Page 574 of Dark Love

Hope stifles a laugh.

“You really don’t know who I am?” Gabe gapes at me.

“Hope’s uncle.”

“What is this world coming to when a beautiful woman doesn’t know who the best quarterback in the world is?” Gabe puts a fist to his chest.

A massive man walks up to the group with a plate mounded sky high. “Hardly the best. Did you see that sack last game? Did you forget how to run or something?”

And another joins.

Then another until there’s a wall of muscle surrounding us.

Hope scoots over. “I hope you don’t mind my uncle inviting a few friends. That tends to happen a lot around here.”

Who in their right mind would care when there have to be at least two hundred people wandering around my house, backyard, and now in the street? “Not in the least. Will the police come knocking at my door soon?”

“Nope. Dad notified them when he heard. But they wouldn’t come anyway unless they were called by someone in my family.”

Not scary mobster vibes at all.

Another man joins us. He isn’t close to the other guys in size—No! It can’t be. “I’m seeing things. Someone pinch me.” My eyes have to be playing tricks on me. He can’t be here. It’s impossible. Absolutely impossible.

“Hope, something’s wrong with your friend.” Gabe places a hand on mine. “Do you need a doctor?”

“Just an optometrist. I’m seeing a person that can’t be real. Tell me he’s not here.”

“Who? Ollie? You can’t be fangirling over Ollie.”

Gabe just called Oliver Schoolers, the best shortstop in the world, OLLIE. “He’s really here?”

“Hope, why didn’t you tell me your friends have bad taste? Who passes out for a baseball player?”

WHAT? I spin around to scowl at Gabe. “’A’ player. You didn’t just say that about Oliver Schoolers, the best shortstop in the world. He’s—”

“Ollie, get over here and say hi before this woman attacks me.” Gabe gives my hand a pat and whispers, “You’ll be okay. Ollie is a nice guy.”

My heart might stop beating, but I’ll be okay.

“Hey.”

If Vex wouldn’t be mad at me, I could die happy right here and right now. Oliver Schoolers said hi to me.

“Don’t worry, she’ll figure out how to speak soon. It seems Hope’s friend is confused about which sport is the better sport.”

Oliver Schoolers takes a seat, placing his full plate down. There are two cookies on the top. He’s going to eat cookies I made. Would he marry me if I made him a brownie cheesecake? Vex would understand because it’s the Oliver Schoolers.

Vex would not understand. He would probably kill Oliver.

Poor dead Oliver.

“Obviously, it’s baseball or you wouldn’t be jealous enough to play a game with us.”

“That’s because you baseball players are afraid to play football. You might get hurt.” Gabe hi-fives a few of the guys standing around.

“Tell me that when a baseball comes flying towards your head at around one hundred miles per hour.”

Stop. Fangirling. Think. Form words. I haven’t passed out so far. That’s something, at least.

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