Offside (63 page)

Gardner sighed and ran his hand through his hair. I mentally stopped my hand from doing the same.

“What if…what if you went to school here, too?” he asked.

“What? For art?”

“Yes.”

I frowned. I hadn’t really thought about it too much.

“I have an offer,” Gardner said.

“What are you offering?” I asked.

“No, no,” he corrected, “that’s not what I meant. I mean I have received an offer—to come and teach at the community college. You’d get free tuition with me there, and you’d be close to Nicole.”

“Are you crazy?” I asked him. “You didn’t tell me anything about that.”

“I didn’t want to say anything until I had the actual offer,” he said with a shrug. “I just got it last week.”

“You’re going to leave Chicago Art Institute to teach at a community college? Really?”

“Yeah, I think I might.”

“Gardner, that’s nuts.”

“Why?”

“You already have a great position at a great art school. Why would you trade down? That doesn’t make any sense!”

He looked down at his hands in his lap for a minute and shrugged again.

“I’m just getting to know you,” he finally said. “I know you don’t want to move, and I understand your reasons—they’re valid reasons. I want to be part of your life. If I have to change jobs to do that…”

My chest clamped up on me, and I had to sit down. I had no idea how I was supposed to react to this news. He was going to move all the way from Chicago just to be closer to me? Why would he do that?

“I don’t understand,” I finally said.

“I just…I…” He stopped and started fucking around with his hair again. He finally took a deep breath and blew it out. “You don’t want me to.”

My chest felt heavy again.

“That’s not what I meant,” I said. “I just don’t understand why you’d give that up.”

He turned his eyes to me again, and they were warm under dark brows that knitted together.

“I already missed so much of your life,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to miss anything else.”

I still had no idea how to react. Thoughts of my dad—Lou—went through my head as I tried to think of something he had ever done that even came close to this. Though he had constantly reminded me of how much he had sacrificed for me, none of it compared—not even close.

“You don’t have to do that,” I finally said.

“I know I don’t have to,” he responded. He stood up then and walked around to the other side of the bed where I was sitting. He dropped down next to me before speaking again. “I want to do this, Thomas. I want to be closer to you. This way you wouldn’t have to deal with a plane again—I know how much you hated that—and I’d be able to see you a lot more often. I want to get to know you better. Nicole, too.”

I looked into his eyes, and there was no doubt about his sincerity. His mouth turned up into a familiar, lopsided grin.

“Speaking of Nicole…did you ask her yet?”

“Not yet,” I admitted, and my face felt hot. “I don’t know how to bring it up.”

“I don’t think I’d be much help in that department,” Gardner said. “Just ask?”

“I haven’t had a minute alone with her yet.”

“Judging from the way you two are, I can’t imagine she would say no.”

“But she might,” I said quietly. I quickly glanced toward the kitchen, but I couldn’t see her. I could hear the sounds of plates and silverware being placed on the table. “I’m not sure how I’d handle that. She told me how her mom often says marriage shouldn’t happen before you are thirty or something.”

“Nicole isn’t her mom.”

“True.”

We didn’t say anything for a minute, and I just stared down at my hand, which covered the pocket containing a small, black satin box.

“So…you’re okay with me moving closer?” Gardner asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “That would be great.”

“Will you consider going to the same school for art?”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Good.” His hand touched my arm, and I looked up at him just as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and hugged me to him. I hugged him back, trying to sort out all the emotions running through my head.

Gardner’s voice became soft.

“I love you, son.”

“I…I love you, too, Gardner.”

His words had touched me more deeply than I ever would have imagined.

I guess now I’ll become an art major.

“Will you marry me?”

Fourteenth time’s the charm, right?

“No.”

I sighed and pulled Rumple close to my chest. I guess post-coital proposals didn’t work, either.

The first time I had asked, she thought I was joking. I kind of played it off that way, too, not wanting her to know how serious I really was and how her saying no had torn at my heart. I knew we were too young, but I still wanted to…I don’t know, stake a claim? We were already living together off campus, so what the hell was the big deal about a piece of paper?

Her hand ran over my stomach, causing me to shiver a little and my cock to twitch. Little bastard never got enough of her, it seemed. She didn’t mind though. If anything, she was ready to have another go before I was. Not today though, because Greg and Gardner were coming to take us out to dinner and celebrate.

Nicole honestly thought it was weird, but I wanted to celebrate having saved her life exactly one year ago today. She saw it as the day I got hurt, but to me, the important part was all about her being okay. Besides, I was walking again, even if I did still have to use a cane to keep my balance.

I hated the fucking walker so much, I nearly hurt myself pushing the PT and ended up in the hospital for a weekend. Danielle tore me a new one and put me on a very strict regimen after that. No more pushing myself into exercises my body wasn’t ready to tackle.

Nicole made sure I only did what I was allowed to do.

“Why do you keep asking?”

It was the first time she had even attempted to speak about it after I asked. Usually she just told me to stop it or shut up or something.

