Page 34 of Make the Play

“Details, Corie. Now. Spill.”

So, I do. I tell her what happened, how he was there as I was leaving, and I was so overwhelmed with gratitude, I lost my head and ran to him, and then I kissed him.

“Wait. It sounds as though it was just a peck on the lips, and an even faster one on the cheek.”

“It was.”

“Damn, Corie, you got me all excited for nothing.”

“What do you mean? I kissed him, Sloane.”

“I would not call that a kiss. Sure, your lips touched his, but it was innocent enough. Why are you freaking out?”

“His hand was gripping my ass.”

“I’m still trying to find the problem,” she says, and I can hear the humor in her voice.

“Sloane,” I whine.

“Fine. I get it, but, Corie, you’re an adult. Knox is an adult. The chemistry between the two of you has been building for weeks.”

“If you only knew,” I mutter under my breath.

“Hold up. What am I missing?”

I’m quick to reply, “Nothing,” and then say, “A few things,” just as quickly. I then begin to word vomit and catalog every encounter, every touch between us since I’ve been home from college. By the time I finish, Sloane is speechless, and Sloane is never speechless. “Say something.”

“Shhh,” she says. “I’m living vicariously through you in my mind.”

“Stop.” I chuckle. “This is serious. What do I do?”

“What do you want to do?”

“I can’t go around kissing my coworker who is already entwined in my life in other ways.”

“Why not?”

“Sloane!”

“I’m just saying. You’re both consenting adults, and there is obviously something there.”

“He’s a professional football player. He’s never been rumored to date anyone, and he has gorgeous women tossing themselves at him everywhere he goes. He’s out of my league. Besides, I’m not dating. I need to focus on my job and get my own place.” I pause before adding. “I’ve trusted the wrong man in the past. Conner wasn’t nearly as high profile as Knox.”

“First of all, you can fuck right off talking like that about my best friend. I don’t care who he is, but no one is out of your league. We all put our damn pants on the same way, and his farts still smell like shit,” she says, and I can’t stop the giggle that escapes my lips.

“Second, Conner is in a league of his own. There were red flags for days. He lied to you. He was a smooth-talker and a cheater. There is no comparison between the two. Knox is a good man. You know him. He’s not some slimy ass who picked up the intern and manipulated her.”

“I was lonely,” I say. It’s the first time I’ve ever admitted that out loud. “I saw the red flags, and I just didn’t care. Not really. I didn’t sleep with him because of it, but he was in my world. Kind of. He didn’t need to get close to me to get close to my brother. He already had high-profile clients. I wasn’t being used by him.”

“Okay, he didn’t use you, but he cheated on you.”

“That was my fault because I wasn’t sleeping with him.”

“What held you back? The two of you dated for what, six months?”

I don’t have to think about my answer. “No chemistry. I didn’t feel that connection with him, but like I said, I was lonely, working all the time, and it felt like he was close enough to my world, to my brother’s world, that he would be a safe bet.”

“And Knox?”

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