Page 273 of On His Team

The whole room changes at once.

Chairs scrape back. Mothers get up. Kids are lifted for hugs. Fathers start shaking hands. Stanley’s mom has his face between both palms before he is fully standing.

My mom gets Benson. My dad gets half the team.

And Rowan passes behind me on his way toward the doors. “Come here.”

My heart jumps. He doesn’t stop walking. I glance around. Nobody is paying attention to us. Everybody is busy saying goodbye, so I follow him out of the ballroom and around the corner into a quiet hallway lined with closed conference-room doors. There is a stack of chairs against one wall, a fire door at the end, and nobody else anywhere.

“You’re going to be late,” I tell him.

“I have ten minutes.” He reaches for me. His hand catches my waist, and the other comes up to my face. “We have time.”

Then he kisses me.

I go into him immediately.

My arms circle his neck, and his hand tightens at my waist. There is nothing rushed about the first kiss, but the second one is different. His body presses closer. My back meets the wall.

When I pull away, I am already smiling. “How are you?”

He looks at me. “Did you graduate from asking if I’m nervous?”

I smile wider. “Are you?”

“Yeah.”

That still gets me. Benson admitted it today too. Tomorrow matters enough to scare both of them.

“My brother said the same thing.”

Rowan nods once. “Michigan’s good.”

“Rowan.”

His mouth lifts. “We’re good too.”

His fingers move up and fix a piece of hair beside my face.

I go quiet.

He’s standing so close that I can feel the heat of him, one hand still at my waist, the other lingering near my cheek. The ballroom noise is distant around the corner. For a second, neither of us says anything.

His eyes move over mine. Then to my mouth. Something inside me shifts. My breath catches.

Oh.

My stomach drops.

Oh, fuck.

I love him.

I stare at him.

Apparently that is what this has been turning into the entire time.

I thought I had a crush on him. Then I thought I wanted to sleep with him. Then I wanted him to be my boyfriend. Then he became my boyfriend. And somewhere in between all those nights at Hawthorne and hockey games and him showing up when I needed him and telling me he always wanted me near, I fell in love with him.