by Autumn Avery
I give him five to let him know we’re good and make sure he’s got his head in the game. I’ve been in since the tipoff and I’m feeling it. New Hampshire’s fouling us like crazy, throwing guys that play bench most of the season at us so they can swat us on the forearms, elbow us, foul us hard and then get back to the bench. It’s a dirty, despicable, cowardly strategy, but it’s working.
“Listen,” Coach says, stepping into the center of the room. “There are only so many bodies they can throw at us before they run out. We’ve just got to ride it out, and when they bring back their starting five, we crush them.”
“Hell yeah,” I growl.
“How you handling Roy?” He asks.
“Psssh,” I snarl dismissively. “Little bastard wishes he could guard me.”
“Well, you be careful,” Coach says with a warning tone. “He could try something again with you. Keep your wits about you.”
“No sweat.”
“All right, bring it in,” Coach says. Everybody stands and forms a circle at the middle of the room, hands in. “On three. Champions. One, two, three!”
“Champions!” We all roar, tossing our hands above our heads. Then it’s out of the locker room, down the hall and back onto the court. I take my position, with Brant, Joey, Tim and Charlie, the other forward.
It’s our possession and I can feels Grace’s eyes on my back. Her gaze is like fuel for my desire to win. Her presence urges my feet forward and my hands to shoot with utter precision. Just knowing she’s here to support me gives me more fire than any speech or any amount of money or trophies could ever give.
I get the pass and hand it over to Tim. He brings it up court and I take my place by the three-point line. Roy’s on me, playing cute by tugging on my jersey. I turn my back to him and take a step, bodying him out of the way. The ref isn’t paying attention, so I give him a nudge with my shoulder, knocking him back a step.
“Fuck off me,” I say, just loud enough that he can hear me.
Tim fakes left, then shoots me a no-look pass. I catch it and pivot, face to face with Roy, who’s looking at me hard. He’s sweating already. Obviously the game is taking a bigger physical toll on him, which is to be expected. I played the entire first half and I’m still in better condition than he is. Of course, it’s a guy like this that has to resort to dirty tricks to win.
“Guard me,” I taunt him. “Come on.”
I fake right just to mess with him, but keep my foot planted. He leaps back, then stumbles forward to get back on me. I grin and fake left. This time he doesn’t fall for it, but I didn’t want him to. It’s time for some humiliation.
I look left like I’m going to head that way, but bounce the ball with my right hand, straight between his legs. The crowd roars as I slip around him and catch my own pass, threading a line straight to the basket.
Two defenders double me, but I pivot on my left foot and go up for the layup. Right off the glass and in. The stadium goes insane. I head back up the court and point to Roy with a grin. He looks like he could kill me. As I pass the bench though, I hear coach scream at me.
“What are you doing, Tommy? Quit screwing around!”
He doesn’t want me provoking him, but I just can’t help myself. When I win, I want to win, and that means crushing the other team, and when it comes to Roy, I want to utterly destroy him. That son of a bitch almost ended my career, or at least tried to, and now it’s payback time. But I’m not going to stoop that low. I’m just going to embarrass him, blow his whole team away and walk off with the championship. Like a real man.
I flash a smile to Grace, who’s looking at me with a mixture of disapproval and awe. For half a second I feel guilty, but it’s washed away when I turn back to the court and see Roy heading this way.
Come on, you bastard. Let’s do this.
Fourth period. One minute left on the clock and we’re down one. One fucking point!
I dug us out of our nine-point hole and Brant went on fire down in the paint, dunked it twice and took a foul. But Brant can’t shoot a free throw for shit, and the rest of the team is getting tired. It’s been a rough game. New Hampshire’s been playing dirty and we’re all going to have bruises tomorrow from elbows and knees.
But the good news is, I’ve been handing Roy his ass over and over. Every time he comes at me, I’ve got something new for him. After I humiliated him with that between-the-legs pass to myself, he’s had it in for me, but he’s just outclassed and he knows it. It’s only a matter of time before he tries to pull some dirty shit on me again, only this time, I’m going to be ready for it.
