Page 98 of Sack

“Well?” she asked by way of answering.

“I accidentally agreed to go.”

“Whaaat?” Ivy cringed as Emerson yelled in her ear. “How?”

Ivy pulled at a string on her jeans. “I don’t know. One minute I was set to tell him I couldn’t go and then I just couldn’t do it. Do you think I made a mistake?”

There was a moment of silence before Emerson said, “What does your heart tell you?”

“The season’s almost over.”

She didn’t have to explain what she meant by that for Emerson to get it. “But another one will be starting. You can’t go down that road again.”

“I know. And I won’t. I can’t.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t go. If you do see him, you might be tempted to—”

Ivy cut her off. “I’d tell him great game and be on my way.”

“I wish I could go with you.”

“So do I. But I think this is something I need to do. For closure.”

“Then all I have left to say is, be sure to pack some sunscreen because even in January I’m pretty sure it’s fucking hot in Arizona.”

Even as neurotic as Ivy was about being behind schedule and allowing herself time for all contingencies, she was running late for her flight. Murphy’s law was in full effect and true to form. Everything was going wrong and taking longer than it should.

The volume on her alarm had accidentally been turned down, so she had woken up late.

The strap of her purse broke and as she only ever used one at a time, she’d wasted precious minutes unearthing an old one from the depths of her closet. Then had used more minutes, ones she didn’t have, transferring everything.

There’d been an accident on the Broadway Bridge, backing traffic up for over a mile.

An incident in line at security hadeveryonetapping their toes and checking their watches.

Purse smacking her in the ass, flip flops flapping, she raced through the terminal. She could not miss her flight. The championship game was not only important to Colt but to her, too. She wanted nothing more than to see him win. So much was riding on it.

Winning was his ticket to the Super Bowl.

The one thing that meant more to him than anything else in the world.

And even though they were no longer together, Ivy still wanted that for him. Badly. She wanted to see him happy.

She had a stitch in her side and was breathing too heavily to speak as she hit the check-in counter. Wordlessly, she slid her ID to the worker manning it.

Fifteen frustratingly nerve-wracking minutes later, boarding pass in hand, she headed for her flight.

Chapter Twenty-two

Colt

“Hey, Colt, you better come look at this.”

He went into the visiting player’s lounge where most of the team was hanging out until game time and focused on the TV that was playing the news in the corner of the room.

“… Once again. C2C airways flight 289 from Portland has crashed upon landing at Phoenix International. Not much is known at this time, but it is believed that—”

A buzz filled Colt’s head and his heart rate sped, pounding in his ears and drowning out the news anchor’s next words.

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