Chapter 10 Kelly Kaplan

Sorry

Two and a Half Weeks Until Christmas

I glance at the clock when I hear Mia’s cry as she wakes from her nap, and I realize it’s well past lunchtime.

We’ve been making wreaths for the last three hours, and he’s been an absolute godsend of help when I wasn’t expecting it at all. He’s been making all my bases and taking care of Mia in between, even putting her down for her nap, and we’ve knocked out four entire wreaths and started two more.

We make a pretty damn good team, as it turns out.

“Did you want to grab some lunch?” I ask.

“I’m full from all the Cheerios, but sure,” he says with a laugh.

“Want to come with me to drop these four wreaths at the bakery? We could just grab lunch there. The chicken salad on French bread is to die for.” I close my eyes and lick my lips as I think about how good the sandwiches Ava added to the lunch menu are, and when I open my eyes, I watch as Austin visibly adjusts himself.

Something clicks as his eyes meet mine.

Wait a minute…

Is he affected by me?

And am I really that clueless?

I mean…sure, he’s been flirting with me, but I thought that was just his whole personality. The way he’s looking at me, the way he dropped everything today to help me, the way he kissed me the other night—it all adds up to feelings , and for as much as he’s flirted and asked over the last year, I thought he just wanted to mess around. Sex. Friends with benefits, or coparents with benefits…whatever.

But this right here feels different, and I’m not sure how I’m supposed to categorize that.

I tear my eyes away from him. “I’ll just go get Mia changed and ready to go,” I say hurriedly, and I rush out of the room before I say something I regret.

I’m not sure what I might say apart from kiss me , but I’m not going to say that. Right now. At least I don’t think so.

This isn’t uncharted territory, obviously. We share a child. But it feels new and different, and I’m not sure what changed.

I know he’s been working hard to earn the starting position, and maybe that flipped a switch in him. He’s been so busy competing on the field that he hasn’t given his personal life much thought, and now that he’s reached one goal, he can focus on something else.

It’s either that or I’m reading way too much into things. Probably that. I need to get my head on straight. Maybe it’s just the holidays and the stress of getting these wreaths done that are playing games with me.

Mia is all smiles as I walk into her bedroom to pick her up out of her crib, and she starts with the dadadada stuff. I smile, and she points behind me.

I turn around and spot Austin standing in the doorway. He’s grinning at the two of us as he sweeps into the room and stands beside me.

Could we really have it all? Could this be a normal Tuesday for us, with him off work and the two of us working together for a common goal as we get the baby from the crib and head out for a lunch date?

Maybe we could, but then I think about where we’re going: Ava and Grayson’s bakery. My close friends. The ones who have given so much to me.

Could I really repay their debt by being with someone who acted with malicious intent against them?

It’s always that nagging thought in the back of my mind that stops me short from pursuing things with him…no matter how much I want to ignore that voice.

He volunteers to drive, and he carries the wreaths out to his car and buckles Mia into the car seat before slipping into the driver’s seat of his Escalade. It’s quiet as he starts the car, and I’ve noticed that about him. He almost never has music on as he drives, and I finally ask him about it.

“How come you never listen to music?”

“I always listen to music. I just flip it off when I get out of the car and don’t turn it on when I have a guest in the car.”

“Why not?”

He lifts a shoulder. “Conversation.”

He’s quiet as he backs out of my driveway.

“What do you want to converse about?” I ask.

He chuckles. “Have you figured out your price point on your wreaths?”

“Mrs. Howard said she’d pay fifty, so I was thinking forty, actually. I think she was just being nice.”

“You want my opinion?” he asks.

I glance at him, a little nervous for what he’s about to say. “I’m not sure. Do I?”

He nods. “Yeah. You do. You’re selling yourself short at fifty. I did a quick search earlier and found most handmade wreaths like yours going for over a hundred bucks.”

“Yeah, but those are by pros. It’s just a hobby for me.” I lift a shoulder.

“Yours look better than most I saw online, Kel. Take into account your materials and your time, plus the fact that you had a professional football player helping you…I think you should charge at least one twenty-five. Take orders for a little personalization, and you could up that to one fifty.”

I wrinkle my nose. “You’re nuts.”

“I’m dead serious. Try it.” He glances quickly at me before his eyes return to the road.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I could take putting them in the shop and nobody even looking at them because of the price tag.”

“You’re in charge, so you decide. But that’s my two cents.”

I consider it as he finds a parking spot. Maybe I’ll ask Ava for her opinion. She knows the clientele better than I do, and it’s not like her cookies are free.

Austin grabs the stroller from the trunk and sets it up while I grab the wreaths, and he straps Mia in. We walk toward the bakery, and I’m glad I have the employee badge as we walk up and see a line out the door for the lunch rush. I head to my office with Austin right behind me, and I set the wreaths on my desk.

