The Commitment by Kate Benson Page A

Did you have fun?”
    “Yeah! My Uncle Jack taught me how to be a baseball player!”
    “Oh really? That’s so totally awesome!” she says, smiling up at me. “You coming in?”
    A quick glance in and I can see that they’re in the middle of a movie and I shake my head.
    “No thanks,” I answer. “I’m beat. I think I’m gonna head back to my room for the night.”
    “Okay,” she says quietly. “Well, if you change your mind and want some company, I’ll be up for a couple of hours.”
    “Okay,” I smile, crouching down to JT. “Love you, Little J.”
    “Love you, too,” he says, wrapping his small arms around my neck.
    “Be good, okay?” I say, smiling when I see him nod quickly and walk into the room. “You be good, too.”
    “I will,” Ana chuckles as I kiss her cheek. “I love you.”
    “Love you, too, Sis.”
    Once she’s safe inside, I turn and make my way down the hall towards my room. Pushing the door open, I toss my stuff onto the table and reach into the mini fridge for a beer, letting out a deep sigh as my ass hits the chair.
    Glancing over at my wallet, I see the sharp corner of the same worn photograph I’ve been carrying with me for the past five years peeking out. Reluctantly, I pick it up and pull it from the place I’ve kept it tucked away since I got home.
    As I trace my fingertip along the blonde hair coming away from her face, I can’t stop the knot from forming in my throat. The memory that’s staring back at me is a bittersweet one, deceptive in its time.
    On one hand, it feels like it happened a lifetime ago. We’ve been through so much since that night, sometimes it feels like it’s all happened to two other people and we’re just left with the story.
    As our past stares me back in the face, though, I know better.
    I can still feel the breeze kissing my face as I stared back at her at the edge of the field. My gear was heavy as fuck, but it didn’t stop me from lifting her into my arms after we scored the winning touchdown. The crowd went fucking crazy. People were cheering in the stands all around us, but the only thing that mattered to me was pressing her soft lips against mine.
    She’d thrown her purple and silver pom-pom’s down and lunged at me, wrapping her legs around my waist right there on the edge of the thirty yard line.
    “You did it, Baby!” she’d said, beaming as she grabbed my face, pressed her lips to mine and kissed me fiercely.
    Her lips tasted like the bubble gum flavored ChapStick she’d been wearing all winter. When she let out a quiet hum into my mouth, the grip I’d had on my helmet began to slip. That’s when Lucy snapped this picture, less than two seconds before my helmet hit the turf. I’d raised my hand to cup her face, tasting her full bubble gum flavored lips and knowing I’d never forget that kiss.
    Over the next few years, there would be hundreds of pictures, thousands of memories between us. This one would always be one of my favorite, though.
    This was the night we’d had our first fight. This was the night we’d first made love. It was the night she’d told me she loved me for the first time.
    The night I’d first known that Sophie Ryan was my forever.
     
    Sophie
     
    His lips on my bare shoulder gently pull me from my dreamless sleep early the next morning. Although no part of me is ready to slip back into reality just yet, knowing the blue eyes I long for are waiting for me is enough to have mine drifting open.
    As I turn slowly to face him, I nuzzle into his embrace and breathe in his scent. As he wraps his ink clad arm around me, he kisses my hair and his fingertips begin to slowly trace my skin.
    His deep voice, still steeped in sleep, breaks the silence as the English lyrics to one of my favorite classics, ‘La Vie En Rose’ leave his lips, melting me to my core.
    When we’d arrived back at the suite after work yesterday, Chase had sent me into the bathroom to get ready. I’d heard him moving around in here,