Page 60 of Base Block

“I had a great time, except when I got tackled.”

He laughed. “If I had tackled you—”

“I would have ended up in the condo behind me. Speaking of things behind me, what was happening there?” I asked.

“Huh?”

“You told the punt return guy to stop looking at something. Was it at me?”

“Yeah, it was. He was ogling your ass and I didn’t like it. He stopped when I pointed that out.”

“I’m sorry.”

He moved me over so he could look into my eyes. “About what?”

“I didn’t mean to stick my butt in his face,” I explained. “It wasn’t on purpose.”

“I know that. He should have been sorry for staring but maybe he didn’t learn about manners. Maybe someone should teach him,” he said.

“No, not you.”

He paused and sighed. “Ok, not me. Don’t worry about him, though.”

I wasn’t. I was worried about fitting into a bridesmaid dress, and then I realized that I hadn’t told him about it. “Anara asked me to be in her wedding!” I exclaimed.

“Is that good?”

“That’s great. I’m very excited because I’ve never done it before. I never thought I’d be in any wedding at all, not even one for me,” I told him.

“You don’t want that?”

“I never even considered it,” I explained. “Who would I have married, Damian?”

His hold on me tightened. “Hell no.”

“Exactly. I wasn’t in a position to meet someone else. I dated guys in high school but I wasn’t serious about any of them. I wanted them to like me but I didn’t have the time for a real relationship.” I hadn’t been ready for that, anyway.

“Why were you so busy? What were you doing, working?”

“Yes. What about you? Did you have serious relationships? Did you think about getting married?”

The fact that he laughed again gave me the answer, but he explained further. “In high school, I was too much of an asshole to have a girlfriend and the same was true for a few years afterwards. I mean, there were women…” He trailed off and I didn’t need to know any more about them. “I dated someone when I was going to the JUCO and working in lumber, but she wasn’t very impressed by any of that. She didn’t think that I was serious enough.”

“You were serious about football. Very serious!”

“Yeah, I should give her a call—no, don’t go.” He would have let me get up if I’d kept trying, but I lay back after the first attempt. “I was kidding. We weren’t serious, either. I also didn’t have enough time to give to a relationship. I still don’t,” he told me. “I look at the family guys on the team and I don’t know how they do it. Their wives and girlfriends are some kind of superwomen to handle all this crap.”

“They handle it fine. And if you had a family, you would be around more when the season was over, because it’s not full year. Right?”

I thought that he nodded, although I didn’t pick my head up to see. I did hear what he said next.

“I never pictured myself doing that.”

“You probably didn’t picture yourself being a pro-football player, either, but here you are. You can do anything,” I said.

“Thank you. It means a lot that you think so,” he answered.

I sat quietly, thinking about kids. Maverick was quiet now, too, and I wondered if it would have been safe for him to be near one. Was that a possibility now for me now? Could I do that with my life? I didn’t know, and I needed to be honest about that and about other things, too.