Page 6 of Stalked By the Linebacker

“Good girl,” I praised. Libby blushed so much it even reached the tips of her ears.

“Okay, well, umm…” She pulled away, and I immediately hated it.

She stood less than a foot away from me, but I felt the loss like it was a limb.What the hell is this about?My head spun, but I tried to focus. I crossed my arms over my chest in an attempt to keep my hands to myself. I knew it wouldn’t last long.

Especially with the way she looked at me. Her eyes dipped to my biceps and forearms before she caught herself checking me out. When her eyes found mine, there was a shyness in them I found endearing. Less than ten minutes, and I knew I would never be the same.

Without another word, she waved and turned. I watched as she walked away from me and headed back to work without looking back once.

And I stood there.

All the while wondering what the hell had just happened. How the hell, in the blink of an eye, everything I had planned for my future, everything I had worked for with sweat, tears, and sometimes blood seemed to be thrown out the window.

New plans were going to have to be put in place.

That was fine. I had never been the kind of man to shy away from hard work and dedication. Shit, I thrived off it. Just like I’d thrive off her soon enough.

Libby, the once-upon-a-time mousy girl I’d never thought twice about, my little sister’s best friend, was suddenly the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

And if I had anything to say about it, she would be mine.

By any means necessary,the primal beast inside of me whispered. The logical part of me, the still sane bit of my soul left, quietly agreed.

CHAPTER 1

OLIVIA ‘LIBBY’ IRWIN

The longer Istared at the schedule, the deeper I frowned. I couldn’t help it. It didn’t make sense. None of what had happened in the last six weeks made sense. I chewed on my bottom lip. He was working with me again.

Not just a shift or two, but every single night I was on the schedule.

I was torn between crushing the paper in my hands and wanting to frame it because again, I was working withhim.

Was I excited? Nervous? Worried? Exhilarated?

All of the above.

I’d known Hector, or as everyone on campus knew him as Crank, since I was in middle school. His sister Blanca and I were best friends. I still remembered the first time I walked into her house and there he was! Coming out of the kitchen with a bottle of water in his hand. When I looked up at him, I’d thoughtthat’s the guy I would want to marry. Me and my naïve little thirteen-year-old heart. To me, he had been like some young prince from a fairy tale. He’d been playing football since he was six and had the body to show for it.

Especially now.My eyes moved toward him and roamed up and down his body. Hector was more than fit.

I remember feeling so excited and sad all at the same time when he graduated and went off to school. The next four years passed in a blur. I practically lived at the Dominguez house. My mom had fallen off the sobriety wagon after my dad remarried the summer before my freshman year. It didn’t matter that they had been divorced since I was four; the woman had somehow thought they would get back together one day. But my mom always had her own kinds of demons. She had always been mean and battled her addictions. But after Dad remarried, they got worse and worse.

Coming from where we came from, growing up where we did and seeing the people around us make nothing but the same mistakes as their parents, I’d always found Hector and the way he worked toward a goal motivational. He’d worked hard in high school to get the scholarships he did and then play ball all while maintaining straight A’s. It had been encouraging. He made the impossible seem possible. Within reach. Without knowing it, seeing how hard he worked and how his efforts paid off had given me something to reach for.

I took every possible class I could, as well as college courses online. When I’d graduated, not only had I received my high school diploma and accidentally became my class valedictorian, but I graduated with my AA and over ninety transferable units, making me a little over a junior by the time I started school.

When I was accepted to U of D, I’d been excited. You would think your mom would be, too? Mine was not. When she found out I got accepted to my dream school, she’d looked at me and left. When she returned, the fight we had was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I was used to her words and put-downs, but she never got physical. Not until that day. When I ran out and over to Blanca’s to ask if I could stay over until my mom cooled down, Mrs. Dominguez took one look at me and told me to go to sleep and that she would be back.

An hour later, she returned home with all my things packed into her small SUV. She was the best. I never asked what happened or what my mom had said, but she had reassured me that I never had to go back or talk to her if I didn’t want to. My mom never reached out. The funny thing was, I didn’t miss her. I still talked to my dad, who lived in Arizona with his new wife and kids, but we never talked about my mom or the fact that I wasn’t living with her anymore.

The Dominguez’ had made me an honorary member. Including their Grandpa Mike. It had been heartbreaking to see him get sick and slowly pass. I tried to be there as much as possible and made myself scarce when Hector came home for visits. I didn’t want to be in the way or interrupt their family time.

I had won some scholarships and financial aid. Most of my tuition, room, and board were covered, but there were a lot of unexpected expenses that popped up I hadn’t calculated in. But I’d been managing. Working night shifts at Stacked, a local little diner, and at the college library. Doing random side hustles for some extra fun money even though I didn’t necessarily ever have the time to have fun.

I started to fold the schedule and could feel Hector watching me.

Hector, or Crank like everyone at school liked to call him, was incredible, and it only reminded me of how incredibly out of my league he was. The schoolgirl crush I had on him as a budding teenager, that I thought had gone away, was back in full swing. Especially now that he was working here for the summer. I glanced over my shoulder.

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