Page 51 of Big Rucking Disaster

Forever, it felt like.

“Yardley?”

“Yeah?” He might’ve squeaked that.

“Did you just propose?”

“Too soon, right?”

“Maybe just a bit?” I smiled. “Ask me again when we’re not in a post-orgasmic haze.” I carefully didn’t specify a timeframe. I’d leave it up to him. But hell, if he waited too long, I might do it myself. This relationship felt both incredibly rushed and incredibly right. “I will say this.” I took a deep breath—sort of grateful we weren’t facing each other. “I think I love you. Which is all kinds of crazy given it’s been, what, a day?”

“Four weeks.”

“Right. Four weeks.” I smiled. “Still crazy.”

“Johnnie?”

“Yeah.”

“I feel the same way.”

“Oh. Well, just so you didn’t feel pressured—”

“Johnnie?”

“Hmm?”

“Have I ever felt pressured into doing anything?”

I thought about it for an inordinate amount of time. I wanted to be certain I reviewed our entire relationship before responding, “no.”

“So when I sayI love you,then you know I’m sincere, right? That Idolove you?”

“Well, when you put it like that…”

He kissed my shoulder.

“Rest now, sweetheart. We’ve got all the time in the world.” Today was Sunday, and we had the day off. Then balls-to-the-wall practices until our big game on Friday night against Montréal. Wehadto break our losing streak against them. We just had to.

And, on that note, I drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Fifteen

Yardley

“How do you stand this?” I shouted in Becca’s ear.

Roger’s wife offered me a broad grin. “You just do. Don’t you get nervous when your students play? Compete?”

I pressed a hand to my roiling stomach. “Well, frankly, no. They’ll do their best and—

Dead ball. Another scrum.

Except time was running out. Vancouver was behind by three points and needed to score. Crunch time.

Both teams positioned themselves over the ball and began the process of pushing each other.

Although I understood rugby, some things eluded me. Like scrums. Like running the ball sideways.

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