After the game, p.21
After the Game,
p.21
Her eyes filled with tears, and she took a step toward me. This was what I wanted. Her close to me. “I do love you. I hate that you think I don’t.”
I sighed and pulled her the rest of the way to me. “I didn’t mean it. I was upset and scared.”
She curled into me and laid her head on my chest. “I can come to your games and during your off-season you can come here on some weekends. We can make it work. It doesn’t matter where you are. I will always love you.”
I pressed a kiss to her temple and closed my eyes. I would love her until the day I died. I didn’t question that. She was my piece in this world. The piece that completed me.
“One day I’ll ask you to marry me,” I told her.
“And one day I’ll say yes,” she replied.
For now, that was enough.
Acknowledgments
A big thank you to my editor, Jennifer Ung. She worked with me and my crazy schedule due to being pregnant while working on this book. With her help I believe we made it the best it could be. I’m very proud of how it turned out. Also I want to mention Mara Anastas, Jodie Hockensmith, Carolyn Swerdloff, and the rest of the Simon Pulse team, for all their hard work in getting my books out there.
My agent, Jane Dystel. She’s there for me when I’m having a hard time working on a story, when I need to vent, and even if I just need a recommendation on a good place to eat in New York City. I’m thankful to have her on my side.
When I started writing I never imagined having a group of readers come together for the sole purpose of supporting me. Abbi’s Army, led by Danielle Lagasse and Vicci Kaighan, humbles me and gives me a place of refuge. When I need my spirits lifted, these ladies are there. I love every one of you.
Last but certainly not least: my family. Without their support I wouldn’t be here. My kids who understand my deadlines and help around the house. My parents, who have supported me all along. Even when I decided to write steamier stuff. My friends, who don’t hate me because I can’t because my writing is taking over. They are my ultimate support group, and I love them dearly.
Britt Sullivan for listening to me rant, helping me work through storylines, and understanding how moody I can be when writing a book. He’s not only a wonderful father but a man that I am thankful to have by my side.
My readers. I never expected to have so many of you. Thank you for reading my books. For loving them and telling others about them. Without you I wouldn’t be here. It’s that simple.
About the Author
ABBI GLINES FRIDAY NIGHT GAMES MARKED EVERY IMPORTANT moment of Abbi Glines’s youth. She can remember her first kiss, her first heartbreak, and the first time her crush noticed her—and it all happened during or after a Friday night football game. Now Abbi writes books about football, field parties, and the drama that only happens in high school. She is the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Sea Breeze, Vincent Boys, Existence, and Rosemary Beach series. She lives on the gulf coast of Alabama with her family. She can be found with her MacBook on the beach, by her pool, and, of course, under the stadium lights on a Friday night.
SIMON PULSE • Simon & Schuster, New York
thefieldparty.com
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/teen
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Abbi-Glines
Also by Abbi Glines
The Field Party Series
Until Friday Night
Under the Lights
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON PULSE
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First Simon Pulse hardcover edition August 2017
Text copyright © 2017 by Abbi Glines
Jacket photo-illustration copyright © 2017 by We Monsters
Jacket photograph of three people on left copyright © 2017 by Getty Images
All other photographs copyright © 2017 by Thinkstock
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Jacket designed by Jessica Handelman
Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia
Author photograph by Monica Tucker
The text of this book was set in Stempel Garamond LT.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Glines, Abbi, author.
Title: After the game : a Field party novel / by Abbi Glines.
Description: First Simon Pulse hardcover edition. |
New York : Simon Pulse, 2017. |
Summary: After being away for two years, Riley Young returns to Lawton, Alabama, with her fifteen-month-old daughter to help take care of her grandmother who has Alzheimers, even though it means she has to face the lies that forced her to leave town in the first place and a blossoming friendship with the high school football star Brady Higgens, who is dealing with his own family problems.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016042465 | ISBN 9781481438933 (hc)
Subjects: | CYAC: Teenage mothers—Fiction. |
Family problems—Fiction. | Football—Fiction. | Love—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.G4888 Af 2017 |
DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016042465
ISBN 9781481438940 (eBook)
Abbi Glines, After the Game
