One Last Night Read Free Page A

room, and in no time he’s
bounding up the bleacher steps toward me, acting like he didn’t
even have three hours of practice this morning.
    “Hey, baby,” he says, sliding in next to me
and grabbing me around the waist.
    “Hey yourself,” I say, grinning as he nuzzles
my neck. I love the solidity of him, the way his body wraps around
mine when we sleep, the possessiveness I know he feels when we’re
together. I waited a long time for the right one to come along and
Jake is every inch of that in one hot package.
    “Let’s go,” he says, standing up and putting
out his hand.A true Texas gentleman, Jake is always opening doors
and helping me into the car. Even though Gramps hates the fact that
I’m seeing an actual boy, he grudgingly approves of Jake. Which is
the reason that I didn’t tell them I moved in with him over the
summer—if they found out about that, they’d kill us
both.
    The apartment that we sublet is only a few
blocks from the stadium, and neither of us says much on the way
home. I just love to look at Jake with his finely muscled arms,
shaggy blond hair and the clean, sharp smell he always carries. I
lean into him as we walk in the path of the trees that shade the
sidewalk and he puts one strong arm around me. I relax as I match
my pace to his, our feet crunching on the first dry leaves of fall
in silence. Nothing has ever felt this right.
    The AC hits us full force as Jake opens the
door to our apartment. Our apartment. It’s still so amazing to be
able to say that. This sublet is only ours until the real renters
come back when school starts, but it’s been fun playing house these
past couple of months. We haven’t talked about what happens then,
but I’m guessing we’ll get a place together, a real place where we
can buy soft cotton sheets for our big, wide, bed and fun plates to
set into the kitchen cupboards. I want to pick out everything
together so that our apartment will be the home that we both want
to come back to at the end of the day. I never thought I’d be ready
to commit to someone so soon—I always said that I didn’t want to be
like Mom with a husband and a baby before she started her sophomore
year, but now I get the appeal. Not that I’m going to run off and
get pregnant anytime soon. I’ve got a lot to do before that
happens.
    I can’t help but think about it though, as
Jake tosses his duffle bag on the floor and opens the fridge to
find something to eat, shaking his ass to some kind of rhythm
that’s only in his head. Any baby I had with Jake would be
beautiful and smart and definitely athletic. Some days I can
picture us with a place somewhere, three or four little blond
babies running around the house, Jake riding a tractor through the
field beyond the yard.
    “What are you thinking about?” Jake says with
a grin as he pulls out the makings of a sandwich.
    “Nothing,” I say, hoping that it doesn’t show
on my face. I pretend to check my messages and then put my phone
down on the counter.
    Jake’s phone buzzes and he glances at it, but
then shuts it off. Between his big family and the guys on the team
he must get a hundred texts a day.
    “Who was that?”
    “Mom,” he says. “She’s been on me about my
classes for next semester. I can’t deal with it right now.”He opens
a head of lettuce. “Can I make you something to eat?”
    “No, thanks” I say. “I’m going to grab
something at work before I hit the road.”
    Jake makes an exaggerated pout and crosses the
room, grabbing me roughly around the waist and pulling me to him.
“I can’t believe you’re going away all weekend.”
    “I know,” I say, tracing the outline of his
chest through his shirt. I’ve gone home half a dozen times this
summer, but it’s always hard to leave. “I’m going to miss
you.”
    “I’m going to miss you more.”
    In one quick motion he lifts me up onto the
counter so that we’re eye to eye. I wrap my legs around his waist
and press into him, feeling the bulge