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“She has two coworkers that I know of. One she hangs out with a lot, but I don’t know much about her. Want to double date?”
He stares into the crowd and nods. “I think that would be nice.”
I give him a sideways glance. “Ah, I didn’t know you had a sweet bone in that hulk sized body of yours.”
“You think I look like the Hulk?” He flexes but nothing happens since he’s wearing pads. “I have been working out.”
I roll my eyes. He weighs over three-hundred pounds, and his jersey barely covers his belly half the time. None of this fazes him though. He struts around like he’s the next GQ model. It’s all in the confidence you have, I suppose. I’m a big dude, but I like to keep things tight. I don’t mind being someone’s teddy bear, I just don’t want to always look like one.
“You gonna hook me up?”
“Yep, I’ll talk to Kelsey after the game. No promises though. We don’t talk a whole lot about her coworkers.”
“What do you talk about?” he waggles his eyebrows at me and makes a kissy face.
“How much of a perv you are,” I say pointedly.
Trey’s face goes blank, and I do everything I can to keep a straight face. “Bro. Not cool.”
I slap him on the shoulder pad and then make my way toward the wall. I hadn’t thought of asking Kelsey if she wanted to come on the field, so I didn’t secure her a pass. That doesn’t mean I can’t go see her though.
Kelsey sees me walking toward her section and comes down the stairs. She leans over the rail and gives me a kiss. The crowd around us goes wild, and to say I’m shocked she does this is an understatement, but I happily kiss her back.
“I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me, too,” she says, looking fucking adorable in my custom jersey, which is hands down one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. I try not to think about Maggie, and how she would wear my number on the clothes she had made, but never my jersey. I don’t want to compare her and Kelsey but sometimes my mind goes there. I feel like I was meant to meet Kelsey, and we were meant to start down this path together.
“Will you wait for me after the game?”
She nods and bites her lower lip, killing me slowly. “I’ll see you in the hallway afterward. Autumn said she’ll take me.”
“See you then, honey.”
I head back to my team and let the lot of them give me shit for kissing my girl before the game. Those of us who have significant others don’t really care what they think because someday it’s going to be them. Hell, a few of the guys have girls back in their hometown, but they’re all smart enough not to move until they have a ring on their finger. Well, I say they’re smart, but that might be because I have a sister and wouldn’t want her putting her life on hold for a man regardless of what he does for work.
After the coin toss, the defense takes the field. I sit down next to Noah, and when no one’s around I spill my guts. “I think I’m in love.”
“With the game. I hope,” he says without taking his eyes off the playbook.
“You get me, Westbury.” I cover my heart with my hand. He looks up and then around us.
“Is Kelsey here?”
“Yeah, with Autumn.”
“That’s good. Peyton likes her.”
“You mean as long as we win, and I don’t fuck up.”
Noah closes the book and sets it on the bench next to him. “That game, it’s not your fault,” he says even though I don’t believe him. It was my fault. I have one job and that’s to get the ball into his hands. If I can’t do that, what good am I to him or the team?
“Shit happens,” he adds. “We’ve all had shitty games. If you remember correctly, when Peyton was in the hospital, I was a colossal fuck up. I thought for sure Walters was going to kick me off the team for insubordination, and if he had, I would’ve deserved it. I would do anything for Peyton. Absolutely anything.”
“What if she goes to another team?”
Noah sighs. “This isn’t the time or place for that discussion,” he says as he looks around. “Come over tonight.”
“I’ll talk to Kels and see what she says. I don’t want to make plans without her.”
