Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Paige
Looking at my outfit in the mirror, I smash my lips to the side, wishing I had a more feminine figure.
It’s not something I’ve thought too much about, but every now and again, depending on the outfit, it’s unavoidable—like in this new AU football tank top I bought at the student store on Thursday, specifically for today’s game.
I huff, and Cameron spins from where she’s sitting on the Vegas hotel floor, her ass sliding off the pillow she’s sitting on as she does.
She laughs, holding her hand up so she doesn’t get the mascara she’s holding all over the carpet. “Okay, what do you keep huffing about over there?”
“This top is made for someone who has to wear a bra, not someone who chooses to.”
Cameron smiles. “So don’t wear a bra. It’s a whole vibe right now anyway and you have those perfect, little, perky ta-tas.”
“‘Little’ being the key word.” I turn to the side, standing up straight, not that it helps my five-foot frame accomplish anything. I sigh again. “I can’t even return it either. It was final sale since it’s getting cold already.”
“Darn. Guess you have to give it to me,” she teases. “Look in my bag. I brought like five AU options.”
Pulling the tank top over my head, I flop onto the bed and cross my legs as I search through hers.
Ari pokes her head out of the bathroom, brushing out her wet hair. “Good luck finding anything in her mess of stuff that isn’t wrinkled. She’s the worst packer.”
“Overpacking doesn’t make me the worst. In fact, it makes me the best prepared,” her best friend argues back.
Ari grins, looking my way. “What happened to the tank top you said you bought? I’m sure we all have extra hoodies if you forgot one.”
“No, I brought a zip-up, yellow AU one, but the top falls way past my bra since I’m a bit limited with what I’ve got to hold it up.” I laugh.
“Ugh, I wish.” She ducks back into the bathroom. “I swear, mine are getting bigger right along with my ass lately. I’m living in leggings because my jeans are too tight.”
“It’s called comfort eating, my dear,” Cameron quips. “You miss your man, so you’re eating the damn spaghetti he made you fall in love with him over…over and over.”
“But it’s so good! And the peppers!”
“Yeah, yeah, we all saw you stealing pepper packets at the pizza place the other night. We get it. It adds the special touch.”
We’re sharing a laugh when there’s a soft knock at the door.
Frowning, we look to each other, and Ari comes out with a toothbrush between her lips and raises a brow.
“Well, I can’t get it!” She motions to her naked legs in her T-shirt and toothpaste dripping down her chin.
Cam jumps up, and I quickly tear something from her bag and yank it over my head to hide my bra. She pulls it open only enough to see out the latch, then closes it, unlocking it fully and yanking it open. “Chaser, what do you want?”
My head pulls that way and I tuck my hair behind my ear, climbing from the bed.
“Nice to see you too, Cam,” he jokes.
“We saw you like ten hours ago at dinner,” she sasses.
His eyes pop over her shoulder, spotting me coming to him, and his lips pull up at the side.
He tries to sidestep her, to meet me halfway, but Cam slides in his way, pushing him back a tad. “Sorry, girls only and one of us is basically naked. Please hold.”
He opens his mouth, but she closes the door in his face, turning to me with a laugh. “He’s all—” She cuts off, glaring down at my chest before blinking, and a smirk pulls at her mouth. “Oh, this is gonna be good. I’m totally eavesdropping.”
“What?”
“Oh, nothing. Go.” She pulls the door open and then I’m pushed out.
I stutter a laugh, spinning to Chase, and he steps up to me instantly, tipping my head back and bending to take my mouth with his own.
God, I love when he does that, hitting me with the unexpected heat of his body against mine, taking what he wants and giving so, so good.
I should expect it by now because it seems he can never help himself, and I kind of want to see what he’d do if we were somewhere where he didn’t have to stop.
He pulls back only when he has to catch his breath, his teeth sliding along my lower lip as he grins against it. “Hi.”
“Hi.” I laugh lightly. “Shouldn’t you be at the field by now?”
“I have two minutes to get down to the lobby, bus just pulled up, but I had to come here first.”
Had to. Not wanted to, he had to.
Gah! My insides melt a little, but I try not to show it. We’re still new, even if it doesn’t feel like it to me. I don’t want to freak him out.
“Okay, listen,” he begins. “Don’t think I’m juvenile for this—or do, I don’t even care so long as you agree.”
I bite my lip. “Okay.”
