Chapter 336

Chapter 336: Chapter 336

"Andrew, Lily, the cookies are ready!"

Cam’s voice carried perfectly all the way up to the second-floor bedroom.

Andrew turned his head toward the door, which had been left slightly ajar. "Coming!" he called out.

He was at his parents’ house.

The same one he had helped them buy by putting up a significant portion of the money, enough to make the mortgage shorter and considerably less suffocating month to month.

At that moment, he was in Lily’s room. The second you stepped inside, it was impossible not to notice how much of Cam there was in it: walls painted in different shades of pink with drawings, stuffed animals everywhere, and toys scattered across several corners.

’It’s going to be obsolete soon,’ Andrew thought, referring to the room.

Especially the walls, with their overly saccharine murals.

His gaze lowered. Lily was asleep on his lap.

Even though she was still a child, she was already old enough for her personality to be showing itself pretty clearly.

She could be kind when the situation called for it. But most of the time, she was sarcastic, fairly rebellious for her age, and considerably spoiled.

Andrew seriously doubted that once she reached her preteen years and started wanting a real say in what her own space looked like, she would keep the explosion of pastel colors Cam had chosen for her.

She would probably end up leaning toward something considerably darker.

Andrew pulled out his phone and checked the time.

3:47 PM.

UCLA’s game had ended less than an hour ago.

After the locker room, the showers, and everything else he needed to do before finally leaving the Rose Bowl, he had gone straight home. He had been there for around thirty minutes.

More than enough time for Lily to practically kidnap him the moment he arrived and force him to play with her.

After more than half an hour, she had finally fallen asleep on top of him.

She had less energy than usual, since she’d gotten up far too early for a Saturday.

Cam and Mitchell had wanted to get to the tailgate early, around seven in the morning, which had inevitably meant waking Lily up much earlier than she would have liked.

A small vibration caught Andrew’s attention. He had a message from Paige. He opened it. After reading it, he took a selfie.

In the picture, he wore a satisfied expression while, below him, Lily remained completely asleep on his lap.

He sent it with a caption: defeated the monster.

Then he wrote another message: I’m heading out now.

They had agreed to meet around four.

Andrew had told her he would pick her up.

Technically, campus was pretty close to the apartment he rented, and Paige could get there on foot in just a few minutes.

But it wasn’t any trouble for him to swing by and get her. That way, he spared Paige a five- or eight-minute walk.

He put his phone away.

Then he carefully slid one arm beneath Lily and slowly lifted her, trying not to wake her.

She barely stirred.

Andrew settled her onto the bed, brushed a strand of hair away from her face, and pulled the blanket a little farther over her.

He gave the bed one last look and left the room.

Andrew walked toward the stairs, but stopped as he passed a door that had been left open.

His old room.

He looked inside. It was still almost identical to how he remembered it from his senior year of high school.

Cam had kept it practically untouched.

He had even moved a good portion of the trophies Andrew had won during high school in there, and there were a lot of them.

Andrew had taken some things with him when he moved out, but he had decided to leave plenty of others behind.

He looked in for barely a second before continuing.

He didn’t feel particularly nostalgic.

Probably because he had never really gotten far away from the house.

It wasn’t like other students who started college hundreds or thousands of miles away from their families and came back every few weeks or months.

Andrew still showed up there constantly. To eat, spend the afternoon, see his sister, talk to his parents, and every now and then he even ended up staying the night and using that same room again as if he had never moved out.

That was why seeing it didn’t feel like looking at some lost part of his life. It was simply still his room. He just didn’t sleep there every night anymore.

Andrew went downstairs and made his way to the kitchen.

He didn’t go in right away. He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms, watching his parents.

Mitchell was sitting at the table. When he noticed him, he looked up. "Where’s Lily?" he asked.

"She fell asleep," Andrew replied.

He remembered Cam yelling for him from downstairs.

Then his own response.

Two voices carrying through the house loudly enough to wake just about anyone.

Lily hadn’t even moved.

By that point, she was practically immune to yelling.

Cam set a tray of freshly baked cookies on the table beside several glasses of milk. His expression immediately softened. "Poor thing, she’s been awake since really early."

