Christian~

I feel my phone buzz in my pocket as my brothers, a few of my friends, and I hang out at TopGolf. We've been here for a couple of hours relaxing, talking, hitting golf balls, and drinking a bit.

Collin hands me another glass beer bottle after opening it. I feel my phone buzz again and I take it out of my pocket, looking at the notifications, noticing Dani's text.

Dani: I don't want to bother you right now since you're out with your friends/brothers. Everything is fine. I am fine. We need to talk tomorrow. It's nothing too important but we have to talk soon. I need your input about some things. Don't worry about it right now, just have fun
Me: Do you need me to call you right now?
Dani: No, it's fine. I'm just letting you know so I don't spring it upon you whenever you get home
Me: Okay. I don't know what time I'll get back. We can do this tomorrow? What's it about?
Dani: Yes and contract stuff that I need your input on
Me: Okay

I don't know why she needs my input on her contract. It could be about anything. "Yo, get off of your phone. Enjoy this."

"Sorry, she texted me about some stuff. I'll put it away."

I got back later than I thought I would. It's almost midnight. I figured I'd be back by 10 at the latest. I kick my shoes off near the door before going upstairs, passing the dark living room.

I quietly open the bedroom door and sneak into the closet so I can change and get ready for bed without waking her. I go into the bathroom and notice her clothes are already set out for the morning when she goes to work out. I take some Advil as I can feel the headache starting to come on as I stand here in the bright lights.

She moves around as I come out of the bathroom. I pull the covers back and get in. I put my arm around her. She rolls back over, facing me as she's half-awake. I kiss her and she smiles before falling back to sleep.

Dani~

I finish my last lap around the indoor track to get my heart rate leveled out before I go to leave for the day. I lean against the wall as I kick my shoes off and put my slides on.

I dig my phone out of my bag and look at the notifications.

Christian <3: Where are you?

I've been here for three hours. Normally, I'm here for two hours but today I felt like I needed to let off some steam. Most of it is stress from the extension because I don't know what to do with it.

I take a drink before finding the keys and heading out to the car. I head back to the house, parking in the garage. I grab my gym bag before going inside. He sits at the table. I put my bag on the floor, "You left early."

"7:45. I didn't expect to be there for three hours. I needed to get it out of the way."

"When'd you want to talk?"

"Can I shower first?"

"Yeah, I didn't know when you wanted to talk."

"Let me shower and then I can get your opinion."

"Okay." I go up to our room to take a quick shower.

I go downstairs with my laptop and charger after showering. I plug that in before making a post-workout smoothie. "How was yesterday?" I ask as I sit on the island.

"It was fun. We spent most of the night at TopGolf. I didn't think we'd be out until 11:30."

"I figured you'd be out late."

He gets up and stands across from me, "What's going on? What do you need?"

"Oh, so when you were gone, I was talking with my coach and my manager about this contract extension thing. They asked how many years do I want. I didn't give them an answer because I wasn't sure."

He doesn't seem to understand what I'm getting at. "Are you confused?"

"A bit," he smiles, "What does this have to do with me?"

Well, I'll just get right into it. "Please don't give me a bullshit answer because I won't know what to do with it and it's just going to confuse me even more."

He laughs as I continue, "When do you see yourself or us starting a family? That was one of the many questions I was asked yesterday. Before I texted you, before the call ended, and before I cried for 15 minutes because I was stressed."

"Dani, I don't know. We've talked about this twice. Once sober. I don't want to give you a year and then you go from there. Play as long as you want. I don't want to take you away from your dream. We can have kids whenever."

"But we can't have them whenever. I'm on a clock. I don't want to get to an age where it's going to be difficult."

"Then maybe kids aren't for us."

"No. I'm not okay with that."

"Why?"

"Because you're good with kids. Because I want to see us parent a mixture of us. Because it wouldn't feel right not to have kids. I want to experience being pregnant and everything like that."

He nods. The last thing I want is to not give him the chance to have kids. I can't and won't pass up the opportunity to have kids. "If for whatever reason I get hurt again. If it's a major injury, like an ACL, Achilles, or shoulder tear, I'm not going back because it's too much."

