I snorted out a laugh, slicing pieces of a banana. “Yeah, how can I forget? You found out I’d asked him to Sadie Hawkins, then you basically went ballistic.”
“Well, I wouldn’t call it ballistic…”
“Really? Because looking back, I’m pretty sure you all but lifted your leg, pissed, and marked your territory.” I shook my head, smiling at the memory. “I mean, we were barely in middle school and already you didn’t want any of your friends near me.”
He flipped a pancake. “Proof I’ve been loving you for a long time but too afraid to admit it.” He added the final pancake to a tall stack on the plate, then walked over to me, snaking his arms around my waist from behind. “We didn’t speak for days and it was then the realization of having you in my life, even if only as a friend, was better than not having you at all.”
I felt the warmth of his breath skating across the nape of my neck, flames extinguished after our shower flickering back to life. I placed the knife down, then spun around to face him, palms skating across the contours of his bare chest. “And that’s when we made the pact to forever and always remain best friends.”
Beats of silence rolled by as his gaze held mine captive, the reflection from the ceiling lights sparkling in his blue eyes, showcasing their mesmerizing, hypnotic hue.
He rested his forehead against mine, hands cupping my face. “Stupid pact, the one I wanted to kick in the balls by the time we got to high school.”
“Me too, but even more during rush week when I saw you run across the field naked.” I grabbed his ass. “One look at this, and I was swooning for days.”
His head fell back in a chortle. “You sawthat?”
“Yep. And I’ve been a bona-fide hot mess over you ever since.”
He nudged my nose. “I’m sorry we waited so long to get here. But now that I have you, I’m never letting you go.”
“You promise?”
“Promise. I’m yours forever.”
ACT TWO
“If you never chase your dreams, you will never catch them.”
23
Three Months LATER
“I miss you already.” I blew Macy a kiss through the screen on my phone as AJ and I snaked through the crowd at Indianapolis International Airport. “I’ll call you tonight before I go to sleep. And baby”—I paused, waiting until FAA announcements stopped blaring through the airport speakers—“I love you.”
It was February, the week of the NFL Combine, a pre-draft event hundreds of the best college football players were invited to. Everyone from coaches, scouts, team executives, and medical staff, from thirty-two NFL teams, were expected to be there, evaluating top college football players eligible for the upcoming draft. It was like an intense job interview for athletes who were chasing dreams of playing in the NFL, complete with panel interviews, medical exams, and agility tests.
“You gonna be able to breathe without her, man?” AJ slapped my back. “It’s like a nonstop love fest with you two. Sage and I don’t even do that ‘bye, I love you’ shit anymore.”
“That’s ’cause you and Sage are too busy being on again and off again to find your love groove.”
“Oh, we’ve found our groove. Right between the sheets, where it matters most.”
Outside, the winter air bit my face, a flurry of snow cascading from the sky, lightly coating the ground. I loved the cold contrast from Los Angeles where it was in the low seventies when I left.
Inside the Uber, our drive from the airport wasn’t too long as we made our way downtown, tall buildings, restaurants, bars, and shops surrounding us. To the left of us, at the stoplight, was Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts and the NFL Combine adjacent from our hotel.
“Can you believe I just now noticed the stadium is namedLucasOil?” AJ’s voice wobbled with laughter. “That’s some funny shit.”
I snapped a photo of the stadium’s facade, firing it off to my baby in a text, a smile tilting my lips. “Yep. It’s all Macy’s been teasing me about this whole week.”
He looked at me, head shaking after his assessment. “Dude, you have itbadfor her. Worse than I thought.”
I slipped my phone into my coat pocket, then opened the car door as the driver pulled up to our hotel. “Tell me about it.”
There was no point in denying how I felt about Macy. The past three months, plus all the milestone first holidays as a couple—Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine’s Day—only drew us closer, more intimate, our sex life, the impromptu blow jobs she gave, hotter than the sun. Our circle of friends, family, both sets of parents, loved us as a couple, all citing they’d figured we’d someday end up together, our chemistry too crazy-hot to remain just best friends. I had plans for me and her—ones that included us walking down the aisle and starting a family. I wasn’t the type of guy who sought out to avoid marriage. Raised to value the love of a good woman and the sanctity of matrimony, it had always been on the top of my things-to-do list, right beside getting drafted by the NFL.
After we checked in at our hotel, AJ and I made it up to our suite, stopping to talk to players from teams in our division.
