Page 101 of Striking Heat
“I think you may have fucked that up.” He laughs along with me. “But oh well.”
“Yeah, oh well.”
“I guess I’ll see you at the bar later tonight, then?” Jase asks me.
“Yeah, it seems like that’s what she wants to do.”
Jase starts to walk away but then turns to me. “Danny, just find something you love. Somewhere you feel like you belong. Don’t worry about your dad and all the expectations that come along with that.” He pauses for a beat. “I don’t know what that’s like, but I can tell you that I know what it’s like to live your passion just in a different way. So, find your passion and do what feels like a place you belong. Not where anyone else thinks that you should.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” And I do. I really do.
My journalism career may have stalled a bit. Truth be told, I could probably pick it back up somewhere else. Or in a few years when Martin can’t remind anywhere I apply to that I slept with my story. But I’m not sure that I want to. Maybe I should listen to Jase and find what sets me on fire. Other than Mac.
Chapter Forty
~MAC~
The whole team is headed out to the bar. We may have lost, but that’s okay. It was just a scrimmage, one that many of us were questioning if we should have been playing in the first place. I’m not sure what Cromwell was thinking when he scheduled it, but I think it might have something to do with ego. Either way it’s weird to have a scrimmage in the middle of the season. I would have rather enjoyed the bye week.
The only thing anyone could really agree on is that we could all use a drink. So, we shower and get ourselves ready to head over to The Backwoods. I’m looking forward to the night out. It’ll be the first time I’ve been able to go there and include Danny. Usually, I can’t. It’s one of those things where we would just stare at each other from across the crowded room. I couldn’t touch him, and he couldn’t touch me. I will miss the dirty texts he’d send me.
I smile and head out of the locker room to find him waiting for me.
Cassie bumps my shoulder. “Look who’s waiting for you.”
I giggle. “Yeah, it’s kind of nice to see him after that rough game.”
“Did Coach say much to you after your soft red?”
“Not too much. Just not to worry about it and move on to the next game. But to make sure that I mind my pushing and keep my hands behind me for the next few games because refs remember that shit.”
Cassie nods. “Yeah, they do and I’m sure you’ll be a target for the other players too because they know your buttons can be pushed.”
“I guess I should have kept my cool,” I tell her.
“What’s done is done. Now you just need to worry about doing that hot man over there when we leave the bar later tonight.” She giggles and pushes me in his direction.
Danny pulls me in, and his lips capture mine before I can say anything to him. I sigh into his kiss and pull him closer to me.
“This is what my post-game walkouts have been missing,” I tell him breathlessly when we pull apart.
He winks at me. “I’m happy to do this after every single game you have, baby.”
“You just can’t travel with the team anymore. But I don’t think that will be a problem for me.”
I smile up at him. “Are you okay?” I’m worried about him. He seems so casual about losing his job. I wonder if he’s just hiding it. Did he know all along that the article on me would be the last one?
“You headed to the bar with us?” Amelia calls over to me.
“Yep, we’ll be there,” I call back to her.
“Oohh. We. I like the sound of that.” She winks at me and heads to her car.
“Are you riding with me or am I taking you?” Danny asks me. His arm is currently around my waist. He hasn’t stopped touching me since I reached him. I like it. I like that we can be free and out in the open without worrying about getting caught.
“I never realized how much it bothered me that I had to hide you from everyone,” I say as we walk hand in hand over to his car.
“Really? Do you not remember how stressed you were? After the first night you spent at my house, you made me drop you back at the bar so that you could walk home. I would have loved to have taken you straight to your door, like the gentleman that I am. But no, you made me drop you off blocks away.”
