Page 91 of Sportsball is for Lovers

Half-laughing, she scratches her nails through my short beard, and I lean into the contact. “I would be home in an hour.”

“I couldn’t wait that long,” I admit.

Dipping my head, I kiss her, telling her all the things I want to say but can’t yet verbalize without her running away. This isn’t something I could say over a video chat. This has to be done face to face.

I don’t want to run. I don’t want her to run, either.

I can’t control her, though. And if she’s not ready to hear it, I won’t push. I’ll be here when she’s ready.

I’m not going anywhere—not without her. She doesn’t want to leave. I don’t want to leave her. If that means staying in Boston, that’s what I’ll do. I’m good with that as long as I have her.

“I got a job offer,” I tell her.

“You did?” She beams. “Jare, that’s⁠—”

“In Chicago.”

Her face falls. “Oh. So you’re leaving?”

Shaking my head, I trail my thumb over her cheek. “I turned them down.”

“What? No! You have to take it. You have to call them and⁠—”

“I don’t want it,” I tell her firmly. “Not if it means leaving you.”

Sadie’s eyes widen. “But…”

“I don’t want to be casual,” I blurt.

She stops breathing.

“I want us to be real, with feelings and permanence. I want us to⁠—”

“Me, too,” she blurts.

It’s my turn to stare owlishly at her.

“You do? I thought…”

Sadie lifts a shoulder, trying to play it off as ambivalence, but I can see the anxiety in her eyes. “Lu talked some sense into me.”

“Remind me to thank her,” I tease, before I rake my hand through her waves to cup the back of her head. “What else did she say?”

She fists her hands in my hoodie. “Something along the lines of I was being a dumb-dumb.”

“Really? A dumb-dumb?”

She nods. “Really.”

“Fuck, I love you,” I blurt.

Sadie’s eyes go wide. Her entire body goes tense.

Shit. I just ruined this.

But then she gives a sigh and her whole body melts into mine.

“I love you, too,” she says.