I was careful not to drink too much now. That was another vow I made when I left home for college and signed to play for the Wildcats. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a college guy, and I can chug with the best of them. But I try not to let it get stupid, and usually Noles is there to keep me in line or tell me when it’s time to go home.

I wasn’t going to be my brother; I wouldn’t be the ass**le. Being the ass**le was the easy way out. And I was fine with things not being easy. Jason was quickly becoming a business big shot with our father’s company. He was good at business, sales and working a room full of important people into doing exactly what he wanted. People always wanted Jason to like them, even as adults. It stunned me that they couldn’t see through his bullshit, but I guess, deep down, most of us want to be liked by the in crowd, even if the guy at the head of the table was a massive dick.

Now that Nolan and I were juniors, it was harder to sync our schedules. Nolan’s schedule was pretty full. She was taking 21 hours to make sure she could graduate in four years with her specialty. And I was seriously considering entering the draft after this season. Our Rose Bowl win, and number four finish last year, put me in a pretty good position to be a top pick, and we were already ranked pretty high heading into this season. I didn’t want to lose my chance to do this for a living. I loved the game, almost as much as I loved Nolan. But that’s what made it all so damned hard. I knew I could end up on the other end of the country, and the thought of spending a year away from her tore up my insides.

We talked about it a few times, but Nolan always shut down. She was a planner, and when I brought up the possibility of her transferring, or doing her student teaching somewhere else, she just nodded and said she’d think about it. But it was the kind of nod that I knew meant she really wouldn’t, and was instead hoping the possibility would just go away.

I didn’t have to make my decision yet. But come December, I needed to have a pretty good idea of where I was headed. I had four months to work on her, but the whole thing was just making my stomach sick. And the f**king ring in my pocket was just making my stress shoot through the roof.

I wasn’t going to ask her today. I probably wouldn’t ask her this year. But I knew I’d ask her, and I just wanted to be ready. I had most of the day off and stopped by the house to talk to dad on my way up to see Nolan. He loved her like a daughter already, and when I brought up the idea of one day making her a permanent part of the family, he hugged me so hard that my feet left the ground. I didn’t expect him to give me Grandma’s ring; I just wanted his help picking something out. So when he disappeared upstairs, and came back down with the antique box, I knew I was making the right decision.

I shoved the stress back down in my body and reminded myself to stay in control the second I saw my girl round the corner of her building—just like she did every Thursday afternoon. She was looking for me, her heavy bag slumping down her shoulder and her hair knotted up on top of her head. Damn she was beautiful. And I was so lucky.

“Hey, gorgeous,” I smiled at her, kicking off the wall I was sitting on and reaching for her bag to throw it over my shoulder so I could take her hand. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed me, reaching inside my arm to hug me tightly. I’d never get tired of this.

“Hey, I’m so happy to see you. I’ve had the crappiest day,” she sounded exhausted.

“Let me guess, you just found out you have to take a test for a class you’ve never been to,” I was teasing her. She’d had this dream several times. I heard it was a common dream, though I’d never had it. She smacked my chest with her palm when I started in on her. I caught her arm and wrapped her up in mine, kissing her for real this time.

“I’m kidding. Tell me about it,” I followed her into her building and to the elevator. A few of the freshmen walking by us stopped and stared, one of the guys questioning who I was. We got this a lot. Both because it was strange for me to be at a rival campus, and because I was starting to get a bit of a celebrity following—at least, as far as the college sports world was concerned.

Noles had taken a job as a hall monitor this year when her best friend Sienna decided to move in with her boyfriend, Micah. She had to be available to students most nights, which made it even harder for us to find times to see each other, but it meant her room and board were covered, so it was a trade-off we both were willing to work around.

When we got to her door, she unlocked it and immediately walked to her bed flopping straight forward on her face, slowly sliding it sideways to look at me through her tired eyes.