"But you can't predict that. You could never get hurt again while you're playing. Hopefully, if everything works out you won't get hurt again."

"I know but in the off chance that it does happen, I want you to know that. My coach threw out two years. I play for two more years and maybe after that, I'm done. I'm technically a free agent but it doesn't work the same way as baseball does. It's very confusing and I try not to deal with it."

"You sound like you're okay with just two years."

"I think it makes the most sense. I would've just told them that but I didn't know what your thoughts were."

"I'm not going to give you a number because it's your career. It's not mine. I have mine set in stone already. I don't want to interfere in your career. If two years is good enough for you, then I'll support that. If five more is good enough, I'll support that. I don't want you to think that you have to stop playing because I want a family. That's the last thing I want to do. It's your decision, it's not mine. I have zero expectations for you to just up and quit because you think I want you to."

"Maybe it's just my head but everything got put into perspective back in February." He nods, agreeing with me, "To me, it's a lot closer than I actually feel like it is. I still feel like I'm 21 and I'm nowhere near that anymore. I didn't want to tell them a number and then expect you to be okay with it."

He stands in front of me and kisses me, "Whatever you decide, I'm all for it. Two years. Eight years. Whatever you want."

"You thinking I can go for another eight years is hilarious."

He laughs, "Whenever you're ready, you say the word and I will be more than happy to start a family with you."

I nod, smiling, "Well, that is the fun part."

He laughs, "So I've heard."

Colorado Springs

My heel clicks on the hardwood floor as we sit at a conference table waiting for someone to come in. Christian puts his hand on my leg to stop the bouncing. "You're signing a piece of paper, calm down."

"It's important."

He rolls his eyes at my comment. "You didn't have to get dressed up too," I tell him as I look at his dress pants and shoes. All while also wearing a dress shirt.

"It felt right. We're going to dinner after we're done too."

"When do you have time to plan these things? I'm with you 24/7."

"I have my ways."

I lean back in the chair. "Do you know anything?"

"He wouldn't tell me anything."

The door is pushed open and I stand up, going over to hug both my coach and my manager. We all sit, "We have some other news too. What do you want first? Contract or this other news I got yesterday?" Lena asks me.

"What's the other stuff for?"

She smiles, "I got word from the ESPYs that you and the team are nominated for a couple of awards."

I look around the room absolutely shocked. "For what?"

"The team is nominated for Outstanding Team and you are nominated for Best Championship Performance and Best Female Athlete. The award show is in New York City the week before you and the team have to go to Miami for the commercial shoot."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. They called me about a week ago to let me know. They're announcing everything tomorrow."

"It's about damn time someone around here got some recognition and I'm very happy that it's you," my coach says.

"Well, I'm sure you're itching for your contract."

I nod, "Nobody would tell me anything."

She laughs, handing me a pen. Regardless of the dollar amount, I'm signing it. I don't want to play anywhere else. The states are my home. "Team USA is offering 2 years at 8 million each year, making you the highest-paid women's volleyball player in the FIVB. You're majorly surpassing every other player in the league."

"Is this why you didn't tell me? Because you knew I was going to cry?"

I don't think twice about signing my name and immediately push the paper to Lena. "That was fast."

"I do things fast around here."

Everyone laughs as she looks over it. "Okay, I'll get this over to our commissioner. Congrats. You keep making history every year."

They get up heading to the door. "Hey, Campbell, I'm proud to be your coach."

"Okay, you gotta leave before I start crying again."

He laughs, "I'll see you in Miami. Bring those awards home for us."

"I will."

I turn back to Christian as he hands me a Kleenex. He rolls his chair closer to mine, "I'm proud of you."

"Thank you."

He kisses me before standing up. He hands me my jacket. We slowly walk out to the car. He gets onto the interstate toward Denver, the opposite way of the apartment.

"We're going to Denver?"

"Yeah, why not? It's close."

I nod, smiling. It feels so good to have that out of the way. I don't have to worry about it anymore and can put my time and energy into the wedding.