We’ve got possession and Joey inbounds it to Tim and heads straight for the paint. Roy’s got his hands all over me, but I juke him and head for the outside of the three-point line.
The crowd is on its feet. I can feel the tension in the air. I can feel Grace’s eyes on me. I know her heart is in her throat. She wants this as much as I do. But I can’t think about anything right now besides the game. My hands, my feet, my body have to be in perfect sync with my mind. I have to pull out all the stops and carry my team to victory.
Tim takes the ball to the top of the key and sends a bounce pass to Joey. I cut left around Roy in case he sends me a pass, but he’s going for it. He busts out a sick crossover and blows by his defender. He’s heading for the basket and the stadium’s on its feet. This could be the one to put us in the lead.
But as he goes up, two players from New Hampshire double team him, and one of them hits him hard, swats the ball right out of his hand. It’s an obvious foul, but the ref doesn’t call it. The crowd goes wild, booing as one of New Hampshire’s guards scoops the ball up and starts to take it down court.
“What the fuck?!” I shout in the ref’s direction. He shoots me a stern look, letting me know to watch my mouth or I’ll be the one getting the whistle blown at me. This is bullshit. I’m fuming. That asshole’s gonna cost us the game!
But I’ve come way too far this year to let this happen. There’s no way we’re losing, not after what I went through with my ankle, and not after what I went through with Grace. The whole stadium has its eyes on me – the whole world – but it’s only Grace’s eyes I am thinking about right now as I race toward the ball.
He sees me coming and passes it off, but Joey’s right behind me and we streak toward him like a pair of thugs. We double team the guy. He tries to pump fake, but it doesn’t work, and when he tries to give Joey the crossover – I swat the ball away.
It’s loose!
The crowd lets go and starts screaming as I scoop up the ball and push down court. My entire team is sprinting behind me, but the court’s open and I’m going for it. It’s clear. New Hampshire’s five guys are behind me, but my lead’s too long. There’s no way they’re catching me.
But out of the corner of my eye, I see Roy closing in on me.
As soon as I see him, I know what’s on his mind. He’s going to pull some shit on me again and save the game for his team. Dirty son of a bitch can’t beat me fair and square so he’s going to cheat. We’re down by one, and if he knocks me over and gets the ball, he could save the game and take home the championship.
Last time this ended with disaster, but this time, things have changed.
“No fucking way,” I mutter under my breath. I can see him in my peripheral, closing in, hungry like a coyote. He’s close. I can hear his breath. Panting like a wild animal. He wants this bad, but not as bad as me. I can feel him closing in. My hand pumps the ball and my legs push me forward. Forward down the court, and further to victory.
I glance behind me, and that’s when I see the little bastard make his move.
He lunges forward like he’s playing soccer, kicking his leg out to slide tackle me. But this time I’m aware. This time I see it coming, and I’m ready.
I leap forward, picking both of my legs high up into the air, and Roy’s dumbass slides right by me. His foot hits the court hard and sticks, causing his body to buckle and sending him spr
awling head over heels into the stands.
The crowd goes nuts, laughing, shouting, booing as I head for the hoop. This is it! I’m about to win the game. After the season I’ve had, I deserve this. My ankle is strong beneath me, the eyes of my girl are on my back, urging me forward to victory. I reach the paint, slam my foot down and go up, the ball high above my head.
Here it is!
The winning shot!
I flick the ball off the tips of my fingers, against the glass, straight for the hoop—
Epilogue
Four years later…
“Tommy Mason. This year’s MVP for New York. Is he really going to live up to the hype, Frank? Or do you think this will be another case of too much talk too soon?”
The sports commentators on Afternoon Hoops are talking about Tommy Mason, my husband. Ever since he was drafted by New York, he’s been the talk of every major sports show out there, and I couldn’t be more proud.
