Page 34 of Love at Second Down

With a shit-eating grin, he crosses the room to me and claps me on the back with enough force, he nearly knocks me into the wall. “Our QB is back, baby, and we’re here to win!”

I scowl at him before turning away and pulling my hoodie over my head.

“Aw, come on, man,” Chris says, his tone forlorn. “You’re not still mad at us, are you?”

I glance over my shoulder with a raised brow, my gaze quickly shifting from him to Jace, Brandon, and West, letting my silence speak for me.

“I mean, can you really blame us for intervening?” Brandon says, at least having the decency to look sheepish.

“We were just trying to help, man,” West says.

I snort and prop my foot on the bench in front of me as I begin pulling on and lacing my sneakers.

“You’re really not going to talk to us?” Chris says with a huff. “You already ignored us the whole way here.”

“I mean, you can blame us all you want,” Jace says with a shrug, “but you have to admit, it worked.”

My head whips up to him and my nostrils flare. “It didn’t?” I snap my mouth closed, realizing too late that I broke my vow of silence.Shit.

“He speaks!” Chris throws his hands up in victory.

With a sigh and another roll of my eyes, I tie the laces of my other shoe and straighten. These are my friends, my teammates, and I’m angry as hell for the shit they pulled, but they’re also like my brothers. “Fine,” I grind out. “I’ll stop ignoring you, but just for the record, I’m still pissed.”

“Noted.” Chris nods with a gleeful smile.

“Now, the question is, what are we gonna do tomorrow night to celebrate once we’re back home?” Brandon asks, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

“Er . . .” Chris scratches the back of his head. “Jace and I sort of promised we’d do this whole charity dance thing tomorrow night.”

“A dance?” Brandon says, sounding like Chris has just told him he’s going to a funeral.

Jace nods. “It’s a snowflake ball or some shit they’re putting on for the teens at Helping Hands, the charity Brynn volunteers for.”

“If it’s Brynn’s charity, why are you two going?” Brandon asks pointing between them.

“Ah, isn’t it obvious?” Jace replies. “Because they said so.”

I snicker and shake my head. “Suckers, both of you.” I sling my duffle over my shoulder. “And that is precisely why I don’t have a girl. Don’t worry, though. While West, Brandon, and I are sitting in the comfort of our apartment, eating a large pepperoni and sausage and watching Monday night football, we’ll think of you.”

Jace clears his throat, speaking out of the side of his mouth while he eyes Chris and mutters, “Should you tell them, or should I?”

“Uh,yeah,” Chris drawls, “about that . . .” He rocks back on his heels, looking everywhere but at me. “We-kind-of-volunteered-all-of-us-to-help,” he chokes out with lightning-fast speed.

“Say what now?” Brandon asks, cupping his ear. “It sounded like you just said that you volunteered all ofus”?he motionsbetween himself, me, and West?“to help out with some high school dance, the day after our semifinal win, on our only day off, when we’ll all be exhausted from traveling.”

Chris shrugs, his smile sheepish. “That’s because we did.”

“Unbelievable,” Brandon mutters as he smacks his palm to his forehead.

“Cool,” West chimes in.

“Cool?” I blink at him like he’s insane.

“Thank you!” Chris yells, jabbing a finger in his direction. “Now that’s the kind of optimism we need around here.”

“Yeah, well, you all have fun with that,” I say with a laugh, because there’s no way in hell I’m going to some high school dance tomorrow night.

“Uh, were you not here for the part where I said we volunteeredallof us?” Chris asks, aghast.

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