Page 37 of Only for Tonight
fifteen
Jaxon
I hold up my parking pass to the security guy, who nods at me as I drive down to my parking spot. Five other people arrive at the same time as me. I grab my cell phone from the center console, placing it in the inside of my suit jacket pocket before getting out and shutting the door. “Hey,” Kirby says to me when he gets out of his car, giving me a chin up.
“Hey,” I reply, opening the truck door and grabbing my black, stainless-steel carry-on bag before grabbing the black duffel bag, putting it on top. “I hate travel days,” I mumble to him as he grabs his own luggage and we walk over to the plane, parked and waiting for the team.
“You aren’t the only one,” he mutters to me as we make it to the stairs. The porter grabs my suitcase from me as I carry the duffel with me on the plane.
I sit by myself in the row, hoping like fuck no one sits next to me. I’m not in the best mood today, which is fucking with my head. I know I don’t like travel days, but I especially don’t want to be travelling today.
Before coming to the private airport, I drove Ariella to catch her flight, which is probably why I’m in this mood. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted someone to stay as badly as I wanted her to stay, which was so strange since I wasn’t even going to be home. But knowing she’s not going to be here when I get back is messing with my head.
I pull the phone out of my pocket when I see that she texted me.
Ariella: Just boarded my flight.
Me: Okay, Aphrodite.
I smile at the nickname I gave her after she called me Himeros. I look out the window, seeing more of the guys coming in. The only ones happy about road trips are the rookies. It’s fun at first, but when you get to my age, it fucking sucks. Everything about it sucks. From living out of your luggage to not being in your own locker room, it just sucks, but it’s part of the game.
Ariella: Are we still using that nickname?
Me: Just changed it in my phone.
Aphrodite: Wonderful, at least no one will know who I am.
Me: I’ll add your picture.
I press send and look up when I hear a couple of the guys say hello. I give them a chin nod before looking back down at my phone.
Me: Actually, scratch that. Then everyone is going to be lusting over you and I’ll have to throat punch a couple of people.
Aphrodite: Doubtful. What time do you land?
Me: We land at 2 p.m. local time. Head to the hotel to rest, I think we have a team dinner. Game is tomorrow and we leave right after the game for Minnesota.
Aphrodite: Okay, we just pushed back from the gate.
Me: Text me when you land.
She doesn’t really text me back words, she just sends the two eye emojis and I laugh, putting my phone on airplane mode as the sound of the plane door closes. I get up, taking off my suit jacket and putting it on the empty seat beside me.
Looking out of the window, my mind goes back to yesterday after we left the hotel.
After I kissed her and then pulled her into bed with me, I couldn’t keep my hands off of her. We both got back up and took another shower. It took her fifteen minutes to pack up her things and for us to be gone. She checked out of the hotel since she was going to be staying with me, while I brought her luggage out and headed to the place where I wanted to take her. In my mind it was going to be lighter outside by the time I got there, but since we got sidetracked, we got there just as the sun was going down but the soft lights from the street shined into the park.
I then took her to a park where we walked around hand in hand until I stopped under a willow tree and then turned to her.
“Okay.” I looked around. “This is the place that I wanted to take you.”
“It’s very pretty.” She looked around and the soft breeze had the long branches moving side to side. “It’s almost magical when you are underneath one of these trees.” She smiled up at me.
“It’s my favorite type of tree,” I told her and took my phone out of my jeans pocket.
“Really,” she said, “have you ever seen the cherry blossom trees in Japan?” I shook my head. “You would fall in love. But I don’t think you’ll ever get to witness it because it happens at the end of March to the beginning of April, which is when the season is in overdrive.”
“I’ll add it to my list of things I want to do when I’m retired,” I told her and then pressed play on the song she played in the car. “Now, what I want right now is for you to dance with me.” All the while making sure she knew that I was all in this. Making sure she never regretted what we had.
