Pass Interference

by Cami Checketts

  “Are your lungs okay?”

  “It’s not my lungs, it’s you. You crack me up.”

  She smiled, getting the feeling he looked at her as more of a buddy than a potential girlfriend, which should’ve been fine because she really wanted the paycheck not the guy. She’d better repeat that a hundred times before she went to bed tonight and maybe she wouldn’t have dreams about him again.

  “No. I have no shirtless pictures splayed all over the internet. Auntie Allie would kick my rear. She’s a big modesty proponent.”

  Lily was disappointed she couldn’t Google pictures of him shirtless tonight. Stop it, she admonished herself.

  They were quiet for a few minutes, picking the pace back up, then she grew brave enough to ask, “What happened to your dad?”

  “He’s just selfish. He was always taking off on adventures and coming back after a week or two, but …” He shook his head. “I haven’t seen him since the Super Bowl.”

  “Wait a minute.” Lily stopped running. They were next to the river again and the rushing water was soothing but she was so confused. “Your dad’s not dead?”

  “No.” He stopped too and turned to face her. “Who said he was dead?”

  “You said he was gone.”

  “Oh.” He chuckled. “No, gone as in disappeared, don’t know when he’s coming back.”

  “That’s still sad.”

  He shrugged and turned to face the river. “You ever ridden down this thing in the spring?”

  “I thought you weren’t supposed to.”

  He grinned. “You want to meet me this afternoon? I have all the equipment.”

  She glanced at the river. It wasn’t raging, but it was still flowing pretty quickly. “We can’t risk you getting injured.”

  He gave her a cheeky grin. “Can’t get injured when you’ve got skills.”

  She laughed. “I have clients scheduled this afternoon.”

  “How about this weekend?”

  She looked him over. Did he honestly want to spend time with her outside the training arena? Was that crossing boundaries she shouldn’t cross? His dark eyes twinkled and just seemed to suck her in and she couldn’t imagine this super star could look at her as a romantic interest. She was a fan who appreciated him and football, someone he could laugh at when she called him a mega-stud.

  “I could Saturday afternoon,” she said. Oh, man, did she really just commit to doing something with Hyde outside of work? This could lead to trouble she didn’t need. Yet she couldn’t take it back when he smiled happily at her. His grin was like a prize all by itself.

  Chapter 5

  The core and speed workout after their pleasant run had been hard enough Hyde had thought he was going to throw up, but luckily he’d held it in. The rest of the week the workouts only got tougher. Lily had the ability to motivate him, without him wanting to tell her to pound sand. He’d told his team trainers something like that a few times, usually just wishing they’d stop screaming in his face. Lily barked at him, but it was in a cute way. She also made him laugh.

  It had been a tough, but rewarding week and he could swear his body and his lungs already felt stronger.

  This new trainer was good, and she was pretty, and he was excited to spend some more time with her Saturday afternoon. He arrived at the parking lot by the city park and found a spot close to the river. He unloaded his long body boards, helmets, and life jackets from the back of his sport utility, and hauled them up the trail that ran between the river and the Clear Creek RV Park. Some of the RVs were probably worth as much as Auntie Allie’s house. Someday he’d love to buy one and travel the country. His lips turned down. It wouldn’t be much fun by himself, and by the time he was ready to retire, who knew how out of it his mom would be. It made him sad for both of them. He’d love to think that he would be married when he retired, but finding the right woman who he could fall in love with, but who wanted not only him, but the burden of a mother-in-law with a degenerative illness, would be a tough order. He didn’t want his mom to come between him and his future wife, but he was the one who had to be there for her. As each day went by he had less and less hope that his dad would return.

  Hyde balanced all the gear as he walked up the trail. Lily was waiting for him halfway up the trail, wearing a one-piece pink and blue-swirled suit, blue board shorts, and Tevas. Her long hair teased across her firm shoulders.

  She raised a hand in greeting.

  “Do you ever do fitness competitions?” he asked when he reached her.

  Her eyebrows arched up. “Do you ever just say hello?”