He’s smiling but hesitates, and I swear there’s a hint of a flush creeping up his neck.
“Um…” He trails off, and it’s so cute, but as he steps back a little, his eyes travel over me, and that adorable, playful bashfulness I thought I saw vanishes. Chase glares, his eyes snapping up to meet mine.
“Paige.”
Unease coils in my gut, and I wiggle my toes in my socks, waiting to learn what happened in the last two seconds. “Yeah?”
“I know you’ve never really dated an athlete before.”
“I’ve never really dated anyone before,” I add, a little unsure of what’s happening here.
His eyes snap up to mine, the green disappearing as his pupils grow, but then he shakes his head. “Right.” He clears his throat. “Let me give you a crash course in being mine, okay?”
I nod.
“You’re wearing another man’s number on your chest, over your body, and close to your heart.
Love Brady, but… No, actually, sorry, but fuck no.
” He pulls something from his hoodie pocket and holds it up.
“I was bringing you this.” He holds out his home jersey, the blue one with the mustard-yellow letters.
“Now I realize you’ll need this too.” In one swift swoop, he tugs his hoodie over his head, and now he’s staring at me with two pieces of clothing in his hand, his naked chest right in my line of sight.
My eyes fall to the wide spread of his pecs, to the soft golden skin I’ve seen a hundred times at the beach over the last few years but never like this. Never when it was mine.
Because that’s what he said, right? That’s what he is?
Mine.
My eyes move back to his as he speaks again.
“I was going to ask you to wear it today, but now I need you to. I need all these Vegas fans who consider walking up to you to think better of it when they see my number on your chest and my name on your back.” He steps closer, pressing both against my chest. “Wear my number, Angel?”
“You know I will.”
He grins, leaning in and nipping at my lips. “Good answer.”
I lean in to him, chasing his mouth, but he pulls back, setting the clothing in my hands.
“I’ll wait.” He presses himself against the opposite wall.
“Wait…right now? I thought you only had two minutes?”
His eyes fall back to my chest, narrowing slightly. “I’ll wait.”
I open my mouth, confused and prepared to urge him to go before he gets in trouble, but then the door opens at my back, and Cam reaches out, wrapping her hand around my arm.
“OMG, Paigey. Let me help you out. The hoodie you grabbed from my bag is Brady’s and Chase is having a moment. I kind of want to torture him a little longer, but I want you to take my man’s number off a little more, so…” She laughs, tugging me in and closing the door.
She beams, literally pulling it up over my head and then slipping Chase’s on and yanking the door open before I can even put my hands through or pull my hair free.
Chase’s eyes instantly fall on my chest, where his number is printed on a little helmet, the words Avix University curving around it. His smirk is slow. Naughty. And I swear he kicks off the wall in slow motion, each step measured and in sync with a thump of my pulse against my ribs.
He comes right for me, grabs my face, and I wait for him to eat me alive, as always, but he doesn’t do that. His kiss is feather soft, and I melt against him, my eyes closing as my limbs liquefy. But they’re gone too soon, creating a trail of warmth on their way to my ear. “Very good, baby.”
My breath hitches, palms pressing to his naked chest, fingers spreading wide.
“Will you do one more thing for me?” Another little bite.
“Of course.” My voice is embarrassingly husky.
“Make sure my name or number can be seen. No obstructions, just total confirmation.” His fingers brush along my hair, still tucked in the hoodie. “Just like this?”
I nod, the heat of his lips sending chills down my spine.
“Thank you, Angel.” He hums his approval, pressing one last kiss to the underside of my ear, making my body twitch. I feel his mouth curve into a smile against me.
And then he’s gone, without another look back. I’m left utterly turned on and desperate for five more minutes with him. Alone, preferably in a room with the door locked.
Jesus, that man.
A moment later, Cameron is hauling me back inside and slams the door, and when I turn to her, Ari is there too.
They stare at me, and at the same moment, the three of us lose it, breaking out into giggles and jumping around, and it feels good.
This is the first time I’ve had real girlfriends like this, and I didn’t know what I was missing until they welcomed me into their little group, Payton and our friend Lolli back in Oceanside included.
I’m so thankful for my long-lasting friendship with Noah or I wouldn’t have them at all.
It was a lonely life before them, all my time devoted to my dad, wanting to spend as much as we were blessed to have before he passed, and I don’t regret that for a second.
But I am incredibly grateful to have found this crew now. I might not be the best friend and rather the new, close one, but we do grow closer every day, and I’ll never take that for granted.
