Page 93 of Catching My Dreams

Ella got into the driver’s seat and put on her seatbelt. When she looked up, Noah was standing with his hand resting on the car door. Seeing she was settled, he leaned down and kissed her.

She expected a brief brush of lips, but Noah’s mouth was hungry against hers. His tongue parted her lips and swept into her mouth, sending a rush of electricity down her spine and to her core. Ella leaned into him, tilting her face up and deepening the kiss.

Noah groaned in approval, the sound gruff and deep. His hand lifted, and his fingers threaded into her hair, tightening almost painfully. His lips moved against hers roughly, mercilessly. She gasped, and he devoured the sound greedily. If Ella could live in one moment forever, this one would have been high on her list of choices.

But like all exquisite moments, this one had to end eventually. Noah’s lips softened against hers and slowed to a stop, his head moving back so only a breath separated them.

“I love you, Noah Warner,” she whispered breathlessly.

“I love you too, Ella Montgomery,” he replied, the words landing in the air between their lips with the warmth of glowing embers and the comfort of a tender embrace.

And she was foolish enough to believe them.

26

Ella watched from the sidelines and flinched when Noah was tackled for the third time after holding the ball for too long after the snap. The crowd roared their approval, the home team benefitting from another one of Noah’s mistakes.

He’d been sacked in previous games, but from what Ella could remember, most of those had been due to the offensive line letting him down. This was different.

The whole game had been different.

Noah was playing terribly, and it was so unlike him that Ella had convinced herself by the second half that he’d caught the flu his mom had shaken the previous week. She couldn’t think of another reason for why he’d thrown four interceptions.

The cheerleaders who’d traveled with her to the University of Pennsylvania in their Georgetown blue uniforms seemed as dispirited as she was despite their plastered-on smiles, and it wasn’t that surprising given the score. The Penn Quakers were destroying them. But Ella didn’t care about the score like the rest of them. She only cared about the fact that Noah looked defeated.

Something was very wrong, and she had no idea what. The cheerleaders had left Georgetown on a different bus than the football team, and after leaving her place early that morning, Noah hadn’t responded to any of her texts before he’d sent a message saying he was on the bus and would see her later.

He’d seemed fine when he’d left her house. He’d been happy. He’d even picked her up and spun her around before kissing her goodbye. He’d seemed more than okay.

“What the hell is going on with your boyfriend?” Ben asked her. The male cheerleader standing next to her had looked ready to run a marathon at the beginning of the afternoon game, but now his tone was miserable despite the fake smile that told the crowd he hadn’t given up on the Hoyas.

“I don’t know,” she replied honestly, her eyes glued to the man wearing the number 15 on his jersey. “His mom had the flu last week. Maybe he caught it.”

“Whatever it is, it’s cost us the game,” Jasmine said from Ella’s other side. The words were brutal in their honesty, but there was no venom or bitterness in her voice.

“Considering how many games he’s won for the Hoyas, I think we can give him a break,” Becca added.

“Exactly,” Ella agreed, wrapping her arms around her stomach. “Give Noah a break.”

“Maybe he’ll turn it around soon,” Jasmine said, sounding hopeful.

But Noah didn’t turn it around. If anything, he played worse, and when the game ended in a crushing defeat, his head was hanging low. Chris and Brady were the only teammates who approached him as the team walked off the field in their dark blue jerseys and grass-stained white pants, but he only shook his head at them and continued walking with his shoulders curved in.

Without his helmet on, Ella could finally see the expression on his face. The only word she could think of to describe it was anguished.

She called him when she and the other cheerleaders were on the bus and heading back to Georgetown. When he didn’t answer, she waited five long minutes before trying again. He didn’t pick up that time either, so she waited ten minutes before calling again.

She gave up after the fourth failed attempt.

“Maybe his phone is on silent,” Jasmine said, her offer of comfort sounding a bit forced.

She’d silently watched Ella make the unanswered phone calls, and the pity in her eyes had grown to uncomfortable levels. Although, when you had a boyfriend like Mark, who’d only ever treated Jasmine like a queen, Ella supposed it was easy to pity others.

“Yeah,” Ella replied with a false smile. “I’m sure that’s it.”

She felt sorry for Jasmine, who had to sit next to her miserable ass the whole way back to campus, but she couldn’t bring herself to make conversation or act like she wasn’t close to crying. All she could do was think about what might have made Noah play so badly, and the most convincing theory was that something had happened with his mom.

It scared Ella. It scared her badly enough that she called Noah two more times before the bus arrived at Georgetown University. The sun had set while they’d been on the road, and Ella shivered when she stepped out of the bus into the chilly air.

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