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