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Miller leaned over me toward Talia. “I can’t get her to tell me how big it is. But I have a Pinterest board with lots of shirtless pictures, if you want.”
Talia chuckled. She knew Miller well.
Today was the first game Christian was back on the field, and I was also hosting Wyatt’s birthday party. Thankfully, the suite hostess and Miller and Talia were doing most of the work, so I was able to focus on the game.
“So are you just fooling around?” Talia asked. “Or is it more?”
Again Miller leaned forward. “She wanted to just fuck him, but he wouldn’t accept that. Now he’s her boyfriend. Can you believe our baby has a boyfriend? I’m calling it right now. I’m the maid of honor.” He pointed to Talia. “You’re merely a bridesmaid.”
I shook my head. “I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself.”
“Uh, no, I’m not. You should see the way he looks at her. He was up here earlier, a few hours before the game. Princess here doesn’t want people to know, so he doesn’t touch her in public. But he looks at her like he wants to eat her alive. Speaking of which…” He turned to me. “Will you tell me if he at least does that well?”
I ignored him and opened my three-ring binder to mark down that we hadn’t converted on third down.
Miller stood. “Change places with me. You and that stupid notebook are in the way of gossip.”
I narrowed my eyes, but switched seats with him—so I could pay attention to the game and jot down the stats I wanted to record, not to facilitate Miller’s incessant need to talk about my relationship. During a commercial break, he went to the bathroom, and I noticed Talia holding her right side.
“Are you okay? You’re holding your side. I saw you do that earlier.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “Probably a little gastro inflammation. Wyatt had me take him out for birthday breakfast tacos this morning. The ranchero sauce always kills me.”
I put my arm around my friend. “I’ve missed you. I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“I’m not sure how you can miss me, if you’re getting cozy with Christian Knox.” She leaned her head on my shoulder. “But I’ve missed you, too.”
“What’s new with you?” I asked.
“Same old—oh! But I almost forgot to tell you. Wyatt got two more invitations from coaches to visit schools—Michigan State and Ohio. When I told the coach from MSU that I wasn’t sure when I could bring him out, he offered to have an alum do it—some kicker who also played in the NFL for a while. I forgot his name.”
“That’s awesome!”
“It is. And it’s all because of you bringing the media to Wyatt’s game.”
“I can’t take credit for that. It was Christian they followed.”
“Well, hopefully I’ll get a chance to thank him in person. I’d like to meet the guy who got you to become a full-fledged girlfriend.”
I smiled. “You will. He said he’s going to come up when he can after the game to hang out with Wyatt and his teammates.”
“Oh my God. They’re going to flip out.”
My cell phone buzzed from my pocket. When I pulled it out, Julian’s name flashed on the screen. He’d left me two messages this week, and I hadn’t called him back yet.
Talia noticed who was calling. “I was going to ask you about him. Is that over? You liked him, right?”
“I do think we’re very compatible. I mean, polynomial algorithms don’t lie. We have similar likes, interests, temperament, relationship and life experiences, values, and beliefs—Julian and I would be a ninety-nine percent match on Hinge, and Christian and I would probably be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Julian and I make sense. Christian and I don’t.”
“Love doesn’t always make sense, Bella. It can be irrational.”
“Irrational gives me hives.”
Talia laughed. “I know. Do you remember when I was dating that guy Rory?”
“Of course. You were together for almost a year.”
“I wanted to love him in the worst way. He loved and accepted my son, and he was so good to me. I even sat down one night and wrote out a list of reasons I loved him. When I was done, I realized everything I’d written was reasons I liked him. Love isn’t something easily put in words. It’s a feeling, more abstract than concrete, and often you wind up loving someone who not only didn’t check the boxes on your ideal-partner checklist, but someone who added boxes to your checklist you didn’t even know you wanted.”
I nodded. “Like feeling safe. I never in a million years would have added that box to a checklist of things I wanted from a partner. I’ve been on my own since I was fifteen and take pride in being independent. But when Christian wraps his arms around me, that makes me feel safe, and it’s more than just physically. I feel like I can trust him to protect me in ways I didn’t know I needed protecting.”
