Mari frowned down at her phone. It would have been so much easier if Jay had said no to Linc coming. Maybe because there weren’t enough tickets or something? Then she would have been able to say that she’d asked and she wouldn’t have to stare down the idea of sitting in between them for the entire six-hour extravaganza of the Superbowl, not to mention the four-hour car ride preceding it.

Jay and Marcus were about to pick up them up and Mari was not looking forward to it in the least. In fact she was deeply dreading it. She’d been trying to prove something to herself, by asking if Linc was invited. But now that the moment was bearing down on her, she couldn’t for the life of her remember what it had been.

She glanced at her phone again. They’d be here any minute. She half hoped that Jay would send a text canceling the whole thing.

“I’m not going to go,” Linc said from behind her.

Mari jumped halfway out of her skin and whirled to face him. She’d been standing in the middle of the entry hall, her bag slung over her shoulder, ready to leave for the last twenty minutes.

“What? Why?”

Linc had a strange expression on his face that she couldn’t quite interpret. He hadn’t been the same since he’d gotten back from his trip to London. They’d been having trouble being on the same page. They weren’t arguing, per se. But there were a lot more silences than they used to have. Linc wasn’t filling in the dead spaces like he used to.

He cleared his throat. “I really don’t want to go, Mari. You know the Superbowl isn’t my bag.”

She frowned. She did know that. It was something that she and Linc had in common, in fact. “It’s not my thing either, Linc, I just think—”

“I’m still jet lagged and it’s not like it’ll be quality time for you and me. If it were, I’d go in a heartbeat,” he said as he stepped up and laced his fingers through hers. She eyed his handsome face, willed herself to feel some of the flutter she used to feel when she’d first met him. She hadn’t felt that feeling in years, the flutter had long since melted into the warmth of appreciation and companionship. “But it’ll just be a lot of small talk with people I don’t know and a football game I don’t care about. I’d rather stay and catch up on my beauty sleep.”

Mari frowned more. Linc loved small talk. It was something they didn’t have in common.

“Is this because of Jay?”

Linc sighed and unlinked their hands, dragging his fingers through his hair. “Yes and no.”

“Elaborate.”

Linc sighed again. “I’m off kilter because of him. He feels like this bowling ball that just came in and upended everything.”

“Okay.” Mari slipped her bag off over her head. “I’ll stay too. We’ll order in. Watch a movie or something.”

Linc’s chest tightened. She was being genuine. Completely serious. She’d do that for him in a heartbeat. She was so flipping loyal. “No,” he said as he traced his hands down her shoulders. “You should go. It’s a once in a lifetime experience.”

“I don’t want to go if it’ll hurt you.”

“It doesn’t hurt, exactly.” He knew he needed to meet her honesty as well as he could. He searched for words. “I’m uncomfortable is all. I’m still getting used to you having him in your life.” His eyes found hers for a second before skittering away. “Especially when you’re still not sure how you feel about him.”

Mari’s heart was somewhere down around her knees. Her stomach was tight. “Linc, you know I’m not deciding between you two, right?”

Linc searched her eyes, nodded slowly. “You’re deciding whether or not he can be in your life.”

“I’m deciding whether or not he can be in our life.”

Linc took a deep breath. “Right. Okay. Then of course, just forget I said anything about him. Go forth, prosper, cheer your brains out and eat a hot pretzel. I’ll be here when you get home.”

“Linc,” she said, her brow furrowed and tight with worry. But she didn’t finish her sentence. There was a knock on the door behind her.

“Are you gonna get that?” Linc asked.

Mari ignored the knock. “Linc—” she tried again. But Linc was stepping around her and swinging the door open.

“Jay!” His voice sounded loud and too boisterous even to his own ears.

“Linc,” Jay replied easily, whether he tried to hide it or not, his eyes absolutely lit when he spotted Mari in the entryway. “Hey Mari. You two ready?”

“Actually, I’m gonna bow out. I’m sorry if you’d been holding the ticket for me.”

He had Jay’s full attention now. “Oh, really? Is everything okay?”

Linc sensed true concern in the man’s tone, for some reason it annoyed him greatly. He didn’t need Jay Brady’s concern. His good intentions. Or his perfect surfer good looks. “Yup, everything is fine. I’m just jet lagged still from my trip to London.”

“Alright,” Jay said as his eyes bounced back to Mari. She wasn’t looking at him, she was staring at the back of Linc’s head. “Alright.”

“Alright,” Mari finally said, only vaguely aware that she was just echoing Jay.

