?

Victoria’s hand comes to rest on my knee, and I stop fidgeting and meet her gaze. She smiles reassuringly.

“We’re doing things a bit backwards, Preston,” she says. “But we can head to the bank right away and get a shared account set up. Would that help?”

“Anything we can provide to prove the bona fide nature of the marriage is helpful,” Preston says. “That’s in addition to your identifying documents—passports, marriage certificate, Luca’s student visa papers.”

“Got it,” she says.

“It’d be best if you could get this stuff to me in the next two or three days,” Preston says. “We want to make sure things are air-tight, especially with Luca’s criminal record. Which reminds me…anything you can include in the file to show that you’ll be an upstanding citizen will be very helpful.”

Luca nods. “My lawyer—my other lawyer, James—has a bunch of stuff from when we filed the petition. I’ll send it all to you. We also have appeal paperwork he submitted in an attempt to get my record expunged, but there’s no way of knowing if it’ll be successful, and it’ll take a few months.”

“Yeah. Appeals are always slow, and we need to move fast. Our primary concern will be making sure you get your EAD—the authorization to work. Right, Zach?”

“Correct,” he says. “No one’s gonna waste a draft pick on a guy who can’t sign the deal.”

“Exactly. After we submit this stuff, we’ll receive an official form you can provide teams, showing things are in the works and that you’re well on your way to getting that EAD. When do things start up after the draft?”

Zach looks at me. He knows the answer, but he must want me to speak up more.

“Rookie mini camp is usually a couple weeks after the draft,” I say.

“Hmm…that’ll be a stretch, but I think we can do it.”

“You’re a magician, man,” Zach says. “We’ll get right on those tasks you mentioned.”

“Great. I’ll be in touch about the next things on the to-do list. Oh—looks like we’re holding things up here again. Gotta run. You can always email me with questions, though.”

“Will do.” Zach grins. “Don’t shank this next drive, bro.”

Preston chuckles. “I wouldn’t even know how.” The line clicks off.

Zach leans back in his chair, looking at us with a smile. “That went really well. You’ve got your work cut out for you, though.”

“We sure do,” Victoria says, checking her phone. “We could make it to the bank before they close if we hurry.”

“Good idea,” Zach says. “And I’ll send you the information about the photoshoot—where to meet the photographer and all that.” He glances at his watch. “Shoot. I’m late for a meeting.” He stands up and grabs his suit coat off the back of his chair. He shrugs it on and heads for the door as Victoria and I stand. “Lemme know how it goes at the bank, yeah?”

“Sure thing,” Victoria says with a smile. How is she so calm?

Zach shoots us one last smile, then jogs down the hall and out of view.

Victoria comes and stands in front of me. “You okay?”

“Are you ?”

“Yeah,” she says. “Just getting ready to spend all your money.” The mischievous twinkle in her eye matches the dimple in her right cheek.

A little stress of the past fifteen minutes sloughs off, and I chuckle. “Maybe we should sign that post-nup before we go to the bank.”

She links her arms through mine. “Too late for that, mister.” She grabs the door handle, then looks up at me. “I’m totally kidding. I promise only to use the money I add to the account. Speaking of which, where do Mr. and Mrs. Luca Callahan bank?”

I can’t believe how unaffected she is by all the things we have to do that we hadn’t planned on.

“You’re not bothered by any of this?” I ask. “The bank account, the lease agreement?”

“Hey, all I heard is you’re about to buy me a house.” She looks up at me with a teasing glint in her eye as we get in the elevator to take us to the parking lot.

I can’t help a smile as I search her eyes. “Does anything faze you?”

“Yes,” she says definitively. “You know when people leave that plastic film protector on new purchases? I hate that so much. But all this stuff?” She shrugs. “It’s just more paperwork.”

At the bank, it’s definitely more of that.

We settle on using the same place I bank with in an effort to simplify things a bit, and we barely manage to get a joint-account open before they close their doors at six. I transfer money in from my account, and Victoria does the same from hers. We both get set up with mobile debit cards we can use until the physical ones arrive, and we agree to use them as much as possible to show activity on the account.

We step out of the bank at 6:02, and the account specialist locks the doors behind us with a smile and a wave.

“Progress,” Victoria says, holding up the navy-blue folder the bank is sending us home with. “Preston will be so proud.”

“Hey,” I say. “Can you promise me something?”

Her brows go up. “What sort of promise are we talking about?”

“Look, you’ve been taking everything like a champ, Victoria. And maybe you’re just putting on a show because you’re worried about me ? —”

She shakes her head.

“But I want you to know that, if at any point it gets to be too much? You can tell me. Say something. One word and you can back out, no questions asked.”

Her gaze holds mine, thoughtful and kind. More and more, I’m realizing how lucky I am that fate brought our paths together.

She smiles slightly. “You mean a safe word? Like flibbertigibbet or something?”

A laugh escapes me. Trust her to come up with a ridiculous option. “Sure. Something to help me know if you’re ever uncomfortable.”

She taps the folder against her mouth. “Not flibbertigibbet. Hmm…I’ll think of something. For the record, though? I’m not going to back out. You’re stuck with me until our divorce.” She wags her brows, then starts walking toward our cars, which we parked at meters on the street.

I watch her for a second before following. I don’t mind being stuck with Victoria, and even though I want her to feel comfortable and safe, I really hope she doesn’t back out.