Page 40 of In the Danger Zone
A little, unhappy hum left my lips. I didn’t want Evan getting into trouble over me. I especially didn’t want to be the reason for any team drama. Being the center of attention was something I hated. Because attention meant people looking at me. And people looking at me usually meant them giving me hell.
“I don’t want you getting into dumb fights for m-me,” I mumbled.
“It wasn’t dumb. And I won that fight. Just like I win every fight.”
“You’re v-very cocky.”
“I can’t help it.” He shrugged, giving me a grin. “By the way, I wanted to ask you to the team dinner this weekend.ApparentlyI got an email about that. It’s for the sponsors mostly. Murph and all the admin guys will bring their wives. The other guys will bring their girls. And I wanna bring you.”
I blinked at him. “Wait, all your teammates are gonna b-be there?Allof them?”
“Asher won’t be. I wouldn’t do that to you.” Evan grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. His thumb traced slow, soft circles against my skin. “You don’t have to worry about him.”
“How do you know he’s not going if it’s a team thing?”
“Murph already gave me a heads up and told me Asher won’t be there. Not when he looks the way he does. Pretty sure I gave him a concussion…” Evan locked his fingers with mine. “My bad.”
“You say that so casually. You know, I’ve b-been waiting m-my whole life to see someone take him down. I didn’t think it’d b-be one of his friends.
“We aren’t friends anymore,” Evan said quickly, frowning for a fleeting moment. “But forget about him. What do you say? You wanna be my date for the dinner?”
Nerves hit me fast. The night could end terribly. Asher wassupposedlynot going to be there, but my history with athletes and popular guys had me so wary of them. Sitting at a table with a whole bunch of them sounded like a nightmare.
But so far, Evan had proven himself to be different. He was going against the stereotype I had so easily accepted. Every moment with him had left me feeling safe and warm. And I so loved that feeling. I wanted more of that and him, and if Asher really wasn’t going to be present at all, then there was potential for me to have a good night out with my boyfriend.Boyfriend. It still felt so weird to give someone that label. It was a good kind of weird, though.
“I think I’d really like that,” I said with a bright smile.
Chapter 20
EVAN
“What kind of shirts do girls like?” was the first thing I asked the salesman behind the counter.
Shopping for clothes was usually a pretty simple task for me. If it looked nice, I got it. Easy. But I had a proper date with Daisy – even if a bunch of other people were going to be around – and I wanted to look good for her.
I’d be taking her to a nice restaurant, and she’d be meeting the other guys and Murph, and I just wanted to make sure she left the building that night liking me more than when we got there.
“Because I have a date coming up and I wanna look good,” I explained some more. “Ireallywanna impress her, you know? What color shirt should I get? Should I get yellow? ‘Cause she wore yellow once, so she must like that color, right? And it makes sense that she likes yellow, ‘cause she’s, like… so bright and warm. So, what do I do?”
“Uh…” the man behind the register let out.
“Dude, the color doesn’t matter,” Tanner said next to me. He wasn’t looking at me as he spoke. Instead he had his eyes glued to a book he had in his hands. We had just spent a good half an hour looking for that thing for him. “It’s about the style. Thecut.”
Humming, I looked back at the salesman. My eyes narrowed at his name tag. Richard. “What style should I get, Richard?”
“What’s the event exactly? What kind of date are you having?” Richard asked.
“Dinner. The invite said to dress smart casual. It’s a hockey thing if that helps. I just wanna look nice for her, you know?”
“I’ll show you some lovely button downs.” Richard gave us a smile. “Follow me.”
Richard guided us to some neatly folded shirts and my eyebrows furrowed at all the colors. There were so many. My eyes were drawn to the yellow one. Would Daisy like that?
“These are all high-quality organic cotton,” Richard explained. “They’ll pair well with a blazer and some slacks. What color trousers will you be wearing?”
I frowned at the word. “My trousers?”
Richard coughed. “Your dress pants, sir.”
