Hands Down

by Mariana Zapata

My cousin blew out a breath as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. A moment later, he had the TSN app open and an ad was playing. “Give it a sec,” he warned me when I glanced at him. It was a short pregame video, and a second later, the footage moved to players entering the stadium. The second one they showed was the only one who mattered. And when I saw what Boog was talking about, my knees went weak. He had on a T-shirt I had never seen before—a heather blue one with huge white font on it that said, “THE LAZY BAKER.” Me. He was wearing me.

What I would remember for the rest of my life was meeting him halfway and how he held me with his arms banded right under my butt after he pulled me into them, grinning so wide as I hugged him and kissed his cheeks and his mouth and his cheeks some more.

His hand moved, and he palmed my cheek as his gaze traveled over my painted face, that perfect grin still there. All for me. “How do I look?” He drew the pad of his finger over my fake mustache. “Like the best thing I’ve ever seen.” And then he kissed me again.

know you said this is all new and it doesn’t feel real and it’s too fast, but… Bibi, I’ve always known what I wanted. Maybe sometimes I don’t think straight and I might fart around, but once I get my head on and decide on somethin’, I’m gonna do it. And if I’ve learned anything the last couple weeks, it’s that I don’t wanna be without you. I’m so damn in love with you, kiddo, and I wanna be where you are.”

His groan was long and husky, and I had a feeling I was going to remember the way it sounded for the rest of my life. “You can sit on whatever you want,” he whispered, “however long you want, darlin’, but take a seat up here for a minute, would you?”

“I’ll tell you as many times as I need to because I know you haven’t heard it enough and you deserve to, and because I like to say it too, all right? You’re important. You matter to me more than any game. Any practice. Anything. Where you go, I go. You are never gonna be something I have to schedule in. You are never not gonna be a priority to me.” He leaned forward and stroked my face then. “You’ve popped up into my life when I’ve needed you the most so far, and I’m gonna need you to stick around for the rest of it.” He paused. “We’re in this together, understand me?”

“Did you decide if you’re doing the next Anatomy issue?” I asked, going for that question first. Part of his mouth curled up. “Not yet, darlin’, but if you’re fixin’ for my Texas peaches, you know they’re all yours.” I snorted. “I was just wondering. But it would be nice to update the framed picture I have on my desk with a more recent one.”

He was fading fast, and I knew I could wait until tomorrow, but… I didn’t want to. “Zac?” His eyes were already drifting closed again as he asked, “Yeah, sweetheart?” “What would you think about… a Tiny Texas?” Zac’s light blue eyes went wide in a fucking instant. He shot up to an elbow and stared at me, giving me a full view of that incredible chest. “A Tiny Texas?” He blinked. “You serious?” I pointed at him. “Big Texas.” Pointed at my chest. “Little Texas.” Then I pointed toward my stomach, totally exposed by the cropped top I had on. “Tiny Texas.”

Zac kissed me and kissed me as he whispered things into my skin that sounded like “I love you so much,” and “I can’t believe it,” and “Are you serious?” and “We need to go to the doctor tomorrow mornin’,” and “What the hell do you have to be scared of? We got this,” and “You’re the love of my life, kiddo.” And he was right. Together, we had this, me and the love of my life. Hands down.