look about two sizes too small for all the curves they’re hugging in just the right places. If she moves too much, those buttons are bound to pop open. I’m honestly surprised she didn’t go all out with some fake glasses.
Some guys are really into the whole nerdy thing, and the women I’m used to turning away know how to market to their clientele. Too bad she doesn’t know a thing about me. My teammates are just taking stabs in the dark to see what I’ll respond to at this point.
The woman frowns. She must be new at this and doesn’t know how to handle a difficult customer. Then again, most of the jersey chasers I’ve ever met—paid or not—aren’t usually this timid. I’ve definitely never seen any of them blush the way this one does.
And what a blush it is. If I was into casual sex with someone who might have already slept with my entire team, she might be able to persuade me. There’s something about her that’s just…light and happy. Peach colored hair, peach colored cheeks—she even smells like peaches—and I can’t help but notice…a great rack. She’s a little on the softer side than most of the jersey chasers and call girls who hang around. A lot less makeup, a little less confidence, and maybe a hint of a temper? I don’t know. It kind of freaks me out that I want to know if that color staining her cheeks is from anger or embarrassment.
There has got to be something wrong with my head. All these pranks are getting to me.
As the minutes tick by in silence while she continues to stare at me, a hint of guilt creeps over my already exhausted muscles. I don’t usually lose my temper like I just did. Staying calm, cool, and level-headed is important, especially in the worst circumstances. Emotions in the heat of the moment usually end in disaster. I guess it doesn’t matter though. Lately, no matter what I do, my life off the field is nothing but chaos.
Chaos breeds tragedy.
Careful, controlled order saves lives. In more ways than one.
Stuffing away all the weird emotions I usually keep locked away, I shake off the missed play and try a different route. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair. You’re just trying to do your job, and you don’t deserve—”
“Oh!” she interrupts, a hint of light breaking over her admittedly beautiful face. “That’s okay! I get it. You’re a man of action, not words. I can sympathize with that. Maybe it would be better if I show you…”
She fishes her phone out of her jacket pocket.
I wince, expecting a thousand-dollar bill for less than twenty minutes of her time to be shoved under my nose. These stupid pranks are seriously cutting into my budget for sending money home to my mom to help pay off her four times over refinanced mortgage and for making my sisters’ college tuition payments.
Instead of an invoice with a bright red button I can tap to pay off another debt, a familiar video plays that I’ve rewatched way too many times in the past week. That’s time I could have spent studying videos of the next opponent.
I’ve wanted to strangle Alex Fossoway a million times since I met his cocky ass in sixth grade through our hometown’s rec football league, but these days? I am literally forcing myself to use training as a distraction from flying to Florida to commit homicide.
Been there, done that, don’t need a repeat.
The sight of us arguing on the field after the last game between Albany and Orlando makes me grit my teeth to keep my muscles from trembling with the rage that threatens to escape my mental cage.
It doesn’t matter that most people don’t understand the years of shared history that brought us to the point of me literally dragging him away from the Wolves’ sideline. Hell, even I can’t deny it looks like the kind of argument only people who are intimately acquainted would have.
Alex Fossoway and I are intimately acquainted all right. Blood brothers for all the wrong reasons. And through the one person I wish we didn’t share a very intimate history with.
“So, you see?” the redhead begins again with a gentle tone of voice. “That’s why I’m here.”
My stomach twists in knots, and that old urge to commit physical violence returns with a vengeance. “If you’re looking for a threesome, I hate to break it to you, but he plays for a different team in