15,345A/N Happy NFL Kickoff day! What better way to celebrate than with a First outtake? I love this very much and I hope you do as well! See you below with some novel news :)
First & Ten Little League
"Okay, here's what we're going to do to kick off the game. Whitlock's going to take the right side and run a five yard out. McCarty will let Jenkins run free and peel off into coverage to block for Whit. Cullen will hit him and he'll take it to the house. Sound like a plan?"
Jasper and I stared at one another as Emmett drew up the play on his notebook. "You do realize that every play in this league is a handoff, don't you? They're six years old." Well, our boys were. Megan was eight and this was likely to be her last year playing. The boys were getting bigger and she might get hurt against an older weight class. Plus she was getting bored with it, it seemed. She was only playing this year because Ryan and Wyatt finally could. They were the three Musketeers, doing everything together.
Emmett crossed his arms and glared at us. "They don't have to handoff every play; they just do because they don't know how to throw. They don't have the protégé son of a future Hall of Famer playing quarterback, do they? They don't have the son of a semi-decent wide receiver or the daughter of another Hall of Famer to be, not to mention dancing champion, blocking for them. We have to throw. That's what people are here to see."
"I think they're here to see their little kids running around and having a good time," I told him drily, my eyes on my son, who was stretching like I'd shown him to, loosening up his little body. He looked so tiny in his uniform and a part of me was nervous, but he wanted this and God knew he had the talent to play. He'd started throwing the ball when he was three years old and he was definitely way more advanced than I was when I'd started Little League.
"Some might be here for other reasons," Jasper observed as a woman in a tight tank top, breasts practically spilling out of it, and miniscule black shorts walked by eying me.
I shook my head and turned away from the obvious invitation in her eyes, focusing back on Emmett who was sulking over our disapproval of his play calling. Nobody had been more surprised than I was when Emmett announced his retirement two years ago. He'd blown out his ACL the first game of the season and instead of going through the grueling rehab to get back out on the field, he'd decided to step away and spend time with his wife and daughters. Networks had pretty much had a bidding war to secure his services and he was now a commentator on CBS. But that was on Sundays. Saturday mornings he was the head coach of the Scottsdale Cardinals Little League team.
Jasper and I were still playing, so we were only assistant coaches and we were going to miss several games due to being on the road, but luckily their season kicked off before ours did and we got to be here for the first game. I wouldn't have wanted to miss this moment for the world.
Jasper and Emmett started arguing about why Wyatt didn't know how to jam the corner when Ryan came running up to me with a big smile on his face. He was missing a couple of front teeth but other than that his smile was exactly like mine. So was the little number ten jersey he'd insisted on wearing, so he could be like Dad. Words could not begin to describe what it felt like to see so much of myself in him.
"Dad, can I have money to buy water?"
I bent down and straightened his little shoulder pads. God he was cute. Bella had taken about a billion pictures of him before he and I had headed out this morning but we needed more. "We've got water in the cooler, Ry."
"I know but Kimmy wants me to go with her to buy some." I looked over at where Kimmy Ross, one of the little cheerleaders, waited for him. She was a couple of years older than him and apparently she didn't mind that fact in the least because she was looking at him a lot like my wife looked at me, with that dazed yet possessive sort of look.
Bella was going to kill me, but I handed him a ten. "Don't tell your Mom." He grinned again and walked back to where the girl stood. She was smiling at him and twirling her blonde ponytail around her finger. Jesus. When did they teach girls how to flirt anyway? Thank God Bella wasn't here yet. She hated the way girls reacted to her little boy. She was already threatening to find a boy's boarding school to send him to. Not that she'd ever do it. Ryan was still her baby even if he was the eldest.
"Daddy!" The sweetest voice in the world sounded then and I bent again to let my little girl run into my arms. I scooped her up and kissed her cheek.
"Hi, Princess. Were you a good girl for Aunt Rose and Uncle Emmett?"
"Unca Emmett teached us how to make pwank caws and Aunt Wosie made us cupcakes!"
"He did, did he?" I shot a look at Emmett who just shrugged and yelled for Megan to practice her pancake blocks. He was so damn crazy. Jasper was out on the field trying to work on Wyatt's catching abilities.
