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“I’m fine,” I say. “Just stood up too fast.”
“We’re about to head to Pasqually’s for dinner,” Cole, the goalie of the team, says. “You in, Zoey?”
I smile, feeling grateful that the guys on the team are nice enough to try to include me. Even though there’s one big, broad, tall, muscular reason I absolutely shouldn’t try to get any closer to the players.
“Sorry, I’m about to go to dinner with my dad.”
“Can you ask him to take it easy on us next practice if we win against Ohio?” Tristan asks with a wink.
“No promises,” I laugh.
“See you in Psyche class,” Liam says, joining his crew as they head out.
Before they reach the door, he turns his head back and shoots me one more deadly wink.
Maybe I need to start thinking about what I can do to keep this from going any further, when there’s so much on the line for both of us …
13
LIAM
“To kicking Ohio’s ass!” Hunter lifts his drink up over the middle of the table, opening a toast.
“I’ll fucking drink to that.” Ryder’s the first to join him, and we all follow up, clinking our glasses together.
It’s Friday night, and we’re out at the bar. We’re leaving Saturday evening to head to Ohio’s home turf, so we’re allowing ourselves a max of two light beers each to unwind. No hard liquor, nothing that’s going to leave us with a hangover in the morning or possibly impair our performance two days from now. But we all agree we could use a low-key night out to unwind.
Although, I’m feeling anything but unwound right now. Because it just so happens that we ended up in the same bar we went out to Halloween night.
And whenever I let my eyes stray too far to my right, they end up resting on the door to the room Zoey and I snuck into three months ago. Just being this close to the room it went down in is enough to make my cock press against my jeans.
Hunter leans over the table. “So, am I gonna have to be the first one to say it?” His voice is low and conspiratorial.
“No, you’re not the only one who realizes that Tristan just farted,” Grant quips, not missing a beat. It earns him a playful punch in the arm from Tristan and laughs from the other guys.
“No, not that. Although, yuck, Tristan,” Hunter says, crunching up his nose. “What I’m talking about,” now his voice goes lower still, “is Coach’s daughter.”
Immediately, tension rips through me.
“What about her?” Walsh asks.
“I mean,” Hunter says, his voice savoring the secrecy like he’s biting into the juiciest piece of gossip, “that she’s a fucking knockout.”
My grip tightens so hard around my beer that I’m worried I’ll shatter the glass. Even though Hunter’s the guy on the team I’m closest with, suddenly I have to suppress an overwhelming urge to grip his neck instead of my drink.
Not that he’s saying anything that I haven’t been thinking myself ever since I met her.
“Sure,” Walsh shrugs, with all the casualness of noting that it’s wet on a rainy day. “But she’s Coach’s daughter. Not to mention working for the social media team. You’d have to be a moron to even dream about doing anything with her.”
“Definitely,” Cole echoes. “I mean, I don’t have eyes for any women other than Brooke,” he says, and for a second, he gets the dreamiest look in his eyes. “But even if that weren’t the case, I wouldn’t let them linger on Zoey. You’re asking for trouble just letting yourself acknowledge how attractive she is.”
“Even you single guys have to be smart enough to know she’s strictly off limits,” says Ryder, who just a couple months ago was another single guy like me, Hunter, and Walsh before he met his current girlfriend Candace when they were forced to be roommates. “Right, Liam?”
I must have a guilty conscience, because it suddenly feels like I’m sitting in a police interrogation room with a bright light shining in my face.
“Of course. We just have to think of her as a co-worker.” The words are bitter on my tongue, because that’s absolutely not how I think of Zoey.
“Hey, I get it,” Hunter says, showing his palms in a display of surrender. “EvenIdon’t think with my dick so much that I’d risk going for the coach’s daughter. I’m just saying, my eyes know how to appreciate a beautiful woman.”