“I want to marry you,” I said as I shrugged my shoulders. “I know there will never be anyone else who could ever compare to you. I don’t see any reason to wait.”

“What about school?”

“What about it?” I asked. “We’re both here, and we’ll both graduate. It’ll take me a little longer since I got behind, but I thought I’d take some summer courses or something to make up for it. If I can, I’ll still graduate with you.”

“But…to be in school and be married, too? How is that going to work?”

“How will it be different from now?”

“People will think it’s…weird,” Nicole insisted. “Married at nineteen?”

She snorted.

“So we wait a little longer,” I said. “I just…”

I stopped. After a minute, Nicole raised her head and looked up at me.

“Just what?” she asked.

I ran my hand through my hair and cringed a little. Seeing Gardner do it all the time made me self-conscious about it.

“Guys look at you all the time,” I finally said. “When you’re training and whatever—they’re watching you, and I can’t beat the shit out of them like I want to.”

“Thomas! Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m not.” I shook my head. “Every time I’m there, I hear other guys, other soccer players, talk about how good you are, and I just wish…”

I stopped again, looking away from her and over to the wall next to our bed. I felt her hand on my cheek, slowly turning me back to her.

“I’m yours,” she said softly. “I don’t care about those guys or what they say.”

“They can…they can do all this shit I can’t…”

“Thomas Malone!” Nicole yelled, and I cringed against the pillow. “Don’t you dare talk about yourself like that! You have made so much progress in the last few months, and I will not listen to you sell yourself short!”

“It’s true!” I insisted. “They could run around a field and kick a ball around with you. They could hold your fucking books between classes instead of needing a damn cane to get around.”

“Stop it!” she said. “Don’t make me call Justin! He said if you started feeling sorry for yourself again, I could, you know!”

I took a deep breath and blew it out my nose. Most of the time, that kind of shit really didn’t bother me, but when I saw those guys looking at her and talking about her, and I knew I no longer had what they had, it just about killed me.

“Sorry,” I finally said. “It doesn’t get to me that much, just…sometimes.”

“I know,” Nicole said as she sat up and tucked my hair behind my ear. “I don’t like hearing you talk about yourself like that. Sorry I yelled.”

“It’s okay,” I told her, and she placed a light kiss on my cheek. She kept her hand in my hair, twirling it around her fingers before tucking it around my ear.

“Does it really mean that much to you?” Nicole eventually asked.

“Getting married?” I clarified. She nodded. “If we were at least engaged…I mean, we wouldn’t have to set a date or anything. If you just had my ring on your finger…”

My voice trailed off.

“Let me see it,” Nicole said with a huff.

“See what?”

“The ring you think I don’t know about.”

Damn. I really couldn’t hide much of anything from her.

“No,” I said, scowling. “You don’t want it.”

“Don’t make me get it myself, Thomas.”

She pushed herself off of me and made a grand gesture with her arm toward the other side of the room and my desk. My heart started beating faster, and I swung my legs to the side of the bed and carefully stood. My balance was still a serious problem, especially when I first stood up. I took the four steps across the room without the cane, though. My right leg, the one that had been gashed, did suffer some nerve damage and dragged behind a little.

I opened up the top drawer and reached into the back where I had been hiding the little black satin box. I brought it back over to the bed, stumbling a bit but not falling, at least. I hadn’t actually fallen in a week. I balanced the box on Nicole’s knee.

She looked at it as if a ref was going to pop out of it and red-card her.

After staring at it for an eternity or two, she finally reached out and ran her fingers over the smooth top. Her thumb played over the front edge for a moment before she popped it open, and her eyes went wide.

It wasn’t huge or anything, but it was pretty decent-sized. There was a large diamond in the center with smaller ones on either side.

“Do you like it?” I asked softly.

“It’s…it’s beautiful,” she breathed. Her fingers traced lightly over the center stone.

I placed my hand on the side of the bed and lowered myself down on my left knee.

“Nicole Skye,” I said softly as I gazed up at her. “I promise I will always be yours. There will never be anyone else in my life but you. In my existence, I have never known anyone who has the capacity for love and compassion like you do, and you give them to me freely. You’ve made me a better person, and I love you so much, I can’t even put it into words. Will you please, please be my wife?”

I watched her eyes widen, and then they seemed to glisten a little in the light from the bedside table lamp. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, and I realized I was actually holding my breath. The silence in the room was starting to hurt my ears until she finally whispered the only word I wanted to hear.

“Yes.”

My face started to hurt from my grin. Air finally filled my lungs again, and I reached out to take the ring from the box and slip it over her finger.

“Fuck, that looks good!” I murmured, and Nicole laughed. She wiggled her fingers around, and the light caught the diamonds.

“Feel like you’ve claimed me, don’t you?”

“Fuck yes.”

Using the bed for support, I pulled myself back up to stand and grabbed her face in my hands.

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.”