Page 13 of Home Game

He watched me for a moment. “Are you a nature kind of guy?”

I thought about his question. “I’m not an avid hiker or anything, but I do love the beauty nature can bring. People, things, trees, flowers. All of it.”

“Maybe we’re not so different.”

“You appreciate nature?”

“I can’t imaginenotloving it,” he said. “I dated a girl once who literally said she hated nature. Whohatesit? I can understand not wanting to go camping, but hating pretty flowers?”

“Sounds like she wasn’t your favorite girlfriend.”

He bit his bottom lip, looking out. “Definitely not. Can’t say I’ve been as lucky in love as I have been with football.”

I saw it, shining right in front of me: an opportunity to see therealStorm.

To maybe—just maybe—break through his bad boy shell and find a way toward befriending him.

“Really?” I asked. “What’s the story with your love life?”

I wasn’t afraid to ask personal questions to new people. In fact, it was how I’d made most of my friends, and formed long-lasting relationships. Caring about people mattered, and maybe I just needed to find a way to get closer to Storm.

Plus, I actually was curious.

What made Storm Rosling tick?

He waved a hand. “We don’t have to talk about my dating life. I just haven’t found The One, yet. That’s all.”

Maybe I wasn’t going to get the deep conversation I’d hoped for.

“Fall can make me wish I had someone,” I said, because I also wasn’t afraid to get a little personal myself. “But the leaves still look just as pretty when I go on my walks alone, so, oh well. There’s nothing better than a crisp autumn walk.”

Storm just shrugged. “The wholefall vibesobsession isn’t my thing. I prefer heat. Fall has too much… change.”

Oof.That one hit me particularly hard, right in the heart.

So much had changed in my life in the past few years, and I knew firsthand how hard it could be.

“You’re right. We can’t escape change,” I said gently. “That’s what life is, after all.”

The breeze blew through the leaves again as if on cue.

It was beautiful, and now a bit melancholy. I missed my dad like hell. And I hoped to God that the football player standing across from me wouldn’t ruin the one thing I was holding out hope to change for thebetter,this fall.

“Fine, Fancy Pants,” Storm said. “I can’t argue with that.”

Finally, I sensed that something I said had reached him, just a little bit.

If my usual friendliness wasn’t going to work, I wanted to at least be real with him. Or to tease him, to mess with him a little like he had done to me. He’d been pushing my buttons all day, so was it so wrong that I wanted to push him back?

I breathed in deep, needing to shake off the lull in our conversation. I started laying the fall vibes onthick.

“Mmm. Don’t you just feel that, in the air already?” I asked. “Fall’s already coming. I’m going to be baking pumpkin pies, and the scent will carry over right toward your house. Sometimes the first snowfall even hits Colorado in late September. Hope you’re ready.”

His gaze landed on me again. He slowly looked me up and down, and my cock responded again from having him look me over.

He was impenetrable, but he was about as sexy as a man could be.

“You’re more fun when you’re trying to fuck with me,” he said in a low voice. “Still isn’t going to work, because you’re not going to get to me. But it’s cute that you tried.”

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