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“I can drop you home,” she said.
“You need a ride Sierra?” Cullen was suddenly in the conversation, appearing from nowhere.
The pitter patter of my heart rate was instant and trying to maintain a passive expression when he was offering to take me home was pretty much impossible.
Going against everything we’d agreed about staying apart until after the game, I foolishly said, “Yeah, I do.”
“I’ve got to see Sawyer,” Cullen directed at Millie, “so I can take her.”
Millie nodded with a pressed smile.
“Do you really have to see Sawyer?” I asked when we were in the parking lot and Cullen opened the car door for me.
“Not really, but I will,” he grinned.
“It’s very sneaky,” I said.
“Yeah, but it’s been kind of torturous keeping our distance,” he said, and he glanced around before placing his hand on my knee and staring deeply into my eyes. Yes, it was only a gaze, but it was the kind that amped up my heart rate and twisted my stomach into knots. He closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side while I sighed with happiness.
Cullen’s excuse to come inside was to check that Sawyer was feeling okay about tomorrow. He made a joke about how I nearly poked his eye out with the boom pole which made everyone laugh. And then he and Sawyer did their bro hug, and I watched with envy as Sawyer walked him out to his car.
That, I hoped, would be the last time that happened. Because after the final Cullen would tell Sawyer how we felt about each other and maybe, depending on whether Covington got the win, both of our dreams might indeed come true.
Chapter 17
Cullen
Was it crazy that Iwas nervous about telling Sawyer that I liked Sierra? Because that was all I could think about—how to tell my friend that I wanted to date his little sister. It was scarier than the final.
And the thought of the final was scary because it would be my last day of high school football. Ever. For Tennessee, Sawyer, Skyler, Danny, Nico, Flynn and me, it would be our last time playing together. And the last time playing with Dad as our coach. It was an end of an era, four years of grit and hard work, of defeat and victory, of chasing our dreams.
Something had changed with Dad. I wasn’t sure if it was because it was our last game, or because of the talk we’d had. But it was like he softened, like the weight that had been on his shoulders wasn’t weighing quite so heavy. With the success of the Captain’s Chat, he was supportive of our interviews after practice, each one a little longer than the previous one. Not once did he make me do anything extra, yet through habit I continued to cool down with a lap or two around the field—okay, full disclosure—it was so I could watch Sierra pick up the water bottles.
And that’s when I tried to formulate my plan on how I’d approach Sawyer.
Did I come straight out with it? “Hey, by the way, I like Sierra.”
