“You okay? Your voice sounds weird.”
“Fine,” I say before hanging up, which I’ll hear about later, but I need to know what’s going on.
I look over at Shelli to find her sitting up, rubbing her face as she groans. “Is that my phone going off?”
I get up, taking her phone and a cup of coffee to her. “Yeah, Miranda texted you.”
She’s one hell of an actress, because, without missing a beat, she takes her phone and says, “Oh, okay.” I lean my hip on the couch as she takes the coffee cup, not making eye contact. “Er, thanks.”
“Anytime.”
I watch as she looks at the text before throwing her phone onto the couch and getting up. She heads for our bedroom, clearing her throat before calling back to me, “Don’t you have golf with our dads?”
I nod, following her. “Yeah, in about an hour.”
“Oh, cool. I’m gonna take a shower, wash the alcohol off me.”
She starts to undress, and I cross my arms before sitting down on the little chair she has in our room. I stare at her, resisting the urge to take her naked body right in our bed. If I weren’t so pissed, I would. But she lied about cutting ties with Miranda, and now she’s holding back information. I’m not sure why, but it makes me mad. Once she is naked, she starts to braid her hair before turning to see me watching her.
She forces a laugh. “Stalker, what are you doing? Didn’t you get enough last night?”
I shake my head roughly. “I’ll never get enough, but don’t distract me with your sexy body and sexy time.”
Her brows crash together. “Huh?”
“Miranda texting you.”
“Yeah?”
“I thought you cut ties with Miranda?”
“I did. I can’t keep her from contacting me, Aiden. That’s rude. She got me a lot of jobs, and I still care for her. She’s pregnant right now. Things didn’t work out with the baby’s father, but she’s going to raise—”
“Shelli.”
She presses her lips together, her eyes finally meeting mine. She swallows hard, crossing her arms across her chest. “I was offered the part of Eliza Schuyler in the musical Hamilton.”
Okay, I’ll give it to her. That’s a huge deal, especially with how popular Hamilton has become in the last couple years. But that doesn’t matter. “Okay? Why didn’t you turn it down?”
She bites her lip, her eyes pleading with mine, but I’m not giving in. “I don’t want to.”
I nod slowly, anger eating me alive. “Shelli, you said Chicago was the last one.”
“But this is a dream part!”
“Chicago was the dream. What the hell?”
“I didn’t look for this. I didn’t even ask for this. They chose me, and yes, this has happened before with a lot of shows and I’ve turned them down left and right. But I can’t say no to Hamilton. Aiden, it’s Hamilton! We love that show, and now I’ll be Eliza. Come on, that’s incredible.”
“No. Shelli, you retired! You have a life here, we’re buying a house, and you’re training to own the Assassins. When in the world do you have time to go to New York for months at a time to rehearse and everything else?”
“We can make it work. We made Chicago work just fine.”
“And it was rough, constantly flying back and forth and the late-night calls because we were both so busy.”
“But we made it work. This is my dream.”
I blink. “Can I get a list of these dreams? ’Cause last time I checked, you wanted to be a team owner after you hung up your heels from Chicago.”
She strikes her hands to her hips. “Excuse me for being successful and talented and always wanting to better myself. Yes, your career is sound, you know exactly what you want, but it’s not that easy for me. I love to sing, to perform, but I also love being home and owning the team. I do. But, Aiden, I’m only twenty-three.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I think I may have rushed into the notion of being done with Broadway. I think I needed to get out when I did, but ever since being back from Chicago, I’ve completely immersed myself in the wedding and anything I could get my hands on so that I wouldn’t miss the stage.”
Talk about a kick in the gut. This is out of left field, and I can’t believe my ears. “You didn’t tell me this.”
“Because I thought I wanted to retire, Aiden, but I don’t think I can. Not yet.”
“Shelli, we had a plan.”
She looks away. “I don’t know if that is the plan I want right now.”
I swallow hard, cupping my forehead in my hand. “Three days before the wedding, you want to change the plan.”
Her hurt gaze meets mine. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. We’re getting married in three days. We are looking at houses, our season starts in a matter of weeks, and hell, what about having a baby?”