Title: Lonely No More
A/N: Hello ladies :D Hope you're all having a good week so far. As always, thanks so much for all the great feedback! Here's the next bit - Enjoy :D
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"Catch you guys later." Tim called to a couple of teammates as he walked out of the locker room.
"See yah, Riggs." They called back, heading toward the parking lot.
Tim ambled toward his truck, grinning as he saw Julie sitting on the tailgate waiting on him, her jacket bundled around her.
He watched her face as she noticed him coming closer, taking pride in the fact that he could make her eyes light up and her smile brighten just by being around.
"Hey." She said, pulling her earphones out of her ears as he walked up.
He smirked, leaning down and placing a brief, hard kiss on her lips.
"Well…" She said slowly, a grin on her face. "Nice to see you, too."
Tim chuckled. "What are you doin' here? I didn't know you were waitin' on me."
"Well, I had to stay after school and help with the school paper. And by the time I was finished with that, practice was almost over." She shrugged. "Thought I'd just wait on you as opposed to riding home with my mom, that is if you don't mind givin' me a ride home."
"You know you don't even have to ask." He said simply, taking her hand and helping her hop down off the tailgate.
"We better be goin'. Landry's got that gig tonight, and I promised Tyra that we'd be there." Julie said, dusting her jeans off with her hands. "And I need to go home and change first."
"Tell me again why you made that promise." Tim drawled, giving her a look.
Julie grinned, taking a step closer to him. "Because…she's scared no one's going to show up. Besides, I don't have to work, so it'll be nice for us to do something for a change."
"Well, I was hopin' we could do something alone." He drawled, his voice dropping lower.
"We'll make an appearance at the gig, and then we'll go do something alone." She said, mimicking his voice. "That sound good?"
"Sounds great." He muttered, dropping another quick kiss on her lips.
"Hey Tim. Mr. Riggins."
Tim turned a scowl on his face, seeing a man he didn't know walking toward him.
Didn't the guy know how rude it was to interrupt someone when they were trying to steal a kiss?
"Yeah?" He drawled.
"Tim, I'm Scotty Simms, from San Antonio State." The man said, giving Tim's hand a firm shake.
"Hi. How're you doin'?" Tim asked, wondering why in the world this guy was wanting to talk to him.
"I'm good, I'm good." He answered. "Been tryin' to track you down. You're a hard guy to pin down."
"Yeah, I've been pretty busy with practice and playoffs and all." Tim replied.
Now that he thought about it, he remembered getting a few recruiting letters from San Antonio State. But he had thrown them away, like he had all the others he had received.
Scotty looked at Julie, giving her a smile. "Hi."
"Hi." Julie said, returning his smile.
"Oh, sorry." Tim said quickly. "This is Julie Taylor. Jules, Scotty Simms."
"Nice to meet you." Scotty said cheerfully. "Look Tim, I don't mean to blindside you like this, but we're graduating our whole line next year, and we really feel like you'd be a great fit for our team next year."
"Thank you." Tim mumbled, not sure what else to say.
"I tell you what. I'll be in town for a couple of days. Why don't you come over to the Marriott tomorrow night, and we can sit down and discuss some things." Scotty said, passing Tim a business card.
Tim looked at the card, flipping it over in his hands. "Uh, well…" He stammered, trying to come up with some excuse as he felt Julie nudging him in his side.
"What time?" She asked.
"How 'bout eight o'clock? Maybe talk over some dinner." Scotty answered, a big grin on his face. "What do you say, Tim?"
Tim sighed, nodding his head. "Sure. Eight o'clock."
"Alright. See yah then." He replied, turning to walk away.
Tim stood there, staring down at the card for a few seconds. He wasn't sure how he felt about this whole meeting.
He had never really considered going to college. That had always been Jason's dream, or really anybody's dream but his own.
"Tim, this is great!" Julie said, smiling up at him.
"Yah think?" He asked, his voice low.
"Well, yeah." She replied quickly. "I mean, he's obviously interested if he drove all the way down here. San Antonio's over two hours away."
Tim nodded slightly, slipping the card into his back pocket.
"Are you not excited?" She asked softly.
He shrugged, running his hand through his long hair. "I don't know. I mean, college. Really?"
"Why not?" Julie said quickly.
"Because the words Tim Riggins and college don't really go together, Jules." He said with a quick laugh.
His name was better associated with words like football, beer, or women. College definitely wasn't one of them.
"But that doesn't mean it can't happen." She said quickly, looking up at him. "And it's just a meeting. It can't hurt to go and see what he has to say."
Tim nodded slowly. "I guess."
"I know." Julie replied, biting her lip as she looked up at him. "Come on. We better get goin'." Julie said after a few seconds.
Tim nodded again, walking around and opening her door. He sighed as he slammed it shut, conflicting feelings still in his head about the whole college deal.
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"There are a lot more people here than I thought would be." Julie said loudly, trying to be heard over the crowd that had gathered at the bar to hear Landry's band play.
"Yeah." Tyra drawled. "I'm surprised this many people showed up."
