Page 64 of No Easy Catch
“Wait—what the hell do you mean by that?” Zade asked, sharing a concerned look with Hilly.
“It’s something illegal.”
“Go on,” Hilly urged when I paused.
“We have reason to believe players, not legit ones, are buying their way onto team rosters and into the school.” I ran my hand over the back of my neck and waited for their reaction. Would they believe me? Laugh at me? Mock me?
“Jeff, that’s… That sounds—” Zade stopped and cast a look at Hilly. Then they both said together, “Tell us how we can help.”
My mood reached an all-timehigh after sharing everything with my teammates. Relief loosened the muscles in my neck and I thought about Amber on my walk to the library. I couldn’t wait to tell her about their reactions, and willingness to help, and I wondered how much work she’d gotten done. My effort to find pictures had resulted in discovering just one that could’ve been her uncle at a high school three years ago—so not really helpful. She’d said she had an idea and I trusted her to find something useful.
I smiled, not caring I probably looked like a weirdo smiling to myself, at how incredible her work had been. I would be a fool to think the investigation was fifty-fifty. She had done a lot of the work and I owed her big-time. She texted me her location on the lowest floor and I found her super focused, hair piled on top of her head and a large frown on her face.God she’s cute.She wore a loose sweater that hung off one of her shoulders and she chewed on her bottom lip, clearly interested in whatever she was reading on her computer. A part of me wanted to watch her, but people were staring at me and I didn’t want to be weird. “Hey, Henderson.”
She looked up and her face changed. It softened completely for me and I’d be damned if it didn’t make me feel something inside my chest. “Sit down.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I obeyed and moved to the chair next to her. “You should boss me around in the bedroom more often.”
She ignored my comment and I laughed. It had been two days since we’d spent the night together—her choice, not mine—and just being near her had me thinking dirty thoughts. “Look at this.”
She pointed at her computer screen and scrolled through five pictures. Each one of them had her uncle in the background. It wasn’t clear where the pictures were taken, but it was definitely him. “Where are these from?”
She lowered her voice to a whisper and it forced me to lean closer to her. I wasn’t mad about it and fought the urge to kiss her. “I spent hours creeping on some of the guys involved and their signing, because most kids who get any legit partial-scholarship have a signing day at school, right? But since these are under the radar, I had to go deep. Three of these pictures are of the guys we talked to in the beginning and my Uncle Martin is there. But get this, I can’t find any proof these guys made a big deal out of getting a spot on an athletic team. So why was he there? And I’m pretty sure this Tony guy is this dude.” She pointed at a blurred figure of a man, but he didn’t look familiar to me. But Martin Rhett was definitely in the shots with the fake-athletes.
“Holy shit, Amber. This is incredible work.” I put my hand on her knee and squeezed it. “This is part of that evidence we need.”
“I know.” She pushed some crazy escaped hairs behind her ear and leaned back. “I have an appointment to meet with the Dean of Athletics tomorrow and after that, I think I can have the first draft done by your first game.”
“You’re amazing.”Fuck it.I dipped low enough to kiss her and she hummed in response. “Please tell me you aren’t busy tonight.”
“Why? What did you have in mind?” She wiggled her brows at me.
“We grab dinner, take a break from all this shit. You deserve a nice dinner and I want to take you out.”
“Yeah?” She blushed and scrunched her nose. “We’re going on a date. You and me.”
I thought about it for a second and shrugged. “Yes. I’m taking you on a date.”
“Should I wear stockings?”
“Fuck me, Amber.” I groaned into my fist and ran my hand up her leg. She wore jeans, but she got the message. “You’re killing me.”
“Better get used to it if we’re going to continue this once your games start. You’ll have many-a-night with your good ole hand.” She laughed at her own joke and paled when she saw my face. “Oh shit. Did I ruin it by suggesting we continue?”
If I’m this obsessed with her now, what will it be like during the season? Can I even fit her in? Do I want to try?
“Ignore me, Jeff. I know how crazy your season will be and I’m pretty sure we agreed to only let this continue until the story is done.” She blinked quite a bit and red splotches appeared on her neck. “Seriously, forget I said anything.”
“I want to continue this.” I scooted my chair closer so her side pressed into mine and I felt awful at her momentary embarrassment. “It’ll be tough and new for me, but I’d like to try.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” I said, enjoying the way she molded into my side. She let out the littlest sigh when I put my arm around her shoulder and it felt right. “We just need to be honest with each other.”
“I can do honesty.” She looked up at me with so much warmth and lovethat my breath caught in my throat. I coughedat the unfamiliar sensation and she frowned. “I have some water. Here, take a sip.”
She pulled out a water bottle and handed it to me. She took care of people she cared about and I wanted to be the one to take care of her. “Thank you. Listen, are you sure you want to write this knowing it’ll cause a lot of issues for your family? I know what your uncle means to you.”
“I can’t be complicit in his actions. He made his choices and I can deal with the fall-out. I’ve always been the black sheep of my family, loved less than my brothers and ignored by most of my extended family because of my dumb choices as a teen. Nothing would change except my relationship with him and I’ve been questioning that lately anyway. Was he fooling me this entire time?”
