Page 51 of The Comeback
She meets my gaze, and her demeanor has changed since the last time I saw her. It’s full of determination. She puts her fist over her heart, a motion we started way back in high school. It was a way for us to communicate when I was on the field and she was in the stands. I’m here is what it means for us. Her fierce expression adds, I’m not going anywhere.
I think about the way that Brock stated so matter-of-factly that I could choose to just move on without her, like that was a possibility, and the way my heart stopped.
I pray I’m not reading into Ava’s actions.
The game couldn’t go any better. There’s a confidence in me that’s totally different from the fight and grit that drove me last week against the Blues. Every pass seems simple. I dance easily away from defenders. Every time we get the ball we score. The Arizona Cobras don’t have near the defense that the Blues do, but this is something else as well. It’s like the trust and faith that Ava showed by coming, by staying in my life when I didn’t believe she would, has lifted a weight I didn’t realize I was carrying all this time.
We win, but by the end of the game, the last thing I want to do is hang out to answer questions from sports reporters. I’ve got to talk to Ava. We have so much to say. But Coach wants me back out there after last week’s game. He let me off after the interceptions, knowing I wouldn’t have the patience to deal with questions on it. Tonight I have to show that I’ve moved past it.
The first question isn’t a surprise. “What did you do this week, Jett, to come back from those mistakes and play strong tonight?”
Even though I dreaded talking about how I almost lost the game for us against the Blues, I want to answer it now. Because what I’m about to say has very little to do with football. I lean forward a bit, putting my fist over my heart. If Ava watches this, I want her to know it’s for her.
“Perspective,” I say. “One of my faults is taking on everything. I’ve believed for a long time, since proving myself at Nevada, that to be recognized I have to work hard. That I have to make the plays happen for my team to succeed. And that’s true to a certain extent, but sometimes our strengths, when we don’t balance them, become our weaknesses. We forget to see the other people on the field working just as hard. We don’t see the sacrifices our teammates make for us. Colby saw me slip up last week, and he stepped in.” He’s sitting next to me right now, even though he didn’t have to be. He puts a hand on my shoulder. “That’s happened more than once in my life, on and off the field. Someone stepping up when I’m not seeing clearly. I could have, quite fairly, blamed myself for those mistakes last week and never looked past them. That would have hurt my game. This week, that’s been on my mind a lot. How I’ve hurt myself over the years by focusing on one perspective and not understanding someone else’s. I hope I’m not too late to make up for that. I hope I haven’t pushed away the people who’ve been beside me the whole time, even when I never saw them. I’ve been stubborn and unfair, and I just want to give us a second chance.”
Silence seems to echo in the room. I’ve never heard it like this. I turn to Colby. He’s the only person smiling, grinning from ear to ear. He claps me on the back.
“Who cares what Coach says?” he mutters. “Get out of here.”
And the moment the room breaks into clamor again, reporter after reporter asking me to clarify what I mean, I stand up and rush out.
CHAPTER 30
AVA
I pace back and forth across my kitchen, the TV on in the background on a sports news program. I mentally calculate how long before Jett will be home tonight. Do I text him or call? Will he want to see me, or is it going to take more time, more games, more showing up to prove to him that I’m done running away, that no matter what comes at us next, we figure it out together? We had a clear moment before the game, but I keep doubting that it meant to him what it did to me.
My phone rings, which makes me jump and my heart spike with anticipation, but it’s Kristen. I’ve missed several calls from her today. I obviously wasn’t going to answer her during the football game, but even now I want to silence it. I don’t need the stress that will come with another check-in about Gabriella’s wedding and how my plans are either helping or hurting Kristen’s ability to get Rutledge to commit to our firm.
This past week was busy with wedding planning with Gabriella, but there was plenty of time to ponder the things my conversation with Dalton had made me reconsider. I’ve been looking at my options for telling Gabriella I’ll work on her staff. After deciding that, not giving up on me and Jett was a no-brainer. I don’t want to come down from that empowered high and have to tell my boss that I’m doing the best I can and she needs to chill.
But Kristen’s not going to stop calling, and I don’t know how long I have to wait until Jett gets back to Kemah. I might as well answer Kristen and distract myself.
“Hey, Kristen.”
“Rutledge committed to our firm yesterday,” she says.
I grip the phone, stunned. “What? They did?”
“Yes!” she almost shouts into the phone. This is the most excited I have ever heard her be. “Why have you been ignoring me?”
I’m still having a hard time processing this. We did it. Well, probably Kristen did it, and maybe me being able to handle the stuff that’s been flung at me about planning Gabriella’s wedding helped. I hope all my hard work accounts for something, at least.
“I haven’t been ignoring you,” I finally say. “I was at a Pumas game.” I bounce on my toes. “They hired us? They really want us to plan their fundraiser?”
“They said our firm has what it takes to handle a highly visible event like theirs.”
I smile. Whether Rutledge realizes it or not, I’m part of that. “Congratulations, Kristen. This is awesome.”
“I want you to lead the team.”
I almost drop the phone. “What?”
“Ava, you’ve had to handle more than the usual amount of scrutiny in planning the Diaz-Duncan wedding, and you took everything in stride. You’re ready to do something like this, something huge. I think you’re the best choice to make Rutledge’s event the most memorable they’ve ever had.”
“I … I don’t know what to say, Kristen. I never thought…” How do I finish that? That I thought her constant checking in on me was showing that she actually thought the opposite of what I thought, that I needed babysitting? But now it feels like she was proving to herself that I could handle all the extra stuff that came with Gabriella’s wedding—that I can do the same with the Rutledge event. “I don’t know,” I finally finish.
My fingers tingle with excitement. This is huge. Fundraisers are where my strength is, where my heart is. I’ve accepted my fear this week and determined not to let it hold me back. I should be elated that Kristen’s offering me what should be my dream job. But something else entirely is stopping me from saying yes.