Page 31 of Gridlocked on the Gridiron

“Colton…”

As if he hadn’t even realized what he’d been doing, he jolted away from her, reaching around to grab her purse from the ground. She put all of her focus into curling her hand around the bag, separating the two cards, and swiping one into the slot. When the light flashed green, he reached past her again to push the door open.

“Goodnight, Lucia. Double lock your door, please.”

“G—goodnight.” She stepped forward, and the door closed behind her. Her hands shook as she locked the door.

She felt jittery, like she’d just had two shots of espresso, and even when she had turned off all the lights and sunk into bed, she couldn’t stop tossing and turning.

Chapter twelve

Colton

Bye week could not have come any sooner for Colton. He loved football, truly. But no one could deny how physically taxing the game was for the body, and no amount of ice baths and massages could heal him the way rest would. Luckily, winning the prior two games and getting their record to a solid five and one meant bye week was slow. Practices were shorter, less demanding. They mostly consisted of walking through play calls, and rarely did he even have to throw a ball.

The week leading up to bye week had been hectic, though. He’d gone from early morning lifting to meetings to film to practice, and while that was pretty standard, somehow, his days had felt longer than usual, bleeding from one to the next. He’d only had thirty-minute windows here and there to meet with Lucia, where he’d normally been able to make two hours available for her.

She’d seemed fine with it. He was sure she’d had plenty of work to do, but he also wondered if she’d been avoiding him since the hotel room incident. He wasn’t proud of his lapse in judgment, but he also wasn’t sorry.

He realized that his feelings for Lucia were changing. Before, she was just the infuriating analyst helping him with his game who needed a hand with the media. But now, he wasn’t so sure.

Whatever his feelings, he knew he needed to set them aside. He needed to make sure he kept his performance up for the rest of the season so the Sabers could have another shot at the Super Bowl. There was a reason they’d set the end of their relationship for January.

If his father saw him now, could read his thoughts, he’d be alarmed. Worse than alarmed—furious. He’d probably say something about how he hadn’t given up his coaching job all those years ago, spent Colton’s entire life training him, perfecting his form, and convincing scouts to come to see him play, for it all to go down the drain on some girl. The few times the press had linked him with a woman in the past, his father had been none too pleased. Hell, the man had called Colton when the article about him and Lucia had come out to ensure she wasn’t affecting his focus, and he had been fuming when he learned that Lucia was an analyst working on his game.

He tried to quiet his thoughts as she walked into her office, seemingly startled to see him already there. That white button-down hugged everywhere he wanted to hug, and she’d chosen black pants instead of her usual skirt. Her ever-present heels clicked as she resumed walking to her desk.

“You’re early! I never thought I’d see the day.”

“I figured if Coach can be nice to us during bye week, I can try to be nice to you, too.”

“How chivalrous of you.” She unclipped her hair, and he watched, mesmerized, as she twirled the light brown strands around her hand and back up into the clip.

“What are we working on today?”

“That depends on you. If you don’t feel like doing fieldwork, we can go through film.”

An idea popped into his head. “You know what? That’s a great idea. There’s actually some film I’ve been meaning to watch. Mind if I take over for a second?” He pointed at her laptop.

She narrowed her eyes at him but scooted it in his direction. “If you pull up porn on my work computer, I will hire an attorney and bring you up on sexual harassment charges.”

“Oh, please, you think so little of me. I don’t need porn.” Nope, all he needed to get off were thoughts of her backside. Or her in a button-down. Or worse, her in his Sabers sweatshirt.

He shook his head and pulled up his network television provider. After logging in, he clicked around a few times until he reached the livestream he wanted to watch.

When he turned the laptop back to her, she blinked. “What did I do to you? Why would you choose this?”

Before them was Thursday Night Football. And who was playing on that beautiful Thursday night? The Vipers.

“No, I promise I’m doing this for you.” When she glared at him, he tried to contain his grin. “Okay, and maybe a little for me too. I want you to analyze him. Tell me everything he’s doing wrong and how he could improve. It’ll make you feel better, and it’ll serve as a teaching moment for me.”

Lucia mumbled something under her breath. Then, “I don’t know how you manage to get away with shit like this, but I can’t even provide a valid reason for why it’s a bad idea.”

His grin grew. “Exactly. I might look like a dumb jock, but sometimes, just sometimes, I figure out how to use this thing up here.” He poked his temple.

She pulled the video onto her monitor so they could watch on a bigger screen. For the hour and a half that remained of the game, she pointed out quarterback mistakes on both sides of the ball, though there was a barely muted joy in her eyes when she pointed out Clark’s mistakes.

Despite the Vipers winning, she was smiling. “Okay, pop quiz. What’d you learn?”

---