Page 79 of Going for Two

“Come on,” Nolan told Derek as he tried to set off toward the makeshift stage that the NFL had made.

Derek hesitated. “Are you coming, Lottie?”

“Oh, no. It’s just for you guys,” I told him. I was perfectly happy to watch from the crowd. This was their time.

“You’re just as much a part of this team as any of us. Come on. I want a family picture.” Derek threw one arm over my shoulder and his other over Nolan’s as he steered us toward the trophy.

I caught Nolan’s eye as he peered down at me over Derek’s head.

“I love you,” he mouthed as the three of us climbed the stairs of the stage.

I watched Derek and Nolan join the rest of the captains as they accepted the Lombardi trophy. They lifted it above their heads as the crowd cheered, celebrating their favorite team’s win, because for them they were just as much a part of this journey as the players were.

“Lottie?” Nolan called back to me. “Come here for a picture.”

I slid in between Nolan and Derek as cameras flashed in front of us. I knew this photo would be framed and hung right next to the one Nolan had given me for Christmas.

“Are you okay?” I asked Nolan as we separated from the rest of the group.

“I am now,” he told me, the Lombardi trophy gripped in one hand while his other was in mine.

Epilogue

Three Years Later

Nolan

“How are you feeling, Caleb?” I asked my starting quarterback.

We were sitting in the locker room before the game waiting out the last few minutes of peace before we walked out into the stadium where Caleb’s first Super Bowl as a starting quarterback and my first Super Bowl as the offensive coordinator for the Chicago Bobcats awaited us.

“Nervous,” Caleb admitted.

The young quarterback had success thus far in his three-year career. Under my guidance, he had two conference championships and was showing the league why he had been the first pick overall in the NFL draft almost four and a half years ago. But every year he had come up short of his first Super Bowl ring.

Not this year. I was determined to get him through the finish line this year.

“That’s a good thing,” I told him as I wrapped my arm around his back. “It means you care.”

“How’d you handle all of the attention that’s on a game like this?” Caleb asked me as he stared down at the Bobcats logo on the helmet in his hands. I could see him trying to work through the nerves so he would be able to lead his team when he steppedout on that field. “There are so many people counting on us to win.”

“You are the most prepared person in this league for this moment. You must believe that.”

Those words were reminiscent of a similar speech given to me by the one person who believed in me the most. I hoped they did the same trick for Caleb.

I gave him one more pat on the back before I vacated the locker room to give him space.

Standing out in the hallway was one of the most beautiful people I had ever seen laying into Derek Allen about how he couldn’t skip getting his back and legs stretched out before a game just because it was the Super Bowl. She was in the middle of telling him that he had just turned thirty and he needed to take care of his body better. Derek caught my eye and gave me a look that said,help me.

I just shook my head at him. He was on his own on this one.

“Lottie, you’ve always been scary—but now that you’re building a tiny human inside of you, you’ve grown exponentially more terrifying,” Derek told the love of my life.

“This baby has been hanging on to my rib cage all day, so if you don’t want to see any more of my wrath, you will walk your ass back into my training room and let me stretch you out. I am not losing because you have tight hamstrings. The coaches will murder me and then I’ll haunt you for the rest of eternity.”

Derek threw his hands up in surrender as he followed Lottie back into the training room.

“I’ll see you out there,” I called after both.