RHINO: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (With FREE Bonus Novel OFFSIDE!) (61 page)

Jasper and Dillhunt are playing out of their skins, but the offensive wall is collapsing far too easily and our defensive unit, which has never been our strength, needs to toughen up.

I’m tempted to suggest playing Jasper in both offensive and defensive set ups, but I don’t want to tire him out. He’s already carrying half of the rest of the team as it and we can’t afford to get him injured. Dad gives a beast of a team talk at half time, which is received by a volley of cheers and claps of respect. It’s the first time this season that I’ve seen him genuinely animated and clearly passionate about how important this is for not only the rest of our season, but the rest of the future of this club.

If we lose, these players will be out of a job. Most of them won’t struggle to find teams to take them on, but some will, which is probably why Dillhunt and Jackson see this as their very last chance to shine.

In the third quarter I can already see the effect Dad’s team talk has had on the players. The miners have the ball and make solid progress into our half, but a sack on second down forces them into a last minute play change and a rushed pass on third and thirty sees the ball fly out of bounds two feet over the wide receiver. On fourth they decide to kick, and the ball looks for all the world that it’s going to drop in between the posts before it rattles against the left hand upright and spins out of play.

The crowd erupt and Jasper and Dillhunt and the rest of the offensive unit eagerly take to the field.

What comes next is absolute magic. I’ve seen a lot of football over a lot of years but never anything like this. Play progresses gradually into their half, and we find ourselves, through a couple of petty mistakes and minor errors, a long way away from field goal distance and on our third down. I see a play called and then I watch the players stall for time, huddle in the center and switch to a formation I’ve never seen in my life before. The ball is right next to our technical area on the left hand side of the field, and every single one of our players lines up in  a diagonal line to the right, pointing at the bottom right hand corner of the field.

Dillhunt has Mosley next to him and two yards behind, Jackson is next in the same set-up, Lopez beyond that, Jasper after and everyone else up to Jones who is almost ten yards into our own half. We have no offensive wall and it looks like there is little intention to protect the quarterback at all. I look at Dad, who looks back at me, shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head.

There is silence in the crowd. The Miners don’t know what to do and don’t work it out in time before the ball is snapped. They are set up in a traditional formation that leaves most of their players close to our quarterback thinking that anyone too far out from the focus of play isn't going to be involved in it.

Dillhunt gathers, and then almost immediately releases the ball to Mosley. Mosley is a running back, this looks like a running play, but Mosley doesn’t hold the ball for long, it’s snapped again, this time to the right and this time to Jackson. Already, the Miners look lost.

Dillhunt is sacked, and the official looks like he’s about to blow up for a penalty, but with the whistle to his lips he pauses long enough to let the play continue. Now Jackson runs, and when he does, the whole of the rest of the team run with him like a wave.

I can’t believe what I’m seeing. No one here can. Hardly anyone else has seen this before, and definitely not in this sport. This isn’t how
this
game is played, yet here we are watching it. Watching Moxlin Tigers defy logic.

Jackson is sacked and my heart skips a beat when I see it, but not before he’s released the ball and for a third time it finds its way to another player. This is insane. I can’t catch my breath, get the smile off my face or stop my heartbeat from racing. This is the most audacious play I’ve ever seen. Once I’ve seen the ball being passed twice, but never more than that. Never have I seen it go so sweetly from one side of the field to the other, always just that little bit ahead of the other team so it leaves them half a yard behind.

When the ball gets to Jasper I already know how it’s going to end. He’s quicker than anyone else on this field and it shows. Five yards into his run, which takes him out of the snapping hands of an advancing linebacker, he seems to find another gear entirely. When he ducks inside, changes direction as though spinning on a dime, twists, turns and carves his way through the pack there are only two players between him and the end zone and a flank of our players to the right of him, storming up in support.

Jasper knows he can’t go through them, but he knew that all along. That was never the point of this play anyway. He was never meant to score himself, he was only ever meant to do his part. As he draws the tackle, he fakes a pass to the inside, only for the ball to be played out underneath his arm and into the safe hands of Parker, storming up on the outside of the field.

The Miners are all but beaten as Parker bolts for the corner of the field, crosses the ten yard line, evades a last ditch diving tackle, passes the ball inside to Jones and watches from the floor in awe as Jones leaps spectacularly, a final fuck you at the end of the most audacious play anyone in this sport will have ever seen, to literally fly across five yards and forward roll into the history books.

The ball has been passed from player to player across the whole field, and Miners players are crowding the officials to find out if it’s even legal. Play is reviewed, time outs are called and fans are silent while we all watch the replays and wait for the official reaction.

Jasper’s brought rugby to the NFL and that cocky bastard has done it in style. The touchdown stands, the crowd erupt and the Miners can’t believe what they’ve just seen.

After that, it’s as though they just fall apart. We finish the third quarter with a touchdown lead, and even though the brilliance of that third quarter play is never repeated, we grind out two much more conventional touchdowns in the final quarter and drive home a convincing win for the Tigers which almost certainly - beyond acts of God and the destruction of the earth - gives us an incredible, crucial and massively unexpected playoff place.

“
Now you can get drunk”, are Dad’s words of wisdom to Jasper. “I don’t care. After that, you can get as drunk as you like.”

I’ve never seen him happier. This is the outcome he always thought was impossible, the ticket back to the glory days of his youth.

This stadium has never been as vocal, and the players never prouder. I’m incredibly proud too, not just of Jasper, but of my father for believing in him, the team for welcoming him into the fold, and the supporters for getting behind him as much as they would any other much more conventional player. After a lap to salute the crowd, I make my way to him, both of us finding ourselves in the middle of the field, as though we were long lost lovers reunited after a bloody battle.