His first year in the league he won Rookie of the Year, and the hype has been unbelievable. People are saying he could be the next big thing, one of the greats. But Tommy’s ignoring it.
“Gotta keep my head on straight,” he says. “Stay focused. You get too big a head, you fall over.”
He’s a different man than the one I met at UCONN, but still very much the same. There cockiness is still there, but it’s morphed into an unbreakable confidence that just oozes out of him in a way that lets everyone know he’s the alpha male, and even being one of the newest players on the team, he’s already taking a leadership position.
After UCONN beat New Hampshire for the championship, Tommy’s confidence shot through the roof – or maybe a better way to put it would be, completely destroyed the roof and shot into space. Roy Meyers was dropped from the team next season and ended up moving home and working at a used sports equipment store. That made Tommy grin like a schoolboy.
He carried UCONN to two more championships the following years and was a first round draft pick to New York after that. Everyone knew he was going pro, but I can still picture his face when they announced his name, and every time I think about it, I feel warm inside.
It’s incredible to see someone you love succeed when you know it’s what they’re destined to do. To watch him go from the despair of his ankle injury, to his triumphant smile when he was signed with the pros, was the sweetest, most satisfying thing in the world.
Well, besides the day I discovered I was pregnant.
Tommy and I decided to wait until I was done with school to commit to having a child. We wanted to be ready – secure. . Somehow I didn’t get pregnant the first time we had sex, and until I got on birth control, we used…various methods of safe sex.
It was hard my last year when Tommy went away, but we talked every day, voice call, video call, and he traveled back to visit me whenever he could. He got me an apartment off campus with Shannon so he wouldn’t have to sleep in a tiny bunk bed in the dorms with me. And the most surprising thing ever, at least to me, is that Joey and Shannon started dating.
I couldn’t believe it. It took over a year, but after spending some time with Tommy and me, and Joey tagging along for a lot of it, she started to warm up to him. I was actually surprised at how much of a gentlemen Joey ended up being. He was such a crass, woman crazed, beer drinking douchebag – a loveable douchebag, but a douchebag none the less.
But I think seeing Tommy with me, and happy, really made him think about what he was doing, and after the season was over, and the post-victory celebrations started to cool down, he really slowed down on the partying and started to get his eye on Shannon.
And she actually got her eye on him too. She kept pretending it wasn’t true, but she’s the world’s worst liar and after rooming with her for one semester, I could read her like a book.
“I don’t like him, Grace. God!” She protested when I first asked her.
“Shannon,” I said with a laugh. “Just admit it. It’s me!”
“Look,” she replied, her voice snippy like a little girl. “Okay, maybe he’s cute, okay? That doesn’t mean I like him!”
But then one night, Tommy took me out to a really nice restaurant in Bethel, and Joey actually manned up and asked her to come with us on a double date.
“Come on, girl,” he said, unable to fully drop his bravado. “It’s not like I’m the worst guy in the world. It won’t kill ya.”
Shannon twisted her lips and looked at me, but I wasn’t going to help her out. I thought it was a great idea. My best friend, dating Tommy’s best friend? What could be better?
The car ride over was slightly awkward as they shared the back seat, but Joey actually got dressed up and he cleaned up nicely. It was weird not seeing him in sport shorts and a tank top. The place we were going to was really high class, and the food was amazing. I had a lobster risotto and Tommy had an amazing steak. Joey had some sort of pork and Shannon had a salad and some sort of noodle dish I’d never heard of before and still can’t remember what it was. All I know was it was delicious.
But over dinner, they really clicked, and it wasn’t long before they started dating.
“I can’t believe it,” Shannon said to me after she came back from Joey’s room one night. “Here I was, the girl warning you off the basketball players, and now I’m dating one too!”
“It’s the new hotness,” I joked with her.
