Super Bowl Rings // Rob Gronkowski

s i x

"Hanna heads up!" I heard, and opened my eyes to see a football land 3 feet from where my head lay. I groaned and sat up, pulling my lower half into a cross-legged position and shading my eyes with my hand to find the source of the interruption.

"Rob, I hate to break it to you honey, but you're never going to beat Tom out for the QB1 position," I called across the open field to where my shirtless fiancé was standing sheepishly, along with a few fellow Patriots.

"I love you!" he called back, as I picked up the football and chucked it back over to him. Smiling, I laid back down on the flannel blanket that I had spread out in the end zone of Gillette Stadium. A perk of being employed by the Patriots organization, and being engaged to one of the star players sure didn't hurt the cause - the cause being working on my tan in an empty NFL stadium. Having been so rudely awakened from my nap, I reached over and picked up the book I was reading for my education class. After high school, I had gotten my bachelors in 3 years, and then taken time off when I landed the captain position with NEPC. Now, I had started taking classes part-time and working towards my masters degree in education, because a career as an NFL cheerleader only lasts so long.

I adjusted my LuluLemon running shorts and rolled up my gray racerback tank top a bit more to tan my stomach. Soon, I was engaged in learning about classroom dynamics, pink highlighter in one hand. My haze was only broken by a yell from one of the guys playing catch in the center of the field, "Hey Bennett!"

I instantly looked up, and sure enough, Will Bennett was walking across the opposite end of the field with Coach Belichick and Mr. Kraft. This should be fun. I put a marker in my textbook and slowly stood up from my blanket to walk across and meet up with the growing congregation standing on the Flying Elvis. I watched Will as he greeted one of the players, who he had clearly met before, with some fancy bro handshake. My tan legs carried me into the circle of tall men just as Mr. Kraft was about to introduce the young college player to Rob.

"And this is Rob Gronkowski, but make sure to call him Robert, he absolutely loves it," I interrupted, stepping into the group and attempting to make myself seem a little bigger to be seen among the massive football players.

Will smiled, "Oh trust me, I know all about Mr. Gronkowski, he's a legend. Hey Hanna."

"Hey Will."

Rob fist-bumped Will, and then snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me into him, "Babe, you didn't tell me you've already met the new recruit."

I looked up at him, "Yeah, we met last weekend."

His brow wrinkled a bit, "Interesting."

Will interrupted our little sidebar, "It's an honor to meet you all. Really, I look forward to learning a lot from you guys."

"I'm sure we'll have a lot to teach you," Rob smiled, a bit too forcedly.