Page 14 of Blue Moon Love

“Can we grab some food after the game?”

Technically, he’d asked a question, although his question sounded more like a demand than a request.

I shook my head. “I have to work tonight.”

“Yeah, not till five.”

It was irritating that he knew my schedule. “I think I’m gonna just chill.”

The hurt look in his eyes was almost enough to make me falter. Sam’s big brown puppy dog eyes were not easy to resist. In fact, I’d never actually been able to, which was another reason I needed to stay so strong. Hopefully, I’d build up a resistance—an antidote, if you will–—to the powerful poison of his persuasion.

“Whitlock!” Milo called out. “Let’s go!”

I grinned. “I think you’re being paged.”

“What’s going on with you?” he asked me, ignoring my brother.

“I’m a virgin, and I realized, through therapy, that I always thought my first time was going to be with you. That we would end up together. Clearly, that isn’t going to happen, so I need to make room for another love, a reciprocal romantic love in my life,” is what I thought.

What I said was, “Nothing.”

Milo, who had always been impatient, jogged up to the stands and clapped his hands in the air. “Let’s go, Whitlock! Girl talk can wait.”

Since technically Sam was the twins’ friend first, they always gave him shit whenever he chose to hang out with me to watch movies, reality TV, or play video games. It used to make me swoon that he never let their trash-talking affect our relationship. But now, now I realized that was just another aspect of how I’d been lulled into a false sense of what our relationship was.

Reluctantly, Sam turned and jogged down the bleachers. Not able to help myself, my eyes watched him go. The man truly did look as good going as he did coming.

The ref did the coin toss, and the guys took the field. Jonah was lined up as the firefighters’ quarterback. As they all got into formation, I noticed that his stare landed on me. I turned and glanced over my shoulder to see if it was me, he was looking at. When I turned back, he grinned and waved. I discreetly lifted my hand in a small wave, in case I was mistaken and his attention had been focused on someone else.

“What did we miss?” my cousin Taylor asked as she and her daughter Harper and Harper’s new stepmom Ruby took their seats beside me.

“Nothing; it’s just about to start. Harp, I love your hair!” I enthused.

My niece, who was actually my second cousin, had the tips of her brown locks dyed a bright pink. “Thanks, Auntie Kenna! Miss Bella did it for me.”

“She did a great job! Very cool!”

“Can I go sit with Lilah?” Harper asked her mom.

Taylor glanced over to where Lilah was sitting with her parents, Destiny and JJ Briggs. There must be some sort of parental telepathy, because without Taylor saying anything, both JJ and Destiny gave her the thumbs up.

“Sure.” The second Taylor gave Harper permission, she hopped off the bleacher like a bunny on speed.

When she left, Ruby scooted down into her place. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed her looking between Taylor and me.

“What?” I asked her.

“Nothing.” Ruby shook her head.

“She knows,” Taylor stated matter-of-factly as she turned to Ruby. “She knew before anyone, because she heard Remi and me talking in the hallway at the Cow.”

Ah, so Taylor had finally spilled the beans that she and Remi were together. They’d tried to keep their relationship secret, but like Taylor pointed out, I’d overheard a private conversation they’d had. I’d known for a couple weeks now and had kept the info to myself. Well, sort of to myself. I’d told Sam. But, in fairness, I told Sam everything. Rather, I used to. That would need to stop as well. We shared an ‘unhealthy level of intimacy’ according to Dr. McKinney.

The game started, and we all turned our attention to the field. It was flag football, so technically there shouldn’t be any tackling, but the guys tended to get physical. This year, they seemed to be really going for it. I wondered if Jonah, a former NFL player, had anything to do with the uptick in aggression and competitive drive.

There were quite a few plays that I had to look away, sure that someone was injured. I hated violence, even in sports. I got sympathy pains seeing them crash into each other.

“Wow, they’re really going for it,” Taylor commented.

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