It's Time

Authenticity

"Spit it out already, James. How was the meeting?" I stare at him while the parents play with the kids opting to give us some privacy.

"Well, the organization definitely isn't happy." His dejected shoulders drop even lower somehow.

"My mom and Ron had a long talk earlier. And, I don't want to hear it— she's helping." I put my foot down because we're a team, and he doesn't get to call all the shots.

"The GM is pretty confident he can make this all go away." He looks up at me, and his deep brown eyes don't match the relief one would expect based on the words that just came from his mouth.

"Uh, call me crazy, but... isn't that exactly what we want?" He's officially lost me. If somebody can snap their fingers and permanently remove us from this nightmare, what the hell are we waiting on?

"Nothing comes without a cost, Liv." He motions for me to take a seat on our bed. "The team caught wind of me feeling out interest for trades."

"Feeling out interest? I thought you told me you'd considered having your agent make some calls? When did that consideration transition to actual calls?" My slightly annoyed tone is evident, but I pretty clearly remember adamantly vetoing that idea the moment he mentioned it.

"Considering... actually calling, let's not get caught up in the semantics, Liv. The point is, they know, and they were looking at me much the same way you are right now." He levels his gaze on mine.

"Well, honey." The bite in my tone is hard to miss. "Some people think that when you're part of a team, you can, at the very least, expect not to be blindsided by big news like actually vs. considering negotiating a trade. But you're right; let's not get caught up in the semantics." I offer him a sarcastic smirk.

"I shut it down the minute you told me you weren't interested in going back to Cali. It barely gained any traction." He lets out a frustrated sigh.

"Okay, Spence. I don't want to fight about this. What do they want from you?" I reach out for his hands, so he knows I'm not hung up on the trade issue.

"They have a five-year extension offer for me." Again, if I had pending legal issues and my job told me they wanted to offer me an unreasonable amount of money and secure my position for the next five years, I'd look a little less somber than my husband does currently.

"Oh wow, harsh. They're offering you a reward for punching the man in the face." I let out a light laugh because Spencer and I have to be communicating in different languages right now.

"Liv, we were just talking about going back home to Cali. I lock myself into this deal, and don't get me wrong; it's an incredible offer— it's just, we'll be stuck. Even if in a year or two I tried to explore the trade market, no one is going to want to take on this contract. They're structuring it that way on purpose." His hands shake a little in mine, betraying his otherwise composed demeanor.

"Okay, so we push Cali off for five years? So what? The girls will really just be starting school, and Jace will be 10. It's not like we'd be uprooting their lives as teenagers or something." I try to reason with him.

"Its manipulation, Liv. They're willing to help me because I'm an asset they're trying to protect. Not because that guy actually deserved to have his shit knocked and is obviously trying to extort us." He snatches his hands out of mine and jumps up to pace the room.

"Guess what, baby. The world is not all sunshine and rainbows. People don't always do things out of the kindness of their heart, boohoo. They're offering you a way out of this at a cost that quite honestly doesn't sound all that bad to me."  I walk over to him, grabbing hold of his arm.