Page 189 of Broken Ties (Rixon High 4)

“Oh, sweetheart, call me Felicity.”

“Sure thing, Mrs. F.”

“Do not call my wife that,” Coach gritted out.

“Sorry, Jase.”

Poppy shot me a warning look, but Mom and Dad only snickered.

“It’s Coach or Mr. Ford to you, son.”

“You know, Jase, one day you might be saying that for real.”

“Seriously, Ash, I love you like a brother, but if you want to come into my house and eat my food then you’re going to need to stop with all the father-in-law jokes. They’re seniors in high school. They’ve been dating for less than a week. I do not need to hear that shit.”

“I’m just saying—”

“Ash!” The adults all groaned, and Poppy gave me a coy smile.

“Let’s eat. That’ll shut him up,” Mom suggested.

“Actually, before we eat, I have some news.” Coach pulled something out of his back pocket and thrust it toward me.

“What is this?” I stared at it.

“Open it.”

I did, running my eyes over the letterhead. “West Chester…” My heart spiked. “You spoke to their coach?”

“What is going on?” Poppy peered over my shoulder, her hand sliding around my arm.

“I asked Coach to make some calls.” My gaze slid to hers, confusion swimming in her green eyes.

“W-what?”

“You don’t seriously think I’m going to leave you next summer?”

“But what about your dream…”

I dipped my head to her ear and whispered, “I have a new dream.”

“But you didn’t say anything.” Poppy pulled back to look me in the eye.

“Because we didn’t know if we could pull it off,” Coach said. “But lucky for Aaron, I pulled a few strings. You’re looking at the newest preferred walk-on for the West Chester Golden Rams, assuming he’s eligible for their academic program.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Yes. Say yes, Poppy Star.”

She gazed up at me with love and lust shining in her eyes and I hoped she never stopped looking at me like that.

Like I was the single most important person in her life.

“Yes.” She smiled, and I scooped her up, swinging her around and kissing her.

I couldn’t help it. All week, I’d been keeping it from her, in case Coach couldn’t work his magic. But he had. He’d come through for me and it told me all I needed to know about his true feelings on the matter of me dating his daughter.

Not that the word dating did justice to how I felt about Poppy. But I didn’t think he needed to be reminded every second that I was madly, truly, deeply in love with her.

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