We reach the twenty, and a short pass to Jones sends him running into the end zone to pad our lead. A lead we never look back on.
When the game ends, the crowd bursts into cheers. Horns blare. Whistles sound. Drums pound. We’re one more game away from the playoffs. So close I can taste it.
On the field, a local sports reporter thrusts a mic at me, and I give my best “We just played all four quarters and stayed focused” kind of lines. When she walks off to find another player, my eyes drift to the stands, scanning, searching. They land on faces I know well, and the buzzing in my chest is like a note held long on a guitar. It shifts to a faster tempo when I see Violet. She’s waving like a crazy fool, her arms swinging wildly over her head, her chestnut hair blowing in the breeze. When she realizes she’s caught my attention, she freezes, then jumps up and down in excitement. Something is happening. Something is building.
I follow my instincts, and they tell me to run over to the sides, find a security guy, and ask him to bring her onto the field. A minute later, she’s escorted to me. I wrap her up in a hug and lift her high.
“You’re all sweaty and dirty,” she says, laughing.
“That’s because I play hard.”
“You sure do.”
“Did you enjoy the game?”
“Loved it.”
“Yeah?”
A smile curves her lips. “Every single second.”
The noise in the stadium vibrates in my chest, a mixture of cheers, chatter, and fifty thousand feet pounding to the exits. But this conversation feels entirely private. Just for us.
So does the kiss she gives me next. She brings her mouth to mine, dusts her lips across me, and steals the breath from my lungs. I’m vaguely aware of the pop and flash of cameras capturing this moment. It doesn’t last long, but the kiss feels like it’s for me, not the lens.
And maybe it’s the way my heart hammers after the victory, or maybe it’s the taste of her lips, but it’s enough for me to bring my mouth to her ear. “Hang out with me tonight.”
She pulls back and looks up at me. “Yeah?”
I swallow and nod. “Yeah.”
She has to know what I mean.
18
Ford insists on dinner first, taking the whole crew to a trendy new restaurant in Russian Hill, where he regales us with stories of the deejays the Clippers use on their chartered flights, and the time he took his superstar pitcher for the Yankees shopping at Target after midnight because that was the only time the guy wouldn’t be recognized and the leftie simply wanted to pick out his own towels. “Orange with gray polka dots. Those were some fine towels,” Ford says.
“When you finish his contract, be sure to get Cooper some pretty new towels at Target at midnight, too,” Trent says. “He wants pink with white polka dots.”
Violet chimes in. “Don’t make fun of polka dots. That sounds like an adorable combination.”
Ford points at Violet, like he agrees with everything she’s saying. “We should go all out for him, Vi. We will spare no expense. Hand towels, washcloths, bath towels. What do you think?”
Violet laughs, flicking her hair off her shoulder. “I think Cooper would love pink towels.”
“Pink, orange, gray. Whatever.” I shake my head as I look at Ford, my voice a touch more serious than usual. “Just don’t talk about the contract like it’s a done deal. We don’t want to jinx it.”
“Contracts aren’t jinxed, my man. On-field superstitions are all well and good, but contracts are not part of the sphere of jinxing.” Then he lowers his voice. “Besides, don’t you worry. I’m still dancing, and trust me when I say I look good on the dance floor.”
He raises his arms like he’s got the moves.
“Just watch out for that overbite when you dance,” I say, giving him shit since his teeth are pressed into his lips.
“Winning makes you feisty.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” I murmur as I steal a glance at Violet across the table. She’s chatting with my mom now.
Ford yanks me close. “Gotta say, it’s so damn entertaining that she doesn’t like you. She’s pulling it off like a most excellent actress, with the pink polka-dot shit.”
“Yeah, she is,” I mutter, and then let his comment sink in.
Is he right? Have I misread Violet since the kiss at the fountain in Sausalito when I felt the vibe between us shift? From the texts to the phone calls to the last kiss, I sure thought we were moving toward something more. Am I wrong? She agreed to hang out later, but maybe she only wanted to hang out here.
