Chapter 179

Noah

There wasn’t a single doubt left in me.

Not one.

I had spent my whole life chasing something—chasing greatness, chasing success, chasing the kind of future people wrote headlines about. And I’d tasted it now. The roar of the stadium. The cameras. The praise. The kind of admiration that used to feel like oxygen.

I had just won the biggest game of my life. I had scouts waiting to talk to me, schools celebrating me, and a future laid out like a golden road straight ahead.

And none of it compared to the way it felt to be in his arms.

Lying against Aiden’s chest, my skin still warm from being touched and held and seen, I realized I had never actually known happiness before. Not real happiness. I’d known adrenaline, ambition, excitement, pressure. The hunger of always wanting more.

But this—his arms around me, his breath steady against the back of my neck, his heartbeat keeping time with mine—this was the first thing in my life that had ever felt like home.

For the first time, I could picture a life.

Not a performance.

Not a career plan.

Not a legacy someone else expected me to build.

A life.

Waking up with him. Eating breakfast with him. Arguing about stupid shit like laundry and grocery lists. Coming home after work—even if that work wasn’t football—and knowing I belonged with him.

I would scrub dishes in the back of a diner if it meant I got to come home to him.

I would work construction. Drive delivery trucks. Stock shelves overnight.

We could live in some tiny apartment in a city where no one knew our names and start over as nobodies.

I didn’t care.

I just wanted him.

I wanted us.

But wanting something didn’t make the world move out of the way.

That truth settled slowly as we lay there catching our breath. The high began to fade, just enough for reason to return—not to ruin anything, but to sharpen it. To make it real.

Because love wasn’t just a feeling.

It was a choice.

And now we had to make ours.

Aiden shifted beside me, brushing his fingers through my hair with a tenderness that made my chest tighten. When my eyes met his, I could already see it there—the same realization settling in him, too.

This wasn’t just desire.

This was the place where our future started. Where we were brave enough to fight for one.

I sat up, pulling the sheet around my waist, my pulse still pounding but for a different reason now when Aiden told me we needed to talk. Aiden mirrored me, quiet, watching me like he already knew what I was feeling.

His eyes softened like he’d been waiting for me to say it but hadn’t wanted to force anything.

“We can’t just throw ourselves into this blind again,” he said. “Not after everything we’ve already lost. I don’t want to make decisions for you anymore. I want us to make them together. No more secrets. No more guessing. No more hurting each other by trying to protect each other.”

I nodded, even though a part of me wanted to curl back into his chest and pretend the world outside didn’t exist.

“What do we do, then?” I asked, voice small in a way I hated.

He reached out and pulled me closer by the back of the neck, his touch grounding. “First, we get you out from under William. Because you deserve to pick your own future. Your team. Your contract. Your life. Not one he chooses for you.”

I swallowed hard. Because that was everything I wanted. And everything that was impossible.

“William didn’t just watch that video; he instantly forwarded it to himself, Aiden,” I said quietly. “He can drop it any time. And if he does—”

“I know,” Aiden finished, jaw tightening. “Your career goes up in flames. Your reputation. Everything.”

I turned toward him fully. I needed him to see me.

“Aiden… I don’t care.”

His breath caught. I wasn’t sure if it was anger or grief or love, but it was something fierce.

“Noah—”

“No. Listen.” My voice cracked. “I mean it. I don’t care if I never play again. I don’t care if I never see a stadium again. I don’t care about the draft or the scouts or the future they want for me. I want you. I want us. I can be something else. I can do something else. As long as I get to come home to you—”

He kissed me before I could finish, not hard, not frantic—gentle. And somehow that hurt more.

When he pulled back, his forehead rested on mine.

“Baby… your mother and sister need you.”

That was the one thing that could break me.

My throat closed. I nodded because there was no denying it.

“If we both lose everything at the same time,” he continued softly, “we can’t get them out. We can’t protect them. We can’t help them. That has to come first.”

I hated how right he was.

The silence that followed was slow and heavy, settling over us like a weight we both felt—but neither of us tried to shake off.

Aiden exhaled, his hand sliding down to hold mine.

“There is one way,” he said. “But it’s not what either of us wants.”

I already knew.

I just didn’t want to say it.

“I keep the contract,” I murmured.

He nodded. His eyes were tired, pained, but steady. “You stay under William’s management long enough to get your signing bonus. Enough to pull your mom and Emily out safely. Enough to make sure they never have to rely on him again.”

“And the wedding?” The word made my chest ache.

His thumb brushed my knuckles. “We don’t let it get that far. Once your family is out, and the money is secured, we break the contract legally. Before you ever walk down that aisle.”

It made sense. It was calculated. It was painful. It was survival.

“And us?” I asked, barely breathing.

Aiden’s answer came instantly.

“We stay together.”

His voice didn’t shake.

Not even once.

“We see each other on weekend escapades or during our practices out of town. At night. In the showers, bathroom stalls… I don’t care. Whenever we can. Carefully. Quietly. Until we can do it in the open. I don’t care how long it takes. I don’t care who gets angry. I don’t care who tries to stop us. I’m not losing you again.”

Something inside me cracked open—and let the light in.

I leaned forward, pressing my lips to his, slowly this time. A vow, not a hunger.

“Okay,” I whispered against his mouth. “We’ll do it your way. Our way. Together.”

His fingers tightened around mine.

And, just like that, we had a plan I could live for.