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It starts with a question.
“Tell me about football?”
They’re perched on the stools at her kitchen counter the morning after their first date. They’d fallen asleep on the roof and woken up to the sun peeking over the buildings of Manhattan. Taylor is still trying to play it nonchalant, like waking up in his arms hadn’t felt like the most right thing to happen in her life in years. She’s made good on her promise to make him pancakes this morning, and now that there’s a mountain of pancakes, berries, and homemade whipped cream in front of each of them, she wants to know more. She’s pretty sure she’s never going to get enough of learning more about this man.
“Oh, like, more than we’ve talked about?” he asks, popping a bite of pancake smothered in syrup in his mouth.
“No, um,” she pauses, trying to think of how to put this so she doesn’t look completely clueless. The problem is that she is. “I mean, tell me how it works. The rules, stuff like that.”
He raises his eyebrows, looking perplexed. “You really want to know the rules?”
“Yeah, it’s important to you. I want to know about things that are important to you,” she looks down blushing, feeling like she’s giving too much away. She busies herself with adding cream to her coffee before continuing “I know more about what goes into singing the national anthem at a football game than the actual game. I mean, I started watching Hard Knocks but it doesn’t explain the basics. Plus, I have had enough of creepy Aaron Rodgers for a lifetime.”
He barks out a surprised laugh at that and shakes his head. He can’t believe this girl. Setting his fork down, he looks around at the items scattered on her counter.
“We are going to need some props.”
*******
It continues through the rest of August. He finds a better season of Hard Knocks, and they watch it at the same time over Facetime, a point of connection until they can see each other in person again. And then she surprises him with more.
“Hey Sweetie, how was the show?” he inquires.
“God, Trav, so good. The crowd was amazing. The stadium felt like it was shaking they were dancing so much.” she enthuses as she props the phone against the nightstand to pull the towel off her wet hair. He loves seeing her like this. Completely undone and in PJs but with cheeks still pink from the adrenaline of playing before a crowd.
“That’s fucking electric. Big plans for tomorrow before the next one?”
Her eyes light up on the screen. He leans forward, interested to hear what has her so excited.
“Oh yes, such big plans. I’m going to lay in this massive bed,” she says, laying back with a wink, “And…”
“I’m listening.”
“And eat snacks and watch Quarterback,” she finishes with a smirk, knowing she’s got him.
It throws him off before he catches on, “Wait, what?”
“I want to know more about the game. I hear there is a really hot guy in it too.”
“I mean…”
“That Kirk Cousins is so wholesome,” she says smugly.”
He sits back from the phone and gives her a skeptical look. “You’re rude.”
“You like it.”
“I do,” he agrees without missing a beat. He’s not going to even remotely pretend he’s not down bad for this girl. He shakes his head before continuing, “You know, Tay, you don’t have to watch it.”
“What did I tell you?” she says with a stubborn shake of her head. “I want to know about things that are important to you. Just like you asking me about what I do and listening to my music. And I don’t know, I’m actually finding it fascinating.”
“Yeah?” he questions, surprised. Most women he’s been with have only tolerated the game. Especially with how much time it’s taken up in his life.
“Absolutely.”
Travis grins, leaning back and resting his head against the pillows. “Well, then, I guess I’ll have to find some more football documentaries for us to watch,” he says, feigning seriousness. “Or maybe we should play Madden.” She snorts, rolling her eyes at him through the screen, but there’s a warmth in her gaze that makes his chest tighten. It’s strange, the way she makes him feel seen even through a phone. “God, we’re such nerds,” she teases, and he shrugs, unabashed. “Guess we are. We’re stuck with each other now.” There’s a beat of silence, a comfortable one before she whispers, “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
*******
His phone wakes him up at 2 a.m. He checks the caller ID bleary-eyed and feels a kick in his chest.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asks worriedly.
“What?” comes her confused voice over the line. “Oh fuck, Trav. I keep forgetting you are not just an hour behind me but I’m actually behind you right now in LA. Go back to sleep, baby.”
He sits up, the nickname slipping from her lips has him fully awake.
“No, it’s okay. What’s up?”
“I just, it’s stupid,” she sighs.
“I’m sure it’s not stupid,” he replies. He’s slowly learning that Taylor hates inconveniencing people…well, inconveniencing him. He has a feeling she’s been made to feel like one in the past, and it always sends a flash of anger up his spine thinking about her being treated that way.
“I finished Quarterback and I got super excited and I wanted to talk to you about it.”
“Yeah?” She’s been slowly making her way through it. They’d even watched an episode when she visited him in Kansas City last week.
