Page 30 of Play the Last Card
I go back to watching the defensive team drills. Once they’ve finished up we will be heading for the showers before breaking off for meetings and film. It’s going to be a long evening.
“Why are you so cranky today? Did your date over the weekend go badly?” he asks as he shoves my shoulder. I keep my stare ahead but itdoesn’t stop the inevitable replay reel starting over in my head, torturing me with the opportunities I missed to get a real taste of Ivy.
I scowl. “Shut up.”
“Hm.” I can practically hear the smirk forming on his face. “You know, I’ve been to Pats a few times since we went there.”
This gets my attention. My eyes snap to him, my helmet slipping through my fingers and hitting the turf with a thud. “You what?”
“I wanted to get a look at the girl that has you all twisted up and smiling like an idiot at your phone,” he says as he shrugs. He stretches his legs, lunging forward as he turns his face up to me. “Never seen you like this about a woman before. It’s refreshing.”
My chest tightens. Ivy is different. There were girls in high school, a short-term girlfriend here or there, and in college if I had needed to let off steam then I’d always found someone willing. But since going pro, I’ve been careful. Selective.
As in, I haven’t selected anyone at all.
I’m committed to the game and my attention isn’t wavering from that.
Well until now.
Ivy’s undone all of it with a glance my way and a smile.
“Have you … did you meet her?” I ask. I try to school my features into a look of disinterest, to feign some sense of not caring all that much that he was snooping around Pats trying to get a look at her.
But who am I kidding? I care a whole lot.
Pats is a sports bar. Not just any kind of sports bar but one that is across from the Broncos training facility dedicated to Boston’s sports teams. It plays classic football games all day long. Flynn has been playing with the team since being drafted out of college. Any Boston football fan worth their salt would know who he is.
If Ivy is there, if she asks him how he knows me, he will tell her. I’ll be outed.
“Na, she’s not been there,” he says and relief washes through me. “Met her friend, though. The one I signed the autograph for. Katie.” There’s an accusation in his tone and my stomach drops.
“Shit,” I curse. “Look, I—”
He holds up a hand. “You’re in deep shit if you confirm this. Please tell me the woman you’re all twisted up about knows who you are? Please tell me her friend was just having a moment and didn’t ask me if you were the team’s psychologist or something?”
My guilt is written all over my face.
Flynn curses. “Are you insane?”
“I know.” I rack a hand through my hair. “It’s fucking stupid, and risky, and I’m a dick.”
“No, but you are a franchise quarterback worth a few million dollars and trying to date a girl who doesn’t know who the hell you are just before the season starts. This will never, ever end well man. You have to tell her.”
He’s right.
Damn it, I know he’s right.
I’d known when I met her that she hadn’t recognized me. I’d known it when she’d told me she hated football without hesitating like she might offend me. I know it every single time I field one of her questions about my job.
“I caught on pretty quick when Katie mentioned her friend had gone out with someone who ‘worked’ for the team.” He lifts his fingers, air quoting himself. “What the hell made you not disclose you arethequarterback for the team?!”
“She hates football,” I sigh, my head dropping.
“What?” Flynn stands straight, his stretching forgotten.
“Ivy, the girl I went out with, hates football. Like with a passion. Wants nothing to do with it. Doesn’t watch the games, the coverage, not evenSportsCenter. She has no idea who I am and I loved that at first," I admit, the word vomit hurling out of me. Ivy’s smile blossoms in the frontof my eyes again. “It was like we met and instead of seeing the giant flashing arrow pointing me out as a quarterback, she just saw some poor guy wallowing in the fact he’s moved to a city he hates for work. She’s determined to get me to like Boston.”
I suppress a smile as I remember her listing off her top ten favorite things to do in the city over tacos.