Chapter Thirty-Seven

 

Aiden

OFF SEASON IS all about getting healthy. This year it’s also about solidifying my relationship with Jordan. I’m the luckiest man alive. We haven’t set a date for the wedding. Part of me wants to escape to Vegas and get the deed over. Jordan wants a large wedding and I completely understand. At the end of next season, Jordan and I will tie the knot in front of our families and friends.

I press one more set of weights before glancing across the gym and watching Jordan as she pushes leg weights up and down. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail and she has her workout game face on.

Sweat drips down her neck and my groin tightens. I sat through the negotiations with my agent and the Scorpions decision-makers and wondered what the hell I was doing there. Yes, the Scorpions were a dream come true but so were the Pronghorns. I told my agent that night that the deal was off and he needed to get the best deal possible from the Pronghorns. He wasn’t happy but in the long run I have final say. The next day, I shopped for a ring.

Jordan glances my way and holds my gaze until she finishes her set. She winks and then leaves the gym. The wink was all I needed to follow. I catch just the edge of Jordan’s shirt when I round the corner and watch her enter the locker room. Curiously, I follow her inside. She isn’t in the main room, so I head to the back, where her dressing room is located. I knock and the door slides open.

Jordan pulls her shirt over her head and tosses it on the floor. She slides out of her skimpy shorts and licks her lips. “You’re overdressed, big guy.”

“That’s easy to fix,” I say as I begin tearing off my clothes. When naked, I pull her against my slick, sweaty body. “Now who’s overdressed?” I say and help her pull her sports bra over her head. I lift her up and press her against the wall. Sinking into her wet heat is just like it was the first time.

Home is where the heart is. Jordan is home and there is no one on earth who can love me like this girl.

********

 

Dear Reader,

More than anything thank you for reading my work and especially this book. Like a Girl is a collaboration with my husband. He didn’t do the writing but I read large chunks to him and he offered his insights. Kickers in the NFL are having a rough time with new rules and yardage changes. So what if and why not a girl? Will it ever happen? It will! Girls have played high school and college football as kickers. Playing football was one of my dreams and it ended the same way as Jordan’s. I broke my arm in fifth grade playing football with the boys (I played QB) and after that I became too old to play with them according to their parents. Envisioning the fallout for a girl being picked up by a NFL team was a lot of fun. Guys can be so… well… like guys. I pulled no attitude punches but I actually think it would be far more explosive than what I wrote.

 

While writing this book, I researched until my eyes hurt and learned about a kicker’s place in the game of football. I loved every minute of it. I spent hours on YouTube watching kicks, practices, proper techniques and so on. In the NFL kickers and long snappers are the bottom of the rung. "Kickers are people, too, but they're not football players," Brian Billick said Sunday morning in 2015. Well Brian you’re an ass and kickers I love you for the football players you are.

 

I want to thank my friend Laura Randazzo for allowing me to use her name, Laura, in the book and I ask that she forgive me for the Pronghorns beating the Steelers. We really needed that win and I know while you were reading you couldn’t help but cheer on the Steelers. I’ll wave an extra Terrible Towel next season to make up for their loss.

 

I wrote in the back of Play that I married Killian MacGregor and I’m still happily married. I’d like to add that my husband married Jordan Givens and he’s still happily married too.

 

Here are a few facts about the book and where I adlibbed.

 

Fact: The story about Aaron Rogers and Jordy Nelson is true. Neither were picked by A-1 colleges and Aaron played community college ball first.

 

Fact: There are 32 teams in the NFL. I added the expansion teams to suit my purposes.

 

Fact: The NFL has changed the rules for double day practices but for this book, I kept the old rules.

 

Fact: Shaylee is my granddaughter’s name and if there is any little girl alive who will play in the NFL it’s her.

 

Fact: Detroit Lions -v- Carolina Panthers, the kicker came up with ball after a fumbled kickoff reception. I watched the video a million times (slight exaggeration) and it was a powerful moment for kickers.

 

Fact: Why not a girl?

 

Fact: Like a Girl: Season Two is a very real possibility and then there’s Lane. Wouldn’t you like to see him get his own book and revisit Aiden and Jordan?

 

As always,

Peace, love, and hope,

Holly