Sugar Rush (Offensive Line #1) (24 page)

“Okay.”

COLT

December 27
th

Leavenworth, WA

We beat the Kansas City Chiefs yesterday; twenty-one to seven. Back in fighting form, I got to play almost the entire game and I’ve never felt better. Never been stronger.

And that last win clinched it for us, winning us the Wild Card slot in the playoffs for the Super Bowl.

It’s always bitter sweet playing against the Chiefs. I grew up loving them. Rooting for them. Playing that game, dismantling them like we did, it felt good but wrong at the same time. Like kicking Santa in the balls and liking it.

I flew out to Kansas early and did Christmas in Galena with my family before the game. I tried to convince Lilly to go with me but she said she didn’t want to intrude on a holiday. Besides, she has the bakery to run with Rona. They don’t get holidays and breaks. I wish she’d hire more help so she didn’t have to live and die by that store, but she loves it and I’m picking my battles. Her taking more time for herself isn’t one of them. Not yet.

Christmas in Kansas was the same as it always is; big and loud, just the way I like it. It felt good to go home to Galena. To a small town after the sprawling crazy of L.A. I like the big city, but I’m a small town boy at heart. I’ll move back to Galena someday when this ride is over. Maybe in ten years, maybe in thirty, but it’s going to happen because sooner or later a country boy always comes home.

My mom asked about Lilly nonstop while I was home, even taking the phone from me on Christmas day to talk to her and tell her to have a happy holiday. She really fell in love with her in the short time they saw each other in Minnesota. My mom said she liked that Lilly is, ‘genuine’. I’m taking that to mean she appreciates the fact that I’m dating a girl who doesn’t have plastic tits or bottle bought hair.

It was good to be home but it’s even better to be back with Lilly. I was gone three days and I missed her for every single one of them. Once I flew back to L.A. I picked her up at her apartment and immediately turned around to head back to the airport. I’m stealing her from Rona and the store for two days and I’m going to make the most of them. We’re getting out town. We’re having a redo on Christmas so we can do it together.

“What is this place again?” she asks, looking out the window of the rental car as we plow up the snowy mountain road.

“The town or the lodge?”

“The town?”

“It’s a Bavarian village. It’s made to look like an old German town. Like a little slice of Europe up in these mountains. They light it up like crazy at Christmas and have this big festival. It goes on through January so I thought it’d be perfect for us since we missed Christmas together.”

Lilly smiles. “It sounds perfect.”

“I’d have taken you to the real Germany if you’d let me.”

“I would not,” she answers simply.

“I figured. I have a present for you, though. And my mom sent me home with presents for you too.”

“She didn’t have to do that. Now I feel bad that I didn’t get her anything.”

“She doesn’t expect anything from you. She knows you’re poor.”

Lilly scowls at me. “Gee. Thanks.”

I smile. “No fighting the truth, Hendricks. If it makes you feel any better I grew up poor. If I didn’t know how to catch a football and take a hit, I’d still be there. I’ll probably be there again someday.”

Her face softens, her scowl fading. “I’ll still love you.”

“Oh yeah?” I chuckle, loving the sound of those words from her voice.

“Yeah,” she confirms. She reaches out to drape her hand over mine where it rests on the gear shift. “We’ll be poor together.”

“I’ll have to let Maria go. Thank God you know how to cook.”

“I hope you know how to hunt.”

“And fish.”

“We’re set for life.”

I turn my hand over, threading my fingers through hers, and bringing the back of her hand to my lips. “Man, I hope so.”

She blushes. I knew she would. She looks beautiful with her cheeks flushed pink, the snow falling white and downy outside her window onto black trees.

The world is black and white but Lilly is vivid color. That’s how it feels to be with her. Like I was living fast and furious for so long until she came along and showed me what it is to slow down. To settle down. To look at the world around me with new interest and new eyes. And the view from where I’m sitting right now? It’s breathtaking.

We get into Leavenworth just as it’s getting dark. It looks like a fairly normal small town when you first roll into the outskirts. Some of the buildings have that Bavarian look to them; neutral colors on the outside with thick brown trim around the edges and cutting across the front. That gingerbread house look that screams Christmas. There are banks and a McDonalds mixed in with the hotels, all of them covered in snow and Christmas lights, but nothing really special. It’s not until you turn down a side street to head back toward the river that you get the real deal. That you step out of America and straight into a small Bavarian mountain village. Every storefront has signs written in both German and English, the words in a scrolling, curling font. Hotels, hat shops, bakeries, bars – all ornately decorated with multicolored lights, thick garland, and banners wishing us a ‘Frohe Weihnachten’.

“Whoa,” Lilly whispers, her eyes wide. “This is beautiful.”

I shake my head as I slide us into a parking spot across from the park. There’s a gazebo on one end of it that’s lit with hundreds of small, white lights that hang like icicles from the snow covered roof. “I didn’t expect it to be this cool.”

“No, me either. How’d you here about this?”

“Lowry. He’s from Washington. He said he used to come to this with his family every Christmas.”

“I can see why.”

We step out onto the street, our shoes crunching loudly on the snow that keeps on falling. It’s in my hair, on my coat, in Lilly’s long eyelashes making her laugh and blink the flakes away. I take her hand to lead her down the sidewalk toward the nearest pub. I’m dreaming of a cold beer and warm schnitzel, but I go slow. I set the pace and we take it easy because I’m photographing this moment in my memory. I’m memorizing the snow and the glow of the lights and the rose in her cheeks. I’m drinking in the sound of her voice as she points out pastries in a bakery window, asking if we can come back to them later. I’m getting drunk off the excitement in her eyes and the love in her smile, and I’m thinking I don’t need that beer after all.

