Page 28 of Game On | AllFreeNovel

“He said he didn’t talk to us about football because—Theo!” Jude shouted so damn loud the entire house would hear him. I scrambled, tackling him to the ground and slamming a hand over his mouth before he could yell anything else. Taking down Jude was no small accomplishment. The man was six-four and built like a beast, but keeping him quiet was considerably harder. Wyatt was no help whatsoever. He sat there laughing his ass off.

“Quiet! Quiet! Quiet!” I hissed. Jude said something behind my hand that I couldn’t understand. “If I take away my hand, are you going to be loud again?”

He shrugged, which was not reassuring.

“Fucking hell, Jude.” I slowly let him go. “You behave.”

“That’s not in my vocabulary,” he retorted. No shit. “You’re being scouted!”

“Maybe!” I exclaimed. “Maybe. I don’t know. He didn’t say.”

My heart was already beating faster just hearing the words from someone else. You’re being scouted. What was the appropriate way to feel about those three words? I sure as hell didn’t know.

“What did he say?” Wyatt asked.

“He asked if I wanted to play football professionally,” I told them quietly. “And said that I’m good enough for it to be something I should keep on the table as an option.”

“You’re so being scouted!” His excitement was impossible to resist, and a smile broke across my face before I could stop it. Maybe it was ridiculous. Maybe we were all getting ahead of ourselves. But for a few seconds, I let myself have it. “This is fucking awesome!”

“Operation Get Theo Drafted is officially on the playbook this season.” Wyatt grinned. “Right up there with Operation Get Her Back.”

“Don’t tell her that you’re being scouted,” Jude interjected quickly. “You don’t need some hussy chasing your paycheck.”

“Don’t think that’ll matter,” I muttered. The thought came with an immediate image of Rhodes. Money wouldn’t impress him. Hell, Rhodes probably made more than enough already between being an engineer for NASA and coaching. He wouldn’t suddenly want me because an NFL team might.

If an NFL team wanted me.

Big fucking if.

But even in some impossible universe where I signed a contract worth millions, Rhodes would probably look at it, tell me to hire a financial adviser, and then lecture me about retirement accounts.

And somehow, that only made me want him back even more.

“Tonight, chick flicks for win-her-back ideas,” Wyatt announced. “Tomorrow, we kick your ass in training camp and make you the best damn running back the NFL has ever seen.”

He lifted his beer, and Jude immediately clinked his against it. I stared at the two of them. Operation Get Her Back and Operation Get Theo Drafted. Both sounded completely insane. Then again, twenty-four hours ago I hadn’t known my coaches were about to get fired, Rhodes would become my head coach, or that an NFL scout might know I existed.

Apparently, insanity was becoming the theme of my life.