Page 35 of Fall From Grace

“Yeah.” He hurried me. “Go cheer for me,” he urged me, smacking my butt and walking back on the field. I covered my butt and glared as he walked away before I caught #22 looking my way again. I tugged at my ponytail and looked away. This stranger was making me feel self-conscious, maybe I looked worse than I thought I did. He had completely stopped running when he saw me.

I peeked at him again but he was gone from the spot he was before. It didn’t take me long to see him getting into position. He was a tall dude, I couldn’t tell exactly how wide he was with the shoulder pads on but he had a nice butt… Crap, I was getting curious. I scanned the field for my boyfriend and checked out his butt too so that I didn’t feel so guilty about it.

“Yay!” Sara chirped. “What made you change your mind?” she asked as I got into position with the girls.

“Feeling okay?” Coach asked and I nodded.

“You’re gonna be glad—”

Coach didn’t let Tiffany finish. “We’re offense now. We didn’t come to chitchat, let’s get to cheering, ladies.”

We cheered our butts off but after every play, I was making googly eyes with #22 instead of my boyfriend. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, the flame that Noah left me without was stirring for the eyes that sought me out through #22’s helmet—my faceless flame. I wanted to see what he looked like. Playing this eye game with him did more for me than kissing my boyfriend. I wanted to feel guilty, but this feeling was what I’d been searching for since Noah introduced me to it then stole it away when he left.

He ended up scoring a touchdown without me distracting him this time, and I hadn’t even realized I had been clapping my hands and cheering for him until Sara laughed. “Um, Grace, are you cheering for the other team?”

“It’s not the other team she’s cheering for,” Tiffany mentioned, waggling her brows.

I was still looking at #22. I sighed a little breathy. “I wonder what he looks like.” I turned to see them give each other a suspicious smile. “What?” I said through a cough.

“You sure you don’t know who that is?” Sara asked with a slanted grin.

Her words had me piecing together the static in my heart. I dropped my smile and turned to look at #22 again. The game was almost over. A few seconds left on the clock and it was our ball, only #22 intercepted the ball but was tackled down by one of ours before he could get another touchdown.

They won. We lost.

While they were lining up to shake hands, I found my feet moving and then I was running onto the field. Dustin pulled his arm out in front of me. “Where ya going, babe?” I glared at him. He never called me that. I pulled away from him.

“You knew, didn’t you?” I asked and looked ahead as the two teams were lined up to shake hands. I didn’t see him anywhere.

“Wait, Grace,” Dustin told me.

There he was, he still hadn’t taken off his helmet like everyone else had. He was in the back of the line. I ran to him, ignoring Dustin as he hollered my name again. If I was wrong, this was going to be embarrassing, if I was right… Then the world would have finally righted itself again.

He saw me coming and lifted his head, my eyes took in his eyes before I raised to my tiptoes and yanked his helmet off.

I wanted to cry because, for the first time in three years, it felt like time began to move again. His hair was cut shorter now and at this length, it was a darker blond than when it was longer. Blue eyes so bright, crinkled in the corners as he tipped his chin up at me. “Finally figured out who it was you’ve been eyeballing all night?” he asked. So sweet… his voice, the sound deeper and older than when he had left me.

“Noah,” I finally broke down. He wiped the tears that started up. “Noah,” I said again, this time a little bit angry.

“You just had to show up when ya did, didn’t ya, Priss?” I tilted my head at him. “I would have scored us some more points if you hadn’t stolen my damn sight with your beauty.” I wasn’t sure what to say, I wanted to hug him, I also wanted to punch him for being so calm. “You and Dustin, huh?” he asked, sounding pissed. He was looking behind us, I turned to see if it was Dustin coming toward us. He looked back down at me. “You want me to give you a ride home?”

Give me a ride home?

He said it like he hadn’t been gone over three years without so much as a hello. “So, you have a car?” I asked very soft and slowly. “And you have your license yet...” I kicked him in the knee then proceeded to throw my fists against his chest.

He started hissing and backing away. “Ow, Grace, will you stop?”

“You haven’t tried to contact me at all! You’ve had a way to and you haven’t?”

“Ow,” he yelped, grabbing my hands and dodging my kicks. His teammates were starting to point and talk but I didn’t care. “Grace, look at me!” I did. “I did try to get in touch with you, more than once. Let me take you home, and I’ll explain.”

“I’ll be the one taking my girl home,” Dustin interrupted. I was even angrier because it made even more sense that Dustin was calling me all those pet names all night, it was because Noah was here!

Noah let go of me and held his helmet against his side with a dark smile. “You didn’t even tell her, did you?” Dustin tensed at Noah’s question.

“Tell me what?” I asked.

“Can you give us a sec, Grace? Wait by the bleachers and I’ll take you home if you’ll let me.”