Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Diana should be happy. Amil and Jalen were finally getting along.
Neither man was sniffing around her skirt like she was a bitch in heat.
In fact, other than passing them in the halls of the practice stadium, she hardly saw either man in the entire week building up to their first game of the season.
She didn’t even have to go to their practices to capture pictures for marketing purposes, because hiring Emma was the best thing Jeff had ever done—aside from hiring Diana, of course.
Emma worked her ass off. She was constantly shooting pictures with her professional grade camera, rather than Diana doing it with her phone. Their previous team photographer was good, but he didn’t put in the effort Emma did.
And it showed. Emma sent the shots to Diana, who posted on the team’s social media accounts, updated the website, sent the images to the networks, ESPN, the local Portland newspapers, and anyone else who requested them.
The excitement building up to this first game was palpable. The entire town was ready for a win.
Meanwhile, Diana felt…bereft. Which was annoying as hell.
She wasn’t bereft, damn it. She was living her best life. She had everything she needed. Everything she wanted.
Really, she did.
Even if she was sitting at home on the Saturday night before the first game of the season, wearing her favorite lounge pants and softest tank top. Lazlo had wedged himself between her hip and the couch cushion and was stretched out, purring contentedly.
At least he really was living his best life.
She plucked her drink off the coffee table, stared into the depths for a few moments. “Fuck it,” she muttered before taking a hefty swallow.
So what if she was drinking Captain Morgan and Diet Coke? It was a delicious drink that had served her well over the years. It didn’t mean she was upset. It just meant…
“Oh hell.” She threw her head back against the arm of the couch and stared at the ceiling.
“Do I admit it?” she demanded. “Even if only to myself? Hell, especially to myself.”
Lazlo stretched, his little paw reaching out and curling against her arm.
“I want him, Lazlo.”
The cat blinked several times without pausing in his steady purring.
“For the first time in my life, I want a man for more than a single night.” She continued with her true confession despite the cat closing his eyes and settling into sleep. “And now I can’t have him because he and Jalen are suddenly buddy-buddy.”
All week, they’d arrived at the practice facility together. They spotted each other in the weight room. They teased each other all through practice.
While she was glad Amil had bonded with the team—the entire team—and Jalen had finally given up his dumb crush, it was annoying as hell that the moment happened to coincide with her revelation that she wanted more from Amil.
Because there was no way in hell she was going to do anything that might interfere with the good thing he and Jalen obviously had going. That good thing was going to translate into winning games. She knew it. They knew it. The entire team knew it.
“Good God, Lazlo, I lost him to Jalen. If that isn’t poetic—”
Knock, knock, knock.
She considered ignoring the knocking, except it had to be one of her neighbors. No one else could get upstairs without someone buzzing them up.
“Sorry, Lazlo,” she said as she gently rolled off the couch, leaving the cat blinking in confusion now that his snuggle buddy was gone.
She peeked through the peephole and then did an immediate double take before wrenching open the door. “What are you…”
Amil wore a baseball cap with his mess of curls sticking out from underneath, black sweatpants, and a fitted shirt with the Mountain Lions logo scrawled across his massive chest. How was it fair that the man could look so damn good in such casual clothing?
Her gaze dropped to the oversized bag in one hand.
“Is that a cat carrier?” she asked, squinting.
“It is,” he said as calmly as if he were not standing on her threshold on a Saturday evening holding a—
“Why are you holding a cat carrier? What are you doing here? How did you get up here without me buzzing you in, anyway?”
“That was a lot of questions all at once.”
“And I notice you aren’t answering any of them.”
He chuckled.
Something brushed against her ankle, and she glanced down at Lazlo, who was twining himself between her legs while staring up at the car carrier clutched in Amil’s right hand.
“I got kicked out of the hotel. They don’t allow pets,” Amil said, lifting the carrier to eye level.
Inside was a calico cat, crouched, steadily watching her through the stainless steel bars.
“Meet Patches,” Amil said.
“Patches,” Diana repeated, staring back at the cat. “Is that the calico cat from the humane society event?”
Amil had the audacity to look sheepish.
“You adopted a cat?” When had that happened? She hadn’t noticed him filling out any paperwork that evening. If he had, she surely would have pointed out that he should wait until he had a permanent roof over his head.
“I went back the next day,” he admitted. “I couldn’t stop thinking about her.”
For the briefest moment, Diana wished those words were meant for her.
But, no, they were not. He couldn’t stop thinking about a cat.
“Who adopts a cat while they are living in a hotel?”
“I know, it’s crazy. I couldn’t resist her. I mean, she basically adopted me. I don’t know how people just walk away from that place without taking one of the animals with them.”
“Amil, that’s very sweet, but you don’t have a place to live. And now neither does your cat.”
