And as the great Dominic DiMarco charmed not only her father, but her entire family, Anna was able to step out of the spotlight for a little while. Only her mother continued to watch her with such deep concern that it broke her daughter’s heart all over again.
* * *
During her breaks at school the previous week, when everything had been going so well with Cole, Anna had studied up on football. For her second-ever game, she was no longer in the dark, and couldn’t help but be wrapped up in the action, especially with Cole out there.
And the truth was, knowing him so well lent an extra layer to the game. When he sacked the quarterback, she knew it was his testosterone coming into play. When he crushed a running back in the hole, she had to smile at his complete and utter confidence.
It had been a little over twenty-four hours since the article about them had hit. Twenty-four hours of being angry and feeling hurt and betrayed. And yet, she was here.
With the ring he’d put on her finger a week ago in Las Vegas still glittering on her left hand.
The field blurred before her eyes as she looked out on it and accepted the truth.
He’d hurt her feelings deeply and she didn’t like him very much right now...but she still loved him. She would always love him.
He’d deserved to be punished by her for what he’d done—she valued herself enough to know that—but not being with him was punishing her, too.
A small half-smile curved her lips at the thought of taking him back—and finding other, far more pleasurable ways to make him pay. But then, gasps sounded in the room and half the people came out of their seats to press against the glass.
Anna looked around at everyone. “What happened?”
Her mother’s face had gone completely white. “It’s Cole. He was hit.”
Anna jumped out of her seat and looked out the window, but she couldn’t see Cole, only a dozen people making a circle around someone on the field.
Anna spun away, pushing blindly through the crowd in the VIP box for the door. She needed to be with him, needed to see for herself that he was okay.
“Anna.” She realized there was a hand on her arm stopping her from running down the hall. Dominic turned her in the opposite direction. “The field is this way.”
With that, he took off down the hallway, and she was so glad he wasn’t waiting for her to catch up. As an ex-pro player, he was naturally fast, but love gave her strength and speed she shouldn’t have possessed. By the time they got to the tunnel, she was running past Dominic, past all of the guards.
Heading straight for Cole, she didn’t see the crowd on their feet, didn’t notice the eerie silence. All she could see was her husband lying on the grass.
All she could feel was love.
Not anger. Not bitterness.
Only love.
She’d thought coming to his game was being brave. But as she pushed through the crowd of coaches and trainers, she finally realized what real bravery was.
It was loving someone so much that she would take his pain as her own.
And it was forgiving the little mistakes, the bad decisions, the sometimes hurtful words, because she knew that none of that really mattered when it came right down to it.
Her husband had told her she was brave, time and time again. She hadn’t believed him, hadn’t thought he was seeing the real her—when all along he’d known her better than anyone.
“Be brave for me, sweetheart,” was what he’d said to her last night before she’d sent him home .
She hadn’t been able to do it then.
But she would be brave for him now.
* * *
Jesus, his head hurt.
And he was tired. So damn tired. Cole wanted to stay asleep, knew that fading back to black would be a blessed relief from the pain shooting through him, head to toe.
But something stopped him from drifting away.
A soft hand in his, slender but strong fingers gripping his.
Anna.
No. She couldn’t really be there, had no reason at all to be at his game. But the hand in his wasn’t letting go. And he knew that touch. Would never, ever be able to forget her sweetly sinful caresses.
He had to open his eyes and even though it felt like he was trying to break through cement across his eyelids, he worked like hell to get the seal broken so that he could see his Anna.
Sweet Anna.
His reward was the most beautiful girl in the world smiling down at him. She wasn’t crying. She didn’t look scared.
She looked brave.
For him.
She was brave enough to declare her feelings for him in front of the entire stadium and the millions of people watching the game on TV.
He’d taken her love for granted once. He wouldn’t ever do it again.
“I love you, Cole.”
The words he hadn’t heard her say since Saturday morning, words he’d been so desperate for, were like a shot of morphine, instantly taking away the pain.
“Ma’am, we need you to move away.”
But instead of leaving him, she moved closer. She leaned down, the tips of her hair brushing against his face, her breath sweet on his earlobe.
“And I trust you.”
Cole had been hit enough times over the years to know when to try to get up on his own and when to let the medics carry him off the field. But he hadn’t had Anna at his side any of those times.
He hadn’t had her trust, her love, to make him strong.
And now, there was something he needed to do, a reason he needed to get up that had nothing to do with playing football.
Pain came screaming back as he rolled to his side. Arms, hands tried to get him to lie flat, but when he growled at them to leave him the fuck alone, they backed off.
Only Anna remained, her hands giving him the strength he needed to roll to his knees.
Stars blinked in his vision and nausea roiled in his stomach as he pulled himself upright, still on his knees. Anna was right there with him, breathing with him. Apart from his grandmother, he’d never had anyone to lean on.
Until Anna.
She was the strong one, the woman who would be strong enough to give birth to their children, the woman who would be strong enough to forgive him for acting stupid sometimes, the woman who was strong enough to face down an entire stadium of people who probably thought she was crazy for still loving him.
And he would learn from her strength every single day.
She stood in front of him, both of his hands held firmly, lovingly, in hers, and he knew she’d wait patiently for as long as it took him to get to his feet.
But that wasn’t where he was trying to go. Instead, he shifted again so that one of his knees was still on the ground, but his other foot was holding the rest of his weight.
Her eyes went wide as she realized what he was about to do. And then the woman who had been a ray of light for him from the first moment he’d met her threw her head back and laughed.
“Only you would stage something like this, Cole,” she said when she looked back at him, even though they both knew he hadn’t staged anything until now.
He knew what she was doing, knew that she was giving him back his strength, cell by cell, starting with his heart.
He looked up, saw the screens all around the stadium were holding tight on him and Anna, the crowd of medics and trainers and coaches moving away from them. Eighty thousand people held their collective breath.
“I love you, Anna.” Each word cost him sweat as pain blistered through his ribs. “I’ve loved you from the first second I saw you. My sweet girl with the halo.”
One tear fell down her cheek, and then another on the opposite side.