Unravel Me (Playing For Keeps Book 3)

MAY

“Do you think she’ll like it?”

I step back, my bare feet warm on the hardwood planks, the early morning west coast sun streaming through the windows in our living room, bathing the scene before me in light. Pink foiled balloons, spelling out her name and what this day means to us. Her favorite breakfast laid out on a blanket on the floor, because picnics are our favorite way to eat as a family. Up ready to go on the TV, because there isn’t a movie she loves more.

Warm hands land on my arms, coasting up to my shoulders where his fingers slip beneath the straps of my tank top. Adam guides me back against his chest, broad arms coming around me as he drops kisses along my shoulder, up my neck.

“She’s going to love it. She’d love it without all this, Rosie, because she loves you.”

I smile, swaying against Adam as he kisses my cheek. “I love her so much. It feels like we were made for each other.” I turn into him, draping my arms over his shoulder as he grips my hips. “That’s how I knew she was it for us, the same way I knew you were it for me. Your mom told me people are like puzzle pieces, and when you find the pieces that fit with yours, you don’t let go.”

“She’s our puzzle piece.”

“The perfect fit.”

He threads his fingers through mine, tugging me toward the staircase. “C’mon. Let’s go get the kids up.”

Adam pauses outside of Connor’s room, his ear at the door. Small voices drift through to us, and he smiles as our gazes collide. When we open the door, everyone is exactly where we expect them to be.

Connor is tucked beneath his blankets still, huddled up by the pillows, his thumb in his mouth. Bear and Piglet are curled up together at the foot of the bed, and Dinosaur—who is a bit of an asshole, by the way—is draped over the edge of the mattress, belly up, his head on the floor, paws stretched out overtop.

And Lily sits cross-legged atop the pillows, a book in her hands as she reads to Connor and the animals, the same as she does every morning before breakfast.

Lily’s been living with us for six weeks now. The day after Christmas, Adam contacted her social worker and asked about becoming foster parents. On January second, we began our twelve-week PRIDE pre-service training, and as soon as we were qualified, Lily moved in with us.

It hasn’t always been easy. There have been tears and so many fears, long nights and even longer days. Exhaustion ran rampant as I finished up my rotations before graduating, and everything feels harder when Adam isn’t here, but he checks in on us every night. And despite all the tough days, every single one has been worth it. Because beyond it all, there’s been the bravest leaps and bounds, breathtaking smiles, so damn much laughter, and more love than I ever thought possible.

And now, after nearly six months, Adam and I are officially adopt ready.

“Good morning, sweethearts,” I greet the kids, taking a seat on the floor beside the bed. Connor and Lily rush over, climbing into my lap for a squeeze before they run to Adam. “Did you sleep in here with Connor last night?” I ask Lily as Adam scoops them into his strong arms, setting a kid on each hip.

Lily lays her head on Adam’s shoulder, nodding. “I don’t like sleeping alone. Me and Connor, we make each other feel safe.”

My heart warms at the love she has for Connor, so deep and endless, and I’m happy she’s found another way to help herself feel more at home here, safer. We’ve heard her bedroom door creak open every night this week, stuck our heads out, and watched her pad across the hall with at least one animal on her heels, creep quietly into Connor’s room. And five minutes later, we’ve cracked his door, found the two of them fast asleep beneath the glow of the moons and the stars stuck all over his ceiling.

Lily wiggles down Adam’s body, rushing over to me and taking my hand. “Can you help me get ready, Rosie?”

Adam tosses Connor onto his shoulders. “I’ve got this one.”

Like clockwork, my throat grows tight at the sight of Lily’s room, neat and tidy, barely lived in, her bag in the corner of the room like she’s only visiting. She unzips it, pulls out the clean laundry I washed yesterday, the clothes she put right back in there. And I ask her the same question I do every morning.

“Would you like to unpack your bag today?”

She shakes her head, spreading out a few options on the bed. “It’s better this way. In case you want me to go, I can leave fast.”

Her pain wraps around my heart like an angry fist, squeezing. The same old feelings resurface, the reminder of years spent feeling unwanted, unworthy of love, slapping me in the face. It’s not better this way, and I would do anything for her to believe that.

For now, I crouch beside her, laying my hand over hers, staring into those innocent, wide eyes. “We love you very much, Lily. Whenever you’re ready to unpack your bag, you let me know, and we’ll put everything away together. Our house wouldn’t be a home without you.”

That little nose crinkles when she sniffles. She twirls the dusty pink ends of her chestnut hair around her fingers, the temporary dye we put in last weekend when she said she wanted hair like mine. “Could you put braids in my hair this morning? I want to match you.”

Fifteen minutes later, with matching French braids and in her favorite dress—the one she was wearing when we asked her if she wanted to come live with us—we head downstairs. My heart gallops, growing more anxious the closer we get. When we see the boys in the living room, waiting beneath the balloons and among our mini-zoo, Lily stops.

