Gabriel (BBW Shifter Secret Baby Football Romance) (Shifter Football League Book 1) Read online

  “Oh hey, my mom asked me to ask you. What’s your due date?”

  “Christmas day, believe it or not.”

  “Wow,” he said. “What an awesome gift.”

  Carolyn came back to Springfield after two weeks and three more fights with Sam. She tried to avoid him, but he kept showing up. Or he’d be there at church where he knew they would be. He was telling everyone that she was pregnant with his baby, but was leaving him anyway. People kept coming up to her, asking why she wouldn’t give Sam a chance. Until she told them he was lying to everyone and it wasn’t even his baby.

  The worst fight had been the night before she left. He’d shown up at her mom’s house, drunk. She was so disappointed to see him like that, to see him give up his sober time. Sam had stood on the front step, screaming at them until they had to call the cops to get him to leave. She’d called Gabe, and he made her feel better.

  When she walked off the plane and went to meet him, her heart was racing. When she saw his face, it leapt for joy. She threw her arms around him and pressed her lips hard against his.

  “Thank you for coming back,” he said.

  “We need to work on this trust thing,” she said as he picked up her bag. “I wouldn’t lie about something like that.”

  “I’m sorry.” He took her hand. “I’ll believe you. I narrowed it down to three places. We can look at them tomorrow and decide. They’re not the biggest places, but it’s all we qualify for with my current income. Next year, we can find something bigger.”

  “I’ve been living in a dorm room for the last year. Anything bigger than that will be fine.”

  “Well, they’re bigger than a dorm room.”

  He’d clearly done his homework. When he showed her the photos and the information sheets for each one, he pointed out how the baby’s room would be close in this apartment, and this one was close to the park so they could take the baby for walks and to go play when it got older, and this one had great schools. Though, she pointed out, they weren’t planning to stay there that long.

  They went to look at each apartment and in the end, the one near the park felt right. It was bright and open, the biggest of the three, though also the most expensive. She promised him she’d work somewhere as long as she could, and he said that by the time she was further along, he’d start getting his pro ball salary, and she could quit. They might have a tough few months, but he promised it would be better soon.

  They signed the new lease and planned to move in right away. Carolyn had already packed up her dorm room and mailed a few boxes to her mother’s. It was all she had here. When she was home to visit, the boxes had arrived, and she’d sent them right back, to where Gabe was currently living this time, since she no longer had a place to live.

  It was nice to stay with Gabe the night she got back. He’d cuddled with her until she fell asleep. They hadn’t had sex, and she wasn’t sure what to think or feel about that. She had been pretty tired. And he seemed to be handling her so delicately. Maybe he was afraid to have sex with her? Well, if they were going to live together and be in a relationship, he’d have to get over that. And fast.

  Chapter 8

  When moving day came, there was surprisingly little to be done. She had only a few boxes, which they loaded into the trunk of her car. They filled Gabe’s car with trash bags of his clothes, and a few boxes of his things. One of his roommates borrowed a pickup truck, and that’s what they would use to take his bed and dresser to their new place.

  When they had the furniture in place and piles of boxes in the corner, Gabe turned to her and smiled. “We have so much room!”

  She burst into tears. They didn’t have room, they had emptiness. There was no sofa or coffee table, no kitchen table. Thank God the place had come with a stove and refrigerator, or they wouldn’t even have that. They needed a shower curtain for the bathroom, plates that weren’t paper, cleaning supplies, lamps, a TV. She felt broke and hopeless, and that was only when she didn’t go into the completely bare baby’s room.

  Gabe had put his arms around her and she cried into his shoulder.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “We have nothing,” she said between sobs. “How are we going to afford to buy everything we need? We don’t have a crib or anything for the baby. What are we going to do?”

  “Well.” He rubbed her back and continued to hold her. “We’ll start with the cheapest stuff we can find. My mom is bringing over a box of cleaning supplies later. And I think some old curtains and dishes. We might have to live on yard sale stuff for now, but we’ll upgrade as we go. And from what my mom says, when we have a baby shower, we’ll get almost everything we need. At least to start. You’ll be working, and I’m working, and soon I’ll be making really good money and we won’t have to worry about any of this.”

  “I don’t want to be poor, and I don’t want my baby to be poor, either.”

  Gabe chuckled. “You do know that pro ball players make, like, millions a year, right? This is a new league, though, so the money isn’t there yet. That’s the only reason I’m making what I’m making right now. But I’m the starting quarterback, Care. When I sign my first contract, I’ll be the highest paid player on the team.”

