Lacey and I share a glance. She shrugs one shoulder and grabs my hand, so I guess we’re doing this. Rex is tagging along with us on our date.
We’ve become friends this summer. There isn’t a lot of free time or days off, but we hang out in the evenings either at our apartment or seeing the city.
We take Lacey to eat lunch at our favorite spot. It’s fun to share all of it with her. Since I’ve been here it’s been nonstop soccer. I love it, but I’m excited to relax and enjoy the weekend with my girlfriend.
We’ve been together now for nine months. It has honestly been the best time of my life. She’s fun and smart and kind, and she has this way of looking at situations that reminds me things aren’t all-or-nothing. I can still make time for myself and for relationships and be the best soccer player in the world. Though I’m still working on that last part. Playing with the professional guys has pushed me and showed me how much more growing I have to do. I might even go to college instead of straight to a professional league. Stanford with Lacey might be kind of nice. I’ve been thinking about a sports training degree. I don’t know, but the possibilities are exciting.
We still haven’t had sex, but this weekend we plan to change that. We’ve been talking about it for a while, but it was a big deal to her to wait and then for it to happena certain way. I just want it to be however she wants. The details aren’t important to me. I would have had sex with her just about anywhere she wanted, any time she wanted.
But now that we’ve waited, I want it to go exactly as planned. Which means ditching Rex at some point today.
After lunch, we decide to walk around the city a bit.
“How’s everything back home?” I ask as we stroll aimlessly down the street.
“Good. Dad and I are already planning another road trip for next summer.” She smiles.
Her dad took an entire week off and they drove to South Dakota. She sent me dozens of pictures every day of them visiting monuments and memorials and playing mini golf and eating ice cream.
“And cheerleading camp went well. We had fifty freshmen try out and a handful of new upperclassmen.” Lacey swings our joined hands between us and bites her lip. “I almost forgot. I figured out how to leave my mark on Frost Lake.”
“How?” I ask, confused by her sudden shyness.
“I carved our names into the bleachers on the soccer field.”
A rough chuckle escapes my lips.
“Don’t worry. I did it on the bottom so it’s not as obvious.”
“Destruction of school property.” I tsk at her playfully. The thing is, she’s already left her mark a million different ways. With her classmates, her friends, her team, and definitely with me. But I’m glad she’s done it in a way that signifies it for her.
“Congrats. You did it. The final item on the list.”
“Technically, traveling here was the last thing.” She stops and kisses me again.
I let my lips linger, soaking up this moment and her. I missed her so damn much. “Now it’s just my list that’s left.”
Her smile widens.
I’m not in a hurry, but someday I’m definitely going to marry this girl.
She goes back to swinging our hands as we continue down the sidewalk. Rex seems perfectly content to walk ahead of us on his own.
“Oh, and Barrett had a going away party,” Lacey says.
“I heard about that.”
Our goalie graduated in May and is heading to Illinois. He got a scholarship to one of the Division II colleges there. He’s going to be hard to replace. We have a couple backups, but Barrett was talented. I’ll miss playing with him.
“It was fun. We went out to Doyle’s camp and then walked down by the lake. Everyone was there. It felt like one last hurrah. It wasn’t the same without you.”
“You look like you’ve spent a lot of time out at the lake.” Her skin is tan, and her dark hair looks a little lighter.
“You too.”
With my free hand I lift the hem of my shorts an inch to show off my killer tan lines. Mine is not from lying out by the lake but from spending hours out on the soccer field.
When it’s starting to get dark, we finally head back to the apartment. My nerves for tonight ramp up.
