Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Titan
The noise inside Cannon Field grew louder as I made my way through the tunnel.
Gold towels spun through the crowd. The stadium lights reflected off the smoke machines near midfield.
For the first time in months, I was dressed to play instead of standing on the sideline in team gear wishing I was.
That alone was enough to put me in a better mood.
“One of the biggest storylines tonight is the return of Titan Samuels.”
The voice came from one of the television monitors hanging near the tunnel entrance.
“There’s no denying what he means to this offense,” the analyst continued. “The bigger question is whether he’ll be the same player after the shoulder injury. This isn’t Week One. This is the Conference Championship.”
“He’s been medically cleared but being cleared and being game ready aren’t always the same thing.”
I shook my head and kept walking. The moment I stepped onto the field, the crowd erupted. Fans along the rail reached out for handshakes and pictures while I made my way to the field.
A reporter intercepted me near the thirty-yard line before I could make it to the receivers group.
“Titan, you’ve heard the questions all week. Do you feel like you’re ready for a game of this magnitude after missing so much time?”
“If I wasn’t ready, I wouldn’t be out here,” I answered cockily.
“Are you worried at all about how the shoulder will respond once the game starts?”
“Not at all.”
“Do you expect any limitations tonight?”
“Nah.”
“You don’t?”
“Nah, ain’t no limitations when the goal is to win.”
I left her standing there and headed toward midfield.
As I looked around the stadium one last time before warmups started, I couldn’t help thinking about everything it took to get back here.
The frustration… the endless treatment sessions…
watching games from the sideline knowing I should’ve been on the field.
Tonight all of that was behind me. I had a championship to win.
***
“This is the moment every player dreams about,” the lead commentator’s voice echoed throughout the stadium broadcast. “Thirty-two seconds left. A trip to the Super Bowl on the line. The Seattle Wolves trying to hold on, and the Cannons looking for one last score.”
“Tatum has time... looking over the middle... Samuels has a step...”
“TOUCHDOWN CANNONS!”
The roar hit immediately, loud enough to shake through my chest as I secured the football and disappeared beneath a wave of my teammates racing toward the end zone.
Gold towels filled the air. Fans screamed from every section of the stadium, and somewhere above us, fireworks exploded while the giant video boards flashed my name across every screen in sight.
“TITAN SAMUELS WITH THE GO-AHEAD TOUCHDOWN! WHAT A RETURN! WHAT A MOMENT FOR THE CANNON HILLS CANNONS!”
There were still thirty-two seconds on the clock, but that didn’t mean shit.
Seattle got one last chance to answer, and I stood on the sideline with my helmet still in my hand, watching our defense close in like they were just as tired of this game as I was.
Their quarterback tried to force something quick toward the sideline, but the ball sailed too far and hit the turf with nobody near it.
By the time they lined up again, the clock was bleeding out, and his last desperate pass went nowhere.
“THAT’S IT! THE CANNON HILLS CANNONS ARE NFC CHAMPIONS!”
Confetti exploded from the stadium rafters as players stormed the field. Coaches embraced. Helmets and towels flew through the air. The Cannons were headed back to the Super Bowl.
For weeks, I’d been watching football instead of playing it. Tonight, I was standing in the middle of Cannon Field with another shot at a Super Bowl win. It felt good… shit felt real good.
Eventually, family was allowed onto the field, adding another wave of people to an already crowded celebration. Cameras followed players from one interview to the next while reporters searched for quotes. Somewhere off to my right, a television crew was breaking down the game-winning touchdown.
My eyes landed on Tink the second I saw her.
She was making her way through the crowd with her mama and the rest of our family.
The closer she got, the harder it became not to smile.
The second she reached me… I pulled her into my arms. For a moment neither one of us said anything.
She just wrapped her arms around my waist while I held her against me and let myself enjoy the moment.
The noise around us hadn’t died down. Reporters were still moving through the crowd. Cameras were everywhere, but I didn’t care. My hand settled against her back as I lowered my head and pressed a kiss against her lips. When she finally looked up at me, the smile on her face was impossible to miss.
Before either of us could say anything, a reporter appeared beside us with a camera crew trailing behind her.
“Titan, congratulations. You’re headed back to the Super Bowl.”
“Appreciate it.” I nodded.
“Tonight marked your first game back since the injury, and you ended it with the game-winning touchdown. What does a moment like this mean to you?”
“It’s one of those things you appreciate more when it’s taken away from you.”
The reporter nodded.
“Was there ever a point when you questioned whether you’d be back for this game?”
“Nah… I never questioned if I was coming back… just when,” I answered honestly.
“What’s going through your mind right now knowing you’re headed back to the Super Bowl?”
My eyes drifted toward Tink.
“I’ve played this game a long time. You spend so much time focused on what’s next that you don’t always stop and appreciate where you are.”
The reporter nodded.
“And where are you right now?”
I looked around the field. Then my eyes settled back on Tink.
“Exactly where I’m supposed to be.”
“Considering everything you’ve dealt with this season, I’d say that’s a pretty good place to be.”
“It is,” I responded with a nod.
The reporter glanced toward Tink before looking back at me.
“You’ve talked a lot this year about perspective. Has any of that changed after being forced to sit out?”
“A little.” I looked down at Tink before continuing.
“When football is all you’ve known, you start measuring everything by it.
Wins… losses… stats… contracts. You convince yourself that’s what matters most because it’s what you’ve spent your whole life chasing.
” The camera stayed on me, but my attention had already drifted.
