“I missed you,” I said. “All these years.”
“Me too. So much.”
“Blue!” The guy yelled. “We’re getting our butts handed to us!”
He groaned. “I gotta go.” But I gripped his face, my mouth not wanting to leave his. He smiled. “We can pick this up when the game is over, okay?”
I rested my forehead against his, trying to catch my breath. “Yeah. Okay.” A tiny hiccup-sigh bubbled in my throat. “Let’s go. I wanna watch my boyfriend play some football.” I extricated myself from his lap, hopped up, and offered him a hand.
He stood and smoothed my hair, which was probably completely out of control. “You haven’t said that since high school, huh?” He took in my sweatshirt, pure joy on his face. “Hold up. You can’t wear that. You’re the Knoxville quarterback’s girlfriend.” I followed him to his locker where he pulled out a UK hoodie. As I pulled my JRC sweatshirt off he laughed. “Looks like we’re back to exchanging sweatshirts.”
I wiggled my brows, shoving my arms in the sleeves. “Figuratively and literally.”
Once I was properly attired and my sweatshirt was in his locker, he led me to the hall. I let myself hunker down in the sweatshirt for a second, breathing in the smell. Sandalwood and sea air, just like always. I let out a sigh.
When we stepped out, he looked over at Holden and said, “What’s up?” Like this kind of thing happened every day and like we’d been together all these years.
“Hey, man. Good to see you again.”
“Oh wait.” I hurried back into the room and grabbed the necklace from the bench. When I came back into the hall I gave it to Blue. “Here.” Then I waved and turned to go.
But Blue grabbed me around the waist. “Where do you think you’re going?”
I pointed down the hall. “Back to my seat.”
He grinned. “No, you’re coming with me.” Then he looked at Holden. “Wanna watch from the sidelines?”
“Um, yes.” Holden chuckled. Then he whispered in my ear. “What is happening?”
I beamed. “Good stuff. Lots of good stuff.”
Blue reached for my hand and I slipped my palm into his. When we stepped into the sunshine and the UK crowd saw us together, they let out a cheer. Blue radiated pride. “They love you already.”
“Pretty sure they just love you and I’m part of the package now.”
“I’ll take it.” He dropped my hand to go and held out the necklace. “Hang onto that for me?”
“Don’t you need it?”
His dimple appeared, making a cocoon of butterflies erupt in my stomach. “It was just a placeholder for you. But it can’t beat the real thing.” Then he planted a quick kiss on my lips right there in front of everyone. The fans went insane.
I rested my face against his neck, just like I had at the Knoxville game. “Get your cute butt on that field and get this attention off me. And no more concussions. Do you hear me?”
He chuckled next to my ear. “What the girlfriend wants, the girlfriend gets.” Then he stepped away, turned, and jogged to his coaches. They slapped his helmet into his hands and in thirty seconds, he was back on that field, passing, sprinting, throwing that ball like a stealth missile, like the first quarter of the game hadn’t been a disaster at all. Like the concussion and amnesia were a distant memory.
I stood on the sideline, snuggled in his sweatshirt that smelled like him, cheering and grinning. “I could get used to this,” I said to Holden.
He smiled. “I already am.”
CHAPTER 20
anna
Can we all just take a minute to welcome our newest member and an old fave to the Dupree Family Chat?
Blue
Oh, wow. Anna, we might need to talk. One week and you’ve already added me to the family text thread? I think we might need to slow this down. That’s a lot of commitment. Feeling a bit suffocated over here.
