Page 34 of Offside Play (Love The Game #1)
Jude
H e loved me .
Cody Clements, the man I was head over heels for, loved me back.
“Is this real?” I whispered. “You—you love me? You’re really staying?”
“Yeah, it’s real.” He slid his mouth against mine, so softly it gave me butterflies. “I love you, and I want to stay. I’m sorry it took me so long to work things out in my head.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. Fuck, Cody. Are you sure? This is a huge decision.”
“I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”
I stared at him, registering the determination and certainty in his eyes. He really meant this, didn’t he?
Shaking my head, I brought his hand up to my chest, letting him feel how hard my heart was pounding. “I can’t believe it.”
“Believe it. I’m staying, if you’ll have me.”
“In the Painswick house? With me?”
“Yeah.” His voice dropped. “I can see us living there, Jude.”
My smile was so wide it hurt. “Oh, I get it. You just want a piece of my dream home.”
That got him to crack a smile, his lips tilting up at the corners. “Figured out my plan, did you?”
“You’re easy to read,” I told him. “Sometimes. I guess I don’t mind being roommates with you.”
He rolled his eyes. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.” A thought struck me. “If you’re staying, does that mean you’re gonna take the job Ross keeps trying to talk you into? He said he could easily sort out visas and everything.”
“I’ll have to speak to Ross,” he said, which was basically a yes. Fucking hell, this day had gone from potentially the worst moment of my career to the best moment of my life. I hoped it was the best moment of his, too.
“Hey, Cody?” I ran my hand down his back, my mind blown all over again at the thought that I got to do things like this whenever I wanted, hopefully for the rest of my life.
“Yeah?”
“I love you. So much.”
“Fuck.” His voice was scraped raw. “Fuck. I never thought I’d hear anyone say those words to me.”
My heart ached. I pressed kisses against his lips, again, and again, and again. “I’m gonna say them to you all the time. So much, you’ll get sick of it. You deserve to be told you’re loved every single day.”
When we drew apart, both of us had tears in our eyes. Cody huffed, impatiently swiping his away, and I smiled. “It’s been an emotional day, and, y’know, when the love of your life tells you he loves you for the very first time…”
“Yeah. I know.” He exhaled heavily. “Speaking of telling people things, I assume your manager will want an explanation from me.”
“And the media,” I reminded him with a bright smile. “We’d better work out what to tell them about your one-man pitch invasion. Please can we use those exact words?”
“Fuck off.” Ah, there was the grumpy bastard I knew and loved. “We’ll tell them the truth. That I was scared for the person I love, and I wasn’t thinking about anything except getting to you.”
“Sounds good to me. We can make it into a sob story. The poor, broken footballer lying prone on the pitch and the dashing partner racing to his one true love. I bet we can squeeze out a few tears. Or we could rub onions under our eyes. That’s guaranteed to make us cry.”
“Onions. Fucking hell. Don’t make me regret my decision to stay,” he warned, rubbing his hand over his jaw, but I could tell he was amused, trying to hide his smile behind his palm.
“Okay. No onions. But we’ll get a statement written up. The PR team will know the best way to word it. And we’ll explain what happened to Harvey. I know he’ll understand.”
“He will, and so will your teammates. But the fans might not.”
I shrugged. “Some will, some won’t. I’m prepared to deal with whatever shit gets thrown at us, if you’re all in.”
His eyes met mine. “I’m all in. Whatever happens. I don’t want to hide anymore.”