Drinks flowed, and I began to lose track of the number of drinks I’d had. Especially as his leg stayed pressed to mine. I was painfully aware of him. I caught a whiff of his body wash when he’d shift—the standard hotel body wash I refused to use. There was another scent mixed with it, something that reminded me of leather and wood and somehow blended with the generic hotel soap. I kept stealing glances at him, and when I did, I’d lose my train of thought.
I noticed little details about him, a habit I’d somehow started after he’d landed on top of me in our solo practice the other day. Things like the way the five o’clock shadow on his jaw made his face look more angular and the way that, in the dim bar lighting, his eyes looked almost brown. In our practice, I’d noticed flecks of gold and green in them. I also noticed the way his long fingers wrapped fully around the thick glass he’d been sipping from most of the night.
Clearly, I was buzzed. Drunk, maybe.
I kept noticing things about him as the crowd of my teammates started to thin. Liam and Jonesy left. The offensive linemen I’d talked to at the bar left. Rowan and I were among the last to leave, and even then, it was only because Rowan pointed out the time. I didn’t really want to leave. The drinks Rowan had consumed loosened his tongue, and even with other peoplearound us, I was reminded of the way he’d talked the day I’d gotten locked out of my apartment.
I liked getting to know him.
The Portland air was biting as we stepped outside, a far cry from the heat of Tucson. I wrapped my arms around myself and wished I’d had the foresight to grab a jacket. That was always on the list of items I forgot to pack for trips, especially in the fall.
“You okay?” Rowan asked as we started down the sidewalk back to the hotel.
“Bit chilly,” I confessed, “but it’s what, only a ten-minute walk? I’ll be fine.”
“Mmk,” he hummed.
We walked another half block, slower than the walk to the bar had been. I couldn’t walk in a straight line. Something about the combination of standing up and the chilled air made me realize just how much I’d had to drink.
Then I stumbled.
Rowan’s reaction was immediate, reaching out to steady me. One of his strong arms wrapped around my waist, and the cold faded from the parts of my skin he touched. It had to be the alcohol that had me curling closer to his sturdy frame, because I wouldn’t have done it otherwise. Rowan kept his arm secured around me all the way to the hotel, only dropping it at the door.
I could still feel it as I climbed into bed that night.
Two days later, I was still thinking about the way Rowan’s arm felt around my waist.
It wasn’t just the way his arm had felt around me. That day at practice, I kept catching whiffs of that leather and wood smell.I got distracted by the deep timbre of his voice when he spoke in my earshot, so distracted that at one point, I was late on the hand off from Liam and ended up flat on my ass by one of the defensive tackles.
Our offensive coordinator, Coach Jones, ripped me a new one for that one. He’d made me stay after practice and had a whole conversation with me about staying focused. I’d like to say it was the only time he’d had to have that conversation with me, but I didn’t like to lie, and that would’ve been a big one.
I had to focus. I had to stop thinking about how sturdy Rowan’s body felt against mine. I had to stop thinking about the way he smelled.
I could do it.
I could not do it.
Because when I’d come back from the grocery store, picking up Aunt Ethel’s shopping for the week, I caught another whiff of it, and my stomach dropped clear down to my toes. My mouth actually went dry, and mental images that did not need to be in my head crowded in. Mostly about very sinful things to do in that elevator.
I was very grateful when the elevator doors opened.
I rushed down the hallway to Aunt Ethel’s door and knocked. A few minutes later, my elderly aunt opened the door to let me in. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she said in lieu of any real greeting. She reached out and took two of the lighter bags from me, barely relieving any weight from my load, and led me into the kitchen.
I followed her, not speaking until I dropped the heavy bags of groceries on the kitchen counter. “Have you ever had bad thoughts about someone completely inappropriate?” I asked her as I started to unpack my groceries.
My aunt studied me before grabbing the loaf of bread and putting it in the bread box on her counter, a handcrafted andhand painted thing my Aunt Annabelle had made her before I was even born. “Not in many years,” she answered. “Has someone caught your eye?”
I stacked cold items on one side of the counter as I emptied them from the bags. “I don’t know if he’s caught my eye, but he’s definitely caught my imagination.” Aunt Ethel grabbed the stack of lunch meat I’d made and started to put it away. I caught the look on her face as she passed, urging me to go on and give her more information. “You know the new guy on the floor? The tall redhead?”
“Your teammate?” Damn. She’d noticed that part. I’d hoped she would’ve just thought he was a random guy, but I should have known better. My aunt had not missed a single game of my entire career, even if she mostly watched them on television since my college days. “Ranger, I think it was?”
“Rangecroft,” I corrected gently as I passed her a pack of sliced deli cheese. “Rowan Rangecroft. But yes, my teammate. Like I said, completely inappropriate.”
She put the cheese away and reached a wrinkled hand back toward me for more refrigerated items. “Tell me about him?”
“He’s…” I thought for a moment. What could I tell my aunt about Rowan Rangecroft? “He’s hot. He’s a good football player. Surface level, but he’s kind of hard to get to know. He doesn’t talk a lot, but when he does talk, it’s like you’re the only person in the room with him, even when you’re not. He gives you his full attention, and he talks like he’s known you forever. Like a few weeks ago, I got locked out—”
“I remember,” Aunt Ethel interrupted.
