“You know I can hear you guys, right?” Raeann deadpans, smiling quickly afterward.
We break apart, chuckling, and then Katya squeezes my hand. “Something told us you might be coming into work today. This was delivered.”
She pulls me around one of the racks, and I spot a humongous bouquet of white lilies on the front desk.
“Do you have an admirer?” she teases.
“I’ve been holed up in Raeann and Micah’s apartment. I haven’t met anybody.”
“Hey, it’sourapartment,” Raeann corrects. “Micah just stays there with us.”
When I get closer, the smell of the lilies is nearly intoxicating.
I scan for the envelope when Jace says, “No note.”
No matter. I know exactly who they’re from.
Being wooed by Levi Soucy might actually be pretty fun.
10
Levi
Iline up, grinning at the second-stringer on defense who has me for coverage. You have to be good to make it into the NFL…but I’m better.
“Man, I hate it when you get that look in your eye. You’re about to smoke me, aren’t you? Just don’t make me look too bad.”
My grin widens. “Ready or not.”
Parker starts his cadence and ends with “hit.” My feet take off before my brain even sends the signal. Lucky for me, I’ve always been like that. I’m already five yards past the defenseman, which is a good thing because the dude’s fast.
After twenty yards, I peer over my shoulder, and there she is, spiraling toward me. Unfortunately, so is my defender. I leap forward to catch the ball, and it falls into my hands seconds before I hit the ground.
I slide for a bit, then jump to my feet, tossing the ball to my coverage. “Smoked.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
While I walk back to line up again, Coach calls it, so I head toward the drink table. As fast as we can drink the little paper cups, support staff is filling them with water or all different flavors of Gatorade.
Farmer walks up, grabs the yellow flavor, and shoots it back before smiling at me. “How’d that last catch feel?”
The knowing look on his face makes me chuckle. I rub my sore stomach. Pads or not, it’s never fun on your body to lay out and slam into the field. “About as good as you imagine.”
Parker comes up next to us and gives me knuckles. “Nice catch.”
“Nice throw.”
He shrugs. As with all good quarterbacks, he’s kind of a perfectionist.
One of our teammates shouts, “Wildcats!” And we all respond with “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!”
We start to walk toward the locker room, when Farmer asks, “So, who’s this girl you’re into?”
Reid cuts in. “If you still remember her name.”
“Oh, I remember her name.”
He looks at me expectantly, and it’s then that I realize I can’t share her name because they’ll instantly recognize it, and if I lie and call her a different name, I’ll have a lot of explaining to do when we go public.
