Page 103 of Thunderstruck
“Thanks, Loren,” Carissa says to Sharkie at the same time he shifts his expression to a smile. “Cole, I just need to run up to my room for a sec. Meet you back down here in twenty minutes?”
I don’t especially want her to leave my side, but based on the way a few of the guys stand and give me sharp looks, I have a feeling they don’t want their threats to remain silent. Swallowing, I nod and take Carissa’s hand to give it a squeeze. “Take all the time you need.”
As soon as she’s gone, I’m surrounded by Thunder.
Chapter Thirty-One
Carissa
Based on my experienceswith him so far, I had a decent idea of what a date with Cole Evanson would look like. The man has already cooked for me and spent a weekend reading romance novels, something he clearly had a distaste for before that night he came to my apartment. He’s a cut above most men I’ve dated already.
But he just set the bar so high, I don’t think anyone will ever be able to top it.
Okay, maybe that’s not true. It’s not like he hired a horse-drawn carriage or flew me to Paris on a private jet. Those would be pretty cool. But he did bring me to the Portland Japanese Gardens, which are absolutelygorgeous, and as we walked he told me all about what it was like growing up with his dad and Gramps. He told me about his first football game when he was eight and how he fell in love with the sportalmost immediately. He told me about how he went to tryouts for the Thunder on a whim and something about the game clicked the moment he touched a rugby ball.
He asked a stranger to take a picture of us standing on a beautiful bridge in the middle of the gardens. He held me so close, like he never wanted to let go. I didn’t want him to let go either.
Then he brought me to his favorite restaurant in Portland and ordered dessert first, continuing his nonstop talking as I ate my weight in pizookies and pasta.
And now? He took me to a place called Pittock Mansion, which apparently is an interesting hundred-year-old building, but Cole took me around the back instead of going inside. And I’ve been staring with my mouth open for I don’t know how long.
From up here, we can see all of downtown Portland, with its many trees and buildings bathed in late afternoon light. In the distance, a true mountain peak looms by itself like some dormant volcano, which is probably exactly what it is. It doesn’t look real, though that could be because I’ve never seen a real mountain before. Not like that one.
“I can’t believe you lived here,” I whisper, still taking in the view with a pounding heart.
Chuckling, Cole tucks me up against his firm chest and wraps his arms around me. I appreciate his sturdiness as the day starts catching up to me. The wholeweekend. Everything about this trip has been overwhelming, in so many different ways. “I don’t think I ever would have picked Oregon if the Badgers hadn’t picked me, but I liked it here. And…” His arms tighten around me. “And I want to tell you why I left.”
My breath catches in my throat. This is exactly the thing Darcy wanted to know about Cole from the beginning. “Wait,” I say, tucking my hands around his arms. “I’ve already proven I’m not great at keeping secrets, and if you don’t want meto—”
“Hey.” He presses a kiss to my cheek, calming my nerves almost instantly. “I’m already planning to talk to your sister tomorrow. I think this is something she can fix.”
“Fix?” I repeat, twisting around to look at him. “What do you mean?”
Eyebrows pulling low, he sighs and sits down on one of the picnic benches that litter the overlook. He settles me onto his lap, taking a slow breath. “I mean the Badgers are a mess, and I’m lucky I was able to leave when I did. The coach is part of a betting ring of sorts and pays players to manipulate their stats wherever they can. Purposefully drop passes, make certain tackles, even lose whole games if that’s where the money is. They tried to pull me into it, but I was at the end of my current contract, so I passed on the chance to play another five years with the team and moved back to California to put some distance between me and all of that.”
Pain laces his voice as much as it shows on his face, and I press my palms to his scruffy cheeks. He looks so tired, like the last few years have suddenly caught up to him now that he has admitted the truth to me. “Oh, Cole, that’s awful. You never actually wanted to leave football, did you?”
He shakes his head. “But even if I’d tried to sign with another team, I knew too much. My coach wouldn’t have let me go quietly.”
“Why did you never tell anyone?”
“Because I don’t want the whole team to go down because of a few bad apples. And…” He clenches his jaw, his gaze shifting to the view beyond our spot. “I think that’s why Coach Galvin brought me on to the team. Or if not at first, it’s why he kept me. He must know something about what’s happening with the Badgers, and last night he…”
I can guess what he doesn’t say. “The same thing is happening again, isn’t it?” When he nods, I wrap my arms around his waist and hold him tight. “No wonder you look terrible.”
That gets a laugh out of him. “Ilook terrible?”
I sit up again to examine his face and the dark circles beneath his eyes. The tension in his shoulders. The weariness he can’t hide. “You look tired. The scruff is a nice look for you, but yeah. I can’t imagine how heavy this burden has been.”
He responds with a gentle kiss. “Thank you for listening. And for not asking if I was part of the corruption.”
Even though he’s clearly hurting, I can’t fight the smile that spreads across my face. “You may be a bit of a grump sometimes, Cole, but I don’t think you could ever be corrupt. You’re too good of a man. You didn’t like me when we first met, and you still worried about my safety despite your opinion of me. You paid for half of the daycare costs for Mel’s kid.”
Cole’s jaw drops. “How did you—”
“And,” I say, ignoring his unfinished question, “deep down you’re just a big softy who will always do the right thing even when it does nothing to benefit you. So no, I didn’t need to ask if you were a part of it all because I already knew the answer.”
Closing his eyes, he nuzzles his nose against mine. “Do you think your sister can keep the good players safe? Because I’m kind of banking on her being able to do something.”
