“Hey.” He crowded me against the counter.
“Hey.” I smiled. I couldn’t help it. Jason would always bring out the best and worst of me. “Nice speech.”
“You know I fucking hate doing that.”
“I know.” I ran my fingers over his jaw. He didn’t resemble a twenty-year-old sophomore. He was all man. Tall, broad, and muscular with a five o’clock shadow over his angular jaw, Jason had graduated Rixon a boy on the verge of adulthood and matured into a confident, self-assured guy who knew without doubt what he wanted from life.
“Congratulations, QB One.” Fixing my mouth over his, I kissed him. Jason groaned against my lips, tangling his tongue with mine and sliding his hands into my hair.
“Fuck, babe, no win will ever taste as good as this.”
His words made my heart swell, even if I knew he was just caught up in the moment.
Because for as much as I wanted to believe I came before football... part of me wasn’t so sure.
Felicity
I woke up alone, again. It was the third morning in a row. Jason seemed to spend every spare second he had in the gym, or with his coaches, or cramming in extra study hours so he didn’t fall behind in his classes.
The Quakers were on a winning streak and no one wanted to lose momentum.
Grabbing my cell off the nightstand, I smiled at the text message from Jason, but it didn’t quite reach my eyes.
It never did these days.
QB#1: Sorry... I know I promised to be there this morning, but the guys texted wanting to get an hour at the gym before classes. Everyone is feeling tense about the game Friday.
Me: Go do your thing. I can’t wait until tonight xo
Wednesday night was always date night. We didn’t always go out, but we always cleared our schedules for each other. Sometimes we went across the river to hang out with Asher and Mya, sometimes we caught a movie downtown, or sometimes we stayed in and just enjoyed a slice of quiet in our crazy lives.
QB#1: Tonight? Shit, I told the guys we’d get together to watch the tapes from the game last week.
My stomach sank. He’d forgotten about date night.
Me: Oh, okay. Well, I could always use some extra hours studying. We can take a raincheck.
QB#1: I’ll make it up to you, I promise.
Me: I know xo
I did. Jason would strive to lavish me with a romantic meal at our favorite restaurant or a seductive night in, worshipping every inch of my body until I’d forgotten all about his indiscretion.
Except, the further into football season we got, the less time we spent together, and the more my heart ached.
“Whoa, who died?” Darcy chuckled as he greeted me at the coffee shop.
“Huh?” I frowned.
“The glum face? Is everything okay?” He ushered me to a table.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You know, I’m a good listener as well as an excellent tutor.”
“Modest too, apparently.” I managed a weak smile.
“Let me guess, guy troubles.”
“How did you—” I stopped myself. The last thing I wanted was to discuss Jason with my tutor.
“Nine times out of ten, it is.” He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal, but something told me it was. “Want to talk about it?”
“Not really, no.” I pulled out my notebook.
“You know, I wouldn’t have put you with Mr. Hotshot Football Player.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” My defenses went up.
“I just meant... football players usually attract a certain type of girl.”
“You don’t know anything about me or Jason, Darcy.” I really didn’t appreciate his tone or the insinuation in his words.
“Sorry, this is coming out all wrong.” He ran a hand through his hair. “All I mean is, I’ve been on campus long enough to witness my fair share of heartache.” There was something in his tone... something personal.
“You don’t like the football team very much, do you?”
“I guess you could say that.” His expression hardened.
“They don’t all fall into the typical jock stereotype, you know?”
“I’m sure there are exceptions to the norm.”
There were. Jason, Asher, Cameron, even Gio, and Griffin—for all his goofy ways—were good guys. They played hard and they loved hard.
“But...”
“But I guess I don’t understand how intelligent, independent, ambitious girls are so willing to be second string to a sport.”
I didn’t know what I’d expected... but it hadn’t been for him to pick up on my insecurity.
“When you love someone, Darcy, you support their passions, their hopes and dreams.” It came out harsher than I intended.
“I can see I hit a nerve. I didn’t mean—”
“Jason and I love each other very much. He supports my dreams and I support his.”
Why was I justifying myself to him? I didn’t owe him or anyone else an explanation about why I was with Jason. You didn’t choose love, it chose you, and Jason Ford had stolen my heart a long time ago.
“I’m sure he’s a good guy.” Darcy finally opened his notebook.
“He is.”
I’d wanted to come to our tutor session and focus on something else besides the gnawing pit in my stomach. But now there was an awkward tension in the air as Darcy talked me through the life cycles of protozoan parasites.
We worked like that for an hour, in stilted conversation potted with thick silences.
I’d never been more relieved when he announced we were done. I hurried to pack up my things and abruptly stood.
“Felicity, wait,” he said. “I owe you an apology. My prejudices about the football team, are just that, mine. I watched a couple of my good friends get hurt pretty badly by jocks... it left a sour taste in my mouth. I’m sorry.”
“I appreciate your words. But I meant what I said, Darcy. You don’t know anything about mine and Jason’s relationship.” And I intended on keeping it that way.
“You’re right, I don’t. As long as you’re happy, right?” He gave me a goofy smile, but it was like a punch to the stomach.
Because I wasn’t happy lately.
“Same time Thursday?”
I hesitated. I could request a different tutor and hope they had even half as much as knowledge and Darcy’s ability to break down the science and explain it in a way that I understood.
But that felt like the coward’s way out.
He was entitled to his opinions, even if they had hit a sore point.
I gave him a small nod and said, “I’ll see you then.”
Jason
“You think we’re ready?” Griffin asked me as we filed out of the room adjoining the locker room. We’d been watching game tapes from Dartmouth’s game against Yale last week. They were the team to beat. The team we needed to beat to stay at the top of the league.
“We’re ready,” I said with complete confidence. Since our opening game, we’d gone from strength to strength. Being quarterback always gave you a natural leadership role in a team, but now that I was captain, something had clicked. We all felt it. But it was more than that. I had something to prove. To myself, Coach, the team, the fans... Linc.