Fourth Down (29 page)

Poppy chewed on her bottom lip. “Are
you going to be happy with that? That’s what you’ve been doing
here, and you’ve hated it.”

“That’s because I felt like I was
stuck here. Right now I’m here because I want to be. I want to be
wherever you are.”

She still looked like she wasn’t
buying it. But I had all the time in the world to convince her that
I was serious. What I didn’t have any more time for was sitting
here not touching every inch of her.

Poppy in cutoff shorts and my jersey
was one of the hottest things I’d ever seen, and I needed to get
her to stop talking and start touching.

“Babe?”

She stopped chewing her lip and looked
up at me. “Yeah?”

“I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.
We can work all the other shit out later. But right now, you need
to get over here so we can make up for lost time.”

With only a half second of hesitation,
Poppy launched herself at me, nearly knocking me over backwards.
Her hands were in my hair, and my hands were on her ass. Slow and
sweet would have to come later. Right now I needed to be inside
her. If her roving hands were any indication, she needed the same
thing.

When I stood up, she immediately
wrapped her legs around my waist without ever breaking contact with
my mouth. Her tongue plunged into my mouth, and I wondered how I
had lasted four months without this.

Trying to walk backwards down the
hallway without looking where I was going was a difficult feat.
More than once I bumped into a doorway, causing Poppy to giggle
before resuming her total possession of my mouth. When we finally
reached the bedroom I sat down on the bed with Poppy straddling my
lap.

Without breaking connection with my
mouth, she stood up and shimmied off her shorts and underwear. As
much as I loved her in my jersey, I needed her naked. It had been
way too long. Ripping her shirt off over her head, I tossed it
aside and moved on to work on her bra. Poppy tugged my shirt off
and fumbled with the button on my jeans. When she couldn't get it
right away, she huffed in frustration.

"Need some help?" I murmured against
her mouth.

She made the sexiest little growl and
shoved me backwards so I was laying flat on the bed. With her
attention focused on getting my clothes off, I was naked in a
matter of seconds. I patted the bed next to us in search of my
jeans and a condom.

Between kisses on my neck, Poppy said,
"I went on the pill, so we don't need it...unless there's another
reason..."

I grasped her face in my hands and
forced her to look at me. "There's no other reason, Poppy. I
haven't been with anyone else since you."

Relief flashed through her eyes and
she resumed her exploration of my body.

"Babe? I love what you're doing, but I
need to be inside you. Right. Now." I gripped her hips and guided
her down on me. Sweet Jesus. She was even tighter than I
remembered. I moved my thumb to stroke over her. This wasn't going
to last long and I needed her with me.

It seemed our separation did the same
thing to her that it did to me. It was matter of mere minutes
before her body quaked around me, causing me to lose it as well.
When she collapsed down on my chest, I smoothed her hair out of her
face.

"Sorry that was so quick. We're going
to have to do that a lot, so I can build up my tolerance for
you."

She giggled, her warm breath washing
across my skin. "I don't have anywhere to be for the next three
days."

Later that evening as we sat on my
bed, eating pizza and drinking beer, Poppy voiced the concerns I
knew she still had.

"Are you sure, Ford? That this is what
you want?"

Looking at Poppy, sitting cross-legged
in only her underwear and one of my shirts, her cheeks flushed and
her hair tangled from rolling across my mattress all afternoon, I
was sure.

"I've never been more sure of anything
in my life."

"But don't you want more out of life
than just bartending?"

I shrugged. "I'll be able to do some
coaching. Once you become a doctor, you can just support us and
I'll stay at home with the kids."

She smiled. "Kids? Plural?"

"Hell yes. Who else am I going to
teach to play football."

She might have doubts that I knew what
I was doing, but I didn’t. I may have spent endless hours
regretting my decision to keep running that fateful night three
years ago. But now, I was thanking God I made that decision.
Because it brought me here. To Poppy.

*****

"What the hell, dude? You can't move
furniture with a baby strapped to your chest," I said to Grady as
he sauntered up the driveway. His daughter, Brie, was about two
months old and was currently snuggled against Grady's chest in some
sort of contraption with straps and buckles.

"I'll supervise," he replied. "It
looks like you and Josh have it covered."

Lindsay walked past with an armful of
Poppy's clothes on hangers. "Don't bother, Ford. He won't give her
up. The second he walks in the door after work, he steals her right
out of my arms."

Grady walked down the driveway with
his wife. "It's not fair you get her all to yourself all day long
while I'm at work."

Rolling my eyes I turned away and went
back up the stairs. Fortunately Poppy's apartment was so small she
didn't have a lot of furniture. What she had could easily fit in
with my stuff in my apartment. Our apartment.

It took two months, but I finally
convinced her to move in with me. We never spent a night apart
anyway. It seemed like she was always waiting for me to say I was
leaving town again. So, I played on her practical side and
convinced her that it would save time and money if we lived
together. Her only hesitation came from her doubts in my staying
power, but I knew with time she would believe I was serious about
her. About us.

When the last of her boxes were loaded
in the rented U-Haul, I gave the keys to Josh and said I'd meet him
over at my place. Poppy was standing by the garage talking to
Brooke when I walked over.

"You ready to go?" I asked, winding my
arm around her waist and placing a kiss on the top of her
head.

"Yeah, I'm just saying goodbye to
Brooke." Both girls had tears in their eyes as they hugged. Good
Lord. She was only moving one street away.

"When does the new tenant move in?"
Poppy asked.

Brooke swiped her hand across her
cheek. "Next weekend. My grandma said he's the new principal at the
elementary school. Yawn. There's no way he'll be as much fun as
you."

