the rest of her questions from the bench as I got my socks and shoes on, then handled three other reporters before I made my way out of the locker room. At least I wasn’t stuck at the conference tables yet, but I knew it was coming.
Locking eyes with Roman, then Hendrix, I pointed out of the locker room, and they nodded, both still answering questions. If I got out now, I could sign for the fans for at least twenty minutes.
“Nixon! What do you have to say about rumors that your brother had a shotgun wedding last weekend?” a local tabloid reporter called out from the side of the hallway as I walked out of the locker room.
Usually, I ignored that shit, but this time I laughed. “Trust me, there would be nothing shotgun about Nathan marrying his fiancée.” God, he’d been desperate to get that woman to the altar for the last two years.
“Is that a confirmation?” the reporter asked, following me down the hall with quick clicks of her heels.
Harper would lose her shit if I said anything even resembling a confirmation. “No, it’s not. Trust me, if my brother had gotten married, I would have been there, and he would have announced it in skywriting. Besides, aren’t you a little far from Charleston for the social gossip?” I tossed over my shoulder.
“But you were placed at a Carolina Reaper wedding in Vegas last month,” she tried again as I pushed through the doors into The Barn. The indoor field stretched out before me like the finish line in a race I had zero desire to run with the press.
“Yep. That would have been Cannon Price and Persephone VanDoren, which has already been well-reported. Again, not my brother. Or do guys in hockey gear all look the same to you?” I arched a brow at the over-eager brunette who looked like she was still in college.
“No, of course not,” she bristled.
“Right. We done?” I asked over my shoulder.
She simply stopped following me as her answer, thank God.
Cannon and Persephone had been on that same Vegas trip, but the two had woken up married that second day and had some serious history…of hating each other. Guess all that hate was just for show since they were hot and heavy and planning a second wedding now, but I was glad I wasn’t the one who’d accidentally gotten hitched to my charity auction date.
Not that I wouldn’t have minded at least seeing Liberty again. Shit, we’d had so much to drink that weekend that most of it only came in flashes. When in Vegas, right? Talk about an awkward plane ride home. She’d hidden behind a book and blushed ten shades of red every time I’d dared to look her way. It’s better this way. No distractions.
I pulled my ball cap on and walked through The Barn doors into the heat and humidity of the one o’clock sun.
“Sir,” Owen Hamilton, the security guard who always stuck by me, said in a rumbling, deep voice as he offered me a Sharpie.
“Thanks, Owen. And for the hundredth time, call me Nixon, you stubborn ass,” I said under my breath as we approached the rope that separated the field from the fans. Some of my teammates were already spread out down the line, signing shirts and taking pictures.
Owen’s wide smile said he’d heard me.
I greeted every fan I could as we walked down the line. Hats, pictures, balls, I signed them all and took selfies with whoever asked. If they were willing to sit out here for hours and watch us practice, then I was more than happy to sign whatever they wanted. I drew the line at body parts, though.
We’d just about gotten to the fifty-yard line when I looked into a pair of green eyes I’d been dreaming about for a month.
“Liberty?” Christ, could you sound any more like an over-eager puppy? I dropped my voice. “What are you doing here?” That’s better. Now, if I could do something about the quick little jump my heart had pulled.
Damn, she was even more beautiful than I’d remembered. Her silky, dark hair was up off her neck in a ponytail, and her skin glowed with a summer tan. Any model would have killed to have her facial structure with her high cheekbones and sweeping, thick lashes, but fuck, it was her eyes that nearly took my knees out. They were pale green with a jade ring, and they dropped away from my gaze