Mitchell nodded. "Even so, I hope it doesn’t mess up her sleep schedule too much," he said, concerned.

"A thirty- or forty-minute nap isn’t going to do anything to her," Andrew replied as he walked into the kitchen.

He went straight to the tray and grabbed several cookies at once.

Cam looked at him. "Hey, slow down. We can have a snack in—"

He never got to finish.

Andrew had already taken a big bite out of one of them and was making his way through the rest at a speed that made it look like he hadn’t eaten in hours.

Then he grabbed one of the glasses and took a long drink.

"I have to go," he said as soon as he swallowed.

Cam looked at him with obvious disappointment. "That soon?" he asked.

"Yeah," Andrew replied, noticing the expression and knowing exactly how to erase it.

"I have a date," he added.

Technically, he and Paige weren’t going out anywhere. They had only agreed to meet at his apartment.

But it was still something they had planned: time alone, watching a movie, talking, and spending part of the afternoon without the rest of the group around.

As far as Andrew was concerned, that counted.

Mitchell looked at him with considerably more attention than he had a second earlier. "A date?" he repeated quietly, raising an eyebrow.

Cam let out a small "oh" as his eyes began to widen more and more.

Andrew hadn’t dated anyone in months. Or, at least, not that Cam knew he was starting to get to know some girl.

Cam had always been especially enthusiastic about his son’s love life.

A supporter of his relationships, an unsolicited adviser, and above all, considerably nosy when it came to romance.

In a good way.

After months without any new material, they had just been given something.

"Who?" Cam asked, slightly too quickly.

"Guess," Andrew said.

Cam and Mitch fell silent, thinking.

Without any clues, there were plenty of possibilities.

Andrew was one of the most visible college players in the country, if not the most visible.

He went to parties every now and then, shared classes with hundreds of students, and it was even possible for him to cross paths with actresses, singers, or other well-known figures who commented on his games on social media or happened to run into him somewhere.

So, in theory, there was an enormous number of potential girls he could date.

But there was something his parents knew well.

Andrew didn’t date just anyone. Much less would he talk so casually about a date if he barely knew the girl or didn’t feel there was something worth exploring.

If he had said it like that, so confidently, then he had probably already been getting to know her for a while.

Long enough that the odds of them knowing who she was increased considerably.

"Is it Rachel!?" Cam exclaimed, clasping his hands together and looking at Andrew excitedly. "Please tell me it’s her."

Andrew immediately understood why he had come to that conclusion.

Rachel had been around the group for quite a while.

Cam knew her. On top of that, he had always especially liked her, since they had similar energy and some similar tastes.

"No, it’s not her," Andrew said, shaking his head.

"Monica?" Cam tried again, although his smile faded a little.

"Nope, she’s kind of a fan. It’d be weird..." Andrew replied.

Over time, Andrew had ended up considering Monica a good friend.

She was close to Haley, always showed up at group gatherings, and by now there was enough familiarity that her presence felt natural.

But there was still something Andrew noticed.

Admiration.

A particular kind of enthusiasm when it came to him.

It wasn’t a bad thing.

It just made the possibility of a relationship feel strange.

"Willa?" Mitch asked, narrowing his eyes.

He knew Willa had started getting close to his son again.

He didn’t know all the details, but he remembered perfectly well how close Andrew and she had been in the past.

Best friends with a lot of chemistry and a relationship that, for a while, had seemed like it had the potential to become something more, at least as far as he was concerned.

Andrew shook his head again.

Willa had gotten close again, yes. But it wasn’t like before either.

They no longer saw each other every weekend or spent hours together constantly.

Besides, she was working on Arrow.

The series had premiered in October and was airing new episodes weekly, while the cast was still filming a good portion of the remaining episodes of the season in parallel.

Her life had become considerably busier.

Mitch gave a small nod. Although he didn’t say it, he felt a certain sense of relief.

He had nothing specifically against Willa. He couldn’t even fully explain why. But there was a part of him that preferred Andrew not end up dating someone involved in Hollywood.

Maybe it was the environment. The feeling that two lives that were already fairly public could become complicated far too quickly. He hadn’t really rationalized it much. He simply felt that way.

Cam and Mitch fell silent again, thinking.

