Chapter 13
Tab
No one said how difficult it was to date a football player on the down-low. My phone is a frenemy in the making. Oh, how I love her when she gives me notifications from Levi, and how much I want to shake her when she doesn’t.
Right now, he should be on the way home from an away game.
Now that Raeann has loosened the reins on me, she decided to go watch Micah while I stayed behind.
That’s the thing about keeping our relationship a secret, I can’t whisk off to different cities and act like I care about seeing a game when I didn’t before.
“Cheer up,” Jace says as Sunny sits, dropping off our drink orders with a smile. I’m really not supposed to drink at all with my meds, but one little one couldn’t hurt.
“I’m cheery,” I counter, taking a big sip of my drink.
“You’re attached to your phone, even though you try to hide it. You’re distracted. You’re being very cagey about all the gifts you’ve been getting. Every day, we see you in a different outfit or a different purse or designer shoe.”
“If you will recall,” I say, “I was in a fire where I lost all my stuff.”
Honestly, it’s a good freaking excuse. But it’s a lie.
Levi has decided he’s going to replace everything I owned plus some…
on his dime. I keep reminding him that I can hold my own in the money department, but when he told me how much he makes, I let him do it.
I’m not at that level yet, that’s for sure.
Sunny kicks Jace under the table. “Ouch,” he exclaims. “I was just saying.”
I laugh. “No, it’s fine. I’m not mad, but I do have to replace all my stuff.”
Jace eyes me, then shrugs, glancing away.
I already know the look. He likes to do this a lot when he thinks he knows something.
In this case, he’s probably guessing correctly, but I can’t tell them, even though I am dying to.
“I just thought some of the things you got looked like stuff you never would’ve bought yourself. ”
“I don’t know what you mean. I love Louis Vuitton’s.”
“Love them so much you wore them for half an hour before you kicked them off and borrowed a pair of dog slippers from stock?”
I was trying for Levi, but it turns out he only wants me to wear them during intimate moments anyway. Unfortunately, the opportunities have been drying up for that, too. Now that I’m back at work, our schedules don’t always match up.
The easiest thing would be to tell everyone we’re seeing each other. I fret over my lip. I told myself I wouldn’t get my heart involved, and I’ll die before I admit that I might have let my guard down a little too much. He’s just so fun. Sexy. He makes me laugh.
I take another drink of my vodka soda. This wasn’t the plan.
My phone buzzes, and I swipe it off the table quickly, holding it just below the surface so Jace and Sunny can’t see.
Levi: Did you watch my game?
I smile, and Jace makes an “uh-huh” sound. I flip him off and write Levi back.
Me: I had the score up on my phone. Does that count?
Levi: You’re killing me. I made an epic play.
Levi: You really have no interest in watching my games at all?
My stomach twists. I actually do. I didn’t think I ever would, but it’s different watching someone you care about play a game. It means you have an invested interest in pretty much everything. But I can’t exactly say any of that, can I? People—especially Raeann—will call me out in a heartbeat.
Me: You sound wounded. Don’t worry, I’ll kiss it better later.
Levi: I might need more than a kiss.
“Alright, if you hold her arms and I grab the phone, we might actually figure out who this guy is.”
I glare at Jace. “Don’t you dare.”
He stands up, and I squeeze the phone to my chest. Sunny rolls her eyes. “Stop teasing her.” To me, she says, “We just want to know the guy who makes you so happy.”
“I’m not any happier than normal,” I protest.
“You didn’t come out of your apartment for over a month.”
“That was Raeann,” I state.
Jace and Sunny peer at each other and nod. “She was giving us regular updates, but we haven’t gotten one since you came back to work. How are you feeling?”
Her gaze drops to my arm. Discomfort rattles through me, but it’s not her fault.
Of course they’re curious. “The pain is a lot more manageable. I’ll probably have to have surgery again.
I have a doctor’s appointment coming up to see if we can return my skin back to something that looks a lot better than Freddy Kreuger’s face. ”
“Aw, Tab.”
I wave Sunny’s concern away. Honestly, it’s not something I like to talk about because I am super self-conscious about it.
When I have to take my bandages off, I can’t believe it’s me.
The only person who’s ever seen the burns besides me is Raeann.
Not even Micah. He’s banished from bandage re-wrap sessions.
My phone vibrates in my hand, and I glance down at it.
Levi: Look up and be surprised when you see me. I’ll walk right past you.
What the…
I look up, and sure enough, Levi Soucy—that brilliant man—is walking past us in the bar, dressed to the nines.
