Page 16 of A Different Kind of Hooker

“I’m not being over-confident,” I told him. “I just know that we got this.”

“I want to know where the damn cupcakes are,” Chris Reinhart grumbled as he took his position as our loosehead. Charlie was on my other side as our tighthead. I had two of the best at my side, yet all they could think about was how I was trying to get Eliza to date me. Sometimes, we were worse than gossipy old women at the hair salon.

“I took them to my parents’ house for my brother and sister,” I informed him. “I didn’t think that you guys would really want some.”

“Why not?” he asked, sounding affronted. “Why can’t we like cupcakes?”

“Gentlemen,” one of the refs announced, signaling the start of the game.

I looked back into the stands one last time before I had to force my head in the game. Eliza was sitting a bit too far away for my liking, but I could still see her sitting next to her friends. She didn’t wave back or anything like that, but I could see her thinking that she might get in trouble for distracting me. In the short time that I’d gotten to know her, I knew enough to know that she got weird ideas in her head sometimes.

With everyone finally in position for the kickoff, the game was underway. Luckily, we were experts at tuning out all the white noise around us. Fans were constantly chanting, cheering, booing, or even getting in fights in the stands, so it was imperative that we were able to block all that chaos out. In fact, it was the same for fighting fires. There was always a certain level of hysteria expected when arriving at a fire, so you had to ignore that to focus on the bigger picture. I guess that’s why I was so drawn to Eliza. She had a goal with her show, and she wasn’t going to let any negativity distract her from that goal. I could definitely appreciate that trait in a person.

As soon as halftime hit, I looked back up at the stands to see Eliza sitting forward in her seat. She threw me a quick wave, and I just grinned. My hope was that she was having a good time, and the plan was for me to get her better seats next time. Even though the season was coming to an end, I wanted her at as many games as possible after this. Yeah, I knew that she wouldn’t be able to travel with me, but we still had a few home games left.

“If that’s not the look of love on a man’s face, then I don’t know what is,” Sean chuckled.

“You guys need to worry about the game, not my love life,” I muttered.

“Ah, so itislove,” Oscar remarked. “I knew it.”

“Good thing I had Tony put her on the jumbotron,” Sean announced, grinning.

“Christ, can you guys quit talking about Treyton’s girlfriend and concentrate on the damn game?”

All that could be heard was a chorus of, “Yes, Coach.”

*****

Eliza~

“This shit is insane,” Ranger laughed as we watched the teams rein it in for halftime.

“No kidding,” Coops agreed. “I mean, I knew that rugby was a very physical sport, but you’d have to be insane to sign up for this shit willingly.”

There was no doubt about it; rugby was for the deranged. I wasn’t a stranger to sports, but the more that I watched, the more that I was convinced that rugby wasn’t a sport. It was a freakin’ brawl with referees on the field. Whoever came up with the sport had to have been one violent psychopath to think that rugby could be viewed as anything more than a street fight. Albeit a street fight with rules, but still.

“I just…I mean, I know the objective is to score a goal, but…” I shook my head. “I’m going to need to look up the rules. I have no idea what they’re doing out there.”

“Why not just have Heron explain it to you?” Ranger asked.

After Heron and I had finished cleaning up after the show, I had turned off the camera, Heron had helped me put everything away, then he had asked me to come to his game, match…whatever it was called. Even though it’d felt like things were moving too fast, I’d found myself saying yes, and I’d also found myself not caring much about having just met the man a week ago.

Heron Treyton was turning out to be a charmer, and I was quickly falling for those charms. When we had managed to find a box to pack up the cupcakes, he’d told me about his little brother and sister, and how he’d wanted to give the cupcakes to them. I’d been stunned to hear about how he had teenage siblings, and he had sweetly laughed about how his parents had been stunned, too.

Heron had ended up leaving after midnight, and even though I’d had to work the next morning, the loss of sleep had been worth it. Most people with my work schedule would have chosen a Friday or Saturday to record their shows, but people were busy during the weekend, so I’d figured that I could nab some viewers during the weekday.

At any rate, when I had arrived at the stadium, I honestly hadn’t expected so many people to be in attendance. Rugby wasn’t as popular as other sports, so I had expected a small venue with only a few hundred people. However, that’s not what I’d gotten. They were playing in a full-sized stadium, and nearly every seat was occupied. The fans were also cheering and screaming like they understood what was happening on the field, and good for them. Though I was confused as hell, it was still neat to see other people enjoying the sport so much.

“I think that Heron probably has better things to do,” I muttered.

“No way,” Ranger chuckled. “People love talking about their hobbies and what they’re passionate about. I bet once you get him talking about rugby, he won’t be able to shut up.”

“I think we need to address what’s really going on here,” Coops chimed in. “You said that you guys were just friends, but if that’s the case, then why was your face all over the jumbotron.”

I almost grimaced. About ten minutes into the game, Coops had nudged me when my face had ended up on the huge screen. Yeah, it could have simply been chance, but I had a feeling that my face on that thing had been done on purpose. Good or bad, Heron was trying to get me more followers, and though sweet, I wasn’t sure sticking my face on the jumbotron was the way to go.

“I like him,” I admitted. “I just…you don’t think that it’s too fast?”

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