Then—
POP-UP BLOCKED.
Click to allow content fromwww.utsportsnetwork.com
An orange banner shoved its way across my screen before I could even think, bright and loud and everything I wasn’t.
UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE FOOTBALL—RECRUITING EXCELLENCE
The bold white text was written over a looping video of boys in helmets slamming into one another, shoulder pads cracking, sweat flying.
I moved the cursor toward the little X in the corner, ready to shut it down and get back to pretending I had a plan.
But I missed the click.
The screen stuttered once, then fully shifted…loading an entire page I hadn’t meant to see.
A highlight reel started playing automatically, filling my laptop with noise and motion. Blinding stadium lights. Orange-and-white uniforms. A sea of roaring fans. Pads colliding. Coaches shouting.
I reached for the back button, already annoyed…and then I stopped.
Because that’s when I saw him.
Jersey #23.
Black hair.
Light blue eyes.
Tan skin, sun-warmed and stretched over lean, perfect, tattooed muscle.
He stood with his arms crossed, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth like he’d just scored and knew exactly what it did to people.
There were other people on the screen—players tackling, fans cheering—but my eyes locked on tohim.
“Matthew Adler,” I whispered. He was a tight end, whatever that was. A business major.
There was a video of him catching a pass, his feet leaving the ground in one fluid motion, arms outstretched, muscles tight, focus razor-sharp.
I didn’t blink…or breathe.
I leaned closer to the screen. Not even consciously. Just drawn in like gravity didn’t apply anymore.
He wasbeautiful.
I hadn’t seen anyone like him in real life.
Not in the fluorescent lighting of group rooms. Not in the cold hallways of my high school. Not even in the magazines the other girls in the facility used to cut up and glue into collages during art therapy.
But now he was here.
Right in front of me.
And something inside meshifted.
Like the world had finally tilted into focus. Likehewas what I’d been waiting to see through all the static.
My fingers moved before I’d even made the decision.
