Page 6 of Out of Bounds
“What my brother fails to understand is that he makes me feel like a hussy who can’t keep her panties on.”
Tanner chokes so bad, I wonder if I should thump him on the back. “I don’t think that’s his intention, Annie.”
“Maybe not but he’s overlooking the concept ofmyself-control. He insinuates that any man who gets within a yard of me has a chance.”
“You know…” He checks his blindside and moves onto the highway. “You’re only making this obvious to me now, so there’s no way Colton has caught onto it.”
“You men always stick together.”
“He’s my brother, too, just not of the same bloodline.” I know this is how team guys feel. They’d play to the death for each other, which is why, as kind as this ride is, it’s not an entirely wild offer of generosity.
“So Annie Bannie, tell me more about this driving problem.”
Annie Bannie?“I get nervous in the test.”
“I can’t imagine you getting nervous. You’re a force.”
I scoff. “That’s because you don’t know me.”
“I know you well enough,” he says, and I have no idea why that delights me. Or why I flash back to that dance at the ranch, again. The way his hand slipped around my waist as we moved. It was nothing, so it makes no sense that the memory would hit me now.
He was simply a guy, there for a girl feeling low.
“What’s in your sound system?” I ask, changing the subject because I don’t know what my body is playing at but I have no time for my hormones doing anything other than getting back to normal. I have no time for anything besides my baby, college and helping Daddy and the team at Sunshine Ranch.
With more luck than judgment, I turn on the music player and with it, Lainey Wilson’s “Somewhere Over Laredo”. I love this song but it’s entirely unexpected from one of the best tight ends in the world, who drives a car likethis.
I raise a brow at him and he tells me, “I also light candles and add salts to the bathtub as part of my post-game ritual.”
Remarkably, my lips are curving up again. “Say that on the line of scrimmage and you won’t have to block any linemen, they’ll all be floored.”
He chuckles. I like that I made it happen. “What are you up to for the rest of the day?” Tanner asks me, moving on from his effeminate lifestyle away from the gridiron.
“Mama stuff. Feeding, bathing, bedtime. Then I’m going to go wild and make myself a mug of cocoa and watch the women’s rodeo.”
“Cocoa and rodeo, huh? That’s your thing?”
“Don’t tell anyone but rodeo might be my favorite sport to watch.”
He gasps playfully. “Sacrilege.”
“Yeah, well, your sister happens to be one of my favorites.”
He smiles big and even though he’s never mentioned Darcy Pace to me, I can see they’re tight.
“She’s a rockstar,” he says. “Don’t tell anyone but she’s the most talented of the Pace siblings.”
“How many do you have?”
“Just her.”
“Bummer. It must suck being in the shadow of your pro-athlete sibling.”
He literally chuckles from his very firm belly.
We pass the time like this, having a back and forth, as if, for some reason, we’re each challenging the other to be wittier or funnier. Time moves faster than it has all day and it’s the first hour that goes by without me having half a mind on how I have no clue what I should or shouldn’t be prioritizing in my life.
As we hit the gravel road on our land, dust kicks up from under the wheels and I offer to walk the rest of the way to the house but Tanner tells me, “This is what insurance is for, don’t sweat it.”
