“Becca went all possessive girlfriend on Kelly before,” Jake tells Ryan. “It was hilarious.”
Ryan’s face breaks into a huge grin. I knew he’d like that. “Oh yeah?”
I raise my eyebrows at him. “I didn’t realize how well acquainted she was with you,” I tell him sarcastically.
Ryan scrunches his face up, confused. “What?”
“She brings you food, Ryan!”
“What? No. She brings over stuff for Jase. I just eat it.”
I glance over at Jason, who is pointedly trying not to look at me. I get the feeling he knows full well Kelly’s not bringing that stuff over for him, even if Ryan does believe it, but there’s no point in calling him out over it. Even if I asked him now, he wouldn’t sell Ryan out.
I roll my eyes and turn back to my pile of fries just as a wave of noise hits us. Evan and a bunch of the others from the team cross the courtyard toward us. I look around, but there’s no spare room. I’m sitting between Ryan and Jake, Jason’s on the other side of Jake, and Marty is opposite us. I expect them to go to the long table at the back where there’s more space, but no, apparently space is no object when you’re the superstar team of college football. They plonk their stuff down on the floor next to us, go over to the long table, actually pick it up, and bring it back over to us. They stick it on the end and then pull a bunch of chairs around us. Suddenly I’m not just sitting at a table with four guys that I know really well; now there are at least twenty guys from the football team all around us, and I’m a little overwhelmed. Then the girls come, like moths to a flame, and even though I glare daggers at her, Kelly’s among them. She and her crew flounce over to join us, all pouty lips and glossy hair. I have no idea what her friends are like, and I know I’m judging them because of her, but I wish they’d go away. They don’t. Each of the girls obviously has her hookup planned, and all four of them go and either wrap their arms around the guy they’re sleeping with or sit on their knee. Kelly’s eye catches mine, and she actually smiles at me. It’s the fakest smile I’ve ever seen, and I want to slap her. I can’t believe how blatant she’s being. I feel a nudge from my left and glance over to see Jake smiling at me. He doesn’t say anything, but his eyes have a warning in them. He’s telling me not to let her wind me up. I nod in return, but I don’t feel comfortable.
“You need a seat, Kel?” My head snaps to Ryan. Kel? KEL! Kelly’s the only one standing off to the side. There are no spare seats that she can pull over, and I feel like that means she should just leave. Apparently Ryan doesn’t feel the same. “You can have Becca’s.”
I glower at him. What the hell is he talking about? I’m not having this. Kelly practically preens in Ryan’s direction, giving me a sly look. I put my drink down in disgust. I’m ready to get up and leave them all to it when Ryan turns and looks at me. He reaches out, grips my upper arm, and before I know it, he’s tugged me out of my seat, turned me around, and pulled me down onto his knee. Then he grabs the seat I was in and pulls it away from the table and behind him. Before I can even blink, Jake moves his chair closer to Ryan and me, so that even if she wanted to, she couldn’t sit anywhere near us. Jason shifts over too so that he’s closer to Jake, and just like that, there’s no room over here. I catch her jaw falling open in surprise, and her eyes harden before I dismiss her from my sight. Jake turns and winks at me, and Ryan squeezes my knee as Marty and Jason smirk over in Kelly’s direction. All of them know exactly what Ryan did there, and I practically beam in delight. I know it’s petty, and I know she can’t touch us, but she was bothering me, and in one quick movement, Ryan showed me just how little he thought of her. Plus, Jake backed him up. I love my boys.
“Damn, boy.” Henry’s lazy Southern drawl makes me look up at him. He’s way over on the other side of the table, but his eyes are trained on us. “You whipped!”
Ryan chuckles behind me and pulls me to him so that my whole back is pressed against his chest. “Hell yes I am,” Ryan says, resting his head on my shoulder. I can feel him smile against my cheek. I love that he does this. I love that he doesn’t ever try to downplay our relationship or act like he doesn’t care. He’s always affectionate with me no matter who’s around.
Henry chuckles and turns his gaze to me, a big smile on his face. “Y’know, you’re kinda famous on the team.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Your man never shuts up about you. When we first got here, your boy got a lot of attention. One night, this smoking hot senior spent all night trying to get with him, and he just kept showing her pictures of you on his phone.”
