by Hannah Gray
“Okay.” I grin. “Favorite type of candy?”
Her eyes find mine, and she smiles. Understanding fills her eyes. I don’t need to dissect each and every shitty detail in her life for her to share with me. A true friendship is being there when you’re needed, and I plan to do that for her. But I’m not going to push for details on something that she isn’t ready to open up about. Just like she didn’t push for details from me.
I might not have known her since I was twelve, but I can already tell that one of the best things in life that has happened to me is when I was chosen to share a dorm with Sloane.
“Favorite type of candy … hmm.” She thinks about it. “Candy corn.”
I widen my eyes and look at her in shock. “You sick fucker.”
Sloane was put in my path for a reason. I just know it. Life has never gifted me that many wonderful people, but it has given me Cole, Sloane, Lenny, and Carla. And for that, I’m so damn thankful.
thirty-eight
Ally
Six Weeks Later
“They are totally going to do it!” Jenn squeals, jumping up and down. “They are going to win the championship!”
I smile, looking down at the only player on that field that my eyes care to see.
As the clock runs out, all of the players throw themselves on Cole before Knox and Weston pick him up and put him into the air.
Champions.
Cole, a freshman, led his team to a football championship and won. He’d wanted an undefeated season, yet that one game was his setback. After that loss, he came back ten times harder. Just like I had known he would. Training harder, working out harder, and practicing harder. And he did it. He really freaking did it!
Unable to stop herself, Jenn flings her arms around me. Embracing me in a full hug. “I’m so proud of him. So proud,” she cries, wiping tears from her cheeks as she releases me.
I smile, continuing to watch him. “Me too.”
As soon as his team puts him down, his head turns to find me.
What a wonderful feeling, knowing that even after a huge moment like this one, I’m the first person he thinks of. I’m the first one he looks for to see if I’m watching.
I’m watching, baby. I’ll always be watching.
Once he spots me, he takes off in a fast jog, making his way up the bleachers.
I waste no time in pushing through the other spectators to get to him. Not giving a damn how ridiculous I might look.
Once we get to each other, I leap into his arms, throwing my entire body around him. He holds me like I weigh nothing, lifting me up higher.
“I’m so proud of you,” I say, cupping his cheeks before pressing my lips to his. “So damn proud.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you, angel,” he murmurs against my skin. “My good-luck charm.”
“You could have, and you would have,” I argue. “But I’m so happy to be a part of it. I never doubted you, not for a second.”
Watching him play football and command a game he was destined for is such a turn-on. And honestly, I can’t wait to get him alone.
“Cole!” Jenn says from behind us. “Congratulations!”
“Thanks, Jenn.” He smiles before setting me down.
She throws her arms around him, her small body squeezing him. “Thank you for giving us a second chance. I’m so happy that we get to be in your lives.”
Matt clears his throat behind her. “Good job, bud.”
Once Jenn releases him, Matt holds his hand out, but Cole does something that shocks us all. He pulls Matt in for a hug, and though Matt might be a grown-ass man who works out daily, I swear his eyes turn misty.
Cole has been a little standoffish with him. It’s been hard for him to get used to the fact that they are brothers.
But Jenn and Matt have been so emotionally supportive of both of us. And not to mention, they are the reason why Dave and Marion are now behind bars.
Their hearing is coming up next month, and I’ll have to testify. But I meant what I told Cole—if I can show one other person that it isn’t their fault that this happened to them, if I can be brave for them, then that is exactly what I’m going to do. I hope it gives me some closure as well. Though I know there is no finish line, where I’ll magically forget the past. But I’m going to take it day by day and lean on those who have my back. I finally have a circle of people around me who care about me. It was a foreign feeling. Aside from Cole’s love, I had never felt that before. But when I opened my heart up and accepted it, I was so glad to have it.