“Lily Day?” she whispers, curious chocolate eyes moving between us and the pink foil balloons. She cocks her head. “I thought my birthday wasn’t until June.”

“It is. But today we want to show you how grateful we are to have you in our family. We have loved watching you grow, Lily. You are fierce and brave and gentle, and you are such a caring and spectacular sister to Connor.”

Her eyes flash at that s-word, and when Connor runs over, wrapping himself around her, she closes her eyes, sinking into his love.

“I lub you, sista,” my sweet two-year-old tells her.

Adam kneels in front of her, taking her tiny hands in his big ones. “We love you, Lily. We love dance recitals on Saturday mornings, picnics on the living room floor, playing Dr. Lily, veterinarian, with the dogs and cat. We love snuggling up and reading your favorite books over and over, rainy days spent watching movies, and your art on the fridge.”

As Lily’s chin trembles and tears flood her eyes, Adam reaches into his pocket and pulls out the pink and purple bracelet he made last night, after she was fast asleep. He slips it on her wrist, running the tip of his fingers over the small addition, the dangling silver letters. A, R, L, C.

“One for each of us,” he tells her, and when that first tear slips free, he catches it on his thumb. “You’re our puzzle piece, Lily. Our family isn’t complete without you.”

I run my hand down her braid, smiling through my own tears. “We want you to stay, sweetheart. Forever.”

“You-you-you…” She sniffles, chin quivering. “You want to adopt me?”

I nod. “You’ve been part of our family for a while now. But if it’s okay with you, we’d like to make it official.”

She takes the skirt of her dress in her fists, looking to Adam. “Does that mean I get a jersey like Connor’s to wear to your games? One that says Daddy on the back?”

Adam grins, walking over to the coffee table, returning with a small blue and green jersey. He unfolds it, showing the back to Lily, his number set below that very word, the one Adam feels so lucky to be called by Connor, the one he’s been hoping Lily would someday feel comfortable calling him too.

Tears cascade down Lily’s cheeks as she rubs her eyes with her shaking fists. “Does that mean I can call you Mommy?”

My heart shatters, and I pull her into my chest. “If you want to, sweetheart. I would be so honored to be your mommy, and I’m going to love you forever, just like your mommy in heaven.”

A sob cracks from her throat, and she clings to me as we cry. Connor wraps his little arms around us, and Adam takes all three of us in his. Somewhere, there’s a cat meowing his disapproval that he’s not in the middle of this hug, and two dogs dance around us, sticking their tongues in our ears, licking away our tears.

When we break away, Lily looks at me, scrubs the tears from her eyes. Red-rimmed and tired, it’s the renewed hope in them that paints over the fissures in my heart like glue, mending pieces of me I didn’t think could ever be fixed again.

And then she takes my hand and says, “I think I’m ready to unpack my bag today.”

She wears her jersey to Adam’s play-off game that night. Proudly displays that five-letter name on the back, a devastating smile and so much color in her cheeks as she points at him stretching on the ice and tells everyone, “That’s my daddy.”

“Holy fuck,” Cara mutters under her breath.

“Yeah,” Olivia says on a sigh.

“We all knew it,” Jennie hums.

“What?” I ask, my eyes on Adam as he sinks farther into his stretch, his legs straight out at his sides as he does the splits and somehow manages to wink at me and wave at the kids at the same time.

“Adam,” Olivia says simply. “He’s a bigger DILF than Carter.”

Carter tosses his leg up on the bench, stretching and glaring. “How dare you! I’m standing right here. No one out-DILFs me, Olivia. ”

Cara points at Adam, fixing his brand-new goalie mask over his face as he skates over. “Adam just did, babe.”

“Dada !”

“Daddy !”

Connor and Lily jump at the glass, smacking their hands against it as Adam stops in front of them.

Connor’s eyes light, and he points at the artwork on Adam’s mask. “Pic-ta! Dada, Mama, Conn’a, sista! Oooh-ho-ho ! Bear, Pig-it, Dino-saw! Chomp-chomp !”

Being a dad has never suited a single person alive more than it suits this man, I swear to God. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve jumped on him the moment he leaves their rooms after reading them a bedtime story, tucking them in for the night. And I did the same damn thing when Adam came home four nights ago, showed me the new mask he’d made with Lily’s artwork on it, a drawing of our family.

Lily’s chin quivers. “I drew that picture. You put it on your helmet?”

Adam nods. “Gotta keep my family with me when I’m on the ice.” He lays his palm against the glass, and Lily smiles, stepping forward to lay hers on the other side.

“Here, Connor,” she says softly. “You put yours here, right next to mine.”