Sparkling hazel eyes met mine and my beautiful girl nodded her head, her brown curls bouncing with the movement. "Uh huh! And Wiwy and I went swimmin! Sawah couldn't because she's too little." Lily was only two months older than Kayla and the two of them were thick as thieves. Sarah was a year and half and Emmett's youngest. He told Rose they needed to keep having kids until they got a boy and she told Emmett he needed a vasectomy. We found out who won that one when Emmett sported an ice pack to his groin a couple months later.
"It sounds like you had a good time. Didn't you miss your daddy at all?" I pretended to pout and she put a hand on each side of my face and gave me a smacking kiss.
"Yes! Wove you, Daddy!" I blew a raspberry into her neck and had her shrieking with laughter. Nothing was better than hearing my little girl say she loved me. Nothing.
"I love you, too, Princess."
"Is your fwigewator wunning?"
I snickered at her attempt to say refrigerator. "Yes."
"Then you betta go catch it!" She giggled with triumph as I tickled her. At least Emmett was teaching them tame prank calls, I supposed.
"Daddy, can I have some fwuit?" Kayla tilted her head and gave me the exact same look her mother gave me when she wanted something.
"Well the fruit's actually for after the game…" I broke off when her little lip started to poke out. "Alright, you can have some fruit." I could never say no to my Kayla. It was going to be a problem when she started asking for ponies and one day cars and God help me, to go out with boys. Though I suspected I could say no, then. I'd risk her wrath to make sure that I was the only man in her life until she was twenty or thirty.
I carried her over to the cooler and handed her a package of sliced apples and grapes. "I go share with Wiwy. Thanks, Daddy." She kissed me again and I set her down and watched her run over to the stands where Rose was waiting with Lily and Sarah. I sent her a wave and mouthed thank you and she grinned and shook her head. She loved Kayla. Everybody did. She was an incredibly sweet, well behaved little girl, especially compared to the McCarty kids. I wondered if maybe we shouldn't try to wean her away from them before they corrupted her, but I knew it wouldn't fly. It was inevitable.
"Heisman! Where's my star?" Emmett demanded. "He needs to warm up that arm."
I shook my head but he was right. Ryan should be back from the concession stand by now. I walked that way and didn't see him or Kimmy. Fabulous. The first game out and I'd lost my son. I made my way toward the stands and ran into Alice. She was holding the hand of her youngest, Cameron, who was just a few months younger than Kayla. He had his mom's dark hair and his father's bright blue eyes, and he was quietly hilarious like Jasper was.
"Hey, Ali. Cam. Have you seen Ryan?"
She snickered. "Yeah, he's under the bleachers. You better go collect him before Bella sees him."
Shit. I didn't want to know what he was doing under the bleachers. It better not be anything like I used to do under the bleachers, that was for sure.
"Thanks!" I shot them a wave and jogged behind the bleachers. My heart stopped when I saw my six-year-old son in a rather awkward looking liplock with Kimmy Ross. Yeah, he really was exactly like his dad.
"Ryan Christian Cullen!" The twosome jerked apart and Kimmy, at least, had the presence of mind to blush. Ryan just smiled at me. "Get over here," I ordered. Holy hell, did he want to give me gray hair? His mother was going to have a fit if she found out about this. And I wouldn't be able to keep it from her if she asked about it. I couldn't lie to Bella to save my life, or that of my son, apparently.
"Hi, Dad. Is it time to play?"
Christ. Wasn't he Mr. Cool? Gets caught kissing a girl and he asks about playing all casual-like. "It looks to me like you already were." Kimmy slunk away and I focused on my son. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm Kimmy's boyfriend now so I have to kiss her. She said so. Isn't that what boyfriends do? You and Mom do it all the time."
Lord help me. I sighed and crouched in front of him. "First of all, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Did you want to kiss her?"
He jerked his shoulder just like I did when I didn't really want to answer a question. "Alright, we'll come back to that. Second of all, you're not Kimmy's boyfriend just because you bought her a bottle of water. Do you want to be her boyfriend?"
He scrunched up his face. "I don't know. What does a boyfriend do? Stuff like you do for Mom? I don't want to kiss as much as you do, or take out her trash."
