Page 45 of The Comeback Pact

The whole team erupts into applause, and I celebrate with them.

“Dude.” Cade leans over, smiling. I look at him to find that I’ve grabbed his wrist while watching her dive. He starts chuckling. “You got it bad, man.”

I do. I’ve got it bad.

I shove him away playfully and clap, cheering with the rest of the guys. It might be me, but it sounds like she got the loudest applause. She pops up from the pool with a big smile before diving below again, swimming to the end.

Dragging herself up and out of the water, she turns and waves, her gaze connecting with mine.

A shockwave rockets through my body. It’s only a nanosecond, a brief blip, but I feel it all the way to my toes.

Turning, she stares up at the scoreboard and waits for her marks to come up. Though they don’t count toward the meet, she lands in the higher middle.

“Fuck yes,” I say under my breath, relief and exhilaration ripping through me.

Kenna bounces up and down on her toes before walking over to her coach, who puts an arm around her and squeezes her into her side. She beams. Other teammates approach her, too, and I watch from the stands, wondering which one of them is her former synchro partner who abandoned her. She didn’t deserve that. What happened was out of her control.

Eventually, I lose sight of Kenna. She was the last dive, so her other teammates swarm around her while walking back to the locker room.

The dudes are up next, and we stay for a few until Coach claps his hands twice to tell us we need to get going. I’d recognized a lot of the divers from around campus. I can’t say I know their names but, who knows, this might change that.

Scanning the side of the pool, I search for Kenna, but it doesn’t look like any of the women divers have returned poolside. Their coach is probably debriefing after the meet. I’d love to tell her goodbye, so I wait until I’m the last one, still staring at the locker room door, hoping she’ll emerge. When she doesn’t emerge, I have to leave or face Coach’s wrath.

I’ll just text her.

The sun shines down as I walk outside. The wide, metal beams leave strange angular shadows on the sidewalk. Next to the curb, the bus waits, engine cranked.

“West!” a female voice calls.

I turn to find Kenna jogging out of the exit. She has a Bulldog hoodie and pants set on, her hair still wet. She stops a few feet in front of me, her stare roaming toward the players lining up to get on the bus, then back to me.

“You came,” she finally says. Her gaze drops. “And you wore a Speedo.”

There she goes, biting her lip again.

“I wanted to see you dive.”

“But you didn’t even know I was going to, and you got the entire football team to wear Speedos,” she remarks, gesturing toward my teammates.

I chuckle. “I think a few of them really enjoyed it, actually.”

“Well, what did you think?” She raises to her toes and then back, waiting for my answer.

“I think…” I step toward her, taking her in. “I think you’re a fucking warrior, Kenna, and you looked absolutely amazing.”

Coach calls from the bus, “Let’s go, Brooks. I will leave my star fullback. Don’t think I won’t.”

I close my eyes briefly, then open them to tell her I have to go. Before I can get a word out, she grabs my head, tugging me down to kiss me. It’s a sweet kiss, urgent. Lips upon lips.

A promise of something more.

Too soon, she pulls back, leaving me rattled and shaken. I hadn’t expected her to do that—not in front of the guys or Coach or, hell, even the bus driver.

“That’s the second time I’ve kissed you,” she says, grinning. “I expect the next to come from you.”

With that, she walks away, leaving me standing there, stunned.

“Brooks!” Coach calls out again, this time with a little more urgency, and I turn on my heel and jog toward the bus, my lips still buzzing.

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