Fair Catch (Love and Sports Series)

by Meghan Quinn

  That made Margo chuckle. She looked Parker in the eyes and he gave her another quick wink as he tore his hand away from hers to grab one of his tacos, which he so disgustingly shoved in his mouth, making a mess of his entire plate.

  “You’re disgusting, you know that?”

  He talked with his mouth full. “Distracted you from the little girly drama that just took place, didn’t I?”

  “You’re right about that but for God’s sake can you stop talking with your mouth full, it’s revolting.”

  Parker laughed, causing a chunk of ground beef to pop out of his mouth and hit the table. They stared at the browned meat for a couple of seconds before they both started to laugh hysterically.

  “Oh my God, that was so disgusting.”

  Parker just smiled at her and shrugged while taking another bite of his taco. Margo sat back in her chair and enjoyed the chips and salsa that were on the table. Even though Parker had zero table manners, she enjoyed watching every little food particle fly out of his mouth. What was wrong with her?

  Parker wiped his mouth with a napkin and asked, “So are you going to the mixer on Friday?”

  “Possibly, there should be some really hot guys there.” Margo said trying to gauge Parker’s interest in her.

  “That’s right, because I’ll be there.”

  “Awfully full of yourself today, aren’t you?”

  “It’s kind of hard not to be with a physique and face like this.” Parker said while motioning his whole body with his hands. Margo just rolled her eyes at him but secretly agreed. He was practically a god. “Well if you plan on going, let me know. I can pick you up and we can ride together.”

  Margo tried to act cool but her stomach was doing flips with the mere fact that Parker offered to pick her up. She knew it wasn’t a date but they were going to be able to spend some more time together, one on one. That was what she needed, just a little more Parker time before he went off to do bigger and better things.

  “You’re on.” She said trying to be cool, “But you better not be late, you know how I hate missing all the good beer.”

  ***

  Lexi managed to get through the rest of the week without hearing from or running into Jake. She apologized to Margo and Parker for her childish outburst during taco night, they were more than understanding. Sometimes she wondered why they stuck around her. They were off to the mixer together, while she headed to the weight room. The last thing she wanted to do was interact with a bunch of drunken idiots and possibly run into Jake.

  Not that he would really pursue her if they did see each other. Ever since his morning breakfast escapade she had not heard from him, which was a good thing. She was able to get her life back on track. He really caused a big disturbance and she didn’t care much for it.

  Parker begged her to go out with him and Margo tonight but she wanted nothing to do with the stupid mixer. Parker reminded her of their deal about going out and having the best senior year possible, sending guilt through her entire body but she didn’t cave. She promised him that after this night she would go to whatever party he wanted, she just needed a little more time to herself.

  She didn’t really know what was wrong with her. So what, a guy ignored her when she was his date. It shouldn’t have bothered her that much but for some reason it did. It nagged at her day in and day out. It nagged her so much that the first couple of days after the horrible night, her coach called her into her office and reminded Lexi of her leadership role on the team. Her coach told her she better get her shit together before the season began or else she would be finding someone to replace her.

  The fat, donut eating bitch was right, when had Lexi ever let a man affect her like Jake had? The answer was never. She played the night over and over in her head and tried to think about why his actions bothered her to the point of not wanting to enjoy taco night. She came to the realization in one of her media classes. The night of the dinner, she was secretly living out a fantasy she never got to have. She never went to one of her proms or was asked to a dance so when Jake asked her, it was like being able to step back in time and have that moment she never had.

  It was so corny but she couldn’t help but feel let down, like some reject that sat on the bleachers and watched all the pretty girls dance with their dates while she sat alone. A flood of raw emotions attacked her in class and she had to leave early so she didn’t embarrass herself. The night with Jake brought back all her insecurities growing up and she associated him with those insecurities.

  She grabbed a towel from the equipment room and headed for the weight room. What she needed right now was to sweat and push herself to the limits. She went straight for the bench and racked up her weights. She pounded out a couple of reps and then just sat at the bench, staring at her lap, wondering if staying in tonight was the right choice.

  “Hey.”

  Lexi nearly jumped out of her skin from the friendly hello. She thought she was the only one in the training facility. She looked up and found herself looking at two pools of light green eyes.

  Jake.

  Lexi didn’t know what to do or how to react. What the hell was he doing here? It was a Friday night and there was a party full of willing and eager women to please him.

  “Uh, hey. Why aren’t you at the mixer?”

  Jake pulled up to the bench next to her and started pumping out reps. The weight on his bar was significantly bigger than hers and she couldn’t help but stare as his muscles rippled beneath his shirt when he pressed up and rested the bar on holders.

  “We have our first game tomorrow so we’re on twenty-four hour.” Lexi didn’t think the football team followed the twenty-four hour rule of no drinking before a game.

  “I didn’t know you football players followed that rule.”

  “We didn’t until this year. I suggested it and we all agreed, well most of us agreed.”

  Completely shocked, Lexi nearly fell off her bench. Jake, the party man of the athletic department, enforced the twenty-four hour rule on his team. She better go look out a window because she would bet a million dollars she would be seeing a pig fly right now.

