Page 58 of Out of Bounds
After the game, when interviewed, I tell the media, “The win was for Tommy.”
When I’m asked about my run in with Auston, I say, “He didn’t like that I trod on his toes.”
They mutter in amused tones because they don’t know how much I’ve started to want to step on his toes, off the field.
“Adrenalin was high going into the rematch,” I tell them.
But they don’t know that my surge of the hormone was due to Quinn’s sister watching from the stands and there’s a very real, dangerous possibility that I’m falling for the wittiest, kindest, smartest, prettiest cowgirl in Texas.
When Sas and Harris bring Annie to the locker room after the game, my heart starts racing faster than when I scored a touchdown, because she knows that driving celebration was for her. She knows that I fronted up to Auston because I want to protect her.
“Hell of a game, stud,” she tells me quietly, and it feels like there’s something special in her words. Ours.
Leaving the ground with my arm around her shoulders – mostly as a walking aid – is like being propped up by a unicorn. Extraordinary in a way I can’t fathom, much less explain. It means so much to me that she was at the game, even if she wasn’t only there for me.
We reach the parking lot where mine and Colton’s cars are parked, as well as the Archers team coaches. I sense Rogers before I even turn to see him, motionless, watching our group, staring at Annie.
She’s still joking with Sas, Harris and Colton over quips they’re making about me being an old man and she hasn’t noticed Auston. For a moment, I contemplate not telling her that he’s here. He’s no good and he’s no good for her, or the Quinns, but Annie is a grown woman and it’s her decision to make, not mine. I’m not in charge of her and while I might beat my chest on the gridiron – or on the sidelines – I won’t be the manipulative asshole that Auston has been with her.
I also don’t want to cause a commotion, even though there shouldn’t be anyone lurking around the parking lot for sneak recordings. Still, I lean into her ear, taking my arm back to prevent any insinuations flying around later, and tell her, “Auston’s over there.”
Her shoulders jerk as if she’s startled but she turns to see him. There’s a falter in her step and I wonder if she’ll go to him, but she keeps moving away, with me.
“Waiting to catch me after a game I happen to be at, while his ego is low, isn’t the proof I need that meeting him would go any differently next time. Let’s go home,” she tells me.
Home.
Despite the circumstances, her reaction to Auston and that four-letter word leaving her mouth are the thermal wrap my body needs right now.
I’m slipping somewherewayout of my depth. Not least because, when I look back to the opposition coach as I close Annie’s car door, Auston is still watching her,us. I’m not going to pity the guy. He doesn’t deserve it. But he looks genuinely miserable and I can’t help wondering whether he wants her back.
25
ANNIE – MID-OCTOBER
A Near Miss
As Tanner drives us home in his Lexus, I’m contemplating if should I have crossed the parking lot to speak with Auston. He was right there, looking at me, asking me, I think, to talk. Or was he simply surprised to see me, propping up Tanner as he near hobbled out of the Alamo stadium?
He didn’t know I was going to be there because he never asked. He’sherein San Antonio, but he didn’t reach out. He didn’t plan to see me.
No. I made the right call. If Auston wanted to make a genuine effort to connect with me, with his son, he could.
Simultaneously, I’m having another train of thought that has no business click-clacking through my brain…Tanner wears this car like a fine accessory.
Those thick thighs spread on leather, one of those big hands commanding the steering,looooongfingers flicking those paddle gears. I wish my own body would listen when I tell it,we ain’t interested in sportsmen, hun.I know it isn’t receiving the message because watching Tanner out there on the gridiron had me clenching my legs together more times than I could count. And not because of a nasty tackle or two.
I’m on a speed train to smitten and that is not a destination where I can afford anything worth having.
“You okay, Annie Bannie?” Tanner asks, stealing me back from the ride of my life.
“Hmm?”
“You’re quiet over there.”
I’m thinking about that thigh between mine.
“You’re not beating yourself up about not going to Auston, are you? You don’t have to go running to him just because he?—”
