Page 38 of The Run Option

I appreciate Calvin trying to reassure me. But Willow didn’t exactlychooseme. And she may know our world, but it’s different when you’re marrying into it. I don’t want her to regret this more than she already does.

One of the assistant coaches pokes his head into the locker room and announces that it’s time to head back to the field.

“Thanks for the pep talk, man. I’m sure she’s fine,” I say to Calvin, and I hope I’m right.

I don’t want to have to make an example out of someone, but one thing’s for sure: no one is going to hurt my wife and get away with it.

I tug on a Lions cap as I exit the press room. After Coach screamed at us, we came out and dominated the second half of the game. We ended up winning by thirty points. That kind of win made the press conference interesting. After asking a few questions about the game, the press clearly were bored of our win and wanted to talk about my personal life. I answered a few questions about mine and Willow’s engagement before steering it back to the topic of football once more. I’m grateful for the media training the Lions insisted on when I transferred to their team. At the time I thought it was stupid, but it helped me redirect tonight’s conversation, which makes it worth it.

I push open the exit door that leads to our waiting charter bus, and the movement elicits a groan. I took a rough hit during the third quarter, and I’m certain my right side is going to have a nasty bruise. I’d love to take a long hot shower and crawl into bed, but I should probably take my phone off Do Not Disturb and try to find Miles.

“Well if it isn’t the groom-to-be,” a familiar voice says. I lift my gaze to find Miles grinning at me. Beside him is his fiancée Ellie, and beside her is Willow.

“How did you guys get back here?” I ask, though I have a sneaking suspicion Willow had something to do with it.

“I unmuted my notifications during halftime,” Willow says as I approach. “I had a text from Brock saying to meet you back here. Miles and Ellie were already here when I arrived.”

I’d hoped to be able to talk to Willow about meeting them before now, but I’d been too distracted on the bus. She was soclose. All I’d wanted to do was hold her…and kiss her, but that isn’t even an option.

“Sounds like something Brock would do,” I say. I’m debating on how to greet her when she makes the first move. She pushes up on her tiptoes and brushes her lips along my jaw in a feather-light kiss.

“You played great tonight,” she murmurs and goosebumps cover my arms.

“Thanks,” I rasp, unable to compute that she just kissed me.

“We already introduced ourselves,” Miles says. “Though we shouldn’t have had to,” he says pointedly.

Ellie swats his chest. “Don’t give him a hard time. You hid your feelings frommefor weeks. At least he was hiding them from everyone else.”

I laugh and Willow hides a smile behind her hand.

Miles huffs. “That’s not the same thing at all.”

“You also denied having any feelings for her to me too,” I point out.

He shoots me a glare. “Don’t try to turn this on me. Not that long ago you were talking about coming to Florida to see if Ellie was the love of your life.”

My stomach drops. I glance at Willow. She’s averted her gaze, and suddenly I have the urge to deck one of my best friends.

“Why would you bring that up?” Ellie asks. She’s a smart woman, though her choice in men is debatable right now.

Miles looks abashed. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” He rubs the back of his neck. “It just sucked getting the news from the tabloid instead of from you.”

I sigh. “I know this is all sudden and weird. I didn’t plan for things to go this way, but we had to announce it fast after those photos came out.”

I don’t have to elaborate. All the guys knew about the photos and messaged me asking me what was going on. I just didn’tknow what to tell them, and by the time I did, it was time to announce my engagement.

“I’m not going to say I get it, but I guess I’ll be okay with it.” He looks at Willow. “Sorry again for bringing up the whole Ellie thing. If it helps, I’m pretty certain that was before he even knew you.”

Something in her expression tells me that Miles’ words didn’t entirely smooth things over. I’m sure that, though she doesn’t care about my dating life, it’s probably embarrassing to hear about me talking about another woman like that. Especially since said woman isright in front of us.

“It’s okay,” Willow says with a small smile.

I give Miles a look that says he better not do something like that again. He nods in understanding. We’ve been friends long enough to communicate that way.

“Well now that my fiancé has made himself look like a jerk, how about we go get some ice cream? Can you two ditch the bus? We can take you back to your hotel later,” Ellie says.

Miles shoots her a look, but she holds her smile.

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