Page 49 of Framing the Pitch (Red Dirt Romance #1)
My mind is so consumed with Trace by the time we get back to the locker room that I barely hear Coach Golding’s comments on the game.
They’re all positive, leaving the entire team with smiles on their faces, but her reminder that this is only the first game—that while we won tonight, a win tomorrow isn’t guaranteed—sobers the energy in the room.
But I don’t care because a man I thought I wouldn’t see for another four weeks is somewhere in this stadium complex waiting for me.
My phone isn’t the only one exploding with messages and notifications as my teammates retrieve their devices from their lockers and turn them on.
Mine range from arrival notifications from my sister to a running commentary of improvements I can make from Archie to congratulations from Marilyn and Emmett.
But my favorite notification—the one I immediately click on when it appears on my screen—is a text message from Trace.
TRACE
Meet me outside the clubhouse when you’re done .
I have never showered so fast in my life.
My teammates trickle out of the locker room as they finish changing.
They’ll all filter back to the hotel after celebrating tonight’s victory with friends and family, just like I will if I can get my navy blue shorts on over still-damp legs with any amount of speed.
Sliding my tennis shoes on my feet, I grab the handle of my bag and move to the door, waving goodbyes to the few players left in the room.
My bag has barely cleared the doorway out of the locker room when I see him waiting fifteen feet down the hallway. I drop the handle, and it hits the floor with a clank, but I don’t care as I take off running toward my favorite person in the world.
Trace’s smile lights up all the corners of my heart that have been shadowy since he left for training camp.
He takes a step forward as I near, but his advance is cut off as I jump into his arms. His strong arms wrap around my legs, holding me aloft as I bury my face in his shoulder, my arms wrapping tightly around his neck.
His inaudible chuckle rumbles up through me, vibrating my whole body. I pull back, my hands going to frame his face—so familiar I could draw it in my sleep. His eyes barely flick to my lips before I pull his face to mine, fusing our mouths together.
Warmth flows through me, from my head to my toes and out to my fingertips that brush the short hairs behind Trace’s ears.
His hands tighten on my thighs, his thumbs digging into the soft, bare skin there, sending waves of heat to my chest where every touch and emotion builds into an inferno that consumes me.
Trace’s tongue dances with mine, each stroke plunging me further and further into a world where I can’t exist without him.
I’m breathless when we break apart, and Trace slowly lowers me to the ground. The toes of my tennis shoes touch the tile floor, and my knees buckle slightly, feeling like I’ve never walked a day in my life. I continue to cling to Trace, who wraps his arms around my waist to keep me close.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, my voice hoarse with emotion.
“I came to see you play.” He leans forward and touches his forehead to mine. “I came to watch you win .” He punctuates his statement with a short kiss, one that ends too soon and leaves me craning up for one more taste. But Trace leans back, a luminous smile on his face.
Seeing that I’m not getting another kiss, I settle back onto my heels and I let my hands drift down over Trace’s shoulders to his biceps and around to his chest. “But what about the fines? Didn’t you say it was a huge fine to miss training camp?”
Trace’s eyes flare, and I feel his heart race beneath my palms. His smile falls away to a serious expression. “I did.” He swallows, his honey-colored eyes holding mine captive so completely. “But what’s $150,000 compared to the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with?”
Trace’s pulse quickens while mine stops completely.
“We’ve already spent eight years together, but apart.
And to finally have you but not be with you…
it was the sweetest torment. I couldn’t think of anything but you.
I couldn’t talk about anything but you. I’m sure my teammates were glad to get rid of me for a few days just so they didn’t have to hear about ‘Naomi this’ and ‘Naomi that.’”
One side of his face lifts into a smile, and he touches his forehead to mine again.
“I couldn’t sit around, knowing I had you but couldn’t be with you.”
I raise a hand to Trace’s face, and he leans into my palm, his eyes closing in an expression of pure bliss. “You’ll always have me, Trace. I’m not going anywhere. ”
“I love you, Naomi.” His words tumble out like a confession he’s kept hidden for too long.
“I have for longer than I’d care to admit.
The gentleman in me wants to say it was after I ended things with Millie, but I think I fell in love with you long before she ever came back into my life.
And I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with anyone else.
It’s only you.” Our foreheads touch again, and my heart swells, hearing Trace’s words. “It’s always been you.”
