Six months later

 

“BOOYAH! That’s what I’m TALKIN’ ABOUT!” Tia screamed at the top of her lungs as she shook her booty in the luxury box high above the field. Eli had just thrown a bullet straight into the endzone, perfectly into the cradle of Jace’s hands, which effectively tied up the game with seconds left on the clock.

When, two minutes later, the kicker sealed the deal, and sent the Stingrays to the Superbowl, Tia flung herself into Ryan’s arms. She kissed him dead on the mouth, then turned to Jay, gave him the same treatment. And then lastly to Marcus, who grinned and picked her right up off the ground where they smacked lips loudly.

Tia knew that there were pretty much always cameras on her now, video and otherwise. She knew that gossip sites were going to have a field day with her jumping into Eli’s best friends’ arms. But she didn’t give a rip.

Her boisterous celebrations in the box had become something of a talking point for gossip sites and announcers alike. Whenever she went to a game, she knew she was going to be on television at least once or twice. But Tia found it bothered her a great deal less these days. What did she care? She was the one going home with Eli after every game.

A few minutes later, she and Jay and Marcus hurried out of the stadium. They had a lot to prepare for Eli in the few hours before he got home after the game. They were hosting several hundred people at a ballroom downtown. It was a congrats for the team, on going to the Superbowl, but unbeknownst to the general public, it was also a retirement party for Eli.

He’d thrown his heart and soul into this season. Training harder than he ever had before. And they had the 16-2 record to prove it.

But it hadn’t been a cakewalk. Between Tia’s busy schedule at the hospital and his constant jetsetting with the team, they’d only been able to see each other for a few weeks total over the last six months. They were both sick of it.

And Eli had meant what he’d said in bed the day they’d gotten pre-engaged. Football wasn’t who he was anymore. His life with Tia was who he was.

But it had been a hell of a season at the end of a hell of a career, and Eli deserved a hell of a send off. Which mean that Tia, Jay, and Marcus were racing all over the ballroom, setting things up and putting final touches on everything.

Tia was still in her Bird jersey when guests started arriving. Laura had to forcibly drag her from the ballroom to go get cleaned up in the bathroom. It amused both Laura and Tia that their roles switched so much during the season. Tia had been the easy-going, relaxed one. While Laura had bitten her nails to a nub watching Jace play. Laura had actually had conflicting feelings about them going to the Superbowl. It was yet another game she was going to have to suffer through.

But tonight wasn’t about suffering. Tonight was about celebrating.

“Damn, those Camellias are pretty,” Marcus said to Jay as he took a sip of champagne and watched Laura and Tia re-enter the ballroom after they’d gone and gotten all dolled up.

“Sure are,” Jay agreed. He watched as Eli strolled into the ballroom from the other direction, his hair wet from the shower and a suit casually unbuttoned.

Eli made a beeline for his gorgeous woman who wore a long red dress that she’d known would make him smile.

“You trying to jinx us?” he asked as soon as he got close to her. He plucked at the material of the familiar dress. Tia didn’t like the dress for some reason, but he really thought she looked beautiful in it.

Tia laughed. “I thought maybe we could change this dress’s luck. Besides, there are sure to be a few of your old flames at this party. I figure this dress has been there done that. It’s good armor.”

Eli laughed and rolled his eyes, bringing her into his arms. He felt that buzzy warmth. That feeling she always gave him. She grinned up at him and Eli took the moment to look around at all the people.

He spotted a few of his teammates and they all looked excited and amped for the Superbowl. He’d already told them all that he wouldn’t be staying on next year. Now he was gonna have to tell the world. It was a bittersweet moment for him. He’d miss the game, the competition, the sense of purpose. But he wouldn’t miss the proximity to the press. The microscope. The show.

He was ready to have privacy with Tia. To fade from the public eye.

Eli reached down and toyed with the ring on her necklace. Lately he’d been itching to get that ring on her finger, but he figured they had a few things to cross off their lists first. The Superbowl for one.

Eli’s fingers brushed against Tia’s heart and he felt the connection there. The one that he’d felt even that first day in the hospital.

“You know, I used to attribute this feeling to you being my surgeon,” Eli said.

“What feeling?”

“You don’t feel that?” Eli asked, partially teasing. “That wire that zings between us? The constant connection?”

“Oh, that old thing.”

“Yeah. Well, I used to think I had that feeling because you’d taken some vital part of me during the surgery, kept it for yourself. I felt like I had to be close to you to have any chance at getting it back. To feel whole.”

“And now? Do you still think it’s because I was your surgeon?”

“No,” he shrugged. “Now I know that’s the way it feels when you know that someone will take care of you. You never took anything, I gave it to you. Because I knew you’d treat it well.”