  “Naw, that’s for the average human being.”

  “And that’s definitely not our mega-stud.” She’d taken to calling him that and it always made him laugh because she could say it and make him feel complimented and yet not at the same time. He’d learned she liked to tease, probably came from having a big family, and it made him happy that she could tease with him.

  “No, competitions are impressive, but I don’t have the time or money right now,” she said.

  Hyde nodded, embarrassed for her that she’d had to admit that to him.

  Some teenage boys stopped their skateboards and gawked at him. Their voices carried easily. “Man, that’s Hyde Metcalf.”

  “Whoa. He’s even bigger in real life.”

  Hyde waved to them and they waved back, obviously awestruck. He was used to it and it made him laugh that Lily had been pretty awestruck herself when she first met him, but she’d quickly gotten comfortable around him. He liked that Lily admitted she followed his stats and games, but hoped she didn’t read whatever the magazines or smut rags decided to print about him. Whenever a shady reporter felt like stirring up a story, they’d just stake out his house until his mom came outside and told them something she shouldn’t, most of which wasn’t correct, then the reporter would stretch and distort it anyway.

  Lily grabbed the board, helmet, and life jacket he had for her.

  “You nervous?” he asked.

  “Sort of. I did white water rafting on Clear Creek farther up in the mountains on a date once and one time my dad worked out a deal with his friend to take our family down the river, but both of those were in a raft with a guide.” Hyde had suspected her family was pretty destitute and she didn’t have many experiences that cost money.

  “Okay then, Clear Creek should feel like home to you.”

  “Ha! This is a stinking river not a creek. We have a creek that runs through Georgetown. We wade in it, catch tadpoles and splash each other in the summer. If you have to put a helmet on to get in a body of water, it’s a river not a creek. You Golden people are nuts.” Her dark eyes sparkled mischievously at him.

  Hyde smiled, loving when she got animated about something. “I’ll keep you safe.”

  She looked at him and time seemed to slow down. He couldn’t remember ever promising a woman in which he was interested that he’d keep her safe, but it felt right to tell Lily that and he wanted to watch out for her for some reason. Which was crazy. He’d only known her for a week. Yet the time they spent together each day, him working out and her pushing and encouraging him were the best hours of his day. True, she didn’t reveal her life story or hit on him. She was a professional and he appreciated it, but he wouldn’t mind getting to know her a little bit and having that professional side slide just for him.

  He instantly felt chagrin. He didn’t like fellow players who thought rules didn’t fit them because they were celebrities. Rules were in place for a reason and his dad had taught him that if you followed the rules you’d actually be farther ahead because no one would be trying to rein you in and cramp your style. Have your own style while still doing what you should, he’d always said. He felt a pang for his dad. Where was he? He usually at least called Hyde when he wandered, but there’d been nothing but the postcards for months. Hyde thought his stay in the hospital being publicized would bring him out of hiding, but maybe his dad didn’t care about him as much as he’d a
lways assumed.

  Lily thinking his dad was dead had hit him hard. He missed him. He wondered if he should hire a private investigator. Maybe it was time to start looking for his dad rather than assuming he’d come back from his jaunts like he always did. Maybe he was just done with his family. Hyde couldn’t stand the thought of that.

  Hyde and Lily strapped on life jackets and helmets and carried their boards down to an inlet in the river. There were quite a few inlets along this trail. This river and trail were some of Hyde’s favorite parts of Golden. There was even a small park with a children’s slide downriver by Main Street into a calm and shallow part of the river. Well, calm and shallow in the late summer. This time of year the slide was covered with caution tape.

  Stepping into the water, Lily gasped and Hyde didn’t blame her. The cold shocked his feet and legs, pinpricks of pain that he hoped would go numb soon.

  “You’re telling me we’re climbing into this water and not going to die of hypothermia?”

  “Maybe we should go buy some wet suits,” Hyde suggested. He’d found these supplies in the garage from his days of riding down this river as a teenager, but had it ever been this cold?

  Lily looked disgusted with him. “You don’t need to go throwing your money around and spending it on wetsuits.”

