Page 255 of On His Team

“Okay,” she says quietly.

“Okay.”

Her mouth curves. “That was very boyfriend of you.”

“I am your boyfriend.”

“I know. It still catches me off guard when you’re good at it.”

I pull her into me. I step back until I’m sitting on the bed.

She laughs as she comes across my lap. Her hands settle against my shoulders. For a while, we stop talking about next year.

That night, she stays. The suitcase doesn’t get finished until morning.

Three days later, Coach catches me outside the video room.

“Laurens.”

I stop.

He waits until the last couple of guys move past us. “Check your email.”

I look at him. “What?”

“Your university email.”

“Why?”

He gives me the same look he gives Stanley when Stanley asks something he already knows the answer to.

“How would I know?”

I chuckle. “You clearly know.”

“I know somebody called looking for you.”

My stomach tightens. “Who?”

“Graduate admissions.”

For a second, I just stare at him. Then I pull out my phone.

Fuller walks away before I can ask anything else.

There are two unread emails. One from a professor. One from admissions. I open the second. It takes me longer than it should to understand the first line. Then I read it again.

Congratulations.

I keep going.

Sport Administration.

Fall semester.

Accepted.

The hallway keeps moving around me while I stand there with my phone in my hand.