I laughed at his portrayal of my and Bella's relationship. "Well, son, you'll find out that being a boyfriend means you do a lot of things you probably don't want to do, but it can be good, too. Did you like kissing her?" I cringed as I waited for that answer.
He shook his head. "I don't know. It was okay."
I blew out a breath. "Alright. Well, you think about it and decide if you want to do all the things that a boyfriend does. I think maybe you should concentrate on being her friend before being her boyfriend."
"Like I am with Megan?" he asked.
I sure hoped so. I didn't need him kissing other girls. Bella was going to have a coronary as it was. "Yes."
"Okay." I stood and Ryan fell into step beside me. "Did Mom tell you that you were her boyfriend?"
I laughed at memories of Bella's nerves on our first and several subsequent dates. "Actually, I told her she was my girlfriend. But I should have asked her, just like Kimmy should have asked you. You can't just tell someone that they're yours."
"But you did," he pointed out as we emerged from under the bleachers.
"Ours was a special case and your mother needed to hear me say it like that. You, on the other hand, don't need to be told that you're anything. You be what you want to be."
"I wanna be a football player," he told me and I grinned and ruffled his hair.
"Then you better get out there and be one." He jogged over to where Emmett was waiting impatiently to warm him up.
"What, exactly, did I need to hear you say?"
Crap. Caught. I turned and smiled at my beautiful wife, who was watching me with narrowed eyes. I avoided that knowing look and bent to kiss my eight-month-old sons who were strapped into their twin stroller. I'd convinced Bella that we needed to have another child and we'd gotten two for one in the deal, much to my utter delight and her disbelief. She claimed we were done but I wanted another little girl and thus far she hadn't uttered the V word, thankfully. I had a feeling I could convince her that we needed a second daughter to offset all the testosterone in the house. Of course, we might get another boy. Emmett would die of envy if that happened. He already staked claim to the twins for his youngest two.
"Hi, Andy." He grabbed my finger and I pretended like he was hurting me. "You're too strong!" He giggled and I wiped up some drool from the corner of his mouth. "Hi, Jason." He babbled and said "Dada" which I was convinced was my name but Bella swore was just babble at this point. Whatever. My son was a genius. The boys looked just like Ryan did when he was that age, though their hair was a little darker, and Bella was, of course, scared at what was going to come to pass when they got older. Maybe I shouldn't tell her about the kissing incident. She might lock them all away until they were ready for college. If she even let them out then.
"Hi, sweetheart." I shot her the grin that she couldn't resist and stood to kiss her. She melted into me just like she always did. I could hear Rose hooting at us from the stands.
"Baby number five on the way!" Bella pulled back and raised a fist toward her.
"I'm going to kill her. How dare she joke about that when I have two in diapers? It would serve her right if Emmett's vasectomy didn't take."
I flinched involuntarily at just the word. "Baby, please, let's not talk about that, okay?"
She eyed me for a moment before smiling mischievously. "You're up next big boy."
I shook my head and took a step back. "Oh no, you wouldn't do that to Zeus, would you? What if he's damaged irreparably? You'd be inconsolable."
Bella snorted. "You think a lot of yourself."
I grinned and took her hand. "I think a lot of him. And you do, too." When we'd found out we were having twins, she'd tried to cut me off. She'd lasted less than a day. All it took was for me to come out of the bathroom wet from my shower with the towel hanging low on my hips and she'd forgotten all about her sex embargo. I loved the effect I still had on her after all this time.
"Maybe." I kissed her again until a throat cleared behind us.
"I don't think my grandbabies need to see such shenanigans."
"Dad!" Bella gave Charlie a hug while he scowled at me. I was still trying to get used to having them here full time. They'd decided to move down when the twins were born, not wanting to miss any time with their grandchildren.
"Really, Charlie, how do you think the babies got here? We want more, don't we? Weren't you just today saying how you'd love another granddaughter to spoil?"
He grunted as Renee hugged me. It was kind of hilarious that Charlie and Renee were on my side on the kid front. "We'll take those babies off your hands and you two can go do whatever. Each other if you're so inclined." Renee already had the stroller and Charlie shot me a suspicious look but took off after his wife, shouldering the diaper bag.
"Will there ever come a day that they don't embarrass me in some way?"
