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She glanced at him. He wasn’t looking at her. The other players had hit the huddle.
“Huddle up, Bly.”
“Iris—” He looked at her now, big eyes through his helmet, and she frowned at him, then walked away.
What on—
And maybe the encounter had shaken her, because the very next play, the Thunder’s D-end came around and nearly flattened her on a blitz. But she’d also been focused on the center, trying to get a fix on his possible hold.
She threw the yellow flag just as the D-end clipped her, and she spun, hit the ground, one hand down.
The blitz failed, the pass incomplete to Bly, and Yannick blew the whistle, came running over. “You okay?”
She was already on her feet. “Yeah.” She pulled her yellow flag. “But we have a holding call on the Vikings.”
She stood, called the hold, but now her hip hurt.
The Thunder held the Vikings to three and out, then the Thunder got the ball and charged down the field in a series of short-run drives that ended with a field goal, and the half was over.
She jogged over to the sideline and grabbed her water bottle.
“You okay?” Zach asked. “That was a hard fall.”
“Naw. Nothing my brothers wouldn’t dish out when we played touch football at home.” She jogged in after Yannick and didn’t spare Hudson a look.
But she grabbed an ice pack during the half-time discussion.
Yannick stopped her on her way back out to the field. “Head on a swivel out there, Iris.”
“I got this.” She diverted and headed to the training room to dispose of her ice pack. Dropping it off, she was heading to the door when—
“Iris.”
She stilled. Turned.
Hudson stood in the hallway, holding his helmet, sweat dripping from his hair, and oh, he smelled. But his eyes, they landed on her, and she felt his gaze to her bones.
“Hud,” she managed, her voice more shaky than she’d like. “I can’t talk to you.” She turned.
“Ziggy called!”
She glanced back. “No, Hud. I’ll worry about it after the game.”
Then she pushed through the double doors, her heart a fist in her chest. So what Ziggy called? What, someone was going to take a shot at her in front of thousands? Hardly.
Running to her bench, she dropped off her water bottle, then stretched again as the teams came out. Hudson straggled at the end, not that she noticed.
Then Yannick blew the whistle, and the Vikings received for the second half.
The Vikings ran it back to the forty, and Hud jogged onto the field, glancing at her once, but she stepped back, away from him, counting the players, watching the line.
The handoff went to the running back, who headed around the end. She peddled back, still watching the line, when in her peripheral vision, she spotted Hud lighting up the defensive end. The man went down.
But the running back was long past the line of scrimmage. First down, and Yannick blew the whistle, but the play rattled her.
Seemed almost like a late hit on the defender. But she couldn’t be sure, and they had no replays for the exhibition game, and Arne said nothing, so she shrugged it off.
Four series of downs later, the big tight end, Tobias West, ran the ball into the end zone.
