Page 93 of The One Night Dash
“Fuck yeah.”
She waves a hand. “Enough about this. How was practice?”
“Don’t you dismiss my girlfriend’s kick-ass place with a hand wave.”
She rolls her eyes.
“Practice was good. It will be good tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and … you get what I mean? My life is hectic, but I have a schedule, which means I don’t stress about it. You’ll be the same.” I laugh. “Might have to maneuver when shit comes up unexpectedly, but you’re building your team. When thosegrowing pains are over, you’ll be able to relax. Until then, put me in wherever you need, coach. When I’m with you, I’mwithyou.”
She nods as she stands and stretches, gray sweater raising just enough to expose some flesh. “Yeah, I know you gave me a color-coded Bears itinerary, but what does Dash Sterling do after practice on a Sunday?”
Eat. I fucking eat, and I want another taste of you.
“Whatever needs to be done.” And then I remember. “So … Moretti made an announcement at the end of practice.”
“What announcement?”
“He told the team he’s gonna propose … to Claudia.”
Her body jerks, and she flails her hands. “Wait. What?”
“Yeah.” I let a slight grin pull at my mouth. “Claudia. He said he’s asking her to marry him.”
Her eyes go wide, hand flying to her chest. “Oh my God.” She fumbles with her phone, screen lighting up with unread messages. “The group chat—I haven’t even looked since last night. I didn’t respond. What kind of friend am I? She’s one of my closest friends, and I don’t even?—”
“Hey.” I stand and cover her twitchy hand before she can doom-scroll herself into a hole. “You’re not a bad friend. You’ve just got a lot going on.”
“But she’s been there for me, Dash. Always. And I couldn’t even open one stupid message.” Her voice wobbles, guilt tugging at her features. “What if she thinks I don’t care?”
I squeeze her hand. “She knows you care. And when you call her, when she hears your voice? She’s gonna realize how blessed she is to have you in her circle.”
Her shoulders soften, though the panic still hums in her chest. “She’s really going to marry him?”
“I’m thinking, yeah.” I nod. “And judging by the look on his face, he’s not leaving practice without making it happen soon.” I release her hand. “Check in on your girls.”
She moves over and plops her fine ass on my knee, and I chuckle.
“What?”
“I fought myself from grabbing you up and sitting you in this very position.”
She starts to stand. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought?—”
I bring her back down, “Hell no. You wanna sit on my lap, you sit there. I just wanna make sure we sort through everything that needs to be sorted through so we don’t have anything from the past trip us up in ten fucking years.”
She nods. “I want to talk, but not about me, unless you need to. I should have asked how you were. How seeing Rick affected you and all that.”
I open my mouth to respond that I’m good, but she puts her little paw over it.
“And just so you know, Mom called me today, so I may know some things already, but I want to hear it from you.” She moves and presses her forehead to mine. “Don’t be mad at her, please.”
I kiss her forehead. “Not mad at all. Glad you’re talking to her. But that also reminds me of something that came up today. I mentioned my old man being abusive back when I first found out you were here in the city.”
“Icehouse?”
“Mmhmm.” I kiss her again. “In the getaway SUV.”
She moves to press her lips to mine. “The getaway car.”