Jasper is smiling, his helmet in his hand, his eyes bright and glowing, his walk confident. I don’t kiss him right away, I put my hands on his chest and savor the moment. This isn’t a superbowl win, but it’s as good as. It’s everything I ever want and more. Jasper, my home, my dad watching on proudly. Moxlin Tigers back to their best.

When we kiss it feels like entire universes stop to watch, like time slows to a standstill and like worlds will part to let us through. I feel like I can do absolutely anything, and that Jasper will always be there alongside me too.

When I pull my lips away from his to lick the numbness away, I realize that somehow, during the time we were lost there momentarily within one another, the players have crowded around and are clapping us teasingly.

We’re up on the big screen too, being broadcast across the nation, and as I look up at the screen and back to Jasper, as I let the incredible sensation sink in, I know I’m not only the luckiest girl in the world, I’m also the happiest.

“
I’ve got a new goal.”

“
Oh.”

“
After we win the superbowl.”

“
Go on.”

Jasper places his hand on my belly.

“
I’m going to put a baby inside you.”

A thousand butterflies gum up my tummy.

“
And what if we don’t win?”

“
I’ll do it anyway.”

Arm in arm we walk through the tunnel, Jasper sore but ecstatic, me absolutely buzzing, the crowd behind us a roar and the world ahead only just beginning. A baby, the words hot on my lips.

Now that’s what I call commitment.

Epilogue.

Jasper

I came to America to play football. Not only am I not leaving, I’m not leaving with a heavily pregnant partner. Penny is everything to me, and now that I’ve put my seed inside her - something I never thought I’d be doing anytime soon - we are bound together as a family, and nothing at all will ever be able to separate us.

A lot of stuff has happened. We made it to the playoffs but Dillhunt got injured and even though we battled hard we got frozen out of the game and dumped out in the divisional round.

I don’t feel too bad about it, we fought hard but we just weren’t good enough on the day. The team that beat us - The Bucks - they went on to win it, so it felt good, at least, to have been beaten by the eventual champions.

Penny and Harrison were gutted, rightly so, but upbeat about the season in general, which turned out way better that either of them ever expected. It turned out so well in fact that we attracted outside investment, and not from the type of Chinese conglomerate that wants to raze the stadium to the ground and put shopping malls and cinemas in its place.

This is investment for the team, for the future of Moxlin Tigers and for Penny and Harrison and the rest of the players to re-build what we’ve already begun in earnest.

Needless to say, Corsham expected me back as soon as the season was over. In fact, they still want me back. The calls have become a little less often, but I still hear from Dougie, and Alex gives me shit about ditching the sport I was born to play for something, in his words, that’s nothing but a poor approximation played by actors in tights and make-up.

It’s hard to make them understand without them being involved in it, but it’s the same attitude I had before coming here, so I completely understand it. I miss rugby, but I haven’t stopped playing it entirely and I have every intention to return to the game when I’ve finished everything I want to do here. Moxlin have given me a rolling one year contract which suits me absolutely fine. They bought me out of the contract with Corsham, which Dougie and Alex were unofficially extremely happy with - the money was enough to buy five world class players - but officially, in press conferences and interviews, deeply saddened by what they saw was a huge loss, not only to Corsham Rugby Club but English rugby as a whole.

I’m in talks with both Moxlin Tigers and the English Rugby Board to find out whether my NFL contract precludes me from playing at international level for England, even though I’m no longer playing premier league club rugby anymore, and although the question has never been asked before, it looks likely I’ll be given the go ahead to continue to represent the country of my birth, at the sport I was born to play.

I’m over the moon with how things have turned out here. Penny is three months pregnant and we’re getting married at the end of the summer, on the anniversary of the day we met. We didn’t win the superbowl, but I got the next best thing instead. The night we went out of the playoffs was the night it happened for us. What can I say, I can be very determined when I set my mind on something. Penny couldn’t be happier. If anything, she looks even sexier than she did before now that she’s beginning to show. I guess she was always meant to have our child growing inside her.

Harrison wants the kid to be a football star but we don’t even know if it’s going to be a girl or a boy yet. I’ve told him that if it’s a boy I’m going to get the kid playing rugby first and football only when he’s mastered that. I love the fact he still can’t work out whether I’m joking or not.

Mom’s coming out soon and I’m so excited to introduce her to Penny. She’s gutted I’m not coming home, but she understands completely. All I needed to do was show her a picture of Penny and she was sold. She always told me that as much as I loved it,  sport was never going to last me forever. I needed a partner for that and a family of my own. With Penny by my side, my baby on the way and the world at our feet, I’ve never felt more in agreement with her.

Next stop the superbowl, and after that anything is possible.

Penny

Jasper Stone.

I still can’t believe I’m carrying Jasper Stone’s baby. Sometimes I have to get him to pinch me to make sure I’m not dreaming. You know, on the arm, the upper thigh, that part of my bum right next to my-.

I’m getting distracted again. I think having a baby inside me is making me lust after the father in a way that makes me feel dirty, animalistic and proud as hell to be a woman. Let me tell you this, sex when pregnant is better than I ever expected. It could be the fact that my body’s pretty clean - I’m free of junk food, alcohol and everything else - or it could just be that I’m so in love with this man that each time we fuck, it gets better and better.

We didn’t win the superbowl, which was sad, but it hasn’t changed what has been an incredible season for the Tigers, largely thanks to Jasper and his particular brand of determination and athletic brilliance.