I’m so wet he basically slips inside.
“It feels so good,” I say, turning my head so he can kiss me deeply over my shoulder. Everything tunnels down to this moment, these feelings. Nothing else in the world exists, not even my words. Wyatt rubs my hip in a comforting way whilewe move slowly together like both of us are being carried along on the same wave.
I cry out when he takes my thigh in his hand and wraps my leg back around his hip, opening me wide. I take in a sharp breath at the feeling of his finger circling my clit. His left arm is under me, wrapped tightly around my chest, the right laying over my stomach playing the perfect notes I need.
“I’m gonna come,” I moan.
“I’ve got you.” His voice shakes despite his calm façade, and I know he’s going to follow me over the edge, but not until I get every last second of this orgasm. Held in his arms we find ecstasy together, binding us in a way that we weren’t before. By more than friendship, more than lust. By commitment and mutual gratification in love and life.
And I know I’m never going to leave the safety of his arms.
SEEING DOUBLE: A New League on the Rise
Just Her Sports
In the wake of the PVF’s extremely successful first year, a new league has popped up. Just a month after the first-ever PVF championship game, owners of the new league announced that the U.S. Volleyball Club will be open and ready to play their inaugural season next year.
Volleyball fans all over the country are thrilled to have twice the games to watch, but we can’t help but wonder what this kind of competition might look like. Are there enough players to go around? Enough fans? Enough cable time slots? Could this boost pro volleyball up with the likes of the WNBA, or will it spread the talent, money, and fan base too thin?
Only one way to find out. Stay tuned as we keep track of trades and the newly drafted class of players headed for their dreams in a professional volleyball league.
Epilogue
WYATT
ONE YEAR LATER
“I can’t wait to see it.” Nash is practically jumping out of the golf cart and onto the grass.
“It’s just a bunch of concrete and two-by-fours right now.” I turn the key and step out of the cart.
She takes my hand and drags me toward our spot, Arthur bounding along beside us. “But it’sourconcrete and two-by-fours.”
I smile back at her, hoping my nerves don’t show through. A tiny black velvet box is burning a hole in my pocket. I wanted to tie the ring to Arthur’s collar and have him greet her at the front door, but when the builders called and said the framing of our cabin was complete, I knew it needed to be here.
The house doesn’t look like much now, but when they’re done it will be a two-story cabin with the big logs and green roof. There’s a fireplace in the living room and heated floors in the primary bathroom. This is a forever home more so thanwhen other people use the term. My family has owned this land for over a hundred years. We’re never selling. This is it. The permanence of it all made me feel like it was the perfect place to propose.
Nash is running her hands along the wood where the front door would be, chattering on about how big of a window she wants the door to have. Something about wanting more light. I watch as she takes another step into the house, Arthur on her heels. I follow behind her, taking a step forward.
I can feel my blood rushing in my ears. The anticipation of this has been killing me. With my next step I’m close enough to get down on one knee. Earlier this week I practiced which knee I was going to get down on, but I can see now that all of that planning went right out the window as soon as I had the ring in my hand.
I clear my throat. “Nash.”
“What are these blankets doing here?”
“Nash,” I repeat.
When she spins to look at me, her eyes go wide, taking me in, as I kneel before her. The concrete is hard under my knee, but I’ll stay here forever if that’s what it takes. I hold the box up to her while I try and rack my brain for my speech, which I also rehearsed earlier, and which has also disappeared from my brain.
She gasps, putting her other hand over her mouth when I hold it up in front of her, the reality of what’s happening fully hitting her. “Nash,” I begin again. “There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by since we first met that I didn’t love you. When I first met you, I loved your laugh, I loved your fire. As we got to know one another, I loved the softness you rarely let people see. I love that you’re always there for the people in your life. As hard as I tried to fight it, my love became romantic. Slowlyat first, and then all at once. I loved you close up during our junior and senior year while I watched you win a Big Ten championship. I loved you from five-thousand miles away while you chased your dreams in Rome. I loved you when I thought you were faking it for everyone else, even though I never was. Because I never was. It was always my reality. I loved seeing you win your first championship at home. I loved seeing you dance at my brother’s wedding looking like you were exactly where you were meant to be.” Tears stream steadily down her cheeks now, but I push through. I pull the ring out of the box and take her hand. “Every time I thought a version of my love for you was the best it would ever be, we changed, and it got better. I thought when you said you’d stay here with me and Arthur that that was the happiest I’d ever be. I finally had everything I wanted, but then it changed again. Loving you together in our own place was better than loving you as a roommate. I expect,” I pause as I hold the ring against the tip of her finger, “that after I put this ring on your finger, I’ll find a new level of bliss as your fiancé. And after that as your husband. Will you, Nashville Taylor Green, do me the honor of discovering if that’s true by marrying me?”
She chokes a laugh through her tears and cries, “Yes.” I don’t need to hear anything else. I slide the ring on her finger and stand, wrapping my arms around her. I hold her up and she puts one hand on the side of my face. “Of course I’ll marry you.” She kisses me once and pulls back. “Is this why you’ve been so weird the last two weeks?” Her eyes light up with the realization, and I can see her putting the puzzle pieces together. “Is that why you insisted on meeting my parents for dinner a month ago? And why Temi took me to get my nails done before we left?”
“And why my parents happened to be busy today insteadof being on the farm like they normally would,” I add. She smacks my shoulder, and I rub where she hit me. “Ow!”
“I’m so surprised and so excited I want to hit you and kiss you and run away all at the same time.”
“Well,” I take the hand that wasn’t on my face and guide her farther into the house. “I hope you will stay and have a picnic with me.”