I burst out laughing. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like that some girl was hitting on him, but I know he’s telling the truth about the pictures. I’ve heard he’s done that before.
“You guys been together long?”
I nod. “Three years.”
“The best three years,” Ryan whispers in my ear, and I smile in response. They have been the best. I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever been happier than I’ve been since we got together. I feel like I can’t remember a time when we were apart.
“How’d you guys meet?” Evan asks. I glance around and see that no one’s having individual conversations anymore. They’re all listening to us.
“We’ve always known each other,” I tell Evan, not looking at anyone else. I hate having this many people looking at me, and I hope I haven’t gone red. “Our parents are neighbors and friends. We grew up together.”
“So love at first sight then, huh?” Henry asks. He genuinely seems interested.
Jake snorts next to me, and I turn to scowl at him. Ryan starts chuckling behind me. “Not exactly,” Ryan explains. “We had a falling out in middle school, and Becca ignored me after that, and through most of high school.”
Jake starts laughing too. “Yeah, Ryan was in love with her for years, and Becca was too dumb to notice.”
“Hey!” I throw a fry at his head, which just makes him laugh harder as the rest of the table snickers. I roll my eyes and turn back to Henry. “It just took me a little longer to figure it out is all.”
Henry smirks and glances at Ryan. “She make you work, boy?”
I can feel Ryan grinning against my cheek. “Oh yeah. Getting Becca was harder than it’d be to get Trump to kiss Marty’s Mexican ass!”
The whole table erupts in laughter, and I join in. I don’t like thinking of those days and the way I used to ignore him, but when I turn around to look at him, his eyes are shining, and he wraps his arms around me even tighter. “Worth every second of the wait, baby,” he tells me, kissing me on the cheek.
I turn back around, and Kelly is positively glaring at me. I just smirk back at her. The more she sees us together and hears about our history, the more she’ll realize she’s wasting her time.
“You guys are like seriously in love, huh?” Henry continues. He’s still watching us; he seems to find us fascinating.
“She’s the one, man,” Ryan tells him, not caring at all that he’s announcing it to almost thirty people, most of whom are his teammates.
I start to shift uncomfortably in his lap, wanting the conversation to move on. Jake notices. “Don’t worry about him, Becca,” he tells me, shooting Henry a smirk. “Couples are like a different species to him ’cause he never goes back to the same girl twice.”
“Just spreading the love, Edmondson.” He winks at me and points to his chest. “It’d be a crime to keep all of this to myself.” I burst out laughing along with the half the table. The other half groan at him, and it sets them all off, talking about their various relationships and conquests. I’m soon in fits of laughter just from listening to them.
“You okay?” Ryan whispers in my ear. He adjusts his right hand so his thumb can brush under the hem of my t-shirt and stroke the side of my hip. I cast him a backward glance, but he just stares back innocently at me. I know what he’s doing. He’s done with the conversation around here and is thinking about the room we were going to get after we eat.
I raise an eyebrow at him and place my hand on his roaming one. I’m not about to let him feel me up in front of all his friends. He chuckles and then repeats his question. “Seriously, are you okay?”
He’s asking if I’m okay being around this many people I don’t know; crowds sometimes make me uncomfortable. I nod my head in answer to his question. It’s actually really nice seeing this side of his life. Usually I just see his roommates, but it’s good to see the rest of the team and see how close they all are. I knew his team was one of the best in the country, but it’s nice to see how well they all mesh when they’re off the field.
“You staying for the game on Saturday, Becca?” I turn away from Ryan and look at Evan, who’s lounging back in his seat, watching us.
I shake my head. “My flight’s later today.”
“Where you go to school?” Henry asks.
I brace myself for the response I know I’ll get. “Southern U.”
The predictable boos ring out around me, but they’re good-natured, at least from my side of the table. It’s not a surprise to most people where I go to school.
“You’re a King?”
I shrug. “I go to school there. They’ve got a great arts program.” One I don’t use anymore. I don’t glance back at Ryan when I say this. I don’t want him to start in on me about transferring again.
“But you root for the Kings?”
Jake starts laughing next to me. “Becca barely watches Ryan’s games, let alone another team’s.”
