I Hate Football Players 3 | 18+

Chapter 134: Logan

A/N: Mature content (been a few chapters, I get it). ❤️❤️❤️

I bought Ellie's engagement ring three months ago, during Christmas break our senior year at UW but waited to propose to her when the moment felt right. I hadn't wanted the experience crammed in between our midterms or finals and originally planned that I waited until after the NFL draft because of the uncertainty in my future.

Halfway through our senior year, Ellie's future was set. U-Dub's Nutrition Department at UW encouraged her to apply for their graduate program and she easily got in for a Master's degree. While her location for the next year was definitely still here in Seattle, mine was still completely up in the air. I hoped for the best with the NFL draft but at the least, the Biotransport department assured me that I qualified for their graduate program after I'd expressed an interest in teaching high school science.

I knew from the very first sight of Ellie, the way she'd literally stolen the breath from my lungs, that she was different. Even in high school, she taught me to throw aside my selfishness, my arrogant, fake persona, and loved me for the real guy that no one else took the time or effort to really know.

At one point in time, I doubted we had the chance to be together again, but never lost hope for another chance. The fact I'd found, and lost, someone who affected me more than anyone else, who made me love her with every thought in my brain and action from my body, and who broke up with me like some self-preservation move of my feelings were the only shreds I'd clung to some of the days I was at UCD.

In hindsight, Ellie had made the right decision though. She needed time to be on her own and I needed my priorities set straight.

After Ellie and I reconnected at UW, despite two years apart, we fit back together like two missing puzzle pieces. Our reunion wasn't an easy, seamless process but after we came out the other end of a dark tunnel, I'd never felt so close, so connected, and so complete.

Just one piece missing. The forever part.

Fuck, I'm nervous. What if she doesn't like it?

Ellie's custom ring earned me more than one set of raised eyebrows at the jewelry store when I went there during Christmas break. I'd taken a gamble on her ring design and while it wasn't extravagant, it was definitely unique.

Under the false story I told Ellie that I went home for one of Brody's last baseball spring training games, I dragged both him and Mom with me to the jewelry store once I arrived here. Their reactions, where Mom sobbed uncontrollably and choked the life out of me while Brody just gave me a silent thumbs up, were less than helpful in the reassurance department.

Thankfully, Ellie also agreed to my proposed idea that we spent a weekend in California, under the false idea that we spent time with our Moms before we finished college. After all our flights during the season, we actually drove down and back. She agreed and, after an overnight drive because I was wired with nerves, I accomplished literally nothing other than walked around Mom's condo like a zombie whose hands shook uncontrollably. Before Mom asked Ellie herself, I called her and asked if I could take her to dinner.

Impatience won out against careful long-term planning and once I took Ellie back to a familiar location, one that meant more to our past but now I connected it to our future, I knew the moment was right.

As soon as I find where my stomach went.

"Davenport?" Ellie's eyebrows lifted at the sight of the cliffed beach location ahead of us. "We're eating here?"

"We never did christen in my truck," I teased her, grabbed a blanket off the back seat, and shut off the engine.

"I did wear a skirt..." By the soft smile and slight head shake Ellie offered me, she had no idea the nerves that rattled against my stoic exterior. If Ellie looked close enough, she probably saw the goosebumps that raised the hairs on my forearms but she thankfully shifted her eyes to the beach view.