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"I'll go anywhere with you," I said. He kissed me softly.
"How about we have lunch first?" he asked. Oh. Oh, right, there was food. I had totally forgotten the reason we were even here. Well, talking about stuff and reconciling was the real reason we were here, but it was a picnic, and I hadn't eaten yet. He shifted off of me and handed me a sandwich.
"How were your tests?" he asked me. It was two hours before we left. Then we went back to my place, and he helped me start packing.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Roman
Six in the fucking morning. Training camp started every day at half past six in the morning. I was used to getting up before then anyway, but something told me this was going to end up feeling like boot camp. I wasn't preparing for warfare again, but I wasn’t about to kid myself that this was about to be easy.
Ron had still been asleep when I had left. Since I had eaten breakfast at home, I could go straight into the gym to start lifting. I had been training here for a while already, so it wasn'
t hard getting into a rhythm, though it was different being at the facility when it was full.
I recognized some of the guys who were coming back. I had gone through the team's roster, checking out my new teammates. The newbies were pretty easy to spot, too, especially the guys who had never made the trip to the facility before today.
Right after that was practice. I had been waiting for this. It was the first day of training, so I wasn't sure how many people we'd have watching us. I'd make sure I told Ron, in case she wanted to come. That way I wouldn't feel so bad not seeing her practically the whole day. I was lacing up my cleats, sitting in front of my locker when I heard a couple guys walking in. They were talking. One of them came over to the locker next to mine.
"Hey," I heard him say. I looked up at him. He had taken his shirt off and all the skin on his back and arms was covered in tattoos.
"Hey," I said back.
"Where'd you trade in from?"
"I got picked after the Houston combine."
"Yeah? What position?"
"QB."
"So this is your first season?" he asked, laughing a little, "Buckle up."
"That bad?"
"No. Worse," said the other guy. He wasn't tall, but he was built like a house. Stocky and muscular. "After this month, you'll see why they make us sign before camp begins. I'm Jackson, by the way. That's Andre," he said. He reached his hand out for me to shake.
"It's too late to back out now," Andre said next to me. "Hey, if you came through the combine, what was your best test?"
"Leave him alone, Dre," Jackson said.
"No, he wants to know?" I said. "42 reps on bench press."
"No shit," he said, actually sounding a little impressed. "What school did you go to?" I told him as the locker room filled up. A good number of the guys it turned out had gotten drafted right out of college, especially the ones who had gone to the bigger schools. Not many – none, in fact – had gone through a year of active service right in the middle of their career.
Practice was about two hours, the first of the day, there was another practice session in the afternoon. A month of this and I'd probably end up having everyone's name down. Hanging out literally the whole day, day after day, I wouldn't have a choice. I was ready to leave when the sun started dropping in the sky, but then they said we still had more meetings to go to. It was two more hours before I was back in the car heading home, almost ten at night.
I called out to Ron when I walked in, locking the door. I heard her voice, distant, telling me she was in the bedroom. At least I got back before she was asleep. I walked through the apartment, dropping my bag on the ground when I got to the bedroom. The bed was rumpled like she had been sitting on it. The sliding glass door of the balcony was all the way open and Ron was standing there, arms on the railing looking out at the beach. The light from the moon was reflecting off the water and all the homes along the water were lit up bright. I came up behind, wrapping my arms around her.
"Hey," I said. She spun around, leaning up to kiss me.
"Hi. How was training?"
"Good. Got to meet the team today. What did you do all day?"
"Nothing," she said smiling, "and it was perfect."
"Did you go?" I asked, pointing out to the water.