  “Throwing my money around?” His eyebrows jumped up. “I don’t do that.”

  “See that you don’t, mega-stud.”

  Hyde smiled because she was teasing him, but it felt weird to have a woman not want him to spend money on her.

  “I’m not wimpy enough to need a wetsuit.” She tossed her long dark hair and Hyde laughed at her bravado.

  “I don’t think you’re wimpy at all.”

  She bowed to him. “Well, thank you. So I just jump in with the board under me and ride it down like a wave?”

  “You’ve boogie boarded on the ocean?”

  “No.” She glanced down. “That’d be a dream.”

  “Have you been to the ocean?” He felt like a jerk the instant he asked. She worked a lot of hours, it seemed to him that she lived at the gym, and every day she wore tennis shoes with a hole in the toe. Money to go to the ocean was probably not floating around.

  “No.” She glanced up at him with a challenge clear in her eyes. “Shall we jump in now?”

  Hyde cleared his throat. He’d gone to the ocean at least once a year for as long as he could remember. Now he had monstrous houses on two different beaches and spent as much time there as he could.

  “Sure. Yeah.” He’d like to take her to the ocean. He could imagine the two of them running on the beach then jumping in for a swim. He’d put his hands around her taut abdomen and lift her over a wave. Hyde shook his head. Lily was watching him with one eyebrow raised. “Sorry, got distracted. You just keep the board underneath you. If you lose it, turn over on your back, cross your arms over your chest, and keep your feet out in front of you.”

  “Got it.” With that, she gripped her board and superman dove into the water.

  “Lily!” Hyde yelled. They usually waded out into the current.

  “Cold!” she screamed back.

  Hyde jumped after her. She was right. It was freezing. The water hit his face, arms, and legs like shards of ice crystals. His hands become numb almost instantly, but he clung to the board and tried to steer himself downriver. He was a little bit behind Lily and desperately wanting to catch up and make sure she was okay.

  The small rapids took them on a wild ride down. When he saw the spot coming up where the river plunged, the two foot drop suddenly looked like a raging waterfall. He’d been a dumb teenager the last time he’d rode this river when it was choked with spring runoff, and suddenly he was afraid one of them would get hurt like Lily had worried about. It was one thing to try to impress a woman, but this was stupidity.

  He was almost side by side with Lily. She glanced over at him and whooped. “This is awesome!” Her dark hair clung to her neck and the helmet framed her face. She had no makeup on that he could tell. He’d never thought a woman was more beautiful.

  “Hold on tight,” he yelled at her.

  She gripped her board and noticed the drop. “Woo-hoo!” she called out, plunging off.

  Hyde was fighting to keep his own board under him. He wasn’t sure if she’d stayed on or lost her board. He went off the drop and his stomach plunged as he flipped forward. Inflating his lungs with a quick breath, he clamped his mouth closed. He was able to hold onto his board and when he popped back out of the water, he quickly pushed it underneath him and searched for her.

  “Hey, guy!”

  Hyde looked behind him and saw Lily stuck in the eddy of the backflow from the miniature falls. “Push off,” he yelled, continuing to be swept downstream.

  “Yay-hoo!” she sung out, shoving off the side.

  Hyde laughed loudly as she came closer to him and the waves bumped them down the river like a bronc ride. He saw the outlet up ahead before the bridge into town. Grabbing the tip of her board he pushed her toward it then kicked hard to follow. The water was calm in the outlet. Hyde stood and offered her a hand. She placed her hand in his and let him pull her over to the concrete slab. He tossed their boards onto the sidewalk one at a time, keeping her hand in his.

  “Your hands are freezing,” he said.

  “So are yours.”

  She was right. He’d hardly noticed it in the thrill of the ride. He grasped her hands between his own, rubbing them gently to try to get some blood flow back to them.

  Lily had been all smiles as they came out of the river. She stilled as he held her hands in his, staring down at his hands then back up at him. Hyde felt some warmth gradually returning to both of their fingers, but the warmth zinging between them was so much stronger. He’d known this woman a total of a week and he had this insane desire to see if her lips were as soft and chilled as her hands.

