The group chuckled and turned to Ginny, congratulating her on a job well done.
Ryan disengaged from the group and picked up the football at his feet that they’d used for the game. One of two balls Georgia had made for the alumni game, they were printed on the side with the Bicentennial design Ginny had created, a purple armadillo, andSugartree Armadillos Bicentennial Game. The other ball would be placed in the time capsule to commemorate their first annual flag football game.
“Ginny, I was wrong about you from the get go, and I’m sorry. You were amazing out there, and you were definitely the woman I… sorry… the womanweneeded all along.”
Georgia snickered and cleared her throat.
But Ryan held out the ball with a blush flushing his neck and cheeks, and offered it to Ginny. “I’d like to present you with the game ball.”
Ginny bit her lip, hiding back her pleasure and hearing the words,you were the woman I needed,in a steady cadence running through her head over all the noise surrounding her. Freudian slip? She didn’t care. Ginny would definitely be writing a song about it later.
“Thanks, Coach,” she said, accepting the football and giving Ryan a chaste, but lingering hug. “But I’m not a woman… I’m aduck!” Without warning, she clotheslined Ryan around his waist and tackled him to the ground.
18
THIS TOWN
NIALL HORAN
She was a glutton for punishment.
That was the only possible explanation for why Ginny wrestled with and chased Ryan across the football field with the rest of the able-bodied team for a solid twenty minutes after their epic loss, laughing like a hysterical woman when he’d get too close, or loosing her breath when his hands gripped her waist or her hands, or when his fingers twisted in one of her curls. The air was cooler, but the tension between Ginny and Ryan felt electric and alive.
She should have pulled him aside and confessed the truth the second the game had ended. Or the moment he’d handed her the game ball. But she didn’t.
Nope.
Instead, Ginny got caught up in the magic of the night. In the excitement emanating from their friends and family despite the loss. She was completely dizzied by the way Ryan would catch her gaze and give her that small, tilted, delicious grin of his when someone congratulated her on a job well done or commented on the team’s matching socks. Like she and Ryan had a shared secret, all their own.
That same masochism was entirely the culprit for why Ginny, without any second thoughts, accepted Ryan’s offer to drive her over to Griffin and Caroline’s house for a Friday night bonfire. A twenty minute drive down country roads with the windows down and the radio up, and Ginny and Ryan singing every word to every song, wrapped in hisoatmeal cookie fresh outta the ovensmell she loved so much. Only when Ryan sang the old twangy words to a country classic did Ginny think of him as Melody Man and wondered what it would be like to talk about the music and lyrics they both loved, openly. Only then did she feel the pang of disappointment in herself. And then, resounding conviction churned in her spirit when Ryan sang his—Melody Man’s—favorite worship song,Firm Foundation,and Ginny had to stop herself from referencing one of his earlier letters to her.
“Hey Ry,” she said, adjusting the music so that he might hear her better.
“Hmm?” he answered, still humming.
“I was wonderin’ if…” Ginny inhaled. “I was wonderin’ what ever happened with your mystery girl. If you still had those… feelings?”What are you doing, Ginny?!
He tapped the steering wheel a few times. “I’m not gonna lie to you, Gin… I’ve been pretty confused for a while about her and about you. Not just since the other night.”
“When she didn’t show?”
Tell him. Tell him. Tell him!The words banged against Ginny’s beating heart.
“Yeah, but…” he continued, “I dunno. Iwasinterested in her in some ways. And I felt like a jerk—like I was bein’ pulled in two directions. I mean… we kissed…”
“Smooched,” Ginny added, aiming for levity but not feeling it at all.
“Right. But even then, I was just unsure. Everything was just really unclear. I’m sorry if that hurts you to hear, because I know I already have—hurt you that is—but…”
“It doesn’t, Ryan,” she whispered, barely getting out the words through the emotion choking her. “I understand.”
More than you know, Melody Man.
Ryan pulled into Griffin and Caroline’s driveway and put the car in park. The yellow glow of garden lights strewn across their back patio could be seen from the front, and music played overhead. He turned to her, and Ginny watched something like pain cross his face. He pulled her hand into his and interlocked their fingers.
“Gin, don’t cry, please.” He swept a tear from her cheek with his thumb and left his hand there. But Ginny felt crushed. Crushed under the weight of her feelings for him and the shame she felt at not telling him the truth in the pavilion the week before. Not telling him every day they’d spent together. Not screaming it in the taut space between them now.
“Ginny… my friend… she gave me some advice not long ago, and it’s made me really focus on praying for God’s will for my life. And it's you who’s been at the center of those prayers, Gin. Not a girl I haven’t met. Not some ideal in my head. I haven’t talked to her again, and I’m good with that. I want…” He let his thumb swipe across her cheek and she felt more tears spill.
