Page 59

MAYA

“This is so heavy, what could you possibly have packed in this? It feels like rocks.” I asked, huffing out a breath of air as I carried the box into Theo’s new townhouse.

“You’re making me look bad,” Theo said, carrying her box practically one-handed, and turned to Iris.

“We have actually been going to the gym together. I wasn’t making that up.

” I put the box down on the kitchen island, needing a second.

Theo’s new place—in a cute, trendy neighborhood of Cedar Creek, the biggest city in the county—was gorgeous.

She’d still kept it modest because she was Theo and even a seven-figure shoe deal wasn’t going to make her live lavishly, but it felt very big city compared to what had been available on our campus.

After going on to lose in the championship game—against Point Brook, which Theo accepted with grace while everyone else was furious—there hadn’t been much time for her to mourn the end of her college career.

She pretty much immediately had to fly out for the draft—toting me and her parents along for the most whirlwind vacation of my life—and ended up being the first pick of the first round, her major personal victory against Cam Kerr.

She suddenly had a manager and a public relations team and very important meetings with very important people, pretty much overnight.

The team had wasted no time coordinating ad space to get her face all over the airport and the arena.

Fortunately, Theo didn’t have to move far because the Cedar Creek Blizzards were only about an hour away from Lakeside Green, but it was still a lot of change all at once. And going from a college town to a city, even in the same state, was still an adjustment.

“Dude, this place is nuts,” GJ said, walking up behind Iris.

Theo and I had managed to rope the two of them into helping Theo move.

Danny had offered, but GJ had shut him down with a quick, Oh, so you think four women can’t handle moving some boxes?

He didn’t take offense; he knew he was going to be the person on call to help Theo build her furniture when it arrived.

GJ offered muscle but wasn’t someone anyone would consider patient enough to build a bed frame.

Not that Theo had much for Danny to help us with, anyway—she’d left behind a lot of the communal furniture for GJ in their old house and purchased new things instead.

Everything was in the process of being delivered, however, which meant Theo’s apartment was as empty as it had been when we toured it.

“Yeah, the price was great for the square footage and location,” Theo agreed.

“I just meant it looks like something out of HGTV, but go off,” GJ said .

“Where do you want the boxes?” Iris asked.

“You can put them anywhere for now, I’ll figure it out,” Theo said, and we stacked them against one of her walls.

GJ didn’t hesitate to explore, taking the steps two at a time to see the second floor. “This makes our old place look like a dump,” she said, her voice echoing through the empty rooms.

Iris also wandered, taking a look out of Theo’s ground-floor living room windows. “Please let me host a dinner party out of this apartment,” she said.

“Of course,” Theo said.

I walked over to Theo and hugged my arms around her waist as she threw her arm over my shoulders.

“I’m glad you picked this one. This was my favorite,” I said.

“I know, that’s why I picked it,” Theo said, and my heart fluttered like it always did around Theo.

It never took much—she’d make breakfast for me or get me a card and flowers after practice or look extra sexy loading up the U-Haul for her move.

Everything she did was the hottest, most incredible thing anyone had ever done.

Iris was so relieved I’d gotten my shit together that she wasn’t even making fun of me for my personality transplant.

I had a feeling she’d eventually get sick of me gushing about Theo, not that she was any better when it came to Danny.

It was hard not to gush, though. Things had been storybook perfect with Theo. There were still hiccups—days when I was moody, times when she was so busy with meetings and training that there was little time for me—but it felt more than worth it to me. The good always outweighed the bad .

And things had been a lot easier since we knew we were both staying in Colorado.

I’d accepted my offer at Cedar Creek University, the much smaller and much more city-centric school in the county.

They offered a great benefits package and everything I wanted—including getting to stay close to my two favorite people in the world, since Iris was a shoo-in for a job at a hospital nearby.

My mom had even offered to fly out to see me a few times a year in Colorado; we’d been talking more regularly on the phone, and things seemed to be the best they’d ever been for us.

Iris and I were even going to stick together as roommates and agreed on finding a place with a guest room, which I was thrilled about. We knew friends from college were going to want a place to stay when they came into town to see Theo play.

Theo and I had discussed moving in together, but we agreed that we didn’t want to rush anything.

I had a feeling I’d be over here pretty much full-time—Iris and I were definitely going to make ourselves at home, even when Theo was away for games—and that was a good enough middle ground for me.

Moving in with Theo when our leases were up in about a year gave me something to look forward to—and I was more than looking forward to it.

I knew this was just the beginning. My girlfriend—a label we’d officially agreed to the night of that first Point Brook game—was moving an hour away from me.

She was missing graduation because of her game schedule, and she wouldn’t be there for those last few weeks of senior year when everyone wrote off classes and partied and cried about how much they were going to miss each other.

It was going to be hard seeing her even less, knowing she was signing on to play basketball straight through until at least September, when the regular season ended in the pros.

I was sure even more changes and adjustments were to come. Nothing was going to be easy or predictable. But I was ready to take it one day at a time with her.

“I love you,” I said, holding her close to me.

Theo kissed the top of my head. “I love you, too, pretty girl.”