Chapter 3
CHAPTER
THREE
DAMON
I’m half tempted to call Cavanaugh right now and tell him his girl wonder is down here at Peepers, but he said he might head up to the rooftop after he went grocery shopping. I think an in-person run-in between him and Bryce would be best. At least for me to laugh my ass off.
“Let’s go to the rooftop,” I say, pushing back from the table.
“Yeah, the game is about to start,” Elle says.
“I’m watching the Reds,” Coop complains because he’s from some rural town in Missouri and grew up loving the Reds.
“They’re losing.” Elle pats his shoulder. “Come on.”
He reluctantly stands because the hope of them coming back is slim. We head up the stairs to the rooftop access. Since we live here, we have six permanent seats for every game, then Ruby sells the rest of them to the public. Most of the time, it’s companies buying seats for their employees.
It’s awesome to meet all the different people who come to the games. I know people see me as a manwhore, but I’m an almost thirty-year-old professional football player in the prime of my life. What do they expect? When opportunity presents itself, I take advantage.
As soon as I step onto the rooftop, the heat hits me like a cloud of smoke. Holy shit, it’s August and it’s hot as fuck up here. I scour the area, finding some hot girls in the middle of the seating area.
A brunette recognizes us and nudges her friends, who all look over at Coop and me.
She’s got on a red tank top that fits her tits nice and snug.
She doesn’t have on a ton of makeup and her hair is pulled back in a ponytail.
Her long legs are tanned and crossed, and she’s sipping one of the hard seltzers from the rooftop bar that Ruby refuses to sell downstairs.
What I find most appealing is that she’s got that shy look that brings that flush to a woman’s body that I love while I explore their every curve.
“Let’s sit down,” Bryce says and sits next to Elle, leaving me the seat next to her.
Having Bryce sitting next to me will make it hard to pick up someone. We look like a foursome. I have no idea how Coop does it with Elle always around. I hem and haw because I’m not sure if I’ll lose the brunette’s interest if I sit down next to Bryce.
“I’ll catch you in a bit.” I head up the stairs and sit in a vacant seat next to the brunette who was eye-fucking me. “Hey.”
Her eyebrows rise. “Hey.”
“Damon.” I put out my hand.
She stares at it for a moment before sliding her hand in mine. It’s soft and tiny, nothing like my large, calloused ones.
Her friend, a redhead, leans over. “Damon Siska, right?”
My smile grows. “Yeah. You two follow football?”
“Your reputation precedes you,” the redhead says, clearly not thrilled to have me sitting next to her friend.
So I concentrate on the brunette, sitting back and crossing my legs. “So, you’re a baseball fan?”
“We’re here with our work.”
I glance behind me at a group of guys whispering to one another and staring at us.
“What kind of work do you do?” I ask.
“Don’t act like you’re interested in anything other than her pussy,” the redhead leans in and snipes.
“Whoa.” Who the hell is this woman? Have I slept with her before?
“Isla,” the brunette says to her friend.
“Seriously, you’re going to sit here and go for this guy? After—”
The brunette sends her a fiery expression and the redhead shuts up, faces forward, and crosses her legs.
“What am I missing?” I ask before sipping my beer.
“I’m out of here.” Isla, I guess, stands and walks down the other side of the aisle.
“What is her problem?” I ask the brunette.
“You really don’t remember me?”
Oh fuck. Have I been with this woman before? This has never happened to me. Sure, I sleep with a lot of women, but I’ve never forgotten a face.
“Two months ago, we met at a bar down the street. Northsider Pub? It was after a Jaguars ball game and you took my best friend home and then asked her to leave right after. Said you had somewhere to be early and it was easier if she just went home that night. You didn’t even call her an Uber.
” The brunette’s eyes widen as if she’s asking for an excuse for my behavior.
I’ll admit I don’t do overnights, but I usually do pay for the Uber. I bite my lower lip, racking my brain for any recollection of that night. “Are you sure it was me?”
“Damon Siska? Plays for the Chicago Grizzlies?”
I nod.
“Yep.”
“Fuck, I brought her here?”
She looks at me with a puzzled expression. “No, some high-end condo with a view of Lake Michigan.”
I shake my head. “Wasn’t me.”
“There’s only one of you in this town.” She sips her seltzer and shakes her head as if she’s disappointed.
“Sorry, wrong guy.” And it really pisses me off that someone who looks like me is out there acting like they’re me.
“Can I take a picture of you and send it to her?”
“She didn’t google me?” Wouldn’t that be what any scorned woman would do?
“She didn’t want to see a bunch of pictures of you with other women.”
I shrug. “Fine.”
She snaps a picture of me, and I put on my million-dollar smile.
She texts it to her friend, asking if I’m the man she slept with, and we wait as the three dots appear.
I try to look at the small round picture of her friend at the top of the screen to see if I recognize her, but it’s too minuscule for me to get a real look.
“She says no. Damon Siska is more attractive.” She laughs so hard I’m afraid she’s going to spill her seltzer all over me.
“Fuck that. There is only one Damon Siska and I’m him.”
“Apparently there are two and you’re the less attractive one.”
I grab her phone and take another selfie from my good side and send it to her friend. Her friend responds that the brunette’s being duped. Pulling out my wallet, I show the brunette my license, then I google myself on my phone and show it to her.
She giggles and the sound makes me feel lighter. “Relax,” she says, continuing to laugh as she goes through the Google search. “Do you ever date someone twice?”
“No.” I don’t play games. I tell women where it’s at from the start.
“Well, seems you’re honest at least.”
“I didn’t sleep with your friend. Does that put me back in your good graces?”
“I’m not sure. You have a reputation in this city. I don’t like drama.”
She crosses her legs. The movement grabs my interest, watching one leg slide over the other. They’re tan and toned. My mouth waters, and for a second, all I can think of are those legs hanging off my shoulders while my face is at the apex of where they meet.
“It’s called fun.” I give her my panty-melter smile.
“I’ll tell you what. If you can commit to sitting next to me the entire game, maybe you’ll have a chance to take me to eat after it’s over.”
Spending hours together at a baseball game followed by dinner isn’t something I normally do, but this woman has captured my interest. And who else am I going to sit with?
Coop and Elle, who pretend they’re friends, and their bestie Bryce who is Miles’s even though he might never claim her?
I’ve known the guy long enough to know that he’s interested in her.
“Or we could skip this whole thing and go down to my place. Watch the game alone.”
“Let me guess—naked and in your bed? I think you might be hopeless.” She looks away from me and somehow it feels like the sun going behind a cloud.
“Let’s start over.” I hold out my hand. “I’m Damon.”
She shakes my hand. “Adeline.”
“No last name?”
She shakes her head. “No last name.”
Maybe she is my kind of woman after all.