Her voice brightens up, and she seemingly loses her hesitancy. “It was fucking awesome Trav. But poor Jason!”
He rolls his eyes, “Yeah, yeah. He survived.”
“It made me realize…” The hesitancy is back but it seems different.
“What?” he encourages.
“I want to come to a game.”
Her words take him back a bit, but he doesn’t want to get his hopes up. “Tay.”
Her voice is firm when she answers, “No really, and not because this was all exciting. It just made me realize I want to be there cheering you on this year.”
It does something funny in his heart that she says this year and not just a game. Like she plans for this to be a long term activity. Like she’ll be here through it all. Still, he needs her to be sure. Doesn’t want to push her away by going too fast. She’s asked for slow and he wants everything to go at her pace.
“It’s a big step out in the open. Are you good with that?”
“Are you?” she fires back.
“Of course, you already know, Tay,” he says with conviction. He’s learning every day that he’s ready for anything with her.
“I do,” she affirms. “And I am ready.”
He can hear the steady firm cadence in her voice. And he believes her.
“Then let’s go, baby. Full throttle.”
******
“So like, what are you looking for?” Taylor asks him. She’s leaned forward in her chair, and Patrick realizes she really is interested in learning more about how playing quarterback works.
They’re sitting around the patio table after the Broncos game. Travis and Taylor are off to New York in the morning, but a celebration around the fire before with him and Brittany and a few friends seemed to be in order after the close game. It’s also clear that everyone is in on trying to give him and Taylor a chance to get to know each other better.
“What do you mean?” he questions.
Taylor looks towards the distance as if she’s gathering her thoughts before replying, “When the ball is snapped and you step back? What are you looking for?”
“Oh, well I’m looking for the guys in the play and if they’re open.” he pauses and then smirks over at his teammate beside her. “And if it’s Trav, I’m usually trying to see what random route he decided to run instead of the right one.”
She smiles but then gets serious. “What else?”
Her question takes him by surprise. That is usually as far as most people not in football go when asking him about what he does.
“The defense. I’m looking for the players coming at me. And my options if they’re too close.”
“And all that happens in like what? Ten seconds.”
He shakes his head, “Like 4?”
She whistles and sits back, “Shit, that’s fucking awesome.”
Pat looks to her side again. Travis is grinning at their conversation with a knowing look. He’d told him that she was picking up on football but Pat assumed it was just her interest in what Travis was doing. He should have known it was more than that. He’s been learning over the last month that Taylor is the best at what she does because she’s fucking smart. And beyond that, she’s curious about other people being at the top of their game. He tends to be the same. Always asking questions of others he meets who know how to strive for greatness.
“I mean I hear you write songs in like ten minutes so that sounds pretty fucking awesome too,” he points out.
She cuts her eyes to Trav with a grin. He’s just outed Travis gushing over his girl every chance he gets.
“Great recognizes great, I guess.”
******
“Whatcha doing?” she asks, dropping down beside him as she dusts flour off her shorts.
Travis looks up from where he’s been reading, “Hmm? Oh, studying for next week."
“Learning the plays?”
“Yes. Well, really keeping up with the names. You know, keeping straight what name goes with what play.”
Taylor looks thoughtful and then asks, “Can I help?”
“You want to help?” he says. He’s really not surprised at this point at how involved she’s become in his life. They both have slotted into the other’s day-to-day routines seamlessly. Feeling like you've known each other for years so it’s easy to want to support the other in all they do.
“Of course, I can quiz you, right?”
“Yeah, Tay, that would be awesome,” he replies, handing over the playbook.
Later when the ding of the timer for the oven goes off and they’ve made it through half the plays, she turns back as she’s going to the kitchen.
“You know when we should do this? Over Facetime when I’m home. That way we can hang out more.”
He just looks after her as she walks into the kitchen wondering how he got so lucky.
*****
He’s just walked out of the shower after the game when Chris stops him and slaps him on the shoulder. “Damn, Kelc, those refs sure pissed your girl off.”
“What?” he asks, confused.
Chris points to the TV in the locker room where they are showing highlights of the game in replay. He sees himself get pushed in the endzone by the Patriots cornerback and his shoulder twinges at the memory. And then the screen cuts to the stands and there is Taylor, cute in her little stocking hat and….
Oh. Maybe not cute but a spitfire coming for the the opposing team with full curses on display. Although, really that is fucking adorable too.
“We got an official Chiefs fan on our hands in this one!” Pop jokes, as he walks by.
“Oh no,” Pat says walking out the door. “She knows her shit now. She’s about to buy the team.”
*******
“Okay but what about Lillypad Cinnamon Roll?”
