“Really?”
“Of course it would, I’m not some athlete-chaser! I’m not interested in being ‘the girl from last night,’ indistinguishable from ‘the girl for tonight.’” I even made the air quotes at the right time, which I was momentarily proud of. It’s the little things that matter.
Lance laughed again. “Now who’s pretending they know all about whom?”
I bit my lip and kept silent for a second. “You’re right, that was a little unfair of me, I apologize.”
“Thank you.” Lance looked around like he was surveying the place. “Everything here to your liking?”
“What? Oh, yeah,” I looked around too. “Everything seems in order, I’ll know if I need anything when we get started working together.”
“Seems like we already started working together last night, didn’t we?”
I knew my face must have exploded in crimson at Lance’s words. He stood back and laughed again. “Let me be very clear, Lance Parker,” I said, sticking my finger in his face and waving it back and forth, like I meant business, because, you know, I actually did mean business. “If I had known that we would be working together, regardless of your chosen occupation, last night would have gone very differently. Are we clear?”
He leaned in, and I could feel his warmth on me, his smell taking me over. I wanted to collapse in his arms right then and there; the room was filled with good places for us to fuck. Sigh. “I am well aware of that, Miss Calloway. And let’s be clearer - I can keep things professional if you can, understood?”
“Loud and clear, Lance Parker. Professional it is.”
“Great.” Lance moved back and lifted up his wrist, looking at his watch. So few people wore watches these days, I kinda liked that Lance still did. “I gotta go, I have a QB meeting in a few minutes.”
“Sure. I’ll be here setting up.”
“Great. Schedules are all on the wall so you’ll know when we’ll be coming in, barring anything unforeseen.”
“We?”
“Primarily me, yeah, but we have another QB on the roster, as a backup. Oliver Lee. They took him in the third round this year. I haven’t really talked to him much.”
I figured that. Football teams, and sports teams in general, were a little weird - you had to have at least two of every position on your roster to account for the possibility of injury, but it wasn’t like the two quarterbacks would ever be friends. One was trying to keep his job, the other was secretly hoping the other would fail so he could come in and save things. It was more than a little odd.
“Got it. Just the two quarterbacks this year, then.” At least there would be fewer men in tight pants on my watch. I guessed that was a good thing.
“Yeah, though one of us is all you’ll need.” He cocked his eye at me when he said it, and I felt new waves of lust pulse through me.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” Lance’s eyes widened in surprise. He definitely wasn’t used to dealing with a woman with spine.
“Don’t do that thing.”
“What thing?”
“You know what I mean, Lance, don’t do that thing where you turn me on.”
He laughed again. “I’m turning you on right now?”
“You know you are, you know how much I want you, don’t give me that. This job is really important to me, and I need to make the best of it. Please don’t give me a hard time about what happened last night.”
“Interesting choice of words, there, Calloway. ‘Hard time.’ Very interesting, indeed.”
“Shut up!” I knew I was blood red all over again. This was going to be impossible.
“I couldn’t help it, you just made it too easy.”
“I’ll be on the lookout in the future against that.”
“Don’t, it’s more fun this way.”
“Not for me, Lance!” I almost-yelled, needing him to understand this. “Look, you’re a made man around here, you can come and go as you please. I’m just the training staff, I can be replaced and no one will remember I was even here in a couple days. I need this job. I moved here from far away just to do this, not to end up in bed with an athlete.”
Lance got quiet. “I’m not here to jam you up, Charlotte, we both have the same goal. We both want New England to win a championship this year, right?”
I nodded.
“And though I’m out on the field and under the bright lights during the games, you’re nearly as important to that effort. If I can’t play, or can’t play effectively, then we don’t win. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
“So I’m not here to make your job tougher. We’re on the same side on this one.” He stopped, then smiled. “But you gotta admit, this is fucking hilarious, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s not! It’s terrible!”