Mitch rested one hand against his chin and lowered his gaze toward the table. He began mentally going through names until he finally looked back up at Andrew.

"Paige?"

"Yes," Andrew said, clapping once. "You win."

"It wasn’t a competition!" Cam protested, offended.

A small, satisfied smile appeared on Mitch’s face.

Normally, Cam was the one who declared himself the absolute expert on anything related to romance.

So getting it right before him was somewhat satisfying. But the smile disappeared quickly.

Both of them started actually thinking about Paige.

Mitch tried to remember the first time he had seen her.

It had probably been at one of UCLA’s games at the Rose Bowl.

Ever since Sam had started dating Steve, she and Paige had begun showing up fairly often in the area where the players’ families and acquaintances sat.

Not in the student section.

At first, they hadn’t paid much attention to it.

Sam had just started dating Steve. It made sense that she had tickets, and if she wanted to bring a friend, it wasn’t strange for Steve or even Andrew to get another one.

So for a while, Paige had simply been that: Sam’s friend. Nothing more.

Then she showed up on Halloween.

She had been at the Dunphys’ house along with Howard, Monica, Sam, Steve, and the rest of them.

But that hadn’t meant much either. She simply seemed to have become part of the group. Something perfectly normal.

Mitch had noticed certain things, though.

The way Andrew and Paige argued about practically anything. How they turned normal conversations into little competitions that only the two of them seemed to understand and enjoy.

Or simply how naturally they seemed to seek each other out. It showed him there was chemistry. But it could just as easily have been interpreted as friendship.

Then came Eugene.

Paige had traveled with the rest of them to watch the game against Oregon. But again, that hadn’t raised too many suspicions either.

It had been the first away game that practically the entire group had decided to travel to.

By then, Paige had already become a normal presence among them. She was no longer simply "Sam’s friend."

So seeing her travel with everyone to Eugene had seemed perfectly natural.

Then there was what happened that very day.

Mitch remembered her in the stands with Sam. She hadn’t been too far from them. Just a few rows ahead.

The two of them had greeted them before the game started. Now that he thought about it more carefully...

Paige had a small number 19 painted on one cheek.

Cam remembered it too.

In fact, the more he replayed the image in his head, the more details began to surface.

Her nails.

She had painted them in UCLA’s colors too.

It wasn’t exactly unusual on game day. But it did stand out coming from Paige.

Because both of them remembered that, at first, she hadn’t seemed particularly concerned with dressing for the occasion.

She hadn’t even worn a UCLA shirt.

Now, on the other hand, she wasn’t just wearing the university’s colors.

She was painting her nails too.

She had put Andrew’s number on her face, and she had done it subtly enough that she still looked completely like herself.

Andrew watched them in silence with a faint smile. There was no need to ask what they were thinking. He knew them.

They were probably mentally reconstructing every time they had seen Paige since she first started showing up.

Every little detail that hadn’t seemed to mean much at the time and that, now that they knew he had a date with her, was beginning to take on a different meaning.

"She goes to UCLA, right?" Mitch asked, not entirely sure.

The truth was, neither he nor Cam had really talked much with Paige.

A few greetings before games. A couple of brief exchanges and nothing more.

"Yeah, like Sam," Andrew nodded.

"And what does she study?" Cam asked curiously.

"Astrophysics," Andrew replied.

Cam’s mouth opened slightly, clearly about to let out another one of his characteristic "Oh"s.

Andrew raised a hand before he could. "Enough with the ohs. I really have to go. Love you guys, see you tomorrow."

He grabbed another cookie from the tray as he passed and quickly headed for the door. If he kept answering questions, he was going to end up late.

Cam and Mitch were left in silence.

They still had plenty of questions, but their son was already gone.

"Astrophysics..." Cam murmured. "Sounds difficult."

"Yeah..." Mitch replied, nodding slowly.

He knew UCLA was a prestigious university in physics and astronomy as well.

He didn’t know the exact admission figures or anything like that, but he didn’t really need to.

Astrophysics didn’t exactly sound like the kind of major someone chose because they had no idea what to do after high school.

It was a major with a lot of math, calculus, and physics. One that probably demanded a lot from the very beginning.

That already told him something about Paige.

