Epilogue Quinn
I watched her come back from the office, her lips bruised from kisses, her cheeks flushed from happiness, and when she smiled at me, I returned it.
I had gotten so good at plastering a smile on my face that no one cared anymore if it was real.
Only one person saw through my fakeness, and he was on the field, catching balls.
“He treat you right?” I asked her, making my tone light.
“I think he will.” She beamed at me. I felt a small sliver of happiness for them. Jett needed someone wholesome like Ava. Someone who was fierce in her own right but needed protecting.
They told me she had put Derrick on the ground.
She looked so slight, but she had fight, and that’s why my best friend was falling in love with her.
He hadn’t admitted it yet, but he was. She was already head over heels for him.
She wore her heart on her sleeve, and I wondered at her bravery to show her emotions so openly.
The Santos huddled together for the first play of the game. Ash stood slightly taller than his cousins, but he was by no means the tallest on the field.
“Ash has really slimmed down and toned up,” I heard Kerr compliment Kage, and I forced my face to remain blank.
“Yeah, he says Gray’s been really careful with what they’re eating,” Kage answered. I felt him nudge me. “They keep this up, they may not need you,” he teased.
Never. They would always need me.
“Who do you think is telling my son what to cook,” Sable said with a laugh. Her arm circled my shoulders. “They’ll always need you,” she said as she kissed my head. I smiled up at her.
I was a Santo in everything but name. We’d had a rough two years since I broke up with Ash — well, he broke up with me, but we were disastrous from the start.
Ash had refused to be in the same room as me, and Onyx, the twins’ older, wilder brother, had taken Ash’s side because Onyx was a fucking sociopath.
Gray had kept silent, which Ash had taken as solidarity, and Jett had been neutral.
Jett would never turn his back on me; I was his best friend, and although he would never understand why I did what I did, he would always be there for me.
“I thought you did sports therapy?” Ava asked me as her eyes stayed trained on number eight.
“Nutrition too,” I answered.
“That’s awesome.” She was nodding, but she may as well have been on the field. Jett had passed the ball, and Ash was already breaking away to race down the field.
A tackle took him out, and the pass was ruled incomplete. The stadium mumbled as he bounced back to his feet and gave the player who tackled him a friendly pat on the shoulder as he ran back to the line of scrimmage.
“He’s fit,” I heard the red-haired one murmur to Ava.
Leaning over, I smiled at her. “He’s a manwhore.”
“Okaaay.”
I didn’t miss the wide-eyed what the fuck look she sent to Ava. I also didn’t care.
Straightening, I watched as Jett shouted out the play, and then the ball was in his hands.
Running back a few steps, he faked the throw, and I saw the handoff to Gray.
The running back took off down the field.
His speed always surprised people, and I watched him eat up the yards.
Urging him on, I heard the stadium yell for him to make it.
At the twenty-five, he swerved the oncoming safeties, and then Ash was beside him, blocking any of the defense that rushed them as they both raced down the field.
They were at the twenty.
The fifteen.
Holy shit, he was at the ten.
Five-yard line.
And then he was in the end zone.
The stadium went wild. I saw him bounce off Ash’s chest as Jett ran down to meet him in the end zone. Jett’s hands clutched Gray’s face guard as their helmets clashed, and he congratulated his brother, Ash bouncing beside them with excitement.
The big screen showed the replay, and when the grin spread across Gray’s face as he reached the end zone, my heart stuttered.
He was so gorgeous. He didn’t have Jett’s hard lines and planes. His face was softer, but his eyes were hard. Always stern, always unyielding, always careful.
Only when he played football did his mask slip.
Or the night he told me he loved me, and I walked away from him and broke his heart.
Since then, football was Gray’s only desire, and the urge for revenge on what was done to me. His revenge would never replace what I’d lost.
I smiled along with the others as they cheered and clapped for the touchdown.
Gray allowed his mask to slip when he played.
I couldn’t afford that same luxury. My mask stayed in place even though it no longer had anything to hide.
I’d been empty inside for so long that the mask protected nothing but a shell.
Only one man could fill that void, and he turned his back on me the same way as I once turned my back on him. All I had left was my fake smile and a desire in my heart for him to see me once again.
The way he used to, before I lost it all.
THE END
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