Page 28 of Romancing the Grump
“Seriously? All this talk about honor and integrity and being an Appie, and now you’re looking to hit on my sisters?”
“So youdohave some,” he says.
I ignore the fact that Van seems interested in learning about my sisters when he’s never shown any interest in me. Not that I want to date Van. I don’t. But seriously? We’re just going to leapfrog over me as a possibility altogether?
I fold my arms across my chest. “As long as you’re wearing that smirk, I’m not saying a word.”
Van wipes a hand down his face and schools his expression. “Just making conversation.”
I roll my eyes, but I reach for my phone anyway and pull up a picture of Lucy and me at Audrey’s wedding. We’re both in bridesmaids’ dresses with our hair up, making it almost impossible to tell us apart.
“I have two sisters,” I say. “Audrey, the oldest, is married.” I hand him my phone. “And this is my twin, Lucy.”
“Whoa,” Van says. “You’re identical?”
Alec leans over and looks at the photo. “I can’t tell who is who.” He passes it to Tucker and Dumbo, who both look before Nathan holds out his hand, asking for the phone.
“Let me see,” he says, and Tucker hands it over.
A skitter of nerves dances over my skin as Nathan studies the image. I don’t know why, but it means more for Nathan to see a beautiful picture of me than it does for any of the other guys. And itisa beautiful picture. I don’t always feel that way, but we wereallglowing at Audrey’s wedding. You can see how happy we were in every single photo.
Nathan looks for a long moment before returning my phone. “That’s a nice picture,” he says, his voice low, and the compliment warms me from the inside out.
“Yeah, but which one am I?” I ask.
He immediately taps on the left side of the screen. “That’s you.”
I lift my eyes to meet his. He’s right, but he didn’t even hesitate.
How could he tell?
He must see the question in my expression because he shrugs. “Something about your eyes.”
I want to push for more. Lucy and I have the same eyes—we basically have the sameeverything—so what was it that Nathan saw? What made him so sure?
“So, let’s talk about Lucy,” Dumbo says around a bite of pizza, and I force my gaze away from Nathan to answer him. “Is she single?”
I narrow my gaze. “Y’all are giving me a complex. We’re identical twins, but you only want to know ifLucyis single? Should I assume I have a terrible personality and that’s why you aren’t asking about me?”
The tips of Dumbo’s ears turn bright red, and his eyes widen. “Oh, uh—” His gaze shifts to Nathan for the briefest second before returning to me. “It’s just…you work for the team. That makes you off-limits.”
Off-limits?“Um, pretty sure Parker told me there aren’t any rules against dating the players.”
The last thing I want to do is give Dumbo the impression I’m into him, but this is the second time in five minutes that one of them has asked about Lucy without any curiosity about my own eligibility. And now they’ve branded me completely off-limits?
“Right. Not like, official, on-the-books rules,” Dumbo says, but I can tell he’s equivocating. “It’s more just one of the Appies rules. That the guys have.”
Huh.Still not tracking. “Didn’t Parker work for the team before she started dating Logan?”
Dumbo clears his throat, looking around at his teammates like he’s hoping for help. He’s really squirming now, but he’s the one who started this conversation, so I feel zero regret for pushing him.
“Right, well…she knew Logan before,” he finally says. “So, that was different.”
“Totally different,” Alec adds. “Logan got a pass because they were friends before she started working for the team.”
Okay, there is definitely something they aren’t saying.
“Well, I guess I’m glad to finally know the rules,” I deadpan. “My plan was to just go down the roster until I’d dated you all. So much for that.”
