Unseen

Epilogue

Five Years Later

The crowds are screaming, everyone on their feet, watching intently as number forty-seven runs down the field. My palms are sweating and my eyes are starting to burn from staying open for so long, but I'm too nervous to blink in fear of missing something.

The other team tries to stop him, but his team is doing an amazing job keeping the path clear for him. The announcer's voice is getting more and more animated the further he runs. Once he's at the ten yard line, my face breaks out into a grin and I vacate my seat and start working my way through the crowd and down the stands.

"Touchdown!" The roar of the crowd is almost deafening and I join in, bouncing on the balls of my feet, my heart racing as I watch number forty-seven get surrounded by his teammates.

"Irwin!" I look down and see the coach grinning at me. He nods at the security guard manning the gate and waves his hand for me to come over. The guard unlocks the gate and lets me through before securing it again and I jog down the steps, over to the coach who throws his arm around me. "One hell of a player, your man is."

"He really is," I say with a bright smile as I watch the team start making their way over to their bench, carrying Flynn on their shoulders. They lower him to the ground when they get a few yards away and I skip over to my sweaty boyfriend, grinning like a fool. "Hey, number forty-seven, can I have your autograph?" I ask, batting my eyelashes at him. He snorts as he brushes his hair off his forehead, the sweat allowing him to slick it back.

"I can do one better," he says with a smirk, scooping me up and spinning me in a circle. I squeak and giggle happily, holding on for dear life while he laughs.

"I'm so proud of you," I whisper, running my fingers through his sweat soaked hair once he puts me down. His eyes are shining with happiness and love as he presses his lips to mine. The stadium full of people disappears, and for a moment it's just him and I in our own little world.

Since he got drafted into the NFL, our life has gotten a little insane. He declined every offer until he was done with school, mainly so that I could finish too and be with him when he had to travel, but once we graduated, he accepted an offer from the team in LA so we could stay local for the time being.

The last five years have been a bit of a whirlwind. Not only have we both successfully graduated, Flynn in sports medicine and me in creative writing, but I have published three books in total, which involved travelling for book tours and signings. Now that Flynn is playing pro football, my manager has managed to book all promotional tours to align with Flynn's schedule so that we can always travel together, and it's been nothing short of perfect.

I was bringing in enough money by our third year for us to buy a small beach house which we've been living in for two years now, and I never want to sell it. Even if he gets drafted to another team and we have to move, we're going to keep it and either leave it vacant, or rent it out. Everything in our lives is exactly how we hoped it would be, and sometimes it feels too good to be true, but I've learned to push aside those doubts and focus on the now.

The screams and cheers of the crowd finally penetrates my little bubble and I feel my cheeks heat up when I realize how lost in his embrace I was and how passionately he just kissed me, very publicly. Flynn chuckles against my lips and slowly pulls away before turning to his coach. They walk a few paces away and shake hands, chatting quietly while I get caught in a group hug by the rest of the team.

Glancing up at the stands, I see my parents, Maddie, and her boyfriend Joey, standing in the first row. When they see me looking at them, they all smile and wave, but even from this distance, I can see Pop trying not to cry and I frown in confusion. I start walking towards them to ask him what's wrong, but a strong pair of arms wrap around my waist to stop me from going any further.