Page 50 of Fearlessly Us

“We’re just messing with you, you know,” Maddy says, taking my hand again, voice low like it’s just for me. “You don’t have to go home with him if you don’t want to. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.” She turns to me, face serious. “Say the word and we’ll leave the stadium right now and go get tequila drunk, no boys allowed.”

“You would do that for me?” The words come before I can stop them, embarrassment heating my cheeks.

Maddy doesn’t seem surprised by my question. Instead, she squeezes my hand and nods. “Of course. There isn’t anything we wouldn’t do for you. Bury the body, friends forever, smart bitches for life, Cait. That’s just the way that goes.”

“For life!” Maya says, swinging an arm around my shoulders. “And if you want to go get drunk you know I’m always down, but might I suggest banging the hot football player first, and then we can get drunk tomorrow night when you can tell us everything?”

“That is a much better plan.” Sophie beams at me and Sarah grins and Emmy claps, as if she’s applauding my impending night of…whatever this night is about to bring. Maddy is on one side of me and Maya the other, and their enthusiasm chases away some of the nerves sparking under my skin. My unease at sharing and the thought of all the things I’m still keeping buried.

We may be in a football stadium with the noise of sixty thousand fans, but in this moment, it’s just the six of us. And it’s as perfect a moment as I’ve ever had.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CAITLIN

“What a fucking game!” Sophie dashes across the floor outside the locker room and throws herself at Tyler, who laughs and catches her on the fly, dipping her down and kissing her like they’re the only people on earth and not standing in a hallway crowded with players, press, and sundry family members.

“Hey, Sal,” he murmurs, pressing their foreheads together, eyes only for her.

“Kiss me, Wildcat,” Cam says, coming up behind Maddy and wrapping his arms around her. “It feels like I haven’t seen you in days.”

Maddy laughs and turns to face him, laying a hand on his cheek. “You literally saw me four hours ago, right before the game.”

Cam grins, kissing her nose. “That’s too fucking long,” he says, bending to kiss her lips.

I turn away to give them all a minute, my eyes searching the hallway for my other friends. Sarah is chatting with a couple offensive linemen I vaguely recognize from a party at Tyler’s once upon a time. Maya is deep in conversation with a player’s wife who I think is a parent of one of the kids in the fifth-grade class Maya teaches. And Emmy…is nowhere to be found. With Sophie and Maddy otherwise occupied and everyone out here talking to someone else, I am suddenly, awkwardly, alone.

I should probably leave. The hallway outside an NFL locker room is not the place for me.

Crowds make me itchy. Small talk makes me die a little inside. Sports are stupid.

I try to resist the urge to fidget, but I have no idea what to do with my hands.

This was a dumb idea.

I’m looking around trying to figure out how the hell to get out of here when a hand holding a paper to-go cup appears in front of me, and my body jolts at the deep rasp rumbling in my ear.

“Thanks for waiting, Princess.”

Drew’s body moves in behind mine, hot breath fluttering over the skin behind my ear, and I can’t suppress the shiver that rolls through me. I know he notices because he chuckles low, the light hand he lays on my hip sending warmth cascading through me, counteracting the shiver. I’m a flood of feeling, a superfluity of sensation, and I have yet to even look him in the eye.

Ignoring the cup being handed my way, I spin around, and looking him full in the face doesn’t help my situation. Because Drew is closer to me than I expect, the golden ring around his brown eyes making them glow. His hair is still damp from his post-game shower, perfectly tousled and falling over his forehead in waves I have the sudden, intense urge to run my fingers through. He smells like sandalwood and spice, and he’s wearing jeans and a soft looking navy-blue hoodie. The whole look is so cozy hot that for a minute I wonder what it would be like to burrow into him and never let go.

I lose control of what my eyes are doing as they drift down to the lips I once felt devouring mine and I linger there, remembering what it was like to kiss him, thinking about how much I would really like to do it again, before I realize I’ve been fixated on his lips for an unreasonable amount of time and jerk my eyes back up to his. He’s looking at me with a raised eyebrow like he knows exactly where my mind went, and how do I always manage to lose the upper hand around this man?

It’s a mystery I haven’t been able to solve.

Without a word, Drew reaches into his pocket and pulls out a mini-Snickers, flipping it to me and handing me the cup at the same time. Whatever is inside sloshes around as I take it automatically, and my ears perk up because I know that sound.

“Is there pebble ice in here?” I ask, giving the cup a little shake and looking from it to him.

Drew grins, raking a hand through his hair. “You know it. And Sprite.”

“Why?”

When he reaches out and tucks a piece of hair behind my ear, grazing his fingers lightly over my jaw, I feel the touch right down to my toes. “One of these days, I’m going to do something for you and you aren’t going to need to ask me why I did it because you’ll know.”

“Know what?” My voice comes out a little breathy, my heart beating wildly in my chest from the way his hand trails down my throat and rests there, thumb skating over my jaw. I wish mightily that my college or law school days had included a slutty phase where I learned how to handle men like this because I’m suddenly acutely aware that I’m way out of my depth.