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I laughed, shoving the ball against his chest with a little more force than necessary. I pushed my shoulder against his before skipping past him. “It kind of sounds like you’re trying to distract me, Mr. Joyce.”
“Never,” he called, setting himself up to throw it to me. I wasn’t certain how far I should go, considering I’d have to throw it back, but at least I knew there were another fifteen balls next to him.
After throwing the ball to me several times, we came to the conclusion that I needed to be about three feet away for optimal play, which worked. I could talk through theories he found hard, and he could recite them back to me with ease. Something I knew he never would have been able to do before.
“I can’t believe this is working. Can we do it more often?” We’d been out here for longer than our allocated studying time, but I didn’t care. I was having too much fun.
“I’ll need to see if I can make your game fit with more concepts. Those took me a long time to figure out. I didn’t realize how complicated football was.”
Tanner was throwing a ball between his hands. “Oh, yeah? What do you find difficult?”
“I was just never into sports, and neither were my parents, so I didn’t see much of it growing up. I may have had a little help from Professor Murphy on those two examples,” I admitted, feeling somewhat embarrassed by the omission.
“Professor Murphy, huh? If he’s giving you pointers, then I’m sorry to tell you, but it’s probably out of date.” He threw the ball back to me, and my jaw dropped just as I caught the ball.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means. He’s a little old to be teaching you about football. How about next time you have a question on it, you come to me?”
Pursing my lips, I threw the ball, refusing to dignify that with a response.
“I don’t get it, though. Surely, when you dated Connor, you had to go to some of his games.”
I groaned, my body shivering at the memory. Not because I was disgusted, but because the rink was damn cold. “What games? He was on the bench the whole time.”
Tanner sucked in a breath. “Ouch. I know he was a dick, and all, but that was cold.”
“What? Just as cold as him making out with Rachel at a party he asked me to be at?” Tanner’s lips tightened and I knew the silence was brought out by me. “Honestly, I’m happy I’m out of it with him. I just wish I hadn’t been such an idiot and fallen for his charm in the first place.”
“Honestly,” Tanner mimics me, tossing the ball in the air and not looking at me. “I would never describe Connor as charming. The guy is about as interesting as a brick.”
“You got that right.”
“Hey, Teach.” He didn’t let me stew over my thoughts of Connor for long. “Wanna learn how to play?”
“Not necessarily,” I griped. “I only learned the basics so I could understand it enough to explain it to you. I’m not actually interested in the sport.”
He clutched his chest in mock shock. “Ouch. You know, I still think you should come to a game once we’re playing again. I think you’d like it.”
“And what makes you think that?”
“Because there’s a lot of strategy and gameplay that goes into it. I could imagine you getting into it.” I gave him a pedantic look. “Come on, let me show you a few things.”
Without warning, he backs up and throws the ball in my direction. By some miracle, I catch it.
“Did that just happen?”
“Congratulations, you’re about to learn how to play Wide Receiver.”
“What do you mean?” I stepped back in unease because he was watching me, almost like he was… hungry.
He dipped his chin, a menacing scowl on his face, before taking a confident step forward. I took a tentative step back, ending up on the tenth yard line.
“I’d run if I were you, Teach.” Then he upped his pace, and I felt like a deer in headlights. My fight-or-flight instincts immediately took over as he pounded his way to me. I let out a little squeal before running around him, somehow just marginally missing him as I ran down the field.
Unfortunately for me, I was not an athlete, and I was huffing for breath after a few strides. Tanner didn’t go easy on me, either. When he caught up to me, he circled his arms around my waist and pulled me to the ground. Skirt be damned, I was ending up on the grass whether I liked it or not.
I yelped in surprise as I was yanked down, and landed on the ground with a thud, and a very heavy football player lying on top of me. His body was too big to squirm out of his hold, and I almost thought that Tanner was enjoying this. “Is this how you treat all your wide receivers?”