“See you later, man,” Jay said, leaning through the door to shake his hand. He got a firm, slightly aggressive handshake back, but the look in Linc’s eyes was far from competitive. It was…frustrated?

Either way, Jay turned to give them a second, he had no desire to see how they said goodbye to one another. He bounded down the stairs and opened the passenger side door of Marcus’s truck.

“He’s not coming!” he whispered urgently to Marcus who had the gall to grin from ear to ear. “Wipe that smile off your face, she’s coming out here.”

Marcus did no such thing. “What? I’m just happy that I get to drive my truck is all. Otherwise douchebag would have had to drive.”

Jay shot Marcus a threatening look as Mari came up behind him. “Do I need to drive? Hey Marcus.”

“Hola Marita,” he grinned at her. Jay rolled his eyes. “I’m happy to drive, we can all fit up front.”

Mari hesitated.

“It’s a biodiesel truck,” Jay informed her. Mari shrugged her shoulders and swung herself up next to Marcus, to the middle of the bench seat.

Jay swung up beside her. Every small movement of the vehicle on their three-hour drive had her sliding across the seat, the full length of her leg pressed up against his.

This need, this burning need, to tell her how he felt was clawing its way up his throat. He had no idea how he’d been confused about this. His feelings were so clear right now that there was no turning away from them. In fact, he was actively swallowing them down so that he wouldn’t blurt them out in front of Marcus.

It wasn’t more than an hour before Mari’s head was bobbing forward. Without thinking too hard on it, Jay put one finger under her chin and guided her head to his shoulder. She nestled in, her breaths deep and even on his neck.

Jay avoided Marcus’s eyes. Soon, he was nodding off himself. Every ten minutes or so, he came awake just enough to appreciate the heat of her, searing his side, the precious weight of her head on his shoulder. He ached to thread his fingers through hers. But he didn’t.

The next thing he knew, the truck shut off. “Fat lot of company you two were,” Marcus grumbled as they stretched and came awake. “This is the problem with being vegan. You never have enough energy.”

Mari laughed and scrambled out the driver’s side door, her eyes widening as she watched the throngs of fans making their pilgrimage toward the stadium. “Holy hell!”

“Wow,” Jay agreed as he came to stand beside her. “That’s a lot of football fans.”

“Are we in the right place?” Mari asked, squinting around. “It seems like everybody else is over there.”             

Marcus grinned down at her. “We get the Elijah Bird royal treatment.”

The two men ushered her toward the VIP entrance and up to the luxury box where they looked down at the field. Mari’s mouth dropped straight open. It was like watching the Superbowl from a suite at the Ritz. “Holy hell,” she muttered again.

Ryan, Kat, Tia, and Laura all turned around as the three newcomers entered the box.

“Hi!” Laura called, her voice high and squeaky, her eyes all over the place.

She looked a little wild, Mari thought as Laura bounced over to them, giving them each a fast little hug.

“Laura dear,” Marcus said, concern in his eye. “You didn’t have any coffee, did you? You know you’re banned from coffee on game day.”

“Ha ha hahahaha,” Laura ground out between teeth that almost chattered. “No, no. Just good old game day nerves. You know me, ahhahaaaa.”

It was then that Mari remembered that Laura’s boyfriend Jace, who she’d met at the party at Eli’s, was also a football player for the Stingrays. She realized that Laura must be coming out of her skin about to watch her partner play in the biggest televised event in the world. Mari wondered how Tia was faring.

Just then, Tia joined them and Mari’s mouth dropped open. The typically dignified Dr. Camellia had her face painted in the Stingray colors, she wore an old jersey of Eli’s which looked to be from high school. And she had a foam finger on one hand. Her other hand held a hot dog with an insane amount of mustard. “You’re here!”

“Of course we’re here, doc,” Jay grinned, leaning forward to give her and then Laura a kiss. “Hey Ma, hey Ryan.”

Mari watched with more than the usual amount of curiosity as Ryan enveloped Jay and then Marcus into a big bear hug. He really was like their second dad, she reflected. And apparently she wasn’t exempt. Ryan tugged her in for a hug before planting her in the plush seat next to him.

“Do you understand how the game works?” he asked.

“No,” Mari shook her head reticently. “But not from a lack of trying on the part of almost every man in my life.”

Ryan laughed. “Yeah, we tend to be over-explainers. Here. Let me just lay out the basics for you, darling. It’ll be more fun if you can follow it. And I promise, there are no stupid questions.”

