Page 65 of The Perfect Pass
She tilted her head just so, her lips parting until she paused and whispered his name. “Jackson?”
His eyes lingered on her pretty, bow-shaped mouth a moment longer before meeting her gaze. When he did, he could see how much she wanted this…wanted him. “Yes, sweetheart?”
She bit her lip and then smiled as her hands came to rest on his chest, her touch warm through the worn fabric of the T-shirt she seemed to love so much. “There’s something I need to tell—”
Before she could finish, Jackson’s cell phone rang. The blare of the ringtone was absurdly loud in the charged atmosphere of the quiet kitchen.
“Ignore that,” he ground out. Whoever it was could wait.
Calla’s gaze slid toward his cell on the kitchen counter, inches away from his untouched eggs. “I think it’s your agent. Harper Alden, right? Maybe you should take it.”
“Whatever she wants isn’t as important as this,” he said. She’d left a few voicemails this week, and he hadn’t even listened to them. New York and Chicago both felt far, far away.
The phone went silent as the call rolled to voicemail, and Jackson grinned. “Now where were we? Oh, right. You wanted to tell me something.”
And right after she got the words out, he intended to kiss her silly. If he didn’t do it soon, he was going to lose his mind.
She nodded, eyes sparkling with what felt like had to be good news. “It’s about my column…”
The phone rang again, cutting her off in the same place it had before. At first, neither of them moved, as if willing it to stop. But his cell kept buzzing incessantly, ruining the brief moment of connection.
Calla backed away, and every muscle in his body felt like weeping at the loss of her touch. “I’m going to let you get that. We can talk later.”
“Calla—”
“Thank you again for this.” She held up the trading card, face out so he was looking straight into the eyes of his younger self. Then she flipped it around and pressed her lips to his photo as she drifted out of the kitchen.
“Did you see that?” he asked Bishop as he grabbed his phone. “That wasn’t quite the first kiss I had planned.”
But it would have to do…
For now.
* * *
“Harper, this better be important,” Jackson muttered as he answered the call. He shoved a cold bite of eggs into his mouth and then pinched a nibble off his plate for Bishop, who gobbled it up as if he hadn’t polished off a huge bowl of kibble less than half an hour ago.
“Hello to you, too,” his agent said. “Good grief, Jackson, where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for days. I was about to send a search party down there.”
“I’ve been busy. We’ve got an important game tomorrow night.”
“Yes, I know. And do you have any ideahowI know that, since you haven’t bothered to give me a single update since Halloween?” She didn’t wait for an answer. The question was obviously rhetorical and intended to annoy him. Which it did. “Because I’ve been reading that local reporter’s column. You know the one—the girl with the dead brother.”
Jackson’s body instantly locked up with rage.The girl with the dead brother.Was she serious? How insensitive could someone possibly be?
And had she always given off such harsh vibes, or was he just now noticing it since they hadn’t spoken in a while?
“What do you want, Harper?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“Okay, I see we’re cutting straight to the chase. Fine. We need to act fast, anyway. I’m just calling to congratulate you. Thanks to all the recent drama down there, you’ve gone viral again. SportsSphere can’t stop talking about you.” She laughed under her breath. “I mean that in a good way this time.”
“Really?” Jackson felt himself frown. Other thanwatching game tapes, he hadn’t turned on a television in weeks—nor had he kept up with anything the tabloids had been saying about him. He hadn’t read a single word about himself since the Bulldogs’ season opener.
Other than Calla’s column, obviously.
“I guess I haven’t been keeping track of what’s going on outside of Bishop Falls,” he said.
“You’re back in demand, Jackson. That’s what’s going on. Thanks to the way you stood up to the booster club and kicked those boys off the team, you’re a hero. This plan was a long shot. Honestly, I wasn’t sure you could pull it off, but you did. I hope you’re sitting down, because I’ve got great news.” She paused, clearly for dramatic effect. “The Cyclones want you back.”
