Find Me in Philadelphia //nolan patrick

23. It's a Good One

After a nice and quick breakfast at the diner, we don't have much time before Nolan has to get to the arena.

In his bedroom, I go through my bag to get my jersey out and then quickly change into a pair of jeans and the jersey.

"Sam," Nolan yells from his closet. "One sec," I say back as I smooth my hair out with my brush.

With a final glance at myself in the mirror, I head to the far side of his room and into the closet. He's standing there with two ties in his hands- a solid navy blue one and then one that's burgundy with thin black stripes. He has a white dress shirt on and plain black dress pants. "The red one," I reply. "Thanks," he says and starts putting it around his neck to tie.

"You look nice," I comment as I lean against the door frame. "Thanks babe so do you," he replies sweetly and smiles at me from across the closet.

"I look the same every game," I beg to differ. It's true. I wear jeans and his jersey every game, I think I need to update my wardrobe.

With his tie finished, Nolan reaches for his suit jacket and then raises his eyebrow at me. "So what? You look cute every game."

"I mean, do you think I should- like dress up like the other girls do? It's just I never thought that a sports game was something you were supposed to dress up for and-"

"Sammy," Nolan laughs. "There's no dress code."

"I know," I laugh back. "But I think I'm gonna start dressing up a little."

He pouts and I tilt my head to the side. "I'll miss seeing you in my jersey," he says and reaches for my hips. I smile and shake my head.

"How bout every other game then?"

"Whatever you want," he gives in and then leans down to kiss me. Once he has his shoes on and hair combed, we head out of his bedroom. His mom is still getting ready in the guest room, but Steve and Aimee are relaxing and ready to go.

"You guys ready?" Nolan asks. His dad nods in response and Aimee stands up and sticks her phone in her pocket.

"Chill, we're all ready," she mocks. Nolan furrows his eyebrows and mumbles, "I am chill." Aimee rolls her eyes and I laugh.

Once Carrie enters the living room, she comes right over to her son and starts fussing over his appearance. "You look so grown up," she says and dabs at her eyes for tears. "So handsome."

Nolan blushes deeply. "Mom," he simply says in a way to tell her to stop fussing. I bite my lip to keep from smiling, and as Carrie gets herself together, I take Nolan's hand in mine to calm him down a bit. Just knowing him, having his family here is definitely putting him on edge.

He intertwines his fingers with mine and glances at me with a sheepish look. He's nervous.

"Well we better go so the kid isn't late," his dad Steve announces. They are so similar, it's actually a bit funny.

At that, we all leave and head into the elevator. The entire way to the parking garage under the building, Steve and Nolan talk hockey and it all gets a bit too technical for me to follow.

As we walk through the lobby of the apartment building and downstairs to the parking garage, Aimee shows me a picture on her phone of a hair color she plans to get. "Do you think I would look good with blonder hair?" She asks.

I look at the picture and it's a color of blonde that's not too pale, or bleached. It's more of like a golden blonde tone that I think would look great with Aimee's brown eyes. "I love that color," I respond. "You'd look great."