Out of Bounds

I sit up straight and Jason shoots me a withering stare. “You know I do, man,” he says, his brow furrowed. “What’s with you this morning? You’re coming at me all guns blazing. Do you need to get laid?”

I grit my teeth and draw a sharp inhale. Do I ever need to get laid. With one woman. Only, it feels a lot more than that already with Dani. Which is crazy, since I’ve only seen her a handful of times. But it feels like there could be something more between us. The chemistry is sizzling, but we also get each other. We like the same things, we fall into an easy rhythm, we connect.

“Don’t we all man, don’t we all,” I say with a forced laugh, trying to make light of the comment. Maybe even to deflect it.

He doesn’t let go. Glancing around first, he drops his voice so I’m the only one who can hear. “Is there something up with you and the lawyer?”

I lower to the bench again, my eyes focused on the ceiling. I don’t look at Jason. I don’t like lying to him. “Nope.”

Meanwhile, I wonder how the fuck he could tell during the movies, especially when he was all about Ally. “But there sure seemed to be something up with you and her sister.”

Jason grins, and he’s never a big smiler, so I know that means he’s into her. As one of the other guys grunts while lifting some heavy weights, Jason says, “She was cool. I’m going to text her today. Maybe see about getting coffee or a drink.”

He can see her easily. He doesn’t have to worry about unwritten rules, or playing fast and loose with the team’s public image. “Sounds like a plan.”

“And back to you now,” he says, surveying the weight room once more. Coast is clear. “The one we were talking about a minute ago. You’re into her, aren’t you?”

“Why do you say that?”

“Just seemed kind of obvious. I guess the same way you could tell I was into her sister.”

There’s no point denying it now. He’s already sniffed out the truth. Besides, he’s my best bud. Keeping my voice low, I say, “We hooked up before the season started. Before I was traded. But we cooled it when we realized we were playing for the same team, and that it could complicate things.”

He nods, pats the weight bar again. “Smart move. Best to just keep focused on the game.”

“You think so?”

He taps his fingers to his temples, our sign for blinders. “Absolutely. No time for distractions. It’s much better to wake up to a photo of you and the taco truck owner than some piece about how the quarterback is fucking the management,” he says, and the stark but realistic way he puts it reminds me once again to keep my eye on the prize. The field. Only the field.

That’s what I do.

My first and most important love is football. It needs my full attention. My devotion. That’s what I give it.

When I step onto the field that weekend, I savor the smell of the grass, the thunder of the crowd, the rush of the adrenaline pumping through my blood. In the huddle, I’m all business, and the Knights are as crisp as crisp can be.

We win the game, and somehow we pull off that wonderful feat again the next Sunday too when we pummel Dallas on their field.

Four for four.

“Talk about a fucking streak,” Elkins shouts when I enter the locker room after the game. He high-fives me, and a bunch of the other guys do too.

I hold my arms out wide. “All I do is throw ’em. You’re the one who has to catch ’em,” I say, because Elkins is killing it in that department, and he made it into the end zone twice in today’s game.

We ride that high on the jet home with fist bumps, struts, and shit-eating grins galore as we reach our cruising altitude. I sink into the cushy leather seat, happy as a clam, since I just can’t complain about a 4–0 record for the first month on the job. The only thing that would make it better is a good woman.

But I’ll take what I can get.

The next week, it’s more than I expect.





Chapter Nine

Drew

“I’m going to school you again!”

The taunt comes from Taylor, the kid I’ve been battling in whack-a-mole.

“Don’t count me out yet.” I lift the mallet and send a wooden mole back into oblivion.

“You can’t catch up,” Taylor says again, a huge grin on his thin but gleeful face, as I chase the vicious little moles in the game. I’m at Santa Monica Pier for an event to benefit the children’s hospital, and the new wing that just opened there. The team donated a huge amount to have it built. I’ve played arcade games with a few kids, and I’m going head-to-head in yet another round of whack-a-mole with this tenacious ten-year-old who has kicked cancer’s ass.