I snickered and pulled Bella into my arms. "God, I hope so. Though I don't think it's a bad idea. What do you say we go break into the school and find an empty classroom and…"
"Oh no! Don't you two start that again. There are children on this field! If you're going to desecrate another one, go back to the stadium."
Emmett. I glared at him as Bella laughed. "You're still jealous that Rose never gave in."
He sighed. "It was my dream first! Anyway, we have a game to play so if you're planning on getting naked, take your Lady Godiva act elsewhere."
I waved him off and turned back to my wife. "They think we have no self control."
"Because we don't. Before I know it, I'll be knocked up again."
I ran my hand over her flat belly. She'd worked her ass off to get her baby weight off, though I thought she looked beautiful either way. "You're the sexiest woman alive, pregnant or not."
Her eyes lit up. "I'm glad you think so." She strolled with me over to the sideline where our boys were getting ready. "You ready for your game today, sport?"
Ryan nodded and lifted his helmet up. Bella snapped a picture before I could regret not having my phone at the ready. That was my wife, though, always prepared. Life had obviously changed a ton for us since the kids came along, but it was wonderful and crazy and busy.
Bella had decided after Kayla was born that she didn't want the daily grind of working for the paper anymore. She'd gotten a lot of publicity since we'd outed ourselves as a couple and several appearances on national shows had her packed with offers. She'd elected to write a monthly piece for ESPN the Magazine as well as do quarterly specials on ESPN giving a behind the scenes look at players' lives off the field, with their families and friends and such. The series was very well received and gave Bella the opportunity to do what she loved without being away from us that often.
Ryan ran over to us and asked Bella to help him put on his helmet. She did so, looking teary. "I can't believe that you're big enough to play football."
"Moooooom," he complained. "I'm big enough for lots of things. I even have a girlfriend that I can kiss whenever I want."
Oh, fuck me. Yeah, my son had his mother's filter. Out came anything that was on his mind, including things that he should never, ever tell his mother. Bella's eyes went wide and she turned to me like I'd had anything to do with it. Which I hadn't. I'd merely given him money to buy water. I certainly didn't think that would lead to illicit hookups under the bleachers.
"Edward Anthony Cullen, what is our son talking about?"
"You have a girlfriend?" Megan asked, her voice nearly as irritated as Bella's was. Ryan gulped and looked at me wide eyed. Megan looked exactly like Rose when she was pissed off, which was to say, scary as hell. She had half a head on Ry and could flatten him if she wanted to. I edged over just in case she decided to hit him. It wouldn't be the first time.
"No. Yes. I don't know. Dad said she didn't have to be." He sounded desperate and frightened, exactly like I felt in this moment with one pair of brown eyes and one pair of violet blue ones pinning me with angry looks.
"Edward, what is he talking about?"
"Ahem. Well, you see, sweetheart, our son wanted to buy a drink for Kimmy…" my wife definitely hissed and sent a nasty look in the direction of the cheerleaders. We were so fucked. I gave Ryan a look that told him that this was all his fault and he just looked like a deer in headlights. Megan was full on glaring at him with her arms crossed and his mother looked ready to haul his ass off the field and into the nearest, or more like furthest away, school for boys.
"Why did he have to buy her a drink? She has water and Gatorade."
"Yes, well, you'll have to ask him that. I just gave him money." Which was exactly the wrong thing to do, because my wife was now sending her ire my way. "He asked, I gave. You know that's how I am."
"I know exactly how you are. Pushover," she muttered through clenched teeth. "Ryan, why couldn't she get her own water?"
He gave that half shrug and bit his lip just like his mother did when she was either trying to drive me crazy or thought I was mad at her. It was a fifty/fifty split I thought. "She just asked if I would acc…acc…go with her to the snack place so I said yes. I was being a good man."
"A gentleman, son," I prompted, getting another dirty look from Bella. She no doubt wasn't thinking her six year old was very gentlemanly when he was kissing eight or nine-year-old cheerleaders. I was sort of proud of him, if I was being honest, and was I not scared that Bella was going to kick both our asses for it.
"Yeah, that. So I got us each a bottle of water and she wanted to be alone so we went under there." He pointed at the bleachers and Bella paled a bit. "Then she said that I was her boyfriend now and we had to kiss so we did and that's when Dad found us."