Patches let out a pitiful meow. Lazlo tried to stand on his back feet, attempting to check out the visitor. Diana scooped him up so he wouldn’t run out into the hall. Patches moved to the front of her carrier, purring like a well-oiled engine.
“Get in here so I can close the door,” she finally said, waving at Amil with her free hand.
He stepped inside, the carrier in one hand, a bag that she could now see was filled with various cat supplies in the other.
“Where is the rest of your stuff if you’re homeless?”
“In my truck. Can I—would you mind if I let her out? She doesn’t like the carrier, and she’s going to start meowing like the world is on fire.”
“Sure.” Diana gestured at the kitchen floor. She kept Lazlo firmly in her grip—no telling how he would react to having another cat in his domain—while Amil unlatched the door of the carrier and let it swing open.
Patches hesitated a moment, sniffing her surroundings, a paw pressed tentatively to the tiles. But her hesitation was brief. Within moments she was out of the carrier, prowling around the kitchen, sniffing at the cabinets and batting at one of Lazlo’s toys.
Lazlo wiggled like a freshly caught salmon. Since he wasn’t hissing and wasn’t puffed up like he got sometimes when he was frightened, she placed him on the tiles, crouching over him, prepared to scoop him back into her arms if he didn’t play nice.
The two cats strode right up to each other and sniffed noses. Without a meow or poufed fur and tail, Patches turned away and headed to check out the living area.
Lazlo followed.
“Huh,” Diana said, watching the two cats as they climbed Lazlo’s cat tree and sat side by side, gazing out the window.
“Instant friends,” Amil said.
“Yeah.” She scrubbed at her forehead. “What are you planning to do? Did you magically find a house in the last week?” Without me?
If he wanted to go house hunting on his own—or, more likely, with Jalen—that was entirely his prerogative.
There was no reason for her to have hurt feelings.
“Not yet. I was kind of hoping you’d help me.”
“I was helping you.” She didn’t hide the bitterness in her voice. “But then you dropped me.”
“Dropped you? What are you talking about?”
“I haven’t seen you at all this past week.” Great, she’d shifted from bitter to whiny.
He arched his brows. “Did you want to see me this past week?”
She pursed her lips and did not dignify that with a response.
“You could have called me at any point, Diana. I had no idea you wanted…” He paused. “What is it, exactly, that you want?”
You. She shook her head. “In this moment, I think the more important question is, what do you want?”
“You,” he said, echoing her own thoughts.
Her jaw dropped to somewhere in the vicinity of her chest. Amil tapped on her chin, and she snapped her mouth closed.
“Your help,” he clarified.
“Yeah, you need to find a house, like, yesterday.” She glanced over at the two cats, whose tails were twined together. Good thing Lazlo was fixed. Considering Amil adopted Patches from the humane society, chances were, she was too.
Otherwise, there might have been a few patchwork kittens in their future.
“In the meantime,” Amil said, pulling her attention back to him, “me and Patches need a place to stay.”
She flapped her hand at him. “You’re buddies with your teammates now. You don’t need me to ask one of them for you.”
“I don’t want to stay with one of them.”
“Okay.” She supposed she could understand that.
That would be a lot of togetherness, both on and off the field, never having a break.
Although plenty of players were roommates, especially the younger, newer guys who didn’t make the big bucks.
Hell of a lot cheaper to split the cost of a two-bedroom place than to carry that financial burden alone.
Ask her how she knew this. Diana had roomed with Emma and Allison through college and then continued to do so until she came to Portland to work for the Mountain Lions. Since she happened to be stingy with her money, she’d been able to afford to purchase a place of her own.
Her own space.
That had felt so lonely, she’d ultimately adopted a cat.
“You need help looking for a hotel that takes cats? Or maybe an Airbnb. You could rent it by the month until you find your own place,” she suggested.
“I could do that.” He scratched the side of his neck. It was a tell. He was either uncomfortable or was about to say something she wasn’t going to like.
Probably both.
“But I don’t want to leave Patches alone. She was used to having other cats around at the shelter, and now she’s alone for long stretches at a time. I feel guilty.”
She glanced over at the cats again. They’d moved to the living room floor and were batting around one of Lazlo’s stuffed mice.
“So you want to leave Patches here?” She supposed it wasn’t a terrible idea.
To be honest, she hated the idea of Lazlo being alone so much as well.
When the team traveled to away games, her neighbor checked on him, made sure he was fed and the litterbox was cleaned, but the neighbor didn’t spend the night, didn’t cuddle with him on the couch for hours on end.
“I do,” Amil said solemnly.
She hesitated before agreeing. Something in his tone indicated he wasn’t done talking.
“And I want to stay too.”
Yep. She was right to hesitate.