Round four. Are you ready for some football?
Red is my favorite color--I kid. Another huge round of thanks is in order to Estragon for looking over this chapter. Going two full pages without any edits, is cause for champagne! In all seriousness, you have been helping tremendously and I am very thankful.
Enough jabbering.
As always, comments/feedback/suggestions are always welcomed.
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The alarm intruded on his sleep on a Sunday morning in November. Barely moving, Gabe reached over to turn it off and attempted to stretch but was having a hard time with the body curled up next to his side. Tilting his head on the pillow, he peered down to see a slumbering Samantha, who had her cheek resting against his chest. It was five in the morning and Gabe had to get ready for the game at Pendicon Field later in the day. He rubbed a free hand over his eyes and was hesitant to get out of bed. Feeling his movement, Samantha scrunched her nose and moved her head against his chest, her eyes blinking open before turning up to his face.
With a sleepy smile and a gravelly voice, she whispered to him, "Good morning."
Gabe sighed, this was his favorite part of the day. Every day that started with her waking up with him in bed. Which lately, had not been often enough. "It's early, you don't have to get up yet."
A yawn broke past her lips. As she nodded-through her fatigue, her mouth opened, releasing the yawn without her thinking of it.
"Will you wake me before you go?"
"Of course." Gabe melted at the sight of her but knew he needed to get out of bed before his body started to stir. Quickly shifting, he slid out and covered her with the sheets. Standing at the base of the bed, he watched as she turned into the spot he just vacated, curling her body into the sheets. Running a hand through his rumpled hair that stood out in tufts on one side, he made his way to the kitchen. The early morning routine always had to start with freshly brewed coffee.
Gabe and Samantha had gotten into the habit of being together before or after many of his evening meetings; spending a full night had become something of a luxury. From her early morning starts to his all night strategy sessions he liked to think that they were surviving the season better than expected. He also liked to believe something that Ernie had been saying for weeks, he was loosening up. As a coach the guys were opening up to him on and off of the field; on game days he wasn't the typical bastard he had normally been labeled. Jokes started to pass from him, he patted the players on their backs as they completed successful passes and he even started to smile when points got up on the boards. Gabe knew he was becoming a better man because of the woman who was currently sleeping in his bed.
By six o'clock he walked over to the bed and sat down next to Samantha. The sheet was pulled up high to her shoulders and her dark hair spilled out all over the pillow. Somewhere in the night the sheets had been pulled from the bed and one of her feet was extended. Gabe ran a finger lightly up her leg until she disappeared back into the sheets. He leaned next to her and pushed the strands of hair away from her face. Falling out of her sleep, Samantha stretched out in the bed and looked up at Gabe who was smiling down at her.
"I look like a mess."
He leaned down and kissed her soft lips, she reached with a hand and held it against the side of his face. "You look beautiful to me."
Smiling at him, she nodded toward the door of the bedroom. "I have some gummy worms in my bag for you. I think you forgot about them when we went to the store last night."
Gabe nodded; he had forgotten about the candy and warmed inside knowing she had been thinking about him, even before coming over for the night. "Thank you, I'll grab them on my way out."
Samantha smiled sweetly at him as she nodded back.
"It's going to be a cold one out there. I think they said in the single digits. Did you and Camille decide on where you two are sitting?"
"Oh god, I completely forgot to ask her yesterday." Sitting up, she pulled the sheets up to her chest. "I think she wants to sit outside, so I figured I'd stop at home first to grab a coat and see if she can pick me up there."
"Okay." Gabe leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the lips. "I've got to go. I'll see you out on the field."
Samantha nodded and rose up to her knees to kiss him one last time before he turned to leave. As she watched him go, she waited for a minute before climbing slowly out of his bed. Since that night back in September, sometime during the evening and in between sessions of them making love, something had shifted between them. Both Gabe and Samantha had silently found a balance in their relationship. They both understood that there was something building with them, something that they both craved, and they weren't going to give up without fighting for it.
They began spending as much time together as they could, but with her school schedule and his practices or meetings, it wasn't easy. Up until the season had officially kicked off, the Cougars' schedule was wild but manageable. Late night meetings had not begun until the first game in September. Gabe started to bring game film home with him to review there instead of the screening room whenever he could. They took advantage of the month by going out or staying in, getting to know each other better. Samantha and Liz even arranged a double date with Dave and Gabe right before Halloween. On the way to the restaurant, she had been comforted by the fact that Gabe was anxious in meeting her closest friend. She had always looked at him as a man who never failed to be anything but confident, and impressing Liz, who was basically her family in the area, had made the man sweat bullets.
In the months since they'd met, she could no longer think about what her life would be like without him. During their time together he started to fill her every need, while she also became the person he turned to. Gabe challenged her with his intelligence and made her laugh and smile at everything. But more importantly, he made her feel sexy and vibrant, as if she'd only half existed until they'd met. His voice turned her body to liquid and she had to bite her lip and think about other things, trying to avoid naming the feeling of what she knew deep down was brewing.
