Chapter 37 #2
“They were, but Austin didn’t land right off that last four-fifty. I heard it, and when he didn’t get back up, I knew something wasn’t right. When I went to cover him, I saw his ankle was fucked up.”
“I wondered about that when I saw him land.”
“Didn’t even fight me when I told him to stay down,” I say, earning a raised brow from my best friend.
Austin and I might have our differences, but I respect his work in the ring (for the most part).
He might think he deserves more than his work ethic warrants sometimes, but he knows how to put on a good show when he wants to, even if it means wrestling with an injury.
“You know that shit was hurting if he didn’t pop back up. ”
“Well, he couldn’t put any weight on it. They had the cart ready to move him into Doc’s office once he got back here. I have a feeling it’s going to be a while.”
“You guys up for some food?” Raelynn asks when she and Savannah join us from their hushed conversation a few feet away. “I could go for some carbs.”
“Only if we can join,” a voice calls from further down the hallway.
Nash leads the rest of the Williams family before Raelynn runs down the corridor, jumping into his arms. I swear, they are the friendliest exes I’ve seen in my entire life.
I’d never tell Brody this, but I quietly rooted for them while they were together, despite my best friend’s affections for her.
The end of their relationship was something I saw coming a mile away, despite Savannah’s optimistic attitude.
She had hope for her best friend and her brother, but in the end, the schedule was too much for Nash, and they ended things (almost amicably).
Nash sets Raelynn on her feet and shakes Brody’s hand, pulling him into an embrace.
“Where are we going to eat? I’m starved,” Bodhi says, and his twin brother echoes the sentiment. That starts the back-and-forth discussion of where to go. Too many restaurants are called out, almost every one of them closed, as Crew’s wife tries to keep up with the map search.
I anxiously await some comment on the display Savannah and I put on in the middle of the ring after our win, but no one says anything, not even Laine.
I wonder if Wes told her what I asked him and Crew earlier.
If so, no one gives any indication. Standing here with them feels like no time has passed at all, like the last two and a half years were nothing but a fever dream.
There are no awkward pauses, no sideways glances, no hesitancy about including me in the celebration, and no strange looks when I drape my arm over Savannah’s shoulders to pull her against me and kiss her temple.
She smiles up at me, but there’s a hint of hesitation in her eyes, maybe even sadness, and I think I know why. “I love you,” I whisper, and she nods.
“So.” The word falls from my lips with a soft sigh, my fingers ghosting over the bare skin of her arm as she lies beside me.
It’s three o’clock in the morning, and we have to be up in a few hours to go to the gym before we meet Amos at the Fieldhouse.
She echoes the word, pushing up from my chest to look me in the eye. “Have you made a decision?”
Savannah sighs and rips her gaze from mine, her tongue poking out to wet her lips. “I-I don’t know, John. I don’t know what to do. It’s like I said, had you asked me before, I would’ve said that I was going to sign a contract with them, but now—”
“You can’t base this decision on me, Savannah.
You already did that once, and I’m not going to let you do it again.
” I pull her to sit up with me and take both of her hands in mine, bringing them to my lips.
The thought of letting this beautiful woman go kills me, but I don’t want to stand in her way of getting everything she wants, either.
She was ready to extend her contract before, but my selfishness got in the way.
My fear of what Drake might do or say during the time they spent together clouded my judgment, and I abused her trust. “Sign the contract. It’s only a year that I’ll be gone, and then I’ll be right back here with you every day. ”
“Until you get another one,” she says with a sad smile. “And then it’s another year, and another, and the next thing you know, we’re living two separate lives again.”
“One year, Savannah,” I say, and stop her when she tries to interrupt.
“Sign a contract for one year. You do that, and I’ll do the movie, and after that year, no matter what we decide to do—whether you stay here or I have another movie or I come back—we’ll make it work.
I’m not saying we can’t talk or spend time together, unless that’s what you want.
I only want what’s best for you, and I think that’s staying here.
The EWE needs their Queen back, and I think she needs them just as much. ”
She closes her eyes, taking a deep breath, and they’re glassy when she reopens them. “So, one year, and then…”
“And then, I’m all yours.”