He leaned down and kissed her head affectionately before letting her continue on about the crowd and seeing him on the field.
"Watching you play was my favorite part, and I have to pat myself on the back for not making a joke about how you should be a tight end instead."
Thatcher rolled his eyes. "You just made that joke."
"Yeah, but not in front of Martin's mom," she said with a laugh.
She also told him about talking to the quarterback's girlfriend, who mentioned some silly superstition about her boyfriend not having sex with her the night before a game.
"It's not a superstition," Thatcher said. "Although I'm not one of those people who believes that sex before a game is a bad thing."
He turned to see Willow's cheeks looking a bit red. Oh yeah, she remembered last night and Thatcher having his way with her – twice.
"But uh…" She cleared her throat. "That's not a tonight thing."
"Not a tonight thing." He turned and smiled down at her. "But I promise that it's because of me and not you."
As much as Thatcher loved making the big plays, he couldn't recover from that kind of beating the way he did in college. He knew he was going to be in some pain tomorrow anyway, but he could at least mitigate it with a hot bath and a good night's sleep.
Of course, he would miss having Willow in his bed, but he doubted she would want to stay just to snuggle or something. Ormaybe she would? They had only been dating for a few months and this was the first time he had played a game now that he was with Willow. He wasn't sure if asking her to just sleep in his bed with nothing more than some rest was something she would be willing to do. It just seemed intimate, which may have been why he didn't like the idea of a girlfriend doing that before. He wasn't so sure he would mind it now.
It was almost dark by the time they reached their apartment buildings, and Thatcher started to walk towards Willow's front door when she stopped him.
"Hey, I know you said no funny business tonight—"
"No funny business?" He laughed. "You make it sound like I was going to try and get to first base with you."
"First base is not a football reference, so I'm going to ignore that," she said with a smile. "Anyway, would you mind if I just stopped by with a few things for you?"
A few things? He wasn't sure what that meant, but he also knew that he didn't mind any excuse she wanted to make up to see him one more time tonight. And she seemed excited about whatever it was she had cooked up.
"OK, but no funny business."
Willow shrugged. "Maybe funny business."
Thatcher couldn't help the small growl that escaped his lips, and Willow seemed to find it amusing. He had to get his bearings before he lost control of this situation.
"OK, meet you at my place?"
She gave him a wave and turned the corner towards her building's entrance. Damn, she looked good in that jersey with his name on the back.
Thatcher wandered into the sleek lobby of his building and waved to the security guard.
"Nice game tonight, Thunder!"
"Thanks," he responded. "Hey, can you let Willow up when she gets here?"
The security guard gave him a teasing smile. "A woman after a game? You're going soft, Kent."
Thatcher just waved him off and headed for the elevators. He wasn't going soft, but if he was, it would make sense that it would be Willow who broke him.
There was just something about her. The fact that she wasn't all that impressed with his football player stuff. The mornings walking along the lakefront when they didn't have to say anything and could enjoy the silence between them. The dinners when they would talk for hours before getting kicked out of their favorite restaurant because they didn't realize how long they had been there.
The sex was pretty good too. Well, really great. But that wasn't the only thing Thatcher liked about Willow.
The door to his apartment opened with ease and he flipped on the lights to get a warm glow in the apartment. He wandered down to his bedroom to see what kind of damage was done today. It usually took an hour or so for the adrenaline from a game to wear off, and that's when the pain would start to come on. If it was a typical game with no injuries, it wouldn't be bad, maybe a few aches here or there. But it would be noticeable enough that he would be no fun tonight.
He pulled off his shirt, which was a little more difficult than he thought it would be. There was a large bruise starting to bloom over the lower half of his ribcage on the side. Tackles like the one that saved the game for them were fun in that moment, but rarely fun afterward.
