Chance
This is a big game. A huge game. One I’m not really sure how the hell I feel about because we’re playing Big Bend in Big Bend. I’m trying like hell to hide my nerves, but I feel Noah’s eyes on mine as we ride the bus. He’s in the seat across from mine.
Each of us sitting alone.
All I want is to be snuggled up next to him and for him to tell me this is going to be okay. We didn’t talk about it last night when I met him at his house.
He was quiet, and so was I, for once, thinking about tonight.
I don’t know if he was quiet because of this matchup or if something happened at dinner with his friend. Honestly, I was afraid to ask.
We ended up having a nice, quiet evening where I kissed him goodbye after he walked me to my truck.
But despite the nerves of the game, and really, really not wanting to be back in my hometown, it’s his birthday.
Friday the 13th in October.
And I shift in my seat a little, thinking about the surprise I have under my gym pants just for him when we’re finally alone. I don’t want this night to be ruined for anything.
So here we go. I’m Team Panthers all the way. I’m all-in.
Fuck the Bears.
That’s pretty much the sentiment as we all unload from the bus and make our way to the field. The boys are already in their uniforms and warming up when I finally step a little closer to Noah. “You think they’re ready?”
He gives me a stern nod, eyeing the other side of the field with a quiet anger only Noah Asher can pull off. “They fucked you over.” His voice is a low, gravelly sort of growl, and holy shit, does it do things to me.
“I just want to win this thing and go home.” I swear the staunch, put-together coach shivers when I say that.
Home.
It’s not my home, but it’s felt like it in the very short time I’ve known him. I still haven’t stayed the night. Both of us are nervous about someone seeing my truck there all night, but God, I want to wake up in his arms.
I watch his throat move as he swallows, and his chest expands when he takes a deep breath. “I want that too.”
I grin but keep quiet as we gather the team to start the game.
It’s a cool night with the sun setting and nearly down in the sky.
It’s kind of pretty, looking out over the stadium as it lowers, with the stadium lights illuminating the field.
I try like hell to not look at the Big Bend coaches and the people in administration who had me fired without hearing me out.
Who shunned me.
I stand proudly in my red and black with my head held high. And the boys came to play.
It’s not an all-out slaughter, but Kensley was ahead the entire time, and it wasn’t even close. Thank. Fuck.
As we ride back to Kensley, my mind races with all the ways I can make Noah’s birthday memorable, but I have to stop before I sport a boner on the bus. Not. Appropriate.
We get back, and the kids shower and change before heading out, all of them in high spirits. It’s an unspoken agreement between Noah and me that I’ll leave first and he’ll meet me at his place.
The tension only grows on my drive out to the country. The cool night air drifts in through the slightly cracked windows of my truck so I can breathe it in. This is why I didn’t move to a big city when I left Big Bend.
There’s nothing like a country gravel road on a dark fall night. The moon is huge in the sky and filters through the trees, guiding my way to Noah’s. I park my truck and wait for only a few minutes before I see his headlights.
He parks next to me, and we barely make it inside before our hands are all over each other. This is all so damn new to me. I know he loved his wife—it wasn’t a situation where he used her to hide part of himself. He really loved her.
So I wonder if it was like this for him when they first got together.
I’ve never felt anything like this. This need and desire to be near him as often as I can. To never leave the comfort of his arms. It’s addicting and scary and exciting all at once.
We make our way to the couch, stripping out of our hoodies and kissing as I find the remote. He kisses down my neck while I find Friday the 13th on the TV. He chuckles against my throat. “You’re really going to make me watch these stupid-ass movies?”
I grin, but pretend to be offended, tossing the remote next to us as I climb on his lap, straddling his strong thighs. “It’s Friday the thirteenth. It would be wrong not to watch these classics.”
I lean into him, kissing his sweet lips as I hold onto his shoulders, my dick already rock-hard and begging to be set free, but I want to take my time with him.
“Happy birthday,” I breathe against his lips, my hands sliding down over his hard pecs and then under his shirt to feel his warm skin.
“Thank you.”
We should probably talk about the silence last night, but everything feels so damn right at the moment, I don’t want to ruin it. And he’s in a pretty damn good mood.
I lift his shirt up and off just as the spooky music starts to play from the large television screen mounted on the wall. My hands smooth over his soft skin as he wraps his arms around me and then pulls back to look into my eyes. “Are you my boyfriend?”
From anyone else, it would seem like a ridiculous question—and it probably should, considering he’s so mature and put-together—but the raw vulnerability in his eyes and the shakiness of his voice makes it completely unfunny.
I move my hands up his chest and to his cheeks, grasping his face in my hands. “Do you want me to be?”
My heart thumps away in my chest, clenching as I wait for him to answer, the tension ratcheted up. This is far scarier than any movie I’ve ever seen. “I do.”
I smile, my heart feeling like it could burst with excitement. I might need to take it a little easier on the organ. “Then yeah. I’m for damn sure your boyfriend.”
He smiles. “It sounds crazy. I’m forty. And still stumbling around, trying to figure out if you want to go steady with me.”
I snort, unable to stop the laughter that bubbles up. “Jesus Christ. You’re forty, not eighty. No one says going steady.”
He grins, and I can’t resist stealing his lips with a kiss, my tongue sliding into his mouth and over his, massaging it. When I grind against him, I can feel his hardness is back with a vengeance. As is mine.
“And you’re forty,” I say, my voice full of gravel and sex as I look at my very hot boyfriend. I drag my hands down his chest as I slide down to the floor between his legs. “Forty years old today.”
He rolls his eyes, but he’s still grinning as I grab the hem of his pants, making sure I leave his briefs on as he lifts his hips and I pull them down his strong hairy thighs.
I remove his shoes and socks and then tug them down and off before slowly sliding my hands up his calves and up over his thighs. I study his straining erection, the tip of his cock poking out from the top of his black briefs.
I lick my lips, staring like a total creeper, but I can’t help it. I’m obsessed with him. I lean forward and lick the tip, tasting his salty flavor and reveling in the deep groan rumbling through him.
“I think it’s time I give my boyfriend his birthday present.”
I look up at him just in time to see his pupils widen considerably, and he gives me a quick, exuberant nod.
Despite being reminded of my past and having to literally stand right across from it tonight, today may end up just being the absolute best night of my life.
At least so far. Because Coach Noah Asher seems to keep making my life better and better every single day.