My chest tightens, and unease seeps into my bones during the rest of the meal. As we finish dessert, I replay the conversations I’ve had with her lately, trying to find the true meaning. Friends or maybe something more? More, or just friends like we’ve always been?
When the meal mercifully ends, Ford continues playing cruise director of my personal life when he says, “Hey, Vi, since I drove our boy to the restaurant, why don’t you take him home?”
I know what he’s up to. Violet valeted her car, and Ford figures someone will snap a pic or post a tweet about us waiting for the car together at the new eatery.
But he’s also given me an excuse to leave with her without her brother thinking I’m up to something. I’m not technically up to something. I simply don’t want the night with her to end, and I’ll find out soon if she feels the same way, or if Ford is right.
Ford heads out first, grabs my bag from his car, and hands it to me. As I take the bag, I wince, my shoulder tight from the game.
The valet does a double take when Violet asks for her car. I tip my chin. “Hey, man.” The guy beams and races to find her vehicle.
I grab a twenty from my wallet and tip him well when he returns. Then I settle into the passenger seat as Violet drives. When she turns on Fillmore, I roll my shoulder back, trying to loosen the muscles.
“You okay?”
“Just sore.”
When we reach my home, she doesn’t pull to the curb and say have a good night. She pulls into the slim driveway, and I grin as I reach into my bag to grab the garage opener. I hit the button. Anticipation threads through me as the door rises. She pulls into the garage, and I want to punch the air because the night isn’t ending.
“You didn’t want to park at my house the other night,” I say.
She swallows. “It was easier not to then.”
“Is it easier to park here now?”
“I’m not sure if it’s easier, or simply what I’m doing.”
And I’ll take that as a good sign. I’ll take that as the sign that Ford was wrong tonight.
I tell myself to just let the night unfold. We go inside, and I drop my bag in the hallway, heading straight for the freezer in my kitchen. I grab an ice pack and wrap it around my shoulder.
“Does it hurt a lot?” she asks.
“Standard war wound.”
She gives me a look. “Seriously. Are you injured? Are you being the big tough guy who doesn’t let on that he’s hurt then plays through the pain?”
I scoff. “No. I’m not injured. This is just normal soreness. This is how I usually feel after a game.”
“Gee, I wonder why. Could it be throwing thirty-yard passes with regularity while linemen try to mow you down wears on the body?”
I smile. “But it’s nothing a beer and an ice pack won’t cure. Do you want a white wine?”
She says yes, so I grab a bottle I think she’ll like, then a glass. As I unscrew the cork our eyes meet. Hers glitter with something—anticipation, maybe? I don’t know what’s happening, but I also know exactly what’s happening.
Something.
That’s what my gut tells me. That’s what my instincts say. And those are the tools I rely on when I’m in the zone. I let them guide me now.
Something’s been crackling between us for the last week, ever since she won me. Since I visited her salon, invited her to the game, and texted. Since she sent that photo.
As she leans her hip against my island kitchen counter, looking like she belongs here, wearing her number sixteen jersey with a smudge of dirt streaked across it from when I hugged her after the game, my mind narrows in on one thing—her body.
How she reacts to the way I stare at her. How her lips part. How her cheeks grow pinker.
“You’re almost in the playoffs,” she says, her voice wobbling more than usual, as if she’s a bit nervous.
“Almost being the operative word.” I crack open a beer, hand her the wine, and toast. “To almosts,” I say, my voice echoing in my quiet home.
“To almosts,” she replies, and the air between us crackles and hums.
I turn on some music on my phone, and even though I’m tempted to crank up my favorite rock anthems, I find something that better sets the tone. Then I want to smack myself for going for mood music.
“Are you trying to put me to sleep?” she asks, laughing.
I wink. “Just making sure you’re paying attention.”
“Put on the good stuff,” she says, and I switch to a playlist that starts with “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele.
“I love this song,” she says, her face animated as she taps her foot against the floor.
