Page 45

Harper

“Watch out for that step,” Jamil whispered in my ear as he kept one hand firmly pressed over my eyes while using the other one to support me, so I didn’t go sprawling across the ground.

He’d kept tight-lipped all day long about what he had planned for my birthday. Olivia, Lottie, and Maggie took me to brunch while Jamil and Tommy disappeared to prepare for whatever they had planned, and I only saw him well after lunchtime once it was time to get ready for the party.

“One more step.” His voice brushed against my ear, his hand steadying me as I climbed the final step.

All morning I’d been fixating on what would happen tonight.

The most I’d ever had someone celebrate my birthday before was my parents when I was still a kid.

They’d invited all their coworkers and their kids.

Another congressman’s son had leaned over to blow my candles out before me and all anyone did was laugh.

No one even noticed the tears welling in my eyes as I watched the boy laugh with glee as he suddenly became the center of attention.

After that birthday, I’d never asked for anyone to celebrate me again solely because I couldn’t handle the disappointment I’d felt that day.

But Jamil had been so insistent that I couldn’t tell him I didn’t like to celebrate my birthday. His excitement over planning with Tommy had become so intoxicating that I’d even found myself being a little excited for tonight.

“Ready?” Jamil asked me. I heard a heavy door being pulled open as it scraped against the sidewalk.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I told him.

“Tonight’s for you to have fun. You’re acting like you’re walking to your death.”

“You saw how coordinated I am at dancing. I’m sure to ruin the whole thing.”

“Impossible. You could never ruin a single thing and I promise you’ll be the life of this party.”

Jamil removed his hand from my eyes and I had to adjust to the low lighting of the bar I found myself in.

Hundreds of balloons decorated the ceiling with their tails dangling down right above our heads.

The room had old leather booths around the walls with a worn dance floor in the middle that was already full of people moving to the music pulsing through the speakers.

But none of the decorations really mattered to me.

It was the people that filled the room that stole the breath straight from my lungs.

“Surprise!” Everyone in the room shouted as I realized that Jamil and I were not alone.

All our friends were there and even some other players from the Cougars. Everyone had party poppers in their hands and were setting them off, sending confetti flying.

“This wasn’t a surprise party,” I laughed as I noticed Tommy and Derek sporting party hats while attempting to set off as many party poppers as they could.

“We weren’t sure what else to say,” Derek told me with a shrug of his shoulders.

“What I am sure of is that you need a drink in your hand.” Olivia appeared with two cocktails in her hands and passed me one of them. “Come on!”

Olivia pulled me toward the middle of the dance floor where Lottie and Maggie were waiting for us. I glanced back over my shoulder as my hand slipped from Jamil’s.

“I’ll catch you out there in a second. Someone has to make sure you don’t trip over your two left feet.”

Jamil grabbed Tommy and Derek and the three of them disappeared behind the bar, leaving me with the three girls I was beginning to think of as real friends as they danced around me.

I drank down the cocktail from Olivia over the course of two songs, enjoying the tingle that began to run through my extremities as I swayed to the music.

Just as the second song ended and I decided I needed another drink, Tommy, Derek, and Jamil reemerged from behind the bar with microphones in their hands. The music cut out before the first few notes of a familiar ABBA song came over the speakers.

Derek jumped on the bar top, grabbing the entire room’s attention. Jamil and Tommy stood down in front of him as they all pointed toward me.

As soon as they opened their mouths to attempt their own rendition of “Dancing Queen,” I was nearly bent over in a fit of laughter.

Derek’s party hat was sitting cockeyed on his head as he attempted his best disco moves.

Jamil had a feather boa wrapped around his neck and Tommy had a sparkly cowboy hat with diamond fringe around the sides.

The three of them looked utterly ridiculous, but my heart squeezed as they serenaded me.

I heard Nolan and Adam catcall the three of them from a table in the back.

Jamil twirled the feather boa around in his hand as he prowled closer to where I was standing in the middle of the dance floor.

Once he reached me, he grabbed my hand to spin me in a circle.

More cheering erupted around the room as he dipped me.

With one more twirl, he sent me spinning back toward Olivia, Maggie, and Lottie who caught me in their arms.

The final notes of the song rang out and the three men lined up to take a bow to a smattering of applause.

It was cheesy.

It was ridiculous.

It was perfect.

Normally I would have been uncomfortable having this kind of attention on me, but tonight I only felt an immense amount of love as I got to experience an entire room cheering for me for the first time in my life.

“Happy birthday!” Derek shouted into his microphone, the rest of the room echoing the sentiment right after him.

Another drink was pressed into my hand by Olivia or Maggie or Lottie, I wasn’t sure, as the room raised their glasses toward me one more time. My eyes locked on to Jamil as he raised his own.

“Thank you,” I mouthed to him.

“Always,” he mouthed back.

Suddenly I was desperate for us to be alone, instead of surrounded by all our friends. We’d been dancing around each other for too long and it was time we finally addressed wherever we wanted this to go.

*

“I can’t believe you guys sang ABBA to me tonight,” I told Jamil as we walked through my apartment door. The buzz from all the drinks I’d had tonight was nearly gone. The high left behind from being surrounded by so much love.

I also couldn’t believe how I’d ever survived without the group of people I was beginning to love like a family. I’d never felt so full, and the thread that brought all of these people into my life was the man standing in my apartment.

“Let’s see if you still think that here in a minute. I’ve got one more surprise up my sleeve.”

Jamil crossed to the kitchen where he opened the fridge and pulled out a single cupcake with a candle already in the center of it. With a flick of a lighter, the candle ignited sending shadows around the room.

