“Better than when I was at the other end of the cushion?” I asked, but at the same time, I snuggled in, nosing up underneath his chin where a slight sprinkle of whiskers scratched at my forehead. I loved the warm smell of him, and I loved the way he held me so securely against his chest so that I could feel his heart beating.
“Shh,” he told me again, and rested his chin on my head. “Just relax and enjoy.”
He meant that I should enjoy the movie, but I didn’t care about that. I cared about…holy shit, I cared so much about César that I didn’t know what I was going to do.
Chapter 10
“The development league facilities used to be pretty much a slum compared to what they have at Woodsmen Stadium,” I announced. “My brother-in-law was the Junior Woodsmen quarterback, and he said that they didn’t even have hot water in the showers in the winter. They definitely didn’t put their budget into the Junior Woodsmen. But since the real Woodsmen started practicing here this off-season, they’ve really fixed it up.”
“It is a lot nicer here now,” the Woodsmen center’s girlfriend agreed. “I came to a Junior Woodsmen game at this field once and it was so windy, we almost blew off the bleachers. I lasted for less than one quarter.”
It wasn’t going to be like that today. The bleachers around the Junior Woodsmen field were all covered in giant, open-faced tents with heaters and the field itself, which had been a rutted, frozen mess, was now a smooth surface of recently-laid artificial turf. They hadn’t just fixed the hot water in the showers for César and the other Woodsmen who had stuck around to practice with Davis Blake this winter. Everything was better.
But even with the tents and the heaters and with the blankets and layers I was wearing, it was still only March in Michigan, and it was still pretty cold. Sitting on the side of a cluster of Woodsmen wives and girlfriends helped, and so did the fact that pregnancy had made my body run at a higher temperature. I had been the one walking around the house and turning down the heat, which was a first in my lifetime. I had even heard myself tell César to go and put on a coat if he was cold, which was word for word what my old roommate Kaya had growled at me and Morgan every time we had complained about getting frostbite while sitting in our living room.
So the Woodsmen significant others were shivering and there were more than a few complaints, but I actually didn’t care very much about the temperature. I was so excited to be here to watch César play that I was barely able to stay in my seat, the padded one he had bought and then had someone set up on the metal bleacher with my name on it.
It wasn’t a “real” game today—this was just an exhibition between the Woodsmen and their development league team, the Junior Woodsmen. They would have short, seven-minute quarters, and the players weren’t supposed to go at full-strength or play full-contact. In fact, I had a feeling that if one of the Junior Woodsmen touched Davis Blake even a smidge too hard, the Woodsmen players would beat that guy to death, and probably the fans in the bleachers would jump in, too. It had been very tough going last season with Blake hurt and out, and everyone wanted him ready to play next year.
It was definitely going to be a different kind of game today, because in addition to the time and contact restrictions, there was a personnel shortage. Most of the Woodsmen team wasn’t here in Michigan during the off-season, so they were left with the guys on the offense who had stuck around to train with their injured quarterback, and a few of the players who lived in the area full-time. It meant that the Woodsmen side was very short-handed—especially on the defense. César was going to go old-school, iron man football, so he’d play for the whole game. Today he’d be both a tight end on the offense and a defensive end when the ball switched sides, a position he hadn’t played since junior high school in Puerto Rico.
Everyone down at the field was laughing and joking with each other, talking to the new coach and introducing him around, teasing one of the retired Woodsmen, Knox Lynch, who had come back to play for the day. Basically, it felt loose and fun, like a party. That was exactly what I had been suggesting to the Woodsmen CEO, Dan Dorbeek, to a woman in the Department of Community Relations, and to several other people in Woodsmen marketing and branding. We had been emailing back and forth for the last few weeks, ever since I sent my ideas about team events to Dan on our way down to Florida. They had taken several of my suggestions for today, for example, inviting a few of the charities that the team supported to set up booths. Also, the players had done a bunch of pre-game clinics with local high school teams, including the one now coached by Knox Lynch. And those guys definitely looked like they needed the help.
“Ready for the game?” Katie asked me, sitting down at my side. She had been hanging out and talking to some of the Woodsmen cheerleaders, who used to be called the Dames but were now taking suggestions for a new name for their squad, one that sounded less like they had pulled it out of 1940. It looked like Katie was friends with the cheerleaders’ coach, a short, mean-looking guy whom I recognized as someone I’d seen around the stadium many years before.
Now
