Page 96 of Their Greatest Strength

Jamie blows out a low whistle, flashing heart eyes at me in a way that makes my cheeks throb with a blush. “You see now, Bobby? How on earth was I supposed to let her turn me down?”

The reporter does seem a bit surprised that I was so blunt, but he’s quick to recover. “Thank you, Blakely. Now, Jamie, the Pythons haven’t been on a four-game winning streak in the past three seasons. With that special win on the horizon, is the team nervous? And if so, how are you handling that?”

“You know, Bobby, I actually don’t have time for any more questions, but I look forward to seeing the ones we’ve answered today online soon. Especially Blakely’s answers. We’ll see you after the game Saturday. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I need to bring my wife upstairs and then head to practice,” Jamie says, his words suave but threaded with annoyance.

Without another look at Bobby, Jamie drops an arm over my shoulders and pulls the door open with another. We step inside together, and then he’s grabbing my hand again, threading our fingers.

“You could have been a gold digger, you know? I still would have had you as my wife,” he says once we’ve taken a left down the same hall I remember from my sideline-view game.

We pass the door he came out of after his interviews and show no sign of stopping.

“You would have willingly married someone who was planning on draining you dry?”

“Well, you would have only been able to drain me while we were married with all the legal crap we had to sign, but yeah. If it meant still getting to marry you, it would have been worth it.”

Those stupid flutters are back. “You say that now. Maybe not after I had run off with your credit card and bought myself a fancy car.”

“First off, you wouldn’t have bought a car, of all things, considering you can’t drive. And secondly, even if you had, I would have approved the purchase,” he says, swiftly swatting another of my arguments away.

His pace slows, and with only one door left in the hallway, I follow suit.

With a roll of my eyes, I’m dropping his hand and gripping my hips. “Okay, since you know everything about me, whatwouldI have bought?”

“New football gear for Nate. His is pretty old, right? I’ve seen you scowling at it in the laundry room a few times.”

“It hardly fits,” I mutter, embarrassed to have been caught so easily in the trap I set myself.

He’s right. If given any large sum of money, I’d buy Nathan top-of-the-line gear that would last the rest of his high school football career.

Jamie leans a shoulder against the orange brick wall. “He hasn’t mentioned anything about it.”

“And he won’t. He’ll come home one day with his savings drained and arms full of gear, and that’ll be it.”

“I wonder where he got that stubbornness from.”

I huff a laugh. “What’s behind that door?”

“Oh, this one?” he asks, knocking his knuckles against the silver door handle. “Only a place I think you’ll really like.”

Intrigued, I lurch forward a step. “Let’s go in.”

With a push of his wrist, he has the door open. It looks like a lounge of some sort. Jamie snakes my hand again and leads us inside.

Three round tables are scattered along the wall of windows,while a long one has been filled with empty serving containers. There are plates, silverware, sauce containers, drink pitchers—everything needed to feed a large group of people.

“Is this where you eat when you’re at practice?” I ask, inspecting the variety of food options being offered.

“While I do prefer your food, yes. This is where we eat when we’re at the stadium. Some of the players don’t bother, but majority of us are always hungry, as you’ve learned.”

I turn to face him. “Are you hungry right now? Is that why we’re here?”

“No. We’re here because there’s an opening on the catering team, and I put your name in the ring.”

29

JAMIE

The shock ripplingacross Blakely’s face is everything I hoped it would be. She shoves at my chest, surprise turning to frustration in the blink of an eye.

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