Page 38 of My First and Only Crush

She laughs. “No.”

“Then you look perfect.” I zip up my suit bag and hook it onto my suitcase. I’m wearing a cotton Henley team shirt and dark jeans, because they’re the heaviest pants I packed and they’ll give me a fighting chance of not popping a visible erection in front of her father.

She gives me a once over, the blush deepening. “You look perfect, too.”

I could get used to this warm feeling in my chest, that’s for fucking sure.

At the door, I give her a long, slow kiss. “You’re mine. That’s all that matters. If anyone needs a minute to process that, that’s on them.”

“Oh, they’re going to need at least a minute,” she whispers back.

“I love you. I don’t care if it’s too soon. I?—”

“I love you, too,” she says in a rush. “I have loved you all season and that’s why I stayed away.”

“What the fuck?”

“We have to go.”

“We’re coming back to that conversation,” I growl. Then I open the door.

There’s something about playing on a ball team for so many games in a season that syncs up everyone’s schedule, even on a one-of-a-kind morning like today. Half the team is spilling into the hall at the same time as us.

I hold the door for Sinclaire to join me, then I take her hand. Together, we walk down the hall. Everyone goes still, staring as we pass them.

None of them have seen the coach’s daughter in months, and now she’s just stepped out of my room looking like her pussy just got freshly worshiped.

We’re halfway to the elevators when the whispers start. And it’s one thing to have a thought and share it to my face, but the whispers behind Sinclaire’s back are not a thing I’m going to stand for.

I squeeze her fingers, halting us, and I turn around.

Rightly, a wave of alarm ripples across my teammates’ faces.

“You thinking of saying something?” I glare at them all, one by one. Nobody says a peep. “I didn’t think so. This woman is everything to me. End of story.”

Beside me, Sinclaire reacts, and at first I think it’s to my words, but then there’s a thump against the wall, and she’s tugging on my hand.

From behind me, a throat clears itself. “I have some questions.”

CHAPTER16

SINCLAIRE

Trick turns again, and I jump in front of him. “Hey, Dad.”

He’s just come out of his room, and his own suitcase is beside him, leaning precariously against the wall where he flung it.

“What are you doing with my daughter?”

“Holding her hand,” Trick says calmly. “We don’t need to do this in front of the team, Jeff.”

“Don’t—”

“Daddy!” I cut him off. And then my face turns red, because at the name, Trick’s hands tighten on my shoulders. “Dad,” I correct myself. “Before you say anything else medieval, I’ll remind you that I’m twenty-five years old and you forgot my birthday yesterday.”

There are some snickers down the hall behind us.

Snark was the wrong thing to bring to this conversation, because my dad’s eyes narrow. “So you paid me back by sleeping with my star player?”

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