Vegas Aces: The Wide Receiver Complete Series

CHAPTER 21 TESSA

I’ve never been so exhausted in my entire life, but I’ve never been so happy, either. Tristan has been the perfect partner through the adjustments, gently but firmly helping me take breaks when he can tell I need them. A huge package came from Luke and Ellie with all sorts of baby essentials in it, and Travis sent a Vegas Aces onesie with Higgins and the number eleven splashed across the back.

It’s hard to believe she’s already four days old. We’ve only been home two days, and we’re already taking her to her first doctor’s appointment at the pediatrician she’ll see when we’re here in Iowa.

I haven’t thought much beyond this appointment, to be honest.

I know we have just under a month before we need to go to Vegas, but the thought of leaving Fallon Ridge behind to move there with a newborn is daunting. We haven’t even discussed it, but I can’t imagine leaving my mom, of pulling her away from her granddaughter when she’s already formed such a tight bond with her. Sue and Russ, too—they’ve been incredible, bragging happily to everybody about their new granddaughter.

We completed all the necessary legal paperwork to ensure Tristan’s last name appears on Fallon’s birth certificate, and he’s officially her daddy.

And he’s over the moon about it.

After we struggle to figure out how to strap her into her car seat in my SUV again, he drives under the speed limit the entire way to the pediatrician’s office, and I can’t help but giggle at him. He’s nervous having her in the car, but I suppose it’s something we’ll get used to.

She’s totally healthy even though she came a little early, and she’s progressing nicely. I’m progressing nicely myself as everything down south starts the healing process.

And in four to six weeks, Tristan can explore all the goods down there himself.

I’m too exhausted to even think about sex right now, but with each day that passes, I start to feel a little more like myself again.

Once we’re back home and the baby is in her bassinet napping after her appointment, Tristan joins me in the kitchen to help me make dinner. I’m chopping vegetables—green pepper, which I’m going to mix with onion and mushrooms to put on top of some shaved pork to make our own homemade Philly cheesesteaks, when he turns on some music. I finish chopping, and he grabs me into his arms as Taylor Swift’s “Begin Again” plays. We sway slowly around the kitchen, and when the song ends, he dips me then kisses me.

“What can I do to help?” he asks.

I nod toward the fridge. “Grab the pork while I get the veggies in a pan and slice the rolls so I can make them into garlic bread.”

He nods, and we both get to work.

“How are you doing?” he asks me softly.

I glance up at him. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more exhausted…or happier.”

“Same, babe. Have you thought about Vegas?”

“A little,” I admit. “I’ve been so focused on the baby, but I know our blissful time here at the house on the corner will have to come to an end soon.”

“Our blissful time doesn’t ever have to come to an end,” he says. “I know I told you the Aces took my fifth-year option, and I feel good about my future there, Tess. I think we should start looking for a house in Vegas.”

“You want to buy there?” I ask as I slide the veggies off my cutting board and into a pan.

“Yeah. There are some new developments going in close to the Complex,” he says, and there’s a new animation in his voice I haven’t heard before. “It’s not far from Luke’s place, and we could look at spec homes, or we could build our own and put in everything exactly the way we want it.”

“That’s where you want to live?” I ask. “By the Complex?”

“Babe, you’re not giving me anything here. What do you think?”

I can’t help a little giggle at the nervousness in his tone. “I think we should do it. On the one hand, we don’t really have a choice, right? You’re going to be in Vegas the next two years at a minimum, with hopefully more. We can always come back here whenever we want to, and it’ll be nice to have a home base wherever we are.”

“Thank God.” He wipes his forehead with mock relief. “I thought you were going to back out.”

I shake my head. “Not back out, but I’m scared to leave my mom. She’s been such a big help with Fallon, and I don’t want to rip her away from her grandparents.”

He nods. “I’ve thought about that, too. And that’s part of why I love the neighborhood I was looking at. We have lots of options, but the houses they’re building out there have connected casitas.”

“Casitas?” I repeat.

“Like a mother-in-law’s suite,” he explains. “A little house connected to the big house. It has a kitchen, family room, a couple of bedrooms and bathrooms. You could customize it however you wanted, so we could add on one for my parents and one for your mom and then they always have a place to stay when they’re in town.”

“A place that isn’t in our main house, so we still have our privacy,” I say.

“Right.” He slices one of the rolls. “And they’ll have theirs, too.”

“I love it,” I say. “Let’s do it.”

“I’ll do some research and get more information, and we can figure out exactly what we want.”

He kisses me, and I can’t help my little sigh of complete and total contentment.

The baby wakes just before we sit down to eat, and I feed her while Tristan feeds me. She falls back asleep, and I set her in a pack and play while we finish our dinner. We’ve already established a routine, and I’m loving every second as we adjust to our new life together. It just keeps getting better and better, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us.