Page 117 of Hitting the Goal Line
I should call him back. I should call everyone back, but I honestly don’t have the energy for it.
The most that I’m able to do is send out a message to my mom, my siblings and to Isaac, letting them know the situation and that Sophia and I are at Hunter’s house. I also tell them I’m turning off my phone to destress.
For the time being, I ignore my team, Grayson, and my dad. I’ll deal with them tomorrow. Though, I rather not deal with Roy Jacobi, since even though I told myself that it might have been time to repair our relationship last summer, that hasn’t been the case, but I’m going to have to do it eventually. I can already hear him calling me a disgrace to his family name for getting arrested.
Shaking my head, I turn off my phone and put it down on a nightstand just as Sophia comes back into the room with some articles of clothing in her hand.
“You can use the bathroom down the hall to freshen up,” I say to her, my mind still very much on the possibility of getting released by the Knights.
Sophia doesn’t move or say anything. She just stands there, looking over at me like she wants to say something.
“Everything okay?” I ask, getting up from where I’m sitting and walking over to her, keeping some distance between us.
Sophia lets out a sigh. “Yeah, I was just wondering if you were going to tell me your reasons. You said you would do it when we got here.”
A small smile forms on my face. “I was. I am. I just figured we needed some time to decompress.”
“I’ve decompressed enough,” she tells me, inching closer to me, the small amount of space I left between us decreasing. “Why did you do it, Blake? Why did you follow me here?”
The moment that I’ve been talking myself out of since I was fifteen is finally standing in front of me, and for the first time, I’m not afraid of it. I’m actually welcoming it with open arms.
It’s now or never.
I close the last bit of distance between us and take her face between my hands so that I can look into her eyes and do something that I should have done at fifteen-years-old when we were at her quinceañera and I was about to hand her locket.
Pour my heart out to her.
“Because I fucking love you, Sophia. I’ve been in love with you for as long as I can remember,” I say to her, finally admitting it. A small gasp leaves her lips, and for a second she looks like she is about to say something, but I continue before she can. “I followed you here, because I wouldn’t have been able to handle something happening to you while you were here and I was in a different state. I wanted to be here for you whether you needed it or not. I would have done the same if you would have gone to Guam or to Russia, because I fucking love you and if my gut tellsme that you need me in whatever way, I’m going to fucking be there for you. Even if nothing is wrong, I would still follow you, because no matter what, I want to be where you are.”
A few tears run down Sophia’s face and instead of wiping them away with my thumb, I lean down and kiss them away, every single one.
“You love me?” she asks, her voice barely a whisper as my lips touch the corner of hers.
I don’t pull away to answer her question. “I’ve always loved you. Even when I was five and I didn’t understand what that word meant.” I move my mouth down a bit and place kisses along her jaw line, before pulling back just enough to look into her eyes. “But I’ve been in love with you for a few years now. I might have been in love with you since I was fifteen, I just never found the courage to tell you. In my mind if I told you and I lost you, that would have hurt me more than me not telling you at all. Because I can’t live a life that you are not a part of. I would have taken seeing you marry another man, than risk losing you. But I’m done holding it in, Soph. I’m done not tell you how l feel about you. Sure, right now isn’t the ideal time, what with the shit that has gone down today, but there never might be a right time to say the words, so right now works as good as any.” I let out a small chuckle, as I rub my thumb along her face as if it were lips back on her, kissing every single inch of her.
Sophia looks up at me, so much wonder in her eyes, the tears still pooling at the corners, and her bottom lip trembling.
“You love me.” She repeats but this time, it’s more of a statement than a question.
“Always and always,” I say, giving her the same words that we started to say when we were ten and have continued to say as the years have gone on.
“Always and always,” she repeats my words, as if she is in trance and still digesting everything I just said to her.
Taking her time to take in what I told her isn’t something that I would blame her for. Today has been like a never-ending day of so many emotional rollercoasters, for everyone involved but specifically her.
I don’t know the whole story yet. I don’t know fully what was going on in that hotel room before I got there. Or what would have happened if I hadn’t gotten there in time or at all. Seeing your best friend and the woman you love, sobbing on the floor and looking up at you like you are her saving grace, then getting arrested because you were protecting her, is traumatic, sure, but not an ounce as traumatic as what she went through, what she had been going through.
Adding me telling her how I feel about her on top of that, is more than a lot and she may not be able to digest everything, not yet.
She may need time with it, and I’m willing to give her all the time that she needs. Sophia Martinez is the one woman I would wait forever for. Always and always.
“Today has been a lot,” I say, running my thumb along her bottom lip, releasing it from the hold that her teeth have on it. “I know we agreed to talk when we got here, but we can just leave it for tomorrow. Go shower and wash the day away so that you can relax.” I press a kiss against her forehead, before dropping my hands and nodding toward the door.
I back away from her, even if I really don’t want to, and give her a smile.
Sophia continues to stand there, not making a move to leave the room with her eyes never leaving me.
Eventually, after a few seconds, she finally breaks the silence.
