“If you want season tickets, just say the word. I’ll buy you seats anywhere in the arena.” Hudson pauses. “Do you want your spectating grade for the night?”
“My spectating grade?” I laugh. “What are you judging me on? How loud I yelled?”
“That’s one of the criteria. I saw you cheering, so you get an A for enthusiasm.”
“I’ve always been a good student.”
He scoots back in his chair and stands. He walks around the corner of the island until he’s close to me. “You failed in one area, though.”
“Oh?” I lift an eyebrow. “Are you going to tell me how I can improve for next time?”
“Turn around,” he says in a low voice. My feet move in a small circle until my back is to him. Until I can’t see him but can only hear him, and I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know where this is going, but I want to find out. “We’re friends, right?”
I squeeze my thighs together. My breath gets stuck in my throat. There’s nothing friendly about the thoughts I’m currently having, but I nod anyway. “We are.”
“Next time you come to a game, don’t show up in someone else’s jersey.” His fingers trace the outline of the letters spanning across my shoulders. They dance down my spine, and my eyes flutter closed. “I’ll buy you a hundred jerseys with my name on them so you never run out.”
“And if I don’t want to wear your jersey?” I ask with a hint of defiance.
He brushes a strand of hair away from my neck so he can whisper in my ear. He’s not touching me, but it feels like he is. “I might be nice, Madeline, but I can also be very persuasive.”
My heart nearly flatlines at the insinuation behind his words. I should be pushing him away, but I don’t want to.
“Okay,” I whisper. “Next time I’ll wear your jersey.”
“Good. I see an A plus in your future.” He pulls his hand away, and I miss the contact immediately. He claps and grins. “Ready to eat?”
I nod again, lost for words.
I don’t know what I want more: to wear his name across my back, or to learn how persuasive he can be.
THIRTY-FIVE
HUDSON
Puck Kings
Easy E
Book club tomorrow night!
I never knew reading could be so much fun.
G-Money
You only like it because the characters bang every other chapter.
Easy E
Hell yeah they do. And it’s hot AF.
Mitchy
I’m hosting this month. If any of you fuck with the canvas I’m working on, I will make your life hell.
Me
No one is going to touch your artwork, Riley.