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The ball touches the inside of the net, slipping past the goalkeeper's glove by a literal hair’s width of distance.
“YES! FUCK YES, BABY!” I scream, slapping my hands on my head, tearing at my roots as the emotions building inside me the last ninety minutes spill over.
Elise’s wide-eyed expression turns on me. She pushes herself off of the ground and starts sprinting toward me. She’s coming so fast she manages to run up the fence. I lean my bulk over the railing, grabbing her under her arms, and pull her sweat-coated body up against me.
She wraps her arms around my neck, and the flood gates erupt.
Tears are spilling out of my eyes as I ugly-cry into her neck, shaking our bodies with the rumbling from my chest.
“I did it,” she whispers, her voice small and filled with disbelief.
“You fucking did it, mi vida,” I tell her, pulling away to look into her pretty eyes. My lip is still quivering as I try to suck in abreath and calm myself down. “The best in the world, just like I knew you’d be.”
Her lips pinch, and tears start to pool in her eyes, but Carlos taps her on the shoulder, dragging her attention away from me.
A low rumble leaves my throat at the intrusion, but I’ll allow it, just this once.
“Look at that. A two-time World Cup winner and an Olympic gold champion, all by the age of twenty-five,” he praises.
“Twenty-four,” her dad corrects, leaning over us to press a kiss to the top of her head. “I’ve never been prouder of you, kid. Your mum and Rachelle are probably looking down on you right now with nothing but pride and stars in their eyes.”
“Thanks, Dad,” she says, her eyes flickering back to me. “I’m gonna need you to put me down now because my legs are going numb.”
I press one quick, sloppy kiss to her lips that has her giggling before lowering her back down to run to the field and celebrate with her team.
As she rejoins them, I’m able to take a deep breath, some of the adrenaline wearing off enough that I can take a seat again.
“I have the coolest aunt,” Valentina, Carlos’s stepdaughter, whispers behind me.
I lean back, ruffling her hair. “You sure do,” I agree.
And I have the coolest wife.