  “Wow, that’s a little shocking.”

  “Whys that?” he asked.

  “Uh, because you’re the biggest partier on campus and for you to suggest such a rule would be like Parker eating a jelly donut and not getting it all over his shirt.”

  Jake picked up his weight again and grunted out, “Not anymore.”

  Lexi decided to stop watching him, took the weights off of her bar and went over to where the exercise balls were so she could work on her core, which she took great pride in. Not a lot of people knew that having a stable core could help any athlete become better in their sport. That was why Lexi spent extra time in the abs department and also because she liked looking good in her bikini which she was able to wear often since she lived in southern California.

  They both worked out in silence, aware of each other in the room but never making eye contact. Jake actually was wearing ear phones, completely tuning Lexi out. Well if she wasn’t convinced before about Jake being able to forget about her, she was convinced now. He floated around the weight room, focusing on different parts of his body and flexing with every pump of iron.

  It took all the energy in Lexi’s body to ignore him and just focus on her workout but after twenty minutes of pure torture she decided to call it a night. She couldn’t be in the same room alone with him anymore especially when he was deliberately ignoring her. But wasn’t that what she wanted? She wanted him to ignore her? She wanted to go back to her normal life before Jake took a tiny step into it.

  She grabbed her towel, took one last look at him in the mirror and left the weight room. She filled up her water bottle and threw her towel in the dirty laundry bin. What a night, she thought it would be relaxing to workout but instead she had a tension filled night that was cut short by her inability to act like a grown up and share a weight room with a member of the opposite sex.
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br />   Once in the locker room, Lexi grabbed her bag, located her keys from the front pocket and exited her locker room while sucking down her water. When she lowered her water bottle she made eye contact with Jake, once again.

  She placed her hand over her heart. “Jesus, you scared me. You can’t be lurking around in hallways when it’s late at night.”

  She could tell he was holding back a smile from scaring the crap out of her. “You startle easily.”

  “And you’re a creep for waiting around in the dark by the girls’ locker rooms.”

  “Point taken.”

  They stared at each other for a couple of seconds not saying anything, so Lexi started walking toward the exit.

  “Hey, are you coming tomorrow night?” Jake asked when she was about to open the door to the warm night. She turned around and saw that he didn’t move from where he was standing instead he was leaning against the hallway wall. He looked like a little lost boy, it was almost endearing...almost.

  “I don’t know, maybe.”

  “I hope you do.”

  “We’ll see.” She was about to walk out the door when he caught her before she shut the door.

  “If you do decide to go, there will be field passes for you, Margo and Parker waiting at will call.”

  “Field passes?” Lexi asked in a shocked voice. If she told Parker she had field passes to the first football game of the season, Parker would make her go. The game was fun to watch from the stands, even she would admit that but never had she experienced the game from the ground level where all the action was. Field passes were hard to come by especially since they were given to all the VIP alumni or donors.

  “Yea, the first game is always the best to be on the field for. The excitement in the air is contagious.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “Alright, well, have a good night. Hopefully I’ll see you tomorrow.” He squeezed her shoulder and took off to the weight room. She watched him walk away and right before he was about to put his ear buds back in his ears that were dangling on his well sculpted shoulders, she shouted down the hallway.

  “Kick some ass tomorrow.”

  He spun around and smiled at her before walking into the weight room and disappearing for the night. He had field passes for her on reserve? Parker was going to pee his pants when he found out. Looks like she needed to bust out her Cal U football jersey she got for Halloween one year because she was going to need to look the part tomorrow night.

  Chapter 6

  “Wooo! Go Bears!!”

  “Parker! Can you please not do that right in my ear?” Lexi asked while holding her hand over her right ear, the one right next to Parker’s megaphone of a mouth.

  He nudged Lexi, “Oh come on, loosen up a little bit. How could you not let out a good old woot woot right now? We’re killing the Cardinals, all thanks to your boy, Jake.”

  “He’s not my boy.”

  Margo lifted her VIP pass and said, “These passes beg to differ.”

  The marching band started up their victory march again once the kicker made his field go, dragging Lexi’s attention to the field. They really were killing the Cardinals, it was almost kind of sad. Jake was right about the atmosphere, the energy in the stadium was contagious. If she wasn’t trying to play it cool right now in front of her friends, she would be jumping up and down, cheering for her home team.

  Jake was leading the team down the field with his precise throws to his receivers and quick foot work. Mason and he were really connecting tonight, she thought. Lexi watched the whole night in amazement at how accurately Jake threw the ball down the field while in the midst of angry linebackers trying to get a piece of him. It was actually quite impressive now that she thought about it. When she was in centerfield, all she had to do was hop, skip and jump and hope the ball landed in the catcher’s mitt when she was throwing home. She didn’t have over-juiced men running at her with death glares, threatening her.

