29. Chapter 29 #2
“There's Uncle Zach!” she shouts, pointing. “Go, Uncle Zach!”
Jamie laughs softly, lifting her a little higher so she can see better.
That’s when it hits me.
“Oh, by the way,” I say. “You know Ella's peewee football team?”
Jamie looks over, his brow raised. “Yeah?”
“The franchise is growing and they’re looking for paid coaches. Reese dropped your name and said they were going to call you.”
His mouth parts in surprise before that soft, crooked smile spreads across his face. “Reese did that? For me?”
“Yeah. Zach was actually the one who suggested it to him. He said you can’t be any worse at coaching than playing,” I add with a smile.
“He’s not wrong.” He looks onto the field, before looking back to me. “But coaching? Do you really think they’d want me?”
“After seeing the way you are with Ella, and how good you are at teaching me things, I think they’d be lucky to have you.”
He chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck. “Coaching little kids, huh? Guess that’s one way to redeem all my bad plays.”
“What bad plays? I heard you didn’t get off the bench,” I say, elbowing him in the side. “But seriously, it seems like the perfect fit to me.”
His eyes find Ella on his lap as she waves her foam finger in every direction. “Yeah,” he murmurs. “Maybe it is.”
When the game starts, I can feel the roar of the crowd flowing through me. Zach lines up behind his center, Mason, and squares his shoulders, waiting for the play to start.
“Go, Uncle Zach!” Ella screams, still waving that foam finger in the air.
The ball is snapped, and Zach drops back, scanning the field. For a second, it looks like one of Southern Collegiate's defenders will tackle him, but he sidesteps out of the way.
He quickly launches the ball, creating the perfect spiral through the air.
It lands squarely in Reese’s hands, giving St. Michael’s their first down.
The stadium explodes, and Jamie holds Ella up to help her celebrate.
I’m standing, cheering him on, so happy for him. This is exactly where Zach belongs, and I can't wait to see where he gets drafted.
When the next play snaps, he fakes a handoff to Mason and takes it himself, sprinting for the end zone. A defender dives for him at the ten-yard line, but Zach ducks left, then right, sliding past him with inches to spare.
Touchdown.
Blue, white, and gold confetti bursts from the sidelines. The band fires up the fight song. Ella’s sitting on Jamie’s shoulders now, waving her finger like a victory flag.
Zach pumps his fist in the air as he looks toward the stands. His teammates do a victory dance behind him, but he doesn’t get involved. He’s too busy looking at our section of the stadium. More specifically, the one empty seat in the stadium.
He knows.
Even though everyone is standing, he knows that seat is empty.
The jumbotron focuses on his face, and I see him clench his jaw as he pushes past the camera to the bench.
When the celebrations have calmed, Jamie leans in. “Was he looking for Honey?”
I nod, making Jamie whistle out. “Wow. This is worse than I thought.”
“Yeah.”
“What’s going to happen when he gets drafted?” he asks.
“What do you mean?”
“You said he’s entering this year. Does that mean you’re going to stay here?”
My heart rate speeds up because he's totally right, but it's just something I've never really thought about before. I've been too busy settling into my life here, forgetting that Zach’s entire life will move depending on the team he moves to.
If Zach leaves, do I stay? I don't really have anywhere else to go, but following my cousin around for the rest of my life doesn't seem like a good life strategy.
Then there's Jamie, we've already agreed to move in with each other eventually, but will this be too short notice?
Will he even want to stay in Indiana? Would all this moving around be detrimental for Ella?
“Hey.” Jamie knocks my knee. “Don't get in your head about things. Everything will work itself out. Trust in the process.”
“Right, the process.”
When halftime rolls around, St. Michael’s is up 14 –7. The crowd has cleared out for a break.
Ella shifts on Jamie’s lap, her earlier excitement finally catching up with her. Her grip on my hand loosens as her head droops onto Jamie’s shoulder.
He rests his hand on her back, keeping her close to him.
“You tired, Princess?” he asks softly.
She nods, then burrows closer, her voice muffled against his collarbone. “Uh-huh.”
He presses a kiss to the top of her head.
“Daddy?”
The word comes out quiet and almost sleepy.
Jamie freezes.
For a split second, worry curls in my stomach. I should’ve mentioned it to him before she had the chance to say it.
