Page 26 of The Comeback Pact

Jealousy ping-pongs around my insides until I push it away. I have no reason to be jealous if another girl thinks West is hot. He is.

“We should go watch,” Sydney offers after eyeing me.

I gesture toward the fence with a sneer. “Like them?” There’s no way I’m going to act like a Warner Bulldog jersey chaser. I just can’t. I’m morally opposed.

“Of course not. We can hide and watch.”

I shake my head. “For what?”

“So you can watch West. Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about his ass in those football…pants. Or whatever they’re called.”

I tug on the sleeve of her shirt as she starts to walk up the little knoll toward the practice field. Where we are, they won’t be able to see us easily, and that’s how I’d like to keep it. “Come on. We’re not going to watch them. That’s weird and creepy, and you sound like a stalker.”

One of the girls at the gate squeals when a player gets laid out on the turf, and I peer over at Sydney with anI told you sostare.

She grimaces. “Yeah, okay. You’re right.”

We start forward again, but I’m preoccupied with what’s happening on the practice field. West walks into view. He’s easy to pick out because he’s practically behemoth-size.

The royal-blue-and-white practice uniform is cut in such a way that it shows off his tapered waist, tree-trunk legs, and wide shoulders. He’s holding on to his helmet in his right hand, the sweat dripping off his face getting caught in the edges of his hair. Tilting his head back, he squeezes water into his mouth from a green and orange Gatorade bottle, and pours some on his face. Then, I swear to God, he shakes his hair out like he’s in a shampoo commercial, and instead of it looking cheesy as fuck, he’s drop-dead gorgeous.

He’s. A. Specimen.

My foot catches, and I fly forward, almost hitting the pavement face first. Cheeks flaming, I glare back at the smooth, flat sidewalk. Surely, there was just a rock there orsomeculprit that took me down. It isn’t because I was too preoccupied watching the god-like football player.

Sydney steadies me, holding back a laugh. “Break your neck why don’t you. I knew there was something there. I knew it.”

“Okay, so he’s hot as fuck. There are plenty of guys that are hot.”

“Yeah, celebrities, maybe. How many celebrities have you ever met?” She stares up at the field and shakes her head. “You know how they say everyone goes to Florida to die since it’s, like, the retiree capital of the world? I swear all the sexy football players go to Warner.”

Life isn’t fair, I think, because I know exactly what she’s talking about. I don’t know where the football coach got all these players from, but they are all freaking ballin’…and West Brooks is… Shit, he’s jaw-droppingly handsome. The kind of guy you want to jump on because a ride on that might make a girl’s life.

“Come on,” I tell Sydney, shaking my thoughts off. I can’t keep thinking about these things because I have to work in close proximity with him nearly every day, and I don’t want to make it weirder than it already is. Taking off, I start speed walking, hoping to clear the practice field sooner rather than later.

I’m a girl on a mission because I don’t even hear my name being called until Sydney yanks back on my arm and points toward the field. It’s not West—West doesn’t shout names—but it is Aidan.

Shit, shit, shit.

We weren’t fast enough. I keep trying to speed ahead, and Sydney sighs. “Girl, I don’t know what you’re doing, but that boy is calling my name, too, and I am here. For. It.” She punctuates each word, and when I turn, she’s not even looking at me, she’s staring off toward the field where Aidan is jogging our way in all of his football glory. His sweaty hair bounces off his head, and he moves in just a way that I spot West behind him.

My heart flips in my chest. It’s so fucking cliché. He’s not running, he’s just striding across the field in our direction, that look of stony determination in his eyes that I’m all too familiar with now.

My body electrifies, the skin on my arms practically buzzing. I’ve never had this reaction to a guy before. It feels like my first kiss. That moment just before when expectation hangs around you.

That’s how I view West Brooks.

An expectation.

He holds my gaze the entire time it takes him to cross the green grass that’s littered with the occasional fallen leaf. When he gets near us, my mouth goes dry. I’ve never been this close to a football player in his jersey, and I have to say, it’s…something. The pads only accentuate his build.

“Spying on us?” Aidan grins as he slows to a stop.

“We were just walking,” I spew out, my stare still on the giant closing in on me. I take a deep breath to steady myself.

“I mean, I was spying,” Sydney says, in full-on flirt mode. “Kenna wanted nothing to do with it.”

“Aw, you’re going to hurt the Big Man’s feelings,” Aidan teases, the corners of his mouth tipping up. “Please don’t do that. It always sucks for me.” He chuckles, rotating his shoulder as if he’d been hit hard today.

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