“And what was it that you gave me?” Tia murmured against Eli’s lips, already knowing the answer.

He smiled, his same creased, face cracking, handsome-friendly-sexy smile. “My heart.”

“Je-zusss,” Marcus muttered into his beer bottle from where he watched Eli and Tia across the party. He was happy for his friend, he really was; he couldn’t have found a better girl. But to Marcus, there was a thin line between public affection and just plain showing off.

He knew he was jealous. Not because Eli was the one who’d gotten Tia, although that hadn’t not stung a little bit. But because Eli had a girl and they fit together so well. Marcus was far, far past believing that was possible for him. He was a hard man with a hard past and hard tastes in women.

The women who’d kept him company over the years had all had one thing in common: they hadn’t been able to handle him. As relaxed and playful as he could be in his friendships, he was intensely passionate in his relationships. And it was just too much for pretty much anyone he’d ever been with.

That was alright though. He had his friends and he had his work. One thing for the soul and one thing for the mind. His heart was just going to have to wait.

“You need another drink?” Marcus asked Jay, although he already knew the answer. Jay rarely drank, and when he did, it was with a strict one-drink limit.

“Nah, man. You go ahead.” Jay watched Marcus move toward the bar. He sighed. Jay was sick of these damn NFL parties. He’d weathered his fair share at Eli’s side. Now that Eli had Tia, Jay was starting to hope that he could start ducking out of these.

The large glass doors that lined the ballroom revealed the inky black night and Jay found himself wandering toward the cool winter air that flirted with him. Two barely dressed twenty-somethings stumbled across his path, clutching each other and giggling. One of them made bedroom eyes at Jay, but the other one was already pulling her across the ballroom toward some football player or another.

He sighed. He was definitely sick of this scene. It was the same thing over and over again. Girls who were too young and too drunk. Dudes that were too pompous and too drunk. Throw in a whole lot of machismo, a dash of residual aggression from the sport, and a lot of pent-up sexual energy, and you got an NFL party.

It was not Jay’s bag. There were some days he truly regretted not being born a dolphin. What he wouldn’t give to be out on the water right now. Even the dead black, frozen, January water that beckoned to him from outside. He could always smell the ocean.

Jay reached the glass doors and slipped out onto the balcony. He was greeted by the crisp air and utter silence. Thank god. He could smell snow on the air and he wasn’t mad at it. He liked when the weather acted like the season they were in. Jay was quite familiar with the hole that humankind had dug itself into with carbon emissions. The threat of global warming hung over his head constantly. But in general, he tried to fret less and do more. Which was why he worked at a non-profit that was working to raise awareness and combat climate change.

Well, he admitted to himself in the privacy of his own head, he also worked there because of her. Mari. His mystery woman. She was an eco warrior just like himself. And somewhere in the back of Jay’s mind, he thought that it might increase his chances of finding her again if he tightened his sphere a little bit. If he worked in the same world that he knew she worked in. Though he didn’t know which city she lived or worked in.

Jay leaned forward onto the rail of the balcony and looked past the lights of the city to the thin strip of ocean that adorned the bottom of the sky.

If he let himself, he could get so unbelievably frustrated right now. But that wasn’t good for him. For his heart or his body. She was gone and he probably would never see her again. All he could do was take each day as it came. And move on.

Jay let out a slow breath and turned back to face the party. He watched all the glittery, dressed up people milling about. Chatting, dancing, sipping champagne. Everyone looked the same. Had the same expression on their face.

Except one woman. She wore a muted black dress, almost boyish in its cut. Her black hair was straight down her back and she wore no jewelry that he could see. He couldn’t see her face but she stood away from the party. She didn’t seem bored. No. She seemed like she was observing.

Something skated up and down Jay’s spine before he ruthlessly leashed it, yanked it back. There was no hope, he told himself. It wasn’t her.

It wasn’t her.

Just then, a foghorn sounded from a barge on the ocean and it’s deep bellow made it all the way to the balcony where Jay stood. The sound always reminded him of his time in the Bahamas, the week after the hurricane. The noise of a foghorn was both uplifting and depressing to him. It reminded him of his time with Mari and it reminded him that she was gone.

The melancholy call from the sea must have been audible from inside the ballroom as well. Because the woman who he had eyes on straightened up, turned toward the sound.

Jay froze solid on the balcony, his hands tightening on the rail behind him. The woman, sadness rising in her eyes as she looked toward the ocean, shook her hair back and turned back toward the party.

But not before her face had shot electricity straight through Jay. Not before Jay had seen her. Not before Jay’s life ended and began in the same moment.

It was her.

It was Mari.

She was here.

It was her.