There’s a sniffle beside me, and the distinct click of a camera. Lennon, the team’s new photographer and social media content manager, and newest addition to our girl crew, sniffles. “Got it.” She flaps at her eyes. “That’s it. That’s the sweetest picture I’ve ever taken. The girlies are gonna go feral over this.”

Jaxon knocks on the glass. “What about me? Did you get my picture?”

She ignores him, snapping a picture of Carter and Ireland next. “Perfection. Utter perfection.”

“Lennon? Did you get my picture? Look at this.” Jaxon shimmies backward, dropping to his knees, spreading his legs wide. “Look how low I can get.”

“Not as low as Adam,” she murmurs, flipping through her pictures.

“Len? Did you see me? Want me to do it again?”

“Yes, Jaxon,” she finally calls, rolling her eyes for only us to see, her chestnut coils bouncing from where they’re piled on top of her head as she finally swings around to give him her attention. “I saw you. We’re all so impressed.”

He grins, so boyish and proud, and I snicker. Between the two of them, I’m not sure which one annoys the other more, but I’m certain they both enjoy it.

A gentle tap on the glass in front of me draws my gaze there, finding Adam watching me, his mask propped on top of his head.

“We’re pretty lucky, huh, trouble?”

“The luckiest.”

He smiles then, devilish and so sure of himself. “I’m gonna marry you someday, you know.”

I grin, that same giddy feeling in my stomach every time we have this conversation. “What if I say no?”

He pulls his mask down, fixing it over his face. As he backs away, he winks at me. “You won’t.”

And at the end of the game, when they win in overtime, Adam looks at us, and he taps his heart three times.

We’re up at the crack of dawn the next morning, the kids and all the animals packed up in the truck for our hike. Yes, even Dinosaur.

The sun had only just broken through the horizon when Adam dropped the kids on me in bed, hand-drawn cards and a bright bouquet of pink peonies for me on Mother’s Day, requesting a sunrise hike. The Starbucks warm in my hands helps chase away the sleepies from a night spent celebrating with our family and friends, but I’d get up early every day for the rest of my life, so long as it’s this family I’m getting up early with.

Fractured rays of amber filter through the branches as we walk, the slowly rising sun warming this wooded trail. Connor and Lily dance ahead of us hand in hand, the dogs close behind, the cat trying to claw his way to the front of the pack.

“What are you thinking about?” Adam’s deep timbre crackles in the quiet forest as birds wake one by one, their morning songs becoming louder as we walk deeper.

“How I never imagined myself walking a cat on a leash.”

He barks a laugh, his hand squeezing mine. “Dinosaur doesn’t like when we all go out without him.”

Uh, yeah. The cat has the biggest case of fear of missing out I’ve ever encountered. All eight pounds of him also thinks he’s as big and ferocious as his canine siblings—who are, by the way, terrified of him—so he pretty much runs our household now.

Lily and Connor stop to inspect a bug crawling up the trunk of a tree, and the animals dash over, the five of them huddling together as the fuzzy orange and black caterpillar slowly ascends.

“I can’t believe how my world has changed in the last year. I have everything I always wanted but never dared dream I’d actually have. Everything I’d grown to believe I wasn’t deserving of. I thought I needed to be better. Do something to stand out. Dye my hair to get people to notice me. So badly, I just wanted to be chosen. I wanted someone to look at me and say, ‘That’s her.’ I just wanted someone to love me for who I was without having to change a single thing about myself, Adam, and then I found you. And not only did I get your love, but I learned how to love myself better because of the way you loved me, so wholly.”

Adam’s fingers tighten around mine, pulling me to a stop. The emotion shining in his eyes reflects exactly what I feel in my heart—so damn much gratitude for the love of a lifetime. I take his face in my hands, guiding his mouth down to mine.

“The only choice I ever had was choosing to step foot on this very trail that morning. Fate took care of the rest. That’s what I’m thinking about.”

“Marry me,” he blurts, then blinks rapidly, like he can’t believe those words just left his mouth. “Ah shit. That wasn’t how that was supposed to happen.”

“I thought you was gonna do it at the tree,” Lily scolds, hands on her hips. “Where her parents are.” She taps her foot. “And you have to give her the ring, Daddy. That’s what’s gonna make her say yes.”

“I’m so sorry,” he rushes out, and I’m not sure if he’s apologizing to me or Lily. He grabs my hand, dragging me along as he dashes up ahead to that old tree, the one with my initials and my parents’, surrounded by a rainbow of peonies that have just begun to bloom. My heart tries to crawl its way up my throat as he turns back to me, pulling a small velvet box from his bag with trembling hands. “Hey, uh, forget what I said back there a minute ago, ’kay?”

“Forgotten,” I whisper as he drops to one knee.

The dogs sit at his sides, and Dinosaur drops to his back, rolling around in the dirt as he meows. Connor tugs the box from Adam’s hands, opening it, and the rising sun catches on the most gorgeous diamond.

