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“All right, damn. Here.”
There was some fumbling around with the receiver before Nicole got on the line. “Drew?”
“Hey.”
“Hold on a second.”
He listened while she moved through the house, until a door closed and cut off most of the noise.
“Okay. Sorry about my brother.”
“It’s all good,” he said, laughing a little. “I didn’t think he was gonna let me talk to you.”
“That’s just MJ being MJ. He’s a little protective, but mostly he just likes to fuck with people.” She laughed. “He told me earlier he’d talked to your dad. I didn’t say a word. He had no idea I even knew you.”
“Yeah, my dad told me he called. I was gonna mention it to you.”
“You’re good. My brother wasn’t about to let you get to the draft without trying to get in there. But you better pick whoever’s best for you. MJ can handle it.”
Drew smiled. “Thanks, baby.”
“Hey, how was dinner with your parents?”
“It was . . . good. How was yours?”
“Loud. Everybody’s still here, and they’ve been arguing over spades for about an hour.” Her voice softened. “I’m glad you called.”
“I’ve been wanting to talk to you all day.”
He got up and walked to the window. Fuck, he hoped this wasn’t going to ruin the rest of her Thanksgiving. She’d sounded happy. Maybe he should let her enjoy tonight and tell her when he picked her up at the airport tomorrow. But he’d known since this morning. He wouldn’t feel right picking her up and telling her he’d been sitting on it all that time.
“Nicole, I have to tell you something.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Nicole opened the program across her knees and found Drew on one of the senior pages. They’d used a good picture of him too. She took a minute with that before getting around to reading.
His last home game. She’d known that all week, and it still felt strange to be sitting here waiting for it to start.
The stadium was already packed, and kickoff was still a ways off. People stood in the aisles waving to somebody three sections over, calling down to friends, trying to get everybody squeezed into seats that hadn’t gotten any wider since last Saturday. Everywhere Nicole looked, there was navy and gold. Painted faces, painted signs, little kids in jerseys over sweatshirts, grown men who were going to be hoarse before LSU even got on the field.
She loved this shit.
Lauren leaned past her to say something to Toni, but whatever it was got lost when the announcer came back over the speakers. Down on the field, the seniors and their families were gathering for Senior Day.
Nicole sat forward.
“Can you see Dayshawn?” Lauren asked, craning her neck.
Nicole looked along the line of players. “Not yet.”
People kept moving in front of them, and whoever was taking pictures was trying to get their families into place. Could everybody stand still for a second? She was trying to find Drew.
Then he turned his head, and there he was.
She’d watched him walk onto that field so many times, but seeing him standing there with his parents made her wish she were a little closer. Both his parents were tall. Well, that explained a few things. Her brother and sister had gotten the height from their father, but Nicole had taken after her mother and ended up at five-six.
Drew’s dad had on a Drayton cap, and his mother kept pushing her blond curls out of her face when the wind caught them. Those were the people she was meeting after the game. Okay. Seeing them from up here actually helped. They looked like somebody’s parents, which was a ridiculous thing to think because what else were they supposed to look like? But she’d spent so long getting nervous about meeting them that she’d almost forgotten they were probably nervous too.
