“Because he’s there and I’m here. Yes, I know, I can write anywhere and I proved that yesterday. But it’s not as comfortable as my house. This house isn’t as comfortable and I grew up here.”
“I can understand that,” her mother said. “I think anyone with creativity pulsing through them can. You need to be where it fuels you.”
“That’s right,” she said. “Pretty soon I won’t see much of him at all. Not unless I stay with him. But I’m afraid to if it changes the fuel I need in my body and brain to do my job.” She shook her arms out and wiggled her body. “Oh my God, it felt so good to say that. I know you get it.”
“I do,” her mother said, giving her another brief hug and stepping back. “And you won’t know until you try. Until you put the effort in. I know you’re not a planning type of person, but you might have to be that way if you want to see Warren during the season.”
“And it’s coming fast. Training camp starts in less than two weeks,” she said. “But he’s already there working out most days and in meetings. He says he’s not alone.”
Emma knew he was dedicated and she admired that.
“Then it’s preseason,” her mother said. “But he won’t play.”
“How do you know that?” she asked. She just found that out yesterday.
“You don’t watch that many sports,” Melissa said, smirking. “But your father does. Most starters don’t play the preseason games.”
“But they go to them,” she said. “Then the season starts in early September and the regular season ends in early January. They are hoping for the Super Bowl, so that could be into February.”
“Lots of time to get things worked out,” her mother said. “But it’s not like other sports. He plays one day a week and is probably traveling another day. Then he’s home and at the stadium. You could be around.”
“I could,” she said. “I want to be. He has other obligations.”
“So do you,” her mother said. “Emma, I know you’re scared.”
“Of course you do,” she said, crossing her eyes. All this serious talk was working her up. She needed to lighten it. “I just admitted it.”
“And now you’re joking about it. But it’s serious.”
“It is,” she said. “What if Warren doesn’t feel the same way I do?”
“Emma, he went back to find you. I think that says it all.”
She laughed. “Because a wonderful hero does those things.”
“Don’t mix this up with your books.”
“I’m not,” she said. “I think that is why I’m struggling so much. I can dictate that world to do and be what I want. I can’t do that in real life.”
“Real life takes more work, but my daughter isn’t afraid of working hard, is she?”
“Never,” she said.
“Then there is your answer.”
26
JUST GETTING STARTED
“This is crazy,” Emma said almost two months later. “I mean the stadium isn’t even half full and the electricity is... Through. The. Roof.”
Warren smiled when he looked at his girlfriend of over four months.
Mike had been on his case to make a public announcement, but he’d been holding back. After today’s opening game though, he might not have much of a choice and it’d be best to get it out of the way.
“I’ll never tire of this feeling,” he said. “It’s hard to explain it, but there is this air of electricity, as you said.”
“It could be all the testosterone,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows. Her head resembled a pendulum on a grandfather clock. Even talking to him now, she was doing it.
