Page 61 of Saving the Halfback

Dad took his hand and said, “Call me John.” I wanted to groan with embarrassment, but my mom stood up.

“I’m Bailey’s mom, Shelly,” Mom said, and Nolan shook her outstretched hand.

“I’m Nolan.” Thank god Nolan didn’t even hesitate shaking both their hands.

“What do you have planned for tonight, Nolan?”

“Well, sir, this time of year is perfect for stargazing. I have some of my equipment. We should be able to see Jupiter, but even cooler, there’s a meteor shower tonight. It’s just a science project I’ve been working on.”

“Meteor shower?” Mom raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

“Yep. Showers happen often, but usually during the day, when we can’t see, or people just don’t take the time. This one has been going since nine tonight, but between eleven and threea.m. is peak.” This…this was Nolan. I couldn’t help but allow my heart to melt a bit.

Dad relaxed slightly, likely not seeing Nolan as a threat anymore. Nolan hadn’t styled his hair in any particular way; it was left messy. He wore a hoodie and sweatpants, nothing indicating that he had dressed up to try and impress me, and to be honest,thatimpressed me.

“You are welcome to join us if you would like to see as well,” Nolan offered.

Mom put a hand on Dad’s shoulder, stopping him. “Oh, don’t go worrying about us. Past his bedtime.”

Dad laughed. “I think I’ll be up for a while, have some paperwork to do. Good to meet you, Nolan.” Nolan waved as Dad went inside and Mom followed with a goodbye.

I jumped down off the porch and helped pick up some of the cases Nolan had with a grin.

“What?” he asked.

“I think you shocked my dad by inviting them out with us.”

Nolan looked past me to the house before blinking back down at me. “I didn’t want to get you into shit about the no-dating rule.” The air left my lungs. I had to fix this. “We need to find a place with high ground.”

I led Nolan toward what I’d dubbed asThe Hillwhen I was younger because it sucked walking up it. So, The Hill was more of an ominous name for me. I showed Nolan the highest spot in the field, and after looking around, he pointed to the pasture on the other side of the fence.

“What about there?”

“Unless you want cows and a particularly mean bull chasing us, I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Yep, this spot seems good.” Nolan chuckled as he got to work, spreading out a blanket, a thermos, and some snacks. Ieyed him suspiciously, and he only grinned back at me before pulling out another blanket and laying it next to the first.

It was when he got the telescope out and set it up that I got to see the real Nolan again. He focused on the sky, looking around at the thousands of stars, then positioned his telescope a little more, using a compass and an app on his phone. He looked through the eyepiece, adjusting the scope. “I give you the giant among giants, Jupiter.”

I stepped up to the scope and looked through. “Wow.” I was surprised by the amount of detail. “I can see the color! That’s so crazy.”

“See the brownish-red circle on it? Like a spot?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s called the Great Red Spot.” I looked up at Nolan, raising an eyebrow. He laughed. “I swear, that’s what they named it. The Great Red Spot. It’s a vortex that’s been swirling for centuries.”

I guess I had named this hillThe Hill, so who was I to judge? I looked back into the scope. “So cool.” After a while, Nolan moved the scope to show me Mars, and again, I was amazed. It wasn’t until he showed Neptune that I was absolutely blown away. Neptune was more of a small blue dot in the sky, but still…it was there. It existed.

“Fun fact, Neptune was the first planet to be discovered through mathematical calculations,” Nolan said. “It’s named after the god of seas.”

“I thought the god of seas was Poseidon.”

“Well, yes.” He walked over to the blankets as he spoke, and I followed, both of us lying down and looking up at the sky. “Poseidon is from Greek mythology, while Neptune is from Roman mythology and thought to be the god of fresh water. But since he’s the Roman equivalent to the god of seas, people identify them as the same.”

And then the story came. He went into detail about how the planets got Roman names of the gods. How the early astronomers were Roman, that they wrote in Latin, and Latin was the language of the Roman Empire.

I smiled, my eyes roaming over Nolan’s relaxed features as he looked up at the sky, talking away. We were talking about history, my worst subject, but it was so much more. He was opening up to me, showing me his passion, and I felt it. This little string tugging in my heart and, suddenly, history was the most interesting subject.

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