Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
LAW
Once we get our food at the Little Aloha food truck that’s just down the street from the resort, we put together two picnic tables to fit everyone. With as many football players as we have with us, it’s still a little crowded, and I wish Carlie was sitting next to me instead of between Jett and Gabriella. The silver lining is that I’m sitting across the table from her so I can watch her without her catching me—too often. I force myself to hold her gaze and smile when she does instead of looking away in embarrassment. I get a smile back every time.
“Okay,” Ivy says from where she sits between me and Alec Sanford, the running back she went to lunch with today. “I want to hear everyone’s most embarrassing moment.”
I almost groan. This is one of Ivy’s favorite things to do when she works with groups. She says it helps people be vulnerable with each other and trust more. She’s trying to help me, so I give a supportive nod. One of the pieces of advice she gave me when we were working through my responses to being traded to the Pumas was to be myself—all of myself. “People will relate to you more if you show you’re human and you make mistakes,” she said so frequently I almost made it the lock screen on my phone. It’s something I’m still working on.
It surprises me that a ripple of tension seems to dance across Jett and Carlie. She’s frozen, staring down at the Spam-and-rice meal she got.
Jett glances at her. “Well, mine is pretty obvious,” he says, his voice forcing lightness. “You know, throwing two interceptions during the biggest game of the year besides the championship.”
I laugh with everyone else and keep it to myself that I jumped out of my chair when the Blues cornerback intercepted the one in overtime, and then I moaned dramatically enough to make Ivy laugh out loud when Colby forced the fumble and the Pumas still scored a touchdown.
“Wait.” Ava puts up her hands and turns to her boyfriend. Fiancé , I think with a secret look to Carlie, but she’s still pushing around her Spam and rice. “You’re just going to pretend like your embarrassing addiction to salt-and-vinegar chips with guacamole just doesn’t exist?” Ava asks in mock astonishment.
Colby, Alec, and the other guys around the table groan again, all exclaiming in various ways how disgusting it is, and Jett defends himself.
He turns to Carlie. “Hey, tell them about that time you tried to seduce one of the preschool parents.” He nudges her softly with an elbow.
It wakes Carlie up from whatever was going on, and she covers her eyes. “Oh my gosh.” She straightens, her expression still mixed with something I can’t put a finger on. Worry, maybe fear? I’m not sure.
But she jumps in. “It started with a text from one of the only single dads of my class, asking if he could meet me after hours. That totally sounds like a date, right? Right?” She looks around the table, and it’s a relief to see her face more animated, but I can’t help but wonder what was happening before. And why did Jett save her like that? Because it was totally a save, going first and then suggesting something specific for Carlie to tell. She was in some kind of spiral thinking about whatever her real embarrassing moment is, and it’s selfish of me that I’m a little bit jealous. I want to be the one to save Carlie.
“Absolutely sounds like a date,” Gabriella says, and everyone around the table nods.
“Thank you,” Carlie says. “So I say sure, and he replies that he’ll be at the school at four—which, in the mindset I’m already in, I read that he’ll pick me up straight from the school. It’s plenty of time for me to do a quick change and refresh my makeup. And by change, I mean into my little black dress that’s way more—well, not preschool teacher professional—because this guy is so good-looking and so successful.”
Alec whistles from beside Ivy, and everyone laughs. I catch Carlie’s eye and grin, probably a little wolfishly. I would like to know exactly what’s not teacher-professional about Carlie’s little black dress. Backless, maybe? I can picture her long hair brushing against her bare back and my arm around her, guiding her into a nice restaurant.
She looks away and draws a breath. It takes a beat for her to start again, and I hope it’s because I’ve distracted her the way she distracts me. “Then he walks in wearing a pair of joggers and a T-shirt. And he asks me if I have a hot date.”
Everyone, including myself, is grimacing at this point, because we all know where it’s going.
