Page 83 of Dirty Player

“The media saw us, and he told them I was his girlfriend.” Her eyes fall to the ground, then back up to mine. “By thenyou hadn’t returned my calls, and I accepted his second invite, I think, out of spite. I was so upset.”

Goddamn it.

“Levi”—her soft voice tears me away from the image of me ripping Colby Wade’s head from his shoulders—“I thought you were going to break up with me anyway. You never invited me to that family dinner. So I thought...”

“You thought I was done with you?”

She nods.

“I wasn’t. I was trying to work out how I could have fallen in love at twenty-one and know you were the woman I wanted to spend my life with.”

Kaylee draws in a little breath, surprised by my words.

I wait.

I wait for her to tell me how she feels.

I wait some more.

But she doesn’t. She simply stands there, her breaths labored, her eyes roaming around us.

There’s something more she isn’t telling me.

“Kaylee,” I rasp. “I’m standing here with my heart on my sleeve...”

Still, she says nothing.

What the fuck is going on?

One of my fears was that my feelings for Kaylee were one sided, and here I am sharing everything. My family knows and they’ve given her their version of a blessing.

Nothing but fucking silence.

Anger blasts through me.

“Tell me. Tell me the truth. For once,” I demand. “You want my forgiveness. You have had the opportunity to explain. I’ve told you I fucking love you, Kaylee.”

Bang, bang, bang.

My heart pounds like a jackhammer as I wait for her response. It feels like an eternity as I stare down into her golden-brown eyes stained with tears.

When she finally speaks, my heart cracks into shards.

“I love you, Levi. I’ve loved you for a long time,” Kaylee whispers. “But this won’t—can’t—work. Too much has happened. Too many people have an opinion, and you need to focus on your career.”

“That’s not true.”

She tilts her head.

Cupping both sides of her face, I say fiercely, “It’s not true, Kaylee. I love you with every part of who I am. You and football.”

Suddenly, fear slices through me as I imagine losing this woman. That can’t happen. I do not want to live without her.

Not for a single day.

I knew it once and I know it now. She’s the woman I am going to spend the rest of my life with.

We met early.

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