“But you want them someday?”
“I want two,” she answers immediately. “How about you?”
I nod my head thoughtfully. “Two sounds good. Two sounds like we don’t have to buy a minivan.”
Her cheeks flush pink. They always do when I talk about our future together. “You say ‘we’ a lot,” she scolds me, sounding like an echo from last November.
From another blush and another day when I looked at her and thought that she felt like my forever.
“Hey, hold up!” Trey calls after us.
I turn to see him and Sloane climbing out of his red pickup. He looks like my twin in a pair of dark slacks and a white button up shirt. The only difference between us is the color of our ties; mine is green, his is orange. Sloane is in a long, pastel dress that skims the ground at her feet. Her hair is professionally done, her makeup on point as always, like she just stepped off the cover of a magazine. She’s beautiful but it makes me appreciate the easy way Lilly stepped out of the loft today. Ten minutes was all it took for her to look this good and I’d rather have her time than have her runway ready.
“Did you get my message about the film crew?” The Hotness asks seriously.
My brows tighten. “Yeah, I skimmed it real quick before we came. What was it about? Some kind of documentary?”
“For the NFL channel,” she confirms. “They’re looking at following two teams all next season. They’re calling it The Road to the Ring.”
“It sounds like we’re going to Mordor.”
“Nerd. Anyway, the channel has hired this award winning documentary crew and they’re going to follow the Kodiaks and an AFC team. I guess they’re still deciding which team that’s going to be. Someone that they think the Kodiaks will likely face off with in the Super Bowl next year.”
“They think we’re going?” I ask guardedly.
“Everyone does. Nobody thinks you guys should have lost that game to the Falcons.”
“Yeah, no shit,” Trey murmurs.
He’s still beating himself up about that last pass to Tyus that was intercepted. Him and Tyus both.
Sloane touches his arm gently, but she keeps filling me in. “They think the Kodiak offense is good enough to go all the way next year. That’s why they’re going to follow you.”
“Follow us how?”
“Filming practices, as much as the coaches will let them. Workouts. Team events. They’re going to highlight certain players too. Dig a little deeper into their day to day lives. Probably you because, well…”
“Because it’s me?”
“Because you’ve got a pretty face and a following. They want to talk to Tyus too. Probably Trey. Some guys from the defense. They’re also very interested in who you guys draft this year.”
“Tell them about Kurtis,” Trey reminds her.
The Hotness smiles happily. “Holy shit, I almost forgot. You’re not going to believe this.”
“Matthews has refused to be interviewed?” I guess.
She shakes her head. “Can’t. It’s in his contract to participate with any NFL promotional interviews or events, and this falls dead under that. But that’s not the big news. Hollis had him in the office yesterday. Kurtis Matthews has agreed to be a Calvin Klein underwear model.”
“Fuck you!” I shout in disbelief.
“I swear it’s true,” she laughs. “That’s why he came into the office. To sign the contracts.”
I look behind her to check the cars that are parked in front of the house. “He’s not here yet is he?”
“I doubt he’s coming.”
“He didn’t come to the gender reveal either,” Trey reminds me.
I look at The Hotness, shocked. “That was my campaign.”
She laughs at me. “You turned it down.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think they’d sign Kurtis-fucking-Matthews to do it.”
“Why not?” Lilly asks. “He’s hot.”
“Yeah, but he’s not as hot as me.”
“Eh,” Sloane groans, looking me over. “He might be, dude.”
“Fuck you,” I repeat.
“Oh my God, Rona is going to die,” Lilly mutters to herself. “She slept with a Calvin Klein model.”
“Are they still going at it?” Sloane asks in amazement.
“No! No, no, no. It ended before Christmas, but still. She should put that on her resume.”
“I would.”
“Right?”
I point at Trey. “I thought you were going to try to get him to do it.”
Trey laughs. “No thanks, man. I’ll stick with Subway. They don’t ask me to take my clothes off and sit around looking like a tired runaway.”
“You could have done it,” Lilly tells me halfheartedly. “I know it was going to pay a boatload.”
I shake my head, slinging my arm around her shoulders. “No way. You specifically said no billboards in my underwear and this ad is probably going up in Time’s Square.”
“Still, though, it’s—“
“It’s not worth it. Not anymore,” I tell her seriously.