Bossy Baller: A Hero Club Novel

by Melissa Belle

  Right. But as we go inside and I watch her lift Lucky into her arms for a cuddle, this feels real to me.

  It feels like the exact kind of real I always dreamed about.

  But real life is my mother slipping away long before my dad and brothers and I stopped needing her.

  A happy ending doesn’t exist in reality.

  “Real and happy feels unrealistic, I guess,” I say out loud.

  Hannah tilts her head and studies me. “That can be true sometimes. Tragedies happen in real life. And we can’t control everything the way we’d like to.” She pauses. “I miss my parents every day.”

  I look at her sharply.

  “But…” she continues. “That doesn’t mean I wish I’d never loved them, lived with them, and shared all of those years with them. Because as much as it hurt to lose them, the pain was worth the joy.”

  “Hannah…” My voice sounds strained and raw.

  “It’s okay, Mav,” she says softly. “I know you can’t. Spending this trip with you was still worth what I know will be a hurt-like-hell goodbye.”

  Hurt-like-hell goodbye. That’s exactly how it’s going to feel.

  Hannah and I get into bed without saying more. Lucky curls up between us this time, and I stare at the ceiling for a long while before I finally get my mind to shut off enough that I can sleep.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Hannah

  I cried myself to sleep last night. I don’t think Maverick knew. With Lucky between us as a buffer, me turning away from him didn’t seem obvious.

  But today, as we pack up and prepare for the drive to Chicago, I’m still fighting the tears.

  The truth is Maverick was right last night. And I was off-sides. We agreed on a temporary affair because he’s about to embark on the career of his dreams, and I’m not ready for a relationship.

  How can a runaway bride be ready for anything other than a rebound?

  Maverick gave me everything I asked him to. He helped me get over my messy breakup with Craig, and he showed me what a good man is capable of. I’m eternally grateful to him.

  But today is where it ends.

  And I’m having a hard time keeping it together.

  Like he feels it too, about halfway through our drive, Maverick pulls over into a cornfield. We sit on the back of his truck and eat sandwiches we’d picked up that morning. Lucky is sleeping in her carrier behind us.

  Not a soul is around.

  Maverick puts his hand on my bare knee. “Thanks for being the best road trip partner a guy could have.”

  I cover his hand with mine. “Thanks for taking the risk and letting a runaway tag along.”

  He dips his head and catches my mouth in his. Our kiss is long and drawn-out, and when he pulls back, I want more.

  I reach for his shirt and tug him back to me.

  Maverick lays me back on the bed of the truck before joining me. He runs his hand down my breasts and over my stomach.

  When we have sex, it truly feels like we’re connecting as one.

  We lie entwined with one another afterward as the hot sun beats down on our bare bodies. All I can smell is the cornfields. It’s a perfect moment, one I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I also know it’s the last time we’ll be together.

  And so, when we stop for gas, I go into the restroom and have a good cry.

  I need to make sure I get it out of my system before we say goodbye in person later tonight.

  Maverick

  When we reach Chicago, we follow GPS to her friend’s apartment building.

  “This is a nice place,” I say as I live park on the side of the street and lift her bags out of the truck.

  Hannah puts Lucky in her backpack, and I help her adjust the straps before she puts them over her shoulders. We walk together to the front door of the building, and then we both stop short.

  I’m about to struggle through some uncomfortable attempt at parting, but Hannah doesn’t allow for it.

  She stands on her tiptoes and kisses me goodbye quickly. “I hope you have a beautiful life, Maverick Court. Thank you for the best week I’ve ever had.”

  She immediately turns to leave, but I reach out and catch her wrist. I pull her into me and wrap my arms around her in a tight hug.

  “Thank you, Hannah.” I bury my face in her neck, inhaling her scent I never want to forget. “You gave me so much more than I could have ever given you.”

  She lifts her head back and looks up at me with tears in her eyes. I lean down and touch my lips to hers.

  Our kiss is tinged with pain. It’s the kind of kiss you share when you’re saying goodbye, not hello. It’s the opposite of our kiss in Vegas when the road trip was just beginning and we weren’t on the verge of parting. This kiss is exactly why I didn’t want to get involved with her.

  Because saying goodbye to Hannah hurts even worse than I thought it would. My chest aches as we pull apart at the same time and turn away in opposite directions.

  I’ve made it about ten agonizing steps when I stop and look back. Through the round bubble window in the backpack, Lucky’s staring back at me. I raise my hand in a pathetic wave. I’m actually waving goodbye to a cat.

  She opens her mouth in a meow.

  “Take good care of Hannah,” I whisper softly.

  And then I continue my trek through the city to move into my own place.

  Hannah

  Our goodbye is fast.

  I don’t give Maverick a chance to try to explain or make excuses. He catches me by surprise when he thanks me. And when he holds on tightly like he doesn’t want to let me go. I hug him back but don’t let myself linger. Instead, I turn and walk away to Kia’s apartment.

  She’s waiting for me in the lobby.

