Page 59 of Unstoppable Love

You don’t have to.

I want to, and I will.

Okay.

“Yo, Kelley!”

I tore my gaze off my phone to see Jamison Potter, last year’s backup rookie QB, jogging in my direction. “What is it?”

“Gimme a lift to the rooftop? My car won’t start.”

The first thing he bought with his rookie contract was a half-million-dollar home, not anything extravagant given the market and the location. The dude still drove the car his parents had given him when he was sixteen, and even then, it was probably an ancient, rusted-out clunker. His car broke down more often than not.

For Christmas, I was buying him a car.

“Sure. Hop in.”

“Cool, man. Thanks.”

I slipped my phone into a cup holder, put the truck in reverse, and tried to get my mind off Ava.

If only I could stop trying to imagine the look on Sunshine’s face when I told her to be a good girl. That would have told me all I needed to know about the kind of girl she’d be for me. That could come later.

Now was team time. And Potter and I, both QBs, had bonded when I crashed with him. He might not have made a good roommate, but he was a hell of a quarterback—aggressive, willing to learn, and waiting for his time to shine. Thank fuck, too, because I was hopefully not going anywhere anytime soon.

“Coach mad I was late today?” I asked him. It’d only been ten minutes, but there’d been a backup on I-70 once I hit Aurora.

Coach hadn’t looked pleased to see me, of all people, be the last one to arrive on the field.

Normally, I was the first.

“He was good. Asked what was going on with you, if anyone knew, but that was it.”

“Good. You threw well today.”

We shifted into game talk. He was taking most of the snaps during the preseason. The goal was to keep me injury-free so I didn’t risk blowing something before regular season started, but Jamison had been nervous last weekend, and it’d shown.

He’d get used to it, it was only his second year in the league, and he didn’t have a ton of experience. But if something did happen, he’d have to step up without the nerves.

We talked football, ate burgers, and cheered on the baseball team, which had a slim chance of making it to the playoffs come October.

By the time I got home, I was pulling my phone out of my pocket before I’d reached my kitchen.

I’d been gone less than a day, and I was missing Ava like crazy.

This long-distance shit was going to suck.

Chapter 18

Ava

“I see word’s gotten out.” Lydia bit into her burger and gave me wide eyes.

“Everyone’s been looking at me funny all day.”

We were at Millie’s again. Lydia called me and told me to meet her there after she got off work at the market, but I was second-guessing stepping foot into town ever again. Word traveled. I knew that. I once got a skinned knee from falling on the sidewalk when I was seven, and within hours, my parents had fourteen phone calls asking if I was okay.

I hadn’t anticipated this, though. The looks. The whispers.

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