Epilogue
Eve
We won!!Eden Eaglesare the 2025 National Champions!
It's the last game of the season.The National Championship game and we won.I honestly can't believe that I say 'we' when talking about a football game, but here we are. The surgeon told Cal he was out for the season, but he still suits up and supports the other guys.Adam was on light duty for several weeks, but he eventually got to go back to full contact and play out the rest of his senior season.
"We're going out there.Come on."
"No.Thank you but no."
"Eve, I can make a scene.Don't think I can't make a scene because I'll show you."
She isn't bluffing and I know it.
"Why do you even want to go down there?"
"Our boys are down there.Cal is down there.He needs us.You know he needs us right now."
This sounds about as appealing as appendicitis to me, but Cal really does need the support right now, so I go...begrudgingly and bitching the entire way but I go.
It's absolute chaos out on the field.There are people everywhere and I can't find our guys.The are television crews, coaches, players, and fans everywhere.Cotton comes up behind us, grabbing us both up into a Cotton hug.He squeezes us and we both turn red in the face from lack of oxygen."Are you trying to kill us?"Ada chokes out as she slaps Cotton on the shoulder."Where's Cal?"She asks, looking around the crowd, trying to catch a glimpse of the huge man child.Cotton quirks an eyebrow and gives Ada a knowing grin.She looks back at him, confused."What?"
Cotton just shakes his head at her and points behind us to where Cal is standing.The three of us push through the crowd to hug and congratulate him.He's all smiles and good humor but it's not quite the same as before.He's lost a little something.I think we all feel it.
Cal grabs me by the arms and speaks loudly so that I can hear him over the crowd."I need you to cash in that IOU.I can't live like this.I can't have that hanging out there over my head, waiting and wondering when you're going to cash it in and make me take that hideous pirate dog for a walk or WORSE, make me take Adam shoe shopping.His feet are hideous.Please, I can't take it anymore."The theatrics are hysterical, but I still can't help but notice the wide berth that people are suddenly giving us.And the cameras...they seem to be trained on us.I don't understand.I look back to Cal and his smile is infectious.I love that smile.I've missed that smile.
Cal puts both hands on my shoulders and turns me around to face Adam...down on one knee with a beautiful ring featuring the most incredible emerald I've ever seen pinched between two fingers.My face heats.I want to be happy about this proposal, but I can't take my mind off the fact that every person in the known universe is watching me right now.If I could somehow forget the people that are standing only feet away from me there's still the fact that this was the most anticipated college football game of the year.This is a highly televised event and now all of those people are watching us.Watching me.
I drop to my knees on the turf in front of Adam and hide my face in his chest.I cover the parts of my face that his chest doesn't conceal with my hands."How could you do this to me?"I bark at him, but my words are muffled by his broad chest.
"Is that a yes, love?"
My words can't penetrate this wall of muscle, and I am for damn sure not showing my face again, so I nod vigorously instead.I can't see his smile, but I know it's there in all its otherworldliness.The crowd erupts as Adam puts the ring on my finger.He wraps his arms around me, standing us both upright, then he grabs me by the hips, slinging me over his shoulder and, in true Adam fashion, he slaps my ass on national television.
I'm going to start carrying a taser for those times when a paintball gun can't be used.
