Page 263 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 5
“No problem,” Tanner said. “I’ll sit with you ladies. This is going to be so much fun.”
Fuck me.
“Oh, that’ll be great!” Penny said. “Let me go get Scarlett the hotdogandsoft pretzel I promised her and then we’ll meet you in the stands?”
“Perfect.”
“Good luck,” Penny said to me. “I hope you guys win.”
“We’ll definitely win,” I said.
Penny whispered something in Scarlett’s ear.
“Oh yeah. Go Eagles!” Scarlett yelled. “Did I do it right?” She looked up at Penny.
“Exactly right.” Penny kissed the top of her head, gave me a thumbs up, and headed over toward the concession stand.
“What the hell was that?” I asked Tanner when Penny was out of earshot.
“What the hell was what? I thought that went really well.”
“You told her I have the hots for some random high school student.”
“Oh. That.” Tanner shrugged. “I wanted to see if she got jealous. It didn’t seem like it to me, but I promise I’ll get to the bottom of it over the next couple hours.”
“I don’t want you to talk to her at all. Especially about any of that.”
“But I’m your wingman. We can’t forgo this opportunity. When else will I have a chance to decipher all her secrets? Scarlett looks like she’s around the age of a kid that will probably need a nap after all that food. Which gives me a couple hours to talk to Penny one on one. I’ve got this. Trust me.”
I usually trusted him. But I didn’t want him to do any of that. “Tanner…”
“Go Eagles!” he said and started walking away from me.
“Tanner!” I hissed.
He ignored me, walked up into the stands, and sat down where there was enough seating for three.
The scoreboard made a beeping noise, signaling it was time for the game to start. My team ran out for the coin toss. But my mind was in the stands. So much so that I hadn’t even realized that we were down a kicker.
“Where is Jefferson?” I asked.
“Here!” Jefferson said as he rushed onto the field balancing a few trays of cookies. So many cookies. And in a super wide variety. It seemed like maybe Jefferson was more of a baker than a kicker.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said. “My mom and I had to finish the last batch of cookies. It took longer than we thought.”
Several guys on the team snickered.
“Perfect timing,” I said and grabbed the trays from him. “We’ll eat these after the game. Sound good?”
Jefferson nodded with a huge smile.
Hopefully they were the best damn cookies ever. Because if the game was anything like the one last week, Jefferson was going to miss a minimum of 3 PATs and a field goal.
I pulled out my clipboard and went over the plan for our first few plays. “Now let’s get out there and bury Calver Academy before halftime!”
Smith nodded. “We got this, Coach Caldwell.”
I knew that they did. I just really hoped that this time Jefferson would be a part of that victory. And that for once we didn’t win in spite of him. “Go Eagles on three.” I put my hand out and they all threw theirs in too.
