“I do.” My voice is clear and firm. “You’re going to kick ass in the next games. We’ll make a home base in Colorado so you can train.”
“No.”
“No? What do you mean, no?”
Audrey shifts closer to me. “I don’t want to be in Colorado. I want to make Jackson my home training center. I can do it anywhere and I want to live in Dixon. With you.”
“Dixon, huh?” I drop a kiss on her nose. “You love it there that much?”
“I love it more because you’re there.”
Pulling Audrey into my arms, I snuggle down farther under the blankets. Warmth envelops the two of us.
“I can see it now. I’ll take Coach’s job at the high school. Be on the sidelines on Friday nights. Make sure you keep on a strict training regimen.”
“But what about when I travel?”
“I’ll be there.”
“Even if you take on the coaching gig?”
“High school football ends in November, October if we don’t make playoffs. And if I’m coaching, we’re making it to playoffs. But if there’s an important event, I’ll be there. If they want me like Coach says they do, I think a missed Friday or two isn’t the end of the world. As long as it’s not playoffs.”
She laughs. “I would never ask you to miss playoffs.”
“Problem solved.” I brush my hands together, like it’s all set. “No reason to make it any harder than it has to be.”
“Just like that?”
I lean closer. “Just like that. Because now that I have you again, I’m never letting you go. Someone’s got to keep you on the straight and narrow.”
Audrey laughs, so bright that it makes me fall even more in love with her. “Making an honest woman out of me then?”
I shake my head, brushing my nose against hers. “More like you making an honest man out of me.”
“I love you, Logan. All I know is that whatever life we get to have together is the one I want.”
“I love you, Audrey. And I’ll make sure to do everything I can to support you.”
“We’ll support each other,” Audrey tells me. “As long as we’re together, we can do anything.”
Together. That’s all I ever wanted to be with her.
Looks like I finally got my wish.
Epilogue
AUDREY - ELEVEN MONTHS LATER
“This is quite the change from the Olympics.”
Lily is sitting next to me at the last home game for the Dixon High School football team.
“You won’t hear me complaining.”
It’s the perfect fall night. Bright lights shine down as the defense runs out onto the field in the second quarter. We’re with the entire Winchester family, and no one is cheering louder than Willow.
After Logan signed his retirement papers with the NFL, he took the job of head football coach. I won’t lie. I was worried that not playing would weigh more heavily on him.
