Page 10 of Reverse Pass
“Oh, I think I will.” I flick my thumb over her instep, and she winces.
“I will tell your mother!!” she shrieks, as I run the pads of my fingers under her toes, testing her threats and her will.
It was just like old times. Popcorn, scary movies, sleeping bags and me running around after her with water balloons, dead bugs and threats of tickling. Her threatening to tell my mother was like muscle memory, and now I had to follow through.
“I don’t see how that’s going to help you right now,” I mock her threats.
And then she smiles, a true, genuine smile I haven’t seen yet tonight and jumps out of my grasp, leaping for the door.
Her only problem is I’m one of the best wide receivers in the Pac12. My hand wraps around her middle, pulling her back from the door and into my grasp where I have prime access to tickle her ribs.
She gasps and giggles, squirming against me as she only manages to pin herself tighter against my body. She makes an attempt to press off me, this time in the direction of her bed. While she nearly frees herself, it’s ultimately a rookie mistake on her part as I now have access to her ankles again.
I pull just in time to drag us down into a pile of limbs and laughter. And before I can stop it, I’ve made an even worse mistake. Because Violet is now straddling me, a knee pinned on either side of my hips, and her hands bracing her against my chest. Her hair’s a tangled mess as she leans over me, framing her beautiful face.
I’m laughing so hard it hurts, but as she wheezes, giggling and gasping for air in intervals her body grazes against mine in a way that makes me hurt for an entirely different reason. A slight shift on her part and she is going to find out exactly how hard she’s made me. How attracted I am to her. How just her laugh sets me on fire.
And in the moment, I’m no longer Ben Lawton, football god, and playboy, surrounded by girls who want me. Instead, I’m back to the kid who’s wanted a girl he can’t have for ages. Maybe even worse now, since it’s been the better part of a decade and that familiar ache is still there when I look at her. The silence between us, as her laughter slows, is growing as awkward as I am in this moment.
“You really think you’re going to win this?” I tease, using all the bravado I have left.
Her eyes open wider and shift up to mine. She looks me over, and the look on her face softens. And I wish desperately I could read minds. I couldn’t tell what it meant. Nostalgia? Pity? Something else?
“Fine. I give!” She yields but doesn’t move.
“So, you admit you want me?” I roll my lip between my teeth at the thought this could all be much easier than I imagined.
She sighs, looking me over again as if trying to make a final assessment.
“I admit you’re ripped as hell, and if I didn’t know you, that might be… worth noticing. But there is a big difference between noticing that and wanting you, Lawton. I’m sure even Nora has noticed. I just hadn’t seen you in a while. You were a gangly little kid last time I saw you; you know?”
Ouch. My pride absorbs that blow, but I’m not sure how much more it can take. My ego wants to strip down and show her just hownotgangly I am now. Have her look at me again, press her against me so she can notice every hard edge I’ve created by pushing my body to the physical limit every day on the field.
But I know better. That’s not how you win over someone like Violet.
I release her and sit up on my elbows, trying to regain some power in this dynamic. She sits back on her heels in the process, releasing her palms from my chest. She does it slowly though, almost like she’s not quite ready to let go. If this were any other girl, this would be my chance to say something clever. To kiss her palms and tell her she can touch me for however long she wants.
I’m distracted by her though, seeing her this close. The way her lip worries for a second between her teeth before she catches me staring at her.
“As long as we’re being honest,” I say, knowing I’m being so dishonest I wouldn’t be surprised if I caught fire.
“Honest.” She repeats the word as though she doesn’t quite know what to do with it, but after a beat she snaps out of it.
“Besides, football players aren’t really my thing, yeah? I’m more into the nerds. You met Cam.” She removes herself from me entirely, leaning her back against the wall and putting distance between us.
I immediately miss the feel of her against me.
“I hear he’s an asshole.” I sit up and turn away from her slightly. There are likely still obvious signs of my physical reaction to her, and I definitely don’t want her to know it now. Not when I’ve been dismissed so thoroughly.
“Sort of.”
She shrugs, and I can tell she wants to talk about this about as much as I want to talk about being suspended from the team.
“You deserve better, you know.” I glance back at her.
Nora had filled in some of the details for me, although I didn’t know everything. But apparently after proposing to her and starting to plan their wedding, he decided he was going to take a job overseas for a year and also decided they should take a break to see other people.
“He put his career and himself first. It was smart. It’s what I need to do.” Her shoulder rises half-heartedly at that asshole’s casual way of breaking her heart.
