Out of Bounds

“Both?” she asks carefully, her eyes never leaving mine.

A wild grin spreads across my face. “I was wrong, because there is room for both.” I tap my heart. “Oh, I guess this is a good time to tell you I missed you so fucking much this week because I’m falling in love with you.”

Her smile spreads, matching mine now. My heart beats faster watching her reaction. How her eyes light up. How they seem to glow. Then I stop watching because her lips are on mine and she kisses me. I close my eyes and savor the kiss from the woman I’m falling in love with. She kisses me deeply, passionately, and soon everyone is going to be able to tell how much I want her.

I break the kiss and wiggle my eyebrows. “Oh, and by the way, I wanted to finally give you that note I left on your porch.”

“I thought it was thrown away?”

“I suspect it was, so I started over,” I say, and reach into the back pocket of my shorts and hand her the short letter I wrote.

Any chance I could take you up on that surfing lesson? And then we could try again at everything, because I miss you like crazy.

She clasps her hand over her heart, and then looks up at me. “I’m falling in love with you too, Drew,” she says, and those words from her are even better than winning. Because they’re everything. She taps her fingers against my chest and lowers her voice. “But I don’t want to give you a surfing lesson right now.”

“You don’t?”

She shakes her head. “I’d rather get out of this bikini, if you know what I mean,” she says with a naughty glint in her eyes. “And I think you do.”

“Oh, I do. I most definitely do.”

I couldn’t be happier that her home is five minutes from the beach. Before we know it, we’re inside her home and I’m making love to Dani.

This is the streak I don’t want to break.





Epilogue

Six months later

We are covered in sand, and sun, and the ocean.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way. My boyfriend has become the surfing quarterback. We didn’t get to the lesson right away. We often seemed to find other things to occupy our days. Work and loving each other have a way of being consuming.

But we went surfing together on his days off and I gave him plenty of pointers. He’s a fast learner, no surprise there. He also happens to look insanely hot on a surfboard. Though that fact has nothing to do with how quickly he mastered the sport. I just enjoy the view when he’s the view.

We surf often, but we also like to go to the cinema, and sometimes we hold hands in the theater, and sometimes we make out like teenagers. But we always have a good time. We’ve gone parasailing too, and had a blast floating through the sky. So much of my time pre-Drew was work, work, work. While I still adore my job, and I still need it to take care of Ally, I’ve also embraced the little things in life, which have become the big things.

Like time with my boyfriend.

Only now he’s my fiancé.

Oops. Guess I forgot to mention that part. He proposed to me last month, a little while after Los Angeles won the Super Bowl.

Oh, yeah. That was absolutely amazing too. A complete and utter thrill as I watched him lead the team to victory. Drew wasn’t MVP. That’d be too much good luck. Elkins nabbed the honor with two receptions for touchdowns, and those hands like magic. But Drew guided the team, and got them there. A true leader.

Now, he has a ring, and I have a ring too. We treasure both our rings for different reasons.

He moved in with me after he proposed one day while parasailing. I like living with him, especially since he’ll be staying in Los Angeles for several more years. The team signed him to a five-year contract, and they love him, just like the fans do.

But not as much as I do.

He might belong to the team, and he might belong to the city, but at the end of the day, and each and every night, he belongs to me. As we walk off the beach, I wave to Ally, who’s waiting at the seaside bar where Drew and I had our first unexpected date.

She holds up her margarita and smiles from behind her shades. Next to her is Jason, looking cool and relaxed and completely smitten. His hand rests on top of Ally’s on the table. He’s always touching her. Always giving her sweet little gifts.

We sit down and join them for a round.

“Crack your skull open on a stray surfboard this time, hotshot?” Jason asks.

“Yeah, and it violated my new sneaker contract,” he fires back, and I laugh, knowing Drew zinged Jason this time. But I doubt Jason minds, especially since all is well with Drew and his new sponsor, the shoe company. Jason inked that deal and thanked me for helping them sidestep disaster with Qwench.

“Ouch,” Jason says, pretending to be wounded.

“If you’re hurt, she’ll help you,” I say, pointing to Ally as I shield my eyes from the sun.

Ally leans closer to Jason and puckers up. “Whatever hurts, I’ll kiss it and make it better.”

Yeah, we’re all pretty happy now, and I love our little foursome.