Cam ended up smiling. "Another academically brilliant girl, huh? Our son clearly has a type."

Not necessarily physically.

Intellectually.

"I guess so, although I wouldn’t simplify it that much," Mitch commented.

He saw it with a little more nuance. He didn’t think Andrew simply looked for intelligent girls. He seemed to be drawn to girls with very strong identities of their own.

People with their own opinions and lives that didn’t revolve around him.

Pippa and Nancy had been like that. From what little he knew about Paige, she seemed to fit that pattern pretty well.

Cam grew thoughtful. "She’s a little intimidating," he finally commented, now somewhat more serious.

He remembered the few times he had seen her. She seemed very confident, calm, and not easily impressed.

She also didn’t seem to make much of an effort to get anyone to like her.

That struck him as strange.

Especially now that he knew she and Andrew had been getting closer for long enough to end up going on a date.

Even that same day at the Rose Bowl, Paige had simply greeted them like always.

A simple hello, and then she had gone back to Sam. She hadn’t tried to get any closer to the family.

Nothing.

She was quite different from the other girls in the group.

Sam could talk your ear off and transformed every time Steve made a good catch.

Rachel had that ability to smile, make conversation, and make it seem within minutes like you’d known her much longer.

Monica could also be fairly enthusiastic and open.

Paige wasn’t.

She wasn’t unfriendly like Jade.

She simply didn’t seem to need to fill every silence or build an immediate connection with everyone.

Curiously, that gave Mitch an even better impression of her.

Because if Paige was already interested in Andrew and still hadn’t made any special effort to get close to his family, then she probably wasn’t trying to earn herself a place around him.

...

At UCLA, Paige was sitting at her desk with her phone in her hands.

The screen showed Andrew’s latest messages.

Andrew: ?? Defeated the monster.

Paige couldn’t help smiling.

In the picture, Lily was asleep while Andrew looked at the camera with an exaggeratedly satisfied expression, as if he had just won some incredibly difficult battle.

She found the picture cuter than she had expected.

That was already saying quite a lot for someone like her.

She hadn’t even really talked to Lily. She had seen her a few times, nothing more. But there was something about the picture.

Maybe it was seeing Andrew in a completely different context from only minutes earlier, when people had been chanting his name while he broke a conference record in front of more than ninety thousand people.

Just him with his sister.

Paige kept looking at the screen for a few seconds longer than she had intended.

Then she zoomed in slightly on the picture.

Just a little, toward Andrew.

"What are you looking at?"

Sam’s voice came from so close that Paige startled.

She turned quickly and found her leaning in just a few inches away.

Paige frowned. "Nothing," she replied, locking her phone.

Sam smiled. "Was that a picture of Andrew? Are you two already comfortable enough to send each other random pictures?"

"None of your business," Paige snapped.

Sam laughed and backed away.

She knew perfectly well when it was better not to keep pushing.

"I’m leaving. Good luck on your date..." she said as she walked toward the door.

"Thanks. You two have fun at the museum too. Make sure Steve doesn’t try to escape," Paige said with a faint smile.

Sam frowned slightly, though she didn’t stop, "He’s going to like the museum," she muttered before leaving the room.

Paige waited a few seconds. Then she unlocked her phone again and looked at the picture for a little while longer.

Afterward, she locked the screen once more and put her phone away. She grabbed her bag and stood up. Before leaving, she stopped in front of the full-length mirror she shared with Sam.

She adjusted her hair slightly. Then she looked down at her clothes and nodded, satisfied.

She had already changed out of the UCLA shirt she had worn during the game.

She had also wiped off the number 19 that had been painted on her cheek.

Not because she was embarrassed by it. She had liked it. But that belonged to the game and to the more than ninety thousand people dressed in blue and gold.

Now it was different.

She was going to be alone with Andrew.

She wasn’t particularly interested in showing up in front of him still dressed like she had just walked out of the Rose Bowl fan section.

Especially because she could already imagine exactly what Andrew would do.

Some teasing comment about what a huge fan she had apparently become.

Paige could already hear the tone in her head.

No.

Her phone vibrated. Andrew had arrived.

Paige left the bedroom and closed the door behind her. A few minutes later, they were already on their way to the apartment.

