Epilogue

Four years later...

Sawyer

“Come here, beautiful,” I called out as I pulled off my helmet and held my arms open for Lana as she ran onto the field toward me. She was wearing her blue tank top that had the Florida Gator emblem on the front. I knew the back of it said Vincent #10. I’d had it made for her before my first game this season. She squealed and jumped up into my arms.

“You did it! You did it!” She rained kisses all over my face and I enjoyed every minute of it while holding her up with my hands cupped on her tight little ass.

“Well, I did have some help,” I teased.

Laughing she ran her hands through my sweaty hair and kissed my forehead.

“I’m all nasty, baby.”

She leaned back and looked down at me and a smirk appeared on her perfect plump lips, “Yeah, you are.”

What about that amused her, I had no idea but it did. She looked to be on the verge of laughing about something. Then she grabbed my face and pressed those lips against mine and I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted this.

“Congrats, bro,” Beau’s voice called out and I opened my eyes as Lana let my mouth go. I slid her back down my body to stand beside me as I turned to see my brother walking toward me in crimson and white. Ashton was beside him in a jersey almost identical to Beau’s.

“Thanks, man. You played good. That catch you made in the third was unreal. I had to keep myself from hooting on the sidelines.”

Beau chuckled and shook his head, “I warned them that although we whipped you guys the last three years that the best quarterback the SEC had ever seen would be starting this year.”

Ashton let go of Beau to come over and hug Lana. It was our fourth year at the University of Florida. Ash and Lana talked several times a week. Beau and I managed to work out together on breaks when we were both back home. Beau even came to Christmas dinner the last two years. When he called our father “Dad” before leaving to head back to school after that first winter break, I thought our dad was going to breakdown and weep.

It hadn’t happened overnight but slowly Beau and Dad were finding ways to mend what was broken.

Beau was planning to propose to Ashton during the SEC championship game this year. The Florida Gators and the Crimson Tide would face off one more time this season. Other than us, no one else had been able to touch Bama this year. The plan was to have our parents there, even Aunt Honey, when Bama faces the Gators in the SEC game. “Will you marry me, Ashton Sutley Gray?” would be flashed on the big screen in the last quarter when only one minute was left in the game.

I’ve had to listen to hours of Beau’s planning and scheming. He wants it just right.

I reached over and picked up Lana’s left hand to kiss the marquis cut diamond that now rested on her ring finger. Our engagement, last month, hadn’t been quite as big of a production, although it had made the ten o’clock news. After winning my first game as the starting quarterback for the Florida Gators, I’d bypassed all the media vying for my attention and gone straight to Lana as she made her way to me. The offensive line assistant coach had kept the ring tucked safely in his pocket during the game but he’d placed it in my hand once the game was over. She ran into my arms like she always did after a game but this time, instead of picking her up, I dropped to one knee. I’ll never forget the look on her face or the way she sounded when she’d said “Yes.”

No longer was it me, Beau and Ash against the world.

I had Lana and she was the number one player on my team.