My own child was betraying me. We needed to have a man to man chat about throwing your father under the bus. Bella's gorgeous brown eyes were shooting fire at me. "You found them, did you, Edward? And were you going to tell me about this?"
"Of course." Once I could find a way to spin it so that I was completely innocent of giving Ryan the opportunity to be alone with a girl. I was sure I could manage to pin it on Emmett given more time to come up with a cover story.
"Uh huh. What did your dad do then, Ryan?"
"Dad told me that I didn't have to be her boyfriend if I didn't want to and that I shouldn't kiss her just cause she said so."
Bella's lips curved in a smile. "He did?"
"Yes. And he said that he told you that you were his girlfriend and he shoulda asked."
And then she laughed. Crisis averted. "Well, he did do that but I needed to hear it so it was okay. And he asked me a very important question later that more than made up for it." I grinned, remembering my proposal in the locker room and our subsequent revisiting of locker sex. I still smiled every time I looked at that locker.
"What's impotent?" he asked, making both of us crack up.
"Not your dad, that's for sure," she said wryly. "Ryan, I think you're a little too young to have a girlfriend that you kiss. Maybe you two should just be regular friends."
"Like me and Megan. Yeah, Dad said that, too." Megan, who now had eyes on Kimmy, let out a little growl of some sort. She was really kind of frightening.
Bella smiled over at me. "Sounds like your dad handled it pretty well, all things considered."
"Okay, I'm gonna go play now. Are you watching me, Momma?"
Little schemer, he knew what it did to her when he called her Momma.
"Of course, baby. You get a touchdown for me just like your Dad does."
His face lit up. "I will!" He waved at both of us and took the field with his friends, though I noticed that Megan gave him a bit of a wide berth.
Emmett moved up next to us. "What's this I hear about your kid cheating on mine with some cheerleader?" he demanded, looking fierce.
Bella's smile faded. "I knew that Kimmy Ross was out to get him. She's been after him since the first practice. I guess I should say something to her mother but I doubt it would make a difference. She's a first rate slut and her daughter obviously takes after her."
Emmett snickered. "Why don't you tell us how you really feel, champ?"
"Who's her mother?" I asked. I missed the majority of practices due to my own.
"Pink tank top, tiny shorts."
Emmett snickered. "The one who was eyeballing you earlier. Figures. Like mother, like daughter."
I slipped my arms around Bella's waist before she could take off into the stands and fight with Kimmy's mom. "She looked at me and I looked at our son and thought about how much I loved you."
"Smooth," Emmett approved as Bella turned and kissed me. "But I'll have you know that mini-GQ being a player is diminishing our dowry by half."
"Good to know," I told him, more focused on my sexy wife than his ramblings. "Don't you have a game to coach?"
"Already being done. Look at them, will you? Perfect i-formation all by themselves while the other team's coach has to physically put them where he wants them. We're going to win by fifty."
Bella giggled and curled into my side. "I don't think you're allowed to run up the score in this league."
"I can't help it if my team can score at will. Here we go!"
Ryan took the snap, which was really more of a handoff from the center, and took a three step drop. Bella gasped as my son threw a short but perfect dart to Wyatt who did manage to catch it. He appeared to be stunned, just standing there, and then started running in the wrong direction but Emmett's and Jasper's yelling got him turned around and we scored a touchdown despite the misdirection.
"Oh my God! He did it! Our son threw his first touchdown!" Bella was jumping and screaming and hugging me and I was just as blown away as she was.
"Em…"
"Yeah, I know, I'll get the ball for you."
"Thanks, man." It was going in the trophy room along with the Heisman trophies and my Super Bowl rings and other sports awards. It was a good thing we'd bought a huge house before Kayla came along. We were going to need the extra room if Ryan continued to play this well.
Ryan came running up to us with a mile wide grin on his face, clutching the ball in his arm. He was trying to tug his helmet off with one hand and I helped him while his mother hugged him and babbled about what a great play he'd made.
"Dad! I got a touchdown for Mom!" That set Bella off and she wiped at her happy tears.
