The Rule Book: A Novel

Derek drops his duffel bag on the driveway and takes two steps to meet me—where I throw myself into his arms and he catches me with zero hesitation.

I’ve done nothing but cry for the past hour. He gave it up. It can’t be for me.

His arms wrap around me so tight I can barely breathe, and I bury my face in his neck. His fingers sink into the back of my hair, and he whispers in my ear. “Why are you crying, Nora? What’s wrong?”

This jolts me back to reality and I wiggle out of his arms, landing once again on my feet.

And then I shove him in the chest. “What were you thinking? You retired! Derek!” Fresh tears well again. “You can’t retire for me! Tell me it wasn’t for me! That’s too much. You played so incredibly today. You broke your own freaking record; did you know that? You…you can’t give this up because of some absurd gossip magazine article. It would blow over on its own!”

Derek smiles and cups my face, wiping my tears with his thumbs. “Are you done?”

“No. I’m not done. You should have told me first. Run this by me!”

“You would have told me not to do it.”

“Exactly! This is a mistake. I could have found another way.”

Derek bends and presses a silencing kiss to my lips. “It’s not a mistake. You know how I know?”

I eye his beautiful face. His sharp cheekbones, the scar above his eyebrow. My heart aches with love for him. “How?”

“Because on the way home, I felt a knot in my chest loosen for the first time in years. It’s true, I didn’t plan for this—but I’m grateful it happened the way it did. I’ve had such a great career in football, and now I’m ready for a change, Nora. I want it. A new adventure. I just needed the push in the right direction. And I know you could have fixed this yourself another way. I know it likely would have blown over just fine in a few weeks. But I didn’t want you to weather a storm for any length of time when I had a perfectly good solution right at my fingertips.”

I want to weep. In fact, I am. “You can’t do it for me, Derek. It’s too much. You’ll resent me.”

“I could never resent you, Nora. And if it helps you sleep better at night—remember that I’m an arrogant asshole and I’d much rather end my football career on the heels of playing the best game of my life than when I’m washed up.” He smooshes my cheeks together. “I’m happy, Ginger Snap. I’m so damn happy. I want this for me. I’m so ready for this change. Ready to see what else I have to offer in this world.”

“But if you’re not…if you’re regretting it—I will…I will go to the Sharks right now and tell them you made a mistake.”

He kisses my forehead. “No mistake, Nora. None. This is what I want. Even if you break up with me here and now, I’ll stay retired. I’m so tired of striving at max effort every damn day. I’ve loved my football career, but I need to see what else is out there for me. It’s just time.”

I sigh, wanting to protest more. Feeling like I should do everything I can to make him change his mind. But I have to admit, his eyes are convincing. He seems like he genuinely wants this.

“Okay, but just know you’re allowed to still change your mind tonight. Or tomorrow. Or even next week.”

“Noted. But right now, all I want to do is go inside with my girl and lie on the couch and watch something chill on TV.”

He takes my hand, ready to pull me with him into the house.

But I can’t move. I can’t do anything other than what I’ve wanted to do since the night on our honeymoon when he told me hazel was his favorite color.

Derek pauses when he feels the tug of my hand and turns around—finding me down on one knee. The cement is sharp and hot under it, but I don’t care. I love the bite of it in this moment.

His brows pull together and then immediately soften when he realizes what I’m doing. “Derek Pender…I know we’re already married but—”

His hand juts out and covers my mouth. “Wait. Is this happening because you feel guilty about my retirement?” I shake my head. “Did you want to do this yesterday? Before any of this drama today? Or did the idea only just occur to you?”

I nod, and then frown and shake my head. He releases my mouth so I can answer. “Yes, to wanting to do it yesterday—no to it being a recent development. Can I finish proposing to you now?”

“No,” he says simply, and bends to scoop me up in his arms and carry me inside. Confusing. He marches me all the way to the living room and then deposits me on the couch and tells me to stay here. But then he turns back, brackets my body with his hands, and kisses me tenderly. “Please.”

And then he’s jogging up toward his room and I’m left here on the couch to twiddle my thumbs, thinking this must be the weirdest proposal ever. He doesn’t leave me here long, though. And when he emerges from the top of the stairs, the look in his eyes has my heart shifting into fourth gear.

“I had to get something from my bedside table,” he says meaningfully while moving to stand in front of me.

I know my eyes are lit up like stars right now. Who cares if he interrupted my proposal…I finally get to see what—

Oh.

Derek drops to one knee. And then he pulls a little black velvet box from behind his back. “You don’t mind if I pick up where you left off, do you?” He smiles, and every drop of blood in my veins rushes to accommodate my bursting heart. “I know we’re already married, Nora. But it would mean the entire world to me if you would stay married to me. For real. For always. For eternity. Stay with me. Let me love you fully and desperately forever and ever.”

He pops the top of the black box, and a shiny diamond ring sparkles up at me.

My lips tremble as I look between the engagement ring and Derek’s sharp blue eyes. “This was what the guys found in your bedside table? This is the embarrassing thing?”

“I never said it was embarrassing. I said when I gave it to you, it would change everything. Because this…this ring belongs to you—and it always has. I bought it for you in college.”

“What?” I breathe out. “You…you were going to propose?”

He nods. “The day you broke up with me actually.” He grins at the horrified look on my face. “There was a proposal waiting for you on the other side of my apartment door with way too many flowers. It’s part of why I didn’t ask you to come in and talk it all out after you said you wanted to end it. This ring”—he raises it—“was in my back pocket.”