Slipping into the bathroom after grabbing a few things from my bag, I look down at the jersey in my hands, then at the hoodie on my body, and a small smile grows.
My dad was the last and only person to ever love me, the last and only person I ever loved.
We were a team of two, and I miss him desperately.
But as I trace the last name on the back of this jersey with my pinkie, I can’t help but wonder if maybe someday soon I will only miss him and not the feeling of being loved, of loving.
Maybe someday soon I can have that again. Someone to love.
A reason to live.
Maybe everything in my life right now—my studio and the state of it, my overnight grandparent and his offer, the wait I had to go through for the man who just called me baby for the first time—is balancing itself out the way it’s supposed to.
Slipping on the long-sleeved crop top I packed just in case, I tug the jersey on over it and smile at myself in the mirror.
Here’s to holding on with both hands.
Chase
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Brady shouts, smiling like a fool as he runs full speed at me, bending at the last second and hoisting me up with his arms around my calves. “Are you for fucking real with that?!” he laughs loudly.
My heart is pumping like crazy, and I swear, I’m lit up like never before.
“A ninety-seven yarder! My boy!” he shouts like a maniac.
The entire team is rushing us, kicking us back and forth until I’m falling between them, everyone pumped the hell up.
The crowd is electrified, screaming and cheering, and the momentum has shifted. We were down by a touchdown, and their offense kept grinding our defense into the ground. Chucking small yards each play until they got the first, all to do it again.
Finally, after back-to-back sacks from Brady, we held them at the one-yard line. Mason came out pissed off and ready. With one look from him, I knew I would be his target.
The ball hit my gloves perfectly, and I was fucking gone.
And I didn’t hit the outside either.
I went right through the middle, depending on my teammates to clear my path and cover my backside.
I’ve never felt my legs fly the way they did, and even as I hit the end zone, the momentum kept pushing me until I slammed into the padded wall behind the goalpost, where my teammates met in celebration.
As much as I hate the guy, Coach Dolton knows what he’s doing. Those weighted runs and hill sprints are working. My speed feels limitless. There always seems to be a second, third, even fourth gear for me to kick into when I think I can’t possibly go any faster.
Mason joins in on the celebration the second he hits the sidelines, our kicker taking the field for the extra point. “Goddamn, my man! You got turbos in those cleats or what?” He laughs. “That shit was unreal.”
My chest heaves, and I can’t stop smiling, accepting the water bottle when someone passes it over, and I squeeze it over my head, shaking it out before rinsing my mouth and taking a small drink.
And then I can’t help myself. I spin, scanning the crowd.
This time a little higher up, since we’re not at home, I find her quickly, having mapped out her seat after warm-ups, and something in my chest, something different than the adrenaline of the game, stirs when I find she was waiting for this. For the moment I’d look back at her.
I wonder if she knew I would or only hoped so?
I hope she knew.
I hope she feels this as deeply as I do.
She climbs up on the seat, doing a little dance and spinning, shimmying her shoulders, my name in bold across them.
My jersey swallows her whole, my little Shortcake, creating the perfect dress, and I can’t help but wonder what she has on underneath. If something of mine is the only thing resting against her skin, outside of the long sleeves I can see peeking out.
Paige slips, almost tumbling, but Ari catches her arm and both girls fall onto Cameron’s lap.
Their heads fall back in laughter, and if I concentrate, I swear I can hear it over the chaos around us.
Paige moves the pieces of hair she’s left free of her ponytail from her face, smiling my way with a shrug, and I smile back.
“I know that look.” Mase elbows me.
Reluctantly, I face his way, but he only wraps his arm around my shoulder, spinning me back toward the field.
“I’m proud of you, man,” he says. “I know your dad is cheering like crazy right now.”
My emotions get clogged in my throat, and he knows it.
Chuckling lightly, he picks up his helmet off the bench and walks over to Coach just as the defense holds Vegas at the thirty, bringing up fourth down.
I take a moment to close my eyes, trying one of Paige’s little techniques to focus on right now: the smell of the warm grass beneath my feet, and the sun overhead—sometimes, a morning game is just what I need.
Slowly, everything falls away, and when I open my eyes again, I’ve got tunnel vision.
There’s still half a quarter left to be played, and I’m not done. Not by a long shot.
I’ve got two scouts coming to watch me play?
Watch me make it four.