Page 97 of Ruthless Legacy

Her shoulders shake. Oh great. She’s crying. She’s been a hard ass through everything, and a little sand in her eyes has her crying? This is why they shouldn’t have played with us.

She lifts her head and I’m frozen in place. My sarcastic remark dies on my tongue. Thea’s not crying. She’s laughing. Her face is flushed and her eyes are alight with excitement.

“What’s so funny?”

Her smile widens, her gaze flicking to my arm. I turn my head and see where it is. Then look over at her arm. It extends a little beyond the goal post. “One, two, three pin.” She cackles, then yells, “Touchdown!”

She scrambles to her feet and starts jumping up and down. “I won, I won. I flattened you like a Mack truck.”

I can’t help but smile, too. Climbing to my feet, I brush off the sand. “That doesn’t count as getting me on the mats. I tackled you.”

“Your shoulders were pinned to the ground for a ten count.”

“I was being a gentleman and protecting you from sand burn.”

She shakes her head. “Nope. Big guy. You’re not stealing this win from me. It totally counts.” She jogs back over to her team, still celebrating her point.

* * *

Finn

Thea runs past me, yelling and shaking her fist in the air. She launches herself at Austin, who spins her around as they celebrate her scoring. Pax walks up to me, his eyes following Thea as she high fives the rest of her team. “Is that a smile?”

He immediately scowls at me. “No.”

“Yes, Pax. It was. You were smiling at Thea.”

“I was laughing at the fact that I made her eat sand.”

I shake my head as we head back to our team. “How long are you going to do this?”

“Do what?”

“Pretend like you still hate her.”

“Who’s pretending?”

I could bring up the fact that I know something happened between them last night, but I won’t. Now’s not the time to get into all that. He’s clearly not ready to discuss it or he would’ve come clean about it last night.

“You are. You don’t hate her now. I’m not sure if you ever really did.” He gives me a look that suggests he did. “I’m not saying she didn’t annoy you, or that she still doesn’t annoy you, but have you stopped to ask yourself why she gets under your skin? Plenty of girls have been annoying, but you’ve never acted like this.”

“That’s because those girls weren’t annoying like her.”

“Okay, I’ll play. How is Thea annoying now? She’s trying, and hasn’t gone out of her way to piss you off. So why can’t you do the same?”

“I’m not actively trying to piss her off, either.”

“No, but you’re not giving her a reason to like you. I think letting her know you’re the one who found her car, had it towedandgot it fixed would be the first step in getting her to like you.”

“You and Holden like her. That’s enough.”

“I need you to not dislike her for my plan to work.”

“What plan? What are you up to?”

I jog away to catch up with Thea. I’m not telling him my plan. Not yet. He’s not ready to hear it, and I don’t want him doing anything to sabotage it.

Thea’s going to be our girl, and when she becomes an official prospect, she’ll be the best candidate for us to marry. Nobody will deny that, and I’m no longer entertaining any other options.

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