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“Isn’t that what happened?” Damon asks from the back of the room.
“Stay out of this,” Bryce says without turning to look at him. “All those rules and stipulations were her needing to control what was happening between the two of you, but what she doesn’t understand yet is that love is uncontrollable.”
“So, tell her that.” I cross my arms. I sound like a petulant teenager.
“I’m not the one who loves her despite her faults. Make her see it, Coop. Let her feel safe in your bubble, and eventually she’ll loosen them up.”
“You love her, right?” Miles asks.
“The first time I laid eyes on her, something inside me told me she was mine.” I push a hand through my sweaty hair.
“Then why are you letting all this bullshit stop you guys from being together?” Miles asks. “So what if she lives here and you’re in Chicago? You both have enough money to fly back and forth. Once the season is over, you can spend months here in New York with her. And let’s be honest, you don’t have decades of your career left.” Miles smiles at Bryce like “aren’t you proud of me,” and she might give him a treat.
“I’m not even sure if she’d want me anymore,” I say. That’s what’s stopped me from reaching out. The idea that she’ll tell me it really is over—forever.
“Did you get to have all this success in football with self-doubt? Go get what you want, and if she says no, fight harder!” Bryce shouts.
I contemplate what they’re saying. Will I ever be satisfied unless I know what we could have been if we’d tried? No. I don’t know that I could ever move past it. I’d always wonder.
Bryce is right about Ellery—she does value control. In the long run, does it matter that she’s not ready for everything I am right now, as long as she is eventually?
Bryce is right, this last month has been horrible.
“I’m going,” I say, standing.
They all cheer as I rush out of the room.
I don’t stop until Damon calls my name. I turn around and have a T-shirt thrown in my face. “Don’t get arrested before you get there.”
Pulling the T-shirt over my head, I race out of the complex and into the first taxi that I find. I go to grab my phone, but I don’t have it. Shit.
The taxi driver looks at me for a second, and I fear he’s a lifer New York fan and might not drive me to the hospital, but he speeds off.
“What a game, huh?” He starts to make chit-chat.
“Sure was.”
“New York should’ve taken you that year. To make that trade and give it to Chicago.” He pounds on his horn.
I’m not going to say anything, but Chicago was where I was meant to be. I’ve never been as happy as when Elle tackled me to the ground because it ended up that we’d be in the same city. All the moments of my life with her run through my mind on the drive to the hospital.
My bruised ego got me where we are today. Never again. She should be with me, celebrating.
He carries on, and I let him act like an analyst who has studied the game for years. But my mind is too preoccupied to think of anything but Elle and if she’s going to accept me back, but Bryce is right, I’m not taking no for an answer.
What feels like a lifetime later, the taxi pulls up to the curb, and I open the door and freeze. “Shit. I have no money.” I turn back to him. “Sit tight, and I’ll figure out how to get you some.”
“Don’t worry about it. Go get your girl.”
How the fuck did he know?
“Thanks?” I get out and slam the door. My cleats almost make me fall on my back when I hit the concrete, but I recover.
Walking as fast as I can into the emergency room, I go to the nurse’s desk. “I need to see Dr. Ellery Wallace.”
She looks at me, her mouth hanging open. “Oh my god, you’re…”
“Yep, I know who I am. Can you please get her?”
