Page 65 of No Easy Catch
“No.” I shook my head. “I heard the way he talked about your talents that day. He cares about you and regardless of his actions, that shouldn’t affect his support of you.”
“I guess we’ll see.” She brought her fingers to her lips and pulled on the side. “It’s crazy how much we’ve uncovered and yet there is still so much we don’t know.”
“My goal was always to expose them and let the higher-ups deal with the details. Even if we can put something on their radar and get traction… Hey, I told the guys everything this morning.”
“Really?” Her grin stretched from ear to ear and she patted my hand. “I’m so glad you told them. How do you feel?”
She didn’t ask what they said or their reaction. She asked about me and it felt nice to have someone care. “Guilt free and like the weight on my shoulders lifted. I practically skipped here to tell you.”
“I’m sure they were accepting of your choice and willing to help. Am I right?”
“Yes,” I said, pulling her in for another hug. “They offered to help anyway they can. I brought up some of the younger guys and they remembered the same shady shit that went down. It validated everything I had been feeling.”
“Good. We might need help spreading the article and bringing awareness to it with their social media followings.”
My phone went off and glanced to see a text from Zade. I almost ignored it, but I saw Amber’s name.
Zade:Been thinking about what you told us. Never thought anything of it but Coach Tee was asking me this week if I was involved in the article by the Henderson girl. Could mean something, or not, but it felt weird to have him ask me.
Jeff:Thanks man. If you think of anything else, let me know.
“Look at this.He was asking me about you, too.”
She read it and clicked her tongue a couple of times. “It’s safe to say Tee’s not just your head coach involved in this.”
“My head coach has been alone with me a handful of times the past month or two and hasn’t once asked me about your article. You think it’s an act?”
“He could be drawing suspicions away from himself and using his assistant coaches to try and gauge how much you know.” She sighed and continued, “Or, he wants you to still trust him. You said he didn’t read my text on your phone. Do you believe him?”
“The man still has a flip phone, so yes. But he has issued a couple of grave warnings that had me on edge. He knows I know something.” The tingling sensation of being watched caused me to look around the library. “The sooner we get this out in the open, the better. Maybe I can relax then.”
“You and me both.”
“Want me to leave you alone for a bit and pick you up in a couple hours for our date?”
“Yeah. I’d like that.”
“Wear stockings.” I stood, kissing her more passionately than I should’ve for being in public, and grinned at the heat in her eyes.
26
AMBER
Jeff wearing a collared shirt and jacket did things to me I didn’t expect. His broad shoulders filled the material perfectly and I wanted to run my fingers up and down his body for hours without stopping. He’d even shaved and looked so good I had a hard time focusing on the delicious Italian food. He glanced up at me, humor in his eyes, and smirked. “You’re staring at me.”
“You look gorgeous. You should wear stuff like that more often.” I gulped and took a long swig of water. The temperatures were still cold outside, but in the small corner of the restaurant, I was overheating. “It’s dangerous.”
“We wanna talk about dangerous.” He stopped and darted his gaze to the low dip of my dress. “You in stockings and that dress. I meant it when I said we could order take-in and just get naked immediately.”
“It’s good for you to wait.” I grinned and ran my tongue over my lip. He followed the movement and his entire jaw tensed. A thrill went through me.This is easy, the flirting and teasing.
“I disagree but whatever,” he quipped, adding on a wink at the end. He took another bite of his pasta and gave me a longlook. “What’s next for you? The article is coming together and you’ll be able to use it for your senior project. What’s after?”
“Hm, great question.” I’d thought about what was next, in the back of my mind, but never verbalized it to myself or any other person. But Jeff’s face was so intent on my answer, a light smile playing on his lips, I found myself blabbing. “Investigative journalism woke me up.”
“Yeah? What do you mean?”
“The past four weeks…I haven’t felt a thrill like this before in any of my classwork. The research and questioning were intense and even going undercover at times.” My voice rose with excitement. “It gave me a purpose that I was lacking. Graduation doesn’t seem as scary now. It sounds cheesy, I know.”
