Page 31 of Worth the Risk

“Thank you,” she whispers, looking up at me with so much sweetness in her eyes that I can’t help but place my hand on her cheek and smile at her tenderly.

“I’ll do anything for you, bella. You know that, right?” I say quietly, and she nods. “Take care of yourself, Pix.”

As she turns and walks back to her car, I see Coach Davenport with fury emanating off of him in waves.

Shit. He knows.

This isn’t going to end well for me.

Hannah

I’m not surprised when my uncle interrogates me for the rest of the morning. After doing the police report, Uncle Bennett drove me to the Sports Facility Zone. He encouraged me to take the day off, but I didn’t want to sit in my aunt’s apartment and just stew. He could tell something happened between Luca and me. I’m just not sure if he realizes it’s more than he thinks. Unfortunately, I have a shitty poker face.

Work has been the only thing getting me through the last couple of weeks. Fortunately, the terrible terrors, my interns, convinced the GM they needed the month off to study for midterms. Arianna has forced me to socialize, much to my dismay. I’d prefer to stay holed up in my aunt’s apartment as long as I can, but I’ve come to learn that Arianna doesn’t take no for an answer. She’s introduced me to her closest two friends, who I absolutely adore. Natalie and Claire are around our age. They are as different as night and day. Natalie is exotic and voluptuous, with chocolate brown hair and bright green eyes that seem to glow with mischief. Claire, in contrast, has Icelandic white blonde hair and light blue eyes. Her subdued nature also contrasts to Natalie’s boisterous personality. The fact that they accepted me immediately makes me love them both so much.

The four of us have hung out often over the past few weeks, effectively keeping my mind off of Luca being a wall away. It boggles my mind how often Arianna drives from Eternity Springs to Denver. All three women have apartments on the west side of Denver, but Ari still has to drive to her hometown for her job. The mandatory fun sessions with the girls have also helped me to stay in denial about the first road trip I’m scheduled to go on. Fortunately, the team didn’t expect me to travel with them for the away preseason games, so I have a couple more weeks before I officially begin traveling with them … and Luca.

It’s hard enough to think about Luca being right next door at night. The thought of us both being in hotel rooms, and even in the close quarters of an airplane or bus, makes me break out in hives.

It’s now preseason. Luca being away for a few days at a time has not been as much of a relief as I thought it would be. I find myself stalking hashtags to find pictures of him. He doesn’t have any social media that I know of. And since I’m in charge of the team social accounts, I see all the pictures coming in. There’s rarely anything with him. Luca is very clearly avoiding the limelight right now, and I don’t blame him.

Interestingly, he’s begun texting me random thoughts.

Luca: Do you know what a Juicy Lucy is?

Me: Um, no?

Luca: It’s a burger stuffed with cheese.

Me: Isn’t that just a cheeseburger?

Luca: That’s what I said!

Me: Where are you?

Luca: Minneapolis.

Me: So they have a version of a cheeseburger called a Juicy Lucy?

Luca: Yep. And there’s an argument over who created it first.

Luca: Ever had a three-way?

Me: Luca!

Luca: Get your mind out of the gutter, Beauregard. It’s a FOOD, not the sex kind of three-way.

Me: No, I have not had a food three-way. What is it?

Luca: Cincinnati chili on top of spaghetti noodles, and topped with cheese.

Me: Chili on top of spaghetti?

Luca: Yep.

Me: Is that weird?

Luca: I liked it. The chili is kind of sweet.

---