Samantha was still cautious with game days and had to keep reminding herself that Gabe had a certain way about how things got done. She respected his rigid routines, and even thought that they had come a good way since the first home game. Even so, she was still glad she had someone to sit with during the minutes of playtime and thanked god for Camille. The woman had been questioned to death as their relationship had gone from casual to serious in a record breaking two seconds.
As she grabbed her belongings and began making her way to the front door, she paused near the kitchen. The evening before, Gabe and Samantha had cooked together in the kitchen and she had noticed the addition to the island but had gotten caught up in conversation and Gabe's intoxicating kisses that she forgot to say anything about it. A reflection from the morning light off of a vase caught her attention; Samantha wandered over to the island in the center of the kitchen to see what it was. A giant smile cut across her face as she saw a bundle of hydrangeas on the granite counter top, a handwritten note rest perfectly under the squared glass vase.
Have fun with Camille. Wait for me after the game.
With the pad of her fingers, she touched the petals of the flowers. Fighting back the tightness in her chest and the forming moisture behind her eyes, Samantha gave a deep sigh of pleasure. With the note in hand, she nodded her head and walked to the front door to grab her purse. The first couple of games were definitely tough pills to swallow, but Gabe seemed to be adding her to his pre-game rituals. If the Cougars won, they would go to dinner with the Devlins. Had the team found themselves beaten, she would go home leaving him to his late night power sessions, knowing she would see him for a few minutes before his night really began. Snatching her keys from her purse that lay by the front door, she noticed that the gummy worms that had been packed for him in case of an emergency, or loss of memory, or anything else, were gone.
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"Velesques got the go ahead from Dr. Simmonds. They're giving him a shot of cortisone and then going to tape him up. You want to play him or what?"
"I want to bench him for the first quarter to make sure he's okay, then we can see how it goes from there," Gabe said to Tony Soliano as the men made their way out of the locker room. The two men talked for a few minutes before Tony jetted off in the direction the equipment room. Zipping up the heavy red and grey coat, he stood inside of the tunnel savoring every second of the warmth but knew the minute he was out on the field, the rush of the adrenaline would keep his body heated.
Gabe twisted his neck and tapped the clipboard against his hip, the movement jarring the bag of gummy worms that were being held by the board's clip. A broad grin filled his face remembering Samantha earlier, reminding him to grab them before he left. Over the past couple of months, he had forgotten to buy a bag of the candies before heading out onto the field which seemed out of place from his rigid routine. The first time he forgot the candy, the Cougars had lost by nearly ten points. Ernie had turned to him and shook his head, a knowing expression in his face. Samantha was the only person he had ever told the story about his nephew to apart from his family, and after the first loss she knew his routine was off. That was when she had started to carry an extra bag in her overstuffed purse. Today was not the first time he had reached into her bag for that bag of candy either.
He loved spending as much time with her as he could, but with the season rapidly approaching the playoffs their time together was getting lessened every week. While they still talked on the phone every day, they weren't able to see each other quite as often as either would like.
Disruptive students and conferences with parents had been the major dent in her rather predictable schedule. Gabe laughed when she called him one night and left a voicemail, she sounded stressed out and so cute over an incident involving a couple of her students. He would have given anything to have been there for her but was stuck in a screening room with Tony locking in a few plays to test out on key players. He couldn't imagine her not laughing, and to hear her voice sounding almost vulnerable filled him with emotion. Something he had been trying to keep at bay now popped out at the most inopportune times.
A few of the players started to punch the air and were shouting encouragement to each other, Gabe grinned at them and patted a few of their backs as he made his way on the field. Walking to his customary spot behind the benches, he grabbed a gummy worm and thought about that first game he'd invited Samantha to come to. God, he'd been such an ass to her but he didn't know how to deal with it all. Gabe had wanted her here at the stadium, wanted her to see him doing the work he loved almost more than anything, but having her so close distracted him and broke his concentration. When Samantha and Camille had moved down to the seats near the benches, he didn't have to look up to know she was there. He felt her presence, and forced himself to focus on the game. Later, after the game ended and he was grabbing the footage, he was so caught up in figuring how he could get the film home to wondering if he could spend a few hours coaxing her into his bed, she called. The way he'd left her brought him shame and he told her to leave only because, for the first time in years, he was embarrassed to face someone. Face someone that he had let down. And she wasn't just someone.
As she attended and watched more games, he had started preparing himself to loosen up. Gabe remembered what Camille had said back at her cookout in August. Samantha calmed him, and he needed to use that for when she came to the games.
The players were jumping up and down, getting ready for the anthem to start. Gabe glanced down at his watch and then quickly over to the section where Samantha would be sitting, if she and Camille decided to be outside. The seats were filled, but not with Samantha or Camille. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the gummy worms from the clipboard and shoved a couple of strings into his mouth. Chewing with determination his eyes moved to the field and set as the game was about to begin.
