Kennedy
Isaiah pulls up to an insanely beautiful house thirty minutes outside of the city. I know this house. I came here last year on a random summer night when I got drunk with Miller, Indy, Rio, and a sober Stevie.
Miller was just realizing she wanted to be with Kai more than she wanted to be on the road. Stevie was pregnant then, and Indy wasn’t quite yet.
And I . . . Well, I was still stewing over the whole Connor thing and entirely annoyed that when I got back to Kai’s house that night, his brother was sitting on the couch.
Little did I know, less than a year later, I’d be this fucking gone for the guy.
The summer sun is beginning to set in the distance, casting a warm glow over the property. I don’t know how else to explain it other than it feels good to be out here. Like a goddamn hug, which tracks how welcomed I felt the last time I met these people.
Isaiah parks his car next to the handful of others and kills the engine. “So, this is called Family Dinner?” I ask, undoing my seat belt. “Yep. Happens every Sunday night at the Shay house.”
“Do you come every week?”
“If we don’t have a game, yes. I’ve been coming every week since last summer. There’s a core group that’s consistently here. Sometimes, the other guys will bring their teammates. Sometimes, Cody and Travis will tag along. I’ve been wanting to bring you ever since we went to your family dinner.” Reaching across the center console, he squeezes my leg. “They shouldn’t be like that. You should feel good afterward. You’ll feel good after this.”
Leaning back against the headrest, I smile over at him. “I’ve been enjoying doing things that make me feel good.”
“Does that mean you’ve been enjoying doing me?” “Very much so.”
He huffs a laugh as he hops out of his side of the car and rounds the hood to the passenger door, opening it.
“You look so good tonight, Kenny.”
I’ve got an oversized blazer on, a tight white tee and a pair of well-fitted denim. It’s casual but structured and couldn’t be more different than what he’s seen me in all week. Which is either my work polo or my birthday suit.
I lean forward and quickly press my lips to his as a silent thank you before climbing out of his car.
It’s been days since I’ve been home from California, and we’ve barely spent a moment apart.
We go to and from work together.
We pick up clothes from my apartment before bringing them to his, where I’ve slept next to him each night.
Every morning, he asks me to pick out his outfits to ensure they match.
We cook together, and Isaiah has yet to let up on the whole feeding me thing.
We fuck. A lot.
And we spend at least an hour talking in bed each night before we fall asleep, entirely avoiding any topic surrounding my interview.
I had no idea it could be like this. Perfectly imperfect, and the perfectionist in me doesn’t mind the flaws and quirks that make us work.
The biggest quirk being that I feel like I’m dating my husband.
Hand on my lower back, he guides me to the house, but before we make it to the front porch steps, I reach behind me, slipping my hand into his.
Isaiah glances down to our intertwined fingers, and it’s the first time he doesn’t look around for someone from the team to invalidate what’s happening.
“You okay?” I ask.
“Perfect.” He gives it a squeeze. “I like holding your hand in public.” He doesn’t even try to lower his voice when he adds, “And I like holding your throat in private.”
I smack him in the chest with a laugh. “Perv.”
“When it comes to you? Absolutely. You should see all the dirty things floating in my head that I have planned.” He holds the door open for me,
switching to a complete gentleman. “After you, wifey.”
But then that gentleman façade flies right out the window when he smacks my ass on my way inside.
“Back here!” someone calls.
This time, Isaiah is the one who leads me to the rear of the house, where a second living room is adjacent to the kitchen.
“Hey, guys!” Indy calls out from the couch. She’s got her feet kicked up and her hand smoothing over her pregnant belly. “Kennedy, I’m so glad you’re here!”
“Hey.” I offer her a small wave and note the way her eyes trail to where my hand is connected with Isaiah’s. “Thanks for having me.”
“Ken, this is Zanders,” Isaiah says, gesturing over to the kitchen.
He’s tall, just as tall as the Rhodes boys, wearing a gold chain necklace and covered in tattoos.
“He’s Stevie’s husband and defenseman for the Chicago Raptors.”
“And in that exact order,” Zanders says, dropping the knife he was using to slice tomatoes before wiping his hands on a towel and rounding the kitchen island to me. I shake his outstretched hand, noting the endless gold rings that decorate them. “You can call me Zee.”
“Kennedy.”
Isaiah cuts in from my side. “And you can call her Mrs. Rhodes.” Zanders bursts a laugh. “I still cannot believe you pulled that off.