  “Really?” She wiped her eyes and looked up at him. “Millions?”

  “Yep. So, even if we need to borrow some from my parents to survive for now, we’ll be fine. I’m sure we can manage to live on a few million a year.”

  “Probably.” She rested her head against his shoulder again, enjoying the feel of his arms around her. “We don’t have any food.”

  “What about that?” He pointed to the box of food he’d brought from his old place. It was full of protein bars, vitamins, and protein powder. He’d put some eggs and milk in the fridge.

  “Exactly. We don’t have any food.”

  “Then let’s go grocery shopping.”

  “Do we have money for that? We had to put all that money down for the security deposit and rent.”

  He nodded. “We’ll just put it on my credit card for now.”

  She let out a long sigh. “Okay. I guess I should apply for food stamps. I should be able to get something, being a single mom.”

  “Food stamps? Do you think we really need that?”

  “Gabe. We’re about to pay for groceries with a credit card. And we don’t have pots or pans or a microwave or any way to actually cook the food. We need all the help we can get.”

  He drove them to grocery store, and they pushed the cart through the aisles, arguing over everything that went into the cart.

  “Whoa, you can’t eat that,” Gabe said, putting back a bag of potato chips.

  “Why not?” They were her favorite chips, and she could eat a whole bag if she was in the mood.

  “They’re full of junk. You need something like this.” He picked up a bag of kale chips and dropped them in the cart.

  She made a face, and they moved on to the frozen section. Carolyn filled the cart with frozen pizzas and microwave dinners. Gabe went down the aisle and came back with armfuls of frozen vegetables and chicken.

  “What is all this?” he asked, looking in the cart.

  “Dinner?”

  He shook his head. “We’re going to have to start making meal plans or something. We can’t eat this junk. It’s not healthy enough. I have to be careful of what I eat. My body can’t handle lots of crap. And you should be eating more healthy, too.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “Then, what do you want me to do? How are we going to cook anything?”

  “How were you planning to cook microwave dinners?”

  She narrowed her eyes. He had a point, and she hadn’t really thought about it. “In the oven.”

  “They’re in plastic.”

  “Fine.” She pulled out the frozen dinners and shoved them back onto the freezer shelves. “I don’t need to eat. It’s fine.” She crossed her arms and fought the tears that threatened to come.

  He pinched the bridge of his
nose. “I’ll cook, okay? I’ll take care of it. I’ll teach you.”

  She reached out and defiantly dropped one of the frozen pizzas back into the cart. “You don’t have to eat any of it. But I want some pizza.”

  “That’s fine. We can have pizza once in a while.”

  She stood at the front of the cart, resting her elbows on the handle, her head down while he finished in the aisle. They went to check out and her eyes almost bulged out of her head when she saw the total. How had they managed to spend almost $200?

  She was silent on the way back to the apartment, trying to figure out how they’d get everything they needed, and what they would do if he really made millions once he signed his contract. It seemed like such a huge contrast. She couldn’t even imagine it.

  They carried the bags into the kitchen and started putting things away. He carelessly shoved food into the freezer and pantry, not bothering to organize anything.

  “Gabe, stop.” She looked, horrified and the random collection of boxes and cans on the shelf. “There has to be some sort of order. You can’t just throw everything on one shelf.”

  “But this way you can see everything.”

  “No, no.” She pulled the items back out of the pantry, filling the counter with food items. She looked at what they had, then put the items on the shelf in a way that made some sort of sense. Snacks went on the bottom shelf, though she doubted she’d go for the kale chips often. The canned food on another shelf, the boxes of pasta and rice on another.

  When everything was put away in an orderly fashion, Carolyn smiled. “That’s so much better.”

  Gabe rolled his eyes. “It was fine before.”

  She shook her head. “Shut up and cook me something, woman.”

  He pulled his mouth into a half smile. “Yes, sir.”

  There was a knock on the door and Gabe looked down at his phone. “It’s my mom and dad. They brought us some stuff.”

  “Right now? They’re here now?” Carolyn looked over her outfit. She was probably a mess from moving and shopping. She hadn’t thought about the fact that his mom having things for them meant they’d actually have to see his parents to get it.

  “You look great.” He kissed her forehead and took her hand, leading her across the kitchen and to the front door.

  He pulled open the door with a huge grin on his face. “Welcome to my new place! Our new place.” He put his arm around her. “This is Carolyn.”