  “Oh, my God, that was the saddest farewell I’ve ever seen!” Her green eyes are teary. “It was like something out of a romantic film.”

  “Don’t those usually end happily?”

  “Your film isn’t over yet, darling. He’ll reach out. Give him time to miss you.”

  I let the tears fall as Kia takes me in her arms. “I don’t need time. I miss him right now.” I stare at her as the realization hits me. “I love him.”

  “So fucking tell him that. And don’t tell me you can’t. Do it.”

  “He’s not ready for that,” I say softly.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Maverick

  My first night without Hannah is lonely as hell.

  I stare out the window of my high-rise apartment in the Windy City. The view is gorgeous. And this apartment feels so empty.

  I wait until nine o’clock to text her.

  How are you? How’s Lucky?

  She writes back within a minute. We’re both good! How do you like your place?

  It’s nice. The view is amazing.

  That’s great!

  We text back and forth for a few more minutes, and then I say goodnight.

  Good luck at your team meeting tomorrow.

  She seems to be doing well.

  And I need to let her go and get ready for football.

  “Men, you may just be rookies now,” my new coach says to the group of us in the meeting room the following morning at the stadium. “But you’re also all professionals. And if you work hard this year, hopefully you’re going to be in this league for a long time. So let’s show up tomorrow ready to work.”

  The next few hours are a blur of meeting one coach after another, getting a tour of the facility, and working out in the weight room with a few of the other rookies. My agent comes by to greet me and make sure I’m doing all right.

  We go to lunch, and he tries to tell me about all the hot spots in Chicago.

  But I can’t stop thinking about Hannah.

  On my drive home, I stare at the Brady bobblehead, cursing Chance and his enthusiasm for me to find what he did with Aubrey.

  I call him as I’m pulling onto my street.

  “How are you, mate?” he asks right away.
<
br />   “I think you cursed me,” I say in response. “That bobblehead was a bad idea.”

  “How come?”

  I tell him how Hannah and I split.

  “Wasn’t that the plan?” he asks. “To have some fun on the trip and then go your separate ways?”

  Yes.

  “That’s not the fucking point,” I say.

  “What is the point, Mav?”

  I love her.

  “I hear you,” Chance says even though I didn’t say anything out loud. “So make sure you tell her. Don’t sit on it.”

  After we hang up, I call my dad and talk to him for a while. I’ve been texting him my whereabouts throughout the trip, and he says my brothers want photos of the different places I stopped.

  “I’ll see what I’ve got,” I say, realizing most of the photos will give away the fact that I traveled with Hannah. And a kitten.

  “You sound like you’ve got something on your mind,” Dad says after a moment.

  “No. Not really. I’m just…” Screw it. “I met someone.”

  “Oh.” He lets out a deep laugh. “You know you’ve never once said those words to me before? She must be something special.”

  She is.

  “The timing’s all off,” I say. “I won’t have time to commit to anything other than football.”

  “You know…” Dad begins, and I know he’s about to mention Mom. “The only regret I had when your mother passed? All the moments I could have spent with her but didn’t. Because I thought I had to work. You don’t regret missed moments of work on your deathbed.”

  “Dad, I get it, but my career is for all of us. You know that.”

  “Yes, but more than anything, Mav, we all want you to be happy. You love football. And you love us, and I know you’ll do the best you can for everyone. Just like you always have. But if you love someone else now, too, that’s a good thing. Don’t let her slip away. You can have both, son. The girl and the game. Take the leap.”

  “Love you, Dad.”

  You can have both. The girl and the game.

  I stare at my phone for a few minutes. And then, I take the leap.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Hannah

  “Maverick just invited me to his practice,” I say to Kia as I stare at his text message on my cell phone.

  She curls up across from me on her L-shaped couch. “Perfect. Let’s go.”

  “It’s not open to the public, but he said he’ll leave two passes at the gate.” I read his text over three times, and when I finally look up again, Kia’s smiling at me.

  “Sounds like he’s ready,” she says. “The question is—are you?”

  I stare past her at the TV, which has a commercial showing two people jogging on it.

  “He was supposed to be a rebound,” I say.

  “And yet, what if he’s a forever?” she asks me.

  “How can you meet a forever guy as you’re literally running away from your own wedding?” I say. “It sounds crazy.”

  “Love is crazy,” she tells me. “It doesn’t make sense. If it did, we’d all just choose our partners like figuring out a math problem.” She reaches for the remote and turns off the television. “The bottom line is you’re miserable without him, and you’re happy with him. Why overthink it?”

  She’s right. I overthought everything with Craig, and all that did was delay the inevitable.

  I nod at her. “Let’s go to his practice.”

  “I don’t see him,” I say to Kia as we take seats in the front row to watch Chicago’s practice the next day.

  I’m wearing a new sundress today. A purple and blue flowered one with matching purple sandals. This is not a rebound dress. It’s a forever one. I hope I dressed for the occasion and that it’s not wishful thinking.

  Kia shields her eyes from the sun as she scans the field. “What number is he?”

  “I have no idea.” I look from one player to the next. “He plays wide receiver.”

