Page 122 of Necessary Roughness
Logan:You’re sexy. I haven’t said that in a while.
I glanced up, and Logan quickly pretended to study the art on the walls of the Italian restaurant.
“Oh, dear,” Darlene said when she saw my phone. “I haven’t seen one of those in ages!”
“Heh, yeah,” I said. “It’s a good conversation starter.”
Her face scrunched with concern. “If you can’t afford a smartphone, honey, I have an old iPhone you can have…”
Laughing, I replied, “I actually use this by choice. Fewer distractions. Except when I get a text during dinner.” I shot a glare at Logan.
He ignored it and said, “It was one of the first things we noticed when we met Sloane. I told her she was either a time traveler from 1999, or a drug dealer.”
“Neither! Just a future teacher who knows how smartphones are destroying attention spans.”
Darlene grabbed my hand again. “I didn’t know you’re studying to become a teacher! Both of my sisters teach elementary school. I was going to do the same, but then we got married and Knox ruined those plans.”
“Ouch, Mom,” Knox muttered.
“You’re the best thing that ever happened to us,” she replied, sounding like she’d told him that hundreds of times. “Teachers are the most important people in the world. They prepare our children for the future! You’re the one who should be making millions of dollars, not athletes and actors.”
“Yes!” I exclaimed. “I can’t believe society thinks throwing a ball is more important than educating our youth.”
Knox cleared his throat. “Can we spend a day celebrating our conference championship? You can go back to bashing my job tomorrow.”
“Technically,” Roman pointed out, “your job ended this afternoon. College season is over, and the NFL draft isn’t until April. At this very moment, you’re unemployed.”
“Hey! Me too!” Logan said, as if just now realizing it.
“I still have a lot of work to do.” Knox gestured with his wine glass. “I have to stay in shape before the NFL draft combine in March. That’s basically a big physical fitness test for draftees,” he added for my benefit. “And I still have finals next week, and then all my spring semester classes.”
“Being a student athlete is exceptionally difficult,” I graciously admitted. “We’re just teasing you.” I reached under the table and squeezed his thigh.
“I am looking forward to sleeping in,” Knox said with a smirk. “No more waking up at four in the morning for practice.”
“No more mandatory study hall,” Roman agreed.
“No more curfews,” I chimed in.
“And no more sneaking out during curfew.” Logan winked at me. “I had a close call earlier this year. If I had gotten caught, I would’ve been benched for the game against Gulf College. Which means I wouldn’t have caught three touchdown passes from our boy here.”
“That means I would’ve thrown three touchdown passes to another receiver,” Knox pointed out.
Logan shrugged and looked at Knox’s parents. “My superior receiving skills made Knox look good all year. He should probably Venmo me part of his signing bonus after he’s drafted.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Knox said. “A lot can happen between now and the draft…”
The unspoken part was that Troy’s lawsuit was still hanging over him. I wasn’t sure if he had even told his parents about that. Darlene had a curious expression on her face, but it turned out to have nothing to do with the lawsuit.
“So…” Darlene cleared her throat and dabbed her mouth with a cloth napkin. “Just to be clear about this situation.” She waved her palm in the direction of the four of us. “All three of you are…datingSloane?”
I tried to keep my face calm, but I could tell I was tensing up. I hadn’t expected this subject to be broached tonight, but Logan had dropped too many hints about it, and Darlene and Robert had probably heard about the rumors.
“Um…” I should have rehearsed what I was going to say. I was usually better about planning for uncomfortable situations.
“Kind of,” Knox answered for me. “We didn’t start off in a relationship. Sloane was friends with us. And it kind of developed from there.”
“We’re one big happy group,” Logan said. Roman nodded emphatically, with an expression that challenged anyone to criticize our arrangement.
