Page 5 of Ruff and Tumble

“That’s my fault, too,” Cole said. “I asked her not to. The less alarm we show, the better. We wouldn’t want this leaking out to the press before we’re ready. Isn’t that right, Hailey?”

Hailey nodded her agreement. There was nothing else shecoulddo. Even if she was able to stand up to her boss—which she wasn’t—she could hardly contradict Cole Bennett after what she’d said to him.

“It’s a hell of a story,” Cole added with a soft laugh. He paused and started to play with Bess’s ears. Bess showed no shame in turning toward his touch. Like the rest of them, she was wholly under his spell. “A shelter animal in need. The Puppy Cup PA who provides it. What’s the term they use for that sort of thing? Human interest?”

Jasmine nodded along as though all of that made perfect sense, but Hailey felt a tingling along her spine. How could Cole know about any of that? Granted, she made no secret of her fostering work, but it was hardly the kind of thing to interest a man like this one.

“We’ll hash out the details when we get back,” he said with a decisive nod. “I think you’ll like what I have in mind.”

Hailey didn’t know what Jasmine’s thoughts on the subject were, but she was starting to develop plenty of her own—most of which revolved around the certain, irrevocable feeling that she was about to be asked for a kidney. There was no other explanation for any of this—for why Cole Bennett would even deign to look at her, let alone save her in front of her boss.

True, she admired him. She idolized him. She was, okay, a little bit obsessed with him. Buthedidn’t know any of that.

“She seems nice,” he said in a low, amused voice as Jasmine disappeared from view and the click of her heels trailed off in the distance. “And she didn’t say one word against my game play. To tell you the truth, I’m a little disappointed. It seems I could use the pointers.”

The last of Hailey’s ability to maintain rational thought fled. She was already so far out of her depth—floundering, flailing, her mouth seemingly unattached to her brain—that for Cole Bennett to laugh at her,withher, was too much.

“You want pointers?” She started regretting the words before they left her lips, but she could no more stop them than she could the Sounder train. “Then it’s not just your unnecessary hits that are a problem. I think your game has been off all season. It’s probably your worst one yet, and that includes the year you were recovering from shoulder surgery. If you didn’t have Garrett Smith to catch all your Hail Mary passes, the Lumberjacks would have no chance at making it into the Kickoff Cup this year. He’s saved you at least half a dozen times.”

“Probably more,” Cole murmured. “Is there something wrong with this elevator? Why does it take so long to get anywhere?”

Hailey could only stare. Everything she’d just said was true, but he should have been insulted to hear it—outraged, even. Did he wantbothher kidneys?

“It’s old,” she managed. “Old things don’t work very well.”

“Oh, I’m well aware of that. Why do you think I’m having such a bad season?”

The elevator finally opened its sluggish doors again—and a good thing, too, because Hailey had no idea how to respond. Cole Bennettwasn’told. At least he wasn’t old in quarterback years. At thirty-two, he was a young buck compared to many of the more veteran players who graced the annals of sports history. If he played his cards right, he could last another decade on the field, delighting the masses and reaping his millions.

“Well?” he asked as he stepped inside. “Are you coming, or am I going to have to call Garrett and ask him to carry you down? I’m happy to do it, but I should warn you that he doesn’t take criticism as well as I do. You’ll probably make him cry.”

Hailey opened her mouth and closed it again, her whole body flushing with embarrassment. There was nothing she could say—and even less she could do—to redeem herself after this. When faced with the most beautiful and talented man in the world, she didn’t swoon or faint or even grow weak in the knees.

Apparently, she critiqued—and she critiqued hard.

Which was why, as she gave Bess’s leash a gentle tug, she was both horrified and surprised to hear herself say, “Garrett has nothing to fear from me. His ability to find an opening in a packed end zone is nothing short of miraculous. He should be very proud of himself.”

Cole’s whole body stilled. He didn’t make any sort of sound, either, but she was pretty sure he was laughing at her.Again.

“Is there anyone on my team you don’t have a strong opinion about?” He shook his head before she could say anything. “No, don’t answer that. I don’t think my ego could take another blow.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about your ego,” she shot back. “I doubt there’s much it couldn’t survive.”

And there it was. She’d done the unthinkable. She’d lost control of her mind and her mouth, and now she was going to have to suffer through the entire elevator ride with the personal hero she’d just insulted to his face.

“There,” Cole said as he pressed the parking level button and the doors closed in on them. “That wasn’t so difficult, was it? Now we’re well on our way to becoming friends.”

Not only was the elevator old, but it had been constructed at a time when it was de rigueur to panel every wall in mirrors. There was nowhere Hailey could look—nowhere she could turn—that didn’t contain hundreds of tiny images of the three of them. One man, godlike and laughing. One dog, panting quietly. And one woman, red from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes. She wouldn’t have gone so far as to call this the worst day of her life, but it was definitely in the top ten.

When the elevator gave a shudder and lurched to a sudden stop somewhere between the third and fourth sublevels, she hastily amended that ranking.

This was top-five territory; she was sure of it. Especially when Bess whimpered and turned around three times before her water broke.

Chapter 2

“I can’t get cell phone reception.” Cole held his phone up to the corner of the elevator and shook it a few times. The concrete block that supported them prevented any signals from getting through. “No internet, either. You weren’t kidding when you said this elevator is old.”

“I told you not to bother,” Hailey said. “We just have to wait for help to arrive. With any luck, Bess will be able to hold on long enough.”