Page 147 of Hitting the Goal Line
As soon as she steps on the stairs to cross the stage, the seven of us stand up and the second that she steps on the stage and her name gets called out, it’s pure craziness.
All seven of us yell out in celebration as she gets handed her diploma and walks off. Even as she walks back to her seat, the yelling continues and doesn’t quite down until she is sitting down.
From there, the ceremony finishes off quickly.
And we all rush down to floor level to find our graduate.
It doesn’t take long for me to find her, and within second of her catching my gaze, she is in my arms.
“I’m so damn proud of you,” I say to her, before taking her in my arms and giving her a kiss.
Sophia beams up at me when we pull apart, and she is quickly pulled into her mom’s arms, followed by her dad’s.
As I watch her go from one person to the other, my heart pounds in my chest.
She went to Montana state not knowing what she wanted to do, and when she finally decided and was settled, I asked her to follow me to Chicago. I will be forever grateful that she did. Coming to Chicago without Sophia was never an option, and I’m glad that she went along with the craziness and decided to come with me, because if she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself.
Now two, almost three years later, here we are at her graduation for her nursing degree, as an official couple and I’m hours away from making her my forever.
Because just like I couldn’t come to Chicago without her, I can’t continue living life without her officially being mine in every single aspect of the word.
Like she told me when we were ten, always and always.
“What are we doing here?”Sophia asks as I pull up to the Knights’ arena.
Hockey season is officially over for the Dark Knights, has been for a few weeks now, so coming to the arena is a little out of the norm these days.
“I have a surprise,” I answer her, pulling the car into the players parking.
The security guard on duty tonight waves me right in, which just confused Sophia even more, because usually I have to show my ID or something.
“A surprise?” She asks, shifting in her seat to look at me.
“Yes, a surprise,” I confirm, pulling into the first parking spot I see.
“Is this some sort of secret concert that I don’t know about?” she asks after I got out of the car and circled around to open her door. “Oh my god, is it Taylor Swift?”
I roll my eyes at her as she takes the hand I offer and she gets out of the car.
“Do you really think I have the kind of money to get Taylor Swift and have her play a secret concert just for you?”
I don’t even want to calculate how big my next contract has to be for me to be able to afford that.
“No, but you could have asked your brother or even Grayson Lane. You’re always saying how he would do anything for his players and his family is filthy rich, I’m sure if you’d asked him, he would have made that happen.” She gives me a look like it’s the simplest thing in the world.
“It’s not Taylor Swift,” I say, nailing it down.
“You suck. What kind of boyfriend doesn’t want to surprise his girlfriend with her favorite artist?” she says, a playful smirk forming on her lips.
“The kind that has other surprises,” I say, guiding her out the parking area and into the arena.
“Can you just tell me what the surprise is then?” she asks as we start making out way through the corridor.
I shake my head at my girlfriend. “Nope, you are going to find out the old fashion way.”
Soph lets out a small grunt that just makes me want to snort. The girl is pulling all the stops tonight and I’m loving it.
“Fine,” she says, with a slight whine. I know if I were to turn around right now, she’d have a smile on her face that would tell me how much she was enjoying herself.
