I Hate Football Players 3 | 18+

Chapter 134: Logan

Internally, I felt like one of those lottery machines where the balls bounced around chaotically, but I parked my truck, exhaled sharply, and pointed out the front windshield. "Let's go see the sunset."

"Best part of the beach, despite sand in every crack," she muttered before I slammed my door shut, then bit back a laugh at how she climbed out of my truck like she jumped off a low cliff.

My heart hammered a faster beat as my trembling fingers rolled the small, velvet box inside my pants' pocket. The familiar mix of saline, brine, and whatever the smell of crisp, California ocean air was hit me in a breeze just two steps towards the beach.

Thankful that Ellie's hands clasped my forearm instead of my for sure sweaty palm, we clomped clumsy, uncoordinated steps over the sand. The slow and tedious movements did nothing against the flurry of nervous activity inside my body. My organs rearranged themselves internally, as my heart dropped into my stomach and my stomach definitely flipped around and was still somewhere else, out my ass for all I knew. My brain clicked like I felt my actual neurons fired, if that were even physically possible.

My thoughts drifted backwards, to the bittersweet moment when I first confessed to Ellie that I loved her. After a horrible embarrassing moment where another girl staged kissing me at my Homecoming Dance, Ellie's compassion, understanding, and just different way she'd always seen certain situations made that night one of the best of my life, trumped only by the second time I told her those three words again two years later.

An early evening sunset started at the horizon, which gave the water a blueish-green tint against pink and purple streaks painted across the sky. By the way Ellie gazed forward at the reddish-orange sun, I assumed she thought that's why we were here. A strong breeze lifted up a few loose strands of her dark hair and blew them into her cheeks and I couldn't hold back my focused look while she brushed them aside.

My feet decided enough wobbled steps were enough and stopped so abruptly that I tugged Ellie's arm backwards. Confusion lines etched all over her beautiful face as she turned back but, right then, I captured a mental image I knew stayed with me forever. With the sunset backdrop, the soft crashes of the waves, Ellie's long, straight hair flowed behind her like a dark curtain, and curiosity mixed with the same warmth that pooled behind her dark brown eyes whenever she looked up at me.

Just as beautiful as the first time I saw her.

No... even more.

Every cell in my body, every muscle, bone, organ, and even strands of my hair froze still when my free hand reached into my pocket and lifted the box into her line of vision. I released her hand, cracked open that box, and rammed it right up in front of Ellie's face.

Understandably, the gravity of the moment, which was completely unplanned in Ellie's mind, hit her like a mack truck. Her mouth dropped open, pushed out a loud gasp, her eyes stretched wide, and she stuttered, "Wuh-wuh-what?"

"We're not here for dinner, baby," I assured her with an abnormally loud laugh and lifted up the box's lid so she saw what was inside. "Just this."

"It's..." Ellie's eyes, now shiny with tears, stared down at the ring box. "G-green?"

"It'sanagate," I rushed out in one breath. A flicker of confusion flashed over her eyes as they lifted to mine, so I swallowed hard against the sandstorm that had taken up residence inside my mouth, and slowly clarified, "It's a moss green agate, that's why there's dark green swirls in it... surrounded by diamonds. I thought -"

Ellie's lower lip trembled and her eyes glossed over like mirrors but she stood completely still, with no readable emotion on her face except the pink that flushed over her entire face. An inner 'oh shit' sensation washed over me at the unconventional choice for her ring's center stone, which looked like a lighter green with dark green ink dipped and swirled in it.