“I know. That’s why I picked it.”
I adjust the ice pack as she sings the first few lines, then I join in for the chorus, using the beer bottle to sing into, while she cranks up the volume courtesy of her wineglass turned microphone.
“We would kill it in a karaoke duet.”
“But I insist we sing ‘Islands in the Stream.’”
“I accept your insistence,” I say, as I refill her wine and grab a second beer.
We make our way to the living room. Violet tips her chin at the Christmas tree in the bay window. Red ribbons and silver ornaments hang from the plastic branches, along with ceramic candy canes and green felt mini-stockings. Blue and white lights flicker on and off, set on a timer for the evenings. “You set up your tree. It’s adorable.”
I give her a look. “Violet, how long have you known me?”
“Twenty years. Why?”
I gesture to the perfectly appointed tree. “Do you really think I pulled that off? Lined up ornaments with that kind of pinpoint precision?”
“Let me guess. Mama Armstrong did it?”
I laugh. “You guessed correctly. The whole nine yards.”
“Tell Mama Armstrong she’s a masterful decorator. Oh wait, I’ll tell her myself when she comes by for her color.”
“Speaking of, did Maxine schedule a hair appointment?”
“She did. For next week. But if I could handle the players’ wives, I can handle Maxine.”
“Damn, you’re tough,” I say, then eye my shoulder. “Unlike me. I can barely handle three-hundred-pound linemen slamming into me.”
“Ha. Yeah, you’re the very definition of tough.”
I flop on the couch, adjusting the ice pack.
Violet kicks off her shoes and joins me, tucking her feet under her. “Does it hurt still?”
“Not really.”
She arches a brow as she takes another drink of her wine. “Not even a little?”
I hold up my finger and thumb as the music shifts to “Wonderwall.” “Okay. A smidge.”
She puts her wineglass on the coffee table and waggles her fingers. “Let me help.”
I put my beer on the table, too. “Ooh, is this where we play quarterback and physical therapist?”
She rolls her eyes. “Is the team’s PT your fake girlfriend?”
I shudder, thinking of the lean and lanky physical therapist the club hired—the very male PT.
Violet cracks her knuckles, sets a hand on my shoulder, and tells me to face the other way. I turn so I’m looking at the stark white wall and the framed prints of Italy and Spain, New Zealand, and Australia, all the places I want to go someday. I release the ice pack, letting it fall to the floor. Her hands curl over my shoulders, and my reaction to her touch is instant.
I groan because it’s so goddamn good as she digs her fingers into my flesh. “Tell me about meeting the players’ wives.”
“They were fantastic,” she says, and as she recounts her time in the suite, I sink into the magnificent sensation of her hands on me, her thumbs driving into my muscles, her fingers kneading my flesh. The way she touches me sends sparks through my body as if an electric current sizzles under my skin, spreading into my every molecule.
While I’m on edge like this, everything in me buzzing toward her, I close my eyes and images flash. All the ways I want this night to go. How good it feels to have her hands on me. How dangerous it could be to get closer. Her brother. Our friendship. Whether she feels the same way. My contract. The pact. My focus.
But then I think about how I feel with her. How my heart bounced around in my chest when she watched me today. How warmth radiates through me when I see her texts. How her lips feel sliding across mine.
I remind myself that I take chances all day long. I play a risky, violent sport for a living. I can either stay safely in the moment of this impromptu massage, or I can run into the fray.
I choose risk and all the possibilities of reward.
I lift my hand to take hers, running my thumb along her wrist. Her breath hitches. Her hands still. She stops moving as I glide farther up, brushing my fingers from her wrist to her forearm. She trembles.
I don’t rush it. There’s no one stopping us. No line coming after me, trying to take me down. It’s only us, here in my home. No agents, no photographers, no Maxine. No one else.
I run my thumb back down over her palm to her fingers. I thread mine through hers and clasp. She squeezes back, her breath rushing against my neck. And it’s then that the moment unfurls into something else entirely.
