Quarterback Sneak (Red Zone Rivals #3)(86)

With my family.

“Ah, who wants to play for Tampa, anyway?” My uncle Nathan said, bouncing Joanne in his lap. “Too goddamn muggy in Florida.”

Everyone chuckled, but the energy had shifted with that pick. Slowly, conversation picked back up, everyone drinking and refilling their plates. The Giants were on the clock now, but I knew as well as the rest of the room that they weren’t going to be calling me.

I tried to sneak outside without being seen — knowing even as I slid the sliding glass door open that I had failed. Still, I breathed a little easier once I was on the back patio, a chilly wind sweeping through and cooling the sweat on the back of my neck.

I rested my forearms on the banister, breathing in deep. For a while, I just peered up at the few stars I could see, listening to the wind blowing through the trees.

“I wish you were here,” I said to the back yard, but I knew the message was heard by who I intended it for.

As if in answer, a gentle breeze rolled through the yard, rustling the leaves in the trees one by one. I heard it before I felt it wash over my face, and I closed my eyes and smiled when it did.

The sliding glass door opened and shut behind me, and after a few footsteps, Julep wrapped her arms around me from behind.

“Aren’t you freezing?” she asked, her chin balancing on the back of my shoulder as she wrapped me up tight.

I turned until I was facing her, and she chuckled at the sheen of sweat on my forehead.

“Apparently not,” she mused.

I tried to smile, but it was weak as I let my hands rest on her hips.

The real reason for my nerves stared back at me.

She’d walked into my trap just like I’d known she would. She saw I was anxious, saw I’d gone outside to get away from everyone. And now, I had her alone, just like I’d wanted.

“You okay?” she asked tenderly, playing with the hair at the nape of my neck.

“More than okay.”

“Oh, really? Because everyone inside that house thinks you’re going to run into traffic if the phone doesn’t ring.”

“I’m not worried about the draft.”

She snorted, shaking her head as she leaned in and pegged me with a brief kiss. “You know, you don’t have to act all macho with me. I’m your girlfriend, remember?”

“Yeah… about that.”

Her face sobered, smile washing away instantly.

“I’ve been thinking… you know, with the draft, and my future up in the air. Maybe I’ll get a call tonight. Maybe it won’t be until later this weekend. But I think it’s pretty safe to say I’m going pro. And that means I’ll be in a new city, who knows where, with a new team and all these new people in my life…”

Julep looked like a ghost as she released her hold around my neck and stepped back. “What… what are you saying, Holden?”

I swallowed, holding her gaze. “I’m saying… I don’t think I want a girlfriend through all that.”

Her face went ashen, her nose flaring as she blinked and stared at me in complete and total shock.

And I wanted to wait. I wanted to get a reaction out of her, to play along with the ruse a little longer, but I couldn’t stand even pretending to hurt her.

So, I moved closer, taking her hands in mine as I slowly dropped to one knee.

“I want a fiancée.”

Her next breath was a gasp, and she nearly burst into tears as she cursed my name. “Holden!”

I pulled the ring from my pocket, presenting it to her between my fingertips rather than in a box. The delicate gold band was weathered but freshly polished, and a lone, marquise-shaped diamond glittered in the porch light shining from above us.

“It was my mother’s,” I said, voice tight. “My father bought this for her as an upgrade once he had enough money to do so. I remember when she got it. Christmas of 2012. She’d cried so hard ugly snot came out of her nose.”

“I’m about to do the same,” Julep choked, and then she dropped to her knees with me, shaking her head as her eyes bounced between the diamond and me. “Are you… is this real?”

“The realest.”

She smiled, then bit her lip. “My dad is going to kill you for not asking him first.”

“Who said I didn’t ask him?”

Her eyebrows tugged inward, and then she glanced behind me at the house. When she covered her mouth and the laugh that bubbled out of her, too, I whipped around to find a dozen faces pressed against the window watching us. Giana was crying so hard you’d have thought it was her being proposed to.

I smiled, turning back to Julep. “I meant what I said after the bowl game that none of this means anything without you. I want you to know when I go into this that I don’t care about any of the girls who will follow us on the road, or about going out to strip clubs or whatever else might be presented to me.” I pulled her left hand into my right one and held the ring with my left. “I care about you. More than anything in this world. And I want every experience life has to offer with you by my side.”

She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth as tears filled her eyes, and all the while she watched me.

“Marry me, Julep. Marry me, and I promise to take you to every yard sale we can find in every state we go to. Marry me, and I will grow a garden in your name. Marry me, and I promise to set up a chrome pole in the middle of every piece of property we own.”