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Half the line chuckled, the other growled. Practice was different than usual. There was an unspoken tension running through the team like a current.
My hands tingled. My feet danced. I had to get ready to run fifty yards to catch the ball. I didn’t want fake wedding plans in my head. It didn’t matter if the guys were dicks now. In the end they would thank me for what I was doing. This cover story was going to change things for the team. By the end of the season, they would see what the engagement did for them. What it did for every one of their families. It was going to bring stability and reassurance to this team. It would
bring us better draft picks. Better trades.
And fuck it, better contracts for the guys who were already here. Isaac and I had Vanessa’s undivided attention. We could make the changes everyone wanted.
Right now we were divided. No one gave a shit what happened this season. The old man’s death had made everyone restless. I hoped like hell, this Hail Mary we planned could bring us back together. Because it didn’t matter how much money we made, or how many tickets we sold. If the Warriors didn’t win games, this was all a fucking waste of time.
I had to put it all on the field. I always had.
Isaac ran down the other side of the field as I took off sprinting. He was fast. I didn’t like to admit sometime he could outrun me.
We had always pushed the other to be a better competitor. And it worked. Like now, I wasn’t only trying to get open and dodge the defender, I was trying to be Luke’s main target. I wanted that ball.
I switched and dodged. The sweat ran in my eye as I looked right into the sun. But the ball was coming toward me and I knew if I wanted passes during games, I had to put it o the line at practice.
I hurled myself forward, yanking the ball to my chest. I cradled it next to my ribs as I landed hard. My helmet bounced as I rolled on my back. Shit that was a hard landing. I held the ball in the air.
“Got it.”
I laughed. I could hear them talking all around me. It was a hell of an athletic catch. The best play we’d run all week.
“Good one,” Luke called. “Let’s do it again.”
I hopped up from the field, brushing the grass from my practice jersey.
“Nice.” Isaac threw me a thumbs-up from across the field. I’d do it again. I’d run it over and over if it meant that play turned into points on the scoreboard.
“Let’s go, ladies,” Luke screamed.
I walked to the line of scrimmage. This was what I was meant to do. My hands twitched. And out of nowhere it him me. Maybe I was meant for something else. Maybe I was meant for Vanessa McCade.
23
Vanessa
I’d never been to the Sports Now studios before. Their main station was in New York, but they kept satellite offices in cities that had more than one professional team. The Austin building wasn’t much bigger than the local news station, but it had a completely different feel. It was plastered in sports memorabilia.
I walked through the halls, staring at the framed Warriors jerseys and Austin’s baseball stars’ portraits. It had been a while since I had gone to the ballpark.
“Hey, there you are, darlin’.”
I turned as Dylan walked toward me. He looked sexy as hell. He was wearing a dark charcoal suit that was cut and fit him perfectly. It looked expensive. His eyes were brighter. Greener.
“Hey. How was practice? Where’s Isaac?” I looked around him for the other man who had stolen every part of my logic.
“Talking to Trip Steiner in the lobby.”
“Ahh.” Trip was the Warriors’ play-by-play caller on the local station.
“Ready to do this?” He tangled his fingers through mine and raised my left hand between us.
“I think so.”
He tugged me toward him. My heels tipped as I leaned into his body. I felt the vibrations rumble through his chest.
“You know I only went through with this for one reason,” he whispered.
