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“Okay, well, it’s a form of learning where you use your body through movement, feel and touch.”
The ball stopped moving, and he looked at me intently.
“You want me to learn through feeling and touch?” He raised a brow, the smirk growing on his face. I hated that I loved the way it looked on him. “Maybe if Rachel phrased it that way, she would have gotten further with her tutoring gig,” he mused, and the mere mention of her name made something churn in my stomach. I wanted to say it wasn’t jealousy, but it sure as hell felt a lot like it, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
I stalked toward him with the most confident strut I could and took the ball from his hand. “Don’t worry, I’m not offering you my body.” He immediately looked down, checking me out before I could stop him. I clutched the ball close to my chest, creating some distance between us.
“Too bad,” he said.
I swallowed, surprised at how thick the air felt between us. We were outside, yet my chest was heaving as though I’d been starved of oxygen for hours.
“I just figured that since you’re good at sports, kinesthetic learning might be something that could help you.”
“And you think it’s going to somehow make me magically better at economics? Sorry, Teach. I’ve been with you on most of your methods, but this one seems a little farfetched.”
I threw the ball straight into his chest and he caught it with ease, quickly throwing it back to me. I wished I could say I also caught it with ease, but I didn’t. I stumbled back, concerned that divot I’d imagined was right behind me, ready to take me down. Standing on wobbly legs, Tanner was polite enough not to make a comment.
“Does it? Can you explain Risk Shifting and Bondholder-Shareholder Conflicts as a concept? It’s explained in Chapter Eight of your textbook.”
His face dropped. “You already know I can’t. I haven’t listened to that chapter yet.”
I threw the ball back at him, and even though he was a foot away, it fell to the floor, like a lackluster birthday balloon. Ever the gentleman, Tanner still didn’t laugh. He just picked the ball up, and tossed it my way.
“That’s where you’re wrong. You can.”
“No. I can’t.”
“Can you explain to me what a Hail Mary is?”
“In football?”
“Yeah. Show me a Hail Mary.”
“Umm, I’d need a few more players to show you, but I can explain it.”
“Great.”
He took a step back, confusion still laced across his face. “But what’s it got to do with risk shifting?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Okay. Well, a Hail Mary is when you’re behind in a football game and it’s close to the end.”
“Show me,” I emphasized again. “Pretend you’re on the field with your teammates and do what you’d do if you were running a Hail Mary play.”
Holding the football, he looked down at the field. “Okay.” For a minute, I could see his eyes shifting as though he was looking for a player on the field. Then he stepped back on his right foot and drew his arm with the football back. Then he threw the ball so far down the field, I was in awe. The ball spiraled like it was a missile, homing in on its target. I admit, sports had never interested me. Even when Connor tried to get me to go to a few hockey games. I feigned interest as I sat there, freezing my ass off in the rink. I was bored out of my mind, and it all felt pointless because with him sitting on the bench, I felt like I was contributing more to the team’s win with my cheers since he was sitting on the bench the whole night.
I just couldn’t get into hockey. But watching Tanner… Well, that was something different. Watching him put his whole body into a throw was something to be admired. You could see the muscles in his arms contort as he followed through with the throw.
When the ball bounced around the five-yard line, I dropped my jaw in awe. “How was that even possible?”
“Well, a Hail Mary isn’t exactly a standard play. They’re risky. You only go for it when you’ve got nothing left to lose,” he explained, completely unaware that I was referring to his throw. I let him keep going, though, because explaining it to me was exactly what I wanted from him.
“The success rate’s low. So if you had the choice, you’d pick a succession of shorter plays to get you in field goal position.”
“But you still use them?”
“Hell, yeah. When you’re down to the wire, you’ve got to throw everything you’ve got at winning. Even if it means losing spectacularly from an interception.”
