Quarterback Sneak (Red Zone Rivals #3)(23)

“Because you listened to me and actually rested,” she had said after our first day when I noted my surprise.

It was about the only thing she’d said to me since that morning in my garden.

I thought we were breaking ground, thought maybe I’d defrosted the ice queen — even if only marginally. But after that morning, she had retreated into herself. She wasn’t cold with me the way she had been in the beginning, but she also wasn’t smiling or trying to make conversation the way she had been in the car on the way home from the hospital.

Still, rehab forced her to be around me, and I’d never admit how much I looked forward to those hours in the training room. It didn’t matter the torture she was putting me through, how the smallest movement and exercises made me feel like my shoulder was burning off.

Because at the base of it all, she still had that look in her eyes.

Understanding.

And it felt like I’d built the first pillar of a bridge between us.

At least, until that pillar was knocked down by the hand of a reality check one evening after practice.

I’d sat out, again, watching from the sidelines as we prepared to head on the road and face off against the Rhode Island Trojans. But even from the sidelines, I called out what I saw, coached Russo in-between plays, and instructed my offensive line how to help him gain a little more time in the pocket so he could make his throws. He wasn’t quite as quick as I was, and it took him longer to find the player he wanted, to decide, to wind up and make the pass.

Every second counted.

By the time we made it back to the locker room, I was exhausted and just as sweaty as if I’d been on the field with the rest of the team. I carefully removed my jersey, trying not to anger my shoulder that was still tender even if I was gaining better movement with it.

The locker room was alive with the chatter it usually had, primarily because Kyle had decided we were having a party at the Pit tonight. A big part of me wanted to nip that plan right in the bud, but the other part of me knew the team needed this — a way to blow off steam after our loss, to have a little fun before we took on the Trojans. So, I let it ride, committing to the fact that I’d just have to suck it up for a night.

I had my eyes on where I was taking off my cleats when the buzz died down, and I looked up just in time to see Julep duck into her dad’s office. She rattled off something to him, and he nodded and checked his watch before saying something back. Then, with a simple nod, she rounded out of his office — and she didn’t look at a single player gawking at her as she walked the few short steps that took her back out of the locker room.

Someone let out a wolf whistle, and then the room broke out into a mixture of laughter and talking again.

“Swear to God, I have never seen a finer ass on any woman,” Kyle said, biting his knuckles and doing a little spin.

“Yeah, well I hope you’ve made peace with the fact that looking at it is all you’ll ever do,” Zeke popped back.

“Pshh, just what a pussy-whipped simp would say.” Kyle waved him off. “Just because you’re soft from only having one girl in your bed for two seasons now doesn’t mean the rest of us are.”

Riley gave Kyle a fake smile before flipping him off and heading toward the showers, clearly done with the conversation.

“You don’t stand a chance,” Clay told Kyle, wiping his forehead with a towel before hanging it over his shoulder.

Kyle crossed his arms on a devilish smirk. “Is that a challenge?”

“No,” I cut in, blood pulsing in my neck. “It’s a reminder that she’s a member of our training staff and the daughter of our head coach — who made it pretty clear that she was off limits the first time he walked into this locker room.”

Every head spun toward me, and Kyle’s eyebrow shot up before he let out a high-pitched laugh. “Oh, that’s rich coming from you, Cap.”

I blinked, looking back down at where I was untying my other cleat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure. That’s why you had her practically naked in our back yard last week, right?”

Those disrespectful words aimed toward Julep were an incendiary device on my already-frayed emotions.

My teeth nearly shattered from how hard I gritted them when I stood, and in a flash, I had Kyle pinned by the neck against the lockers. He just laughed harder as I pressed into his space.

“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” I spat. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut your fucking mouth.”

“Careful,” he said with a wink. “Don’t want to hurt your precious arm there.”

I pressed my left forearm even more into his neck, hating the challenge I saw in his eyes before Clay carefully peeled me off him, and Zeke stepped in, too, pulling Kyle in the opposite direction.

“Alright,” Leo said, exchanging looks with Clay and Zeke before snapping his towel between me and Kyle. “That’s enough machismo for today. Neither of you stand a chance of fucking the coach’s daughter, so let’s just drop it, hey?”

“Speak for him,” Kyle said, nodding toward me. His eyes flicked toward Coach’s office to make sure the door was still closed before he shrugged the guys off and pinned me with a glare. “You may have had her playing in the dirt with you in her bra and underwear, Cap, but it’ll be my bed she lands in. I promise you that.”