Page 115 of Best Year Ever
LANDON: Thank you, Gracie. She apologized for what happened, and we talked things through.
GRACE: Like you would say, just doing my sisterly duties.
She followed up a few seconds later with a second message.
GRACE: You know her so much better, but I believe that she wants to make things right. I’m praying this is just a blip for you two.
I put a heart emoji on her message.
At the facility this morning, the guys are all abuzz about the auction and the fact that I’ll be getting tennis lessons from Rori. Everyone still seems clueless that there’s anything more there. Except Johnson, of course.
He comes up to me at lunch and looks slightly apologetic. “One free shot, Battle,” he says, leaning down to my ear. “You earned one free hit on me at practice.”
I chuckle and turn to look up at him. “That I did. But since we’re trying to win the championship this year, I’m going to skip wrecking my QB in practice.”
He laughs back and claps my shoulder before walking over to the quarterback group that is eating together.
I get home around six, walk Grover, and try to stay calm as I prepare dinner. Rori shows up at my house right before seven.She’s wearing a cute yellow shirt that looks super soft, paired with those dangerous tiny denim shorts, her long, toned legs on display.
My heart pounds as she enters my house. We’re truly alone for the first time in over three weeks, and I can’t help but be nervous.
Grover helps break the ice by coming up to her excitedly.
“Hi, Grover! I’m happy to see you too,” Rori says in a baby-ish voice to him, leaning down to pet him.
We gravitate naturally to the kitchen, the smell of the lemon garlic chicken I’m heating permeating across the house.
“How was your day?” I ask as I head over to the stove to stir the rice.
“Chef Landon, is it?” Rori says, watching me.
“Well, the chicken just involves my usual specialty of reheating something pre-made. I can make rice though,” I say, keeping my lingering nerves out of my voice.
Rori takes a seat on one of the stools at the kitchen island. “I’m going to count that as a home-cooked meal. I haven’t seen you do anything from scratch, even rice.”
I smile and hand her a water while she returns to my question.
“It was good. Julie and I focused on implementing some tweaks before the Open. Hoping to get some more spin on my first serve. Other than that, the usual drills.”
“That sounds like a positive thing, with my admittedly limited knowledge of serves still,” I say. “How’re you feeling about everything?”
“About my tennis? Never better,” she responds.
Pausing for a moment, her eyes look up and lock with mine. “About everything with us, I still feel so bad, Landon. I don’t know how to make it up to you except to apologize over and over.”
“Rori,” I interrupt her before she keeps going. “Look, I don’t want you to feel like you have to keep apologizing. That isn’t what I need. What we need. I believe everything that you said last night.”
The pained expression on her face relaxes a little.
I pivot to stir the rice again. “You were going through a lot all at once and didn’t cope well. I can promise you that I’ve been there.”
Putting the cover back on the rice, I turn again to face her so I can look at her with my next words.
“What matters now is what I said last night. We need to be able to trust each other and be each other’s safe place. A rock-solid foundation. While my parents really dropped the ball for our family, it’s exactly what my siblings and I are to each other,” I explain. “If this relationship goes where I think it could go, I can take on the world with you, for you. But it has to be the two of us together, side by side, always.”
Knowing that my goal tonight is clarity, I decide to be direct with her.
“Is that what you want?”
