Page 32 of The No Try Zone
I shoot her a glare. “I thought that was between the two of us.”
Her eyes sparkle with mischief as she replies, “Absolutely not. You two are meant to be.”
“Meant to be divorced,” Kari mutters. “Assuming it even happened.”
Allyson hums thoughtfully.
I sigh. “Ollie wanted to run some stadiums, and I told him I’d do them with him. We’d hit the top of the stadium on the last round of sprints and Ollie yelled that he wanted to race me, so we did.”
“And?” Elodie prompts, barely holding back a giggle.
“And Colin rounded the corner right when I got to the bottom.”
“And?” she presses, her smile wide.
“And I ran into him,” I admit.
In all honesty, I didn’t run into him. I slammed into him so forcefully that I knocked him against the railing as his arms flew out for balance. The whole move ended with me wrapped in his embrace, held against his rock-hard chest for one quiet moment while we caught our breaths, and my entire nervous system came alive. He looked down at me with the sweetest surprised look on his face, and I was a millisecond away from tipping up on my toes to kiss him. He smelled like sweat and pine, and for one idiotic lapse in judgment, I was in heaven.
The look in his eyes shifted, morphing to something heated and carnal. “Sam,” he growled, his arms flexing against me.
My entire body hummed. A cat curled in sunshine. “Colin,” I gasped.
Then my brother appeared, laughing that he’d won by default, and the moment was over. I’d stumbled out of Colin’s arms and murmured something about needing to finish up some paperwork, then flat-out fled. Kind of like Colin did out of the hotel room.
It wasn’t my finest hour.
“Did you use that time to tell him how much you hated him?” Allyson asks with a knowing grin.
“You’re the worst,” I say.
She doesn’t answer, just tips up her water bottle and takes a sip.
“That’s actually a great idea,” Kari says.
“What is? Running into your husband while racing your brother and pretending everything is totally fine when really you and your husband have the secret hots for each other?” Elodie asks.
I groan while Kari points a finger at Elodie. “No,” Kari says. “But getting some b-roll of the guys doing stadiums is.”
“Areyouthe one feeding the team’s social media manager all those thirst trap ideas?” Elodie asks.
Kari grins. “Maybe.”
“Then you should get them to do some quick interviews,” Elodie responds. “The American girlies will love hearing all the accents – especially Lennox.”
Kari’s jaw clenches. “Not my job,” she says.
“What’s your deal with Lennox, anyway?” I press, looking for any excuse to get the attention away from me.
“Nothing.” Her voice is clipped and brusque as patches of red flare on her cheeks. “There is no deal.”
“But you never –”
“I said there’s nothing,” Kari repeats, her tone making it clear the conversation is final.
I want to know more, but if anyone can sympathize with the desire to keep some things private, it’s me. Besides, Kari’s leaning hard into her black cat era these days, and I’m not going to tell her to soften up just to make me more comfortable. So I shift us to Allyson’s upcoming wedding and settle back against the chair.
A few days later,I’m with the team’s starting fullback as he grits his way through some hip strengthening exercises, his face red with the effort, when I sense him.
