Unexpected Arrivals(13)
I watched intently as the color crept up beneath the plastic, while Cora had closed her eyes and buried her face in my chest. It seemed I held my breath through the wait, and then I kept waiting and waiting. The second line never came. Glancing at my watch, I realized we’d been standing here for six minutes, and the test took three. We’d dodged the bullet, but now there was a bigger issue that hung in the air. And it wasn’t one I was sure I could let go.
Time and distance from what could have been a life-altering mistake seemed to ease the confusion over children. At twenty years old, I wasn’t interested in considering kids, and I honestly believed—when we graduated, had careers, were married and settled—Cora would change her mind. We didn’t discuss it again, and subconsciously, I thought that was intentional on both our parts.
***
“Hey, Carp. That was a great game.” Tiffany was a cheerleader I’d tried my best to avoid. She was a nice girl, except ever since she’d broken up with her boyfriend, Todd—also our team captain—she’d been making a play for me.
“Thanks.” I tried to shake it off and keep moving toward the locker room. I wasn’t comfortable with her forwardness, especially when Cora wasn’t nearby. She was like my wingman, and everyone on campus knew we were a package deal…including Tiffany. That in itself pissed me off. There was nothing I found less attractive than a woman who went after a man in a relationship with someone else. Don’t get me wrong, I thought men who did the same were equally repulsive.
“A bunch of us are going to The Grid in a bit…you coming?”
I swore she knew Cora wasn’t here. She always walked a fine line, but anytime she got near me and I was alone, she pushed far harder than friendly flirting. I politely declined the invitation, and just as the words had left my mouth, Coach congratulated me on the game. My face lit up at his praise, and I stuck my hand out to grasp his. The moment I extended my arm, Tiffany took the opportunity to steal an embrace, and the courtside photographer got the shot that would send my world into a tailspin with Cora.
The next morning when the student paper came out, there it was on the front page. I cringed at the sight. There was no way I could keep Cora from getting her hands on it. I suddenly felt empathy for all those celebrities who appeared to be in compromising positions with people other than their partners. I hadn’t done anything wrong—in fact, I’d done everything right. But it sure as hell didn’t look like it from the likes of that image. Tiffany was tucked into my side, the way Cora always was, and even though the smile on my face didn’t have anything to do with the girl on my arm, Coach appeared to be part of the secret the three of us shared.
I’d managed to make it to my senior year without a scandal or negative press. I hadn’t even so much as had a blip on the public radar. When the team was out doing stuff that made it into the news, I was never involved, and neither was Neil. Sometime during the start of our junior year, he’d met Hannah, and his heart belonged to her. She and Cora became fast friends, and the four of us were always together. We didn’t do the party scene, and for the most part, we were all low-key. Neil and I had to study to maintain our GPA and stay on the team. Several of the other guys were looking at being picked up by the NBA, though neither of us had our sights set on pro ball. I was less than a year away from proposing to Cora and starting our life together…one I’d been waiting for since high school.
I knew when I saw her face, someone had been so gracious as to provide her with her very own copy of The Daily Tar Heel. She glared at me and turned in the opposite direction. My feet carried me as fast as they could.
“Cora!” I hollered across the courtyard.
She heard me, and her pace slowed when her shoulders dropped, yet she didn’t stop or turn around. My long legs took me across the yard, and I caught up to her in a few strides. I swept my arms around her in an embrace from behind, unwilling to let her walk away.
“Sweetheart, it isn’t what you’re thinking.”
“Really? So Tiffany McDowell wasn’t wrapped around you at the game last night?”
I couldn’t help the quirky grin that lifted the corner of my mouth. Nothing riled Cora, ever. Seeing her jealous over Tiffany was cute. Only because she had nothing to be jealous about. I had less interest in anything romantic with Tiffany than I did with Neil—actually, Neil would be preferable.
“Are you seriously laughing at me, James?”
“Cora, I have zero interest in other women.”
She finally relaxed in my arms and turned toward me. Her hands snaked behind my back, and her cheek rested on my chest. “Do you have any idea how bad it looks? I feel like people are laughing at me.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how you feel. But I tried to tell you about it last night, and you were already asleep. Then you left at the crack of dawn this morning. I didn’t want you to be blindsided.”
“What happened?” Her voice was pitiful spoken against my chest.
I let out a heavy exhale. Cora had seen Tiffany in action before. I wasn’t the only guy in the locker room she’d done this sort of thing with—I was just the only one with a girlfriend. And even if I hadn’t had one, no one on that team would ever date her. She was off-limits—it was bro-code.
“She came up to me after the game. I was still on the floor before we all went back to the locker room. That’s when Tiffany asked if I was going to The Grid after everyone got changed. I told her no. As soon as I declined, Coach walked up and told me how well I’d played. I reached out to shake his hand, and Tiffany must have seen the photographer trying to get the shot between the coach and his player. She literally clung to me like a damn octopus, Cora—like that Ursula chick in The Little Mermaid.” I hoped she didn’t question my knowledge of the purple hag.