Page 23 of Look What You Made Me Do

He thanked God for her pathological dislike of football.

“Just like that,” she asked incredulously. “Just win a bunch of football games?”

“Look… I’m not saying it’ll be easy. But you do have a secret weapon sitting right at this table.”

Ella turned and looked at Jake. “He means you, right?”

Ignoring her, Jake glared at Simon. “No.”

Jesus. The last thing he needed was this kind of hassle. He was retired. It might have been forced on him, he might not have been ready for it, but he was done. He didn’t need to stir up a bunch of media interest now it had finally all died down.

He had a bar. He was drinking beer. Life was one long happy hour.

“You could coach them,” Simon pressed.

“Ohmigod, yes.” Rosie clapped, bouncing in her seat. “It’s perfect.”

“No,” Jake said at the same time Ella did. He shot her some side eye before returning his attention to Simon. “I’m retired.”

“He’s retired,” Ella repeated.

“Every year Chiswick Academy invites another high school football team that has done well in the competition to play a nonconference game at their campus,” Simon continued. “It’s very prestigious to even be asked. There’d be a lot of eyes across that game. Win that and you’d be untouchable.”

“Yeah, even I’ve heard of that,” Ella admitted. “But… we’d have to win, right? A lot. As a new team? We’d need more than Jake. We’d need God’s gift to football.”

Simon cocked an eyebrow. “Jake is one of the best tight ends this game has ever seen. He is God’s gift to football.”

Jake accepted the accolade without any false modesty as her eyes flashed over him. Eyes that had turned contemplative. Like maybe she was… considering the hare-brained suggestion?

“The cards are favorable,” Iris said with pursed lips, snagging Jake’s attention.

Her almost empty bowl had been pushed to one side and she was staring down at several cards laid out in front of her in some kind of pattern. Nodding at them, she added, “They’re indicating it could be very good for Cameron.”

Jake sensed Ella, who’d been holding herself rigid, deflate a little, a sigh escaping her mouth. “Well that’s it then,” she said to Rosie.

His head swiveled between the two of them. What was it?

Rosie nodded. “The cards are never wrong.”

“Do they say we’ll win?” Ella asked.

Iris gave a faraway smile. “You know they don’t deal in absolutes.”

Ella turned her gaze on him then, determination turning them steely. Jake shook his head. “No.”

She gave him a reproving look which didn’t move him one iota. “I’m retired,” he said, exasperation in his voice.

Everyone stared at him.

“So you have plenty of time on your hands.”

What the fuck? What was happening right now? A minute ago she was on his side. “I run a bar.”

She faltered for a moment, and Jake thought she was going to change her mind. But then her gaze slid momentarily to Iris, who nodded and Ella straightened her shoulders. “Challenge too big for you, Jake?” she goaded. “Not up to it? Prefer to fritter away life drinking beer and signing women’s body parts?”

Was that even a proper question? “Hell, yeah.”

Ella rolled her eyes. “This is important. More important than beer and women.”

---