“What are you doing here?” she asked. “Aren’t you supposed to take to the field in a few minutes?”
“I was, until I saw you leaving. Where are you going?”
She shook her head. “I don’t belong here, Sawyer. I don’t know why I let Shayla drag me to this game.”
“Paxton—”
“Don’t.” She put her hand up. “Don’t feed me lines about how I belong here just as much as everyone else does, or any of that other crap.”
His deep chuckle came as such a surprise that Paxton jerked back a step. “What’s so funny?”
“You,” he said without hesitation, without one ounce of remorse. “You’re so clueless that it’s actually comical.”
Yet another person calling her clueless today.
Before she could retaliate, he took her by the arm and tugged her deeper beneath the bleachers, away from the concrete path leading to the parking lot. Splotches of the gleaming stadium lights filtered through the stands, illuminating people here and there, mostly teen couples making out.
Sawyer positioned her against the steel leg truss. Gripping the metal above her head with one hand, he caught her chin with the other and nudged her face up. Instead of pissing her off, the humor sparkling in his eyes made her want to smile, too. But she fought the urge. Just barely.
“Do you have any idea how often I sought Shayla out in the stands back when we were in school, hoping that she had somehow convinced you to come with her to a game?”
Paxton blinked hard, dumbfounded by his admission. “Why? You played in front of packed stadiums every Friday night. I remember the frenzy surrounding you back in our senior year. People who had never heard of Gauthier before would travel from as far as Covington and Picayune to come see you play.”
“I didn’t care about those people. You’re the one I wanted to impress.”
“But why? I didn’t even like football. I still don’t.”
He shrugged. “Nothing else I tried to do ever got your attention. I thought maybe if I impressed you with my football skills, you’d finally notice me.”
“I noticed you,” Paxton said before she could even think to hold the words back.
The crazy-sexy smile that gradually lifted the corners of his mouth did unbelievable things to her insides.
“You did a damn fine job of pretending that you didn’t.” His eyes roamed her face, his fingers brushing her cheekbone. He leaned forward, his breath skimming along the sensitive skin of her neck. “You want to know a secret?”
Paxton sucked in a deep breath. Swallowed. Then nodded.
“When we would fall behind, I would pretend that youwerethere,” he whispered into her ear. “Coach Jackson may have thought it was his pep talks that got me going, but it wasn’t. I would pretend you were in the stands, watching me, and it was all the encouragement I needed to turn the game around. So, even though you weren’t there, I still owe that senior season to you. Because just the thought of you was enough to make me want to be better.”
Her heart flipped twice, did a waltz, and then collapsed in flat-out exhaustion from the tailspin his sweetly whispered words induced.
She tried to avert her eyes, but he wouldn’t let her.
“Now tell me,” he said. “Why were you really leaving?”
“I already told you. Because I never fit in here. And…” She shook her head. God, if she started to cry she would never, ever forgive herself. She didn’t cry. Especially here, of all places. “Seeing all of you on that field tonight—the cheerleaders, the homecoming queen—it just reminded me of how much I don’t belong.” She looked up at him, and as much as she tried, she couldn’t mask the hurt in her voice. “I was never that girl, Sawyer.”
He leaned in so close that their heads nearly touched. With his intense eyes locking on her gaze, he said, “You werealwaysthat girl for me.”
Paxton went liquid as a warmth she’d never experienced before embraced her, wrapping her up in a blanket of sheer enchantment.
“You know what I just realized?” Sawyer whispered, trailing his lips along her jawline. “I can finally live out a fantasy I’ve had since high school.”
“What fantasy?” she asked.
“To kiss a girl under the bleachers.”
Sensations in all makes and models fluttered through her stomach as his strong fingers gently gripped her waist.
