Touchdowns and Temptations: A Football billionaire Romance

15

Noah didn”t exaggerate when he told me about the Fall Fair. There are many booths with food and drinks, carnival rides, and booths where you can buy all kinds of trinkets. What I find most impressive is the Ferris wheel, its bright colors are shining over the fairgrounds.

“Wow,” I exclaim as Alex and I stroll through the market.

In front of me is a stage where a band is playing country songs.

“Do you like it?” asks Noah next to me.

“Absolutely,” I answer. “You weren’t exaggerating! It’s amazing.”

“I never do,” he says with a wink. My thoughts take a new turn and get stuck on last night. The fact that we had sex again was absolutely not planned. We”re just friends. But somehow, we”re getting deeper and deeper into it. It feels way too good with him - everything. Noah is great and so is his family. His dad finally got over the shock that I was Michael Corse”s daughter and had a casual conversation with me. He also didn”t ask about Dad, which I have to give him credit for. Usually, people always want to talk about my dad.

“There are the others!” Alex calls to us, pointing to a group standing together at a bar.

Noah and I follow Alex.

He greets the men with a handshake and kisses the women on the cheek.

“Noah!” one of them shouts. “You”re here!”

He has short brown hair, is much slimmer than Noah, and wears a blue T-shirt and blue jeans. He makes a nice impression.

“Hey!” Noah spreads his arms.

The two of them embrace, much closer than Alex. I stand at a distance behind Noah and smile. What else can I do? I don”t know anyone here except for the McCarter twins.

“Let me introduce you.” Noah turns to me and smiles. “This is Cara. A friend from Boston. Cara, this is Jamie, my best friend.”

“Hello,” I say and shake his hand. “It”s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” he replies with a smile. “What would you like to drink?”

“We”ll both have a beer, right?” Noah gives me a quizzical look and I nod. Beer is not one of my favorite drinks, but here it seems to be the drink of the masses.

We approach the bar together, and Noah introduces me to the rest of the clique. There”s Ned, a friend from school, with his girlfriend Kelly and her friend Natasha. And Harry, another friend from school.

Noah introduces me to them and to my surprise they don”t notice me or ask me any questions. It”s nice to see Noah surrounded by his friends he”s known since childhood.

“Alex, Noah!” a woman”s voice calls out and I turn around. A beautiful blonde woman is walking towards us. She is tall and slender, her hair falling in soft waves over her shoulders.

“Daisy!” Alex circles the table and greets her exuberantly. Daisy? I look at Noah, who nods weakly as he greets her, too. I stand still, not moving, waiting for her to finish with them. Daisy plants a kiss on Noah”s cheek and I bite my lips to keep my mind on something else. For some reason I don”t like her getting so close to Noah. She wraps her arms around him like she owns him. Isn”t she Alex”s ex-girlfriend?

I press my lips together, trying to suppress the uncomfortable feeling called jealousy. I don”t want to be jealous because there”s no reason to be. Noah and I are not a couple. I”m not in love with him. He”s my friend, nothing more.

It seems to me that Daisy has a knack for causing trouble.

“Oh God, Days!” exclaims Noah, shaking his head. “I want you to meet somebody.”

Noah turns and looks at me. I look back at him, and when he smiles at me, my heart skips a beat. His eyes say so much, but there”s no way he”s romantically or sexually interested in Daisy.

“This is Cara,” he introduces me. “Cara, this is Daisy.”

“Hey,” she says, friendly, shaking my hand. “Nice to meet you. I didn”t know you had a girlfriend.”

“He didn”t either,” I clarify. “I”m just a good friend. Cara, nice to meet you.”

“Oh!” Daisy looks at Noah and then back at me. “I didn”t know, sorry. I”m glad you”re here.”

I have to say, she”s really nice. Damn. Usually, my first impression isn”t wrong. Daisy smiles at me again and turns to Harry and Alex. Noah takes a step towards me and puts his arm around my waist to pull me close.

“Are you jealous?” he whispers so quietly that only I can hear him.

“What?” I squeak, panic spreading through me.

“You don”t have to be jealous,” he says. “Not of Daisy.”

“And what about other women?” I blurt out immediately. I guess I”m confirming his assumption that I”m jealous.

“Nope,” he replies, planting a kiss on my temple. “Now come on.”

Smiling, he takes my hand and pulls me back to the bar. No one comments, the group just continues their conversation. In Boston this would be a scandal. Or maybe Noah has women here all the time and they”re used to it? Maybe he”s the big player here and not Alex. That would also explain why he”s never mentioned a girlfriend.

An uneasy feeling spreads through me and I put some distance between me and him. I don”t want to be one of many, but I also don”t want to be the one. He”s a football player, and I don”t want to be with a football player.

Jesus, it”s all so complicated.

“Do you think her bag is real?” I jump when I hear a female voice to my left and turn my head. Two young women are standing next to us, watching me. I look directly at them, and they give me a challenging look back.

“I don”t know,” the brunette says. “Noah must have given it to her because she is spreading her legs.”

I gasp indignantly. What kind of wicked women are they? I”m not going to let anyone give me a Chanel bag for sex.

“Lucky her,” the blonde giggles. “I wouldn”t say no to that either. To the bag and to Noah.”

Stupid cows! They”re just jealous.

“Don”t let them tease you.” I jump and turn around. A young woman with shoulder-length brown hair stands before me. Her curves make her stand out from the crowd of small-town women our age, but not in a bad way. She has great charisma and an incredibly pretty face framed by her long bob. “Oh, sorry. I”m Emily.”

