“We’ve only been gone a week, but I feel like an entirely different person. Is that weird?”
Susan shrugs a shoulder in a gesture so much like Asher I have to smile. “You fell in love honey. You are a different person. But at your core, you’re still you.”
I clear my throat, a little uncomfortable. “I haven’t exactly told him about that part yet. The love part.”
“I know. You’ll tell him when the time is right. He loves you too, you know.”
I know it, even though he hasn’t said the words. I think it’s an honor to be loved by Asher Hansley. Before I can figure out what to say, Susan starts talking again.
“If I could handpick a woman for Asher, it would be you, Julie. I see the way you care for him. The way you understand him too. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for him. I think he’s met his match in you.”
Tears prick at my eyes, but I blink them back, wanting to see clearly. “He is the best person I have ever known. I would do anything for him.”
She nods, with a satisfied look on her face. “I believe you would. I’m glad he has you to stand by him through whatever comes next for him.”
At that, I remember something Susan said earlier that got me thinking about Asher’s future, and an idea keeps knocking at the back of my mind.
“Susan, did Asher ever do any work with kids while he was in college, or since he’s been in the league?”
“He has. A lot, actually. When he was in college, he was a volunteer coach all four years for a youth league here in Boulder. I don’t know how he fit it in between practice and games and all his classwork and labs, but he always made it a priority. And since he’s been in the league, I know whenever there’s an opportunity to work with kids, he takes it. I don’t know all the details, but isn’t he doing some work with a friend of yours?”
“He is. My brother Ben’s best friend runs a foundation focused on kids and sports. Asher is volunteering for him during the offseason. Listen, you can tell me I’m overstepping, but I had this idea, and I need your help to pull it off.”
She grins at me. “I love a bit of intrigue. Lay it on me, Jules.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Asher
“But where are we goinggggggg? Tell me, Juliette. Tell me, tell me, tell me.”
Stopping the car at a red light, Julie gives me an exasperated look. “Are you five? Have some patience. You’ll know when we get there.”
We’re in the Range Rover and Julie is at the wheel. She woke me up at dark o’clock this morning and insisted I get up and get dressed. When I tugged her back on top of me and slid my hands around to grab her ass and grind up into her, she swatted me away and called me a crazed sex maniac. Then she threw a pair of jeans at my head while she sailed out the door to go make coffee. Spicy morning Julie turns me on even more, so I had to lay in bed waiting for my hard on to deflate, which took a while. Then she came back upstairs all irritated that I wasn’t out of bed yet, and, well, spicy Julie, what can I say? I’m not saying I’m irritating her on purpose by asking her where we’re going ten thousand times, but I’m also notnotsaying that, if you know what I mean.
“Patience isn’t a quality I’m well acquainted with. I’m a professional athlete, baby. We like action.”
She reaches over and pats me on the leg, smiling sweetly. “Well, if you ask me where we’re going one more time, I can guarantee you that you won’t be getting any action anytime soon.”
I grin at her then grab the hand she’s still resting on my leg and bring it to my mouth, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “You’re my favorite human, Juliette.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she mumbles. “I kind of like you too.”
The reluctance in her voice has me grinning even harder. She may still be a little baffled by us and how quickly this all happened, but that, from her, might as well be a love declaration. Eventhinkingthe word love has my heart pounding in my ears and my palms sweating. I’ve seen the way she’s been looking at me and the way she is around my family. She is feeling some kind of way, and I am here for it.
I’m so lost in my own thoughts that I don’t realize we’re here—wherever here is—until Julie parks the car and turns off the engine. Then I look up and see it.
“What are we doing at my high school?”
She turns to me, her expression solidlyLawyer Julie on a Mission. “Okay, hear me out. I’ve been thinking. A lot. I know you’re worried about what your shoulder means for your football career. You took a big step the other day when you told your family, and I know how hard that was for you. How much it cost you to tell them the truth and face what your injury might mean, and how that makes you feel.”
I swallow around the lump in my throat as my stomach tightens with nerves. Because she’s right. I am worried. Telling my family did cost me something. And thinking about the potential end of my football career is impossible. Talking about it now makesme want to jump out of my skin. Or stick my fingers in my ears and pretend none of this is happening. But Julie obviously has a reason to bring it up, so I force my feelings down and focus on her.
“I think I know you, Asher, just like you know me. And I think you’re feeling like the end of your professional career is the worst thing that could ever happen to you. That it means the end of football. And I want to show you it doesn’t.”
I hear the words she’s saying, but they don’t really compute. Because if I can’t play, then it is the end of football.
I think she really does know me like I know her, because she reads my mind. “I know what you’re thinking. If you can’t play, it’s all over. But it’s not. Or, at least, it doesn’t have to be. I’ve seen how excited you get whenever you talk to Jeremy about the sports camps you’re helping him with. I know you coached youth football in college. I know how anytime a teammate is doing a philanthropy project that has to do with kids, you’re the first one in line to sign up. And I see how you are with your nieces.”
