She inhaled with a satisfied smile pulling up the edges of her lips. “Take me to your big bed, in your big room, because we are about to break it in, Noah Griffin.”
I swept her in my arms, relishing in the happy shriek that left her mouth. “You’re the boss.”
We stayed there all day and all night, only stopping briefly for food. A shower. And endless conversations. The playbook was probably still lying open in a useless heap on the dining room table. But that was the point.
I couldn’t have scripted this, couldn’t have planned it, couldn’t have controlled it.
Because sometimes, the best things in life come straight from your blind side.
Epilogue
EPILOGUE
Six months later
Molly
“Oh sweetheart, did you see this one?” Grandma Griffin tossed the
Us Weekly into my lap as she passed the couch. “You’re way too pretty for my grandson.”
Noah groaned as I flipped to the article she’d dog-eared. “Another article?”
I elbowed him. “People love us. We’re cute.”
It was a quick mention. Never in a million years would I have anticipated having a corner of a magazine page dedicated to me and my hot boyfriend and our red-carpet style.
Amazon had gone all out for the
All or Nothing season featuring Noah, and to my never-ending surprise, me. Instead of red, we’d done a black carpet, so that my red dress would stand out. And it had.
It was a picture I’d seen a lot. Instagram users seemed to like that particular one. Noah had his tux-clad arm wrapped tight around my waist, head bent toward me, and his nose pressed against my temple.
I was smiling widely, my shoulders angled toward him, and a hand placed against his chest. The Grecian-style dress that I’d chosen was a vivid scarlet that draped over one shoulder and was cinched tight around my waist with a gold belt. What the camera couldn’t see because the length of the dress swept the floor were the spiky gold heels that had only lasted as long as getting our picture taken.
By the time we were in the theater for the screening of the first episode, I’d slipped into some nude flats.
It was our first night as a couple in the spotlight, and social media exploded with the release of the full season of episodes documenting our love story. Since Rick hired me before I even finished pitching myself, I was involved in crafting the finished product of our story from beginning to end. And it was damn good television, if I said so myself.
The last episode was my favorite, the one we’d shot during their final playoff game, which they lost 28-21. It encapsulated everything about Noah and me that I loved so much. Before the cameras moved to follow us through the game, it caught some sweet, quiet moments when he helped me unpack my things. I loved Isabel, but living with Noah was way more fun.
When the quiet moments were done, and we saw him play his heart out for four quarters, only to have the opposing defense stop us five yards shy of the end zone as the clock ran out. The devastation and disappointment on his face still made me cry, as it had that day. It was still hard for me to watch even though we were a few months removed from it by now. But the viewers loved it.
They loved how real we were with each other. They loved that the footage of me at the end of the game was just as emotional, that my sorrow for him was so obvious as I sat in the stands with the other disappointed Washington fans. It was what made the closing scene so poignant.
Me climbing over the barrier and into his waiting arms. Him, sweaty and disheveled and dirty, lifting me into a tight embrace on the chaotic post-game field. And he smiled.
Not a sad smile.
Noah Griffin smiled like he’d just won.
His grandma, our host for the week, told me she’d watched every episode three times. She kept every article that mentioned us and made sure to show me each and every one.
“You ready, son?” Noah’s dad asked from the kitchen.
Noah nodded, dropping a soft kiss on my lips as he stood from the couch. “We’ll be back for dinner.”
“Okay.” I grabbed the front of his shirt and tugged him back down for another kiss. “Have fun fixing fences.”
He rolled his eyes. His grandma and I laughed.
Noah left the cabin first, and I smiled as I caught the embarrassed blush on his dad’s face when he left the kitchen. It had taken a bit for him to get used to having me around and seeing the easy affection that Noah and I shared.
As I spent more time with his dad, it was so clear to see how Noah fell into the patterns that he had. Slowly but surely, his dad was relaxing around me. My goal was one week every summer that Noah, his dad, and I came to South Dakota together. Eventually, I’d break him into the Tuesday family dinners. He just didn’t know it yet.
And that was why Grandma Griffin proclaimed that I was her new favorite person in the entire world.
She rubbed my shoulder as she passed behind the couch. “Need anything while I’m up, sweetheart?”
I smiled up at her. “I’m good, thanks. I have some work to do for Rick while they’re out there unless you need my help with anything.”
“No, no, one set of hands is all I need to do some weeding.”
“I’ll come out when I’m done,” I told her. “It won’t take me too long.”
She set her wide-brimmed hat on her head and paused before she walked out front. “Actually,” she said, tugging her gardening gloves on, “I know how you can help.”
I glanced over. “Yeah?”
She lifted her eyebrows. “A great-grandchild would be lovely.”
As she walked outside, I was still laughing because she found so many ways to remind Noah and me that she needed a baby to spoil.
The door swung back open, and my smile softened when Noah strode back into the cabin.
“Forget something?” I asked.
He snatched his water bottle from the counter. “It’s hotter than hell out there.”
“I’ll take another kiss while you’re here.”
He was already sweaty, one of my very favorite looks on the man I loved so much. When he came around the couch to cage me in with his arms and take my mouth in a deep, searing kiss, I felt that desperate urge rush through me, just like it always did.
Honestly, it was a miracle I wasn’t pregnant with how often he took me to bed.
Noah had proven that frequent sex did not hurt his performance on the field in any way. Mr. Defensive Player of the Year had proven it well, too.
I licked my lips when he pulled back. “And your dad would notice if you didn’t come back outside right away, right?”
Noah hummed. “Yes.”
I trailed my finger along the edge of his jaw. “Okay. I can wait until tonight.”
His eyes searched my face and landed unerringly on my mouth. “Can you?”
My heart started pounding wildly, and my toes curled up. “Yes?”
“I can’t,” he stated.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.