Lily /// N. Bridges

14

Noah's POV

We get on the bus after getting coffee and drive the rest of the way. Lily lays her head in my lap and I run my hand across her back, falling asleep after a few minutes. I drink my coffee and see DR wiggling his eyebrows out of the corner of my eye.

"What," I ask him.

"You need to marry her," he whispers.

"I might propose when we're in Charleston."

"Dude, seriously," Philly asks.

"I'm thinking about it. I mean, Zachary's been pushing me to propose since he met her," I laugh, adjusting my hat.

"Has he," Ryan asks.

"Yeah. I brought her over for dinner in college and he dragged me to the backyard, saying I had to marry Lily," I explain.

"Dude, that's wild," Dalton says.

"Yeah. He's been nagging me about it for our entire relationship."

"Dude, you gotta do it," DR says.

"When we get back to Savannah, DR, you're coming with me to pick out a ring," I point to him.

He cheers and the guys laugh. A few hours later, we stopped for food and I stayed on the bus with Lily.

"Hey, tell someone I'm staying on the bus so Lily can sleep. Can you get us some stuff," I ask DR.

"You got it, man."

Thirty minutes later, the guys come back and DR hands me a bag of stuff.

"I didn't know what she would like, so I guessed," he tells me.

"It's fine. She eats pretty much anything but crawfish," I reply.

"Crawfish," Tanner asks.

"She thinks they're creepy and she won't eat 'em," I clarify.

Lily rubs her eyes and sits up.

"Hey, you were asleep for quite a bit," I tell her.

"I smelled food," she replies.

"DR got us some stuff while I stayed on the bus so you could sleep."

She nods and sits on my lap, laying her head on my shoulder.

"If you're still tired go back to sleep," I say, kissing her head.

"I'll be fine," she answers, pulling a Bang from her backpack.

I pull one of the sandwiches from the bag and hand it to her. She eats and pulls her blanket from her bag, wrapping it around her. I put my arms around her and she falls back asleep.

"Does she normally sleep this much on trips," Donny asks.

"No, which is a little concerning. I mean, she's always had trouble sleeping at night and she has medication for it. But I'm not sure if she packed it," I say.

"She's usually so peppy. I haven't noticed her peppiness lately," Jackson mentions.

"I think going back home was a little rough on her," I explain.

"What do you mean," DR asks.

"The other night, she mentioned that she was hesitant about coming with us to North Carolina for the games there."

"Why," Kyle asks.

"She grew up in Durham and after she graduated college, her relationship with her parents went south. She ended up spending most of her time between her brother's place and mine and Zachary's place."

"She's been through some things, huh," Philly says.

"Yeah, but she's always been positive about things," I tell them.

Lily shifts but stays asleep. We arrive in Sugar Land a few hours later and Lily's still asleep. We get off the bus and DR and Ryan grab mine and Lily's luggage so I can carry her into the hotel. 

"Noah, if you wanna stay here and make sure she's alright, you can," Viro tells me.

"Thanks, Coach."

We head up to our room and I set Lily on one of the beds. DR and Ryan put our luggage near the window, and Ryan headed to his room. DR got ready for practice and I sat on the bed next to Lily. He leaves and I scroll on TikTok for a bit. Around seven, DR texted that some of the guys were going out to dinner. I replied, saying that Lily was still sleeping and that I was gonna order food for us.