Is it too soon? Am I letting her get attached to something that could still break?
Jamie doesn’t tense. He doesn’t flinch, or hesitate, but he does give me a curious look.
“She heard Zach,” I say softly. “The other night. He was muttering about it.”
“Okay.” He exhales shakily and pulls her closer, resting his forehead against her hair.
Relief washes over me as I nod at our half-asleep daughter. “That’s right, Ella,” I say gently. “You can call him that if you want to.”
Ella hums with a little smile pulling on her face. “Okay.”
“Okay,” Jamie says again, nodding more to himself than to me.
The whistle blows, sharp and loud, snapping us out of the moment, and bringing us back to the field.
The second half is harder for St. Michael’s. Southern Collegiate scores early, tying the game, which instantly changes the energy in the stadium.
When Zach leads the offense back onto the field, I can see the determination in his every movement.
He’s not going to let them win without a fight. That much is for sure.
Jamie stays still, his shoulders slightly hunched as if moving might wake her, his focus locked on the field. One of Ella’s hands is fisted in his hoodie now, the other slack against his chest.
The sight alone makes me want to melt into a puddle.
Zach throws a clean pass to Sebi, completing their first down.
Jamie sucks in a sharp breath, his hand tightening on Ella’s back as his eyes track the field.
“Yes,” he mutters under his breath.
I glance up at him, surprised.
“What?” he asks, catching my look.
“Nothing,” I say, smiling. “Just didn’t expect you to be such a fan.”
“I’m not rooting for Zach,” he says, dropping back into his seat carefully so he doesn’t jostle Ella. “I’m rooting against Southern Collegiate. There’s a guy named Trent over there who’s long overdue for a reality check.”
“Yeah, sure.”
The game tightens with every minute, with Southern Collegiate running down the clock. When there are only two minutes left, St. Michael’s is clinging to a four-point lead.
Ella doesn’t stir when the tension spikes. She’s fully asleep now, her cheek pressed to Jamie’s chest, her breathing slow and even.
Southern Collegiate lines up at the ten-yard line. Fourth down. One play to decide it.
The quarterback drops back, scanning the end zone, but the St. Michael’s safety jumps the route, batting the ball away at the last second.
Incomplete.
Game over.
The stadium erupts.
Jamie exhales hard, something between a laugh and disbelief, and carefully shifts Ella higher against him so she doesn’t slip as he stands with the rest of the crowd. Her head lolls against his shoulder, completely unfazed by the noise around her.
Blue and gold confetti bursts from the sidelines. The band launches into the fight song. Zach pumps his fist in the air, turning toward us.
Even from here, I know he sees us, or maybe he just feels it.
Jamie sits down, shielding Ella instinctively as the people begin to move around us.
I can’t stop watching them. My daughter. Her dad.
My heart.
For the first time in a long time, everything feels right.
“You okay?” I ask quietly, resting my hand on his arm.
He looks down at Ella, then back at me. “Yeah. I think I finally am,” he mumbles.
“You know I was terrified,” I admit softly. “When you didn’t come home right away… I thought maybe that was it. That your dad had won.”
He shakes his head. “He nearly did,” he says.
My throat tightens at the admission.
“He tried to blackmail me, and all I could think about was you and Ella, and how you didn’t deserve to get pulled into all this shit.”
“And you said no?”
“Honey helped. She made them back down, and now I’m here. Right where I belong.”
My breath catches as a thousand thoughts whir through my head at once.
“I don’t know what the future looks like,” I say, flailing my hands around. “With Zach leaving… with everything changing. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Jamie reaches for my hand, threading our fingers together. Somehow, that small gesture is enough to relax me. “I don’t either, but I’m okay with that. I just want to be here. With you and Ella.”
Ella shifts, sighing softly in her sleep.
I smile, brushing a kiss over her hair. “That just might be enough.”
He nods. “It is for me.”
“That’s all I need.”
The noise fade around us as the stands empty, but I’m not in a rush to leave, neither is he.
Jamie has never looked better. With Ella sleeping on his shoulder, confetti in his hair, and his hand in mine, I feel something deep in my heart that I’ve been trying to avoid.
Love.
I love him so much.
Just as I’m about to blurt it out, Jamie looks over at me, his thumb brushing across my knuckles. “You ready to go?”
I smile. “Yeah, I am.”