Page 46 of #Awestruck

“Don’t worry. Right now is the calm before the score.”

His statement turned out to be prophetic. The very next play Evan handed the ball off to Curtis Mattison, who dodged two defenders and leaped over the goal line to score a touchdown.

It was like I had made the touchdown myself. I was jumping up and down, whooping and hollering along with the rest of my family and almost every person in the stadium.

But while everyone else was watching Mattison doing a lap in the end zone, I saw Evan turn and point at our box. Like he was saying he did it for me.

Little arrows shot through my heart, clearing my personal defensive line.

“That is seriously the cutest thing ever,” Rory said. “Good thing you locked that down.”

The Jacks made the two-point conversion and went on to score once more in the first half, while the Raiders got one touchdown.

Scooter’s voice carried over the loudspeakers. “We’re heading into halftime with a score of fifteen to seven in the Jacks’ favor. And there seems to be some disturbance down near the Jacks’ tunnel.”

The cameras focused in on the area where the Jacks fans were lined up, holding out their hands or things to be autographed. A Raiders fan ran along the stairs, yelling unintelligibly. He was followed by three security guards, who were closing in on him. Then the fan turned, squeezed his way past the waiting Jacks fans, and threw something at Evan. A water bottle?

It hit Evan in the head while the security guards tackled the crazy fan. Stunned, I sank onto the couch to watch. It was either that or run out to help Security. Every camera in the place focused on Evan. He wore a shocked expression.

Aubrey put her hand on my arm. “I’m sure he’s fine.”

He seemed fine. He didn’t pass out or anything. I didn’t see any blood.

One of the sideline network reporters ran up to Evan with a microphone. “Wow, Evan! That was awful. Are you all right?”

He flashed his blinding grin and turned to face the cameras. “I’m okay. I will say, though, that’s probably the hardest I’ve been hit so far in this game.” The crowd in the stadium erupted in cheers at his response.

“I’ll give him this. He certainly knows how to work his audience,” my mom observed.

Which was part of my problem in figuring out my Evan dilemma. I couldn’t tell what was real and what was fake. What was the Private Evan and what was the Public Evan. The lines kept blurring.

My phone buzzed a second later. I checked it and saw a text from Evan.

It took me a second to place what he was responding to. It was the text I’d sent him in the first quarter thanking him for all the special effort he’d gone to on my family’s behalf.

But was he for real sitting in the locker room and writing to me? Shouldn’t he be concentrating on the game and whatever the head coach was saying to him?

That made me laugh, drawing the attention of every single one of my family members. I ignored their curious stares and typed my reply.

Which was true. I didn’t want fan forums filled with how much they hated me because I’d ruined Evan’s game or to get booed in person every time I came to the Forest. More than one NFL girlfriend/fiancée had faced that particular form of wrath.

I wanted to giggle again when my mom’s voice stopped me. “Tell him we want to meet him after the game.” I realized she was reading over my shoulder. I’d been worried about distracting Evan, but I was the one who had tuned out the rest of the world while chatting with him.

“Mom! Boundaries!”

I got up and moved away from the others, into a corner where no one could eavesdrop. Or eyesdrop.

I saw the three dots, indicating that he was still typing. I waited and waited as the dots disappeared and reappeared. Finally, I had another message come through from him.

It was a good idea since we needed to get our stories straight. How we’d met, how long we’d been dating. The how-did-he-propose question was already taken care of, at least.

He already had the address, and it was much closer to the stadium than his huge house out in Lake Oswego.

Now I could truthfully tell my family that Evan was too busy to meet them.

And I tried hard to ignore how tingly and excited I felt at the prospect of seeing him again.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

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