EPILOGUE
Becca
“Cole Daniel James.”
I surge to my feet as Cole’s name is called out, and he walks across the stage in his cap and gown. He did it! It wasn’t easy pulling up his grades enough to make this day a reality, but he did it anyway. A two-point-two grade point average won’t set any records, but it is enough to give him the diploma that’s currently in his hands.
We learned that Cole is dyslexic. As I began tutoring him, I noticed the signs from an article I’d written on learning disorders the year before. I’d been amazed, and extremely pissed, that he’d never been tested before.
“Teachers just passed me,” he said with a shrug when I pointed it out. And they had. Barely, but enough for him to move on to the next grade, and the next, and the next. Being a star athlete has its privileges and its disadvantages. Being a star athlete for Cole James meant that he’d gotten into college while being functionally illiterate.
In my research, I learned that nearly one in four high school students can’t read at a functional level, and it’s not just a problem with inner city schools as one might think. It’s caused by a broken system in which parents place all the responsibility on the schools, and where good teachers are pushed to the brink of their sanity for students to pass standardized tests. If a student isn’t failing or causing trouble, it’s easy to for them to get lost in the stream of oversized classrooms. And if parents aren’t involved, encouraging their child to sit down and read to them… I sigh. Their child becomes another Cole.
Beside me, Mia gives me a squeeze. “He looks so handsome,” she says as he smiles for the camera, diploma in hand. He does. He smiles a lot more now, and that upward tilt of his mouth makes my toes curl.
As he walks off the stage, he finds me in the crowd. Our eyes meet, and I blow him a kiss while his fist pumps the air. I laugh. I haven’t seen him this happy since he was chosen by the Titans in the third round of the NFL draft.
It could have gone so differently.
Six months ago, Cole was on the edge of losing everything, but because of my asshole ex-boyfriend, we were brought together. In a few short days, both our worlds were upended in the best possible way.
Chaos had burned all around us, but we hadn’t run from the fire, we’d simply embraced the warmth, then trudged through the ashes to plant new hope, new memories for us to cling to.
I have Rob to thank for that, I suppose. During the times I want to hate him, I choose to remember that he facilitated me meeting Cole and giving me this new life. No, it wasn’t easy. After learning that Rob had indeed given me GHB, it wasn’t easy sitting in the witness box and testifying to how Rob had drugged me, invaded my privacy, and in a jealous rage, attempted to slander the college’s quarterback. It wasn’t easy being cross-examined by his attorneys, having every minute detail of my life examined and judged. It wasn’t easy seeing the pictures Rob had taken of me while I was passed out flashed upon a screen. But it had been worth it. Mostly.
I cried when I learned that he hadn’t been sentenced to any time in jail — he’d gotten time served, fines, and probation — but his “good” name had been muddied, which to a person like Rob Huntsman, was almost worse than time spent behind bars. At least I attempt to see it that way. Otherwise, I’d drive myself crazy with the unfairness of it all.
And through it all, Cole has been by my side, urging me into counseling too. Counseling I never knew I needed to process my father’s resentment of me, process his death.
Cole weathered his storm too. Once his drug test came back clean, he’d dealt with the naysayers who claimed he’d cheated the system with a grace that had astounded me. Part of his acceptance of their judgment was because he agreed with them.
“They’re right,” he told me one cold night while I was wrapped in his warm arms. “I did cheat the system, and it was only luck…” he kissed my forehead, “and you that I got away with it.” He carried a lot of guilt around that. Guilt he processed through counseling and through a program he joined to encourage high school students to stay off drugs. As he said, “I can’t change my past, but I can change my future, and maybe the future of a few other kids.”
To say I’m proud of him is an understatement.
“I’m going to miss you so much,” Mia says, squeezing me even harder against her side.
I wrap my arm around her shoulders and hug her back. “I’m going to miss you too.”
When we learned that Cole was heading to Nashville, Tennessee, I knew that’s where I wanted to be too. When he asked me to come with him, it was official. I applied for a transfer to Vanderbilt, and I learned just last week that I was accepted. We leave tomorrow, both of us ready for a fresh start.