“I love you, Trace.” The words come out as a whisper, not the strong declaration I’ve been imagining over the last several days, but the look of pure adoration in his eyes tells me that I could have mouthed them and he would understand.
“I love you.” I punctuate my words with a kiss. “I love you.” Another kiss.
With every repetition of the words, my voice grows stronger, more sure, and the burning in my chest wants to spread to every part of my body—to engulf me and Trace and everything around us until we’re both burning as hot as a star.
“It doesn’t matter how far apart we are, Trace, I will always love you.”
Trace’s arm snakes around my waist, one hand going to the nape of my neck to pull me in tightly and guide my mouth to his in a kiss that begins enthusiastically then slows to a languid pace.
The world disappears around us, leaving us stranded in a sea of stars and supernovas.
Rolling thunder and lightning strikes. Me and him.
After the kiss that makes me feel like tomorrow is a figment of my imagination, Trace pulls back and drops his hands from my waist to my hands. “Come on, Sugar. I wasn’t the only one who was waiting to see you.”
My mind instantly jumps to the group of people who had sat surrounding Trace during the game—my mismatched, handpicked family .
After picking up my abandoned bag from the middle of the hallway, Trace and I walk the labyrinthine walkways back out to the mostly-empty parking lot.
Trace leads me past the loading circle, where the bus of my teammates and coaches pulls out and heads back to the hotel, and toward a group of unfamiliar cars surrounded by familiar people.
“Naomi!” Luella and Archie are the first to react to our approach, breaking away from the small group to wrap me up in a crushing hug. “You played amazing tonight!” she gushes, pushing me back by my shoulders and giving me a little shake for emphasis.
“You’re dragging your knee a little on your transfer,” Archie says in a very casual voice, the complete opposite of his wife, “and it’s making your pop-time slower.”
Luella and I laugh at Archie’s dry advice. “I’ll keep an eye on it, Archie,” I say.
I turn to the rest of the group, and Luella releases my shoulders. Emmett embraces me, a hug so similar to his son’s I almost start tearing up, but when he looks at me, I keep those tears tucked into their ducts. “Good game, kiddo.”
Marilyn doesn’t wait for me to move on from Emmett when she wraps me in her own hug, pulling me away while her husband laughs. “You did it, sugar!” she beams, crushing me in a hug that nearly cuts off my air supply. “One down, one to go!”
When she allows me to lean back, her eyes go above my shoulder to where Trace is standing behind me.
Her eyes come back to me, and a sly grin slips onto her face before she pulls me back in for another, gentler hug.
“I hope you were surprised,” she whispers in my ear before releasing me to the next person in the circle.
“Of course I was,” I whisper back with a soft smile just for her .
All eyes are on me as I step in front of the last two people in the circle. The air grows tense for a moment before Jenna flings her arms around my neck, pulling me down to her.
“I’m so proud of you, Naomi,” she says, tears warping the sound of her voice. “I don’t think anyone in our family ever told you that enough, and I think you should know that despite what Mom and Dad think, you’re doing amazing. Better than amazing. You’re doing the best.”
Jenna releases my neck, and my smile for her turns wobbly as I wipe away the tears that have snuck out of my eyes. I didn’t realize how badly I had craved those words from someone in my family. I’m so proud of you.
Jenna steps back and wraps her hand around Ryker’s. Instead of spreading his arms for a hug, he extends his hand, and I take it. It’s a start. “I have to admit, Jenna had to explain everything during the game, but that was amazing, Naomi. You’re doing really good work out there.”
My heart warms at his honesty, and I offer him a smile. “To be honest, I don’t know much about snowboarding either, so we’re even.”
He laughs a little and looks down at my younger sister. “We’ll have to come to some more games next season so we can both learn a little more about it.”
Sudden emotion clogs my throat, so I just nod, pressing my lips into a smile to hold back the tears.
Having made it around the circle of the people who came to support me tonight, I turn to Trace, who wordlessly wraps his arm around me when I step close to him.
“Why don’t we all go to dinner together to celebrate?
” he asks the group of my friends and family.
“On me, of course.” He winks, and everyone laughs, nodding in agreement .
As if controlled by the same single brain cell, everyone turns to head to their separate cars, murmuring that they’ll follow us to wherever we pick.
“Where to, my love?” Trace whispers in my ear as he steers me away.