One more hug later I finally herded
Poppy into my truck. Putting my hand on the back of her headrest, I
said, "You ready for this?"

She smiled at me, and for the first
time since I returned to town, there was not a trace of doubt in
her eyes. Only hope and love.

Leaning over to press her lips to
mine, she whispered, "I'm ready."

Epilogue

Poppy

Having graduated from medical school
four months ago, I had officially earned the title of Doctor,
although my training was far from over. Next year I would begin my
residency in Oncology, but right now I was doing my intern rotation
in the ER.

The ER was practically deserted, like
it always was on a Saturday afternoon during a home game. I never
understood the level of devotion fans have for their football teams
until I moved to Columbus, Ohio. To say Buckeye fans were loyal was
an understatement. The hospital understood that the traffic
surrounding campus on game day was what kept people avoiding the
Ohio State University ER. But I think people just put off coming in
until the game was over. Some of the rabid fans I’d seen would
rather die at home watching the game than miss a second of play to
come into the hospital. So, when the call came in that a player was
injured and on his way in, almost the entire ER staff was on alert.
We already knew the injury was bad, because the TV in the doc box
was set to the game. With nothing else going on we all had been
watching the game.

Upon seeing the quarterback's injury
on TV, I immediately went over to the staff doctor in charge of the
ER and said, "I want on this case."

Knowing my ties to the team, Dr.
Robbins glanced up from the online medical record he was working on
and nodded curtly. "Fine. Call up to Radiology and have them prep
for a CT. It looks like we're going to need one."

From what we could see on the replays,
the player took a hard hit to his shoulder. It looked like he might
have lost consciousness briefly when his head hit the ground so
hard his helmet flew off. Hence the probable need for a CT
scan.

I was still on the phone when the
sliding doors opened and the medics wheeled in Owen Roberts on the
stretcher. Dr. Robbins spoke to the medics while I finished the
call to Radiology. I came over to them and took the stethoscope
from around my neck. Pressing it to Owen's chest, I listened to the
breath sounds on both sides of his chest. Over the stretcher, my
eyes met Ford's. Concern flashed in his eyes, and I knew this had
to be bringing back some seriously bad memories for him.

Owen moaned in pain and winced when he
attempted to move. Ford held him in place with one hand on Owen's
good shoulder.

"Coach," Owen groaned. "What
happened?"

I expected Ford to describe the
injuries he had sustained, but instead Ford said, "You made it,
Roberts. Anderson caught your pass in the end zone. You got the
score. And a penalty for roughing the passer."

Owen made a sound that could have been
a laugh and nodded his head. "Good."

The next few minutes were spent
assessing Owen's condition. He was coherent though he did show
signs of a minor concussion. A CT scan would confirm there was
nothing more serious going on with his head. His shoulder, though,
was another story. Some pain meds pumping through his IV had Owen
comfortable and sleeping.

I called Ortho to schedule a consult
and then went to sit by Ford in the waiting area of the
ER.

"He's asleep, and Ortho will be down
soon to take a look at his scans and do their exam."

Ford still looked worried, but his
eyes held none of the sadness I thought I might find there. It had
been a long time since I had worried about him sliding back into
the moody intense guy I met five years ago. Apparently I didn't
need to worry at all anymore. If any situation would take him back,
it would be this one. Seeing one of his players, his quarterback at
that, seriously injured had to have him remembering his own injury
on the field.

When I chose to move to Ohio and
attend medical school at Ohio State, Ford came with me. We rented a
tiny one bedroom apartment over the bar where Ford found a job
bartending. For the first year here I was constantly on edge that
he would realize he hated following me around so I could chase my
dreams while he left his behind. It was all in my own head. Never
once did he seem unhappy or like he wanted to be anywhere else than
where I was.

It wasn't far into the school year
that the head coach of the Buckeyes football team caught wind that
Ford was in town. The Coach was familiar with Ford during his
playing days and offered him a job on the spot. That next spring
Ford served his last drink and traded his bar shirt for a scarlet
and gray polo shirt.

The same week he started coaching, he
put a ring on my finger. A big beautiful diamond that spent most of
its time at home in my jewelry box. My platinum wedding band was
the only jewelry I wore when I was working. Getting blood and other
bodily fluids on my engagement ring was out of the question for
me.

We didn't waste any time flying out to
Vegas to get married, and my family and our friends met us out
there for a long weekend. At the end of our lease on our apartment,
we bought a larger two bedroom condo in downtown Columbus. It was
still close to campus, but it got us out of living over a bar and
next door to crazy college kids. With Ford's salary we could afford
it. Not to mention the fact that I no longer had to pay tuition
since I was the spouse of an employee. Ford always jokes that I
only married him so I could go to school for free.

I linked my fingers with his. "He'll
be okay," I said.

Ford nodded. "I know. I'm glad you're
on today, but doesn't your shift end soon?"

I glanced at my watch. "Yeah, my
eighteen hours are almost up. But I'm going to stay on until we
have results for Owen." I knew most of the team, and Owen, being
the quarterback and Ford's main responsibility, had been at our
place many times for dinner. I cared just as much about him as Ford
did.

“If we have a son, I really hope he
doesn’t want to play football,” I murmured. “Maybe golf - less
chance of injury.”

Ford chuckled and shook his head. We
wouldn’t be having kids anytime soon. At least not until I was done
with my residency. But we both wanted them eventually, and I knew
it was a lost cause to talk Ford out of football if we had a boy.
So, we would just have to have girls.