He scoffs. “Please. Don’t apologize. It surprised me at first, and honestly, maybe it ruffled my feathers a bit too.”
I give him a narrow stare. “Feathers? You’ve got feathers?”
He pretends to swipe at them on his arm. “All the fuck over.”
“Well, don’t you worry. I need you and your fucking feathers, man.”
“Thanks. It did make me worry that maybe you didn’t need me. But then I got over that, because I’m me, and I’m awesome, and you’ll always need me,” he says with a huge smile and a wiggle of his eyebrows. Then he adopts a more serious look. “But I appreciate you saying all that.”
We knock fists and I clap him on the shoulder. “Always, bro. I always need you.”
“Anyway, I’m glad she helped us see that it wasn’t right for you. When you told me that, I started lining up other options. I set up some meetings with a restaurant chain and a shoe company, so we have other possibilities coming your way.”
“That's fantastic.”
The room is silent for a moment, and I can’t stop thinking about Dani, and her note, and how she made the effort to tell me this even after I shut her out. I turned my frustration with myself into an all-or-nothing decision.
Jason breaks the silence. “She’s right about that too,” he says, pointing to the paper, even though he hasn’t read it.
I furrow my brow. “How do you know what she said?”
He shrugs. “I don’t. But I can guess. And I guess she said exactly what you needed to hear, and what others have been trying to tell you all week. That you didn’t fuck up a game because you fell in love. It was just a game, man. One that you didn’t happen to win. Don’t throw the woman out with the L.”
I blink and shake my head like a dog shaking off water. “What did you just say?”
He repeats the part about the game, but I roll my hand, the sign to back it up. “The other part?”
“Oh,” he says, with a laugh. “The part about you being in love? Yeah, Ally and I were talking this week, and we sort of figured out that’s why you’re a miserable sack of shit. You probably think it’s football-related, but I bet you’re missing the woman you were falling for.”
I drop my forehead to the counter. “I was totally fucking falling for her.”
Jason pats my shoulder. “Good thing it’s a bye week then. Bet you can find her if you try real hard. Or maybe not that hard. I can lob in a call and find out where she is.”
When I look up and stare out the window at the sun blazing beautifully in the sky and the ocean waves lapping the shore, I know exactly where she’d be on this kind of day off.
Chapter Fourteen
Drew
I can see the wave coming in, cresting across the sea.
She does too. Her focus is solely on the water. She paddles closer, gets up on the board, and rides the swell for a whole glorious minute, looking sexy as hell on the board, owning the waves. She rides until it flattens out. She drops down, holding the board and peering behind her, probably to see if another wave is coming. The water’s calm behind her, and when she glances in the direction of the sand, it takes a few seconds of hunting, but then she spots me. I’m standing in my board shorts, sunglasses on, my orange surfboard by my side.
I wave to her and walk across the hot sand to the wet crystals where the sea meets the shore. She paddles in my direction, and soon, she stands and steps out of the water, board by her side, looking as stunning as the day I met her.
Wait. Scratch that. More stunning. More gorgeous. Because I know her now, and I’m crazy about her, body, heart, and mind. She runs a hand over her wet hair, but says nothing.
“Heads up,” I say with a smile.
She frowns. “Heads up?” She looks back at the water, then again at me. “Shark coming? Wave about to crash over me?”
“No. Actually, it was a heads up for an idiot alert. Remember those?”
She raises her hand over her eyes, shielding them from the sun. “I do. Is there an idiot who was going to drop into my wave?”
I shake my head. “No, but there’s another kind right in front of you.” I point at myself, and her lips curve into a smile.
“Is that so?”
I nod, big and long, owning it. “Yeah. The guy in front of you is a total idiot. Like, a complete jerk. He completely fucked up this situation with a woman, and he’s hoping she’ll give him another chance.”
“Is he now?” she asks, and her tone is no longer the cold one I felt the other night. I deserved that chill. Deserved it big time for thinking my feelings for her were the cause of my troubles on one given Sunday.
“Yep,” I say dryly. “And in case you didn’t know it, that idiot is me. So I’ll stop talking about myself in the third person.”
I set my surfboard down on the sand, and she does the same with hers. I reach for her hand, hoping she’ll take mine. She does, and here with her hand in mine, I’m reminded of how simple and easy things were with us, even when they were complicated. “I love holding your hand. Maybe that sounds corny. Maybe it is,” I say, but as I glance at our joined fingers, threaded together, it just feels right. “But being with you is like holding hands. We fit.”
“Drew,” she says, her voice soft and feathery.
“And I thought, stupidly, that I couldn’t have both. That doing well at work meant I couldn’t be with you. That I only had enough to give to one or the other. But as this incredibly amazing, brilliant, and beautiful woman pointed out, it’s possible to have both, because there are a million other factors that go into the game.”
“There are, Drew. There really are. I’m glad you know that.”
I clear my throat. “And, look, as long as I’m getting all my beauty sleep, and not missing practice, and keeping my head on straight, it’s not fair for me to think being with you is some sort of curse. Because it feels the opposite. It feels right and good and true.” I step closer, squeeze her hand harder. “Will you forgive me?”
“Of course,” she says as soon as the words come out of my mouth, and I love that there’s no need to reflect, no need to think on it. She’s ready, and I’m a lucky son of a bitch to have figured my shit out sooner rather than later. She lifts her hand and cups my cheek, and it feels so damn good to be touched by her. “Just don’t start freaking out if you lose, okay? Because it’ll happen. You’ll have bad days at work, and so will I. But we’ll have good days too. We just can’t let the bad days dictate how we feel about each other.”
I nod. “I know. I believe that. I promise that. I’ve just had a one-track mind for the game, and I guess I didn’t think there was room for love and football, but I was wrong.”
Her eyes widen when I say those two words—love and football.
