Page 197 of The Surprise Play

She sees me, and I fucking love it.

And she wants me to follow my dreams. I know me leaving Nolan is going to be hard on her, but she’s still telling me that she’ll be cheering me on at the Scouting Combine. She made me promise to send her updates when I have a chance. She wants to support me on this, and I know she and Sienna were texting this morning about throwing a massive draft party for us in April.

I can’t help a grin as I take the spot next to Zander’s SUV in the stadium parking lot.

Satch is amazing.

She’s fucking amazing.

I chuckle, shouldering the door open and picturing her in her room. She said she’s got an assignment looming and is going to spend the afternoon working on it so we can have dinner together later.

I’ve been really good and left her alone like she asked me to.

I spent the morning texting her and making sure she was avoiding Team Evil 2.0, but she got through the day without seeing them, and now that I know she’s tucked safely away in her room, I can breathe easy.

I tried to convince her to press charges—property damage or some shit. They scratched her, so that’s physical abuse, right? Surely the police will pay attention to that.

But she doesn’t want to.

She just wants to keep her head down and forget it happened.

I’m gonna have to keep working on her, because fuck, what am I going to do when I leave and I’m not here to keep her safe anymore?

Maybe I can convince her to transfer to a college in whatever city I end up playing in.

Would she go for it?

That’s not asking too much, is it?

I just can’t stand the thought of her being here without me nearby. I want to protect her from any more bullies. Sure, Grady and Carson will be around to keep an eye on her, but is that gonna be enough? I can’t expect them to play bodyguard every day.

Shit. I really need to come up with a plan around this thing.

“Wywee!” A sweet voice grabs my attention, and I turn to see Zoey running toward me. She’s carrying a football, her little legs eating up the space between us.

“Hey, Cowgirl.” I crouch low, capturing her in my arms and standing tall. “How was your weekend?”

“Fun! Fissing!”

“You went fishing?”

She nods. “Ganpa show me.”

“Wow, that is awesome. Did you catch anything?”

She nods again, her smile priceless as she holds her arms out wide, dropping the football in the process.

“You caught a fish that big?”

“Uh-huh.” Her big eyes are so convinced while her father strolls up behind her, shaking his head and winking at me.

I grin. “That’s impressive, kid.” I give her stomach a light poke.

She giggles, slapping a hand over her cute little belly. She’s wearing her “I’m a princess. Deal with it” sweater today. It’s bright pink with sparkly writing, and it fits her perfectly.

Crouching down, I pop her on her feet and grab the football. “Are you sticking around for practice today?”

“Sienna’s got her here just while everyone gets ready.” Zander brushes his hands through Zoey’s curls. “Couldn’t go another hour without seeing my lil’ love bug.”