Page 37 of Ruff and Tumble

“Wait… You’re not upset?”

Hailey glanced at the clock above the door and released a soft curse. “Traffic is going to be awful. We’ll never beat her there.”

“Hailey.” Cole finally gave in to the urge to reach for her. He gripped her shoulders and whirled her so that she faced him. With her face upturned toward his, the light of laughter still on her lips, she was irresistible.

“Were you just laughing?” he demanded. “At me?”

She nodded. A slight giggle escaped. “I’m sorry. It’s just… This is all so surreal. You. Me. This ridiculous outfit.”

He slid his hands down her arms, her skin soft and temptingly warm. “What’s ridiculous about it? I think you look nice.”

She giggled again, this time quelling it with a hand slapped over her mouth. “Ignore me,” she said between her fingers. “I can’t react to situations like a normal person. I speak my mind at the worst possible moments and turn to stone for everything else.”

“Does this mean the dreamswereabout me?”

Her eyes snapped up to his. Despite this direct approach, her long lashes fluttered shyly, and her voice dropped to an embarrassed choke. “Don’t be stupid, Cole,” she said. “Of course they were about you.”

His grip on her arms tightened. He didn’t want to hurt her, but it was an automatic response, the curl of his fingers tied to the jolt that rocketed his groin. “I lied before. You don’t look nice. You look—”

He didn’t have a chance to finish his remark—which was for the best, since he didn’t have adequate words to describe how he was feeling. She looked tempting and beautiful andcute. She also looked as though those things meant as little to her as a football player who was rapidly passing his prime.

As if to prove it, she glanced at the wall of draft picks and sighed. “I’ll have to beg Penny to clean all this up for us,” she said. “It’s the only way we’ll make it on time.”

“Forget my sister,” Cole said—begged, really, his voice strained and his hold on Hailey remaining firm. He knew that letting her go would mean letting this moment go, and he wasn’t ready to do that yet. “Forget all things football-related. Let’s go find an office-supply closet instead. Isn’t that how it works in places like this?”

She laughed, and just like that, he lost her. He could have tried his usual tricks—a knowing smile, a low-voiced innuendo, a hand placed low on her back—but it didn’t feel right. Those were seduction tools, ways to show his interest and stake his claim.

Hewasinterested, and hedidwant to stake a claim, but he wanted a lot more than that, too.

“I’ve never had a fling with anyone at work before, so I can’t answer that,” Hailey said, stepping away. Cole felt the gap between them like a blast of cold air, but all she did was shake her head and sigh. “I don’t have flings at all, actually. Did you want me to call down and have them bring your car around?”

“Fuck the car,” Cole said with more heat than the situation warranted. He couldn’t help it. How she could stand there, looking prim and untouchable and so appealing at the same time, was beyond him.

She stood her ground. “I’d rather not, thanks.Youmight be able to get away with showing up late to social engagements, but I’m not so lucky.” She smiled ruefully. “Just be sure not to tell anyone, okay? My luck is supposed to be the reason behind all this in the first place.”

This time, he took the rebuff as it was intended. Hailey was obviously unwilling to take their flirtation any further than it had already gone. She’d been more than happy to laugh and challenge him while the cameras were rolling—and while the puppies were the main event—but now that it was just the two of them, he was back at the starting line.

Alone. Uncertain.Useless.

“Hailey Lincoln is no luckier than your average three-leaf clover,” he said and made the sign of an X over his chest. “Your secret is safe with me.”

She sighed. “If you guys don’t make it into the Kickoff Cup after all this, the city is going to demand my head on a platter. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

He didn’t. Not even a little. He woke up every day wondering if this would be the one that broke him.

“You’re the one who watches every game with the eye of a detective and the soul of a critic,” he said. “You tell me.”

“Oh, you’ll make it, all right,” she said with such confidence that Cole couldn’t help but believe her. “Andyou’ll win once you get there. They’ll renew your contract for double the pay, and you’ll spend the next decade of your life showing everyone how the game of football was meant to be played.”

Cole reared back, the speech that had started so promisingly dashing over his head like cold water.The next decade? Ten more years?

“Don’t look so worried,” she said, but even the warm smile she bestowed on him wasn’t enough to stop the chill from seeping into his spine. “If there’s one thing I know in this world, it’s football. And you, my friend, have a long and prosperous career ahead of you.”

Chapter 10

If Cole had possessed any decency, he would have made up an errand to give Hailey a chance to gather herself before he descended upon her house in all his six-foot-two glory. Since they’d spent the better part of the day together, she’d had no time to do more than glance at herself in the rearview mirror—and what she’d found had horrified her.

She looked like a rebellious teenager trying out a noir phase for the first time. Worse than that, she looked like a woman who was trying way too hard to impress a man.