The Baller's Baby by Cristina Grenier

intruding.”
    Stacey shook her head and smiled. She stood there Cole thought, like a woman with a secret, waiting for him to dig deep enough to find it. “Are you just going to stand there?”
    “Is there something else I should be doing?”
    Looking up, Stacey saw that Cole's eyes were anything but lighthearted. They were dark and deep, the way they got when he was serious, focused. “Kiss me you idiot, so we can eat.”
    “Well, if you're going to be pushy about it.” Cole chuckled, slipping an arm around her waist. He pulled her close until laughter bubbled out of her. In that moment Cole realized what Stacey had known for some time now. Looking over her face, Cole was helpless to stop his heart from simply falling at her feet. When those brown eyes met his and smiled along with her mouth Cole could only follow that heart and trust that everything would work out. “I love you Stacey Patterson.”
                                                                          ***
    Before Stacey could comment, that top heavy mouth that smiled so easily swept her up and over the waves of lust that wanted to consume them. She knew the heady fragrance of reciprocated love and wondered if the world as a whole would ever truly understand its magic.
    “Let's go eat before people start murmuring louder.”
    “Sounds good to me,” Stacey agreed. “Although, to be honest, I don't really give a damn if they murmur. Frankly if they were doing something similar they wouldn't have so much to murmur about.”
    “True enough honey. Still, I'm starving.”
    “Poor baby,” Stacey teased. “Coach whooping you in practice?”
    “You know it.”
    “That I do,” Stacey acknowledged. “Okay, so Jack or Steve will be dealing with any endorsement contracts that come up while I'm gone. They're my two best agents and will take good care of you.”
    Stacey talked as they entered the restaurant, telling Cole about all she still had to get done before her flight early the next morning.
    “So what's the time difference between Bangkok and here?”
    “I'll be twelve hours ahead of you,” Stacey informed him as a hostess showed them to a table. “So by the time I land it'll be morning there. Hopefully it won't be too late here.”
    “I know it'll be at least a day right?”
    “Yeah, the fastest flight I could find was with two stops, one at JFK and another in Shanghai,” Stacey told Cole. “If everything goes as planned it'll take me twenty-nine hours and probably another two to make it to the hotel and check in.”
    “I'll be playing against the Ravens when you're still flying.”
    “Crazy, huh?”
    “Do you like going to new places like that?”
    “The first time I ever went overseas I was petrified. I'm not fluent in any foreign language and was so scared that I wouldn't be able to communicate. Thankfully they have English liaisons for idiots like me. So I paid the guy to follow me just about everywhere. He made some nice American cash and I didn't look completely inept. Eventually, though, I grew to love traveling abroad. I don't have to do it often so for me it's sort of like a paid vacation.”
    Stacey felt Cole's hand slide over hers and enjoyed the gentle contact. “I never saw you coming.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, I never imagined I'd ever feel so much for one woman,” Cole admitted, “I've been with my share of women, enough to know that what I may have felt for them can't touch what I feel for you. I don't know how to describe everything that's in here.” Stacey looked at Cole's face as he touched his chest.
    “You just did,” Stacey said, her eyes stinging with unshed tears.  “And outside, when you told me you loved me, “I never pressed you to say it, because if you ever did I wanted it to be real. You're as real as it gets Cole. I love you and I know now that I can go to Bangkok and be completely myself. I worried, that being with