Huh.
“I wanted you to enjoy yourself.”
“But you could have relaxed too.”
“I think you underestimate the level I will go to protect you.” He kissed the end of my nose. “How are you feeling now?”
“Okay, I think. Your swoony words sobered me a little.” A smile tugged at my lips.
“One-hundred percent truth, babe.”
“God, I love you. I love you so much I wish this didn’t ever have to end.” A rush of love swelled inside me, like rising waters threatening to pull me under.
“Good thing it doesn’t ever have to end then. Come on.” He started to pull me along with him.
“It will though. One day you’ll be super famous, and I’ll be a college dropout. I’ll still love you then, you know... even when you’re a hotshot in the NFL and I have to get my glimpses of you on ESPN.”
“You’re drunk, babe.”
“That may be so, but I’m also a realist... and this... us... it isn’t endgame. It’s—” My ankle rolled, and the world began to fall away.
“Shit, Felicity.”
“I’m flyiiiiing.” I chuckled, throwing my arms out to the side and bracing myself for impact.
But it never came.
“You caught me,” I said, staring up at intense dark eyes I didn’t think I would ever forget. Because those eyes were my world. Everything I ever wanted.
“I will always catch you, Giles.”
God, how I wanted to believe him.
Jason
“This is it, ladies. Win tonight and the title is ours.” Coach leveled us with a hard look.
Our win against Cornell last week meant we could be crowned league winners tonight, instead of our last game. And the best fucking part? Cam and Asher were in the crowd, thanks to their teams having bye weeks.
“I couldn’t have asked for more from you this season,” he went on. “Losing Lincoln was a blow, but, Jason, son, you rose to the challenge and got the job done.”
Everyone cheered, the stamp of their cleats against the floor and the shrill of their hollers rattling inside my chest.
“It’s so close we can almost taste it. Penn hasn’t had a season like this in almost a decade. Go out there and do what you were born to do. Now everyone get in here.”
We rose like an army answering a battle cry and wedged around Coach in a circle. “Quakers on three.” He gave me the nod and my voice pierced the air.
“One... two... three... Quakers.”
Gio clapped me on the back, his eyes dancing with anticipation. “Yo, Griff, is your girl gonna be out there?”
“Fuck off, she’s not my girl.”
“Not what I heard,” I added around a smirk.
Since the party, Felicity and Elodie had hung out a lot. She’d even talked me into going on a couple of double dates with Griff and her new friend. He didn’t want to put a label on it, but the two of them seemed close. I’d seen the protective glint in his eye that night. He barely let her out of his sight. Elodie was a strange one. At times, she was desperately quiet and introverted, and then other times she was vibrant and talked at a mile a minute. But Felicity liked her. And there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for that girl.
As we grabbed our helmets and filed out of the locker room, my mind went to that night again. Felicity had been ass over elbow drunk, spewing all kinds of shit about us, about me. Things I didn’t ever want to hear. But when she’d woken up the next morning, hungover and dehydrated, I hadn’t had the heart to bring it up with her. So we’d danced around it. If she remembered, she never said anything, and I tried every day to reassure her that I loved her.
To reassure her that her fears were never going to manifest into reality.
Things were better... but they weren’t perfect. She was still hanging around with tutor boy and I was still with the team more often than not.
Hopefully though, after tonight that would all change.
“You ready for this?” Gio shoulder-checked me as we spilled onto the field. It was a blessing to have our penultimate game at home. If we won tonight, the atmosphere in Franklin Field would be explosive, and the hunger for it burned in my veins.
“Born ready,” I muttered, letting the crowd’s cheers wash over me. Felicity was the girl for me. I felt it in my soul as sure as I knew the sky was blue and the grass beneath my feet was green. One day, I would put a ring on her finger and my kid in her stomach. She was my heart. But football? Football was my calling.
I just had to find a way to make the two symbiotic.
A big hand landed on my shoulder and I looked up to find Griff staring at me. “I finally get it,” he mumbled.
“Yeah, and what’s that?” I teased.
“I like her, man. I really fucking like her.”
My lips curved. “Well hold that thought, because we have a game to win.” I clapped him on the back and started jogging toward the rest of our team.
“How’d you do it?” he called.
I spun around, jogging backward. “Do what?”
“Focus on football and a girl?”
“You just gotta show her what she means to you.”
The words were like a punch to the stomach. My step faltered as every memory Felicity and I shared slammed into me one after another.
Everything was so clear... I didn’t know how I hadn’t seen it before.
I knew what I had to do.
I knew how to fix us.
Felicity
Tears streamed down my face as I watched Jason and his teammates celebrate. The thirteen-thousand strong crowd was on their feet, clapping and cheering, celebrating right along with them.
I watched with nothing but pride and love as Coach Faulkner found Jason and pulled him into a hug before holding his shoulders and saying something to him. Jason nodded, his eyes wide with understanding.
“Your boy did good.” Hailee nestled into my side, her own pride and excitement swirling around us. This moment didn’t only mean a lot to me, it meant a lot to all of us. Cam, Asher, Hailee, even Mya. We knew what football meant to Jason, what this moment would mean for him.
I dabbed my eyes, trying to get a hold of my emotions. Being here to witness this, seeing the guy I loved more than anything make his dreams come true... well, it was easy to forget all the strain and distance between us over the last few weeks. My heart swelled for him. The boy from Rixon with a dream of making it. A boy who had stolen my heart and refused to let it go.
He wanted football and me.
If only it were that simple.
“Flick, you should go down there,” Asher said, nudging me from behind.
“What? I can’t just—”
“He’s looking for you.”
Sure enough, Jason was searching the crowd for me. We hadn’t been able to sit in the VIP section since there was six of us, so I’d given Elodie my ticket and she and Jordan were down there, while I sat in the bleachers with my friends.
The second Jason’s eyes found mine, everything melted away. On shaky legs, I hurried down the steps to the barrier. Jason jogged toward me, his smile radiant and eyes filled with sweet relief.
“You did it,” I breathed, pressing my palms against his shoulders. His hair was damp and messy, his Quaker jersey streaked with mud and grass stains as his helmet hung at his side.