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“Actually, I’ve built up quite an impressive tolerance to grass in my lungs,” I shot back with a grin. “The trick is little and often. Every Friday night works best for me.”
“Jesus, Gibs,” Johnny groaned. “You just can’t help yourself, can you?”
“Take a walk, Gibson,” Coach roared, blowing his whistle. “And don’t step foot on my pitch until you have an attitude adjustment.”
“Woo-hoo!”
Thoroughly delighted with myself, I dropped Danny like a sack of spuds and hauled ass toward freedom.
“You know you just gave the lazy fucker what he wanted.”
“Language!”
“Why does he get to leave early?”
“Less of the backchat, Ten.”
“But he started the fight.”
“Dammit, Gibson! I’ve changed my mind. Get back here!”
“La, la, la.” Plugging my ears with my fingers, I ran faster than I had all training and legged it to safety. “I can’t hear a word of it, lads.”
When I reached the steps to the P.E. hall, three familiar faces greeted me. “How’s my brown-eyed girl?”
“Yay!” Claire squealed, clapping her hands. “Not only did you defend my honor, but you survived Coach’s boot camp of punishment to boot.” Springing to her feet, she made a beeline for me, not stopping until she had her arms wrapped tightly around my neck. Reaching up on her tippy toes, she pressed a loud, smacking kiss to my cheek. “My hero.”
“Nice.” I laughed, catching her around the waist. “I’ll defend your honor more often if it gets me this kind of attention.”
“You didn’t need to do it,” she hurried to say, expression serious for a beat before a huge smile filled her face. “But it was so epic.”
“Epic as in sexy?”
“Epic as in chivalrous.”
“And sexy?”
“Yes, Gerard, and sexy.” She laughed, trailing her fingertips over my swollen cheekbone. “Oh, look at your poor face.”
“He’ll survive,” Lizzie grumbled, rising to her feet, bitch mode activated. “Congrats on getting the whole team punished, Thor. You’ve outdone yourself.”
“Always happy to please.”
“It wasn’t a compliment, asshole—”
“We were watching from the sidelines,” Shannon explained, standing up and thankfully interrupting the Viper. “It looked intense out there, Gibs.” Chewing on her bottom lip, he glanced toward the pitch and then back to me. “Do you think Johnny’s okay? He’s still out there running drills.”
“Are you kidding me? Cap’s loving this.” I chuckled, feeling the need to soothe her anxiety. “Boot camp is like an orgasm to his workaholic ass.”
“Oh.” Her cheeks flushed bright pink with embarrassment, but a smile quickly replaced the concerned look on her face. “Okay. Well, that’s…good.”
“Can someone explain to me why Joey Lynch got a two-week suspension for hitting one rugby player, yet Thor incites an entire rugby team into brawling and gets off scot-free?” Lizzie demanded, folding her arms across her chest. “Seems to me like the patriarchy is in full working order at Tommen. Rich boys looking after rich boys and all that jazz.”
“You tell me, Liz,” I shot back, bristling. “Twomey can suspend me if he wants to. You’ll hear no complaints from me.”
“Except that he won’t,” she shot back. “Because Tommen protects their precious rugby heads at all costs. Isn’t that right, Thor?”
“Guys, come on,” Shannon begged. “Please don’t fight.”