“Ohhhhhh, Tay that is good,” Patrick slurs from where he’s sitting with his head on Brittany’s shoulder. “How are you so good at making up play names?”
“I’m a lyric….a lyric…” she struggles before turning to Travis. “Baby, what is the word?”
Travis looks between his best friend and his girlfriend, trying to stifle a laugh. They somehow have outpaced everyone and are very, very drunk.
“A lyricst?” he guesses. She hasn’t made sense to anyone but Pat for at least thirty minutes.
“YES!” she emphasizes, reaching to pet his face, almost poking him in the eye. “A lyricist. I make shit sound good.”
Brittany snorts beside him. “An understatement.” she points out and rolls her eyes at Travis. They’re uncharacteristically the most sober of the group. Brit because she has to and him because anymore to drink and he’ll be back to sobbing embarrassingly over the songs Taylor sang to him tonight.
“Now, if you don’t make a play for Trav, called ‘Karma is the guy on the Chiefs,’ I’m gonna be so mad, Patrick.” She points at him accusingly as if to emphasize her point. “Like real, real mad.”
“Lemme call, Coach,” Pat says looking around for his phone.
“And that,” Travis says with a slap to his knees, “is our sign to take you two home.”
“But we’re strategizing,” Taylor pouts.
“I can see that, but we’re gonna end up with Pat calling Pat McAfee and saying you’re a coach on the team if we don’t quit while we’re ahead, babe.”
“Yeah, I think we need a break before you try to get Tay on the payroll,” Brit jokes.
“She has a Super Bowl ring just like the rest of us,” Pat grumps.
Travis rights a listing Taylor. It looks like the three-show run is catching up to the alcohol in her system and he has a feeling he’ll be carrying her into the hotel.
Putting his other hand on Pat’s shoulder and steering him towards the door, he orders, “Alright, get moving, dude. You two can plan the whole season once you’ve had Tylenol in the morning.”
*******
“You are fidgeting,” Taylor says from his right.
He takes his eyes off the match in front of them and looks over at her before looking down at his hand playing with the clasp on his watch. He smiles sheepishly at her.
She grins at him and points to his phone, “You should turn it on.”
“Nah. I can watch the highlights.” It had been his call to come to the match.
“Trav. Turn it on.”
“Tay, I don’t need—”
She tilts her head and confesses, “I want to know! What if the Bengals are winning?”
He throws back his head laughing. Of course, she’s just as antsy to see the end of the game as he is.
He pulls his chair out and pulls up YouTube. She takes a drink and claps at a point Fritz finally makes before craning her neck to look over his shoulder.
The game comes up and oh…. things look interesting. He props the phone up against his glass and they both lean their heads in.
“Fuck yeah!” she exclaims, pointing at the score.
Yeah this could be good. He’s glad they did this. “Right? Oh, look at that pass…that was fucking messy.”
Taylor shakes her head, “I could have caught that.”
A voice comes right behind them, startling them both. “What are you doing?”
They both jump and turn back to Pat watching them with a smirk.
“Watching tennis?” Taylor says innocently.
“Checking the rules?” Travis says at the same time, trying to play it just as cool.
Pat rolls his eyes, and points at the phone, “What’s the score?”
“Oh, Pat, they’re getting destroyed,” she replies, bouncing in her seat. She’s so fucking adorable on a normal day, but Taylor excited about one of his rival teams losing a game? In the stratosphere cute. He pulls her hand to his lips and kisses her three times up to her wrist.
He decides he loves going to tennis matches.
******
Travis tries to be quiet as he comes into the room. After changing and brushing his teeth, he lifts the blankets carefully before sliding in. But all that is for nothing as he sees her eyes open in the faint light from the window.
“Hi,” she greets him, sleepily.
“Hi there, sorry I woke you,” he replies, stroking her hair back from her face.
“No, I wanted to see you when you got back. I wasn’t asleep,” she says with a yawn, negating her words. “I missed you. Couldn’t couldn’t get on the plane fast enough tonight.”
“Missed you too.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” she murmurs quietly.
He shakes his head, “Nope, none of that. I’d rather know you were safe at home than going to a stadium that wasn’t set up to be secure enough. Especially right now.”
“Still…”
“I know, Tay.” And he does. They’ve talked about it extensively over the last month. Weighing the pros and cons of when she’d endorse, knowing that she’d have to take even more security measures than normal for the next few months. It sucks but he’s so proud of her for standing up for what she believes in. Even if it means she’s not at every game.
“But hey, 3-0! That’s amazing,” she points out carefully. Travis can tell she’s feeling out his emotions around the game. She knows him so well at this point.
“Yeah, it was close, but the team did it,” he hedges.