Ava appears in my doorway a minute later, and she eyes Austin without any judgment crossing her eyes before she turns to me. “What are you doing here on your day off?”

I nod toward the stack of wreaths. “I finished a few, and I was raving about the chicken salad, so we’re here for lunch.”

“Oh, they turned out so cute, Kel!” She walks over and picks one up. “How much? I want one for my house.”

“Take one. They’re free for you.”

She makes a face at me that says no way, absolutely not, I won’t hear of it .

“I told her to charge one twenty-five,” Austin says. “Similar ones online go for that, but she was only going to charge fifty. What do you think?”

“I say go for it. If no one takes it for one twenty-five, you can always lower it,” Ava says.

I look back and forth between the two of them, kind of surprised they’re ganging up on me over price. I finally blow out a breath. “Fine. Ninety-nine ninety-nine.”

Ava grins. “Save the one with all the red for me. I’ll grab two sandwiches for you. Anything for Mia?”

I shake my head and pull a little lunchbox out of my purse. “I’ve got hers right here, but she wouldn’t say no to one of your sugar cookies.”

She grins. “Coming right up, along with a Pepsi and a bag of Doritos. Can I get you anything else, Austin?”

He looks surprised that she addressed him. “I’ll take a Pepsi and Doritos, too.”

She smiles. “You got it.”

“Deduct the total from a hundred,” I call after her as she turns to leave.

“Pfft,” she says with an eyeroll. I didn’t come here for a free lunch, but clearly that’s what I’m getting. Plus enough money to pay for tons of new supplies to make more wreaths.

Grayson is the one who brings the food to my office. We’ve got Mia set up in the highchair we keep in here, and Austin’s sitting across from me while I create price tags for the wreaths.

“Graham,” Grayson says to Austin, and he nods cordially.

“I’ll take those out and hang them up now,” Grayson says, nodding to the wreaths.

“Before you go,” Austin says, standing. “Can I talk to you a second? Ava, too, if she has the time.”

Grayson’s brows pinch together, but he nods. “Let me grab her.”

I glance over at Austin, but his eyes won’t meet mine, and a nervous tingle shoots up my spine over what he’s doing.

“What’s going on?” I ask, standing.

“You’ll see.”

Ava and Grayson appear in the doorway a minute later, and Austin walks over toward them. He turns back to me, and our eyes lock as he draws in a deep breath. He nods a little before he turns back to my best friend and her husband.

And then he says the words that actually shock me to my core. “I’m sorry. You two didn’t deserve what I did to you, and I know it was a long time ago, but I realized recently that I never apologized to you.”

“Thank you, Austin,” Ava says quietly.

“We appreciate it, man,” Grayson says, slapping him on the back. “Consider it water under the bridge.”

“Thanks,” he mutters. “And your brother, too—well, both of them. Coach and Asher. I’ll talk to the two of them separately, but I want you to know that I’m deeply sorry for all of my actions against your family. I’d like to set a better example for my daughter than the one that was set for me, and it feels like the right time to start.”

I feel heat pinching behind my eyes at his words.

“Asher actually just walked in a few minutes ago if you want to talk to him,” Grayson says. “He’s in the kitchen grabbing lunch.” He motions with his head in that direction, and Austin follows him out there.

Ava stands in the doorway, and her jaw is slightly open in surprise. I must look the exact same way. “Whoa. I did not have Austin apologizes on my bingo card for today.”

I can’t help a small laugh. “Neither did I, to be honest. It seems like he’s really trying to change.”

She presses her lips together and nods. “It does. And to be perfectly honest, Grayson and I both forgave him ages ago. You know how boys are. They beat each other up, avoided each other a while, and then they were fine after that.” She clears her throat as her eyes move to me pointedly. “I think maybe it’s time for you to do the same.”

I nod. “Yeah. Maybe. But I’m scared.”

She walks toward me and gives me a quick hug before she pulls back and holds me by my upper arms. “Of course you are. But that’s only because you feel so deeply for him. I see it, Kel, and I want you to have the best. And maybe that really is Austin.” She lets go of my arms as she shrugs a little. “God, I never thought I’d say that, but I think it’s you . I think he says he wants to be better for Mia, but really he wants to be better for both of you.”

I give her a wary look.

“I’m serious. I see the way he looks at you, and…” She shakes her head. “I don’t know. I think he wants the same thing you do, and I think…why not? You’re always going to be afraid of getting hurt since you have been hurt, so why not jump in headfirst and see where it takes you? What if you don’t get hurt this time but instead you get everything you want? Besides, it’s Christmas. It’s the time of forgiveness.”

“Isn’t that technically Easter?”

“Whatever. There’s never a bad time to let go of the past and give someone a fresh start.”

The men walk back into the office before I get the chance to reply, but she’s definitely given me some food for thought.