“Good, only the best for my girl.” He grins, kissing my forehead, and God if that doesn’t have my heart swelling, I don’t know what will.
I wish we could stay like this forever, holding each other but Blake has a game to win.
“Win this and I’ll let you do whatever you want to me tonight,” I whisper into his ear; Blake stiffens for a moment before chuckling.
“Baby, Ialwayswin.”
And that he does, the boys win in a massive shutout. The energy around the room vibrates with excitement from the Summerfield U students and everyone is talking about the crazy win.
I’m gathering my things and all of the flowers the boys had given me when two girls step into my path, each of them wearing home team paraphernalia.
“We just want to say that we stand with you.” The blonde of the two pouts, pulling me into an unwarranted yet appreciated hug.
“Yeah! No one deserves to have their dirty laundry aired without them knowing, We’re 100% team Cleo,” The brunette that closely resembles Blake’s sister Jules, minus her striking green eyes, speaks up.
“Uh… thank you?” I smile, tilting my head in confusion as both girls give me small smiles before leaving.
I would think that the whole interaction was odd had it only happened once but it hadn’t. Over the ten minutes it took me to get to Blake’s Jeep, I was stopped over twelve times and told the exact same thing. Apparently, both the hockey and football teams were telling the truth about the tapes to anyone who would listen and had people sign petitions to have it taken down.
Bless their hearts.
I’m beaming with happiness as Blake jogs towards me, smiling from ear to ear. He drops his duffel bag and picks me up, spinning us around.
“I won, baby!” He cheers and smiles like a kid in a candy store as he sets me down, gently, keeping his hands on my waist.
“You were amazing!” I say grinning from ear to ear as he kisses me, smiling into the quick yet hungry kiss.
“Speaking of amazing, have you seen yourself? Go on, do a quick spin, Princess.” He crouches down holding his hands as if they were a camera, taking “pictures” of me.
I giggle like a kid as I spin for him, playing into his chaos.
We’re so happy and peaceful joking with one another when I remember the storm cloud from a few weeks ago that’s been hanging over my head.
Thanksgiving.
“Hey…um,” I clear my throat, sobering up as Blake furrows his eyebrows, standing up. “Would you like to come to Thanksgiving with me?” I ask, bracing myself for his answer, hoping and praying it’s anything but no.
Blake smiles down at me, his ears red as he puts a teasing hand on his hip like a Home Depot dad.
“I thought we weren’t in a relationship,” He teases with a smirk as I roll my own eyes.
“You’re right, I’ll just ask Jace—”
“Wait, I never said no!” He cuts me off, grabbing my hands up in his. “I’d love to go to Thanksgiving at your house but I do remember that I was promised something for winning tonight.” He smiles deviously.
I rolled my eyes, knowing where this was going, and sure enough, Blake claimed his rewardandthen some.
“Are you sure I’m not too dressed down?” Blake asks for the tenth time as we stand on the front porch of my dad and Gloria’s house in Maryland, just thirty minutes from the SFU campus. After Ryan and I moved for college, our parents moved to Maryland from New York. The only reason everyone had went to SFU was the sole fact that they’d all gotten scholarships and truly wanted to attend the school first. Whereas I attended Brighton for the sole fact that I wanted my mother’s validation. But that’s neither here nor there.
“You look perfectly fine, Boy Scout, but if you keep running your hands through your hair, you’re going to look like we took the backseat of your Jeep for a test drive.” I chuckle, smoothening down his hair.
Blake frowns at the innuendo just as the front door to the house swings open.
“Absolutely not.” My father’s deep voice startles me momentarily as he stands in the doorway, looking down his nose at both Blake and me. The action should be impossible considering my father’s shorter stature of just 5’10” but he manages to do so.
“Hi, Coach…” Blake grimaces as my dad rolls his eyes.
Gloria appears right behind my father with the most welcoming smile imaginable as she pushes Dad to the side, opening the door wider.