“Maggie and Olivia wanted to get you a big cake and have the whole room sing to you, but I wasn’t sure if that would be pushing your comfort zone too much. I thought you could make a wish here, just the two of us.”

“That was sweet of you to think of,” I told him as I considered the flickering candle on the cupcake.

What could I possibly wish for?

In the past I would have wished for the promotion I had been working so hard for. My priorities had been so focused on something that I now realized was fleeting, instead of wishing for more adventure or love in my life. As if a simple job promotion could fulfill every need I’d ever have.

But tonight, all I wanted was this feeling to never be taken from me. I wanted to create more life memories—moments in time that I’d remember for the entirety of my life with people that made me feel important.

I blew the candle out with a quick puff of air.

“What did you wish for?” Jamil asked me as he pulled the candle out of the center of the cupcake.

“If I told you, then it wouldn’t come true,” I told him with a wink.

“I have another present for you.” Jamil disappeared into the guest room only to return with a pink gift bag in his hands with sparkly tissue paper sticking out of the top. “Here.”

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” I gingerly took the bag from him. “The party was already more than enough.”

“Just open it, Moon.” Jamil was eyeing the bag with anticipation. I pulled the tissue out first, revealing what was inside—a Cougars jersey.

“Is this?”

“Go ahead.” Jamil nodded his head toward the jersey, urging me to take it out of the bag.

A familiar name appeared as the jersey unfurled in my hands.

I glanced back at Jamil, who looked rather smug about his present.

Fueled on the energy from the night, I reached up on my tiptoes, so my nose was almost touching Jamil’s.

My fingers danced up Jamil’s chest, inching toward his neck and then into the short strands of the hair at his nape.

“I feel like since the conversation about the feature story happened, we have had this rock between us that neither of us knows how to move. Before, when you asked me if I wanted us to date and label whatever is happening between us, I’d hesitated, and I’ve regretted that ever since.

I let fear for my own career get in the way of something that could be much more fulfilling and important.

I could be way too late now, and I would understand if you’ve come to realize that we should just stay friends, but I need to know what you want.

The not knowing is starting to kill me and I’m not sure how much more I can take. ”

Jamil stayed silent for so long, I was beginning to wonder if he really had decided we should be just friends. I knew it could be a possibility, but the reality of it felt like a knife to my chest.

“I understand now why you had been so hesitant to become anything serious out of respect for me and I appreciate that. In hindsight, putting someone’s needs before your own wants is one of the kindest things a person can do.

However, I’ve come to realize that my desire to stay out of the media was based in an irrational fear that I had somehow concocted.

I’ve made these past few months harder for myself than they needed to be because of that.

” When Jamil paused, it sent my heart flying into my throat.

“I’ve thought a lot about what you said.

How I could control the narrative and tell my story, what it’s like to have lived through this drastic change with all these external factors while dealing with my own personal issues. ”

“What are you saying, J?” I asked him.

“I want to do an interview with you. I don’t want to directly talk about what’s been going on with Jordan, but I do want to address everything I’ve been having to juggle this last year.

If I give everyone the full picture and be brutally honest with the boundaries I want to have with the media, maybe I’ll finally feel at peace again with my career and my life. ”

“You don’t have to do an interview with me, Jamil,” I rushed to tell him.

“This isn’t because I want to help you with your career,” Jamil paused. “At least, not entirely. Is that something you can help me with?”

I wasn’t sure if I should be happy about this turn of events.

By doing the interview, I’d be fulfilling Terry’s requirement of a feature story on Jamil and the opportunity for a desk seat would be mine for the taking.

Even if Jamil had come around to the idea of a sit-down interview, would he regret this on the other side?

“Don’t do that.” Jamil reached up for my hands that still were resting on the nape of his neck and held them firmly in his. “Don’t convince yourself that I made this decision for anyone other than myself, even if it benefits you in the long run as well.”

“I just don’t want to put you in a position you don’t want to be in,” I told him.

Jamil shook his head. “No, you’d be putting me in the exact position I need to be in and I can’t say I wouldn’t mind keeping you in Chicago.”

“Are you saying you still want to date me?” I asked, the last word sounding more like a squeak from the nerves inside of me.

“Harper, I may not have realized it in Florida or even when I first saw you reporting at our home game, but I’ve been wanting to date you for months.”

“So, Jamil Edman. I suppose there is only one question left to ask.” He cocked an eyebrow at me as he waited. “Will you be my boyfriend?”

“You know it’s nice not having to be the one to ask this time.

” Jamil’s playful dig had my cheeks turning red.

His hand gently pushed aside my hair to cup the back of my neck, his thumb smoothing back and forth over my pulse.

There was a fire in his eyes that seemed to say, finally .

“Harper Nelson, there is nothing in this world that I want more than to be yours.”

The cupcake from Jamil was the only thing I could focus on to distract me from the jumble of emotions tumbling around in my head.

Take courage, my heart.

I dipped a finger into the frosting and only looked back up at Jamil as I smeared it on the side of my neck without bothering to say another word.

“Now that’s not fair,” Jamil groaned, his eyes turning impossibly dark.

His hands squeezed mine before desire completely took over his actions as he lifted me into his arms, his tongue swiping out at the frosting.

He only pulled away to look at me once a moan slipped from my lips. “Two can play that game.”

Jamil watched me with desire in his eyes as I stripped off the outfit I’d worn for my birthday party before slipping his jersey on. I gave him a full spin, so he could see his name across my back. When I finished my turn, he was looking at me with eyes ablaze.

“Come on, Edman. Show me what you’ve got.”