To something unquestionable.
I cover her hand with mine, and in one strong move, I pull her around me and onto my lap.
Her eyes widen, shining with longing. They lock with mine.
“What are we doing?” she asks, her voice so goddamn breathless it’s like an extra dose of an aphrodisiac after I’ve already consumed the whole bottle.
I bring my face nearer, my forehead touching hers. “This.”
Then we kiss, and it’s the first kiss that belongs solely to us.
19
It feels like the first time.
It doesn’t belong to the stage, to Maxine, or to the media. It’s not a kiss for a phone camera. It’s not a kiss requested by my agent. No one is taking a selfie to prove this kiss exists.
This kiss is ours, and as my lips crush hers, she melts under me. We sink into this, lips, tongue, teeth. Heat, hands, arms.
I lean back into the soft couch cushions and bring her closer, kissing her the whole time. She loops her hands in my hair, sliding her fingers through the strands.
We kiss as if this is what we’ve wanted all along. A private kiss. My hands cup her cheeks, and I hold her face as my kisses do the talking.
It’s you.
You’re what I want.
Stay.
Part of me should be shocked that these thoughts trip through my brain. But then, I’m not surprised at all. My head’s always been in the game with her. My heart has tried to get in on the action from the start.
From the moment she kissed me on stage at the auction, it felt right. Now, as we kiss on my couch, tongues tangling and lips sliding, our kiss feels inevitable. I tug her closer, craving more of her taste. She presses against me, her chest to mine, her legs sliding around my thighs so she’s straddling me.
I curl my hands through her hair, loving the way the soft strands spill over my fingers. As I slide my tongue inside her lips, she whimpers. It’s so fucking arousing. I kiss her deeper. Her taste goes to my head, short-circuits my brain.
The sounds she makes are killing me—little murmurs, sighs, and needy gasps. I want to swallow them whole, give her everything she needs. Heat pulls deep in my groin.
With a ro
ugh hold on my hair, she yanks me closer and kisses me so hard the world sizzles into a white-hot blur. Then she bites down, her teeth scraping my lip, and I groan.
My Violet has a rough side. And I like her rough. She lets go of my hair, slides her hands up my chest, and curls them over my pecs through my button-down shirt. She presses hard, like a stop sign.
Her breath comes in harsh pants. “What are we doing?”
“Kissing like crazy.”
“I know,” she says on a sigh, her breath fluttering over my face. Her eyes are hazy, as if she’s drunk on this kiss. Drunk on me. But she needs something, too. Reassurance? Confirmation?
“What do you want, Vi?”
I watch her, tracking every move. She swallows, breathes out, and brings her hand to her hair. She brushes it from her cheek, looks down then back up. Her eyes pin me. “I need to know something.”
“Yes?”
“Do you want me?”
“Are you kidding me?” I scoff, grinding up against her. It’s unmistakable how much I want her.
“I know. But do you want me?”
“God, yes.” I brush the backs of my fingers across her soft cheek. “You have no idea. How can you think I don’t?”
“I just need to know it’s me, and not because I’m a warm body.”
“Give me more credit than that.”
She covers her face with her hand. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just want to know . . .”
I peel her hand off her face and make her look at me. “That I want you? That I want this gorgeous, funny, sharp, clever woman who keeps me on my toes and takes no shit from me?”
She smiles. “Yes.”
I press a soft kiss to her lips. “It’s you.”
She curls her hands over my shoulders, taking a deep breath. “I don’t want to get hurt.”
That feels like the heart of the matter. She’s afraid, and I hear it in her voice. “Are you afraid I’ll hurt you?”
She nods and bites her lip as if she’s holding something in. Her worry curls around my heart, charges through my body. Wanting her is simply a fact in my universe. It’s gravity. It’s the moon spinning around Earth. I’m barely thinking of our history, of all the ways our lives overlap. I’m only thinking of the next few minutes, and how good I can make her feel.
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