I was so out of breath by the time I made it to my seat in the stadium that I was seeing black spots at the edges of my vision. After being stuck on the highway due to an accident that shut down all three lanes, I’d spent the last two hours cursing and praying and then speeding to get here with literally two minutes left in the game.
That didn’t stop me from standing on my chair and making sure Leo saw that I was here.
I collapsed back down into my seat just in time for their first play of the drive. Before this season, I knew absolutely nothing about football — mostly because I’d avoided it at all costs, thanks to Leo. But after playing Madden with the guys and going to a few games now, I was picking it up.
It was the penalties that always confused me.
That’s why when the whistle blew after Leo picked up an impressive nineteen yards and they called holding on the offense, I was confused, watching them move fifteen yards back instead of the nineteen yards Leo had moved them forward.
I cursed under my breath, looking at the time on the clock and the score with a pit in my stomach.
Maybe I was bad luck.
It would be the first rivalry game I attend that they lose.
“God, Leo Hernandez is so fucking hot.”
I blinked, finding the source of the comment that snapped me out of my daze belonging to a girl sitting in the seat in front of me. She shook her head, her red ponytail swinging a bit as she nudged her friend. She was wearing Leo’s jersey, too, but hers was an older version.
“We made out after the rivalry game last year,” she said proudly. “Think lightning can strike twice?”
Her friend snorted. “I’ll pray for you. I’m still in mourning that Clay Johnson is off the market.”
The first girl sighed with her. “Yeah. That jagged pill will never be easy to swallow.”
I couldn’t bite back the smile that stretched on my face. I also couldn’t wait to tell Giana. But more than anything, I couldn’t wait to show that first girl just how wrong she was about where Leo would be after the game.
The ball was hiked, and Blake was sacked.
The crowd was a mixture of ohhs from our fans and cheers from South Hartford. I grimaced, looking at how we now had twenty-one yards to go on a second down with just over a minute left to play. SHU fans were already getting ready to celebrate their win, blowing air horns and pops of confetti. Neither were allowed at NBU, and now that I realized how annoying they were, I understood why.
I kept my eyes on the field, on Leo, biting my thumbnail and chanting a silent prayer.
Come on, come on.
The ball was snapped, and this time, Blake found a receiver — but they were still eight yards short of the first down.
And now, it was third down.
“Fuck,” someone yelled beside me.
“We’re toast,” someone else said.
“Nah, we got this. We’ll get the first here.”
“There’s less than a minute to play. We have the whole fucking field to go.”
“God, walking out of here is going to suck if we lose.”
The chatter was too loud to ignore, and when Coach Lee called a timeout from the sidelines, I let out as much of an exhale as I could, stretching out my fingers I didn’t realize I’d been wringing together.
The team huddled around Blake, all of them talking adamantly. I noticed he and Leo were having a particularly heated exchange, and after a moment, Leo crossed the huddle and put his hands on Blake’s helmet. He said something to him before tapping his own helmet against his quarterback’s, and Blake watched him for a moment before nodding.
The team looked a little nervous as they clapped and got back on the line, and once again, my stomach tightened into a thick, knotted ball.
Leo lined up at the far edge of the field.
And as the play clock ticked down, he stood straight and pointed directly at me with a smirk I knew was there even through his face mask.
“Oh, my God!” the girl in front of me squealed, clutching her friend’s arm. “Did you see that?! He pointed at me!”
I rolled my eyes, laughing to myself as Leo crouched back down. And when the ball was snapped, he took off down the field as fast and sleek as a leopard.
“Wait, what the fuck?” someone said.
“Why is our running back jetting down the field without the ball?”
“Fuck, O-line is crumbling. He’s going to get sacked!”
“Wait!”
“Oh shit, it’s a Hail Mary!”
It felt like the entire stadium — no, the entire world — fell silent the moment Blake launched the ball into the air. He was taken down to the ground as soon as it left his hands, and then everyone followed the ball as it sailed through the air toward the other side of the field.
The other side of the field where Leo was now sprinting.
The defense caught on too slow, most of the coverage on the receivers they thought Blake was trying to hit. No one noticed Leo until it was too late, and even though their fastest player caught up to him, it wasn’t enough to block the catch.
Leo leapt up into the end zone and plucked the ball from the air, cradling it to him as he tucked and rolled. He controlled it the entire way, popping back up to stand and holding the ball victoriously with one hand.
Touchdown.
The stadium went ape shit. The team swarmed him, Braden and Clay picking him up and carrying him like a king as he celebrated. But then they had to get off the field, clearing it so Riley could make the game-winning extra point.
And she did.
There were only nine seconds left on the clock when we punted the ball back to SHU, but they couldn’t do anything with it. And while all their fans sat in shock and disbelief at what had occurred, ours went absolutely insane.
The game had no sooner ended before the field was swarming with players, staff, and media alike. Leo had cameras and reporters all around him as he shook hands with some players from the other team, but he looked up and found me through the madness.
I smiled, standing in my chair again and holding up the sign I’d made.
He pulled off his helmet, and I saw the flash of his teeth before he was sprinting.
Leo shoved through the crowd, declining every microphone that was thrust in his face as he made a beeline for the section I was in. With a running start, he leapt over the concrete wall that separated the stands from the field, and then he was taking the bleacher steps two at a time.
My heart raced in my ears with every step.
I had only a second to laugh at the girl in front of me who about passed out thinking Leo was running to her before he barreled right past and into my row. He muttered excuse me to the people he had to shimmy past, all who were clapping him on the shoulder and congratulating him on the win.
After that, I was swept into his arms.
Leo crushed me to him, lifting me all the way off the ground as he did. I wrapped my arms fiercely around him, squeezing my eyes shut as we both exhaled in relief at finally being together again. I clung to him like he would disappear, and he held me tight enough to bruise. I faintly registered the fans cheering around us as Leo pulled back enough to capture my mouth with his own.
It was a kiss I felt all the way down to my toes. It stirred my desire as much as it soothed my aching heart. It was the feeling of coming home after a long trip. It was Christmas morning and a sunset on the beach. It was a night spent between the sheets and a day of perfect sunshine.
It was Leo, and it was me.
It was us.
I never knew how much power we held until that kiss showed it to me.
“I’m so sorry,” Leo yelled over the noise, his chest heaving. He still held me so close, like he was afraid I’d disappear. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too,” I yelled in return. “I’d just been assaulted, and I lost my job, and I…” My chest ached at how stupid I’d been. “I just took out all that fear on you, on top of already being scared of us. I took it out on you because I wanted to have control over something. I took it out on you because—”
“You never have to apologize to me,” he said, shaking his head and silencing me with a kiss. “You can take anything out on me because you know what? I can handle it. I can take it. I can go to war for you, or with you, if it’s what you need.”
I choked on something of a laugh at that. “I’m a mess,” I said. “And I hate to scare you off now that I have you again, but I’m afraid I’m like my mother.”
Leo frowned, confused.
“I’m stubborn,” I clarified. “And something tells me it’ll only get worse with age.”
Leo smiled at that, letting out a long exhale like he’d just remembered to breathe. He brushed my hair back, tilting my chin.
“No matter what life throws at us, what you throw at me — we will make it. Just stay,” he said, kissing me again. “That’s all I need. Stay, and I promise, no matter what happens, I’ll make it right.”
“You may regret those words one day,” I warned him, knowing the chaotic disaster I tended to be.
But Leo shook his head, his lips finding mine as he lifted me again.
“Never,” he promised.
And I believed him — with every messy inch of my heart.