We make our way through the streets doing every touristy thing we can find to do, the cheesier the better. We eat a delicious dinner by a huge brick fireplace. We stop to listen to a Bavarian folk band playing in a bar. We get a caricature of us drawn in an art studio; me in my football jersey, Lilly in an apron and chef’s hat getting ready to throw me a baguette downfield. It makes Lilly laugh but I’m framing it when we get home. It’s going on my bedroom wall. We stop in a bakery where Lilly talks shop with the woman behind the counter for a good twenty minutes before scoring a recipe for something called Schneeballen, a flaky dough ball that’s dusted in powdered sugar to look like a snowball.

When it starts to get late and the stores are closing down we go back to the car. I set the GPS to direct us to the lodge where we’re staying and we make our way out of Leavenworth. Lilly shares a thick chocolate donut with me as I drive, feeding bites to me as she continually asks if I’m keeping my eyes on the road. It’s full dark now, the snow still coming down across the headlights, and her California heart can’t shake the fear of the ice on the road. I go slow for her, promising her we’re safe.

It takes about twenty minutes to find the place, but when we get to the lodge it’s worth the wait. A huge building set on the side of a mountain with a frozen waterfall in front and yellow lights burning bright against the dark night sky, it looks like something out of a brochure for mountain living. The building is gray with matching stone running along the bottom half of the walls. It has that same thick trim to it that the town had, making it look foreign but inviting.

Lilly eyes the three car garage to the right as we pull into the curving driveway. “This isn’t a hotel, is it?”

“No.” I pop the SUV into park. “It’s a lodge. Like I said.”

She looks at me suspiciously. “But not one that other people are staying at.”

“No. It’s just us, so you’re going to have to carry in your own bag. Sorry.”

“Colt.”

“Alright, fine. I’ll carry it.”

“No, that’s not—you know that’s not what I was going to object to.”

I smile. “I know. But it’s already done so let’s go inside, okay? I have a surprise for you.”

“Because everything so far hasn’t been enough,” she chuckles sarcastically.

“Not yet. But we’re getting close.”

***

Late that night we’re sitting on a leather couch by the massive fireplace drinking hot apple cider and watching the snow fall onto the deck outside. A twelve foot Christmas tree stands proudly in the corner, its strands of white lights joining the fire to give off the only light in the room. Orchestral Christmas music plays softly through the hidden speakers all around us. There are two stockings and a heavy strand of garland over the fireplace. A plate of cookies sits on the island in the kitchen with a tall glass of milk waiting patiently next to them.

Everything is just the way I asked for it to be. As though Christmas hasn’t come and gone.

“This is absolutely… I don’t know what this is,” Lilly whispers, her body curled in close to my side. “I’ve never had a Christmas like this.”

“Like what?”

“Like a postcard.”

I chuckle. “Is that good or bad?”

“It’s good. It is so good. Thank you for this.”

I kiss her forehead, the warm scent of cinnamon and apple wafting up from her cup. “You’re welcome.” I glance at the ornate black clock on the mantle. It’s after midnight. It’s officially our Christmas morning. “Do you want your present now?”

“In what world is all of this not my present?”

“My world.” I put my mug down on the coffee table and reach into my pocket for the long, white jewelry box in my pocket. I hand it to Lilly, taking her mug from her hands. “Merry Christmas, Lilly.”

“Oh God,” she laughs nervously. “It looks like a bracelet box. You remember what I told you about jewelry at the bakery, right?”

I grin. “It’s not what you think it is. I’m not trying maim you, I promise. Open it.”

She pulls the satiny black ribbon off the box easily, dropping it into her lap before popping the lid off. Her face freezes when she sees what’s inside.

“What is this?” she asks breathlessly, but she knows what it is.

It’s a key on a chain.

“That’s your key to my apartment,” I tell her seriously. “It’s yours to keep. To come and go whenever you want. There’s a new dresser to go with it. Hangers in the closet. Half the counter and the drawers in the bathroom belong to you now.”

Her eyes are glistening and afraid. Excited. “You want me to move in with you?”

“I want to share everything with you.”

She releases a shaky breath. “Are you sure about this? This is a huge step.”

“I would have asked you to move in the night of that party if I thought there was a shot in hell you’d have said yes.”

Lilly laughs, lifting the key from the box to look at it in the firelight. It’s nothing special, just a standard silver key on a silver chain, but she looks at it like it’s priceless. Like she’s afraid to love it.

“I want to,” she whispers, her eyes finding mine. They’re conflicted, her brow pinching. “I really want to, Colt. I mean, I know I’m there almost every night anyway.”

“But this would be different. This would make it your place as much as mine.”

“No. It wouldn’t. You—“

“It would. I’ll put your name on the deed if that’s what it takes.”

She closes her eyes, shaking her head. “Slow down. Please, slow down.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t leave Rona,” she admits reluctantly, opening her eyes. “She can’t afford our apartment without me and I don’t know where she’d go if I moved out. Her parent’s house? I don’t want to do that to her.”

I lick my lips nervously, my heart constricting. “Is that the only reason you’re hesitating.”

“I’m not hesitating, I’m thinking. You’ve thought this through, or at least I hope you did.”

“I have. A lot.”

“Then you have to give me a second to think it through too.”

I nod my head slowly. “You’re right. Sorry. Take whatever time you need.”

She closes her hand around the key, leaning in to kiss me softly. “I’m not saying no. I want to do it, you have no idea, but it’s scary for me to give up my place with Rona. That’s my home. If something went wrong with us and I had to move out, I don’t know where I’d go. To Michael’s maybe, but I can’t crash with him forever. I can’t go to my parent’s house. Not with my dad and everything that’s going on. My apartment with Rona, it makes me feel safe having it.”