Page 76 of Out of Bounds
I like Annie.Reallylike Annie.
I start spooning berries onto my plate. Darcy mirrors me.
“I’m twelve years older than her, Darce. I’m on the cusp of retirement. Plus, she isn’t looking for a relationship. Her focus is Nelson and school.” I set the cutlery in the bowl and move on to the dishes of nuts, thinking,Unless it’s with Auston?“Even if she waslooking for something, it wouldn’t be with a sports guy.”Other than Auston?
She takes the spoon for the nuts from me and leans her head to one side.
Jesus,am I that obvious? Is everyone else seeing that I can’t get her out of my head? When she’s with me, I can’t stop looking at the way shejustis, listening to everything she says from the sublime to the ridiculous and never boring of it. When she isn’t with me, I’m searching the room for her.
“Sorry,” Darcy says. “I didn’t appreciate the whole sibling thing was a barrier until literally just now.”
I nod, getting back to piling a plate with fruit. Darcy starts doing the same.
“It’s notabarrier. It’s one of many.”
“Auston?”
I can’t bring myself to admit it, so I shrug. “They have a kid together. In any event, Annie and I are friends.”
“Aha, yup, gotcha.” We move to the syrup station. “But for the record, when you were reeling off all the reasons Annie wouldn’t want to be withyou, you didn’t mention one reason you don’t want to be with her.”
She fixes on me like we’re having a face-off, plates between us.
“All the reasons count for us both, Darce. If you want more, I don’t do relationships. I don’t even date during season. It’s a distraction I don’t need, especially these days.”Don’t I know it this morning.“All my focus needs to be on staying fit and healthy if I’m going to be able to compete like I want to for the rest of this season, and hopefully another. EvenifI thought about it, the guy sitting at that table is one of my best friends, he’s my teammate, he’s my best receiver, and Annie and me, if that ended badly… Look, it’s not happening, it’s not worth it. She’s a single mom and I see our own mom in her. I want to be there for her, and Nelson, but that’s all this is.”
Darcy nods. “Okay. If that’s how you think it needs to be.”
“It is.”
“Great. SoifAuston is making a play for her, even though everyone can see he’s no good for her, you’d be cool with it.”
I drag in a breath. “If they want to be a family, then that trumps everything, right?”
She scoffs and I know what she’s thinking – we were better off without our dads. “Our dads never tried, Darce, and who knows, maybe Auston can take his head out of his ass long enough to turn things around.”
“Sure.” She squeezes enough syrup onto her plate to make a fruit soup, then she looks up to me. “But, Tanner, Iknowyou, and I’ve never seen you look at a woman the way you look at Annie. She doesn’t need a man-child who can’t handle responsibility. She needs a man who’s lived a while.”
She leaves her words between us like a mic drop and heads back to the table.
Leaving me to stare across to the woman I am on real dangerous ground with and think,But she sent me to my own bed last night.
Back at the table, Sas offers to speak with Sienna and do some digging around the trade rumors. Annie’s response is, “Or I could call him and ask him straight.”
She’ll be speaking with Auston again. Great.
33
ANNIE – EARLY NOVEMBER
I’m Going to Stay Home Tonight
Tanner is deep in conversation with Darcy at the front desk. I’ve said my goodbyes to her, Sas and Colton, so I head out to the parking lot.
Propped up against the swanky car of the guy who went down on me last night, I attempt to call the father of my child, muttering to myself, “This is messed up.”
Auston
I can’t speak, I’m about to go out for warm-up.
