“You’ll tackle me into next season?”
“I’ll rip your fucking head off.”
I laugh all the way into the building but I know Quinn means it. I also know that messing with a teammate’s family, friends or exes are moral lines I won’t cross, and that’s not even taking into account Annie is almost young enough to be my daughter.
3
ANNIE – SEPTEMBER
Stallion
I’ve met Tanner a few times before at player and family events hosted by the Bears. But it wasn’t until he and the team came to the ranch for our spring dance that I was properly introduced to him.
I was grateful to them all for helping out, showing my gratitude by making drinks and pecan pie, as the guys made Mama’s last dance the best ever. But I remember most how Tanner made my mama light up. If he wasn’t hammering or drilling things together, he was making a wisecrack that made her laugh, despite how sick she was becoming.
I can see how he wins over all the beautiful women he’s pictured with online. Looks, athleticism, humor, bank balance.
His car stands out in the parking lot – bright yellow and extremely shiny. I set my backpack on the ground and trace the slick polished surface with my fingertips.
I’ve seen nice cars. I’ve been for a ride and beentakenfor a ride in nice cars. I’m the sister of a pro and I got knocked up to one. I’m as comfortable in something swanky as I am in my daddy’s beat-up and rusting truck, kicking up dirt on the ranch. But this car, even I can tell, is the kind only a veteran can afford.
I trace the letters ZR1 on the rear by the trunk and near jump out my skin when a gravelly voice asks, “Are you thinking of stealing it or making love to it?”
Without turning, I know Tanner will be wearing a smirk. From what relatively little I know of him, it seems to be his uniform as much as any sports jersey. “It would be pointless either way.”
The man is too smooth for his own good. His status as one of football’s most eligible bachelors and most unlikely player to settle down is no secret. I accidentally enjoy watching that brawny physique as he walks my way. As tall, broad and dark as a good stallion, he might be much older and one of my brother’s best friends, but he’s still a pin-up.
“How so?” he asks, reaching around me to collect my backpack from the ground.
His arm grazes my hip in a way that brings unwelcome pimples to my skin, because after what Auston Rogers has done to me, I’m determined to be celibate for eternity.
I’m thrust back to the one dance Tanner gave me at the ranch in spring. It was a sympathy dance because everyone else attending had coupled up and been swept onto the barn floor to the dulcet tones of a smooth country band. But it was nice, for three whole minutes, to feel less like a young mama and more like a young woman being held by a hotshot. The kind of unachievable guy a girl dreams of in high school.
Though, ironically, my ex would seem aspirational to most women and he crapped all over me.
Still, Tanner isnotmy ex, regardless of their shared profession and athleticism, and my battle scars from Auston don’t change the fact that Tanner is irritatingly handsome.
So, I drop a hand to my side exactly where Tanner just touched, telling my nervous system thatthisis not something we’re going to get excited about.
Slow your roll, Annie girl.
“If I stole it, I wouldn’t be able to drive it anyway. As for making love to anything or anyone, I have a ten-month-old chastity belt waiting for me at home.”
Tanner laughs so heartily, I’m compelled to chuckle in return. What do you know, despite my shitty day, I can still feign happiness. I ought to have taken performing arts as my major.
I pretty much fall, ungraceful as hell, into the passenger seat, and as soon as Tanner slides into the driver’s seat, I’m engulfed by his freshly showered scent. Noticing his eyes on me, I tell him in the way a voiceover might sound on a commercial, “The Lexus ZR1. It’s not for girls.” Even if his proximity is making me feel very much like a girl.
“Now you tell me. The chances of me getting a refund on this thing are slim.”
Then he winks. Honest to God, he winks, again. The engine thrums to life – like my lady parts – and the exhausts make more noise than a firework display on July fourth.
I’m looking to the heavens as he pulls out of the parking lot and onto the open road, heading out of the city. “Thanks, Tanner. Even if it did cost me a horchata and my dignity, I really appreciate you doing this. I imagine you had to reason with my brother for me to be allowed in the same car with you.”
“He’s looking out for you. It’s all good.”
“Hmm.”
He shoots me a brief glance as he rubs his perfectly groomed, yet rugged, facial hair. “You don’t agree?”