I think love can be defined differently in each and every relationship. My version of love might not be the same as someone else’s. But to me, love means feeling everything the other person feels. It’s about absorbing their pain, feeling it on top of your own and yet not wanting it any other way.
My heart only beats peacefully when it beats along with Cole Storms’s. He’s far from the perfect person. But he’s my perfect person. And that’s all anybody needs. We don’t need a hundred people surrounding us with love. Sometimes, we just need one.
In his eyes, I’m the one he was waiting for. His angel who came down and took away his pain. But what he doesn’t know is, he’s my angel, my saving grace, my medicine to numb the pain of life’s cruel ways.
They say to love, one must love themselves first, but I disagree.
What if you find someone who shows you how to love yourself? What if they show you how they see you through their eyes? Without Cole, I wasn’t even a fraction of the person that I am when I’m with him. His soul feeds mine, awakens it, and brings it to life.
Our future will have its hurdles. With him being in the limelight in the NFL and me doing whatever the hell I decide to do, there will be tough times. But I know that as long as we have each other, we’ll be all right.
Throwing his arm around me, he kisses my hair. “A few more years, and maybe this will be a Super Bowl win, huh?”
I nod softly. “If that’s what you want, handsome, then, yes, I’m positive it will be.”
He’s a force, a weapon, a storm. If a Super Bowl win is what he wants, a Super Bowl win is what he’ll get because once he has the hunger for something, there is absolutely no stopping him.
Add that to the other millions of reasons why I love him so much.
thirty-nine
Ally
Junior Year
Draft Day
“I feel like I should be the nervous one.” Cole smirks. “You’re over there, about to shit a brick.”
“Shut up! Am not! I’m just … nervous,” I fire back.
I’m not nervous that he won’t get picked—I know he will. I’m nervous for what team will pick him. I’m in Georgia for another year, and while I know our relationship could withstand long distance, shit, I’d miss the hell out of him.
Kansas City has been hot on his tail. Kansas City is a long way away from Georgia. Over fourteen hours by car. That would suck.
“Promise me something?” I say, putting my hands on his rock-hard abs and looking up into his eyes that are clearly blue today.
“What’s that, beautiful?” he says, tipping his chin up.
“Don’t forget me when you’re famous, deal?”
“Oh, cut the shit.” He rolls his eyes. “Never going to happen. Even if I do get drafted on the opposite side of the country, you’ll still be my pain in the ass all the way over here in Georgia.”
My bottom lip involuntarily pokes out as tears well up in my eyes. I bury my head into his chest, embarrassed as hell that he’ll see I’m crying on a day that’s so important to him.
“Ally, what’s going on?” His deep voice vibrates against my ear. Pulling me back, he dips his head down to make his eyes meet mine. “Hey, talk to me.”
“I’m fine.” I wipe my eyes. “I’m so proud of you. This day is monumental.” My lip trembles. “A life changer.”
Sitting down on the couch behind him, he pulls me into his lap. “That can all be true, and I
know you’re proud. But I want to know why you’re crying. I don’t give a fuck how important this day is.”
“I just … I’m going to miss you so much if you go far away.” The tears run down my cheeks in a steady stream. “I know; I know. I’m being a whiny, selfish bitch.”
“Hey, look at me.” His eyes gaze into mine. “Let’s cross that bridge if and when it gets here. Okay?”
I nod. “Okay.”
“All right, lovebirds, quit the fondling. I’m coming out here to eat my dinner, and I’m too old for this shit,” Lenny grumbles before sitting down across from us. “Go eat, Ally. You’re scrawny as hell.”
“Am not,” I say before standing up. “But I will go eat. But because I want to and not because you told me to,” I tease him, sticking my tongue out.
I hate the fact that I’m having these feelings on such a huge day. But since this morning, I have been a ball of nerves. Feeling like I could burst into tears at any second.
We knew this day was coming. It was inevitable. And now, I need to put my big-girl panties on and toughen the hell up.
The problem is, I don’t know how to stop this deep ache in my chest.
