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Nope. Riley Jones stood framed in the doorway. She spoke into the apartment, then Eva slipped past her. Shock dropped my mouth open as I tried to find an explanation that wouldn’t lead to my downfall. Maybe they were friends. Maybe they had the same class.
Riley pulled out a set of keys and locked the door before leaving the frame.
Several pieces of information tumbled together into an unfortunate truth. Eva’s new roommate was Riley.
Fuck me.
6
No matter how many times I assured myself this was a practice like any other, I couldn’t get my racing heart to calm the hell down. I stood in the shadows at the entrance to the training field and scanned the green expanse. Most of the guys were milling about stretching in small clusters. None of them had noticed me yet.
I wasn’t nervous about my skills—I knew what I could do—but the stakes were much higher in this arena. These games would be televised and watched by NFL scouts, not that it made any difference to my future. For me, there wouldn’t be a career after college.Thiswas my chance, right now, to play.
As long as I didn’t fuck it up.
A whistle from the end of the field pulled my attention to Mac, who was doing a handstand in the end zone. His cropped jersey, the same as mine, bunched around his head revealing the tight abs he’d flashed at me a few days ago in the weight room.
Still no response. Thank god. At least my stupid hormones were only susceptible to Parker’s questionable charm. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I straightened my stance.
As if I’d summoned him with my thoughts, Parker stopped next to me at the end of the tunnel. The position shouldn’t have been intimate—the space was huge—but in the shadows where no one could see us against the bright sunlight, I felt like we were alone in the world.
He was close enough I only needed to shift a tiny bit to see his face. I risked it and found him watching me with the same intensity as the day of the team meeting. Heat filled my cheeks, and I prayed it was too dark for him to see me blush.
In sync, we both shifted our attention back to the field.
Parker ran a hand through his hair with a disgruntled noise. “You ready for this?”
His question surprised me. After our previous encounters, I’d expected him to try to warn me away. I kept my gaze firmly fixed on the players in the sun and took a deep breath. If he could be civil, so could I.
“Yes, but I like to take a minute before practice to get my head right.” I felt his curious glance but didn’t elaborate.
He cleared his throat. “I want to apologize for what I said the other day.”
“I’m listening.”
In my peripheral vision, his lips quirked up. “I shouldn’t have said what I did, whether or not you’re a teammate. I was an asshole.”
No excuses. No shifting of blame. As apologies went, it was pretty damn good.
I nodded and pulled my gloves out of the waistband of my shorts. “Apology accepted.”
Silence settled between us as we watched the team. Mac flipped back to his feet and shouted something at Noah.
Parker jerked his chin toward Mac’s antics. “He’s a good friend to have, but he doesn’t understand the concept of quiet.”
I snorted out a laugh. “I picked up that much. Why aren’t you out there?”
One shoulder lifted in a half shrug. “I like to get my head right too. Sometimes it’s hard to see the game past all the drama. Especially when you live with Mac. Music helps.”
I glanced at him and noticed the earbuds. So we were doing this. Pretending to be normal teammates. In the interest of my sanity, I tried to put in a little effort.
“What do you listen to?”
The faintest touch of pink hit the top of his ears, confirming that he’d probably seen my blush earlier. Points to him for not mentioning it.
“I have eclectic tastes. We should join the others for warm-up.”
Parker had a way of swallowing all of my attention, so I hadn’t noticed the guys on the field lining up. I swore under my breath and started forward, but one of my gloves slipped from my hand and hit the concrete floor with a soft slap. Parker snagged it off the ground for me before I could move.
