Page 28 of Friend Zone to End Zone

“And?” I asked, wanting more clarification than he was giving me.

“And I guess we’ll see what happens.”

“But you got her number, didn’t you?” I asked. “I know you hired me to be your dating coach, but you do know she’ll be expecting a call or text from you soon, right?”

“Oh, is that how it works?” He shot me a smirk.

“Yes,” I said. Sure, I hadn’t exactly given a guy my number in a few years, but I was pretty sure it still worked like that. “So what did you and Mallory talk about?”

“She asked me a few questions about football. And then I did this weird thing where I asked her about her interests.” He gave me a wry grin as if to show that he wasn’t completely inept. “But aside from her asking about my new haircut and tattoos, we didn’t really talk about anything too personal.”

I glanced at the wide, black tattoo wrapped around his left forearm that represented his family’s ‘aumakuea. His ‘aumakeua was a shark, and the pattern of repeating rows of triangles on his arm represented shark teeth.

I had never been a huge fan of tattoos before meeting him, but his were strangely attractive to me. They were tribal and masculine, and when he’d first told me his ‘aumakuea was supposed to take the darkness out of his heart and bring the light in, I’d immediately fallen in love with the concept.

Because we all could use a reminder to bring in the light and let go of the dark.

“I noticed you and Hannah were whispering about me and Mallory, though,” he said. “Were you critiquing my every move? Do you have any amazing coaching tips for me?”

“Nah.” I waved the thought away. “But Hannah was telling me all her theories about why you don’t date.”

“Hannah has theories?” Cole drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “I bet those were interesting.”

A grin slipped up my lips. “Actually, they were.”

“And what were they?”

I had to stifle a giggle as I thought about Hannah’s most ridiculous theory. Because I knew exactly how Cole would react to hearing it.

“That good?” He raised an eyebrow, noticing the look on my face.

“It was entertaining to hear, at least.”

“So?”

I waited a moment before answering, letting the anticipation build a little, and then said, “She thinks the reason you never date is because you’re secretly gay.”

“What?” The car jolted forward as his foot suddenly put too much pressure on the gas pedal.

Maybe I shouldn’t have said that when we were traveling at seventy miles per hour on a mountain road at night.

“Y-you told her she was wrong, right?” he asked, his words stumbling out of his mouth. “You didn’t let her keep thinking that I don’t date women because I’m secretly playing for the other team.”

I laughed, enjoying how flustered he was. But since I could see that he was actually worried that I might believe that about him, I decided to put him out of his misery. “I told her she was wrong, and that there was no way you were into men.”

“Good.” He released a long breath, his body relaxing against the leather seat. “Because I am very, very much attracted to women. And only women.”

I grinned. “I figured.”

“You said she had multiple theories.” He peeked at me again, a wary expression on his face. “Were the other theories just as ridiculous as that one?”

“Not quite. But while I said you haven’t dated much in the past few years because you were focused on being the best wide receiver in the league, she thinks it’s more fun to entertain herself with the idea that you’re completely smitten with some woman you’re forbidden from having.”

His fingers tightened around the steering wheel.

“She wasn’t right, was she?” I sat up straighter, suddenly wondering if Hannah had actually been on to something.

But then he said, “I don’t know what Hannah thinks she knows, but if I was secretly in love with someone, you would be the first person to know.”

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