Page 16 of Her Football Star Ex

He swiped right on another girl. “But if a girl has already seen my photo and swiped right on it, and if I did the same with hers, then a little box will pop up to tell me we’ve matched, and I can message her right away if I want.”

“And you said you’re still getting matches even without showing your face?”

“I’m sure I’d get more if they saw my face, since we all know how irresistible the ladies find this handsome Polynesian mug of mine, but I do okay.” He shot me a smirk.

I laughed. “And it’s been how long since you’ve been on a date?”

“Not as long as you,” he shot back.

I rolled my shoulders back. “Yeah, yeah.”

He put the phone down on his knee. “Yes, in all seriousness I probably would match with more women if I did have my face on there, so that is a drawback of trying to keep my identity under wraps. But enough women don’t seem to care about it."

“I guess those workouts we did before your fishing trip last year paid off then, huh?”

The guy worked hard on the field during the season, but I was pretty sure he would have just laid around a good chunk of last spring if I hadn’t been on his case about working out together.

He shrugged. “I would have still worked out. It just wouldn’t have been at eight in the morning.”

“So you’re saying we should work out at ten instead once this season is over.”

“Sure.”

Hopefully that wouldn’t be for another few weeks.

* * *

About twenty minutes later,I carried our food into the kitchen. “Pizza’s here,” I called out to Jaxon and Cole. I still hadn’t gotten around to buying a kitchen table, so I set the pizza boxes and salad on the kitchen island and pulled out a stool for Jaxon to climb onto.

My therapist told me the reason why I was still in this small apartment and unable to bring myself to fully furnish it was because I was resisting facing the truth of my new reality.

But what did he know?

I’d been busy. I’d find a more permanent home eventually. This place was working just fine for Jaxon and me—for now.

“Did you get me cheese pizza?” Jaxon asked as he climbed onto his stool.

“I sure did.” I set a plate in front of him and opened the box so he could see it.

His brown eyes went wide, as if in awe that he would get the whole thing to himself. But I really didn’t know why he’d be that surprised. I always did things like this.

Sure, I probably should have hired a cook or learned to cook myself now that I was a bachelor again, but ordering enough food so I could have leftovers or having a personal shopper stock my freezer with frozen dinners was working just fine at the moment, so why fix what wasn’t broken?

I wasn’t living in denial that things were really over with Emerson.

Really.

“Found any more matches?” I asked Cole when he joined Jaxon and me at the island. Cole had his phone out again and was swiping left and right.

He shrugged. “A few.”

He set his phone down and opened his pizza box. He rubbed his hands together as he looked at all the pineapple and Canadian bacon covering his pizza. He pulled out a piece and took a bite. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“I’m fine with my choice.” I put a slice from each of my pizzas on my plate and dished out a big serving of the salad.

I was about to dig in when Cole said, “You got the girliest salad they have there. What’s wrong with you?”

I frowned and looked at the salad with raspberries, feta cheese, candied pecans and various greens.

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