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I powered down my window.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “Texting your friends about kissing some hot guy?”

I smiled. “Something like that.”

He leaned forward and placed a kiss on my lips. “Is that why you’re blushing?”

“I’m not—it’s just hot.”

“It’s not hot at all,” he said. “In fact, I’m a little cold.”

I laughed and pushed the upper half of my body out the window to kiss him again.

“For training tomorrow,” he said between kisses, “let’s go to Cal Poly. Kick through their uprights.” Cal Poly was a state college about twenty minutes away.

I sat back in my seat. “We’re allowed to do that?”

He shrugged. “I’ve trained there before. I guess we’ll see.”

“Am I ready for that?”

“It’s time.”

“WHAT ARE YOUR COLLEGE PLANSnow that football is off the table?” I asked as we worked our way through the Cal Poly campus the next day toward the football field.

He was quiet for too long, taking in our surroundings. The campus was beautiful, sandwiched between rolling hills; it had asmall-campus feel even though it was relatively big. Maybe my relative was skewed, though, since I hadn’t been on a lot of college campuses and my high school was on the small side.

I grabbed hold of his hand because I wanted to be closer to him. Ever since we kissed the day before, I’d wanted to be near him. If I was being honest with myself, that feeling had started long before we kissed. “Wait,isfootball still on the table?”

“Yes,” he said quickly. “No…I don’t know…. Probably not. I’d have to try for a walk-on position, and even in my prime, walking on is not the easiest way to get on a team. What about you?”

“I don’t think I’ll play football in college,” I teased.

“Maybe you’ll get scouted next year,” he joked back. “No, but have you thought more about the internship? Sending in your podcast. It’s gotten so popular.”

“Jensen did that.” I said out loud what had been brewing in my brain since last week when he’d told me. “He’s the one who shared it on his socials. He’ll probably write it as one of his accomplishments on his application.”

Anger flashed across Theo’s face, and he stopped. I turned and looked at him. “He took credit for your views?” Theo’s voice waslow.

“He felt the need to point it out, yes. And beyond that, the real star of the show is my grandma. Jensen and my grandma are the reasons the show has done anything.”

“Stop saying stuff like that, Finley.”

“Stop saying the truth?”

“He doesn’t get to claim your successes anymore. And in less than two weeks, he’ll be put in his place.”

I wondered if that was true. He had easily won the hosting position, he’d get the internship. And he might easily win his kicking spot.

Theo nodded as if that settled it, and we kept walking.

We reached the football stadium and walked through the entrance and onto the field. I stopped in the end zone, breathless. It was huge, and I felt overwhelmed, to say the least. “Not sure this is a good idea for my first time actually kicking through uprights.”

“It only seems bigger,” he said. “It’s the same size as the high school field, there’s just more”—he spun a circle while pointing—“other things.”

“Right,” I said.

“So are you ready?”