"Tired?" Paige asked, glancing at him from the side.

"From the game? No," Andrew replied without taking his eyes off the road.

"I mean from defeating the monster," Paige said.

Andrew couldn’t help laughing. "Oh, that. Yeah, it was exhausting, but I pulled it off. Luckily, she was already tired, or I don’t know if I would’ve managed it."

"Don’t let anyone from Washington hear you say that. It’ll sound like your little sister gave you more trouble than they did," Paige said with a smile.

Andrew laughed again.

Yeah.

It would probably sound pretty bad if a rival player or fan ever heard that.

The rest of the drive passed comfortably, the two of them talking about things that didn’t really matter.

Eventually, they reached the building. Andrew parked the car and they both got out.

A few minutes later, they were inside the elevator, heading up toward the apartment.

Paige stood still for a few seconds. Then she turned her head toward Andrew. "Look at me," she said.

Andrew turned toward her.

Paige took a step forward.

Then another.

Until she was practically pressed up against him.

Andrew raised an eyebrow, not understanding what she was doing, while Paige tilted her head back to look at his face.

Then Paige lifted one hand. Her fingers slowly moved toward the corner of his mouth.

Andrew stayed completely still.

Paige barely brushed his skin and removed something tiny with the tip of one finger.

"A crumb," Paige explained.

"Oh..." Andrew murmured.

He immediately remembered the cookies his father had made, along with the fact that he had practically eaten them as if they were the last thing he was going to taste for several days.

It was a little embarrassing to think he had gone the entire drive with a crumb stuck to his face.

Although Paige didn’t seem interested in making fun of him for it.

Andrew looked at her.

She was still standing pretty close.

Paige frowned slightly as she tried to stretch her neck. "You’re really tall."

"You’re really short," Andrew shot back.

"Why the attack?" Paige asked, a little confused.

"Because you started it."

"Me?" Paige said with a small smile.

"Yeah. Your tone sounded accusatory," Andrew nodded.

Paige let out a small laugh. "I was just saying. Besides, I’m not that short. Well... yeah, I’m below the average height for women in the country. But at your height, you’re much farther from the male average than I am from the female average."

Paige was around 5’1".

She was short. The average for women in the country was around 5’3" to 5’4".

But Andrew, at roughly 6’4", couldn’t exactly be considered normal from a statistical standpoint either.

"Even in countries with some of the tallest average heights in the world, like the Netherlands, Denmark, or Bosnia, six-four is still clearly above average," Paige continued. "And if you go to parts of South America or Asia, you’re basically a statistical anomaly."

"Are you trying to tell me I’m a freak?" Andrew asked.

The elevator doors opened.

They both stepped out at the same time.

"In short," Paige replied, nodding with a small smile. "Remember our conversation about freaks? Well, you can add this to your résumé."

Andrew exhaled through his nose.

Even among professional quarterbacks, he was already above average, and that was at barely eighteen years old.

Although he probably wasn’t going to grow much more. At that age, most of his physical development was already practically complete.

"Well, if my height, my brain, and this whole football thing help you feel a little less like a freak, I’m glad I can help. I wouldn’t want you feeling like some misunderstood genius with the whole world against you," Andrew shot back.

Paige elbowed him in the ribs. "Shut up. I don’t see myself that way."

"Ouch," Andrew said, though he was still smiling. "We shouldn’t attack each other, fellow freak."

"Want another one?" Paige asked.

Andrew laughed.

And before she could attack him again, he reached toward her side and gave it a light poke.

Paige flinched immediately.

Andrew raised an eyebrow and did it again.

This time, Paige let out an involuntary laugh and took a step away, "Andrew, stop!"

"You started the attacks," Andrew said, amused.

It wasn’t exactly an attack.

But it was enough to make Paige try to protect her side as they walked down the hallway.

They reached the apartment door amid small laughs and playful shoves.

Andrew unlocked it, and they went inside.

Paige let out a breath, still smiling, and once they were inside, she opened her bag.

She pulled out a Blu-ray.

"We have a mission today," Paige said, waving the case. "Finish this stupid saga once and for all."

Andrew stared seriously at the case. "The final boss... for now."

There was something slightly demoralizing about those last two words.

