My face went hot at the realization that they had probably seen Nathan coming and going from my room a couple of times now and had made their own—fairly correct—assumptions that something was going on between the two of us. No doubt I was the subject of gossip downstairs. I thought of my last encounter with Nathan and grinned. If I had my way, I’d make sure to really give them something to talk about.

I realized that I was still standing in the hallway with a box and a huge bouquet of flowers, so I quickly ducked back into my room to examine my surprise gifts in peace. I didn’t have a vase, but I figured an ice bucket would do for the roses, though it hardly did them justice. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had sent me flowers. I had been lucky if Nick had saved me a cookie when we shared a box in front of the TV during our date nights.

There was no card with the flowers, so I figured the box was going to hold all the answers. Boxes usually did. They also usually held presents. I liked presents. I was human, after all. It was packed with orange tissue paper, and I had to dig to find anything, but once I did, I discovered the box held an envelope and a jersey. A Longhorns jersey with Nathan’s number on the back.

I opened the card.

Sophie,

Please come to the game tomorrow. Here’s a ticket so you can watch the game in my box with my family. They’re nice folk and I’m sure they’ll tell you plenty of embarrassing stories that they’ll be happy to share ‘on the record.’ I’ll be looking out for you during the game and hopefully afterwards as well.

Nathan

Chapter Twenty-Six

I tugged on my jersey nervously. The stadium was packed and overflowing with orange Longhorn memorabilia. Everyone was cheering and the game hadn’t even started yet. The excitement seemed to buzz all around me.

Down near the field, in the seats designated for players’ family and friends, I saw a row of dark hair that I could only assume belonged to Nathan’s family. Like everyone else, they were dressed in Longhorns colors. His sisters had ribbons in their hair, and they all wore matching jerseys, like mine, that had Nathan’s name and number across the back. Sitting behind them, to my relief, was Mandy, wearing Chris’ number, talking to who I could only assume was Nathan’s father.

For a moment, I thought about turning around and going up to the press box where Tim was. Or back to the hotel. Or back to Houston. What was I doing? I didn’t belong here in Nathan’s special section with his family, wearing his jersey. This was crazy. This was moving too fast.

But before I could turn around, Mandy spotted me.

“Sophie!” she cried out and every member of the Ryder family swiveled their head to find me. I gave a nervous wave and began my way down towards the field, my stomach twisting in knots. The closer I got, the more out of place I felt. Yes, we were all wearing the same shirt, but all of Nathan’s sisters looked far more put together than I ever had in my life. Their jeans were expensive, as was their jewelry. I was pretty sure his mom had just come from the hairdresser. Even his dad looked well-to-do, wearing a fancy watch on his wrist. They all stood when I approached the aisle and I saw, with horror, that they had saved me the spot in the very middle of all of them. Oh great, being surrounded by such majestic creatures was going to do wonders for my self-esteem.

“We were wondering when you’d get here.” Nathan’s mother was the first to greet me and gave me a big hug. Her perfume smelled lovely. And expensive.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Ryder,” I said. “Mr. Ryder.”

“Oh please.” She let out a twinkly little laugh. She looked like she could have been one of Nathan’s sisters, her hair still chestnut brown and her face barely lined. “You can call me Sara.”

“And call me Matt,” Nathan’s dad said, looking like an older, more distinguished version of his son, with some gray in his hair and a few wrinkles around his eyes.

“This is Robin, Maureen, and Brandi,” Sara introduced Nathan’s sisters. From what Nathan had told me, he was the baby by about four years. Robin was the eldest, a doctor, then came Maureen, the lawyer, and then Brandi, the big-time editor, who had flown in from New York to be there. All of them had the Ryder green eyes and dark hair, though they shared their mother’s petite build, while Nathan had inherited his dad’s broad shoulders and height.

“Nathan’s told us a lot about you,” Brandi said, patting the seat next her. I sat down, feeling nervous as hell as all five Ryders stared at me.

“Glad you came,” Mandy said from behind me, reaching over the seat to give me a hug.

I hugged her back, so glad that she was there.

“So, Sophie, Nathan says you’re a journalist,” Sara inquired politely.

“Uh, yeah,” I responded, feeling like the most boring, average person in the world next to this beautiful, accomplished family. I thought of Tim up in the press box, wondering if he had thought it strange that I wasn’t sitting with him. Of course I couldn’t tell him I was sitting with Nathan’s family, so I had said something about Mandy getting us seats, and he had said something about us being lesbians together and laughed, and I had just rolled my eyes because he really was the absolute worst.

“Sophie is doing an article on the animal shelter,” Mandy piped up, saving me from myself and my apparent inability to communicate like a normal human being when confronted with the glory that was the Ryder family in their entirety. They were just so beautiful and perfect. I felt terribly out of place, like the random kid next door who always happened to show up for dinner and no one had the heart to tell her to leave. That was me. I was that weird, random kid invading the perfect Ryder family. But they didn’t seem to mind. In fact, I felt totally welcomed. “I’m going to photograph Nathan and the guys there the day after tomorrow.”

“That’s wonderful,” Sara said, her smile showing a row of perfect white teeth, and I felt really weird for admiring Nathan’s mom’s teeth. What was wrong with me? I was an adult—I could speak for myself, couldn’t I? “That will get the shelter some much-needed publicity.”

“Someone should make calendars,” Brandi said. “I’m sure that would make a ton of money and get them lots of attention.”

“That’s a really good idea,” Robin piped in. “I bet all the women in my office would pay good money for a copy of that.”

“Call it something like Bats and Cats,” Brandi added with a smile. “People would go nuts for it.”

But Nathan’s third sister, Maureen frowned. “I don’t know, guys. Y’all know how Nathan feels about being the center of attention.”

“He’d do it for the shelter,” I said quietly.

Suddenly all eyes were on me. There was silence for a moment and I felt like sinking down until I was underneath my stadium seat and maybe even into the concrete floor or the dirt beneath it. Please stop staring at me, I thought.

But Nathan’s mom smiled. “I think you’re right.”

“He’s a sucker when it comes to that kind of thing,” Brandi said. “Such a soft touch.”

A very soft touch, I thought, thinking of how he had touched me and how I couldn’t wait for him to touch me again. Soon. Suddenly I was very warm and ducked my head, trying to hide my blush.

“It appears that you know my son pretty well,” Nathan’s dad told me.

“We’ve only just met,” I was quick to point out, but he shook his head.

“It’s easy to see why he likes you.”

Luckily, I didn’t have to respond because the crowd let out a tremendous cheer as Nathan and the rest of the Longhorns came out onto the field.

Even after watching him and his team practice for the past few days, nothing prepared me for the heart-racing experience of watching Nathan play. If I hadn’t fallen for him before, watching the intensity he brought to the pitching mound would have surely done it. I found myself surging to my feet more than once, cheering along with his family as he struck out batters one after another. And when it was his turn up at bat, I found myself clutching the seat, white-knuckled with anxiety.