Joey didn’t end up going pro. He was being scouted by Los Angeles, but he knew he wasn’t going to be a star like Tommy and didn’t want to move across the country and leave Shannon for a career that he wasn’t sure he wanted.
So he ended up getting hired by UCONN to coach and he’s loving it. They got a house in town and moved in right after graduation. It’s gorgeous, with a huge back yard and a pond, and he’s doing some volunteer coaching work at an elementary school a few towns over where Shannon is teaching.
Tommy and I have two places, as pretentious as that sounds, but it’s a necessity. We have one place in New York and one in Connecticut near the college, and it allows us to go back and forth as we please. And that’s where I am now.
“Well, Bob,” the commentators continue. “I don’t think Tommy’s overrated, but he did fail to carry New York to this year’s championship.”
“That is true, Frank,” Bob says. “But is it fair to ask the rookie on the team to carry them to a victory? Even Jordan didn’t start to really dominate that early into his professional career.”
“He is promising,” Frank says, sounding impressed. “I mean, rookie of the year, already averaging nineteen to twenty points a game – that’s impressive!”
“It sure is, Frank—”
“You still watching that garbage?” I hear Tommy say from behind me. I turn around to see him saunter in with that smile that just makes me melt, and throw my arms up toward him. He leans in and kisses me and I pull him close, inhaling deeply, his smell seeping deep inside me, reminding me of just how much I love him.
“I like hearing people talk about my husband!”
My husband.
The word is still growing on me, and I love saying it.
Tommy proposed to me his senior year, just before graduation, and we were married that summer. It was absolutely gorgeous, at this amazing church and estate in Southern Connecticut that must have cost a fortune, but it was a complete dream.
Shannon was my maid of honor, and Joey was Tommy’s best man. My mom couldn’t believe it.
“My daughter and a basketball star,” she mused as she stood beside me while I had my hair and makeup done. “I never would have guessed it.”
“Neither would I!” I laughed.
And when I think back to that first day at UCONN, my first day on the floor, realizing we had coed bathrooms and then running into Tommy in the shower, I can’t help myself from laughing. What a journey!
“How was practice?” I ask Tommy, smelling the sweat on his body. He doesn’t shower until he gets home now. I told him not to. I love smelling him. He�
��s just such a man and it turns me on, and ever since he got me pregnant, my hormones have been rampaging through me like a wild army of naked women, and I’m the horniest I’ve ever been.
“Fine,” he says as he kisses me. “Kicked some ass.”
“As always,” I say with a smile.
“As always.”
Tommy’s hand slips under my shirt and caresses my belly. I’m eight months now and Tommy finds me sexier than ever. He slides his hand up and cups my breasts, which have grown almost two cup sizes and drive him wild.
“Your tits are amazing,” he whispers to me, lifting my shirt easily to expose them to him. I smile as he leans down and kisses my nipples, sucking them both gently before bringing his lips to my neck.
“Mmmm, you’re amazing,” I tell him, pulling his shirt off over his head. His body never ceases to blow my mind and get my juices flowing. And after practice, when he’s been working hard, everything is just tight and taut and I can’t resist running my fingertips over his physique.
He kisses up my neck to my earlobe and presses his body against mine. I can feel his cock growing against me as he moves his hips against mine. I reach down his stomach, caressing his abs before slipping my hand under his shorts and taking hold of his dick.
It grows quickly in my hand as I start to stroke him and he growls into my ear, grabbing my breasts with both hands as he kisses me deeply. My other hand slides under his shorts and cups his balls, which I know drives him wild. These last few years have taught us both what we love, and there’s nothing I enjoy more than pleasing my man.
I’m wearing a loose pair of yoga pants and Tommy grabs the hem and pulls them quickly down to my knees and grabs my ass with his strong grip. Using his other hand, he pulls his shorts down and kicks them aside. One hand on my ass and the other behind my head, pulling my lips to his, Tommy slides his cock between my legs and starts gently thrusting, fucking my thighs, teasing my pussy with every stroke.