Kennedy, this man has talked about you nonstop for months.” “Years,” Indy corrects.
“Years,” Zanders agrees. “Part of me thought you didn’t exist and the other part of me feels like I already know everything there is to know about you.”
I find Isaiah out of the corner of my eye, heat creeping up his cheeks. It’s stupidly adorable when this cocky man is left without words to say.
Max comes barreling in from the backyard, wobbly legs bringing him right to me, but Isaiah scoops him up on his way and Max immediately folds onto his chest in a hug.
“There’s my favorite of the Rhodes men.” I run a hand over Max’s back. “Mine too.” Max giggles. Isaiah shoots me a scowl.
“Ken,” Max says, pointing out his little finger until it connects with my cheek.
“Hey, what about me?”
Then he turns and does the same to his uncle. “Zaya.”
He repeats that a few times, pointing between the two of us and saying our names.
“Where’s Stevie?” Isaiah asks Zanders, adjusting his nephew on his hip. “She’s putting Taylor down for the night.”
“Which is exactly what we’re going to do,” Kai says, coming in from the backyard. “Hey, Ken. Glad you could make it.”
He bends to wrap his arms around me in a hug and I don’t flinch or hesitate before hugging him back.
It’s so strange for me, to not even second-guess myself, but it feels really good too.
“All right, Maxie boy. Bedtime.” Kai takes his son from Isaiah. Max sits up, looking around the house. “Mama.”
“She’s coming, Bug. Mills,” he calls out. “You coming?”
Through the open back door, Miller comes into the house with an empty tray. I can both hear and smell the grill going in the backyard.
“Coming,” she says. “Kennedy! Hi! So glad you came.”
“Really?” Isaiah holds his hands out. “My own family and no one is going to say hi to me?”
“No,” Kai quickly answers.
“Honestly, I see you plenty,” Miller says over her shoulder as she follows Kai and Max to the stairs. “I’m much more excited to see my friend.”
Two more people come in from the backyard. Rio, and a man, who if I didn’t already know was Ryan Shay, it’d be fairly obvious by the similarities he shares with his twin sister.
But it’s impossible to not know who Ryan Shay is, especially in Chicago. “Hey, Kennedy. Good to see you again, I guess.” Rio’s voice holds no
inflection.
Zanders bursts a laugh from the kitchen. “Get it together, Rio!” Indy calls.
“So glad you could be here,” he corrects before shooting Indy a deadpanned glare.
“What’s that about?” I ask.
“Guy’s a little sensitive about being the only one of us who isn’t paired off these days.” Ryan holds his hand out to me. “Hey, I’m Ryan.”
“Kennedy.”
“I’ve heard that name so many fucking times,” Ryan laughs to himself. “For fuck’s sake,” Isaiah mutters under his breath.
Ryan pats him on the back before adding another dirty tray onto the sink. Judging by the toppings that Zanders is slicing, it’s burger night here at the Shay house.
“You need help with the grill?” Isaiah asks. “I can help!” Indy calls out.
“Not you,” Ryan quickly disagrees. “Stay inside, Blue. Kick your feet up and don’t do anything.”
She rolls her eyes.
“I got you,” Isaiah says before turning to me, hand snaked around my hip. “Are you good?”
As I nod, he leans down to kiss my temple before following Ryan outside, Zanders and Rio following not far behind.
I make my way to Indy in the living room, taking one of the comfy- looking chairs across from her just as Stevie and Miller come back downstairs to join us. Stevie takes the spot next to her sister-in-law and my sister-in-law takes the chair next to me.
“You look great, Kennedy. I love that jacket.” “So do you, Stevie. Good to see you again.”
Honestly, all the girls look great, in styles that are unique to them. Stevie in a pair of loose jeans, flannel tied around her waist.
Indy in a lavender sundress and high-top Converse.
Miller in her signature overalls, sunglasses slipped on top of her head, and bare feet.
“So, Ryan is a little—”
“Overprotective,” Indy finishes for me, pointing at her belly. “Tell me about it, but it took a lot for us to get here, so I let him be.”
“I think it’s sweet. He cares about you.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the guys circled around the grill, chatting and laughing with one another. Isaiah lifts his hat to run his hand through his hair, listening to something one of them is saying, but I catch him looking through the window over to me out of his periphery.
He grins this boyish grin, his cheeks turning pink from being caught, telling me it’s not the first time he’s looked over here since he’s been outside. He gives me one more sweeping glance before he focuses back on his friends.