“Travis…”
“No, I know.”
She sits up and turns on the bedside light, squinting at him in the sudden brightness. He can see the stubborn set of her face and he knows she’s not going to let it slide. And really, he doesn’t want her to.
Her voice is firm when she next speaks, “You are a part of that winning team. And you blocked the hell out of people. And stayed ready in case there was an opening.”
“I dropped that ball,” he can’t help but point out.
“Yeah you did drop the ball…once, but you’ll work on it. And so did about seven other players between the teams.”
“I’m just frustrated,” he confesses. He knows they’ve been working him into plays exactly how they’ve planned it since training camp. But it doesn’t mean that not being a target for the ball isn’t frustrating or that the onslaught of bad takes isn’t getting to him.
“You and about a zillion other people,” she mumbles.
“What?”
She looks down and picks at the sheet, “I may have gone on the internet.”
“Oh god, Taylor, don’t do that,” he moans.
“Hey,” she interrupts, “Do you know what everyone who is not that one fucker on Fox or a Bills fan is saying?”
He eyes her warily.
“They see you open. They see you want the ball. There are some VERY passionate takes on that from Chiefs fans,” she says with a chuckle. “I mean, I might have made a burner account to join them.”
He huffs out a laugh, knowing she’s kidding about that.
“I know the coaches are working on plays, but…” he stops. It isn’t going to do any good to try to coach from the bench. He just needs to put his head down and do the work. But his girlfriend has other ideas.
“But they’re playing like Hollywood and Pop are still options in the game?” she asks.
He should have known she’d observe that. Pat didn’t call her Coach for nothing. “Yeah, I mean I get we’ve been driving like that all summer but…”
“But you’re right there, Trav. There were a couple of times where you were so wide open I wanted to scream.”
“I’m right there. And I was good with giving the guys space to grow but something is off and I… Like I can’t be an asshole yelling at the coaches during the game like I did last year. That won’t help.”
“So bring it up in practice,” she insists. “They keep saying you’re double teamed but you were last year too.”
Travis shakes his head, “I don’t want Pat to think I’m critiquing him.”
“You don’t think Pat is frustrated too?”
“Maybe, I didn’t ask after the game tonight.”
“Travis, I bet he is thinking the same thing. Or if he wasn’t, he is after tonight,” she points out, “You two usually don’t beat around the bush with each other.”
“It usually is me fucking up so…” he shrugs.
“Well he’s the one fucking up right now, and I think he’d be more pissed at you for not helping him solve it than at you bringing it up.”
“Ugh,” he says burying his head in her side.
Taylor strokes his hair back, running her fingers through it and making it lay back like it’s finally grown out enough to do. “I love how you are a badass out there on the field and then here you are worrying about hurting your friend’s feelings. My sweet boy.”
“No, I’m a badass,” he argues without much conviction behind it. Because she’s right. While he’s pretty in touch with his emotions and not embarrassed by them, He knows he can let her see him vulnerable and soft in a deeper way he’s not willing to show many people.
She leans down and kisses his head, “Oh yeah, such a meanie, but also a feeler of big feelings. And I love that about you.”
“Fuck.”
Her giggles shake his head where it’s pressed against her stomach.
“You know, if they would just call, “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs” we would not be here.”
He squeezes her and laughs. “I know you are joking but I actually love that play.”
“Yeah?”
“A play where I run towards Pat for the ball and then lateral to a player downfield? Are you crazy? You and Pat somehow came up with a great play even though Brittany and I had to basically carry you home that night in Amsterdam.”
She looks proudly down at him. “And here I thought I was learning just enough about play calling to freak Pat out when I tell him plays I know. I wanna keep your work wife on his toes.”
Travis turns onto his back and pulls her hand close to his chest.
“Thank you, Tay,” he says as he squeezes her hand.
She turns her palm up and interlaces their fingers, squeezing his tight back. “That’s what I’m here for remember? Even if there are times I can’t be there, I’m gonna be cheering you on, supporting you wherever I am.”
“I know. I appreciate you so much baby. You’ve been with me from that first morning you wanted to know the rules of the game.”
She looks at him fondly, remembering that day. “You mean the day I learned the rules of football with salt and pepper shakers and Benji standing in for the goalpost?”
He laughs. “And look how far that demonstration got you, Coach.”
Taylor smiles and leans her head against his shoulder, their fingers still laced together. “We’ve definitely learned a lot since then,” she says, a wry smile tugging at her lips, “And not just about football.” Travis nods, exhaling as the tension in his body eases just a bit. They lie there quietly, just breathing, the weight of the day’s frustrations ebbing away.