Page 70 of Enemy Games

“I can’t imagine how hard that must have been. He was your hero for so long.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I recognized I was mirroring his behavior with the way I treated women here. I got the reputation as a player because I didn’t ever want to commit. I didn’t go out with the same girl twice because I didn’t want them getting attached. It took a while to see I was acting no better than him. So I stopped. But people don’t see that. They just remember who I was.”

Like the basketball guys.

I understood how it felt to be frozen in time to some despite not being that person anymore, but we couldn’t control what other people thought of us. It didn’t matter.

But there were still some ideas he believed in, like thinking love wasn’t real. That it was just a chemical reaction in your brain.

Yeah. I had fun with that one. I agreed that part of love is a chemical response, but as human beings, we’ve developed beyond that. To compromise, we agreed not to discuss it again for at least six months.

If we made it that long.

I didn’t want to allow doubts and negative thoughts into our relationship, but it was hard to ignore the reality of our situation. There was a timer hanging over us. Within the next few months, he would be drafted and whisked away to training camp, and I would be here.

The next day, I was working on a study guide when someone yelled from downstairs, “Presley, there's someone here for you.”

I paused with my highlighter in the air and shared a look with Chris.

“Are you expecting anyone?” She wagged her brows, and I shook my head.

“I don't think so.” I looked over what I was wearing, jeans and a team T-shirt. Hopefully, it wasn't anything important.

I took the stairs and saw Hunter waiting for me at the bottom. His smile grew when our eyes met. “What are you doing here?”

“I'm surprising you.”

I let out a laugh as I came to a stop on the bottom step, standing above him. “Oh, really? And what is the surprise?”

“Well, if I told you, that would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?”

I gestured over my clothing. “Is this okay?”

He rubbed his jaw. “I'm not sure how to answer that. If I say no, then there's a chance you could get offended and think that I don't like that outfit, but it's perfectly fine. If I say yes, then you might feel uncomfortable by the time we get there.”

Okay, so this wasn't a casual surprise.

“Give me a second to throw on something else.”

I ran back up the stairs before he could say anything and burst into my room.

Chris jumped. “What's going on?”

“Hunter’s here, and he said he has a surprise for me. Something that I should change for.”

She climbed off her bed and ran to my closet next to me. “Well, what do we think that means?”

“I have no idea.” I huffed. “He just said I might be uncomfortable wearing what I'm wearing now.”

“So does that mean change the jeans too?”

“I have no idea.” I shoved each hanger over and thumbed through my options. “Maybe I should go with a dress?”

“It's thirty degrees outside,” Chris helpfully pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but I could wear tights and a coat.”

“What was he wearing?”