Chapter 5

Chapter5

Shane

“That was a good day,” I say as West and I get into bed well after midnight that night. The presents are stacked against one wall, and I have no clue how we’re going to fit them all in Uncle James’ car.

“There’s just one more thing that I have for you,” West says, getting up and walking over to his dresser. He reaches into the bottom drawer and pulls out a long box wrapped like a bomb went off near it.

“A little heavy on the tape,” I say, grinning as he hands me the present.

West sits down on the edge of the bed beside me. “Nobody ever said I was good at wrapping presents. In fact, if you ever want anything to be wrapped nicely, don’t ask me.”

“Noted,” I say, giving the box a gentle shake. I don’t hear anything moving around inside. My curiosity is getting the better of me as I stare down at the box. “What did you get me?”

“Open it,” West says. “You’ll find out.”

I smile as I start pulling the paper away from the white box underneath. West grins as I lift the top off the box and look down at the red tissue paper.

“Whatever this is, you shouldn’t have. You already got me enough.”

After criticizing my poor coffee setup in my dorm, he bought me a better machine and somehow managed to get it to his parents’ house without me finding out. When I unwrapped it this morning, I thanked him before telling him that he spent too much money on me.

“You needed the coffee machine,” West says, grinning. “I don’t want to be drinking bad coffee when I wake up in the morning.”

“We barely even stay at my dorm,” I say with a roll of my eyes. “You’re the one with a private dorm. You should have bought one for yourself.”

“I did. Now stop arguing with me about spoiling you and open your present.”

I’m tempted to retort with a smartass comment, but I do as he says, carefully opening the tissue paper. A jersey with Tennessee University’s colors, burgundy and gold, on it is nestled in the box.

“This is nice,” I say, smiling and running my hand over the material. “Thank you.”

West chuckles and shakes his head. “That was the most unenthusiastic reaction I’ve ever seen but I appreciate the effort.”

“I’m not much of a jersey kind of guy,” I say, my cheeks warming as I look up at him. “You know this.”

“I know. Take the jersey out of the box though. Read the back.”

I do as he says, lifting the jersey out, unfolding it, and looking at the back. Perkins is scrawled across the shoulders and West’s number is below it. I spread the jersey across my lap and look up at him.

“You got me your own jersey?” I ask, chuckling and shaking my head. “Are you sure this isn’t something you wanted for yourself?”

Moving closer to me, West takes my hand in his. “You really are dense sometimes.”

“I don’t football.”

He laughs and shakes his head, squeezing my hand. “Well, when I can play again, you’re going to need that. All the partners of the players wear their jerseys at games. It’s good luck.”

I pause for a minute, a lump rising in my throat as I look at him. After forcing the lump down, I smile and run my hands over his name and number.

“Is this you asking me to go steady?” I ask, my tone teasing as I set the jersey to the side. “What’s next? Do I get to wear your class ring?”

West moves to straddle my lap. “Slow down there, Shane. You’re getting way ahead of yourself. I don’t know if we’re serious enough for the class ring.”

I laugh and wrap my arms around his waist, tilting my head up to kiss him. “I love the jersey. Thank you.”

West grins and kisses me again, deepening it until we’re falling back into bed and losing ourselves in each other.

* * *

“It’shard to believe we’re going back to school soon,” I say as West and I roll the body for our snowman. “I’m not sure I want to go. Your home is beautiful.”

“You know,” West says as he looks at me, “we’ve already paid dorm fees for the year, but what do you think about looking for an apartment close to school over the summer?”

I pause for a moment, looking over at him and trying to see if he is kidding. He smiles and continues to roll the body, building it up until it’s nearly as tall as his waist.

“Shane? Get out of your own head,” West says. “Yes or no. First answer that comes to mind.”

“Yes.”

West grins and kisses me, the palms of his hands cupping my face. I melt into him, kissing him back. When he pulls away slightly, his cheeks are flushed and his smile stretches across his face.

We get back to work on the snowman, working on the next section of the body before we start on the head. When it’s done, the snowman stands as tall as West and all of the snow from the tennis courts is gone.

“I still can’t believe you have tennis courts,” I say, shaking my head as we stick a carrot into the snowman before using chocolate cookies for the buttons and eyes.

“Wait until you see the estate in the summer,” West says, grinning as he picks up some loose snow and packs it into a ball.

“Don’t you dare,” I say as he gets ready to throw the snowball.

“Why not?” West asks, his tone playful as he tosses the ball up in the air before catching it. “It’s just a little snow.”

“Then throw it at yourself.”

His small smirk is the only warning I get before the snowball smashes into my shoulder. I laugh and brush the snow off before bending down to make my own ball. West is already busy preparing more, laughing as he lobs another at me.

“Damn it,” I say before throwing my snowball at him and hitting him in the chest. “That shit is cold.”

“We can go for a hot shower later,” West says before another snowball comes flying at me. “Right now, I want to play in the snow.”