Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
She was shutting down. Amil could see it as if the words were being typed across her forehead.
Yeah, he’d been worried there for a split second. The typical, shit, this is fantastic and I’m not ready to let it go yet kind of worry that he recognized as him moving too fast and her not ready to take that leap.
He’d learned from his mistakes in college. Cool the jets. Slow down. All good things come to those who wait.
That last one wasn’t always true, clearly, but in this case, he was willing to give it a try. Whatever he needed to do to keep her in his life.
He tapped on the computer screen. “What do you have for me?”
Her stance instantly relaxed. Someday, he’d point out to her his ability to calm her when she was agitated, but not today.
She situated the laptop so that it balanced on one of her knees and one of his, and then she began scrolling, talking through each house she’d found, extolling the various virtues.
He nixed a few of them for no other reason than he did not need so many options.
Show him three or four houses and he’d choose one of them.
He trusted Diana’s judgment.
“What happened with Jalen?” she abruptly asked.
He cupped the back of his neck. “I called him out on his suspicions and lied to his face.”
She stared at him. “Are you serious?”
He nodded. He hated that he’d done it. He was a terrible liar, normally, which was why he tried very hard not to put himself into situations where he needed to do it.
But he liked this family, this team. His friends.
He liked the place he and Jalen were at.
Take Diana out of the picture and he’d want to be buds with Jalen.
Even with Diana in the picture…well, hopefully, one day the guy would realize that he and Diana were never meant to be and they could all be one big happy family.
Or at least Amil wouldn’t need to be afraid of screwing up Jalen’s game anymore.
“We’re playing the 49ers on Sunday. He needs to be in his happy place going into that game, because I guarantee they are going to be chippy as fuck. As you can imagine, they’re pretty pissed at the Mountain Lions.”
It was his fault. He’d given them all the ammo. Last season, he’d seen a crack in Jalen’s armor and ran with it. And then he’d told the rest of the defensive line. If he’d just kept his damn mouth shut, it would probably have been a nice, normal game.
But he’d thought it ridiculous that Jalen was so worked up over a woman. Over something that had happened almost two full seasons prior. And he’d believed Jalen and Diana were dating, and maybe that had annoyed him because he’d wanted to be the one dating Diana.
And now he was. Well, they’d not put a label on it yet lest Diana run for the hills, but she’d broken her rule for him, and considering the woman believed in curses, he knew how huge that step was for her.
He needed to protect his team and at the same time nurture whatever this was between the two of them. This morning, when Jalen had looked so fucking pissed—yeah, Amil had made a gut decision and he’d lied to the guy.
“He believed you?” Diana asked after a heartbeat.
Amil nodded. “He said I was too damn happy to not have gotten laid last night. I pointed out that I’d just won my first game with my new team and how the hell was I supposed to feel?”
“Valid.”
“And then he asked why you were so damn happy, and I told him I had no clue.”
He was fully aware why Diana had a shit-eating grin on her face and an extra bounce in her step this morning. He’d done that. And he wanted to do it again.
Every day to infinity would be good.
Diana cleared her throat. “So…we’re good?”
“You and me? We’re more than good. And Jalen’s fine for now. Let’s get him through the weekend, and then we can reassess. I don’t like lying to my friends, and I think we might be friends. Or pretty close to it.”
His phone vibrated. He tugged it out of his pocket, frowned. “Speaking of, he’s calling.”
Without a word, Diana pulled the computer into her own lap. Amil connected the call. “What’s up, man?”
“You’re still looking for a place to live, right?” Jalen asked by way of greeting.
Amil’s gaze strayed to Diana’s fingers, dragging along the mousepad built into her laptop. “Yeah.”
“I just found out the old lady who lived three doors down from me passed away. Her kids are looking to sell it, and they want to get out from under it quick. They’ve already cleaned it out, so it’s immediate occupancy. I’ll text you their number. You should come check it out.”
“Damn. Thanks, man, I appreciate it.”
They chatted a while longer, Jalen telling him about his favorite restaurant within walking distance, what the parking rates were, the HOA fees, how he and Callahan carpooled to the practice facility most days.
It was the perfect scenario if not for…Diana.
Three doors down from Jalen sounded like a recipe for disaster. At least until he came clean about their relationship.
And then, there was no guarantee that Jalen would be cool with the fact that Amil had lied to him. Or that Amil was dating the woman he wanted.
And let’s not forget that he and Diana had not actually declared that they were dating, even to each other. Frankly, it was too new even if it wasn’t Diana, who had never ventured this far into potential dating territory in her life.
“What was that about?” Diana asked when he disconnected the call.
Amil stared at the blank screen of his phone. “There’s a place coming up for sale in Jalen’s building. Immediate occupancy.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, exactly.” It was nice that he didn’t have to explain.
“Are you interested in living in a condo?”
Amil glanced around at Diana’s tiny living room. He was willing to bet the units in Jalen’s building were much, much larger than this one. This unit was for students and people with normal jobs, not professional athletes with their high-end incomes.
Even if he imagined something in the two-thousand- square-foot range, was he interested?
He’d never lived in a condo. Never considered it, to be honest. He’d stayed in the dorms for his entire college career. When he was drafted to the 49ers, he lived in a hotel until his real estate agent found him a house. As simple as that.
What if he took Diana out of the equation?
Seemed like he’d asked himself that a lot this evening.
He dropped back against the couch cushions and scrubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t know. Maybe we just table it for now. I’ll let my mind clear for a while and come back to it.”
“I think I have a way to clear your mind.”
She placed the laptop on the coffee table and rolled into his lap, straddling him and smiling down at him, her palms pressed to his shoulders.
“This is perfect,” he said, sliding his hands over her ass, up her back, until he cupped her neck and pulled her close for a kiss.
It was perfect. Everything about the evening.
Slowly fucking her to a spectacular orgasm on the couch.
Ordering takeout. Her insistence on going down to the lobby to retrieve their order so he wouldn’t be recognized and then tugging on a pair of shorts before pulling his shirt over her head to do exactly that.
She kept the shirt on while they ate dinner. When they went to bed.
When he woke the next morning, it was bunched around her hips, teasing him with that slice of heaven below the hem.
He pressed a kiss to her temple and slipped out of bed, quietly dressed for his morning jog without turning on the light. In the kitchen, he started the coffeepot and fed the cats, and then he headed outside to pound the pavement.
Diana’s building was a block from the University of Portland campus, which was the perfect place to get in a six a.m. run. Definitely no students out this early, and the few other joggers or walkers he saw barely spared him a glance as they passed.
Until he saw—shit.
Callahan and Jalen, who, once they recognized him, switched paths and jogged up on either side of him, keeping pace.
“I didn’t realize you jogged around here,” Jalen said. “You jog every day? Because this guy”—he nodded at Callahan—“doesn’t get out when he spends the night with his girlfriend.” He made it sound like Callahan was committing a cardinal sin.
Callahan shrugged, clearly nonplussed.
“Hey, if you buy the place in our building, we can be jogging buddies,” Jalen added.
“Yeah, cool,” Amil said, fighting the grimace he could feel trying to slide onto his face.
Shit.
This was why he hated lying to his friends.