His mouth curved into a wide grin. “Thank you. You do, too, though I feel a little strange knowing you’re wearing another man’s jersey.”
Em giggled. “It’s mybrother’s.You know that. And besides, it just so happens to be my last name too.”
He leaned forward. “Still, I wish it was my name on it.”
A shiver ran through her at Grant’s deep voice. She fought against her trembling and forced her voice into a light tone. “Well, if you’re so worried about it, you could just give me one of yours.”
“Is that all it takes?” His face lit up, and she almost laughed at how easy it was to make him happy. “Since this is my first year playing professionally, I’ve only got the two game day jerseys, but I’ll happily lend you my away jersey anytime we play a home game.”
“I couldn’t. I’d be too afraid something would happen to it.”
“I know you’d take good care of it. And it would give me an excuse to see you after our date, which is already going better than I thought it would.”
“Tell me about it. It’s way better than my last date with a Storm player.” She clamped her lips shut. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
“Wait, I thought you didn’t date Storm players?”
Em’s face heated. It was so embarrassing to admit, and she’d already made a fool of herself tonight—in front of all the fans. She wasn’t ready to rehash her disaster with Damien just yet. “That’s a story for another time.”
“Another time?” He leaned forward. “All I’m hearing is excuses to go out on another date when we’ve barely started our third.”
“Third? What are you talking about?” She rested her elbow on the table and leaned forward. “This is our first date, and that’s assuming this even counts as a real date.”
The waitress reappeared and put their drinks on the table next to the roses.
“It absolutely counts,” he said when the waitress walked off again. A corner of his mouth lifted into a teasing smile. “And it’s date number three.”
“How do you figure that?” She raised her brows.
He lifted a single finger. “Well, after I saved your life, you stood me up for pizza.”
Em laughed. Every time Grant told the story of the soccer ball, it got more elaborate. In a couple weeks, she was sure the soccer ball was going to turn into a bomb that Grant somehow diffused with his eyes closed. “Okay.”
He lifted a second finger. “Then you bought me lunch on our second date.”
“I told you, that wasn’t a real date. Cafeteria food doesn’t count.”
“Debatable.” He shrugged. “Which makes this date three. You keepsayingyou’re not interested in dating me, but somehow you ended up on that field anyway. How much did you have to pay Miriam to get there?”
Em shook her head, but she couldn’t stop the smile from touching her lips. “Miriam practically begged me to do it.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you sure it wasn’t the other way around?”
“I didn’t even know you were the bachelor until Miriam told me.”
“And that’s when you said yes. You wanted an excuse to get close to me.”
She playfully pushed his shoulder and tried not to notice the hard muscles beneath her fingers. “Shut up.”
“So, it’s true. You were happy I was the bachelor instead of Barros.”
The jury was still out. Barros would have been easier in a lot of ways, but he definitely didn’t give her butterflies like Grant did. She shook her head. “You’re the worst.”
“But you like me, admit it.”
Oh, how she wanted to admit it. She really enjoyed the time she’d spent with Grant. He was so easy to be around, and he seemed so genuine. Em couldn’t imagine him doing the things that her past boyfriends had done. Of course, she hadn’t imaginedthembetraying her either.
Now she could picture it perfectly.
