Playing The Field

Chapter 6

Travis Kelce

My heart was thumping so loud I could hear it over the roar of the stadium. I love home games, they have always been my favourite. The endless support from fans, the stadium that we love and so much more. They were always amazing.

But standing in that tunnel, waiting to run out in front of thousands of fans and Taylor, I knew this game would be better than amazing. After many more rounds of uno that night we had made several deals. I won the deal that she would come to tonight's after party with me and she won the deal that I have to her signature archer sign when I run out.

Mahomes thunders out in front of me. The crowd roars on our quarterback. I'm next. I shake out my nerves. I wasn't nervous about the game, I know we will beat them. I'm nervous about Taylor. This is her first time watching me play as her... whatever we are. I'm nervous about how people will react to her being here and if she's safe.

She's sitting in my box with my Mama, and I had to bribe my Mama into promising she won't tell any embarrassing stories about me.

The announcer in the stadium calls out my name and I sprint out of the tunnel. I turn around quickly, trying to find my box. When I see her everything around me blurs. She's smiling so wide that I can see it from down here. She and my Mama are clapping and banging on the glass. Taylor's iconic red lip captures my attention and I remember kissing her the last time we saw each other.

I aim my bow at Taylor in the box, she smiles even wider seeing that I'm carrying out our deal. I shoot the arrow at her then clutching my chest when I turn around and continue running onto the pitch. My God, I am whipped for this woman.

A couple of nights ago, Taylor called me. She was rambling on about how we can't be prepared for what the press will say, they will probably say horrible stuff about both of us and that... there was a lot. I read an article one time about her ex-boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. According to the article, and I know I should never trust gossip magazines, he couldn't handle her level of fame. I hated the idea that he couldn't fight for her, couldn't even mention her or talk about her according to the article. I could tell that this had become an insecurity for her now: her fame. I hated hearing the sadness in her voice when she called me that night, hearing the almost robotic way of speaking as if she has had to make this phone call many times to prepare anyone in her life for what could happen. So, the rest of the night we were joking about what they would say about us. The funniest one in my opinion that we came up with was "Travis Kelce: needs a boost in his career, his midlife crisis has come early" but Taylor says the best one we came up with was "Are Taylor and Travis having a baby: read into more on page 62 about the sudden hard launch of their relationship and why a baby is on the way."

I laugh next to Mahomes thinking back to that phone call. I liked the way that I could cheer her up.

"What are you laughing at?" Mahomes asks. I point up at my box, smiling from ear to ear when Taylor looks at me. Mahomes turns around quickly and his eyes land straight on Taylor just like the rest of the stadium has. He brings up his twinkles his fingers in a wave. Mahome's wave sets off a train reaction of everyone player, coach, manager and even Phyiso turning around and seeing the global superstar, Taylor Swift, sitting in my box. That right. My box, sitting next to my Mama and looking at me. I didn't think my smile could get any bigger but it did. Butterflies fly around in my stomach as I look at her. The 70,000 other people in the stadium just disappeared and it was just me and her, looking at each other.

The game starts and everything passes in a blur. Fans cheer and scream for us. We're up by a lot (and I mean a lot). Coach takes me off so I don't accidentally injure myself before we verse the Jets next week. I go to stand behind him.

"Sir, can I go up?" I ask twiddling my fingers through my gloves.

"Up where Kelce?" he responds, eyes still locked on his clipboard.

"To Taylor?" I tower over him, yet I feel ridiculously small asking him if I can go up and see her.

Coach's head slowly turns to look at me "Are you joking, Kelce?" He asks. I shake my head, lips pressed together "You're in the middle of a game and you want to go up and see your girl? No way, wait 'til after the game" his eyes are glued back to his clipboard before I can respond. My ears cling to the fact that he called her my girl. Damn straight my girl.

As I'm walking back to the bench I grab the collar of my jersey, feeling disappointed about not being able to go up and see Taylor, talk to her, hug her or even kiss her. I look up at the box and she's looking at me. It's been so long since we've seen each other, 2 weeks to be exact. I know that doesn't sound like a long time but, Jesus, it's been hell not being able to see her, talk to her and touch her.

I was smiling like an idiot for a while looking up at her. The end of the game can't come soon enough.