“Shut up!” I tell him, throwing another fry at his head. That’s a touchy subject for Ryan. I texted him last year to congratulate him on a win, when in fact they’d lost the game in the last five minutes. He was not impressed that I hadn’t watched the whole game. Now I make sure I know the result before I text him. “I watch all Ryan’s games.”
“So you see that bitch, Mulligan, around campus?” He’s referring to the quarterback of my college team. I shake my head, even though that’s not strictly true. I definitely know who he is, and I see him way more often than I’d like, but considering I can’t stand the guy, seeing him once every couple months is too much. I avoid the football team at all costs. A few of the guys I’ve met are okay, but that is so not my scene. If it weren’t for Ryan, I don’t think I’d ever speak to a football player. “He still crying over coming second to your man all the time?”
Ryan starts to laugh. He knows he’s a better player than Mulligan, and he also knows that Mulligan hates him. It all comes down to jealousy. He’s trashed Ryan in the media a bunch of times, and the couple times they’ve played each other, he’s always talked shit about Ryan before the game, saying he’ll crumble under the pressure, saying he just gets lucky and there’s no real skill there. Ryan’s beaten him both times. I don’t really get football or player rivalry, but Ryan’s one of the best in the country and therefore has a lot of opposing players jealous of him. I know Ryan doesn’t like Mulligan, but not enough to bitch about him. He’s not even on Ryan’s radar. Clearly he doesn’t see the guy as a threat.
“Stay.” The word is whispered quietly into my ear.
I frown and glance behind me to look at Ryan.
“Stay,” he repeats quietly.
My face softens. “I can’t. You know I can’t.”
“Just for this week.”
“I have classes. I can’t miss them.”
“You can get notes later. Please, Becca. Just this once.”
This is unlike him. I know he hates us being apart, but he doesn’t ever ask me to stay longer than planned. He knows this is just the way it is for now.
“Ryan—”
“It hasn’t been enough time, Becca.” The intensity of his voice shocks me. “I can’t wait another couple months to see you again.”
I stare back at him. His eyes are on me, and though he has a smile playing on his lips, it looks forced. His eyes are practically pleading.
“It’s Thanksgiving in six weeks and I’ll be back for that, and then you guys play Southern U right after that.”
“It’s too long, Becca.”
“But my flights are booked,” I say feebly. “I don’t have enough clothes here.”
“We can change your flights and I’ll buy you as many clothes as you want.”
I sigh. “I don’t need your money, Ryan.”
“Please, Becca. Just this once.”
“Ryan—”
“Becca, please.” He squeezes my thigh as though trying to reiterate his point. I glance away from his gaze, confused. Part of me is annoyed at him for putting me on the spot like this, but then the other part of me knows he wouldn’t ask me unless he really wanted me to stay. I look sideways, and I see Jake sitting very still, as is Jason beside him. I know they’re listening. Then I look across the table and see the conversation has died down slightly. I thought Ryan was being quiet, but I’m pretty sure Jake’s not the only one listening to our conversation. I catch Kelly’s eye from across the table and suddenly I don’t care about her, or any of the girls hanging around him, or any of the rest the team. This is about us. Ryan wants me to stay, and if I’m honest with myself, I want to stay too. I love my boyfriend and I miss him.
“Okay,” I agree with a smile. “I’ll stay.”
His whole face lights up, and he leans in and drops a quick kiss on my mouth as Henry breathes an exaggerated sigh of relief from across the table. “Thank God for that. I was not looking forward to dealing with his moody ass the rest of the week.”
Ryan just grins back at him and flips him the finger. I glance sideways at Jake, who winks at me. “I knew you’d cave,” he tells me, and I just shrug. If caving means spending more time with my boyfriend, then so be it. I’ll cave more often.
Before I know it, Ryan’s standing up, and I have little choice but to topple off his knee and stand as well. “Let’s go change your flights,” he tells me as he wraps an arm around my shoulder and pulls me into him. I hook an arm around his waist and nod in agreement. “And get that room,” he whispers in my ear.
He picks up his bag, throws it over his shoulder, says goodbye to the rest of the guys, and leads me away. I realize I’m beaming like an idiot, just like he is, because I’m happy—I get another week with my boyfriend.