“No.” The word comes out as a breath. “Derek. That’s heartbreaking.”

Sensing my guilt, he tips forward, clutching the ring box in one hand and my face in the other so he can kiss me back into the present. “No shame—no guilt, Nora. Everything happened exactly as it was supposed to, I’m confident of that now. If I had proposed to you back then, everything would have been a mess. We weren’t right for each other then, but I plan on working every day to be the right person for you now.”

I loosen a breath lodged in my throat. “You’ve held on to this ring all this time?”

He nods. “I could never bring myself to get rid of it. And now I know it’s because we were always going to find our way back to each other.” His fingers bite into my hips and he pulls me to the edge of the couch. We’re eye-to-eye with my thighs cradling his hips. “I’m yours, Nora. I always have been. Always will be.”

I’m struggling to find the words to convey the gooey mushy center of my heart. I wish I could just give him a peek inside; it’s exploding with color and confetti. There’s sprinkles and glitter. It’s a mess.

Instead, I smile with tears in my eyes and lean forward to nip at his bottom lip. “Mine,” I whisper before pulling away so I can slide the ring onto my finger. It’s a perfect fit.

Derek ruins the moment by grimacing down at my hand. “Damn, it’s small. I forgot I didn’t have money back then. We can get you a new one tomorrow,” he’s saying while reaching for my hand, but I hold it away from him.

“No way! I want this one.”

He goes for it again. “You can wear this one on your other hand. Let me get you a new one.”

“Absolutely not. This one is perfect. And if you take it, I’ll scream.” I scramble away, standing on the couch to evade him, but he stands too—nearly eye level with me without having to stand on a cushion. He’s laughing.

“I can make you scream if that’s what you want…but I’d prefer it be my name over and over again.”

I gape. “What a dirty mouth you have, sir.”

He leans closer to lace kisses up my neck and I secretly eye my ring over his shoulder as he does.

A minute later, as Derek has me pinned to the couch and is just about to remove my shirt, the front door bursts open. He groans and drops his head into the crook of my neck as the song “Kiss Me” plays loudly over someone’s cellphone.

“Y’all thought you had the evening all to yourselves to make luvvv, didn’t you?” Jamal laughs one loud laugh and points to our position on the couch. “Wrong!” His wife, Tamara, just waves as she takes an armload of snacks into the kitchen along with Lawrence’s wife, Cora—clearly already used to the way things are done in this friend group.

“Get out!” Derek yells, but no one listens.

Instead, Nathan comes up to the couch and smiles. “Sucks being interrupted, doesn’t it? Payback is a bitch. Where do you want me to put this cake? Bree had us stop and get it at the store on the way here. Said you’d probably propose. And…” He peeks over Derek’s shoulder at my hand. “Bree Cheese!” he yells back at his wife. “You were right. He gave her the ring.”

We hear Bree’s squeal before we see her. And then she’s running into the house and jumping on the couch with us like it’s a dog pile. She wraps her arms around both of us and squeezes. It’s delightful. “Ah! I knew it! What a good day.”

Price and his wife come through the front door next, kicking off their shoes and setting the car seat with Jayla inside on the floor.

“Maybe if we stay very, very still, they won’t see us and they’ll all go away,” Derek mumbles in my ear—his voice still dark with unresolved desire.

Bree pops over his shoulder with a wide smile and whispers, “Not a chance.” But then she pushes off the couch and stands with a wicked gleam in her eye when she sees her husband and waves him toward her.

“Besides,” she says as Nathan walks up to her and wraps a possessive arm around her waist, pulling her up close to him for whatever she’s planning to say next. “Since it seems like the perfect day for big revelations and truth bombs, I thought I’d go ahead and share with you all that…I’m pregnant.”

Derek and I both sit up quickly, ready to cheer for them with the rest of the group when we all seem to notice Nathan’s face at once. His shocked face. And that’s when we realize…Bree hasn’t told him yet.

“Surprise,” she says, looking up at him with so much love and tenderness it feels as if the entire room has just been blanketed with sunshine. “We’re having a baby, Nathan.”

“Bree…” He blinks and looks for all the world like he’s just been crowned king. His jaw flexes and his nose wrinkles, as he tries and fails to keep his emotions at bay. And then he’s taking her face in his hands and kissing her as they both cry. We’re all crying. Even Derek is rapidly blinking back moisture.

“Aw—hell no!” says Jamal, wiping his eyes and then taking his wife’s hand and pulling her toward the front door. “We gotta go, love.”

I blink at the door after they disappear through it. “Where are they going?”

“I’m guessing to make a baby,” Derek says with a grimace. “Jamal hates to be left out of group events.”

“Group events?” My eyes widen at Derek, and I scoot away from him meaningfully. “Don’t get any funny ideas, Pender.”

“Oh—I’ve got ideas,” he says, pulling me from the couch and hoisting me over his shoulder. “But all of them include protection, don’t you worry.” He carries me to the stairs.

“Derek! All our friends are here! You’re not being a hostess with the mostess!”

His laugh rumbles through my body as he continues carrying me up the stairs. “And those friends have exactly sixty seconds to get out of my house if they don’t want to hear some things.”

And approximately sixty seconds later, we hear the front door slam—leaving Derek and me alone in our home.