Page 79 of First Down Promise

“Ugh,” I groan, keeping my face pressed into his chest on his good side. “I want to stay here forever.”

“Me too, but we have to go home.”

“Five more minutes?”

Josh wraps his arm around me again and caresses my shoulder. “Fine,” he replies.

But alas, I have to be an adult and get up. Pulling on last night’s clothes, I watch as he pulls a pair of briefs up his legs. “How are you feeling?” I ask.

“Thoroughly beat up. Hope this shit is better by this weekend’s game,” he answers.

“I feel like you push through so much pain.”

“We all do.” We turn for the door, and he adds, “I’ll see you in Nash. Have a safe flight.”

I go up on my tiptoes and kiss him goodbye. “You, too.”

After a couple more kisses, I step out of his room just as Dane is returning to his room next door, carrying a banana and a paper coffee cup. He raises his eyebrows at me.

“Josh needed more pillows,” I say before thinking, and I want to facepalm at the terrible excuse.

“Funny. That’s not what his headboard said last night.”

“Dane!”

He laughs under his breath as he unlocks his door, then nods toward the elevator. “Go. Before Pete or someone else sees you. You’re still on the squad, missy.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Josh

“I smell cookies!” Coop’s deep voice booms.

“That’s right,” Abby’s voice chimes with a laugh before I see her.

As I turn the corner, she has small cellophane baskets set up across the oversized kitchen island. Every year, she does this for the team’s staff, Pete’s housekeeper, her nail tech, the mailman. Abby flashes me a smile when we make eye contact but purses her lips to control it. “Don’t touch my baskets,” she teases Coop.

Her warm laugh is infectious. Her voluminous waves are partially tied back to stay out of her face. She told me today needed to be hair wash day when I video-called her last night. It was news to me that she only does that every few days, and at this point, even two or so months into our relationship, she tells me everything about her day. But someday soon, she won’t have to tell me because I’ll just be with her all the time.

“You know I love Christmas cookie season,” Coop replies.

“Some things never change, bro,” I tease Coop.

She opens a pink cake box and offers it to him. “Fine, I have some spares.”

“You didn’t bake?” Coop asks.

“No, I went to this place. What was it called?” Abby swipes her phone from the counter, and her nails click on the screen as she taps. “Mollypop Bake Shop. It’s new.” She shrugs and sets her phone back on the counter as Dane rounds the corner. “Oh, Dane! I have a surprise for you.”

He looks startled at first, but quickly recovers. “Uh, okay.”

“Whoever Mollypop is, she can bake a good cookie,” Coop says around a mouthful of cookie, and I can only laugh under my breath and roll my eyes at him.

“You should probably know who that is,” Dane says to Coop. Coop furrows his brow, but before he can ask, Abby distracts Dane.

Abby retrieves a clear container with a red lid from the counter and hands it to Dane. He immediately opens the lid.

“Sablés?” he asks with a smile spreading across his face.