“Then something happens that forces you to sit still.”
The words hung there for a moment as I looked around the field.
A few months ago, all I would’ve seen was football.
The scoreboard… the confetti… the cameras.
The fact that we’d just secured another trip to Super Bowl.
That was how I’d spent most of my life looking at the world.
Everything was filtered through the game because the game had always come first.
“You start realizing some things matter whether you’re playing or not,” I said. “Whether you win or lose. Whether football goes the way you want it to or not.”
None of it felt as important as the woman standing beside me.
For months she’d been there through all of it.
The frustration… the uncertainty. The days when rehab felt pointless.
The days when I convinced myself I was fine when everybody around me knew I wasn’t.
She’d seen every version of me and stayed, anyway.
“I think getting hurt made me appreciate people more.”
The answer felt simple, but it was the truth.
“Football teaches you to keep moving. Always thinking about the next game, the next season, the next goal. You spend so much time looking ahead that sometimes you forget to appreciate what’s right in front of you.”
My eyes found Tink again.
“Sounds like somebody in particular helped you figure that out,” she probed.
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “You spend your whole life chasing something, and then one day you realize the best thing that ever happened to you wasn’t something you chased at all.”
At some point, the interview stopped feeling like an interview.
The reporter was still standing there. The camera was still recording.
The stadium was still celebrating around us.
None of that seemed to matter anymore. My attention stayed on Tink, and judging by the way her expression had changed, she finally realized mine wasn’t coming back to football.
“Tink, before all this happened, I thought I knew exactly what my life was supposed to look like.” The words came easier than I expected, probably because they were the truth.
“I thought football was always gonna be the biggest thing in it. The thing everything else revolved around. Then I got hurt and ended up sitting still long enough to realize there were people carrying me through that process. People showing up for me every day, whether I had a jersey on or not.”
The tears gathering in her eyes made it harder to keep going, but I pushed through it.
“You were at the center of all of that.”
The crowd around us seemed to fade into the background as I thought about every moment that led us here.
The late-night conversations. The times she told me exactly what I needed to hear instead of what I wanted to hear.
The way she never treated me like I was bigger than the program.
The way she loved me without ever asking me to be anything except myself.
“You know, I spent a lot of time calling you mean.”
That finally earned the reaction I expected. Her eyes rolled even through the tears, drawing laughter from the people closest to us.
“But I kept coming back because I couldn’t stay away from you if I tried.
Because somewhere along the way, you became my favorite part of every day.
You became the person I wanted to call first. The person I wanted beside me when things were good and when they weren’t. The person I wanted to come home to.”
My throat tightened as I glanced past her shoulder. Lani was already crying. Seeing her holding the ring box made everything feel real.
I took it from her before looking back at Tink. By now, tears were running freely down her face, and if I was being honest, I wasn’t doing much better myself.
“I’ve won awards. I’ve signed contracts. I’ve had moments in this game that people spend their whole lives chasing, and I’m grateful for every one of them. But none of those things gave me what you did.”
“You gave me peace. You gave me purpose outside of football. You gave me a family. You gave me something worth looking forward to when all of this is over.”
Then I dropped to one knee. The reaction around us was immediate. It sounded like it was happening somewhere else because all I could see was Tink standing in front of me with tears streaming down her face.
“Tink, I love the woman you are… the mother you’re gone be, and the life we’re building together. I don’t want another season… another year, or another day without you in it.”
I opened the box and looked up at her.
“Will you marry me?”
The tears hadn’t stopped. If anything, they came faster. One hand covered her mouth while the other wiped at her face, but it wasn’t doing much good. The smile fighting through those tears told me everything I needed to know before she ever opened her mouth.
“Yes,” she croaked out.
The smile that spread across my face felt impossible to contain as I slipped the ring onto her finger and stood.
Cheers echoed across the field. Tink threw her arms around my neck, and I pulled her against me, holding her a little tighter than I probably needed to.
The reporter simpered into her microphone as the camera stayed locked on us.
“Well, I’d say this has been a pretty good night for Titan Samuels. He helped send the Cannons back to the Super Bowl and just got engaged in the middle of Cannon Field. Congratulations to both of you.”
“Appreciate it,” I said, tightening my arm around Tink.
Tink laughed through her tears and nodded.
“Thank you.”
Looking around the field, I saw our family making their way toward us, teammates still celebrating, and cameras capturing every second of it. A few weeks ago, I was sitting in rehab wondering when I’d get this moment back.
Now I was headed to the Super Bowl with my fiancée standing beside me.
For the first time all night, football wasn’t the thing on my mind.
She was.
***
I don’t know what it was about Tink’s pussy tonight, but this shit had me delirious. It could be because she just agreed to be my wife, but whatever the reason, I damn sure wasn’t complaining.
“Titan…” she whimpered as she rode my dick through her orgasm.
“Mhm… get what you need, mama,” I coached as I tried my best to keep my own at bay, but I was fighting a losing battle.
“Fuck, Tink,” I breathed out as I felt her walls contract around me.
She bounced and twirled her hips a few more times before I was filling her up with the rest of our kids.
“Sss… shit,” I groaned as I gripped the fuck out of her hips as she succumbed to her own pleasure. Once I figured she’d recovered, I lifted her off me and just stared at her.
“You know I love you right?” I asked right before I kissed her lips then neck.
“You know I love you too, right?” She countered as she rested her arms on my shoulder.
“I do.” I kissed her.
I didn’t see myself here, especially not in this capacity, but if you ask me, this was the only place I rather be.