"You sure did, Ry. That was a great throw." I ruffled his hair. Of course the other team had been playing handoff all the way, since that was pretty much all they knew how to do, but I didn't care. My boy had thrown his first ever touchdown and it was awesome. "Look! Your grandparents and Aunt Alice and Rose are cheering for you." He waved and smiled at our large family. Riley was even there with his boyfriend, Gary. He came to a lot of family functions and I was thrilled that he was there for the kids' first game. My mom was crying and Charlie was pointing proudly to his Cullen ten jersey and likely telling everyone around him that Ryan was his grandson.
"I have to go play defense now!" I took the TD ball and set it next to me as he put his helmet back on and took off to play the other side of the ball.
"That was amazing," Bella murmured.
"Now both your men have dedicated touchdowns to you."
She laughed and hugged me tight. "I'm the luckiest woman in the world for it, too."
The majority of the players played both offense and defense and all three of our kids were still out on the field. Megan lined up way over on the right hash and I turned to Emmett.
"What's she doing?"
"I don't know. Meg! You're out of position! Get back in the middle." Megan was our best blocker on both offensive and defensive line. She really got a kick out of hitting people. Most people thought she got that from Emmett but really she got it from Rose.
She sent her father some kind of wave and stayed way the hell out on the right sideline. The Dragons snapped the ball and Ryan and Wyatt combined on the tackle and took the kid down with a one yard gain. "Not bad," I murmured at the same time that Bella cried, "Oh, shit."
I followed her gaze and saw that the cheerleaders were all screaming and carrying on and Megan was on the ground in front of them.
"What happened to her?" I asked, surprised that she'd gone down so far away from the play.
"More like what happened to Kimmy?" she replied. Oh, shit, indeed. Megan got up and there underneath her was Kimmy Ross. She was red faced and crying. Megan said something to her and trotted back onto the field while we all looked on in disbelief.
Emmett started to laugh next to me. "I'll be damned. I think my girl just staked her claim."
"Shouldn't you be benching her or something?" I asked. I wasn't sure what the protocol was. What did you do when your lineman attacked one of the cheerleaders?
"I don't know. Man, that was awesome. Did you see her hit her? Perfect technique. My girl's a natural. Megan McCarty! Come here!" Emmett headed over to discipline his daughter while my wife giggled next to me.
"I guess you don't need to say anything to her mother."
"No, I guess not. You know, only your son would incite eight-year-old girls to riot."
I snickered. "Like father, like son."
"You better not be inciting children or grown women to riot. You're mine."
"All yours, sweetheart."
"Our little boy is growing up and kissing girls and causing fights," she said mournfully.
"We have two more where that came from. And we could always have another," I reminded her, getting elbowed for it.
"I can't have another boy. I'll be in a mental institution before they hit high school."
"I won't let you go crazy, baby. I need you here with me." We both cheered as Ryan recovered a fumble. "Plus, if you go away, I'll be defenseless against the Mrs. Ross' of the world."
She huffed. "I'd like to see her try. I'll take her down and Kayla will help me."
"You could use more backup than that."
She shook her head and grinned up at me. "You don't quit, do you?"
"Quitters never win. You married a winner, sweetheart."
She laughed. "I sure did. And then I had four more."
"We make a hell of a team, baby." I held her close as we watched our son set up under center again.
"I'll think about it," she said, making me grin. Wisely, I said nothing, kissing her on top of her head. Yeah, I liked to win. So did my son. He ripped through the line and scored another touchdown. Our family, the whole crazy bunch, cheered and screamed for Ryan. Yeah, life didn't get any better than this.
A/N Like father, like son! How about little Megan McCarty taking down that cheerleader? Like father/mother, like daughter methinks. hehe I had a blast playing with the little ones and I hope you guys did as well.
Guess what? We're through the first round of edits for my novel a whole three weeks ahead of schedule! I still don't know when we'll be releasing it, but the process is moving ahead! If you want info, follow me at AmyNoelleWriter on twitter or of course my Nolebucgrl accounts on Twitter and Facebook. I can't wait to share it with you!
Still at least one more outtake down the line and maybe more depending on how things play out in the next one. I'm in the middle of moving to a new place as well as dealing with novel edits so not sure when the next will be. I haven't written the next SC yet either but I'm gonna get to work on it. Thanks for your patience. October should be a much less crazy month. I hate moving. Just thought I'd throw that in there. Off to prepare for the Giants/Cowboys game! Football's back!