“NBU!”
Their response was so loud it nearly knocked me on my ass.
“What do we want?!”
“What all champs do!”
Anyone walking past that locker room would have thought we were insane. We just lost the bowl game — and here we were changing like we’d won it.
“How do we win?”
“Fight with class!”
“And if all else fails?”
“KICK THEIR ASS!”
That last part was garbled and riddled with what sounded like war cries from everyone in the room. Helmets hit against lockers, cleats stomped on the floor, and my teammates beat their chests like warriors.
I glanced at Holden through the madness, who wore a slight tilt of his mouth as he nodded at me — my captain, and I, his new first mate.
It didn’t matter that Coach was leaving.
It would be our season next year.
And no one would take it from us.
Giana
New Year’s Eve was a mixture of sadness and loss, of celebration and renewal — a juxtaposition of a cocktail that dizzied me the more I tried to figure it out.
I leaned my back against Clay’s chest on the rooftop bar, his giant arms wrapped around me and doing more to warm me than my oversized coat. He was quiet after the bowl game loss, after the news of Coach Sanders heading to the NFL.
“Are your thoughts eating you alive in there?” I asked, smoothing my hands over his forearms where he held me. Our eyes were trained on the lights of Dallas flickering before us, fireworks already going off even though there were still a few minutes until midnight.
Clay let out a long breath, squeezing me tighter. “Everything is changing,” he said softly.
“That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
“No,” he agreed. “But it makes me feel unsteady.”
I turned in his arms, wrapping mine around his neck and pulling his gaze from the city down to me. “You are the steadiest man I know,” I said truthfully. “And with Holden by your side, I know you two can hold the team together and face what comes next. Zeke and Riley will be there, too. And Leo.” I paused. “Hell, even Kyle seemed fired up tonight.”
Clay scoffed. “He just hopes the new coach is a pushover so he can bring his phone on the field again. Coach Sanders wouldn’t have it.”
“I’m sure the new coach won’t either.”
Clay sighed, shaking his head. “I’m nervous,” he admitted. “But you’re right. It’s nothing we can’t handle.”
I nodded, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck as I pressed up on my toes, needing more contact. “You know… I’ve been thinking about what you said. About me being an agent.”
He cocked a brow. “Yeah?”
“Yeah… and… I think I want to try.”
Clay smirked, the first real light coming back to his eyes since Coach’s news. “Wait, really? Holy shit, Kitten — that’s epic.”
“Don’t get too excited just yet,” I told him — mostly because it was dangerous for me to get too excited. “I talked to Charlotte about it. She said she’d help me, introduce me to some people, and let me take over leading our guys who have current NIL deals.”
“That’s huge!” Clay said, ignoring my request not to get too excited. He lifted me up, spinning me around as some of his teammates backed away so as not to be hit by my kitten heels. When he put me back down, he grabbed my face in his hands. “I’m so fucking proud of you.”
I flushed, leaning into his palm. “We’ll see what happens.”
“Oh, I already know what will happen.”
“Do tell.”
“We’re going to win the championship next year. And then the year after that, I’ll get drafted in the first round, and you’ll be my agent — negotiating the sickest signing bonus anyone has ever seen.”
I let out a breath of a laugh. “And what about now?”
He frowned, confused.
“What happens before all that?”
Clay inhaled a long breath, his green eyes searching mine as he thumbed a curl behind my ear. That thumb traced my jaw next, and he framed my face, pulling me closer.
“Now, I spend the entire off-season spoiling my girl,” he said easily, and as the crowd around us began to countdown from ten, he leaned in closer. “Starting with giving her her first New Year’s Eve kiss.”
Three… two… one!
With a tilt of my chin up to meet him, Clay’s mouth claimed my own, and my heart floated off on the wings of a million butterflies as fireworks splayed overhead, their booms echoing in my heart.