Nori's Delta (Delta Team Three #1) - Lori Ryan Page 0,14
her, she was sure it was going to turn out to be a big joke. That if she agreed to go outside the house with him, his friends would jump out and laugh and she’d have to face the fact he’d set her up.
Even months later when she finally did let him take her to a game and he put his arms around her and kissed her in front of all the school afterward, she still half expected him to pull back and laugh while the others joined in.
But he didn’t. And neither did any of his friends, at first.
Still, for whatever reason, she didn’t want these men—his team—to look at them and wonder what Heath had seen in a girl like her. So she put the attention on Heath.
“Heath was the star of our football team, even though he wasn’t the quarterback. All the boys wanted to be him and all the girls wanted to have him.”
“And you did,” Jangles said.
Well, hell, that had backfired on her.
Eleanor looked at Heath but he was looking down at his plate now, making sure he got every last scrap of food into him. She recognized the look, though, and hated herself for putting it there.
She shouldn’t have brought up his football career. To most people in their school, Heath was a happy jock, content to play ball and squeak out only the requisite grades needed to stay on the team.
When she started tutoring him in his sophomore year, she’d quickly realized he used jokes and his status as the star wide receiver to cover the fact that he was struggling in his classes. And he hated it. Hated feeling like he wasn’t smart enough. Like everyone around him was better than him somehow.
She had done her best to make sure he saw that he wasn’t stupid. But now, she’d just gone and brought it all back to him because she didn’t want his teammates questioning her about their relationship.
She cleared her throat and this time she made damned sure she got them all the way away from their high school years.
“So, what’s our plan for getting into Kazarus?”
Heath grabbed at the chance to move on and answered immediately. “They’ll be expecting us to enter at one of the legal border crossings so we’re not going to do that.”
“You’re going to smuggle me across the border?”
“Yup.” This came from Zip who seemed to be entertained by her shock.
“Won’t that be dangerous?” She looked to Heath but it was Jangles who answered.
“It will be, but no more dangerous than waltzing you up to a border crossing and having someone get to you with a sniper rifle or a roadside bomb.”
As Eleanor’s stomach seemed to hit the floor, Heath’s hand landed on her leg and he squeezed, reassuring her.
“We got you, Nori. We’ll be right there with you through this.”
It was stupid that she was so comforted by his use of her old nickname. She’d been Eleanor for so long now, she’d forgotten that it felt good to have friends close enough to give you a name that says you belong to them in some way. That says you’re theirs or part of their group.
Not that her nickname was like the names these guys had given each other. Those were something more. Those were the mark of a band of brothers, of men who would and probably had laid their lives on the line for each other.
But hearing her old high school nickname reminded her that she’d once been more than the woman who was so driven to succeed in her job that she’d let all other parts of life—friends, family, any outside interests—fall by the wayside.
She looked at Heath. “Shouldn’t you be sitting this out now? You’re hurt.”
He looked positively affronted and his teammates snickered. “I’m good. The bullet only grazed my arm.”
“You passed out! More than once.” She looked from him to the other men and back. Was she the only sane person at the table? They should be helicoptering him out of there so he could recover.
Heath shrugged. “I’ll take a back seat on things for a few days, but I got a PRP and I’m good to go.”
She shook her head and looked to the other men.
Jangles translated. “Platelet rich plasma injection. He’ll be fine.” He acted like that was the end of the discussion and went on talking about their plans for getting her and her team to the meeting. “The team that has your assistant and the rest of