“Levi!” I shout, and I don’t even have to fake the surprise.
Levi, though, is on point. He gives me a double take. “Get out of here. Your wardens let you out?”
He saunters up to the table, still standing, like he’s only stopped to say hey.
“Hi!” Sunny greets with a wide grin. She’s a little too excited, if you ask me.
“Do you want something to drink?” I offer.
“Now that’s my line,” he says, his full-on Georgia accent coming out. He sure knows how to put on the charm.
“Let me buy the Pet Threads team a round.”
He peers at me, brows raised.
“She can only have one,” Jace interjects. Honestly, he’s not wrong, but he said that a little too quickly.
“I’ll take another cosmopolitan,” Sunny says.
“And I’ll have a beer,” Jace informs him, holding up his bottle so Levi can see the name.
He nods once and looks over at me. “Let me grab you something. Maybe a soda?”
“A ginger ale? Thanks.”
He taps the table and then walks away, and I can’t help but watch him. His ass in those jeans is positively scrumptious.
“I thought they were at an away game?” Jace says.
“Me too.” I tear my gaze away from Levi’s retreating form. “They must have just gotten back.”
Jace chuckles. “His reputation is true, then?”
“What do you mean?”
“He just got back from the game and instead of winding down, he’s at a bar?”
“Well, we’re at a bar,” I counter.
“Touché.” He clinks his glass with mine, but then he adds on, “But we’re not looking to get laid.”
“We aren’t?” Sunny asks, laughing, sipping her cosmo through the straw between bright-red lips.
“I thought we were going out for drinks with friends?”
“We are, but if a sexy piece of man like Levi Soucy looks at me, I’ll be bowing out of here. No offense,” Sunny says.
“None taken.”
“Hold up,” Jace says, putting his finger in the air. “What makes a guy like Levi Soucy better than any other guy here? And you can’t say because he’s a pro football player. That’s obvious.”
“Well, I don’t know if you’ve looked at him lately, but his mama and daddy killed it in the genes department. He’s so sexy. He’s got that confident thing going on, too.”
I mean, I would chime in, but it sounds like Sunny has this handled. I sip a little more of my vodka soda, enjoying the topic of this conversation.
“Also, at the risk of sounding like a gold digger, money. And I’m not saying a guy has to be a millionaire—though let’s face it, he is—but the fact that he asked to buy us a round.
I went out on a date with a guy on Wednesday, and he asked me to pay for my own appetizer because he thinks appetizers are a waste of money. ”
Both Jace and I grimace.
“Then he went and ate half!”
“What?” I exclaim. “The nerve!”
“You have no idea. I cut out early and ended up paying for my whole meal myself, which I’m not saying I wouldn’t date a guy who can’t afford to buy me a meal, but maybe he could have pitched it as a getting-to-know-one-another meal.
We both pay for ourselves. It’s just the expectation of thinking we were doing something different. ”
“And the fact that he ate half your appetizer that he didn’t want!”
Jace chuckles. “You seem a little too mad about that part.”
“Don’t mess with my food. I bet he didn’t even ask.” I turn to Sunny. “Did he ask?”
She shakes her head, but she’s distracted, and when I follow her gaze, I spot Levi heading our way again. And several women tagging along behind him. When he sets our drinks down, he turns toward them. “Hey y’all. I’m out with friends. Would you mind giving us some space tonight, darlin’s?”
“Darlin’s?”
No one hears my surprise at the word. Sunny because she’s too busy staring at Levi like he’s the chosen one, and Jace because he’s staring at the retreating girls with a frown. This is quite the group we got here.
“Sorry about that.”
“No problem, darlin’,” I tease.
Levi’s cheeks glow with a hint of red. “I find it works better when I’m nice instead of telling them I really don’t want attention right now.”
“You would know best. The rest of us peons don’t have people following us around.”
“That must be tough,” Sunny sympathizes.
Levi starts to say something with a big grin on his face, but then he peers over at me. “It can be. Anonymity when you’re me is hard to come by.”
“Spoken like a true self-absorbed man.”
He cocks his head at me, and I smile to let him know I’m joking.
Maybe. I think I am, but that jealousy is rising up.
Those women were wearing barely there dresses with their shoulders and arms showing.
I’m sitting here sweltering in a long-sleeved shirt.
Tennessee is not the climate to keep covered up all the time, especially in a crowded bar.
Levi downs his shot, then taps the table again. “Okay, which one of you ladies wants to dance with me first?”
“Me!” Sunny nearly shouts.
I start laughing, and Sunny grimaces while she composes herself.
