Two minutes later, as I picked up the ball after a lame kick from our opponent’s offense, the whistle blew, and the game was over.
One-nothing.
Shutout.
Just for my Rumple.
For the first time since the game started, I dared to look over to where I knew she was sitting with Maria and Rachel. As I high-fived the other players, I walked toward the tunnel and saw her smiling down at me.
I leapt over the fence near the edge of the field, pulled Nicole into my arms, and planted a big-ass kiss on her. Somehow, I just didn’t care who might have seen us—I wanted everyone to know she was my girl. What could possibly be wrong with that?
“Shutout game,” I said. I reached out and tried to tap her nose with a mud-covered, gloved finger. She turned at the last second and the mud ended up on her cheek instead. “Just for you, baby.”
“Ugh! Thomas!” Nicole squealed with a laugh. She pushed at my chest, which only served to get more mud on her hands. “You are a mess!”
After pulling off my gloves and dropping them on the ground, I held her up with one arm. I reached over to brush a bit of mud off her face with the opposite hand but only managed to smear it around. I still told her it was better.
“Nice save there at the end,” she said. “I thought the last one was going to go over your head.”
“No way,” I said. “I just wouldn’t allow that.”
Nicole snorted and shook her head as I dropped her back to her feet.
“Nice game, son,” I heard from behind me. I dropped my hands from Nicole’s waist and turned to see Dad in the business suit he usually wore when he was traveling. He walked up to us and reached over to pat me on the back.
“Thanks, Dad,” I replied as my heart started to beat a little faster, and my throat tightened. “You remember Nicole, right?”
“Yes, I do,” he said as he turned his smile to her. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Miss Skye.”
“Thank you,” Nicole said. She glanced at me and bit down on her lip. Nicole’s eyes stayed on mine as she leaned against me slightly. I put my arm around her, and as I glanced over her head at my dad, our eyes met, and his narrowed just a little.
Shit.
He didn’t like something.
He knew I was seeing Nicole—we’d talked about her doing my homework and shit for me. This display shouldn’t have shocked him too much, so why the look?
I felt Nicole’s fingers trail up my side.
“How is your side today?” she asked, just a little too loudly.
Oh fuck, no! Rumple—you aren’t going there.
I tightened my arm around her and I held her close to me.
“Nothing wrong with me, baby,” I said. I kept my eyes on Dad, who was looking at Nicole with a small smile. “It’s all good.”
“Thomas,” Dad said, “I’ve got a flight to catch early in the morning, so I’m heading to Seattle now. Walk to the car with me.”
“Sure,” I said as I tried to hold a smile. “I’ll be back in a bit, okay, Nicole?”
She glanced from me to my father and then nodded before releasing my arm.
“You want to explain that?” Dad said softly as we started across the parking lot. The sun had mostly gone down, and the tall security lights cast weird shadows all over the place.
“Explain what?” I asked. I had a pretty good idea but didn’t want to make it that obvious.
“I thought you were just holding out for homework,” Dad said. “You act like you are fucking dating her or something.”