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I cut the call and stare at my phone, drawing in a fortifying breath before I get out of the car to face the music at practice today.
Chapter 57: Desiree Dixon
Someone I Want You to Meet
“Come on, come on, come on,” I mutter under my breath as I watch Nick Dawson as he takes a step, plants his foot, and swings his leg to kick the ball through the uprights. My folded hands are under my chin as I say a silent prayer for it to go where it’s supposed to go.
It goes wide to the right.
The Aces lose the conference championship to the Bills at home.
Poor Nick Dawson. I can’t imagine the weight he’s feeling right now even though it’s a team effort. It’s not his fault, but he’ll feel like it is.
I feel horrible for the entire team. They played their hardest, but in the end, they came up short. They couldn’t seem to find a rhythm, even here at home—even when it seemed so damn easy all season.
It’s the fucking conference championship game that killed their season last year, too. Two years in a row, they got to the game before the big one, and now…
The season is over.
I watch as the Bills players rush out onto the field in celebration. I glance up at the rafters where the black and red confetti was waiting to fall.
Instead, it’ll be saved for next year, I guess. I’m not really sure what they do with confetti when the home team loses, but they’re not releasing it onto the field for the visitors.
“Oh, no,” my mom says beside me, and it’s almost like a hushed silence falls over the crowd.
I look through the players on the sidelines for eighty-five, and when I spot him, he’s facing me.
He takes off his helmet, and though he looks disappointed, his eyes find mine.
Something passes between us in that moment, and it’s not disappointment. It’s not even the heat I usually feel when he looks over at me.
It’s excitement.
For as much as neither of us wanted to see the season end like this, we still get to take a step in the next direction.
This offseason will hold a lot of weight for us. Before next season officially begins, we’ll be parents. We’ll be moving into a house together. The future we’ve talked about and fretted over and prepared for will be in our hands.
I’m wearing a jersey with his last name and number on it, and his eyes flick down to my chest in approval—of my tits or of what my shirt says, I’m not sure. Probably both, knowing him.
My mom and I head over to the family area after the game. It’s somber down here tonight as we wait for our players and coaches to exit the locker room. Nobody’s talking, and there isn’t the usual buzz as we all think about the men we love in that locker room. They’ll be disappointed in the way their season came to an end, even though there’s no shame in being one of the top four teams in the entire league.
They never see it that way. I’ve been around the game long enough to know that much.
The first of the players emerge, and they leave quietly with their families. It feels like a funeral back here, to be honest, and my hormones can’t take it.
I let out a deep sigh, and some more players exit.
Ellie comes over and gives me a somber hug with a little bit of enthusiasm as she quietly congratulates me on the news in person for the first time since I told her.
It’s nearly an hour after the game by the time Asher walks out before my dad does, and he looks around the room and spots me.
His lips tip up in a smile as he turns to the older woman running toward him for a hug. After he hugs her, he takes her arm and escorts her across the room.
“There’s someone I want you to meet,” he says quietly to me. “Mom, this is Desiree. Des, my mom.”
“It’s lovely to meet you, Mrs.—” I begin as I stick my hand out to shake hers.
She shakes her head instead and walks straight past my hand to pull me into a warm hug. “Call me Missy. And it’s wonderful to finally meet the woman who my boy can’t stop smiling about.”