  “So nice to meet you.” His mom hugged her and put her hand immediately on her belly. “We are so excited for you.”

  “Nice to meet you.” His dad put out his hand and she shook it. Then he picked up a large box from the floor. “Gabe, I have some more boxes in the car. Help me bring them in.”

  While the men brought in the boxes, the women put the things away. Carolyn was relieved to see that Gabe did not get his organizational skills from his mother. Sandy was a perfect organizer.

  Carolyn had worried that things would be awkward with Gabe’s parents. After all, they weren’t married and barely knew each other. Even her own mother had been disappointed at first. But if Sandy and Phil were, they did a great job of hiding it. Sandy asked her about her pregnancy and shared about her own. Though, when she talked about having Austin, she choked up, and Carolyn had quickly changed the subject. They welcomed her warmly, and she thought that just maybe one day they would feel like family. She wouldn’t mind having family close by. And she’d never gotten along with Sam’s mom, so it would be nice to have in-law-like people that she was on good terms with.

  Over the next weeks, they tried to settle into something that looked like a real life. That first week, Carolyn had taken time to scrub every inch of the place, using the new items from Sandy. She’d hung the second-hand curtains in the bedroom and living room, and had washed the dishes and old pots before finding them a home in the cabinets. The silverware was mismatched and they had far more butter knives than anyone could need, but at least they had something. It was a start.

  Gabe went off to train and practice every day, and many times at night, he’d go for long runs in the park, in his bear form. The first time she’d seen him shift and bound down the apartment stairs to go outside, it had kind of freaked her out. She’d stood with wide eyes as he stripped naked, then became a bear in under a second. He’d rubbed against her shoulder and made something like a purring noise, though it sounded more like a growl to her. It would take some time to get used to that.

  Once things in the apartment were settled, she started to look for a job. Something that wouldn’t require her to be on her feet all day. But those jobs were harder to find. There were plenty of spots for retail workers or waitresses, but a desk job? Much harder to come by and she didn’t have the skills needed to land anything decent. Finally, she applied for a few phone jobs. Answering calls, looking up information, that sort of thing.

  The day of her first interview, she’d stood in the bedroom, crying in front of the mirror, topless. Gabe had stepped out of the shower and stared at her.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing fits. I have no clothes. I have nothing to wear on this interview.”

  He twisted his mouth to the side, then went to his closet. He took out a white button-down shirt and handed it to her. She slipped it on. It was huge on her, except around her middle where her stomach continued to grow. She pulled it down and tied the ends into a knot at the side, making it somewhat better fitting and more fashionable.

  “Beautiful,” he said. He kissed her forehead and went to get dressed.

  She had gone on four interviews by the end of the week, but had the suspicion that her growing belly was keeping them from calling. Friday night, when Gabe finally got home, she nearly attacked him. She threw her arms around him, crushing herself to him.

  “Hi,” he said, chuckling.

  “I can’t find a job,” she blurted out. “No one wants to hire a pregnant woman who’s going to leave in a few months to have a baby.”

  He smoothed her hair down and kissed her forehead like he’d been doing recently. “I’m sure you’ll find something. And if you don’t, we’ll be okay.”

  She looked into his eyes for a long moment. All she wanted was to feel his body against hers, the warmth and comfort of his skin next to hers. He’d barely touched her since they moved in. Most days, he didn’t even kiss her lips, just her forehead, like she was a little girl. She’d felt so lonely. Not having her classes to go to and her classmates, not having Mikaela, who’d been her constant friend. She needed him.

  “Kiss me,” she said.

  He pressed his lips to hers, but it was nothing like the kisses they’d had before. There was sweetness, but little passion. She pressed harder back, forcing her tongue into his mouth and pulling his hair at the back of his neck. It seemed to be working. He pulled her closer and he kissed back with as much fervor as she kissed him. But then, he stepped back and smiled at her.

  “Hungry? I’ll make dinner.”

  “Wait.” She let her arms fall for a moment, then had an idea. She pulled her shirt over her head and stepped out of her pants. “I’m hungry for you.”

  He took in the sight of her almost naked body. He adjusted his pants, and that made her smile. “But…”

  “Don’t you want me anymore?” she asked. “Or don’t you like my big belly?”

  His face crumpled into shock. “What? Is that what you think?” He came to her and put one hand on her belly, pressing the other into her back. “I want you more now than I ever have. Your belly, with my child in it, is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”