Page 14 of Fumbled Love

He was right. I did know what he meant, and she was the exact opposite of my usual type, but she still fascinated me for some reason. Her mixed signals and hot and cold attitude definitely held my attention.

She was witty and wild, and one night with her had me wanting more. The fact that she was a bit mysterious just added to the attraction.

She didn’t share anything about her past with me, which was unfair because my life was an open book. All she had to do was type my name in the search bar, and she would know everything from where I grew up to what fruit I put in my morning smoothie. Yet, I knew nothing about her. All I knew was her name was Ivy. She was great in the sack, and she intrigued the hell out of me. I couldn’t remember the last time I pursued a woman. It was usually the other way around because, for me, finding a warm body to pass the time with was as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.

My phone buzzed in my hand, and I glanced at the screen and hit accept. “What’s up, Morris?”

“Yo!” Morris was an offensive lineman on the team and a big party boy. It was hard to hear him over the vibrating music in the background. “We got a table down at Deluce. You ready to come out and enjoy a little action with the boys?”

I glanced over at JP, who nodded his head. “Yeah, let me shower and grab a bite to eat. JP and I will be there in an hour.”

I hung up and raked a hand through my hair. The last thing I wanted to do was go clubbing, but it beat the hell out of staying home and doing nothing.

* * *

“You don’t look very excited to be here tonight,” my friend Della said, bringing her glass of wine to her mouth.

“I didn’t have anything else to do,” I said, tapping my fingers against my empty tumbler. “I figured it was better than staring at the walls of my condo.”

She rolled her eyes at my response. “Careful there, your charming personality might attract the wrong kind of people.”

“Considering you’ve been sitting next to me for the past hour, what does that say about you?”

“That I’m immune to your charm.” She beamed, and I chuckled.

Della and I went way back. We met toward the end of our freshman year at the University of Georgia. We dated briefly, but somewhere along the way, we realized we were better off as friends.

A camera flashed from a few tables down. It annoyed me that I couldn’t go anywhere without someone trying to take my picture. Sometimes, I just wanted to have a drink with my friends and relax. The sound of laughter broke out around me. Another flash came from my left, and my body tensed.

“Relax.” Della squeezed my leg. “Forget about them. Security won’t allow them to approach you.”

I looked past her and swallowed. “I’m just not in the mood to deal with anyone tonight.”

Part of my shitty mood was because I was tired and running on little sleep due to the heavy travel I had to endure these past few weeks. The other part I didn’t want to admit out loud was I was in a funk from sitting along the sidelines and watching my backup complete pass after pass and execute plays that had him looking more like a starter than a backup.

“You’ve been distracted and irritable lately.” She took a sip of her drink. “Has your leg been bothering you? Are you icing and stretching?”

“I’ve been doing everything you told me to do.”

Della wasn’t just my friend. She was one of the physical therapists on the team and damn good at her job.

“I can fit you in for an extra session this week if you think you need it.”

“I’ll let you know.”

Della knew how hard I’d been working on my recovery. She knew I wasn’t letting up until I was feeling back to one hundred percent better.

“You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

“There is nothing to talk about. Just jet-lagged, that’s all.”

“Are you forgetting I’ve known you longer than anyone in this room? I can tell when you’re avoiding something.”

“Speaking of avoiding.” I gestured to the next table over. “What happened between you and the lawyer over there?”

I recognized him the second she took the seat next to mine. The dude looked like he wanted to rip my face off. He’s stopped by the training facility to pick Della up from lunch a few times, but I haven’t seen him around lately. The poor guy’s been staring at her all night, trying to get her attention.

“He’s not my type.”

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