An hour later, thanks to Ryan’s patient, thorough explanations, Mari found herself actually looking forward to the game. She wanted to see if Eli was actually as good as everybody said he was.

She wasn’t disappointed. Watching Eli play football was like watching a tiger bring down a gazelle. Awe inspiring, athletic, what he was born to do. Despite the cameras, despite the 300 pound men trying to turn him into baking flour, despite the 100,000 screaming fans, he was cool as a cucumber. He made pass after pass on perfect target. Jace Overshire, however, was suffering from a severe case of butterfingers. He’d fumbled three passes in the first half alone. Laura looked like she was going to have a heart attack.

By the time halftime came around, Kat had taken to holding both of Laura’s hands in her own, so the poor girl wouldn’t bite her fingernails clean off.

If Jay hadn’t been in love with Mari before the halftime show, he damn sure was afterwards. Mari, who had been relatively stoic the entire game, watching intently each play, whispering her questions to Ryan, was a booty shaking monster during the halftime show. She knew the words to each song, and damn it, the girl could dance.

Jay could barely handle the smile on her face. She was lit up from within, having a great time and singing and dancing with Tia. She even pulled Ryan to his feet.

But it was over too soon and the tense nausea of a tight game was back, hovering over all of them. None more so than Laura however.

The Stingray’s defense was crumbling and it was apparently completely up to Eli to dig them out of the 17-7 hole they were in at the start of the 3rd quarter. But he was good at digging. And it didn’t hurt that Jace was finally getting out of his own head and catching some of the fricking bullets that Eli was tossing his way. They marched up the field twice in the third quarter, kicking a field goal to bring them up to 10 on their first march. The second was for a dramatic, hard-fought touchdown. Eli threaded the needle, over the hands of every defender and straight into the cradle of Jace’s arms as the kid tucked his head and dove into the end zone.

It was tied up then. And their entire box groaned in disappointment and disbelief as the Stingray defense continued with their shaky performance. Mari’s fingers dug into Jay’s palm as score on the scoreboard jumped to 20-17. The Rays were down again and Jay’s stomach dipped for Eli.

But glimpsing the quarterback on the big screen, Jay had to admit, Eli didn’t look rattled. He looked utterly focused. And determined. And… yup, a tad arrogant. When Eli looked right at the camera that was filming him and grinned that trademark smile, half of the stadium erupted in cheers. Even over a jumbotron, that smile could still work its magic.

Eli jogged back onto the field, raising his hands up to the crowd and slapping his teammates on the backs. He whispered something to Jace Overshire that had the nervous, younger player laughing outright. When Eli turned on the field and looked right up at the luxury box where Tia sat, the crowd was buzzing and excited. He’d somehow managed to turn the emotions of the packed stadium from nervous and dread filled to anticipatory fun. Jay shook his head as he watched his friend.

“Has he always had that kind of magic?” Mari asked, her eyes wide as she watched the charismatic quarterback.

“Always,” Jay admitted, fighting against the urge to cover Mari’s eyes. She wouldn’t be the first girl he was sweet on that had liked watching Eli play football just a little too much. Jay made a mental note to surf really, really well the next time he and Mari went out to the water together.

But all thoughts went out of Jay’s head as the clock wound down and the end of the fourth quarter loomed. The Stingrays were still down by three points, but they were marching, slow and steady up the field. In typical football fashion, the last 30 seconds on the clock took damn near fifteen minutes. But it was when the last five seconds started to roll that Jay felt like his head was going to explode. The ball was snapped. It landed squarely in Eli’s hands. It was the last play of Eli’s career. His final seconds.

Holy shit. He wasn’t going to pass the ball. There was no one open.

They all watched in suspended disbelief, panicky fear, as Eli ducked one defender and dodged another. He was fast and quick at the same time. But it wasn’t until he full on jumped over the final defender, landing hard on his side in the end zone that the stadium, and the luxury box, absolutely exploded.

Mari thought her ear drums were going to implode with how loud Tia was screaming in her ears. No, wait. That was Mari screaming too. And Kat and Ryan and Marcus and Laura. All of them were screaming and jumping and hugging. Even Marcus. Like a little kid.

And then all the kissing started. Ryan took Tia’s face in his and gave her a big old smacker. And then Laura. Then he turned to Kat, bent her backwards and really laid one on her.

Mari tried not to scream with laughter and excitement as Jay and Marcus’s eyes looked like they were about to explode out of their heads. She was too excited to let family drama fire up around her. She launched herself into Marcus’s arms, and he laughed, picking up her tiny body off the ground and kissing her on the lips.