The second part would be coming out in barely a week.

Which meant that, technically, they weren’t really finishing anything yet.

They were just catching up.

"Yeah, but that’s a problem for our future selves," Paige replied with a small sigh.

Although internally, the idea didn’t bother her all that much.

In fact, part of her was pretty happy that the saga still had another movie left.

Because it meant another movie for them to watch together.

And next time, it would be on the big screen.

Paige went to put in the Blu-ray while Andrew headed to the kitchen to make popcorn.

She left the movie paused on the main menu and, a few seconds later, walked into the kitchen.

Andrew had his back to her, busy preparing a bowl.

Paige smiled faintly.

She approached without making a sound, and when she was close enough, she attacked.

She quickly reached toward the side of Andrew’s abdomen.

Her idea was simple: tickle him, make him flinch a little, maybe jump slightly.

Something.

But Andrew didn’t even move.

Andrew turned his head toward her with complete calm. "Unlike you, I have a strong core. I’m immune to tickling."

Paige scoffed. She didn’t give up and tried again. This time, she pressed a little harder, searching for another spot along his side.

Nothing.

Andrew remained completely calm, watching her.

"Don’t tell me there’s some stupid scientific reason why having trained abs makes you less ticklish," Paige muttered, frustrated.

There was.

It didn’t mean Andrew had less sensitivity in his skin.

But a highly developed abdomen could react differently to sudden contact.

Intense tickling didn’t depend solely on the skin.

It also had a lot to do with how the brain interpreted an unexpected touch in a vulnerable area.

In someone with a very strong core, the muscles could tense almost automatically in response to that kind of stimulus.

A sort of protective response.

It didn’t eliminate ticklishness. But it could make it much harder to trigger that immediate reaction of curling up, jumping, or losing control.

Andrew had spent years training that exact area.

For a quarterback, the core wasn’t just an aesthetic detail. It was a fundamental part of practically everything.

From a very young age, Andrew had trained those muscles with the same seriousness as his throwing arm.

Paige pressed his side again.

"Know your limits, Master Wayne," Andrew said with a faint smile as he caught Paige’s hand to stop her from trying again.

Paige looked at him with a slight frown. But she didn’t pull her hand away. "Batman has no limits," she replied.

Andrew let out a small laugh, genuinely surprised that she had recognized the reference. "I thought you didn’t like superhero movies."

"I don’t hate them. Some are entertaining. And Nolan’s are an exception. I actually like them quite a bit," Paige commented.

Andrew nodded. Then he looked down.

He was still holding Paige’s hand. His eyes settled on her nails.

"Your nails look great," he commented.

Paige hadn’t expected the compliment. "Thanks. There was a girl at the tailgate who had a booth and was painting them," she said with a smile.

Andrew made a small expression of mock disappointment. "Oh. And here I was thinking you’d gone through all that trouble personally for me," he said, shaking his head.

"It would’ve taken too long," Paige said with a scoff. "But it was for you."

That actually caught Andrew by surprise, and he stared at her.

Paige looked right back at him without backing away or appearing shy.

It was true.

Before all this, she never would have cared enough to paint her nails in UCLA’s colors just to go to a game.

She hadn’t even gone to the season opener against the Rice Owls.

She had started attending with the Oregon State game, and at the time she hadn’t even owned a UCLA shirt.

So it would have been pretty hypocritical to pretend that all of a sudden, all that effort came from some deep sense of school spirit that had suddenly awakened inside her.

She liked UCLA. It was her university. But she wasn’t that kind of fan.

She had done it for Andrew.

They both fell silent.

They were still standing close.

Andrew held Paige’s gaze for a few seconds. Then his eyes dropped. Just for an instant, toward her lips, before returning to her eyes.

Paige noticed. And when Andrew looked into her eyes again, she did exactly the same thing. Her gaze dropped to Andrew’s lips before returning to his eyes.

Then Paige raised one eyebrow slightly, almost challengingly. As if she were asking him, without saying a single word, whether he planned on doing something or whether she was going to have to do it herself.

Andrew understood perfectly. He didn’t say anything. He simply leaned toward her.

Paige didn’t pull away either.

The distance between them slowly disappeared. Until, finally, their lips met for the first time.

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