Page 57 of Most Likely to Score
“Had to?”
“As a kid with a lot of energy standing around and watching a parade was not my favorite thing. And Mom loves Irish music. But I don’t mind it so much. As for the music fest, I think I liked it mostly for the food—Irish soda bread called my name—but the music wasn’t bad.”
“I dreamed of dumplings as a kid. They’re big for the Lunar New Year festivities. My parents and Jess’s parents took us to a gathering each year.”
“Was that to honor your backgrounds as adoptees?”
“I think so, but also to create a new tradition for our families.”
“Like a blend of backgrounds?”
“Exactly. They found little ways to bring it into their lives.” A smile crosses her face, and her eyes twinkle. “And I think they liked doing it with other parents in the same situation as them. I mean, it’s not like they could or were even trying to insert themselves into the ‘quote unquote’ Chinese community. But they wanted us to have the chance to be a part of it even we wantedto. To be comfortable with other Asian Americans and not feel like an outsider.”
“Did you? Want to?”
“To some degree, but honestly not to a huge degree. Of course I’m aware I don’t look like my parents. Of course I know too I don’t have the same upbringing as a Chinese kid born to Chinese parents in America. But I liked my parents, and I was happy, so that was enough. It was nice that they wanted to expose me to the culture, though. They gave me dollar bills in little red envelopes during Lunar New Year. Little things, but I liked that a lot.”
I chuckle. “That is a most excellent cultural celebration. Was it for luck?” I gesture in the direction of my shorts, where I keep my four-leaf clover charm. “Like my four-leaf clover.”
“Not really. I think they did it more to honor where I was born. They were grateful to my birth mother, even though they didn’t know her, for giving them the chance to have a family. What about you and your ideas about luck? Where does that come from?”
“It’s all me. It’s all from sports and I’m the most superstitious guy around. I’m going to have to eat a pomelo a day during the season now that you’ve hooked me on them,” I tell her, and she smiles in a way that makes my heart thump harder.
“Were your parents superstitious?”
“Not really. But my dad has his own theory about luck. He’s very much of the mindset that luck means sometimes you lose and sometimes you win. Growing up, he tried to teach me to keep an even head aboutwinning or losing, to remind me that success on the field is about talent and effort, but also luck. The way the ball falls, how a foot lands, how the wind blows.”
“Do you believe that?”
I lean back and rub a hand over my jaw. “I want to. But I also think if I’m not out there busting my ass every second, then I’m not serving my team or my fans or myself. That’s probably why I follow different superstitions about the game. I give a hundred and ten percent on the field—that Icancontrol. But I can’t control the wind, and I can’t control the refs, so I have my little rituals.”
“You do serve the team every day. You give it your all. I love watching you play. I can tell football feeds your soul.”
She’s right on the last count. The game absolutely commands my heart and my head. But I like theotherthing she said, too. I raise an eyebrow. “You like watching me play?”
She nods.
I take a deep, satisfied breath. “That makes me want to make a big circus catch for you. To be on the field and raise my hands in aJso you’ll know when I dive for a ball, I’m doing it for you.” I bring her fingers to my lips and kiss them. “Still can’t believe you didn’t know I wanted you.”
“I didn’t think I was your type.”
I scoop my hands under her waist and tug her on top of me, meeting her gaze. “Jillian, my type is you. If we didn’t work together, I would be doing everything possible to get you to keep seeing me every night.”
“You would?” Her cheeks seem to glow.
“I would.”
“Stay the night?”
“You want to sleep on me again, don’t you?”
“I do.”
After we brush our teeth, since the hotel has extra toothbrushes in each room, and slide under the covers, she whispers something to me that makes me wish this weren’t ending. “I like you so much. I have for so long.”
And I wish I could have her completely.
As dawn rises, she stirs in my arms. I kiss her cheek, run my fingers down her arm, and breathe her in. This is what I will miss most.
