“I’m in love with your Zahirah, sir. In a year or two, I plan to propose. I should be settled and in the league by then. We can wait to get married after she graduates. Maybe plan the wedding for the spring or summer of the following year.
“I’ll pay for grad school for both of us. I want to buy a house back home, but I understand we might have to move around for my team depending on where I get signed. I’m in full support of whatever Zah plans to do after school.”
“Sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into this,” my father says.
My siblings are looking at me in shock, with the exception of Erica and Eddy; those two are scowling at me. I get that Erica is pissed we didn’t tell her sooner. It’s been eight months.
We’ve been home since we’ve been together, but there hasn’t been a moment to come clean. Neither of us has been in Arizona at the same time. Between camps and training with specialty coaches, we’ve been missing each other when going back home.
“Unbelievable,” Erica huffs.
Zahirah
Bentley pullsme into his arms and hugs me tightly as he kisses my lips a few times, then presses his forehead to mine. “I’ll see you after the game,” he murmurs against my lips.
“Have a good one.”
He releases me and waves to everyone else before he takes off. Butterflies fill my belly as I think of later tonight. We plan to hang out and celebrate.
“This is all so weird. Why didn’t you tell me?” Erica asks after Bentley is out of earshot.
I shrug my shoulders and bite my lip. “I don’t know. It just never seemed like the right time.”
“When you called crying to tell me a guy—my brother, who you slept with—cheated on you would have been a great time,” she whisper-yells.
I grab her by the arm and tug her away from her other siblings before they overhear. The last thing I want is for everyone to know I’m having sex with Bentley. Although they might already assume we are.
“I was wrong. He didn’t cheat. That girl who trashed his car set him up.”
“But you were sleeping with him before that,” she accuses.
“He took my virginity on my birthday. Things happened really fast, and I didn’t know how you would feel. Please don’t be mad at me,” I plead.
“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“So it’s a mutual thing,” she says as if speaking to herself. “I think it always has been. Now so much makes sense.”
“Are you mad?”
“No. I don’t think so. Will you be mad when I move here? Am I going to be a third wheel?”
I gasp. “What? You’re coming here?” I say excitedly.
“That’s the plan. I’ve been looking at new colleges, but you coming here made me miss you and Bent even more. I think this is where I want to be.”
“Yay,” I squeal and pull her into a hug.
“I want to see you this happy when I’m here getting all up in y’all’s business. Bent is going to hate this.”
I giggle at my best friend. “No, he’s not, it’s going to be like old times.”
“Ugh, you two still study too much like little nerds?”
“Yup,” I say, popping theP.
She groans and rolls her eyes. “You know that’s the only reason our parents aren’t freaking out. You two haven’t dropped your grades in the last eight months, so you’re getting a pass. If this was me and Jamie, it would be a whole different story.”
