“Well maybe the hot blonde who is staring at you right now might give you that extra push you need to put a stop to Kiana’s bullshit.”
Tristan’s eyes immediately flew over to Tessa, and she was indeed looking at him; her eyes slowly roaming over every inch of his body as if she were remembering the lyrics to her favorite song she hadn’t heard since she was 20.
“Yeah well, then you’ll need to tell Brinley to stop fucking bringing her around even after we break up.”
“I know, I’ll make sure she understands this time. But you have to actually do it!”
“Yeah, I’ll catch you later,” Tristan said dismissively and walked right over to Tessa, who seemed to startle as soon as she noticed that he was heading her way.
“Don’t run away from me, Smith,” he said to her retreating back, and she froze in place, waiting for him to reach her. They hadn’t spoken since their drunken spat at the bar two nights ago, and he desperately wanted the tension between them gone.
She doesn’t say anything as he stands in front of her, his arms folded across his chest. They both stare at each other with intense gazes, green against blue, daring the other to be the first to speak and break the tension, and to Tristan’s surprise, it’s Tessa that speaks up.
“I’m sorry that I was such a brat the other night,” she says with an eye roll, and Tristan laughs out loud.
“I would never call you a brat,” he says with a smile that causes her insides to flutter.
“I think I was just really tired from the move and overwhelmed with seeing you again and being in a new place and everything. I don’t know, it was a lot and I drank too much. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Tristan says, leaning into her to give a friendly shoulder bump, desperate for any kind of physical contact, even if only a friendly one.
“So, you ready for the first game in a few days?”
“I’m always ready,” he replies with a cocky smile that makes Tessa roll her eyes, but she also can’t help but to smile.
“Areyouready?” He challenges back. “You ready to travel with all of us?”
Their first game was away in Detroit, which meant they all had to be on a plane tomorrow and hunker down in mediocre hotel rooms.
“To be the only woman on a plane full of a bunch of hunky footballers? Yeah, I think I’m ready.”
“Watch it,” he says playfully, but the look in his eyes say a different story. “Or I’ll handcuff you to me.”
“Don’t make any fun promises you can’t keep,” she says back with a wink, and saunters off the field, leaving him shocked but also pleasantly breathless.
“Keep trying me, Smith,” he says to her back.
“You’re the one with a girlfriend, not me.”
Now he really is speechless, and watches helplessly as she walks down the hallway to the press room. Fuck, he’s really in trouble now.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tessa says as she walks down the plane aisle. Every single seat is filled by either a giant man or said giant man’s luggage. The literal only seat on the whole plane that is open is next to Tristan.
“You really thought you could get away with that little comment yesterday? Come on, you should know me better than that, Tess.”
He smiles but she huffs in frustration and confusion as she sits down next to him, throwing daggers at him with her bright blue eyes.
“Well don’t look so excited to spend time with me.”
“I just don’t know how to take anything you say.”
“What do you mean?”
“Is everything always so flirtatious with you? Does Kiana know you talk to girls like this?”
“I don’t talk to girls like this,” he says, suddenly getting serious and causing her to shut her mouth quickly. “I talk toyoulike this.”
“See? That, right there,” she says, pointing accusatory fingers at him. “How am I supposed to take that?”
