She answers the door, and I can tell she was sleeping. “Hey,” I say, walking in and kissing her neck. “Were you sleeping?”
“Yeah, I took a nap so I can stay up with you when you get here,” she says, and I stop looking at her. “I know that you’re usually wired after the game, and I want to sit with you.”
“I love you,” I say, and her eyes light up. We’ve skated around the “I love you” talk for a while now, but I couldn’t not tell her.
“I love you, too,” she says to me, and I suddenly want to get her naked. I pick her up, and she wraps me up like she always does. “That was a nice goal today,” she says. “We should celebrate.”
“We should,” I say, walking to her room. “Should we talk about the fact that we haven’t used condoms? I got tested six months ago.”
“I got tested when I got to town,” she tells me. “And I’m on the pill.”
She doesn’t have to say anything else. The rest of the night I spend inside her until I have to leave to go home.
I hang out with Jaxon and then make my way over to my lawyer's office. I walk in, the receptionist taking me into my lawyer's office.
“Manning,” she says, getting up.
“Hi, Yolanda,” I say, putting out my hand for her to shake it. “Good to see you.”
“Sit down,” she says. “Would you like something to drink?”
“No, I’m fine,” I say, sitting down and waiting for her to sit down.
She opens her file and takes out the papers she drafted up. “Okay, so she wants the family home.”
“She can have it,” I tell her. “I hate that house anyway.” She nods her head, writing down something. “I want my clothes.”
“I will arrange a time for you to go and get them without her there.” I nod.
“She wants alimony,” Yolanda says. “But thankfully, you had a prenup.”
I look at Yolanda. “What does she want?”
“Well, according to her lawyer, she wants Jaxon full time since you travel.”
“Never going to happen,” I tell her, and she holds up her hands.
“I’ve already told him that we will do fifty-fifty with regard to your schedule, and he sounded like it was going to be okay.” She looks down. “She wants you to put out a statement that you were separated before the video was taken.”
I think about it. “I’ll only do it if she signs the papers in twenty days. If she signs off on everything, I will put out a statement saying we separated four months ago. She has to stop communicating with the press, and I want an NDA.” I don’t want her to say anything about Evelyn to anyone, ever. Not now and not ten years from now.
“Are you sure about this?” she asks.
“I want to get on with my life,” I tell her. “So if she agrees to that, we have a deal.” Yolanda looks at me.
I get up and walk out of the office, and for the first time since this started, I see the end of the tunnel.
Chapter 34
Evelyn
“What time will you be over?” Manning asks, and I look up and see it’s almost three o’clock.
“I finish at five, and then I have to rush home and change.” I tap my finger on the desk. It’s been two weeks since the pictures have been leaked. Two weeks of me waiting for the other shoe to drop, yet nothing has come out.
“I just got home,” he says to me. “And I was gone four days.”
“I’m aware.” I laugh. He’s been over every single night that he’s been in town. He stays home for supper and then sneaks out to come over here and then sneaks back in before Jaxon wakes up. But tonight, he wants us to have dinner together and for me to meet his mother.
“Murielle is getting Jaxon tomorrow morning for the weekend,” he says softly. “Which means I get to sleep over and wake up with you.”
“I might be busy.” I roll my lips when he groans. “I will be over by five thirty,” I tell him. “Can I bring anything?”
“Yeah, your ass,” he says, and I shake my head, laughing. “See you later, baby.” I hang up the phone, and my whole head is now thinking of Manning. I pack up my stuff at four thirty, and I’m in the car when he calls again.
“Where are you?” he asks, and I laugh.
“Did you plant a chip in me?” I ask, pulling out of the parking lot. “I just left the office.”
“Change of plans. Murielle is going to get Jaxon at seven,” he says, exhaling a deep breath. “Can you come over now so we can eat at five thirty? I really want to have a family dinner.”
The way he says it, I would give him anything. “I can be there in thirty,” I say. I don’t tell him that I’m stopping at the flower shop to get his mother flowers.