“I know, I know,” Carlie says, continuing. “I should have realized, but I thought he was being flirty or something, so I say, ‘Yeah, but I’m wondering if I’m overdressed,’ and he doesn’t say anything. For, like, so long.” She puts her hands to both sides of her face, and the pink in her cheeks says she’s reliving that awkward moment. “I think he realized before I did what had happened, because he says, ‘Did you think …’ and it took me too long to be like, ‘No, no, no, no. I’m going out with someone after this.’” She sits back a little and bites her lip. “Turns out he wanted to talk about his son’s reading progress and what he could do to help him improve at home. So he’s good-looking, he’s successful, he’s a great dad, and he transferred his kid out of my class the next day. I narrowly missed losing my job for hitting on a parent.”
“He was a fool,” Alec says, eyeing Carlie meaningfully. She blushes more. I murmur something along the same lines as everyone else, that of course she thought it meant a date, worded like that. I still can’t stop thinking about Carlie, standing there in her little black dress, and that guy walking away from it. Insane. Yes, a fool.
Alec tells about the time he ended up on a date with two women, which we all rib him for not actually being embarrassing and more of a brag, and the conversation turns before anyone else has to go. But the exercise did exactly what Ivy wanted it to. Despite still being distracted by the beautiful, vulnerable, brave woman across from me, I’m interacting with the guys around me, laughing and sharing stories. This is why I brought Ivy, and it’s why she decided to come to Houston. She can’t help but take care of me.
I try to walk next to Carlie as we all head back to the resort, but she ends up in a group with Ivy, Gabriella, and Ava, all of them wanting pictures of the guy that turned her down for a date. At least she gives me an apologetic look as they herd her forward. That’s something. I’ll have to have a talk with Ivy about betraying me, though.
I walk back to the hotel with Jett, and since Colby hangs on to Gabriella’s hand despite her being with the girls, and Alec has joined them as well, we’re basically alone.
“I’d bet money that’s not really Carlie’s most embarrassing moment,” I say.
Jett gives a mirthless, short laugh. “Carlie’s most embarrassing moment is a lot more serious than a fun story to tell around a table of people she hardly knows.” He doesn’t add to it, and I don’t push.
“That was nice of you to help her out like that.” What I’ve learned of Jett in the past few days has just made me like him more and more. The quarterback is often seen as a leader on the field, and Jett is definitely a leader off the field as well.
“Her sister married Devin when I was still in high school, so I’ve known Carlie a while. Our families are close. Right now Jenna and Devin have the only grandkids on both sides, so we end up doing a lot of family things together, just to make stuff simple.”
I can easily picture Jett and his family having a great time together, probably without the tension that seems to accompany anything Malcolm and I do with my mom. “That sounds amazing.”
“It is pretty nice.”
We walk in silence for a minute, maybe both of us hoping the women up ahead of us will break up. They’re laughing at something on the phone now, so that’s probably a vain hope.
“I saw Ava’s ring,” I say, avoiding that Carlie pointed it out. I don’t think Jett will care, but just in case, I don’t want to throw her under the bus. “Congratulations.”
He grins. “Thanks. It was seven years coming. Wishing I hadn’t been so stubborn.”
“Seven years is a long time to wait for the girl of your dreams.” I smirk at him.
“Too long, for sure.”
I wait for him to tease me about Carlie, say something like how I shouldn’t wait too long for her, but he doesn’t say anything for several seconds. I try not to shift uneasily. The silence isn’t exactly uncomfortable, but Jett and I don’t know each other well enough for it to be comfortable. We come to the entrance to the resort, and Ava breaks away from the group ahead of us, coming back toward Jett.
“Take things slowly with Carlie, okay?” he says before Ava gets to us.
I nod at him, agreeing without saying anything since Ava is already slipping her hand into his. I look up, seeing that Gabriella and Colby are breaking away too, heading toward the beach. I hope that Ivy and Alec have made some kind of plan too, but Alec walks on one side of Carlie and Ivy on the other. I sigh. I did spend a good chunk of the day with her, and Jett just got done telling me not to rush things. I can totally do that.