“I”m Cara,” I say. “It”s okay ... there are interesting people here.”

She laughs and glances at the two women who just judged my bag and, more importantly, my sex life.

“Welcome to Tennessee. Where are you from?”

“I”m from Boston,” I say. “I”m here with Noah.”

I point to him and Emily nods with a smile.

“Cool,” she says, “how do you two know each other?”

“I”m his agent,” I reply. “And you?”

“I”m not his agent,” she replies, giggling, and I join in. “Alex used to date my sister. We went to high school together.”

I look at Emily in surprise, then at Alex and Daisy, who have caught up with us, and then back at Emily. This can”t be right, can it? Emily and Daisy are sisters? They look nothing alike and when I say nothing at all, I mean it. Daisy is blonde and slim and Emily is dark-haired and curvy.

“Daisy is your...” I look back and forth between them again. “Sister?”

“Yes!” Emily laughs. “Hard to believe, isn”t it?”

“Kind of,” I say, looking back at Daisy. She”s still standing next to Alex, talking to him. I bet they”ll end up in bed tonight, the way they”re flirting with each other. “I can”t believe it.”

“Not just you.” Emily shrugs, as if that”s the usual answer. “No one would think we were sisters.”

“Emily, hey,” Noah says, walking past me to give her a hug. “Where did you come from?”

“I was saying goodbye to Anna,” she says, smiling. “You have a lovely friend!” Emily winks at me and I blush. Noah laughs and puts his arm around me.

“Nice of you to say that,” he says with a grin. “Would you like a drink?”

“I”ll take a Cosmopolitan.”

“They have cocktails?” I ask, looking down at my beer. “Why didn”t you tell me?”

Noah rolls his eyes and looks at Emily reproachfully.

“Thanks,” he says. “I thought I could fool her with the cheap beer.”

“You”re impossible. Typical McCarter,” Emily grumbles. “She should be worth more to you than a two-dollar beer.”

“The cocktail”s seven,” Noah says, and Emily shakes her head.

“You make ten million dollars a year, Noah McCarter. I think you can buy this lovely lady a cocktail for seven dollars.”

I like Emily more and more.

“That”s okay,” I say, opening my purse and pulling out twenty dollars. “I”ll go to the bar and get a caipirinha. What would you like?”

“Another Cosmopolitan,” she says, and I nod.

“Daisy?”

She looks at me in surprise.

“Yes?” she asks, looking irritated that I”m talking to her. “Hey, Em.”

“Hey, Days,” she says. “You want a drink?”

“Sure,” she says, “Are you getting cocktails?”

“Yeah,” she says, “what would you like?”

“I”ll have a Bloody Mary, thanks,” she says, and I nod.

“Here.” I push the beer into Noah”s hand. “We”ll get something decent to drink.”

He laughs and pulls me towards him. Surprised, I bounce against his muscular chest. He leans down and plants a kiss on my ear.

“Have fun with Emily,” he says. “You”ll love her.”

I smile at him again and walk with Emily to the bar.

She”s really super nice, and we have a good time. Like me, she”s twenty-two and works as a physiotherapist in the city. She has known Alex and Noah since they were kids and, of course, because Alex and her sister used to be a couple. I would be interested to know if she ever had a crush on one of the twins. But that”s too private, we haven”t known each other long enough for that.

Emily and I have conquered the dance floor. Laughing, I sip my fourth or fifth cocktail. I paid for all of them, which Emily didn”t like very much, but I didn”t make her pay. To be honest, I have no idea how much she earns, but it will be less per month than the cost of my bag. I can”t reconcile it with my conscience that she”s paying for these far too expensive cocktails for me.

“Shall we go back to our table?” I call over the loud music. She gives me a thumbs up. We start walking together. Our group has thinned out a bit. Only Noah, Alex, Jamie, Emily and I are left. Logan disappeared with a blonde, and Daisy hasn”t been seen since. She”s nice, no question, but I never really connected with her. She was always too close to Noah. I put my drink down on the table and look at Noah with a smile. He”s just as drunk and I have no idea how we”re going to get home.

A new song comes on and I sway back and forth.

“Do you want to dance?” Alex asks Emily. Her cheeks turn pink and she shyly pulls in her lower lip with her incisors. Oh dear, that answers the question I asked earlier.

Emily has a crush on Alex.

“Yeah, okay,” she says, “why not?”

He grabs her hand and pulls her to the dance floor. I smile, because Alex is spinning Emily around.

Noah wraps his arms around my shoulders and pulls me into his chest. Smiling, I put my hands on his forearms and lean against him. Alex is just twirling Emily around the dance floor, but they”re having a lot of fun together. I have to admit that the two of them are really cute together. Too bad that Emily doesn”t seem to be Alex”s type. The women he dates in Boston - and Daisy - are the complete opposite of her.

“They”re cute together, aren”t they?” I ask, looking at Noah.

He laughs.

“Alex and Em?”

“Yes,” I say. “I think they”re cute. They make a good couple.”

“Alex and Em?” he repeats.

“Yes!” I shout. “Why do you keep asking me that?”

“Emily”s like a little sister to us,” Noah says. “Alex dated her sister and regularly ends up in Daisy”s bed when he”s in Nashville. Him and Emily? No way.”

I look back at the dance floor and sigh. Alex is pulling Emily towards him, making their dance more sensual.

“Too bad,” I say, turning to him. “I think she”s very nice and I think she”d be good for Alex.”

“How about that,” Noah says, pulling me closer to him. “We stop worrying about Alex and Emily and take care of ourselves?”

“Hm,” I confirm, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Sounds like a plan.”