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Cornell laughed. “I told you, I always tried to get Dwayne to be a running back.”
Linking her other hand around his waist, Ali looked up at him. “That really was something else. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Yeah?” Cornell asked, tucking a loose hair behind Ali’s ear.
“Great way to end your birthday.” She sighed. “Or, a gift.”
Cornell shook his head. “I thought you were getting me that wireless surround sound for the TV.”
“We did not agree on that, but it’s not the kind of gift I’m talking about anyway.” Ali shook her head and took a deep breath. “I won’t resign.” She could feel Cornell take a sharp breath. “This place, it’s our place. For now, at least. No one gets to take that away.” She looked over at Marvin. “This is where we belong.”
Cornell’s face held a serious look before his mouth flattened into a wide grin. “You fit right in. You know that?”
Ali raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? Here?”
“I mean, you’ve got balls.” Cornell looked over his shoulder, and Ali noticed their families had moved closer, that Lucy and Tara were holding their phones. “You’ll fit right in as a Crawford.”
Ali’s eyes flew back to his. “As a what—”
Suddenly, Ali realized that the crowd had grown just a bit quieter and that it was less of a crowd and more of a circle—players and coaches past and present, their families, their colleagues, everyone holding a breath and their phones as if the wildcat play hadn’t been the final play of the game, but Cornell holding her hand and taking a knee on the turf was.
Oh my god.
“Even if you wanted to resign, I’d still be here, on one knee, asking you to marry me.” Cornell held out a small, velvet box, but Ali couldn’t move her eyes from his, not even for a second. “I’d still be telling you that I’d pick you first on my team a thousand times over.”
Ali brought a hand over her eyes, shaking her head.
He’s doing this, oh my God, he’s doing this.
“This is the moment that matters. This is the moment I tell you you’re not just the something part. You’re the forever part too, Ali.”
Ali’s hand slid from her eyes, dragging light tears down her cheek as Cornell continued, his big brown eyes hopeful, optimistic, as they always were, Ali realized. Through struggle and heartache, through uncertainty and tight scores, darkness and bumps, Cornell was always prepared to keep going as if everything would turn out okay. And for the first time in months, Ali felt that in her bones—it’s going to be okay if we have each other.
“What do you think? It will be a long game. We’re on fourth down and forever. Will you go for it with me?”
Ali wanted to shout, but emotion kept her voice deep within. She nodded, wrapping her arms around Cornell and sliding onto his knee. “Yes,” she whispered and with the eruption of applause, jumps, and screams, her affirmation was secret and safe between them, buried into the crook of Cornell’s neck.
She continued to hold him tightly with one arm as he took her left hand and brought it down into her lap. Peeking down, Ali gasped at the ring he slipped onto her finger—a simple gold band with a perfect, understated diamond.
“This for sure she would’ve wanted you to have,” Cornell told her with a smile.
Ali looked down at Arlene’s ring and back at him, reaching up to cup his cheeks and kiss him. “Happy birthday.”
“You’ll never top this one,” Cornell said as Ali brushed a few lone tears that had escaped his eyes. Still balancing them on one knee, Cornell wrapped his arms tightly around her. “Thank you. You just officially made me the luckiest guy in the world. I’ve never loved you more than I do right now. But I know you’re going to surprise me.”
Ali looked on at their families, catching her mom’s smile as she mouthed the same words she did the night of the Gala. “They don’t make them like that anymore.”
As Cornell held her tighter, holding onto the fleeting moments where it was only them before surrendering to the congratulatory, celebratory crowd, Ali beamed.
They don’t make them like him at all, she thought, thoroughly convinced.
Her face stung from the stretch of the smile she held against Cornell’s warm neck, thinking about the night she was hurt by heartbreak and tipsy from tequila. She could see the girl at the bar during the months, weeks, days, and moments before she turned to the tall, tender-hearted, tattooed stranger and blitzed him with a kiss out of sheer panic.
It gets so much better, Ali wished she could tell herself. Even though it gets worse. He’s going to be there for that part, and that’s what’s important.
Cornell rocked her in happiness. “I’m going to love you past forever.”
“I know.”
The past few months taught her that the road to forever was paved with bumpy roads and long, dark tunnels. But if Cornell was beside her, holding her hand when things got rocky and squeezing it when it was pitch black, they would keep going to the forever part, laughing and loving along the way.
