I recall his address fondly. He’s really quite the eloquent speaker. Came prepared with notecards and everything.
‘JJ,’ laughs May. ‘I knew it. Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised y’all are such enormous fans of the Lady Riders, should I?’ Shereaches out and pats my cheek gently, her fingers lingering there with her next words. ‘Putting up my poster in your locker is a real creep move, champ.’
‘Wait – how …’ I sputter excuses for words. How on earth would she know what’s in my New Haven locker? That shit is top secret. I swallow so hard I think I might gag on air. ‘It’s not – I’m not—’
‘You’re funny.’ She tilts her head with a smirk. ‘I’m flattered, really.’
The last of the confetti falls around us, and the chaos of the fans disappears, fading into the background, as I drink her in. Every detail I’d memorized so meticulously, right here in front of me.
‘I guess there’s one thing I have to ask you, if you could spare me a minute. Probably busy now that you’re a National Champion, but …’
May beams up at me, her thumb tickling the side of my neck. ‘And what might that be?’
‘I’m done running and hiding.’ I take her face in my hands, lock my eyes with hers, and this time, I refuse to let an ounce of fear control me. ‘I know I fucked up. Irreversibly. This second chance to do things right has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. I’m ready to shoot first and ask questions later, if you are. I’m over the whole right person …’
‘… wrong time.’ May clicks her tongue, nodding matter-of-factly. The tingle of anxiety swirls in my chest as I watch her calculate her next words. ‘I mean, Ihavebeen told there’s no such thing as the right time, you know.’
Oh, God. That doesn’t sound good. ‘No right time?’ I choke out. This is it. I’m so screwed.
Her stern expression breaks into an enormous, beautiful grin, her eyes tracing the planes of my face. ‘And if there’s no such thing as a right time … what in the hell are we waiting for?’
I thank every force of nature at work out there when our lips collide.
The rush when I feel her touch again is unparalleled. Maybe it’s only been weeks, but it’s as if I’ve waited ages for this. I can still feel her smile against mine, her warm hands pulling me to her through my shirt. Just over ten years in the making, everything that brings us together in that moment, and now, all finally worth it.
She pulls away with a giggle, and she says, ‘Are you over your beef with Dylan Wright yet?’
I almost burst out laughing. That dumb mainchambelanbattle feels like a thing of the distant, distant past now. ‘I’ll bury the hatchet,’ I give in. ‘But only’ – I press my forehead to hers with a smirk – ‘becausehe’snot the luckiest guy in the world.’
May blushes the slightest shade of pink, and I only feel luckier when I cover her burgeoning laugh in another kiss. Curls escape her braid and thread themselves between my fingers. Her eyelashes brush my skin with every flutter.
I, for the millionth time, get to fall in love with Manmayi Velasco all over again. Except this time, I’m not going to walk away and run circles around my feelings. This time, I’m not afraid to love her so hard that I’ll need another lifetime to make sure she knows just how much she means to me.
Chapter Forty-Seven
From Home
May
One Month Later
‘The Wi-Fi out here is horrendous. I swear, I’m about to move us to New Haven so we can get a decent—’
‘JJ, if you don’t shut up foroncein your life, the Wi-Fi will be theleasthorrendous thing in this room.’
I bite down on my tongue to keep from laughing as JJ crosses his arms and pouts like a toddler when Colt shoots a glare his way. Inviting the guys to watch this was a fantastic idea. It provides me with free entertainment to calm my currently haywire nerves.
The Women’s MLL logo pops up with a chime, taking over the enormous projector screen in the Riders’ boardroom with fancy animations and theme music, buffered with the slight glitch that has got JJ so miffed. ‘It’s starting!’ announces Rod.
‘It’s starting!’ his daughter, Talise, echoes him, clapping her hands happily.
Our parents laugh as we all settle in, pretending we aren’t wound up as tensely as a taut fire hose. Colt’s arm is around me on one side; Jordan, who’s also up for draft tonight, is on the other; and from behind me, Mumma and Papa clutch my shoulders, while in the seating behind us, Coach Dillon, along with our entire Riders team – including the men’s lacrosse guys – waits nervously, making for a very, very full boardroom.
With the women’s season beginning in a month, a staggered start from the men’s season, modelled after American soccer schedules, it feels like I’ve barely had a minute to breathe since the big game, and then since walking at the UOKC’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences graduation. That was my biggest hurdle for such a long time, and I finally did it as a College Lacrosse champion.
Up on that stage, posing for my photo, I had my degree in hand, but if I’m being honest, the championship game was still fresh in my mind. The second I touched that enormous trophy, holding it up over our heads as the team wept for joy, all the alternate options I’d dug up lost meaning. To physicallytouchvictory like that is a rush like nothing else. It’s a rush like barrel racing and storm tracking all rolled into one couldn’t even give me. And that was when I realized I had to declare. There were no two ways about it.
Jordan taps at the laptop that sits in front of us, making sure we’re hooked up to Zoom in case we have to come on. The camera feed will run continuously, and if one of us is selected as a pick, we’ll be displayed on the live programme. With the aforementioned ‘horrendous Wi-Fi’, we’re not extremely confident this system will work.
