Page 23 of Anatomy of a Player

Lyla had mentioned that they usually stopped trimming for playoffs, because there was some no-shaving superstition, but I was focusing on the usual.

I pulled up Google and typed in “types of beards” so I’d know what to call Hudson’s perfectly sculpted one. Seriously, it highlighted his jawline, his lips, and hinted at a barely-contained bad boy.

Not thatIlet it affect me or anything. Nope, I wasn’t fooled.

I clicked on the images tab and magnified the first picture. For some reason it had moustaches, even though I’d clearly indicated “beards,” and I wrinkled my nose at the gross ones, especially the “chevron,” “dali,” and “fu manchu.” Not that I dug the “imperial” or the pencil ones either.

Hmm. The circle beard is close to Hudson’s, but the chinstrap would have to be added.I leaned my elbow on my knee and rested my chin in my cupped palm, taking a moment to think about the odd places my research was taking me.

Then I bit back a grin. Surely this was how every good documentary started. Facial hair one minute, discovering new exciting information on Vikings the next. I clicked on the next image, wanting the perfect answer. I laughed at the “rap industry standard,” a super thin, barely-there goatee.

It made me think of this guy I dated in high school, who shaved designs into his beard. Nothing says I-care-more-about-myself-than-anything-else like spending that much time on facial hair sculpting. Talk about douchey.

There it is…I leaned closer.Short boxed beard. Definitely the closest to Hudson’s.For good measure, I typed the term into the search bar and was rewarded with scruffy pictures of bearded Chris Pine, Chris Evans, Ryan Reynolds, and the perfection that was Ryan Gosling.

“I bet you are all players, too. All you Chrises and Ryans.” Not that I really thought their names had anything to do with it, but therewassomething about them that added to it.

“Hudson Decker.” I let the name echo through the room. It was like his mama knew he’d be irresistible trouble and that he’d need a name to match. What was she doing? Reading romance novels for name inspiration?

I laughed at myself, but then I remembered what he’d said about needing to get away from his mom—his relationship with his mother might be as complicated as the one I had with mine. I wondered if he pretended to be cool with the choices his had made, the way I sometimes did with mine, because it was easier than resenting her every time we were in the same room.

Hudson’s words echoed through my head.To getting away from all that.

Maybe a semi-tragic past was in every player’s makeup. I’d have to do further research on that, because part of me thought they might just know how to spin their pasts to have an excuse to treat girls like crap.

I turned back to my document, hands hovering over the keyboard for a moment.Journalists can’t let their personal feelings get in the way of a good story.

Fortifying my resolve, I shut down my empathetic side and focused on writing. I tapped my phone so my note would light back up and got busy transcribing and inputting bullet points.

• Smile: Lazy, confident, cocky. The player has many smiles, all used to make you lose your common sense and succumb to his charms.

• Names: Strong-sounding monikers that roll off the tongue. The kind that turn you into a teenage girl who wants to scribble your first name with his last one.

My next observation didn’t quite match my other format. I knew I’d need more than one category for player moves, so I separated it out, going back to type “Features” above my first bullet points, and then adding a second subheading for “Moves and Characters Traits.” That way I could add, switch things around, and organize as I went.

Moves and Character Traits

• Calls girls by nicknames, everything from “sweetheart” to “reporter girl.”

I backspaced, deleting the “reporter girl,” because it was too telling and too specific. I thought for a moment about everything I’d been called by player types. When it came to relationships, graduating to a “babe,” “baby,” “hon,” or even “sweetheart” was only natural. But the guys whostartedwith them were bad news.

• Calls girls by nicknames, everything from “sweetheart” to “baby” to other generic terms of endearment. In part to hide forgetting a girl’s name or to keep from calling her the wrong one, but also to create a sense of intimacy before it’s even there, thus fast-forwarding to the sex part.

I pulled my shoulder blades together, cracking them before rereading what I’d written. The “thus” was a nice touch that made me sound super informed and fancy, if I did say so myself—throw in an “indeed” and I might as well be wearing a monocle.

• Never has to work for phone numbers.

When Hudson had paid for our drinks tonight, I’d seen that the waitress had left her number on the receipt. Basically that meant he’d worked two girls at once—or he thought he did, ’cause again, I wasn’t falling for it.

Of course, more research would be needed, and there’d be exceptions to the rules, but I thought that I had a pretty good start.

Oh, Hudson Decker, you don’t even know what you’ve started. You’re the perfect specimen to help me complete this profile—indeed—and I can’t wait to prove that I’m no longer the kind of girl who gets played.

Chapter Sixteen

Hudson

Another game and another win. I headed to the locker room and pulled off my helmet. I eyed the door, waiting for Whitney to come through it. Ever since our night at the pool hall, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Everything about her was so…unexpected. She was still a challenge, but not in the way I’d thought she’d be.

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