Kickin' It (Red Card) - Rachel Van Dyken Page 0,10

where I really wanted to be, as far away from him as possible. “San Diego, LA, Florida, and a new team in Dallas.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Wow, that’s quite a lot of offers.”

“Interest. Not offers,” I grumbled.

“No agent?” she guessed.

“Something like that.” It was a partial truth. The whole truth could never come out. Ever. It would only destroy what was left of me.

“Hey, Matt!” Mackenzie actually called him over. I gave her a What the hell look. No, no, no! It wasn’t supposed to happen like this! I was going to show him my stats, tapes of my playing, the normal thing! And if that wasn’t enough to convince him to represent me I would go with plan B—baking cookies and getting him drunk off his ass! I wasn’t supposed to ask for a favor three hours in! That’s not how these things work! I felt my cheeks blush a bright red when she grinned at him. “You owe me a favor.”

“So?”

“I’m calling it in.”

“I don’t recall this conversation.”

“I think I was in the shower . . . with Slade.” She tapped her chin. “Something about sexual harassment and—”

“What do you want?” he interrupted quickly.

She pointed at me with a triumphant grin. “Your new roommate needs an agent. Seattle’s shown interest as well as other teams. Let the negotiations begin!” She nodded like it was just that easy.

Matt leveled me with a glare that had me ready to back into the dessert cart behind me. He didn’t blink. His face didn’t move. Every gorgeous angle of his face was taut with tension.

Great.

Thanks, Mackenzie!

“My rate is fifteen percent of whatever you earn.”

I gulped and opened my mouth. He held up his hand.

“But since I don’t know you, I’m going to take twenty-five percent of your first contract and we’ll see where we go from there. What kind of offers were you given?”

“My coach wouldn’t share that information with me,” I whispered, trying to keep the sadness and anger out of my voice.

He rubbed his chin. “Maybe I should give him a call and—”

“No!” I blurted a little too loudly. “No, I mean . . .”

Everyone turned to look at me.

Shit.

I shouldn’t have come.

I shouldn’t have worn a tiny dress that fit Willow better than my thick thighs.

I squeezed my eyes shut and took a breath. “Can we please just leave him out of it? He’s not a nice man.”

Mackenzie elbowed Matt.

“Fine.”

I exhaled in relief.

“I’ll have Willow draw up a contract in the morning. You’ll be her guinea pig, she’ll assist me with you, and I’ll try to make you”—he eyed me up and down—“look like a world-class athlete instead of a fifteen-year-old with a tiny dress on. How’s that sound?”

“Like sexual harassment,” I chirped.

Mackenzie burst out laughing. “I have a feeling this is going to be a great relationship!”

“My. Ass,” Matt whispered under his breath and grabbed his keys. “Let’s go, girls. Bedtime.”

“Okay, Dad,” Willow grumbled just as Matt jerked her away from Jagger’s clutches. Jagger sent me a sultry wink as Matt opened our doors and put us in the Escalade.

He drove with his hands at ten and two the entire way home.

His face impossible to read.

His body? Tense.

I wondered if that tension had to do with me, his sister, or the fact that we were raining on his parade for the next three months and that I’d somehow just made it all worse.

Chapter Five

MATT

They hadn’t even been in my house for twenty-four hours and already everything was changing.

I found a box of tampons in the hall bathroom.

Next to a can of aerosol spray that had a giant kangaroo on it and something about a twenty-four-hour hold.

For what? Your ponytail?

I broke out in a cold sweat when I spotted another toothbrush near the sink. It was red with sparkles. This bothered me. I had no idea why. It wasn’t like it was the master bathroom. But it was still my fucking bathroom.

I narrowed my eyes as a hairbrush with exactly three dark hairs stuck in it sat alarmingly close to the toothbrush. She was a monster! A savage! Who put hair that close to something that goes inside your mouth? Just the thought had me shuddering as I turned off the light and closed the door behind me.

“Oomph!” Parker stumbled against me. I caught her by the biceps. And then was completely caught off guard that she actually had them.

Slightly firm in all the right places, yet completely soft.

Her brown eyes had speckles of gold near the center, and