Cole
Sitting back, I watch Ally as she nervously makes her way to the kitchen, where Jenn and Matt are serving up everyone’s plates, and I frown.
“She’ll be all right,” Lenny says, reading my mind as I continue to watch Ally. He chuckles. “She’s a stubborn, mouthy thorn in my side at times, but she’s strong,” he says, wearing a knowing look on his face.
He pretends she’s a pain in his ass, but he loves her like a daughter. She’s become his family. And he, hers.
I nod. “I know she’ll be all right. She’s Ally.” I blow out a breath. “This is stupid. Why the fuck am I leaving her? I could stay and get a degree, figure the NFL out next year.”
Taking a bite of his salad, he wipes his mouth and gives me a pointed look. “That isn’t the plan.”
“I know that. But fuck, how am I supposed to leave behind the one person who has always been there?” Waving my hand toward the kitchen area, I shake my head. “Especially when she’s already upset and I haven’t even left yet. Fuck, I haven’t even been drafted yet, and she’s crying.”
“Because”—his eyes grow serious—“it doesn’t matter where you are, you’re still together. This is something you are doing to give both of you a better life. This is your dream, Cole. And she wouldn’t want you to pass up a dream to stay back. It’d make you resent her.”
I grimace. “I could never resent Ally. No fucking way.”
“You say that now, but things change. Say you stay in college and you injure yourself next year. All those dreams of the NFL? Poof, gone.” Pushing himself up, he pats me on the shoulder. “I will be right here, looking after her, while you’re away. I’m not going anywhere,” he says softly before walking away.
I know he will look after her. Hell, he’s become family to both of us. But nobody can look after her the way I can. Besides, it’s not just that. I don’t want to be without her either. I can’t imagine not waking up next to her in the morning.
My phone rings loudly in my pocket, and I instantly feel sick when I pull it out and see an out-of-state number.
“Cole!” Ally yells from the kitchen. “It’s okay! Wherever it is, it will be okay. I’m sorry I was being a little bitch.” Stomping her feet, she points her finger. “Answer your damn phone!” When I continue to stare at her, she yells, “Now!”
Sliding my thumb across the screen, I put it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Cole Storms?”
“Yes.”
“Just the man I want to talk to.” I hear a deep chuckle on the other line. “This is Brett Veach, the general manager for the Kansas City Chiefs. I want to start off by saying you’ve been chosen as the number one draft pick, so congratulations on that.”
I knew Kansas City was interested in me, but I had no idea I would be number one.
“Number one? Fuck—I mean, sorry—”
He laughs. “No apology needed, son. How’d you like to come on board and play with us?”
“I’d … I’d … can you hold on a minute?” I ask him without thinking.
“Uh … sure.” He sounds surprised.
Walking over to Ally, I crane my neck to look at her. “Kansas City.”
“Cole, that’s amazing.” Her face lights up. She might be nervous to lose me, but I know she’s happy as hell for me too.
“Ally …”
“No.” She shakes her head vigorously. “You need to go. This is one of the teams you were wishing for. We will figure it all out. We will always figure it out.” Pressing her lips to mine, she wipes her eyes. “I’m so proud of you, Cole. You made it. You really made it.”
“No, we made it,” I correct her. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, baby. I’m sure.” Nodding her head to my phone, she smiles. “Go on. He won’t wait forever.”
“Sir?” I say, pressing the phone back to my ear. “My answer is yes.”
“Good, good. Jesus, son. Had me sweatin’ for a minute there.” He laughs. “That must be some girl if you were willing to put it all on the line for her.”
I watch Ally, my eyes never leaving hers. “She is.”
“Well, welcome to the NFL, Mr. Storms. We’re happy to have you. We will be talking to you real soon.”
“Yes, sir.” The words leave my mouth, and even though this should be the best damn day of my life, the only thing I’m thinking about is how I don’t know how I’m supposed to go out there, living my life when she isn’t by my side.
