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“Congrats!” I say as he gets closer.
“Thanks. Just glad I was able to catch that ball,” he replies modestly.
He rearranges the stuff he’s carrying and holds something out to me with his hand closed.
“What’s this?” I ask, not sure if I should take it from him.
He grins. “It’s something I got, and I thought maybe you’d want it, kind of like wearing my pin or something like that.”
I laugh, not having a clue what he’s talking about.
“Just take it,” he jokes.
I let him drop whatever he’s holding into my hand and freeze when I see he gave me his penny.
With my brow furrowed, I look at him. “You’re not really giving me your penny, are you?”
He grins from ear to ear. “I want you to have it. It’s something that’s special to me, and every day that passes by, you get more special to me too.”
I pause as I look down at it, feeling like he just gave me the holy grail. To anyone else on this earth, a penny probably has very little value, but to this team, it means absolutely everything.
I don’t want to have to do this, but I have to say, “I can’t accept this.”
I go to give it back to him, but he shakes me off.
“No. I mean it. I want you to have it.” He smiles proudly.
I feel like I’m holding contraband I shouldn’t have. I look around, making sure no one else is watching us, but of course, I couldn’t be that lucky.
Aaron is approaching us, and I close my hand tightly so he doesn’t see it.
Beau nods his head to Aaron. “What’s up, dude?”
Aaron nods. “What’s going on?”
I cringe on the inside. We’ve kind of gotten over things, but it’s not like it used to be between us. Not yet anyway.
“Just giving my girl here my penny from tonight,” Beau says, and I internally die.
Aaron narrows his eyes. “What?”
“It’s okay. I told him I can’t accept it,” I say, giving it back to Beau.
Thankfully, Aaron storms off, talking under his breath. “You have got to be fucking kidding me right now.”
“What was that all about?” Beau asks.
I place my hand on his chest. “Look, I know you’re new around here, and the freshmen never get pennies on the JV team, but being on varsity is different. Getting a penny is areallybig deal.”
He drops his chin. “It’s a penny. It’s not like I can tape it to my helmet or anything, like normal teams do.”
I take a deep breath. “I know, but this is tradition that goes back to the first year my father started coaching. I wasn’t even born yet. He wanted to give something special to the team, but there was no money in the program to get anything to hand out, so he started giving out pennies. It’s not the value of what you’re given; it’s the meaning behind it. There are players who never get pennies their entire time playing here, and you’re getting one as a sophomore. I know it sounds silly, but that’shuge. I hear people who played here years ago tell my dad all the time that they still have their pennies.”
He looks down at the copper metal sitting in his hand, hopefully seeing the value is much more than the face value it shows.
“I’m really honored you would want me to have it, but I really think you should keep it.” I lean up and give him a quick kiss on the lips.
The notion even surprises me that I was so brazen to lean up to kiss him like this, but I want to make it clear that though I can’t accept it, I do appreciate what he was trying to do.