  The scrimmage is intense with players shouting and fighting for position as the quarterback takes the snap and looks for a target.

  He throws the ball down the sideline and it’s caught.

  I jump up and clap.

  The receiver turns with the ball and runs for the end zone. He evades two tackles and dives across the line.

  He spikes the ball and turns toward the stands. And then he points.

  At me.

  Oh, my God. It’s Maverick.

  “Is that…” Kia says from my side.

  I don’t answer her because he’s taking off his helmet and heading this way.

  His dark hair is plastered to his head with sweat. His lips are quirked up in a grin.

  He hops the fence like it’s nothing and keeps going until he’s directly in front of me.

  I stand and look up at him.

  “Hi,” he says softly.

  “Hi.”

  He turns to Kia and extends his hand. “I’m Maverick. Nice to meet you.”

  “I’m Kia.” She smiles widely. “And I’m leaving.”

  She takes off before I can stop her, and Maverick leans down and kisses me.

  A short kiss, but it doesn’t feel like a goodbye. It feels like a hello. And a question.

  “Yes,” I tell him. “To whatever you’re going to say.”

  “I love you,” he says.

  “Exactly.” I throw my arms around him. “I love you, too.”

  “I don’t want to be apart from you again,” he says into my hair. “I want what we had this week forever.”

  “Me too.”

  “It’s fast,” he says.

  “It is.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Me neither.”

  He scoops me up into a full, sweaty hug. “Will you stay for the rest of practice?”

  “Yes.”

  I have a feeling I’m going to be saying that word a lot lately.

  Maverick Court makes me want to say yes to life.

  And I can’t wait to see what happens in the future.

  Epilogue

  Six months later

  Maverick

  Lucky runs through the living room, chasing her toy mouse and shaking it in her mouth once she grabs it.

  “Good kill,” I tell her. “You’re a born hunter.”

  I look out the living room window into the backyard where Hannah’s sitting on a lounge chair as the sun sets.

  I smile, and then I go out and join her.

  “How was class?” I ask her as I settle next to her on the chair.

  “Great. I love this university.”

  I pull her into my lap and kiss her. “I’m glad.”

  Hannah applied for, and was accepted into, a Ph.D. psychology program here in Chicago. She also works part-time at the department lab. She loves it. I moved out of my high-rise, and Hannah and I bought a small house just outside the city. We wanted a yard and some quiet. It’s a short drive to the stadium, and Hannah and Kia come to every game.

  “You played awesome today,” she says in between kisses.

  Yes, Chicago beat the Cougars in my first head-to-head with Colton and Dylan. It was fun to win and even more fun to go out to dinner with them the night before.

  They’re doing great out in L.A., and Dylan’s already one of the best quarterbacks in the league. As a freaking rookie. So even though they lost today, those guys are going to be just fine.

  And so am I.

  With my salary, I’ve been able to save more than I expected. All of it has gone toward paying off my dad’s medical bills. The next step is saving for my brothers’ education. But I’m also saving for Hannah and me.

  Turns out that including my own happiness in the mix has been a very good thing.

  I reach into my pocket and pull out a box.

  When I hand it to Hannah, she just stares at the box like it might bite her.

  “Open it,” I say.

  “Bossy baller,” she grumbles, but she does what I asked.
/>   The diamond ring shining back at her is surrounded by her birthstone.

  “Holy shit, Mav.” She looks up at me.

  “This is for whenever you’re ready,” I say. “No rush. I just want you to know I’m all-in.”

  “Ready for what?” She sounds breathless. “All-in on what?”

  “On you.” I kiss her cheek. “On us.” I kiss the other cheek. “Ready to marry you.” I kiss her lips. “Marry me, Hannah.” My voice is a whisper.

  “Yes.” She kisses me back. “It will always be yes.”

  She calls me a bossy baller. But the truth is, I’m the luckiest baller in the world.

  Because I’ve got Hannah by my side. Forever.

  Another Epilogue

  Colton

  “Fuck, that game was close,” I say to Dylan as we fly home to L.A.

  His eyes are already closed. “Hate losing,” he mutters. “Hated losing to Mav.”

  I can’t help but grin. “He and Hannah seem happy, though.”

  Dylan smiles too. “They do. Good for them.”

  “Maybe one day, you’ll have something like that,” I say, purposefully prying.

  With his eyes still closed, he scowls. “Not going to happen. Mav found Hannah before he was famous. He did it right. I can’t trust anybody.”

  “Dyl, someone will be the right match for you. Trust me on that.”

  I turn to look out the window. It’s still daylight, and I can make out quite a bit of the scenery down below.

  “If you look to your left, you can see the mountains of Colorado,” the pilot says over the intercom.

  A pang of grief hits me unbidden.

  The same pain I always feel when I get near Colorado.

  Everyone thinks it’s all about losing my dad.

  And I do miss him. Every damn day.

  But Colorado isn’t just about my father.

  It’s also about a red-haired girl with long legs and green eyes—eyes that came alive at night. She was fiery and stubborn, and I never stopped wanting her.