Quarterback Sneak (Red Zone Rivals, #3)

by Kandi Steiner

I frowned, trying to decipher the meaning in that juxtaposition. But then she pointed at the bench again and, out of fear she might beat me over the head with that cucumber, I sat.

That ghost I’d seen in her eyes since the first time I met her, I knew what it was now. It was the same as mine.

“I like vanilla romance sometimes… a sweet friends-to-lovers, maybe a second-chance situation.” “And those don’t have sex in them?” Giana snorted. “Like I’d waste my time on a book without spice.”

“Mary, don’t!” But it was too late. Her jaw hit the floor, eyes bulging out of her head. “Oh. My. Cock.” “What?!” Riley and Giana said at the same time, and then they were crowding over her while I sank into my seat and covered my face with my hands. Shrieks filled the house. “Oh, my God. Is that a…?” Giana started. “A near-perfect specimen holding his gigantic wang?” Mary finished for her on a laugh. “Sure is!”

I stared at my hands clasped between my knees and tried not to shit myself.

“I love your daughter, Coach Lee,” I said, though my eyes didn’t leave her. “I love her, and I don’t care what you or anyone else thinks about it. My heart used to belong to football, but now it belongs to her. And none of this,” I added, throwing my hands up. “None of it means a damn thing without her.”

“I will be here,” I said, tugging her hands to my chest again. “Every day. I’ll be right by your side reminding you that you matter, that you are needed, that there is a reason to have hope and a reason to live. I’ll be here reminding you that for me? You are that reason.”

“Me, too, you know,” she said softly. “You, too, what?” She peeked up at me. “I love you.” “Well, obviously.”

“It was my mother’s,” I said, voice tight. “My father bought this for her as an upgrade once he had enough money to do so. I remember when she got it. Christmas of 2012. She’d cried so hard ugly snot came out of her nose.” “I’m about to do the same,” Julep choked, and then she dropped to her knees with me, shaking her head as her eyes bounced between the diamond and me. “Are you… is this real?” “The realest.” She smiled, then bit her lip. “My dad is going to kill you for not asking him first.” “Who said I didn’t ask him?” Her eyebrows tugged inward, and then she glanced behind me at the house. When she covered her mouth and the laugh that bubbled out of her, too, I whipped around to find a dozen faces pressed against the window watching us. Giana was crying so hard you’d have thought it was her being proposed to.

“Marry me, Julep. Marry me, and I promise to take you to every yard sale we can find in every state we go to. Marry me, and I will grow a garden in your name. Marry me, and I promise to set up a chrome pole in the middle of every piece of property we own.” She laughed, though it was garbled with tears. “Marry me,” I repeated, swiping the fresh tears away. “And I will spend the rest of my life loving you. No matter how long that is. Every minute I am here on Earth is yours. And after that, too.”

Coach Lee held my hand firmly, a soft smile on his lips. “You proved me wrong,” he said. “I’m really glad you did.” “Me, too, sir.”