“Oooh ,” he coos, shoving it in my face. “Pwetty, Mama.”

“I thought you was gonna wait for the sun to come all the way up,” Lily reminds Adam. “’Cause you said she’s like a sunrise.”

Adam drops his head, a tired laugh shaking his chest. When he looks back at me, it’s with the softest smile, so inherently Adam, tender and calm, so patient. “I should’ve expected this to go exactly opposite of how I planned it, huh?”

I nod, tears already gathering in my eyes. “That’s parenthood for you.”

“But maybe it’s exactly how I planned it, because all I need is you right here, surrounded by all the love that makes this family exactly as perfect as it is. That’s the only thing I’ve ever dreamed of.” He turns to Connor, taking his tiny hands in his. “Connor, buddy, I fell in love with you the moment I met you, when you threw your shoes at my chest and demanded I put them on your feet. You are so clever and curious, and you love with your whole heart, just like your mama.” He pulls Lily in to join them. “Lily, you are everything kind and patient in this world, and the day you asked me to read with you, I knew I loved you.” He squeezes their hands. “I love you both, and I’m so proud and grateful to be your dad. Now what do you say I make Mama my wife?”

“Yeah !” they scream, and Connor trips over his feet, face-planting against Adam’s chest as he grabs hold of his neck.

“I lub you, Dada.” He points at me, holding the ring out. “Gib Mama wing?”

Adam takes the ring from the box with shaky hands. His gaze touches the heart carved into the tree, and when he closes his eyes, presses his hand against the very spot my parents once touched, my tears spring free.

He opens his mouth, hesitates, then closes it, shaking his head. “I practiced this a thousand times. Every single word I wanted to say, I said it in front of the mirror, in the shower, Christ, Rosie, I even recited it in front of the guys last week. And now we’re here, and I’m looking up at you, and the only words I can think of are thank you . Thank you for trusting me with all of you, your fears, your insecurities, your past, and your future. Thank you for letting me into your life, for making me feel like I belonged there.” He hangs his head, breathing out, and I reach forward, running my fingers through his soft curls until he gives me his eyes again, electric blue and shining with tears. “Thank you for giving me a second chance. Thank you for taking the time to see all of me, to know all of me, and thank you for loving it all. Thank you for showing me what it means to be loved without reservation. Thank you, Rosie, for being you.”

Glittering golden rays dance through the forest as the sun finally breaks through the trees, bathing my family in a dazzling, breathtaking warmth I can feel all the way to the tips of my toes.

Adam smiles, a stunning, magnificent sight, the tremor in his touch disappearing as he slips my hand into his. “You’ve been my best friend and my partner through all of this.” He slips the exquisite ring on my finger, the teardrop diamond the same rosy shade as my hair. “Now I want you to be my wife.”

He catches me against him as I fall to his lap, a soft laugh that skates down my neck as I toss my arms around him and cry for a love I spent my life dreaming of.

“You didn’t phrase it as a question,” I cry.

“Because you’re not allowed to say no; I already told you.” He shifts me back, brushing my waves off my damp cheeks. “Do you know how I knew? How I knew it was you?”

“How?”

“Sometimes people say they know they’ve found the one because they turned their world upside down, took everything they thought they knew and shook it up. But you? Not you, Rosie. You didn’t throw my whole world off balance. You centered it. It was like you were my gravity, and every moment I was with you, everything settled into place. My fears, my insecurities, my hopes, and my dreams. I was at peace with everything, as long as you were by my side.” He tucks my hair behind my ear, his thumb sweeping over the dimple in my chin as he smiles. “With you, I found my gravity. That’s worth so much more than my chaos.”

We stay there all morning, me and my family, have breakfast on the bridge, splash in the cool creek down below. And when it’s time to leave, Adam takes a pocketknife from his bag and adds C, L, and A to that heart forever marked in the tree. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

I take Lily’s hand in mine as Adam perches Connor on top of his shoulders, Bear, Piglet, and Dinosaur leading us home.

“We’ll have to come back in January to carve in one more initial.”

Adam’s gaze slides to mine. “One more?”

“Mhmm. When we’re a family of five.” I shrug. “Or eight, I guess, including the animals.”

“Family of…” He trails off, ticking off each of us on his fingers as he counts beneath his breath.

Lily gasps, and Adam’s eyes snap to my stomach when she places her hand there.

“I know it’s a little earlier than we planned, and you had high hopes for a spring or summer baby so you could be off with us, but it looks like we made a—”

“A winter baby.” His words escape him on a breath. His chest rises sharply, and that tremor in his hands from earlier returns as he brings one to his mouth, rubbing it, before hesitantly reaching out, laying his palm over my stomach. Blue eyes flip to mine just in time for me to track the single tear that escapes, running down his cheek. “We made a winter baby?”

I grin, covering his hand with mine, and shrug.

“Oops.”