“I had the alarm set.” She turns to look at me, the sleep still in her eyes. “But it just took me a while to fall asleep last night.”
“Was everything okay?” I ask as worry sets in.
“Yeah, it was fine. It was the high of the win.” She smiles at me. “What an adrenaline rush it must be.”
“It’s always good to win,” I agree, grabbing her plate and putting food on it. “A lot better than losing.”
“How do you turn it off?” she asks. “Like do you get home and are wired?”
“Yeah,” I answer her honestly. “It takes a couple of hours to relax by the time I get home. I usually eat something.” When I hand her the plate, her fingers graze mine, and I ignore the pull to her. “Then I turn on the television and just flip through channels until I’m tired.”
“What time did you go to bed?” she asks, grabbing a piece of bacon and chewing on it.
“Last time I saw the clock, it was after three.” Grabbing a piece of toast, I take a bite.
“Aren’t you tired?” I nod at her.
“But I can sleep on the plane.” I scoop some eggs on my plate. “It’s a five-hour flight to Vancouver.”
“How long are you there for?” She grabs her fork and takes a bite of the eggs.
“We get there today, and the game is tomorrow. Then we leave Vancouver right after the game and head to LA.” I try to remember the schedule. “We play LA the day after, then San Jose the day after that, and then we get back.” She just looks at me with her mouth open. “Then I’m home for ten days.”
“My hat’s off to you guys.” She smiles. “I don’t know how you do it.”
The rest of the breakfast flies by faster than I want it to, and I know I have to get going, or she’s going to be late. I get up and take our plates to the kitchen, rinsing them off and putting them in the dishwasher. “Thanks for having breakfast with me.”
She gets up. “Thank you for wanting to have breakfast with me.” She waits for me near the door.
“I’ll call you tonight,” I say, trying to gather up the courage to kiss her. My hand goes to the handle of the door.
“Text me when you land.” She looks up at me as I stand here in the doorway of her apartment. “Just so I don’t worry.”
I smirk at her. “You worry about me.” My hand comes up, going to her face as my thumb rubs her soft cheek. “I like that.” My voice goes into a whisper as my face also leans down, and I want to kiss her so bad, but I’m not sure she wants me to. My lips go to her cheek. “I’ll text you later.” I look at her, and all she can do is nod. I smile and walk out of her apartment with my shoulders feeling like they’re holding up a thousand pounds. I wait for her to call me back, hoping she calls me back, but nothing.
When I get into the SUV, I start it and drive away from here before I do something stupid. Stopping at the red light, I connect my phone and call Dylan. “How are you up?” he asks, laughing.
“Travel day,” I respond, making my way toward the airport.
“Saw that little play last night.” He laughs, making me laugh.
“You watching my game?” I tease him.
“Did you not read the group text that Granddad sent?” he asks, and I look down, seeing I’ve missed a hundred and one messages. “Who taught him how to do a group message?” I chuckle. “I had to put it on ‘do not disturb’ because it was going off every five seconds.”
“He was just proud,” I say, and then my voice trails off. “I just left Jillian’s.”
“And?” He knows I have a lot more to say.
“And I really fucking like her,” I admit, the lump in my chest getting heavy again. “Like really fucking like her.” I shake my head. “I left, and all I wanted to do was to kiss her, but I didn’t.” I’m upset with myself for not just taking the kiss I wanted. “What do you think I should do?”
“Here is a crazy thought.” He stops, and I wait for it. “Why don’t you tell her?” I roll my eyes, not saying a word. “Dude, she’s having your kid.”
“Yeah, but what if she doesn’t want me like that?” I ask. The fear that she doesn’t is almost too much to bear.
“What if she does?” He turns it around on me. “What if she does want you like that, and she’s waiting for you to make a move, but you’re too busy jacking off? Instead of being like ‘I like you, you like me.’”