5. Jeff
JEFF
A mber’s smug grin transformed her face.
There was no other way to describe it. Her brown eyes lit up and her pink lips twisted up on the side as if to tell me no shit.
I shrugged, hoping that conveyed enough of an apology, but she didn’t react.
She gave me a hard look that had me clearing my throat at her scrutiny.
Very few things flustered me but the expression on her face didn’t sit well with me. “Why the face?”
“Nothing.” She jerked one shoulder down, to appear relaxed, but it didn’t fool me. Then she said, “Just got a little thrill knowing you underestimated me.”
That made me smile. “I guess I did.”
“You definitely did, but we don’t need to rub it in your face or anything.” She scrunched her nose and smiled, the entire expression making her seem cute.
Huh. Amber Henderson cute? That was a new thought I derailed immediately. “I’m thinking we need to talk to these guys in person—possibly figure out a way to get them to admit this on camera.”
She nodded encouragingly and continued to tap the pen against her teeth while I rambled my thoughts aloud. “I mean, if these punks had anything to do with it, they aren’t going to want to admit anything, or, they could say we are making it all up.”
“I see your point.” She sucked her top lip into her mouth and brought her bottom teeth up to bite down on it.
It was the least sexy thing I had ever seen, but it brought attention to her full lips.
Have they always been like that? “What’s our goal, here?
It would help me if we could brainstorm the purpose.
This was just a spur-of-the-moment decision to reach out to him and see if he would chat with a random chick.
It clearly worked—I mean, look at his social media footprint.
Are we just focusing on the two other baseball players or anyone who got in under suspicious circumstances? ”
Damn, forward thinking. I should’ve thought of it. “We need to look for similarities between the athletes across all sports teams.”
“You did accuse me of being in on this scheme, Jeff, so there’s a possibility the premise of sports wasn’t even used,” she said, the light dimming a bit in her expression.
A dull tightness formed in my chest and I ran my hand over my skin, hoping to rid of the sensation.
Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have accused her of being involved. Apologize to her. Just say the words.
I never got the chance. She clapped her hands and her entire body hummed with excitement.
“Jeff…I can use the same premise that I’m using with our friends.
Interviewing for my final project. I can visit other teams, ask around about any athletes that got injured and never returned.
Oh! We can print rosters from freshman year and compare them to now.
Unless we want to cover all bases and look into sophomore recruits, too. What do you think?”
That I should’ve come to you sooner, and not been a dick about it. “Those are great places to start for sure.”
“Hell yeah.” She did a little shimmy where she shook her shoulders but once she saw me staring at her, she adjusted the hem of her shirt and avoided my gaze. “Uh, sorry. The thrill of proving you wrong and getting to the bottom of this is exhilarating.”
That makes one of us. I needed to stick to the plan and not get caught up in the betrayal of my coach and the injustice of Jamie. It was enough to cause my insides to burn. “Should we make a timeline and plan when to check in with each other?”
“Sure.” She swiveled in her chair and had her legs crossed over each other, showing off a lot of skin. It is warm in here. “I don’t mind reaching out to some of the other sports teams to get the ball rolling. I have enough connections to at least see if this is a baseball-specific issue or larger.”
“Is it bad I don’t want it to just be baseball?”
“So my uncle can take the fall?” she fired back.
I did not mean to say that. It was a thought that should’ve stayed up in my head to digest alone and take to the grave.
But it was something in her expression, the thrill of the chase, that had me admit it.
This was a better time than ever to admit why.
And maybe not be the asshole she thinks I am.
I took a deep breath and pulled on the neckline of my shirt before saying, “No. Not so your uncle can take the fall. My coach…”
I paused and swallowed down the uncomfortable burn in the back of my throat. “My coach has been a mentor to all of us for years. I respect him with every ounce of my blood but if he’s behind this…it would kill me. All of us.”
She gave me a pitying look and her gaze moved move from me to a picture frame sitting on the small side table. “How do you think I feel about my uncle?”
“I can sympathize with you on that. I really can, but, Amber, we both have to accept two people we care about might be involved. It’s the harsh reality of this and maybe there will be a miracle that we’re both wrong.”
She blew out a long breath that sounded like a deep growl and nodded a couple of times to herself. “Yes. I know. I’m considering not showing any bias during this one of my main areas to grow.”
“I appreciate that.”
She smiled tightly at me just as the door to her room flew open. We both jumped as the tall blonde entered and raised two thin eyebrows at us. She wore a playful smile but then her attention went to the computer screen. “Amber, Jeff, could you explain the dick pic greeting me right now?”
“Fuck!” Amber scrambled to shut off the monitor and it took all my strength to not laugh at the situation. Her entire face turned red and I swore I could feel the embarrassment leaving her body and making the room turn ten degrees warmer. “It’s not what you think, Laney.”