Casually, Marcus tossed Mari over to Jay who, laughing, caught her easily out of the air, holding her like a baby.

Her face an inch from his, that grin on her lips, her breath over his cheek, her body in his arms. And Eli had just won the Superbowl? Shit, it was gonna take a stronger man than he not to do what his entire body demanded that he do.

Jay dropped his mouth to Mari’s and kissed her. No tongue. Just a smack of lips on lips. A celebratory, triumphant kiss. It was so similar to the kisses they’d given one another after they’d survived the storm. It was a kiss that showed the world they were alive and here and together.

But when he pulled his mouth away from hers, her eyes were somehow wide and hooded at the same time. He realized that her fingers had tangled in the collar of his shirt and she was clutching him like he was the last life preserver in the middle of the ocean. It took him all of one second to realize that she’d liked that kiss. And as her eyes dropped to his lips, it took him all of one more second to realize that she wanted to kiss him again.

Turning, Jay strode around the corner of the main room in the luxury box, to the back bathroom, where they were out of sight of everyone else.

The echoing roar of the crowd outside bore down on them. The fireworks exploding above the stadium boomed and shook the walls around them. They could both hear the shouts and celebrations of all their friends out in the box.

But in that darkened, tight hallway, all there was, was Mari. He could smell her. Her skin. Her hair. Her eyes filled her face, so wide and so green. Her hair tumbled everywhere.

Jay swung her down from his arms and her back went immediately to the wall behind her. Her eyes were still on his lips, even as he propped one forearm on the wall over top of her.

Jay knew, somewhere in his brain, that this was too fast for her. She was engaged. She hadn’t even begun to figure out her feelings. He also knew that not kissing her felt like a lie. Like a betrayal to his heart. And he couldn’t do it anymore. He needed her. He needed her so badly he could barely breathe.

Jay slid one hand around to the small of her back but he didn’t press her into him. He simply leaned forward, the tip of his nose brushing hers, his eyes swallowing her. And like the first time they had ever kissed, he held himself right there in front of her, an inch from her lips. He was going to make his intentions clear, but she was gonna have to decide that she was good and ready to kiss him.

Mari tipped her head up and their lips were so close they could taste each other on the air. Her eyes were blurry with lust for him. The only thing she could see was the color blue. His Sinatra blues. The color she’d dreamed about for years. Blue eyes and gold hair. Blue and gold. Such a strange combination. The color of treasure at the bottom of the ocean. The color of sun on top of the ocean. He was the ocean.

Mari sucked in a breath and closed the space by another half inch. She wanted him. She needed him. She wanted to suck all the air out of his lungs. Swallow him whole. Roll around buck naked in a bed with real sheets. She wanted to lose track of time in his eyes. She wanted to erase those five years from his heart. She wanted to bite his beautiful neck.

In those seconds, less than a breath from his lips, all of it became searingly clear.

What she wanted.

Who was she kidding? She’d been telling herself to take things slow, to help herself get clear on what she wanted. She’d blamed her confusion on the hazy shock of seeing him again.

But if she was being honest with herself, and she desperately wanted to be, she knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted Jay. In a primal way. An instinctual way. A way that she’d never wanted anyone else.

It was that thought that had ice stabbing into her heart. Anyone else. That’s how her brain had phrased it, how her thoughts had unfolded. In that second, there had been two kinds of people in her world. Jay and everybody else.

Unfortunately, Mari’s fiancé had been firmly wrapped up in the everybody else category. The man who loved her. Who was building a life with her. Who was waiting at home for her. And here she was, swallowing down Jay’s breaths like they were holy water.

She tipped her lips up just the tiniest bit more. She was human, she couldn’t help it. And when she spoke, her lips brushed his.

“Don’t make me hate myself.”

Jay recoiled from her as if she’d slapped him. It was the perfect thing to say to destroy the moment between them. Because he would never do that. She knew it and he knew it. If that was on the table, Jay was not going to push his hand.

He took one step back and then another. Soon, his back was on the opposite wall of the hallway, mirroring her pose.

Mari sucked in a ragged breath, seconds away from laughing hysterically or crying. She sucked in another breath. She wanted him to come back. She needed his heat. She—

She had no idea what the hell she needed.

“Let’s get you home,” Jay’s voice cut through the din of celebrations outside like a pin into a cushion.

She didn’t even try to read the expression in his eyes. Mari pursed her lips and nodded, found that that was the very best she could do.