"Here yah go, Jules." Tim said, appearing at her side and handing her a drink.
"Thanks." She replied, giving him a grin as he slid his arm around her waist, resting his large hand on her hip.
"Hey everybody. We're Crucifictorious. Thank you guys for coming out." Landry said from his spot on stage, as the band launched into their first song.
"Is this gonna be bad?" Julie asked, giving Tyra a look.
"There's a strong, strong possibility." Tyra said, shaking her head.
As Landry began to sing and the song progressed, Julie was pleasantly surprised.
They actually sounded good.
"They're a lot better than the last time I heard 'em." Tim drawled, leaning down toward her to be heard, his breath tickling her cheek.
"You've seen Landry perform before?" She asked, surprised.
Tim nodded. "He helped me out a while back with some school stuff, and I went to see him play kind of as a thank you. He's a hell of a lot better now."
Julie grinned, nodding in agreement. She glanced over at Tyra, noticing the smile on Tyra's face.
"Landry's kind of cute up there." Julie said in teasing voice, giving Tyra a look.
"Yeah, I know." Tyra mumbled, never taking her eyes off the stage.
Julie smiled. Maybe this was what Tyra and Landry needed to get them over their 'break' or 'break up' – whichever it was.
"I'm gonna go get another drink." Tyra stated after a few songs had been played. "I'll be back in a minute."
Julie nodded, watching her walk back toward the bar.
As Tyra walked away, Tim moved to stand behind her, wrapping his long arms around her waist and resting them lightly on her stomach.
He pulled her back against his chest, and lowered his head to rest next to hers. He held her, the curves of her body nestled perfectly against the front of his body.
Julie felt a little light-headed. Her blood was pulsing to the loud music, and having Tim so close was definitely heightening her senses.
With his solid form behind her, his strong arms around her, and his warm breath on the side of her face, the flutters in her stomach were in full force.
As good as she felt, she couldn't help but feel like something was bothering Tim.
He had been quiet, well more quiet than usual, on the ride home from school and on the ride to the bar.
She knew that it probably had to do with that representative from San Antonio State. That's when he had gone all quiet on her.
It hurt her heart that Tim felt like he wasn't good enough to go to college.
He was a lot smarter than he gave himself credit for, and he was a damn good football player.
Tim didn't exactly have a past history of having a whole lot of people believing in him and encouraging him.
Other than Billy and maybe Jason, that was it.
And she didn't want to pressure him in any way, but she wanted to let him know that he was good enough.
She believed in him, even if he didn't.
"Hey." She said, turning in his arms. "Let's step outside for a minute."
"You okay?" He asked, a worried look coming over his face.
"Yeah, yeah." Julie replied quickly. "I just need a little break from the loud music and all this smoke."
Tim nodded, taking her hand in his and leading her through the crowd and out the door.
"Better?" He asked, leaning up against the outside of the building, swinging their entwined hands back and forth.
"Yeah." Julie smiled. "I just needed a moment."
"No worries." He replied, pulling her closer so that she stood between his legs, his body heat feeling heavenly in the chilly autumn air.
"Can I ask you a question?" She said softly, placing her hands on his chest, tracing the Panthers' logo on his shirt with her fingers.
"Uh-oh." Tim drawled, giving her a leery look.
"Shut up." Julie said, smiling up at him. "Seriously though, are you okay? You've been quiet all afternoon. Or ever since that guy from San Antonio State approached you."
Tim sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Don't lie to me." Julie said, patting him on the chest. "I can tell it's bothering you. I know you, Tim. Are you nervous about the meeting? Or are you upset at me?"
"What?" He asked, giving her a look. "Of course I'm not upset with you. Why would I be?"
Julie shrugged slightly, looking down at his chest as she spoke. "I don't know. I guess I was worried that you might have thought I was trying to pressure you into meeting with him, or that I was trying to pressure you to go to college."
Tim shook his head, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Nah, I didn't think that."
"Good." Julie said. "Because I don't want to ever try and persuade you to do something you don't want to do. But I do want you to know that regardless of what you think about yourself, I know that you are capable of going to college, and being successful."
"I don't know, Jules." Tim mumbled, shaking his head. "I mean, honestly going to college hasn't ever really been something I've thought about."
"Well, you should think about it. I'm not sayin' that you should definitely go, but you should at least consider it." She nodded. "Don't just rule out the option of college because you don't think you could make it. You could do it, Tim." She said softly. "I've got faith in you." She whispered, leaning up and placing a soft kiss on his lips.
She pulled back, meeting his gaze. He looked adorable with his hair hanging in his face and a small, somewhat self-conscious smile on his lips.
"You're something else, Jules." He mumbled, pulling her closer and placing a kiss on her forehead.
"That's what I hear." She said cheekily, laughing softly as he pulled her against his warm body.
As she laid her head against his solid chest, she smiled. It was all going to be alright.
And hopefully she'd managed to get through that gorgeous, hard head of his and he'd at least give going to college a second thought.