  Last night in the weight room, Lexi saw a change in Jake. It was as if he traded bodies with Parker or something because while Parker normally would have been in the weight room with Lexi he was out partying. She would have bet a million dollars Jake would had been the one partying with women hanging all over him.

  Lexi tried not to think about how genuine, kind and sexy Jake looked in the weight room. She tried to drive away the image of his green eyes bearing down on hers or the way his backside looked when he walked away. It was all too much for her. The man was infuriating at times but then so kind and caring, it confused her. She didn’t know what to think.

  Of course this would happen her senior year, she would be interested in a guy when she was trying to find herself. Was she really interested in him?

  The team obtained possession of the ball and Lexi watched Jake put his helmet on as he jogged out to the field. Yup, she was interested. How could she not be? She would be dead if she wasn’t interested. He was drop dead gorgeous, athletic, sexy as hell and at times she could sense that he actually had a heart. Shouldn’t that matter the most to her? That he was kind and caring, not just some hot piece of ass? She cursed herself for letting her libido take over her thoughts.

  There was twenty seconds left in the game and instead of absolutely humiliating the other team, Jake let the play clock run out of time. The crowd erupted when the game was over. It was a great start to what looked like another championship season.

  “This has been one of the best games I ‘ve ever been to. Thanks Lex for hooking us up with these tickets, even though it pained you.” Parker said with a grin.

  “I actually had a lot of fun. Jake was right. It’s much more fun down here. You get the feeling you’re actually a part of the team.”

  “I agree.” Margo said while looping her arm in Lexi and Parker’s arms as if they were about to skip down the yellow brick road. “What’s next? Shall we go get some frozen yogurt?”

  Lexi was about to say she wasn’t hungry when Parker stepped in before she could, “Oh yea, that sounds great to me. Shall we ladies?” Parker started striding toward the exit with his ladies in his arms.

  There was a lot of cheering coming from the crowd and it seemed like the noise was getting louder as they walked away. Lexi thought it was odd until she heard her name being called.

  She turned around and saw Jake running up to her, sweaty but oh so handsome. “Lexi, wait up.” His helmet was off and his hair was wet from sweat but he still looked so good, so damn good. He was significantly taller than her but with his gear donning his body, he seemed like a giant.

  “Hey, good game.” Parker said while giving Jake a high five. “You didn’t even give those fools a chance.”

  Jake didn’t even look at Parker when he said thanks, he just kept staring at Lexi. “Are you guys leaving?”

  Not wanting to stammer, Lexi gathered her wits before she answered. “Yea, we’re going to get some frozen yogurt.”

  Margo pushed Lexi forward making her run right into Jake’s chest. He steadied her with his arms on her shoulders. Margo yawned, “Actually Parker was just going to take me home. We’re so tired.”

  “We’re not…” Margo elbowed Parker in the side causing him to cough. “Oh yea,” He fake yawned. “So tired. See you Lexi, good game Jake.” And just like that they left her alone with Jake. They melted into the crowd that was exiting the stadium, not even turning around to see if she was going to be ok.

  What friends they were, they were her ride home. She looked at Jake who had hopeful eyes. Damn, she couldn’t do this dance much longer. Her resolve was weakening by each passing moment she had with him. She was going to give in soon but she didn’t want to. She didn’t just want to be another girl for him to check off on his list. She didn’t think if she gave into Jake she was going to be able to say bye after one night. She would most likely want more and she knew that was not how he rolled.

  “Were they your ride?” He asked, still holding onto her arms.

  “Yea, not a big deal though. I don
’t mind walking.”

  “You’re not walking. Who knows what kind of sick fucks are waiting to attack you out there?”

  “I’m a big girl, Jake. I can handle it.”

  “Please Lexi. Let me give you a ride.”

  Lexi didn’t really want to walk to her apartment since it was a good five miles, something she didn’t want to tackle at ten at night but did she want to be trapped in a vehicle with Jake? The more she thought about it, the more she knew Jake was right, there would be creeps out there waiting to take advantage of her. She always heard about those campus rapes that happened around the country and she definitely didn’t want to be a part of that horrifying statistic.

  She conceded. “Ok, thank you.”

  The smile that lit up Jake’s face when she agreed to a ride from him was unforgettable. It was as if she just told him she got him a new puppy. It was such a charming little boy smile that triggered her legs to start to melt. She needed to get a hold of herself before she did something completely embarrassing like kiss his entire body from head to toe.

  “Meet me outside the locker room. I’ll be really quick, I promise.”

  Lexi nodded and watched him jog off toward the other players. He gave them high fives and pats on the back as they walked through the tunnel together. Even though he was egotistical and a player, she could tell that he truly cared about every single guy on his team and really saw their win as a team effort and not the Jake show. The thought made her shutter with anticipation about what other kind of team player he might be. She rolled her eyes at her thought and proceeded toward the locker rooms, despising herself.

  ***

  “Great game Jake.” Mason said while slipping on a pair of pants.

  Jake took one of the quickest showers of his life after the game and was trying to dress as quickly as possible so he didn’t keep Lexi waiting outside. “Thanks, you had some amazing catches tonight.”