“Hm.” She entered the room and threw herself onto Amber’s small bed, making herself quite comfortable.
“Well, I’m thinking that you’re interviewing Jeff Maddow for your senior piece and you got bold and asked him for a dick pic since we all wanted to know if the rumors were true.
Knowing the egos athletes can have, he promptly sent you a picture. ”
“Why would I send a picture if I could just whip it out right here?”
“Oh, great point, Maddow.” She winked at me and I grinned right back at her. She ate it up and tilted her head as she studied Amber. “Second hypothesis. You signed up for Tinder or Bumble and got matched quickly because you’re hot and you got your first dick pic.”
“ Laney !” Amber seethed and the tips of her ears turned red.
Again, if I didn’t feel so bad for her, I would have been roaring with laughter.
But then, Amber’s posture straightened and she pointed her finger at Laney.
“Okay, fine. You’re right. I signed up for Tinder and swiped a bunch of times on some dudes and one sent me this immediately. ”
Laney winced and leaned her elbows onto her knees.
“I should’ve warned you about entering that world.
The dating world is brutal. So many dick pics.
I got one last night from a random number who called me Chasity.
I don’t know why guys send them. No girl is like yes, that’s the dick to rock my world.
Eventually, they all look the same. Right, Jeff?
When you get all sorts of tit pics, they blur together I’m sure. ”
Why am I here right now? Jesus Christ. I said nothing.
But Laney wasn’t done. She got up, stretched and gave me an amused look.
“This piece she’s writing about you will get you a lot of attention.
She’s a dope-ass writer. But she is new to the whole dating thing and can’t spend all her time researching.
So be nice and don’t be an overinflated athlete and steal all her time. ”
“Really now?” I goaded Amber, loving the panic in her eyes. “New?”
“A total dating virgin,” Laney added.
“Good. Bye, Laney.” Amber stood and shoved her friend out of the door and leaned her back against it once it was shut.
She closed her eyes and sighed, giving me a great view of her legs.
The tiny shorts left little to the imagination and for the life of me, I never remembered seeing great legs on her.
Is that a tattoo on her ankle? God, I wanted to know what it was.
“You can go now.” She still hadn’t opened her eyes.
She kept them closed tight and ushered with her hand for me to leave.
There were a million things I had to do—go over practice plans, do my part on the investigation, look into law school without my teammates knowing I wanted out of the draft and grocery shopping.
But I remained in the uncomfortable office chair and grinned. This was so much better.
“Nah, I’m good here. I want to hear more about this online dating thing you’re so new at.”
“Why did I ever think you were great?” she mumbled, and did not hide her displeasure when she came back to sit in front of me at the desk. “You suck.”
“I’ve heard worse.”
She snorted and pointed to the spiral notebook that had some wires escaping from the middle. “Let’s just… What do you want to work on? I already said my part.”
“We’re really not going to talk about what just happened?” I didn’t want to drop it.
“I’d rather take this stapler and bang staples into my leg than talk about my online dating life with you.” She jutted out her chin and even put a hand on her hip.
“Why so defensive about it?”
“Because it is neither here nor there. I don’t have time for it, really, but my roommates push it on me. They think I need something besides my influencer life but these online apps… I’m new to them.”
“ And you’re bad at it,” I teased, enjoying myself more than I thought.
“Technically, I’m not bad because I haven’t really done it. That’s like saying you’re bad at water polo even though you’ve never played. You don’t know. You could be the Lebron James of water polo-ists. I could be the Lebron of online dating but I would need to sign up in order to know for sure.”
Good lord. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at her manic expression but also her words. That was a lot to digest. “You could be the Lebron of dating apps. Just gotta try it, Henderson.”
“Yeah. Okay . I’m ending this awkward conversation right now.
” She stopped moving around so much and met my gaze, this time full of determination.
“You look into rosters from freshman year and compare them to now and see if anything jumps out. I’ll reach out to my connections and see if I can’t meet up with some of them and get some info. Let’s meet next weekend, same time.”
“Are you kicking me out, Henderson?”
“Yes. You’ve seen me embarrassed more than enough.” She crossed her arms and crossed her right leg over her left, giving me a quick peek at her tattoo again. “If anything comes up before Sunday, just let me know.”
Damn, she really wants me gone. Why does this feel weird?
“Next week it is.” I didn’t stand up to leave, though.
I tried to think of something to say, to prolong this conversation for some reason, though I couldn’t think why.
Amber continued to watch me with an odd expression and when I was about to say something, she opened her mouth.
“Are you expecting me to walk you out? Is that why you’re not getting up? Because I’m not going to do that no matter how popular or good-looking you are.”
I barked out a laugh and finally stood. “Glad to know you think I’m good-looking.”
“Not news to you, Jeff. Don’t act shocked. You’re hot. An asshole, but hot. Now get out.”