That right there is another first. Having someone across the room looking for me, checking on me. It seems like such a simple act, but it’s something I’ve always wished for and didn’t think I’d have.
It didn’t matter if there were two thousand people or only the two of us alone in a room, Connor never looked for me and I didn’t look for him.
We were, in a sense, business partners for our families.
Isaiah and me, we’re something entirely different. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it feels good, and warm, and right.
“You look happy.” Miller nudges her foot to mine, stealing my attention. I give her a small nod in agreement. “I am.”
“So when did you and your husband start fucking?” Indy blurts out. My mouth drops open as I turn to Miller.
She holds her hands up in defense. “I didn’t say a word.”
“She didn’t have to,” Stevie says. “Anyone with eyes could tell.”
“How’s your vagina feeling?” Indy turns to Miller. “Miller, you’re with the brother, it’s probably comparable. How’s she feeling?”
Miller tosses her head from side to side. “Sore.”
“My God, after all this time.” Indy laughs. “I couldn’t tell you the last Sunday we had that Isaiah showed up and didn’t say something about you. Either how you did something impressive at work or how you wore your hair that day.”
“You’re the only person he’s ever talked about,” Stevie adds. “And now look at you two. Accidentally married and purposefully in love.”
I want to argue that we’re not in love. We’re playing a game and that’s all this is, but I know that’s not the case anymore. I don’t know exactly what this is, but I’m also aware I have never felt as good as I have the last couple of months, and more specifically, than I have this week from finally seeing what was always right in front of me.
Once again, Isaiah catches my attention out the window when he holds up his wedding ring for his friends to see. Chest puffed, shoulders back.
I’ve never met a man prouder of a piece of jewelry than Isaiah Rhodes is of his wedding ring. Since putting it on the first time, I’ve yet to see him
without it. The only time his finger is bare is when he’s swapping his metal ring for the silicone one before a practice or a game.
But that’s where the confusion lies. What are we doing?
Dating is one thing. Even getting into a relationship. But marriage? A real marriage? Neither of us signed up for that. Not when we were too many tequila shots in and not when we were scheming to save my job.
Just because we’re sleeping together now and spending all our time with each other doesn’t mean our fake marriage suddenly turned real.
“So,” Miller says. “Tell us about the interview.”
Then there’s that . . . The potential job I have waiting for me two thousand miles away.
She knows the gist of it. That it went well. That Dean tried to set me up with some guy that worked there. That the city and the stadium were beautiful, but I have yet to give her more details.
“It went better than I could’ve hoped for. Everyone was friendly and kind and welcoming. I met so many people who worked for the team, and every person I asked said they absolutely loved their job.”
“That’s rare,” Stevie says.
“Even more rare is that there are a ton of women who work for the franchise. And they’re happy and respected. There are two other women on the medical staff alone. I’ve never had that. The stadium is stunning. The equipment is all brand new. And the interview itself, it didn’t feel like an interview at all. It felt like I already had the job, and they were just excited for me to get out there as soon as possible.”
“That’s so amazing for you,” Indy says with a smile.
Miller stays silent so I look over for her to add something, but she doesn’t.
“What?”
She shakes her head. “I know I’m being selfish here, but I don’t want you to go.”
“Miller—”
“I know. I know.” She holds her hands up. “You and Isaiah are both being so fucking weird about it, but things seem so good for you lately. You seem happy, and I want you here. I’m just wondering if it’s worth giving it all up for a lateral move, career wise. I get that you’d have a new lead doctor to work under there, but . . .”
Miller, and everyone else in Chicago, has no idea that this isn’t a lateral move. I’d become the first female lead doctor in the MLB. I’d gain some financial freedom that’s mine and not accompanied by the Kay name. I’d be in charge of an entire department in a great city with a thriving sports scene.
But thankfully, the back door swings open before I have to answer.
“Well, damn.” Isaiah lets out a low whistle as he drops something into the kitchen sink. “Don’t you four look good.”
“Flirt,” Miller mutters.
“I’m a married man, Montgomery. I don’t flirt.” He bends over the back of my chair as I crane my neck up to look at him. “Except with you. I like flirting with you. You want cheese on your burger?”
“Yes, please.”
“You got it.” He pops a quick kiss on my lips then he’s out to the backyard once again.
My attention swings back to Miller at my side. She doesn’t have to say anything. She’s silently screaming to add that I’d also be giving up Isaiah.
As if it’s not the only thing I’ve thought about this week.