"I really thought it would be more."

"Volleyball isn't a billion-dollar business like baseball. It's a 30 million dollar business, if that. That exceeded my expectations."

My arms fall around Christian as he moves into me slowly. "Oh my god," I say quietly.

He moves slower, letting both of us completely feel the connection between us. He kisses me, completely distracting me. I run my hands down his back and to his arm, gripping as I reach my high.

I rest my head on his shoulder, both of us breathing heavily. He leaves soft kisses on my cheek before rolling off beside me. I roll onto his arm and put my arm on his chest. He starts rubbing my back as both of us start breathing normally.

He grabs the sheet and puts that over me. "Water?"

"That'd be great."

He kisses me before getting up and putting his boxers on and leaving the room. I'm convinced nothing will get better than that. I sit up, trying to find a shirt or something else to cover me up for the time being.

He comes back in with my water bottle and another for him. "Are we going to be able to make our flight out of here?" he asks, tossing me a t-shirt of his.

"Why wouldn't we?

He opens the curtains so I can see the snow falling. "I can't see past a hundred feet in front of me."

"Hm, that seems like a problem."

I put the t-shirt on before reaching for my phone on the nightstand. He gets back in bed with me as I look to see the status of our flight. I wouldn't be surprised if it's canceled. "Yeah, we're not going back tonight. It's rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon."

I put my phone back on the nightstand closest to him. "That's okay. Now we have a lot of time."

"We have no food here."

"We'll figure it out. We have a lot of time on our hands now."

I put my leg over him, "I guess we'll stay in and watch movies and do whatever else."

"Or we could go again."

"You gotta give me more than five minutes."

He laughs, "So like ten minutes?"

I hit his chest, "Very funny."

"Normally he does this," I tell Mikayla as she zips up my dress. For any event that we have to dress up for. He's there helping me zip up my dress or after we're done, he's taking off my shoes.

"He's out there fumbling with his suit."

I laugh, "Normal."

She fixes the straps on this long, silver, form-fitting dress. "I'm nervous," I tell her.

"What do you have to be nervous about? You're the best player on our team. You're the best athlete I've ever played with. You're going to win. If you don't, they're wrong. You have nothing less to prove. You've done it all and you're only 27. That's one hell of an accomplishment. No award defines you. I know that. You know that. Your family knows that. Christian knows that."

I nod, "You're so good at keeping me level-headed."

She smiles, "I know."

She re-curls the pieces of my hair by my face, "Are your shoes out there?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'll get those."

She moves behind me to get out of the bathroom. I don't even know what I'm going to say if I do win. There's no prompt to follow. There's no guide to help me form words.

She comes back with my shoes, "Both of them are sitting out there still messing with their ties. It's quite entertaining."

"It amazes me that both of them are at least 30 and they cannot tie their own tie."

I lift my foot so she can strap the red heels onto my ankle. "No, they can. They just like us to do it."

"That sounds more like them."

She stands up again, "Stop stressing. Just think, when we're called up for Outstanding Team, I'm going to be right there. Lauren is going to be right there. The rest of them will be watching. Coach will be watching and he is going to be so proud of you and of us."

"Okay."

"Hey, remember, we don't lose."

"Hell no, we don't."

She smiles, "Okay, let's go fix our boys, and then we can go. We have a red carpet to walk. You have awards to win."

"We have awards to win."

"It's more on you."

We walk out to the main area. We stand in front of our boys as they sit on separate beds with their ties around their necks. Mik and I look at each other and shake our heads, "Stand up."

They stand and we tie it for them. "Are you two ready?"

"Yes."

I grab the red clutch before following Mik and James out the door, meeting up with Lauren and Ethan in the lobby. We all get into the black SUV that will take us to Barclay's Center. Christian and I get into the back row. He puts his arm around me, "You okay?" he asks in my ear.

"A bit nervous."

"Everything is going to be just fine."

"I know."

"You look absolutely stunning too."

"Thank you."

He kisses me, "I love you."

"I love you too."