Page 53 of Heart of Gold
Just sex.
What if she feels obligated to meet with me to break the ice and tell me she’s not really interested in someone like me?
“You alright?” She asks, and I realize I’ve stopped about ten feet from the truck and I’m just staring at her like a lunatic.
“Oh, yeah,” I mumble. “Thanks for coming.”
She pushes off the truck and walks in my direction. “The game sucked.”
“Tell me about it,” I sigh. “I hated watching from the bench.”
She pushes her hair behind her ear, a stray piece falling against her cheek. “I’m sorry.”
I touch her hand, pulling her tiny body closer to my much larger one. “Don’t apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
A couple walks by and we catch the tail end of their conversation. They are talking about me fucking Collins’ sloppy seconds.
I feel my face flush, heating with rage.
“Let’s go somewhere more private,” she says. “Out here, we are just starting rumors.”
“Fuck these people,” I say. “They don’t know shit.”
Her eyes fall to the ground and I can tell that the blatant stares are bothering her.
“Let’s go.”
I pull her door open, and close it gently once she’s inside. I don’t want anyone talking about her. “I’m sorry about them.”
“It’s not your fault,” she whispers. “I did this. Plus, I’m used to all the shit with Grayson.”
I’m still so nervous for some reason, and the fact that she’s the most beautiful girl on the planet? It’s fucking with my mojo.
She fidgets in the seat, my silence crashing over us like an awkward wave. I hate that I don’t have immediate words, but I’m also afraid to fire off with everything that is on my mind. I want her next to me, not running so fast there’s a Quinn shaped hole in my truck door.
“We need to talk about what happened on the cruise.” Her voice is weak and timid, like she’s as nervous about it as I am. “I know you didn’t plan to see me ever again, and I don’t want to drag you into anything with Grayson…”
I stop her before she can talk herself out of it, “I want to be dragged.”
Her eyes widen, and I chuckle, explaining myself. “I mean, I want to hang out with you, Quinn. When I saw you staring back at me from the stands, it felt like fate.”
Her shoulders perk up, and corners of her lips tilt into a soft smile. “You are literally the calmest, nicest guy I’ve ever met.”
“I’m not that nice,” I smile. “And I won’t be calm if Collins grabs your arm like he did in the tunnel last weekend.”
“I don’t want you to get in trouble. You missed the game today because of me.”
“I missed the game because ofme.” I say, with emphasis on the me part. “And what happened on the cruise isn’t something that I wanna pretend didn’t happen.”
Her cheeks turn an adorable shade of pink, and I watch as she turns her gaze toward the window. An uncomfortable amount of people are pointing in our direction. Saying God knows what.
“I don’t want anyone talking shit about you, but I don’t know if I can control what those idiots say. They hear whatever they want and start a mill of rumors that very instant. It doesn’t help that Collins and I fought on the field last weekend.”
She nods, “It looks bad.”
“They don’t know the truth though. They just know a miniscule part of it. I met you over the summer and had no idea that Grayson Collins was your ex boyfriend.”
I say those words like I’m reminding myself that I didn’t know she was my teammate's ex. In any other circumstance, it would be breaking bro-code. This is different.