A few days ago, Cole closed on the purchase of a pretty little condo with the signing bonus he received, and we were blessed to be able to move in right away. So, after all the graduation festivities are done, that’s where we’re going. To start our lives. Together. I can’t wait. It’s only a little over a thousand square feet, but it feels like a mansion to us. It’s perfect, with tall windows and two bedrooms, giving me a studio/office in which to write. Since neither of us has furniture worth doing anything with besides dragging to the side of the road, we’ve been looking online for some deals before our big move. And it’s been fun choosing colors. Nothing white. Nothing drab. Never again.
After graduation, Cole’s football coach hosts a barbecue in all the team graduates’ honor. The food is delicious, and I eat so much I barely have room for a slice of cake.
“You did it!” I tell Cole, not for the first time today. It’s been a running theme in my head.
“We did it,” he reminds me. “You and me. Our own little team.”
After cake and ice cream, Cole yells to get everyone’s attention. He holds up his glass of beer and says, “I’d like to make a toast.”
When everyone is quiet, he begins… “Today we celebrate an important milestone in not only my life but the lives of some of my friends.”
I glance over at Troy, who is holding up his beer, still wearing his graduation cap. He winks at me. After that horrid night at the bar, we’ve become friends. In fact, I became friends with a number of the players, feeling like I had a bunch of big brothers around me all the time. Troy was able to quit the steroids, and his determination won him a contract with Buffalo. I’ll miss him. I’ll miss them all.
“I don’t think any of us reach our dreams in isolation. Behind us or beside us are people who help us along the way. Some offer a hand. Some who kick our asses. Some who simply take our hand and pull us in the right direction.” He looks over at me, and my heart skips a beat in my chest. “I’ve been lucky to have someone who does all of that and more. Because of Becca, I’m not in a gutter right now. Because of her, I found my direction, my path. And because of her, for her, I refuse to waver from it.”
Tears burn my eyes as Cole looks at me with so much love I feel my entire body will burst from the overflow of it all
“Today, I toast our team, my teammates, and the woman I love. May all of us be lucky enough to have a Becca in our lives.”
Everyone raises their glass, clinking them with their neighbors. “Here, here,” is chanted all around me, but I only have eyes for Cole, who is… oh my god, sinking to one knee.
The entire crowd grows completely quiet as Cole sets down his drink and pulls a little box from his pocket. I’m quite sure I’m going to hyperventilate on the spot.
“Becca. You saved me. You turned my life around. You gave me the strength to stand on the path I’d always dreamed of following. Join me on that path. Marry me. Be my wife. Please.”
I look down into his gorgeous face, and it blurs before me, then clears again as I blink away the tears that are trying to blind me. Tears have clogged my throat, my nose, my entire face and I can do nothing but nod my head, laughing and crying like an idiot. No, like a woman so grateful for the man in front of her.
The ring is beautiful, but nothing can ever sparkle as brightly as Cole’s smile as he stands and takes me in his arms, twirling me around. “Is that a yes?”
I cough and sniff, running a hand under my nose, then take the napkin the coach’s lovely wife hands to me. “It depends. Am I finally going to get that interview with the bad boy?”
He laughs, throwing his head back with the sound. “Yes.”
I grin. “Then it’s a yes from me too. It’s a great big yes.”
Cheers roar all around us.
Through the turmoil, Cole kisses me so softly I ache from the preciousness of the gesture. “We can wait,” he says so that only I can hear. “I know you want to graduate first, but I want you to know I’m in this for the long haul with you. I want you to move to Tennessee with me knowing I’m one hundred percent committed to you.”
I press my hands on both sides of his beautiful face, watching the diamonds catch the light, causing a sunburst of color on his skin. “I’ll follow you anywhere. Everywhere. You’re my life, Cole. And I’m grateful to you every day.”
He grins. “Thank you for saying yes.”
I laugh and kiss his sweet lips. “Did you really think I was going to say no?”
His eyes search my face, and he tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. “I was hoping, praying, but yeah, there was a loud voice in my ear telling me you’d probably bolt.”
I step closer to him, exhaling as his arms go around me, pulling me to his strong chest. “I’m not going anywhere. We’re in this life together. For better or worse.”
He kisses me, again so softly I ache from this big man being so gentle. “Promise?”
I don’t hesitate as I look into the eyes of the man I love.
“Promise.”
THE END
Continue on to read a special sneak peek of my previous release, LOVER WANTED.