“Nachos. Nice.” He scoops up a bite and jogs down to grab a ball. My eyes instinctively follow his path and without realizing it, I bite my lip and smile.
“Ahem!” Mia shoots me a wide eyed look and I just take another sip of my beer. I’ve been really fucking sloppy tonight about this whole secret friends with benefits thing.
“Okay, so Chase is really good at football and bowling, noted.” Mia jokes as we’re all putting our regular shoes back on. I’m exhausted and Ford wasn’t lying when he said I’d feel him all night. I’ve had to clench my thighs together a couple of times, feeling like I was still turned on. I swear he caught me at least once, because I saw him rub his jawline to try and hide a smile in my direction.
I’ve noticed my brother on his phone a lot more tonight than normal, and while he seems to have had fun, I can’t help but wonder who he’s texting every five minutes. I swear he’s been seeing someone lately and just keeping it to himself.
My eyes start to get heavy as Mia and I link arms and walk out into the warm night breeze. There’s still a pinch of humidity in the air, even though it’s practically December. The guys are paying their tabs inside, and Mia dragged me out here to wait for them.
“So how long?” Mia turns to face me as she raises her eyebrows.
“How long, what?” I say through a yawn.
“Don’t play dumb, Abby. I saw it tonight. I’m not sure what I was seeing, but it was something.” She places a hand on one of her hips as I turn my head in the opposite direction.
I stay silent for a moment, which essentially gives me away, even though I don’t think I could have lied to Mia even if I wanted to. Once my head turns back towards her, she has a small smirk on her lips.
“Is he a good kisser?”
“Mia!” I look around to make sure they haven’t come out yet.
“They’ll be a minute, don’t try to avoid the question. His whole face changed when he saw you were on the FaceTime call with me and then you both took an awfully long time getting beer and using the bathroom. So, spill. Please.” She bats her eyelashes at me and I can’t keep it from her any longer. I’m used to telling Summer everything and while I’ve been keeping her up to date via text, it would be nice to have someone else who knows that I can talk about it with.
“Yes.” I glance towards the door.
“Yes, what?” She pops her gum and stares at me.
“He’s a good kisser.” My cheeks begin to heat as I’m shaking my head and smiling,
“I knew it!” Mia runs her fingers across her mouth and then motions like she’s tossing a key over her shoulder. “Safe with me.”
I nod my head and see my brother through the glass door about to walk out. I don’t elaborate on anything, because right now, having Mia know that we kissed is plenty. I don’t need her knowing how well Ford just wrecked my whole damn body.
“Ford Anderson has had a record-breaking season this year, Greg. No other tight end in Tampa history has had as many single season touchdowns as him, he’s got to feel pretty good about that.”
I don’t usually listen to any game commentary, but I’m at my parents’ house and my dad has ESPN blaring down here in the den, so it’s a little hard to really tune it out.
“Hell of a season you’re having, son. Everything is almost doubled, between your receptions, yards after catch, touch downs… looks like you’re having a breakthrough year.” He walks up to me and reaches out his hand. “Don’t fuck it up.”
I knew he’d toss something like that in at the end, so it doesn’t take me by surprise. I press my smile into a firm line and shake his hand before walking out and grabbing the bag of donations I stopped by to get from my mom.
Truthfully, this season is the best I’ve felt in a long time. Probably since my rookie year, when I was all wide-eyed and excited for everything. I lost that a little over time and this season it’s somehow snuck back in. My mind wanders to the one thing that’s changed from previous seasons and there’s no denying that Abby’s presence in my life has been a good thing. Despite my efforts, or really lack thereof, to be honest, to not let her become a distraction, she’s actually become a driving force for me. When I know she’s in the stands, it fuels me. After last weekend, I’m craving more, consider myitchofficially scratched and I need her to be mine. I have no fucking clue how we’ll navigate it with Chase, but it’s a hard conversation I’m willing to have with him if it means Abby is mine.
* * *
“Wow. This place looks great, Dolly. What a turn around. How much longer do we have until we can officially open the doors?”
We’ve had contractors here working on the Arts department of the Rec Center for a few months. They had to gut the whole room and since it was just one big space, we drew up some changes to section it off, allowing for two rooms separated by a wall of windows and doors on either end. One side will be reserved for younger children for painting, drawing, coloring, anything like that and then for the older ones, we’ll have pottery stations and larger canvases for them to use, in addition to sewing machines and even some stencil and calligraphy stations. While I’m not that into art myself, I know how damn cool this will be for the ones who are.
“Oh, it’s coming together so nicely, Ford. The most recent estimated date is just after the new year. We can do a little ribbon cutting for the kids.” She beams up at me, holding her white notebook with a pencil sticking out of her ear.
“You’ve done a great job overseeing all of this.” I gesture around to the room that looks completely different than it did just two months ago. I walk out with Dolly at my side, she’s a little slower these days so I’m taking smaller strides to maintain her pace.
“The girl that has come by too has been so lovely.”
Now that stumps me.Girl? Who is she talking about?
“Who?” I ask with a raised brow. I haven’t asked anyone to come by other than my mother and Dolly knows who she is.
