The Ten-Year Game Plan

Chapter 34- Donovan

She was out with her friends when I returned back to campus after securing another win.

Josie said that she would keep me updated on where they ended up so we could finally see each other. But, since she left her apartment she hadn't texted. Nor called. In fact, I was completely unpacked by the time I received a text message from her.

Fish: So happy ur back!!!! Were dancfing richt now!! At Old Towne! Come join!!!

Due to her excessive exclamation points and misspelled words, I could tell that she may have had a couple drinks. The text made me laugh and Winston nudged my shoulder.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"He's texting his girlfriend," Shawn teased, "can't you tell by the dumbass look on his face."

I made a face at Shawn, flipping him off.

"You guys feel like going out tonight?"

***

My friends were not hard to convince. In fact, they were the ones practically dragging me out the door to go celebrate our away game victory. Shawn liked to refer to it as a successful business trip, and he wasn't wrong.

We were three games away from the bowl games. Three games away from playing toward the championship. South Harmon had never made it past the first round and the team was hoping to make it past that. I, however, wanted to go to the end. To have a championship under my name as I went into the draft.

But, right now? I just wanted to see my girlfriend.

We were greeted by a slew of cheers when we walked into Old Town, a popular college bar that doubled some nights as an impromptu dance club. Slaps on the shoulder and congratulations from all of the people who watched the game. I tried to smile politely at each one, but I was a little more focused on scanning the floor for a short blonde.

"Let's go grab some drinks and then head to the floor!" Shawn suggested, almost shouting so we could hear him over the music.

Winston and I followed him, both of them sidling up to the edge of the bar to order. I leaned against the bar top and pulled out my phone to check my texts.

I was just typing out another text when I felt a hand run along my back, caressing from shoulder to shoulder.

"Can I buy you a drink?" A feminine voice asked. I strained to hear it over the music, but my spine straightened and I moved out of the touch.

"No thanks, I have a girl—" I turned and my response was cut off as I was staring down at a grinning Josie Troutman.

"Well, that figures. The best ones always do."

Whether it was the way she was smiling at me or the fact that she was wearing another god damned mini skirt, I didn't know, but I suddenly found it very hard to breathe. Once my brain finally recognized the green eyes, the blonde curls that had fallen a bit with the heat of the club, and the full pink lips that looked far too inviting for their own good I wrapped my arms around her instantly. Squeezing her to me so tightly that her feet lifted off the ground.

The sound of her laugh in my ear deafened the loud bass of the music. I set her back down on the bar floor and resisted a sigh as I buried my face in the sweet smell of her hair.

"Hey fourteen," she said into my ear, "I missed you."

After high school, there was a three year gap where I didn't see her at all. And now? After only four days I was ready to shrek carry her outside the bar to my apartment.

"You wanna dance?" I nodded to the crowd of people moving to the music as the lights flashed above them. Her brows shot up in surprise.

"You'll dance with me?"