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Her straight hair flew side to side as she shook her head vehemently. Then nodded. “Hell yes. Got it.”
“Wait. I’m getting whiplash here, Jessa,” I said, setting down my taco, and wiping my hands before placing my palms flat on the table. “Why the turnaround?”
Her eyes rolled, then turned icy. Head jerked inhisdirection. She pointed, and I hissed, swatting at her finger. “That,” she growled, “is not allowed anywhere near you.”
My brow wrinkled. “Why?”
She cocked her head like I was missing the biggest piece of a puzzle ever presented to someone. “He’s Sebastian-”
“How do you know his-”
“Lockwood, Maddie.”
Wait, what?
I must’ve not used my inner voice, because Jessa nodded. “Yep. Owen’s brother. And our team’s newest fucking quarterback. And the biggest asshole in the NFL.”
“Owen has a brother?”
“Yep,” she popped the P. “And there’s no love lost between them, from what Reid has said.”
I glanced over my shoulder, and while he was hiding under a ball cap, the resemblance was faint, but now that I knew what I was looking for, I saw it.
The jaw line. His frame, though Sebastian (now that I knew his name, it felt like I knew a secret) was leaner and less intimidating.
But it was his eyes that were strikingly different.
Owen took everything in, and the few times we’d been in the same room, his gaze went from all the doors and where Reid was in relation to them. As if he had to protect her in the case of a bad situation arising. And even then, he didn’t relax unless his hand was on her, somewhere. Reminding her, steadying her…keeping her safe.
But Sebastian?
Earlier, when he was sitting on his bike in the rain, his green eyes stole my breath. Unfazed by the world around him and yet so intense. I felt his gaze like a lover's hand on my body. The world faded away, and he sawme. Not the scared girl I had become, but the woman I wanted to be. Strong, with dreams and wishes and all the things I had left behind when I was with AJ.
With that one fleeting moment, he saw all the places I kept things hidden.
The crowd grew louder as the TV over the bar flashed his picture, and I glanced back at him again. Hat pulled low over his eyes, intensity rolled off him in waves. The air crackled with electricity, but we were the only ones who felt it.
He glanced up, catching me studying him. My cheeks flushed, and I hastily looked away.
“Gotcha,” Jessa said.
Even though I wasn’t looking, the intensity of his gaze was like a weighted blanket. I waved my hand at her. “Stop.It’snothing.”
“Bullshit. That,” she added pointing between us, “Is not nothing. That is definitely something. And it’s not the best idea, trust me.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s no ‘something’or ‘bad ideas’.”
“Not yet.”
I rolled my eyes, and focused on my drink. Over a mouthful of taco, I shrugged and said, “I’m not interested in anything.”
“Youmight not be, but someone definitely is.” She went to point at him, but I smacked her hand down. “I’m serious, Mads. It’s not a good idea. The guy has a reputation. Grade A asshole. He was put on waivers partly because his team went to management. This is Cleveland we’re talking about, too. The city that could use a damn quarterback that can throw.”
“Then how did we get him?”
She hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “Because the guy he’s with? One of the best tight ends in the league.” Her nose wrinkled. “Seeing the two of them together is like seeing Clark Kent and Superman in the same place. Talk about a paradox. And it looks like the rest of the bar has realized who is in their midsts.”
A few people were at their table, asking for autographs from the look of things. Sebastian looked mildly annoyed at being recognized, but most of the attention was on his friend. Simmons?
