to take a sip of my wine. “I’ve tried to convince him to go to New York or California or somewhere where he can really hit it big, but he’s kind of tied himself to Idaho.”
“How come?” Quinn asked.
“He met someone back in high school and kind of went crazy for them pretty instantly. It was just a one-night stand, and he never saw the guy again, but he really romanticized it. He says that was his soulmate. I don’t know. He sticks around Idaho, hoping to bump into him again,” I explained, realizing I’d never told anyone that before. “Uh, you can never tell him that I told you.”
Quinn laughed. “I won’t.” She poked out her bottom lip. “That’s kind of sad, though. What if that guy is long gone or something?”
“Every time I ask him that, he ignores me. I think he probably realizes that it’s more likely than not and just doesn’t want to come to terms with it. Instead, he dates around, mostly for sex, and doesn’t really get attached to people.”
Quinn snickered, taking another bite of her food. “I wish my brother was more like that. He goes all-in on relationships. Like, every date he goes out on, he keeps a piece of memorabilia in case they’re the one so that he has something from their first date in case they get married.”
I furrowed my brow. “That’s a bit intense.”
“Yeah. I feel like if anyone he dates knew he did that, they’d run.” She sighed. “It’s a bummer as his sister, though. He’s such a great guy, and I feel like he’d make someone really happy. People are just so…I don’t know, shitty. I hope he meets someone one day who wants to go all-in with him, too.”
“He will.” I smiled at her knowingly. “There’s someone out there for everyone.”
Quinn nodded back at me. “So I’m learning.”
We finished our meals and carried our wine and cream puffs into the living room to get more comfortable.
Quinn pulled out her playbook, and I frowned at her. “What are you doing?”
She giggled. “What? I told you I need help developing a new gameplan. Lila has mysteriously disappeared from practices. She’s not dead or anything. Her family has talked to her, but she hasn’t been to practice and won’t return any of our calls. She was our powerhouse, and we’re going in with ten players on Friday, so I was hoping you could help.”
I crossed my arms like a pouting child. “I thought it was a ploy to get in my pants.”
She let out a barking laugh. “I don’t need a ploy to get into your pants.”
I chuckled back at her. “Yeah, that’s true.” I rubbed my thumb along her cheek. “I’m kidding, anyway. You know I’ll help.”
She leaned forward and kissed me. “Thank you. It’s not like we won’t eventually get there. Patience is a virtue.”
“You make patience difficult,” I replied with a wink, and she blushed a little.
She started to unzip her hoodie to pull it off and then stopped short. She turned a sly smile to me. “I have an idea.”
“Okay?”
She zipped her hoodie all the way back up. “How about for every play we come up with, I’ll take off an article of clothing.”
Excitement shot downwards at the suggestion. “Football is going to earn me sex?”
She grinned. “Maybe.”
I snatched her playbook from her and flipped it open. “Well, what the fuck are we wasting so much time for?”
24
Quinn
“That is amazing.”
My entire team was pointing and smiling up toward the stands. Zeke, whose relationship with the Vipers had been improving exponentially since he took my advice about being more reasonable with them, had managed to convince some of his teammates to show up to cheer us on for our next game. They filed into the stands in seemingly random order at first, but once they were situated, it was clear to see that they formed the shape of a black widow. Most of the Vipers were dressed in black, but Zeke and two of his teammates were sitting in a line in the center, dressed in red, making the notable red marking on a black widow’s back.
Alec pinched my cheek. “Look at you. You’re beaming.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I am. That’s pretty awesome.”
I locked eyes with Zeke, and he mouthed, “Good luck.”
I couldn’t chart exactly when things had changed. For a while, the only thing that mattered to me was football and going semi-pro. It was like Zeke said—suddenly, there were things more important than that.
“You’re falling