She sucked in a breath as I sat us down on the bleachers. Her black hair hung on either side of her face, her pillow lips were pursed, and her eyes glistened. “You sure you want to give this up?”
Of course she wants to talk about football and not feelings.
Is this irony? Me, the king of no feels, is in love with someone refusing to tell me theirs.
“I’m sure. The question is, am I willing to gamble losing you, and that answer is absolutely the fuck not. I just got you back, and I can’t survive being away from you all year.” I fisted my hand against my thigh, channeling my stress there. “What doyou think about when we’re here? What’s going on through your mind?”
Her cheeks reddened, but she met me head-on. “How good you look. How I shoved all those romantic feelings down for you all these years. How you’d play the best game of your life, and I fought the urge to kiss you. You come alive on the field, Callum. I don’t want you walking away from that for me. We can withstand some distance.”
“All I’m thinking about is how much fun we had. How much you made my life better. My best memories from high school are withyou.Not on this field.” I scooted closer to her. “If there’s a possibility your internship is with a team I could sign with, then yes, I’d consider it.”
“That is such a small chance, Cali. There’s no way.”
“I can see if it’s possible.” I shrugged and stared out on the field. I waited for a pang or a fire that alerted me that football was my future. It just didn’t come. My chaotic energy needed something else, a new challenge. Football had provided me a life I wanted and taught me amazing things, but it wasn’t my everything.
“Hey.”
Her normally sassy voice had a softness I wasn’t used to hearing. I stared back at her and smiled. Her large green eyes were so expressive, and I loved knowing every shade of them. Literally every shade. They darkened when she came.
“Yes, baby?”
Her eyes crinkled on the side. “I’m ready now. Okay.”
Frowning, I squeezed her wrist. “Ready for what? What do you mean?”
“Callum.” She gripped my chin. “I love you too. I’m in love with you, madly, and I want you to know that. So if your hesitation about?—”
“I need to kiss you.” I interrupted her and yanked her on my lap. My woman, my best fucking friend, loved me too. We’d come so damn far and learned so much about each other. Holy shit. Fireworks burst throughout my chest, going off a mile a minute. I’d discovered new sides of her and a different kind of happy I’d never experienced. Kissing her wasn’t enough. My chest swelled. I could fly. If I jumped off the bleachers right now, I’d spread wings and fly like a damn bird. Guaranteed it.
“I love you, this, us, your mouth,” I blurted between kissing her. She tasted like lip balm and gum, and I swore I could feel her heart pounding against my chest. “Thank you. I’ll take care of you, Ivy. I swear it.”
She groaned against my lips and straddled me, her tight body leaving no room between us. “I know it took me a while to tell you. I think I was scared, but I’m not anymore.” She grinned, and her eyes watered. “Loving you is as easy as breathing.”
My heart skipped a beat as I squeezed her against me. “I can’t tell you how good this feels. I’ve never said these words or heard them when they meant this much. It’s overwhelming.’
“I know what you mean.” Ivy swallowed and ran her thumb over my bottom lip. “So, now that you know I love you, does that change your mind about football?”
A rock settled at the base of my gut as I stilled.Did she say it just to talk about football?
Was she playing me?
Uh, no, hello, its IVY. She doesn’t do that.
After taking a fucking second to not go off the deep end, I shook my head. “It doesn’t. My sister and own mother have insisted they won’t let me pay a penny for them. I’ll get creative and help another way.” I shrugged and took her hands in mine. “I want to eat what I want and do what I want. Set my own schedule. I want to watch football on TV and yell and drink. Preferably, with you by my side.”
“This sounds… nice, but what if… if we don’t work out? I can’t live with myself if you did this and then we realize we’re not a good pair?”
Why the fuck is she even thinking about this?
Only death would keep me from her.
Don’t say that, you idiot. That’s too extreme.
Heat rushed my face. “First off, that will never happen. There is nothing you could do that would push me away. I am yours forever. I will never feel this way about anyone else. I couldn’t possibly. So if we … don’t ‘work out,’ then I’ll work twice as hard to rectify whatever happened. “
“You can’t know that.”
“I can and do. You have to trust me on this, but if it makes you feel any better, I’d still walk away from football.”
