51. Hannah
CHAPTER 51
HANNAH
“ O h my God, I don’t think I can watch,” Caroline whispers, covering her face with her hand as the Springside kicker lines up for the field goal. There are less than thirty seconds left on the clock, and I don’t remember the last time I was this nervous about a football game.
“I don’t know that I can either,” I admit, looking down at where several of the girls from the squad have similar expressions. They start chanting “Make that kick!” over and over as the center snaps the football. It seems like the entire stadium holds its breath as the Saints player kicks the ball and it soars through the field goalposts. The Saints sideline erupts in loud cheers and screams as I reach out grabbing Caroline while we lose our shit with the rest of the fans.
The clock reaches zero, and Caroline whispers, “Oh my God, they actually did it, Han.”
“Hell yeah, they did,” I say, watching as the boys try to dump the Gatorade cooler on Will, but he jumps out of the way just in time, causing Theo to take the brunt of the cold liquid. He stands there in shock for a moment as Will, Caroline, Margaret, and I, along with several of the fans in the stadium, cackle at his expression.
“Oh my God, that literally couldn’t have played out any better,” Caroline says, already moving toward the field. I trail behind her, keeping my eye on Will as we go. One part of my brain says to wait, knowing if I run to him, our secret will be out, but he turns, searching through the crowd of people as the team celebrates around him, and suddenly I don’t give a shit about any of that.
I run to him, flinging myself into his arms as soon as I’m close. He catches me and twirls me around before dropping his mouth to mine and kissing me hard.
I hear several shocked gasps behind us, but I tune them out, pulling back and smiling at him, “Congrats, Coach! I’m so proud of you!” I squeal, before whispering, “And I’m not sure, but I think they may be onto us now. We’re totally gonna be the newest headline in the STS tomorrow.”
Will leans in and kisses me again before shrugging. “Oh well. I told you I was through pretending like I’m not in love with you.”
My heart stops again at his words, and before I can think too hard about it, I whisper, “I love you too, Will Thompson.”
We both freeze at my admission before his mouth breaks into a smile, and he pulls me in, kissing me hard. I hadn’t planned on telling him like this, but as I talked to Caroline and Margaret earlier this week, I knew it was just a matter of time before I told him how I feel.
“I swear to God, I’m never letting you go again, Hannah Scott,” he murmurs.
I cling to the front of his shirt, and I’m about to kiss him again when I hear a loud cheer behind us. We turn to see our friends making their way over, smiling and glancing at us knowingly.
“It’s about damn time,” Theo says, rolling his eyes at us.
“Yeah, I don’t know what all’s been going on between you two for the last few months, but I was starting to think you two wouldn’t ever figure your shit out,” Seth adds.
Margaret and Caroline both run to me and pull me away from Will, hugging me hard.
“Please tell me you’re done pushing him away,” Caroline whispers, and I just nod before squeezing them both hard and going back to stand next to Will.
As soon as I’m close enough, he wraps his arm around me and pulls me close to him, as a wave of coaches and fans start making their way over to congratulate him on the win.
Huey reaches us first, smiling and waving his shaker in his hand frantically. “What a game, Will. I knew you had it in you. I’m so proud,” he says, wrapping Will in a hug and patting his back hard. “And it looks like that’s not all we have to celebrate.” He gestures to where Will still has his arm around me and gives us both a smirk. “I may be old but I’ve sworn for years there was something between you two.”
“Yeah, yeah. You and your old man intuition,” Mayor Brian teases with a laugh as he makes his way over to shake Will’s hand. “Great game, Coach. It’s been a long time since Springside had a state championship. You should be proud.”
“Thanks, Brian.” Will nods just as Principal Hale runs over. I tense, wanting to bask in the happiness we’re feeling right now before making any decisions about work, but bracing myself for whatever’s about to happen.
“Coach Will, that was incredible! Great job!” he exclaims with a wild smile.
“Thanks, Principal Hale. We’ve worked hard, and I’m really proud of the team. But, I do need to let you know that Hannah and I are together, obviously. And if that’s a problem, I’ll have my resignation on your desk first thing Monday morning,” Will declares, his tone leaving no room for argument.
My mouth drops open in shock and I’m about to argue when Principal Hale beats me to it. “Resign? Why in the heck would you do that?”
“The policy,” I interject. “You know the one that says staff members can’t date?”
Principal Hale furrows his brow in confusion before he mutters, “This darn town and their rumors. I think there’s been some confusion. There’s no policy against staff members dating, Miss Scott. We used to even have married couples that both worked for the school. There was an incident years ago when a principal tried to date a teacher, and she was uncomfortable with it. He tried to threaten her job, and the board fired him. But it was because he was trying to use his position to pressure her, not because they were both staff members.”
I freeze. “So there’s nothing that says that Will and I can’t date?”
“Nope, not a thing,” Principal Hale says. “And I do hope you’ll both stay. We don’t want to lose either of you at Springside High.”
“Thank you,” Will states while I just stare into space, trying to wrap my brain around the fact that there’s nothing keeping us apart any longer.
As soon as Principal Hale walks away, Kent runs over, clapping Will on the shoulder before looking at the two of us. “Can you believe we did it, man?” he asks excitedly.
“I think it may take a few days to sink in,” Will admits before adding, “we couldn’t have done it without you and the other coaches though.”
“Well, I’ve enjoyed learning from you. And I’m already thinking about how we can build on this for next season,” Kent exclaims, before looking down and finally noticing Will and my linked hands.
I brace myself for an awkward encounter, but instead, his face splits into a wide smile. “Oh my God, I can’t believe it. Y’all are finally together?”
“Yeah. Listen, man, I know you talked about wanting to ask her out, but—” Will starts, but before he can finish Kent brushes him off.
“Will, we’re good. It was actually a bit of a test between me and the other coaches. We noticed how into her you seemed, despite the fact that the two of you fought like crazy. So Theo told me to mention asking her out to see how you’d react.”
“He what?” Will asks, his eyes wide as he turns to where Theo is standing, still dripping in Gatorade talking to Caroline.
“I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not,” Theo says with a shrug, while Caroline shoves him playfully.
“Wait, you did all that without telling me?” she declares, crossing her arms over her chest and poking out her lip in a pout.
“Sorry, Sunshine, but you and I both know you wouldn’t have been able to keep it a secret from Hannah. We just wanted to see how Will would react. But he’s so damn stubborn. So we just decided to keep pushing. By the time we got to the bonfire, I kept expecting smoke to start coming out of Will’s ears,” Theo tells her, dropping a kiss on her forehead. She leans into him, obviously deciding to forgive him.
Will shakes his head at Theo’s confession while Kent turns to me. “Sorry, Hannah. I wasn’t trying to lead you on. But we could all tell it wasn’t me you were interested in, and we were trying to get you both to get your head out of your ass and just be together.”
We all laugh at that, and I wave him off. “No hard feelings, Kent. You’re a nice guy, but I was obviously already spoken for, even if I didn’t want to admit it.”
Will smiles at that before whispering, “Hell yeah, you were.” He pulls me in for another kiss, and I hear a bunch of the kids coming up behind us, yelling and cheering.
“Oh my gosh, they’re actually together,” one of them yells, causing us to pull back with a laugh.
“Coach Will, can you believe it? We’re state champs!” Blake yells over the noise of the crowd.
“Heck yeah, we are.” Marcus whoops beside us before asking, “You about ready to go claim that trophy?”
Will nods. “Yeah, head on out to the middle of the field. I’ll be right behind you.”
The coaches and players start to move, as Will pulls me in close again. He drops his mouth back down, kissing my forehead before whispering, “I told you we’d get everything we wanted.”