Page 17 of Change Your Play

My eyebrows shot up. “You bought this whole place for…tonight?”

“Yep.”

Once again, he answered a question and didn’t. Obviously, I wanted to know more than that. He understood that and purposely didn’t give me an inch of details.

I hurried after him, but my mind whirled. I worked with the other interns at Marrs and juggled donors, community leaders, and people who made fifty times more than I did, to piece together what they wanted and how they wanted it. Everybody has hidden meanings; everybody has hidden intentions.

But Miles was so open about everything, it threw me off.

A huge welcome greeted us inside. Nine of the arcade’s employees sat on one of the half-walls with slushies in hand.

“Welcome in!” a guy at the end with a bag of popcorn bellowed. “MilesLocke!”

I stared, but Miles quickly explained to me. “No cameras, no pictures. I used the blanket contract they made for Sullender.”

“Oh.” I blinked, astounded at the lengths he’d gone through to prepare for just a date. “Oh.” I smoothed out my skirt and offered a hand to the first person down the line. “We absolutely appreciate privacy for this, and we thank you for—for—”

At the end of the line, Miles knuckle-punched a few of them and clapped a few more on the back, heading in. Right. We weren’t there for a university-sponsored event. It was a date. Just the two of us.

“You’re welcome to grab whatever,” he told the employees, offering his arm to me again. “Just put it on my tab.”

This is not what I’m used to.

Gingerly, I took his arm and some of the employees wolf-whistled. Absolutelynotwhat I was used to. I ducked closer to him to hide the blush, and we walked between the games together to a bucket of coins on top of a table.

It was planned perfectly. And I didn’t have to lift a finger for it.

How crazy is that?

With him so close, the taut muscles in his arm, the warmth that radiated off his body, that mouthwatering cologne, mynerves lit up. I was all too aware of Miles Locke and his effect on me.

He reached into the bucket of coins and fished out a bronze one, holding it up for my inspection. “So…what’s legacy Cleo Bennight like?”

We talked about everything. Everything and anything. I gave a rundown of the basics, Riverside home, Travis Lake vacation home in Austin, top of my grade. My grandfather took me to every Marrs game he could. The fact that I’d worn dark blue my whole life. All the important details.

And Miles told me about the mechanic shop his family owned in Nevada, how he grew up close to roads where you can speed down as fast as you wanted to, and all his favorite haunts to visit between football games. How proud his family was, how proud they were still. How often his coach declined his visits out of KYU.

I frowned. “What do you mean decline?”

“I’m not allowed off campus for more than a couple of hours.”

“What?” I demanded. “That’s ridiculous. We have a player—King—and he’s constantly at his mom’s place. Who aretheyto decide what you get to do with your free time?”

“The way they see it, if they gave me free days, I might get picked up again.” Miles offered a humorless smile. But he must’ve seen something on my face because he leaned over to bump shoulders with mine while we worked the joysticks of a fishing game. “You’re losing, vixen. Better pick up the pace.”

7

Cleo

Barely Fit Inside

We wove back and forth through the games while the employees played beer pong in the corner. It was the best date I’d ever had, but at the foosball table, I couldn’t let the question slip my mind. “Does your family know how…?”

“No,” Miles said quickly. “I wouldn’t lie to them—but they talk. I wouldn’t tell anybody I couldn’t trust not to do that.”

The comment slipped by as Miles turned to a basketball hoop, swishing another ball into the basket, but I gazed at him, at this beautiful man who liked to keep things just as private as I did. The way he said trust struck me the most. Because as dumb as it was, I felt the exact same way. I’d known the man for less than a week and I already felt like I’d known him for years.

“What about you?” Miles made another basket and gestured for me to make the next shot. “Does your boss know you practically scrub floors for everybody?”

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