The QB's Nerdy Addiction novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: Acknowledgments, Again

He had the game ball tucked under his left arm, and I hadn't noticed until he held it out.

"This is yours," Gage said.

"It's the bowl ball. You can't give it away."

"I can give it to whoever I want. I'm the quarterback."

I took it.

It was heavier than I expected, and warm from his side.

The whole student section had gone quiet around us, five thousand people and the band, and somewhere behind me a girl whispered, "Oh my God, he's going to read it."

He unfolded the paper with both hands.

He laid his finger under the first line.

Then he read it aloud, slowly, in front of everyone, going back over the words when they slid.

"For Hallie Vandiver, who read me the first page and then told me the truth about all the rest."

"Gage."

"Let me finish. I practiced."

His voice was rough.

"For the girl who counted how many times I looked left and had the nerve to say so. For the one who made me say my own name out loud in a room full of people who were waiting for me to fail. For every night in the stacks."

He lowered the page.

"I read this whole page by myself last night. It took me an hour. You weren't there."

I couldn't speak.

I had the ball in my arms, and my glasses were fogging.

He folded the paper and put it in my coat pocket.

"I'm yours, nerd," he said. "Whatever's next."

I kissed him in front of forty thousand people.

The student section made a noise I felt in my feet.

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