She’s stubborn as hell, quick to anger, intimidating as hell, and sometimes a downright pain in my ass. But, Jesus, I love her.
Collapsing onto my bed, I wait for Ally to come out of the bathroom.
We moved into an apartment just off-campus last year. And while I miss the guys sometimes, I’m a helluva lot happier, living with Ally and having a place to ourselves. Especially on nights like tonight when we need to talk about the fact that I’m the newest team member of the Chiefs.
Now that I have had time to reflect, I can’t believe that I actually made it. A goal that always seemed so many years away has now been achieved.
Stepping into the room, Ally wears a Chiefs jersey and nothing else. Her dark hair spills over her shoulders. As she makes her way over to me, my eyes drink her in like water.
“So, I guess that’s why you stopped at the mall on the way home and wouldn’t let me come in with you, huh?” I laugh. “And here I thought, you went to Victoria’s Secret for some lingerie.” I shake my head, pulling her on top of me. “This though? This is better. Much better.”
She straddles me, looking damn fine. “Congratulations, Mr. Storms.” Pressing a kiss to my chest, she smiles. “And chosen as the number one draft pick? Very impressive. And very … sexy.”
“Yeah?” I narrow my eyes. “How sexy?”
Kissing her way down my abdomen, she stops when she gets to the waistband of my briefs. “So sexy,” she purrs before pulling them down and setting my excruciatingly hard cock free.
We should talk. We should hash everything out. But that can all wait. Life can wait. All I want right now is to live in this moment with her.
I watch as she slowly licks her plump lips before fully immersing herself into sucking my dick. When she licks up one side of it and down another, I can’t help my hips from jerking against her mouth.
“Fuck,” I hiss. “So … good.”
“Mmhmm,” she hums against me, and I almost lose my mind.
When she flicks her tongue at the base of me, my eyes roll back into my head.
So. Fucking. Good.
Taking a fistful of her hair, I have to think of anything besides getting off.
“Angel, unless you want me to come all inside that pretty mouth, you’d better stop fucking my dick with it. Now,” I growl.
She gives me a smirk and continues on, intensifyin
g her suction, but I don’t give her a choice.
Pulling her on top of me, I slam her down onto my dick, causing her to cry out.
“Love that jersey on you, sweet cheeks. But I need to see your bare tits. All right?”
Like a good girl, she instantly pulls it off and tosses it to the floor. Exposing her full, creamy chest to me.
She moves up and down on me, her tits bouncing as she does, looking like the angel that she is. Her dark hair all around her, her cheeks red from being so turned on, her eyes burning with a need only I can give her.
I wouldn’t need much more in this life to die a happy man.
Sex can be just that—sex. But when two bodies share one soul and two people love each other this much, sex can be everything.
I feel her love. I see her heart right before my eyes.
Reaching up, I gently cup her throat. “All mine. Forever mine.”
“Forever,” she grits out, getting closer. “Cole,” she cries out, biting her lip.
I nod. “Now, baby. Right now.”
And I see her come apart before me.
“I love you,” she says, breathless. “So much.”
And I know that she does. And that right there is an amazing fucking feeling.
forty
Cole
Three Months Later
I’ve been here in Kansas City for two weeks now.
I used to think that once I got here, to the NFL, I’d want to hold my middle fingers up to everyone who had abandoned me. I thought I’d want to tell them all off as I sat at the top. It turns out, I don’t want to do that anymore. Because that would mean I was holding on to anger, and honestly, life’s too fucking good for that shit.
Except for the fact that I haven’t heard from Ally recently.
I frown as I get Ally’s voice mail after trying to call her for the fifth time today and hearing nothing back. I called her before practice, and I was sure I’d hear from her by the time I got done, yet nothing.
We always text or talk off and on throughout the day whenever we have a second. Stupid GIFs during the day, some phone sex at night, anything to get us the fuck through being apart.