The Perfect First (Fulton U, #1)(83)

I spun around. She stood beside the passenger side of my car. Jogging over to her, I skidded on the ice and caught myself. She tugged open the door before I could get to her and climbed in.

Bracing my hands on the roof of my car, I looked up at the sky. Please don’t let me fuck this up.

We drove in silence. I had to take a few side streets to avoid all the post-championship celebrations. People took over the main roads with flags and banners hanging from their cars, cheering and chanting.

Seph craned her neck to check everyone out. “You’re missing all the fun.”

“I’m right where I want to be.” I peered over at her. My fingers itched to reach over and take her hand, to thread through hers and bring them up to my mouth. I wanted to kiss our interlaced fingers in a promise of forever.

Cars dotted the visitor side of the stadium parking lot. Most people from the losing team knew to get out of dodge. Exiting the car, I couldn’t stop myself from watching her. Her cheeks glowed with a wintry flush. Wisps of her hair had escaped the red knit hat she always wore. Was her hair braided underneath? Would I get to find out later? Would I ever get to run my fingers through her hair again as she lay on my chest sound asleep?

She looked to me with an eyebrow raised. That snapped me out of my daydream, wanting to both stretch this moment out in case it was the last and move past it with her by my side.

I walked to one of the doors of the stadium and knocked. Winning a championship had its perks, mainly the groundkeepers bending the rules for me just this once to get me inside. The wide hallways were eerily quiet. It was like walking into your childhood home after your parents had packed up for a move. It was just as you remembered it and yet completely foreign. This didn’t feel like the same place I’d been a couple of hours ago.

Seph sped up, brushing against my arm. I slowed down, navigating the twists and turns of the place I’d spent my last four years in, and it hit me: this would be one of the last times I’d be there.

“Where are we going?” She sped up to get in front of me.

“Here.” I guided her out of the tunnel. Swinging to the left, we went up a few stairs and I sat in the second seat in the first row, right on the fifty-yard line. I patted the hard-molded plastic seat beside me, holding it down for her to sit.

She eyed me and the field before sitting and staring straight ahead. “Why are we here?”

I leaned forward, resting my arms on the steel railings that lined the perimeter of the first row.

“I’ve played football since I was ten years old. It was flag football, but even then there were people whispering about how good I was. I’m sure there are thousands of kids all across the country who get the same treatment, but my dad was a former NFL player, so it was different.”

I tightened my grip. Soon there’d be a championship ring on my finger, clinking against the cold metal.

“But my dad would never watch me play. He didn’t even want me to play. For a long time, I thought it was because he didn’t believe in me or he was worried about me being better than him, worried I’d surpass his achievements.”

Our conversation replayed in my head.

“And what about now?” She leaned forward, her shoulder brushing my back.

“Now I know he was only trying to protect me. It was the only way he could let me do what he saw I needed to do. Stopping me would’ve been like asking me to stop breathing, so he did what he needed to do to let me play.”

She sat beside me in silence. The faraway echoing noises of people cleaning up around the stadium bounced their way across the field.

I took a deep, shaky breath. Turning fully in my seat, I took her hand in mine. “And I’d give it all up for you.”

Snatching her hand from mine, she jumped up. Her feet slapped against the hard concrete and my heart plummeted. She stared back at me like I’d told her I was headed to the moon. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

My head snapped back. “It’s true.”

“If it’s true then you probably need to get a CT scan.” She snatched her hat off her head. Her hair stuck up as the static cling supercharged it. “Why would you ever say something like that? Is that what you think I want from you? I saw you out there tonight. You were indescribable. How could you even think for a second of throwing away all that talent? For what? For nothing? To prove a point?”

I stood and braced my hands on her shoulders. “It wouldn’t be for nothing, Seph. It would be for you.”

She glared at me and crossed her arms over her chest. “No, it would be for you. Then you get to make this big sacrifice and in fifteen years you’re staring at me like some stranger who stole something from you.”

“There wouldn’t be a day that went by without you that I wouldn’t feel that never-ending sense of loss, knowing I gave up something I could never get back, knowing I sacrificed being with the person I love for fame and glory to strangers who could never mean as much to me as you do.”

“You’re not giving anything up.” She jammed her finger into the center of my chest. “I’m not going to let you hold that over my head.”

The corners of my mouth turned up. “Does that mean I’ll be around to not hold it over your head?”

“I’m scared.” She nibbled her bottom lip.

I dragged her into my arms. “I’m scared too, Wild Child, but with your brains and my athleticism, we can outsmart or outrun any problem we come up against.” Running my fingers along the nape of her neck, I held on tight. Her lavender and library smell was a scent I’d wear any day if it meant I got to hold her. “At least for a few more years until my knees give out.”