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It’s inappropriate to be so turned on by someone whose life I just saved. Even if she is the hottest woman I’ve ever seen, who is so great at her job that everyone, including me, has no choice to take notice.
Chapter 4
Elias
I step back and Stacy looks up into my eyes, her own dark brown lashes blinking once, twice, three innocent, yet almost teasing, times at me.
“Hi,” she says, finally answering me. “You know my name.”
Of course I know your name, I want to say, but I don’t.
“Yes. And I’m sure you already knew mine, too,” I tell her.
She nods and even manages to get a smile out, because obviously she does know that.
“I’m so sorry that that just happened in our locker room,” I tell her. “Should I call the cops?”
She shakes her head and bites her lip.
“Nah,” she says. “I doubt they’d be able to find him, and it would just create bad press for the Leviathans at a very vulnerable time. We both know how Coach Kramer would hate that.”
“Yeah, but anything that needs to be done in the name of justice is more important than worrying about what Coach Kramer says,” I insist.
“We both know he’ll be so mad, which is kind of funny, because this is a big deal and some of the other stuff he’s gotten mad about being leaked to the press has been so silly.”
I look at her without saying anything, because I’ve thought the same thing myself.
“I mean, he was always on Marvin Ward’s case, but who doesn’t scrutinize the quarterback, right?” she asks me. “Yet then there was the whole thing with Bryan Anderson for allegedly partying too hard and enjoying one too many cocktails, and then Jameson Kendrick having to clean up his act to the extent that he was parading around a fake fiancée, even though no one really believed that shit.”
“Fuckin’ A,” I agree. “And then, of course, knowing Jameson, he had to go and actually propose and turn it into the real deal.”
“Probably just to get back at Coach K!” Stacy laughs.
Now I’m even more impressed. She’s rattled off the history of scandals on our team faster than some of my fellow teammates would be able to do, and some of this happened before her time, while she was undoubtedly still in college.
It feels like I’m laughing around with one of the guys. I have to remind myself that I’m not supposed to be this friendly with her. Not only did she just get attacked, which is very serious business, but the sad fact of the matter is that any reporter is practically the enemy.
At least, Coach Kramer says to view them that way at all times, because you never know when they’ll pretend to get on your good side just to get dirt on you and smear your team’s reputation.
Don’t be ridiculous, the practical part of my brain is screaming.
But I stand up straighter and back away slightly, and put on a sterner tone when I say, “Well, I’m glad you’re alright,” anyway, just to safe.
It’s not as if Stacy staged being attacked just to try to get me to talk to her and get a good scoop. There’s no way she would have known I or anyone else would be coming back to the locker room.
If I’d have been just another couple minutes later…
I hate to even think of what could have happened. She shudders some, as if she’s thinking the same, now that I’ve backed off our chummy chatter and forced us both to focus on reality again. Or maybe she’s just bristling at the fact that I stepped away.
Stacy also has the reputation for being rather uppity, but I’ve always thought she was just stand-offish and shy. Some of the guys say she’s had a privileged upbringing, with well to do, over protective parents, and that she wouldn’t hesitate to drop a story about a relationship gone badly, a secret baby mama, or a wild party, because she’s never had to see what life is like when you have achieved a dream and have it taken from you.
“I appreciate you caring about the team’s media blackout rule,” I tell her, trying to get back to business. “But I promise you I’ll do everything I can to find out who tried to hurt you. I swear I’ve never seen him around here before. I have no idea how he even got in.”
“I don’t know who he is, either,” she says, “and I know all the players’ names and stats like the back of my hand.”
There’s that haughty attitude she’s famous for showing. But I can’t help but think it’s a defense mechanism.
After all, she was just in a really bad situation. And she’s probably feeling very vulnerable, especially since I had her wrapped up in my arms but pushed her away, as my own defense mechanism of sorts.