“Come on, then,” Levi says, leading her out to the dance floor.
Why does this scream Levi to me? He shows up. He takes over. He’s so damn charming that I don’t think he realizes he does it. When his TV show comes out, he’s about to be more popular than he already is.
“How are all of Micah’s teammates nice guys?” Jace asks.
“I know, right? You’d expect one of them to be a jackass or something.”
“And this is why I don’t have a girlfriend.”
I peer from Levi and Sunny to Jace, who’s staring at them. I gasp, and Jace’s gaze snaps to me, brows furrowed together.
“Jesus, don’t do that. I thought you were hurt.”
“You like Sunny!” I accuse.
He pales, and little red splotches appear on his cheeks. “What? No.”
“Don’t deny it. I see it now. You asked how football players were different from regular guys, i.e. how Levi is different from you.”
“It was a momentary lapse in judgment,” Jace says.
“Lapse again. You two would be so cute.”
“How can I?”
I shoot back the rest of my vodka and soda. “Alright, this is what we’re gonna do. We’re going over to that dance floor, and I’ll butt in with Levi so you can take over with Sunny.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea. Honestly, I shouldn’t have said anything. This won’t impact my work at Pet Threads. I—”
“Are you kidding me?” I roll my eyes and stand up, tugging Jace behind me.
As we move toward the dance floor, Levi sees me coming, almost like he can feel when I’m around.
He smirks when he sees Jace, nods his head, and on a perfect beat to the music, he spins Sunny out so she lands right in Jace’s hands.
She giggles, and the two of them start dancing, but I barely have time to register before strong hands tug me toward him. “You lasted a long time.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I tell him.
“That was a while before you came to stake your claim.”
I peer into his eyes and it’s as if pieces of my body realign. “I don’t need to claim anything.”
“You’re damn right you don’t,” he growls into my ear.
We dance, Levi really hamming it up. How is he good at everything? The best part is, he makes me look good, too.
When a slow song comes on, he pulls me close. For a moment, I get lost in him. I forget that this is all supposed to be a secret, and I let myself take in the fact that we’re together. “Hey, how did you know where I was?” I ask. “I never told you I was going out tonight.”
He gives me a sly grin, spins me out, and then back in again. “Since our phones are linked, I used Find My Phone.”
Somehow, his admission doesn’t surprise me. “Naughty.”
“It worked in my favor tonight. I got to hang out with you, and we still kept our secret.”
“I think it’s fine in front of Jace and Sunny, but Raeann…”
“Yeah, Micah, too. They’re a little too observant. Now,” he says, pressing my hips to his. “How do I get you alone so you can ride me, darlin’?”
“I think I have just the excuse. Spin me again.”
Levi spins me, but when he tries to spin me back, I resist, clutching my head.
“Are you okay?” he asks, concern written all over him.
“Yes, dummy,” I whisper, but then louder, I say, “No, I think I’ve had too much excitement for the day.”
Levi puts his hands on my hips and walks me back toward the table. Sunny and Jace meet us there. “Are you okay?”
“I overexerted myself, I think,” I tell them. “Levi’s going to bring me home.”
“Are you sure? We can do it,” Sunny states.
I look at Jace. “I’m good. Levi offered.”
“Oh, okay,” he says. I think he understands what I’m trying to do. Well, not the sneaking off with Levi bit, but the bit where Sunny and Jace spend some alone time together.
“Text us when you get home,” Sunny orders.
“I will.”
I grab my purse and Levi leads me out the door. Once we’re outside, he scoops me up in his arms.
“Levi!”
He chuckles into the crook of my neck. “Just making sure you arrive home safely. We don’t want to overwork you any more than I already plan on doing.”
He pulls open the truck door and sets me in.
“I only said that so we could sneak away.”
He laughs. “Tab, you’re a little tipsy.”
“No, I’m not.”
He grins at me and shakes his head. “Fine. You’re not.”
He closes the door, and I take stock of myself. Now that I’m still, maybe I am a little drunk. The dash in front of me looks fuzzy, and I giggle.
Yep, there it is. It’s my drunk giggle. At least, that’s what Rae-bae always called it.
Levi gets in beside me, and I reach over to cup his cheek. “I think maybe you’re right, Levi Soucy.”
“I think maybe I’m always right. And right now, I’m right about taking you to my place.”
“Oooh, your place.”
He holds my wrist and kisses the inside of my palm before holding my hand on his thigh. Goodness. My skin tingles where his lips just were. I’m pretty sure there are country music songs written about this very thing.
Levi Soucy, I don’t know how, but he’s gotten to me.