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I sat there for a moment before I said anything back because I was beginning to realize that the last thing I wanted to be with Lottie was “just friends”. I couldn’t deny any longer that I was attracted to her—from the way her blonde hair looked gold when the sun hit it just right, or the way her blue eyes looked like the sky on a perfect summer day, or the way her pink lips seemed to hypnotize me whenever they spread open into a smile or screwed together when she was thinking hard about something. Not to mention that she was the smartest person I knew, and I could sit and listen to her talk for hours.
I wasn’t sure what it was exactly I wanted to be with Lottie, but I knew being friends wasn’t it—but judging by the relief I saw on her face, it was the right thing to do.
“Friends.” I gave her a quick nod of agreement and waited for what she would say. Even if I knew trying to be just friends with Lottie might be harder for me than the inevitable end of my football career.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow for our run?” The soft smile she gave me would have sent me to my knees out of gratitude if I wasn’t already sitting.
“I’ll be there.”
If today’s game was any proof, having Lottie in my life as a friend was better than not having her in it at all.
Chapter 14
Lottie
Everything seemed to have gone back to the way it was during those early weeks between me and Nolan. After Nolan had apologized to me on the plane back from Orlando, he faithfully showed up every morning for our run and stayed for treatment afterward. Even after the team’s first loss, Nolan didn’t miss a beat with coaching his team on how to move forward from it. He was the most outspoken during film, pointing out the team’s mistakes—and most importantly his own—while offering how they could make the proper changes or implement strategies to stop the train wreck that happened against the Orlando Dream from happening again.
He was a true leader.
While I couldn’t help but be happy for him and the progress he’d made, my mind hadn’t moved on from our conversation on the flight home. Even two weeks later, my mind was still playing through our conversation and if I had done the right thing.
When Nolan had first brought up the conversation, I had been furious. I had left the Cougars game wondering if he was interested in me, but then was nearly devastated when he avoided me. I had grown certain that he’d regretted whatever had transpired between us in that parking lot. I had even started to wonder if I had imagined the tension that had built up between us when there had been less than an inch between our bodies. I would have thought that he’d confirmed my theory forme with his apology if it hadn’t been for the way his eyes had kept darting down to my lips.
I had to agree with Nolan’s suggestion. We could be colleagues and nothing more. But that didn’t stop me from staring a few seconds too long at him after our run this morning when he’d lifted his shirt to swipe at the sweat on his forehead once we’d gotten back to the facility.
I had even stopped responding to any messages I got on my dating app over the past week. None of them seemed of any interest to me after I had started to realize that I had feelings for Nolan Hill, even if they couldn’t be acted upon.
Olivia and Maggie had both noticed my lack of suitors, but I had written it off on the season getting busier, which seemed to tide them over for now. That still didn’t stop them from forcing me out of my apartment on a Friday night the following week to celebrate the Cougars going to the World Series. I would have blown them off if it hadn’t been for them inviting nearly all the Bobcats as well.
Derek had cornered me in the training room and begged me to go after I had told him I had plans to curl up with a cup of tea and book tonight after practice. He ended up being quite convincing and that night I found myself in a bar in downtown Chicago that the Cougars had bought out instead of curled up with a good book at home. It had been decorated to celebrate Halloween, even though it was a few days after Halloween and no one was wearing costumes.
“I’m so glad that you came!” Olivia exclaimed.
We were sitting in a large circular booth with Maggie, Tommy, Adam, Jamil, Nolan, Derek, and Hawthorn. Both the Cougars and Bobcats were slowly trickling into the bar as the night started to get underway.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like going out. Olivia had invited me out with the Cougars before and I genuinely enjoyed all the guys. Tommy was always sober nowadays and was fun to have a conversation with about sports. Jamil was a lot like Derek—outgoing and typically turned into the life of the party whenever he started drinking. I had never been around Adam Steel before because he never usually went out with his team. Tonight seemed to be an exception of his normal rule.
I was surrounded by great company, but it wasn’t the sum of the party I had wanted to avoid tonight. It was one person in particular—Nolan Hill. I was afraid that if I consumed any alcohol, I would do something that would jeopardize all the work he and I had done to get back on good terms with our working relationship. The last thing we needed was for me to put him in an uncomfortable position by drunkenly telling him I thought the white t-shirt and Bobcats letterman jacket he was wearing might have been the hottest combination I’d ever seen.
Olivia and I had been among the first to arrive after the two of us got ready at my apartment. The moment I saw Nolan Hill walk in, my entire body lit up like that navy and red letterman jacket had been a Molotov cocktail thrown directly at me. I somehow managed to suppress the groan that wanted to escape from my lips at the sight of him tonight, so I didn’t draw any suspicion from my sister.
That was also on the list of last things I needed.
I wasn’t sure when it happened. It must have been somewhere between Nolan Hill cornering me in the parking lot outside of the Cougars’ game and him telling me he just wanted to be friends, but there was a heightened awareness of how attractive Nolan was and how I couldn’t do anything about it.
This was not a situation I thought I’d ever find myself in—attracted to one of my players, to one of myclients—and I wassuddenly on uncharted grounds. I had been trying to dodge Nolan’s eye contact from the second he walked in, because I was afraid that if he looked at me, he’d realize that I very much did not want to be “just friends” with him.
Avoiding eye contact became even harder when I started to feel the weight of his gaze on my face. Suddenly, it was far too warm in the bar for my leather jacket and tank top.
“Can we get a round of tequila shots?” Olivia asked the waiter when he stopped by to replace the bottle of champagne on the table, compliments of the Cougars c-suite.
When the tray of shots was dispersed among the table, I tried to wave mine off, but my sister was even more intimidating than Nolan Hill was on my first day with the Bobcats.
“You are havingfuntonight.” Olivia emphasized the word fun by aggressively placing the shot of tequila in front of me.
I slowly glanced up to find Nolan watching me, his eyes narrowed as if he were trying to figure something out. The second our eyes met, the entire table melted away and for just a moment it was only the two of us. I was grateful he was all the way across the table from me because I wasn’t sure I would keep my hands to myself.
My hand wrapped around the shot glass and brought it up to my lips, our eye contact only breaking when I tipped my head back to let the sharp liquor slide down the back of my throat. I could vaguely hear Olivia cheer next to me as she watched me down the shot, but I could only focus on a pair of intense brown eyes as they stared back at me.
