And, at least,hedidn’t rib me about the new cheerleader.
Emily Huxley.
Just the thought of her name had a visual dancing in my mind. A blink, and I remembered her lean brown legs and tight, toned stomach. Another blink, and I saw that daring smirk, that twinkle of challenge in her dark eyes.
It had been a couple weeks now, but I could still remember how she’d looked in the soft light outside the stadium that nightwhen she toed the line between us, could still feel her fingernails sliding into the hair at the nape of my neck and gripping just tight enough to make my cock react.
I’d never had to use so much restraint in my life.
It had been impossible to shake this girl since that night. Not that I sat around thinking about her by any means — I had other shit on my plate. But almost every day, she’d sneak her way into my thoughts. I’d be in the shower and remember her smoky laugh. I’d be on a run and recall the confident way she toyed with me, how she was begging me to play back. A random girl in a coffee shop with jet black hair would have me turning my head in a double take, wondering if it was her.
Emily was the kind of girl who sank her claws into your flesh and planted roots.
And she’d certainly broken the skin with me.
Even so, I wasn’t sure how I felt about her. She was a knockout, that was easy enough to decipher. She was obviously a talented dancer, since she’d made the team. She was a confident and alluring woman.
But she was also a menace.
She’d made a scene when I gave her the rose at the audition — a scene my teammates were likely never going to let me live down. And to top it off, I’d caught her smoking a joint outside the stadium at the end of the night like some fucking high schooler.
It didn’t matter that it was legal in our state, or that I had plenty of other friends who recreationally used. She was a cheerleader, just like I was a player, and we had standards to uphold. There were rules we had to follow, plain and simple.
She was the kind of girl who broke all the rules, who tested every boundary to see just how much she could get away with.
And for that reason alone, I knew I had to stay away from her.
This was a huge season for me. Coming off a decent rookie performance, this year was my chance to really break out, to become a starting receiver that Coach and our quarterback could depend on. I wanted to surprise people. I wanted to be picked up after a few weeks in every fantasy league around the nation because I was the talk of every sportscaster.
I wanted to solidify my spot, secure a giant contract, and set myself up for life.
Set myfamilyup for life.
As if the thought had conjured them, my phone buzzed in the pocket of my joggers, Mom’s face lighting up the screen when I pulled it free.
Just like it always did, my heart ached at the sight of her smiling face. It was a picture I’d snapped the weekend I convinced her and Dad to let me take them all out to a lake house in Montana. Mom’s honey-gold eyes were tired in the photo, her smile a bit strained from the hassle of traveling. It wasn’t an easy feat with all the machines and comforts we had set up at home. But she was beautiful. She was strong. And with the sunset burning a brilliant orange and pink behind her, she looked like the angel I felt she was.
Yeah, I was a mama’s boy. But any man who had a mom like mine would find it hard pressed not to be.
“Hey, Mama,” I answered, keeping my eyes on Sebastian as he jogged over to another little boy around his age and asked if he wanted to play with his rocks. Sebastian always had a bag of rocks on him.
Weird ass kid.
God, I loved him.
“Hello, my handsome son. You have a second to chat?”
“You know I always have time for you.”
She paused, and I didn’t have to see her to know she was smiling, to know her eyes were likely glossing with tears. I didn’tknow why in the hell she thought I’d ever reach a point in my life that I’d be too busy for her, that I wouldn’t put her, Dad, and Ginny first. It was like it always surprised her, like she was waiting for me to just up and move on into a life that didn’t include them.
“Your sister just hit level four inBaldur’s Gateand is very excited. She wanted to show you…” Mom paused, and I knew she was trying to recall what likely sounded like another language to her. “The below shadow world? Oh, no, sorry, that is clearly not correct.”
I chuckled at the sound of my sister in the background. It wasn’t her voice, but the one from the speech-generating device she had. And I could tell by the way she kept hitting the button to make the voice repeat itself that she was annoyed with Mom for mucking up the terminology of the game.
“Geez, Mom, get it right,” I teased.
“Hush, you.” She listened again, and then corrected herself. “Theunderdark before the mountain pass. Whatever that means.”