  “What did you think?” he managed to ask, needing to break the connection or he was going to kiss her right then and there.

  “About?” Her eyes dipped to his lips then met his gaze again.

  Fire started in the pit of his stomach. How could she be this attractive wet and soggy? He closed the distance between them. His body brushed against hers. She was firm and soft at the same time and he wanted to kiss her.

  “Me taking you to dinner tonight.” His voice had dropped low and husky, he felt like he was asking her to commit for life instead of simply a dinner invite.

  She pulled her hands back, stepped discreetly away, and gave him a saucy smile, but something in her eyes betrayed her confusion and uncertainty. “I don’t date clients.”

  “You’re fired.”

  “You wouldn’t.” Her eyes widened and she folded her arms across a chest that was quickly rising and falling like she couldn’t quite catch her breath.

  Hyde should stop now, but he loved the challenge. He wanted her, and he wasn’t giving up easily. “Try me.”

  “That’s just … unethical.”

  She could be right. “No,” he insisted, not willing to back down. “It’s gentle persuasion.”

  A few tense seconds passed as she gave him a challenging glare. She looked down and finally said, “I guess I could make an exception for you. We’ll call it a work dinner, discuss training techniques and your stats.”

  “Good plan.” Hyde chuckled uneasily. This interaction had gone all wrong. Why didn’t she want to go out with him? Did she really have a policy of not dating clients or was she already involved with someone else? The sculpted trainer Ike came to mind. He’d noticed the guy was always around and checking Lily out, and that first day Ike had been touching her when Hyde walked up.

  “What did you think about the river?” he asked to ease the awkwardness of the moment. He’d never felt like he had to force a woman to date him. It was a craw in his gut.

  “I loved it!” She gushed then tugged him up the sidewalk. “Can we do it again?”

  “If you’ll slow down a litt
le bit this time.”

  “Ha. You’ve worked out with me for a week now, you should know already, Mr. Metcalf. Slow isn’t in my vocabulary.”

  He chuckled, picked up both of their boards and started back up the sidewalk. Maybe she was reluctant to go out with him, but she was going. Tonight they’d get to know each other more personally and he’d show her why dating him was a good plan. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this intrigued by a woman and he wasn’t going to give up the fight easily.

  Chapter 6

  Lily’s hand trembled so violently, she could hardly apply her makeup.

  Wynette poked her head into the bathroom. “What you up to?”

  “H-hyde asked me out to dinner.” Why had she agreed? It was possible he’d been teasing when he said she was fired, but she’d given him a chance to change his mind and he hadn’t backed down. She needed this paycheck and couldn’t risk finding out if he would’ve fired her. The other problem was she really, really wanted to go to dinner with him. If possible, she’d become even more enthralled with him since getting to know him this week. She thought he was going to kiss her earlier and she would’ve kissed him back. She was so nervous slash excited at the moment she could hardly see straight.

  “What! Oh, girlfriend, that’s awesome. Does that mean he’s picking you up?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Yes!” Wynette jumped and did a jig right there in the bathroom. “I get to meet Hyde Metcalf, I get to meet Hyde Metcalf.”

  Lily shook her head. “Can you help me put on some mascara first. I’m about to poke my eye out here.”

  “Nervous?”

  “You have no idea.”

  “But you’ve been around him all week and you spent the day on the river and had a great time, right?”

  “Yes, but…” Lily worried her lip.

  “Don’t do that, you’ll bite off your lipstick.”

  “But dinner,” she managed to get out. “That’s big. We’re crossing boundaries here and I can’t lose this contract. This is huge for my family. I could cover Sariah’s tuition and within a year she could be working as massage therapist and we could both be making money to help out and put away for Caleb. He might get a partial scholarship, but not a full. Lacrosse doesn’t usually offer scholarships and his grades are good, but not amazing. Luckily Brandon is some kind of genius so he’ll be good with schooling. I don’t even want to think about the twins or Josh.”