Page 7 of Resisting the Running Back

She collapses on the right side of the bed, and I collapse next to her on the left a minute later.

“You doing okay?” I ask.

“I just…I don’t know. It’s like I’m waiting for the phone to ring to confirm I’m fired, and I don’t know what to do. I’ll tell you one thing, though. I don’t feel bad about dumping Tyler anymore.”

I laugh as we both stare up at the ceiling. “I always knew you deserved better, Soph.”

“I love you, Millby.” Millby, or Mill-B, short for Miller Banks, is the nickname she gave me when we were freshmen in high school, and hearing it brings me back to that time in our lives.

Everything seemed so much simpler back then.

Back then, it was just a crush on a cute girl. It wasn’t deep feelings of love for my best friend. It wasn’t the risk of losing someone I’ve been close to for more than half my life.

It’s too far out of left field to even consider it at this point.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t think of her every minute of every day. It doesn’t mean I don’t pine for what could have been if I could’ve gotten up the nerve to ask her out when I was fourteen.

I didn’t. Bryce McDaniels did before me. They dated for two years, and it was too late by that point. I was firmly stuck in the friend zone, where I’ve spent the last sixteen years.

“I love you, too, Summers.” More than I can even admit to her.

She yawns, and I realize how late it got. It’s been an emotional day for her, and a strange one for me, too.

“Bet you didn’t think you’d end up in Arizona for your thirtieth,” she says.

I chuckle. She’s not wrong about that—not when the day started out in Vegas, anyway.

But sharing a bed with her? Not the worst birthday present I can think of.

We get ready for bed. She uses my soap to remove her makeup, and she finger brushes her teeth with my toothpaste. And then we get in bed.

“Goodnight,” she says quietly.

“Night.” I flip off the light, and we lie in darkness for a few minutes.

I think she might be asleep, but I ask the question anyway. “Do you remember the promise?”

“Hm?” she murmurs.

“That if we’re both thirty and neither one of us is married, we marry each other.” I whisper the words.

“Mm-hmm.”

“I’m game.” I realize there’s another month to go before we have to worry about that, but I’d marry her in a heartbeat if I could.

She doesn’t say anything, and I hear even breathing after that.

I’m not sure I’ll have the nerve to bring it up again, but at least we’re sharing a bed tonight. It’s a step in the right direction.

And I sleep better than I have in months. Years, even.

When morning dawns, I’m thirty and single, she’s twenty-nine and single, and I have an erection the size of Texas.

My arms are around her.

She’s snuggled into my chest.

I could stay like this forever, but I also don’t want her to wake up and find herself in my arms. That’s not what this is supposed to be…as much as I want to let her help with the Texas-sized erection.

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