“Both?” she asks carefully, her eyes never leaving mine.
A wild grin spreads across my face. “I was wrong, because there is room for both.” I tap my heart. “Oh, I guess this is a good time to tell you I missed you so fucking much this week because I’m falling in love with you.”
Her smile spreads, matching mine now. My heart beats faster watching her reaction. How her eyes light up. How they seem to glow. Then I stop watching because her lips are on mine and she kisses me. I close my eyes and savor the kiss from the woman I’m falling in love with. She kisses me deeply, passionately, and soon everyone is going to be able to tell how much I want her.
I break the kiss and wiggle my eyebrows. “Oh, and by the way, I wanted to finally give you that note I left on your porch.”
“I thought it was thrown away?”
“I suspect it was, so I started over,” I say, and reach into the back pocket of my shorts and hand her the short letter I wrote.
Any chance I could take you up on that surfing lesson? And then we could try again at everything, because I miss you like crazy.
She clasps her hand over her heart, and then looks up at me. “I’m falling in love with you too, Drew,” she says, and those words from her are even better
than winning. Because they’re everything. She taps her fingers against my chest and lowers her voice. “But I don’t want to give you a surfing lesson right now.”
“You don’t?”
She shakes her head. “I’d rather get out of this bikini, if you know what I mean,” she says with a naughty glint in her eyes. “And I think you do.”
“Oh, I do. I most definitely do.”
I couldn’t be happier that her home is five minutes from the beach. Before we know it, we’re inside her home and I’m making love to Dani.
This is the streak I don’t want to break.
Epilogue
Six months later
We are covered in sand, and sun, and the ocean.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way. My boyfriend has become the surfing quarterback. We didn’t get to the lesson right away. We often seemed to find other things to occupy our days. Work and loving each other have a way of being consuming.
But we went surfing together on his days off and I gave him plenty of pointers. He’s a fast learner, no surprise there. He also happens to look insanely hot on a surfboard. Though that fact has nothing to do with how quickly he mastered the sport. I just enjoy the view when he’s the view.
We surf often, but we also like to go to the cinema, and sometimes we hold hands in the theater, and sometimes we make out like teenagers. But we always have a good time. We’ve gone parasailing too, and had a blast floating through the sky. So much of my time pre-Drew was work, work, work. While I still adore my job, and I still need it to take care of Ally, I’ve also embraced the little things in life, which have become the big things.
Like time with my boyfriend.
Only now he’s my fiancé.
Oops. Guess I forgot to mention that part. He proposed to me last month, a little while after Los Angeles won the Super Bowl.
Oh, yeah. That was absolutely amazing too. A complete and utter thrill as I watched him lead the team to victory. Drew wasn’t MVP. That’d be too much good luck. Elkins nabbed the honor with two receptions for touchdowns, and those hands like magic. But Drew guided the team, and got them there. A true leader.
Now, he has a ring, and I have a ring too. We treasure both our rings for different reasons.
He moved in with me after he proposed one day while parasailing. I like living with him, especially since he’ll be staying in Los Angeles for several more years. The team signed him to a five-year contract, and they love him, just like the fans do.
But not as much as I do.
He might belong to the team, and he might belong to the city, but at the end of the day, and each and every night, he belongs to me. As we walk off the beach, I wave to Ally, who’s waiting at the seaside bar where Drew and I had our first unexpected date.
She holds up her margarita and smiles from behind her shades. Next to her is Jason, looking cool and relaxed and completely smitten. His hand rests on top of Ally’s on the table. He’s always touching her. Always giving her sweet little gifts.
We sit down and join them for a round.
“Crack your skull open on a stray surfboard this time, hotshot?” Jason asks.
“Yeah, and it violated my new sneaker contract,” he fires back, and I laugh, knowing Drew zinged Jason this time. But I doubt Jason minds, especially since all is well with Drew and his new sponsor, the shoe company. Jason inked that deal and thanked me for helping them sidestep disaster with Qwench.
“Ouch,” Jason says, pretending to be wounded.
“If you’re hurt, she’ll help you,” I say, pointing to Ally as I shield my eyes from the sun.
Ally leans closer to Jason and puckers up. “Whatever hurts, I’ll kiss it and make it better.”
Yeah, we’re all pretty happy now, and I love our little foursome.
But I especially love my guy.
After I finish my margarita, and Jason and Ally head off, Drew takes my hand. “Hey, surfing angel, any chance you want to head to the pier and play whack-a-mole?”
“You do know that sounds vaguely dirty, right?”
He smacks my rear as I stand. “I do know that. And if you want to go home and play whack-a-mole with me right now, you won’t even have to twist my arm.”
I give him a narrow-eyed stare, like I’m weighing his offer. Then I nod. “Let’s play on the pier first. Oh, and on the way home, it would be great if you can get me a Slurpee.”
He squeezes my hand. “And if you get a brain freeze, I’ll just cure it myself,” he says, then gives me a kiss. With tongue, of course.
Maybe we’re corny, but we’re also happy, and if I had to choose a few words to describe how happy I am with Drew it would be naughtily. Incredibly. And blissfully.
Bio
Lauren Blakely writes sexy contemporary romance novels with heat, heart, and humor. She is the author of eleven New York Times bestsellers and her titles have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists more than sixty times. Her series include Sinful Nights, Seductive Nights, No Regrets, Caught Up in Love, and Fighting Fire, as well as standalone romances like 21 Stolen Kisses, Big Rock, and Mister O. Lauren believes life should be filled with family, laughter, and the kind of love that romantic songs promise. She lives in California with her husband, children, and dogs. To receive an email when Lauren releases a new book, sign up for her newsletter!
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Copyright © 2016 by Lauren Blakely
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This electronic edition published in 2016
First published in November 2016
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