“Jesus. Is that when those two”—I gestured to the front row—“took pity and brought me home?”
Finn cleared his throat. “Nope.” He burst out laughing again. “You managed to roll yourself onto your hands and knees and crawled down the hall to the can.”
Tipping my head back, I groaned at the ceiling.
Still, Finn wasn’t done. “You had a booty-shakin’ thing going as you crawled down the hall.” He tried and failed to stifle a laugh. “Johnson took pity since he was almost as bad off as you and helped you to your feet so you could finish what you’d started in a more appropriate place.”
Sitting up, I caught Johnson’s eye and gave him a weak-sauce thumbs-up. His nod said he understood I was thanking him.
Finn patted me on the back. “Don’t worry. That ass shakin’ you did entertained the hell out of those girls. Made up for you ralphing on their shoes.”
“Of course, they posted it all over TikTok too, didn’t they?” At the thought, the green feeling I woke up with came back with a vengeance.
“No doubt. Probably with hashtags about what a fine ass you have.” His laughter was infectious, and pretty soon, I had to laugh too.
Coach Ellis didn’t even say hello, announcing his presence in the room with, “Nothing funny about an unsportsmanlike conduct call, Baxter.”
The hilarity ended mid-guffaw.
“No, sir. Not even a little bit,” I said, my eyes on my feet.
Beside me, Finn whispered, “Shit, that was fast.”
“What the fuck are you doing in the back row, Baxter?” This came from Coach Ainsworth.
Jesus. Did they scout the film room and form a plan for making my life hard thismorning?
“Got here five minutes ago, Coach.”
Shaking his head, he glared at me from beneath his brows. It was all I could do not to point out Finn sitting right beside me. Guess since my friend had shared a sack with me, forced a fumble, and hadn’t committed any penalties, he could sit wherever he damn well pleased, no comments made. But was it too much to ask that someone remember I had a sack and a pick-six too? I only fucked up the one time.
Which cost us a touchdown.Damnit.
“We’ll be working on reads and timing this week,” Ainsworth said. “Make sure the Bears don’t get any easy downs that lead to TDs.” Though he made the announcement to the entire team, no one misunderstood who he was talking to.
Shit.
The coaches spent the next hour on our mistakes. If a person listening to them had missed the game, they might have thought we’d lost it. But in the end, Johnson had the right of it at dinner last night. Coach Ellis replayed my triumphant teeder about five times in a row, noting the read, the timing, and the way I’d shed would-be tacklers on my singular mission to cross the goal line. On about the third replay, my eyes strayed to the stands. Piper had her hands cupped around her pretty mouth. With her eyes on me, I could easily convince myself she’d been cheering me on. After I spotted her on film, she became all I could focus on.
“Bax?”
“Huh?” I cleared my throat. “I mean, yes, Coach?” As heat rose up my neck, I scrubbed a hand over my mouth and down to my collar.
A perplexed expression crossed Coach Ellis’s face. “I said, well done.”
“Thank you, sir. I’ll try to do it again on Saturday—without the penalties.”
His brow shot up, but all he said was, “Don’t spend all of the rest of today playingCall ofDuty. Do some homework or something.” His gaze traversed the entire room. “That’s it for today. Coach Larkin will see you first thing tomorrow morning.”
As we filed out of the film room, Finn elbowed me in the side. “It was that purple-haired hottie at the top of the student section, wasn’t it?”
I kept moving. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Your phantom hookup from the other night. Guess she’s real after all.”
Chapter Six
Piper
