Page 31 of Score to Settle
“So you are angry with me. I didn’t look at?—”
“You did. Outside the locker room when Gordon made his stupid remark. One of the coaching staff had just let slip about the feature and he wanted to annoy me by getting to you. And for your information, I’ve never dated any of the cheer team. Any player caught fraternizing with a cheerleader is dropped from the team for good.”
“So what happened in the parking lot last September then?” She fires the question and it hits me right in the gut. She takes another step forward, getting in my space. “You keep telling me there’s more to you. That I shouldn’t believe this playboy rep you’ve built. But you give me nothing. You answer my questions if they’re about football, but the second I try to push deeper, you shut down or make a joke or storm off into the night.” She waves her hand in the air like she’s proving her point.
The fact she’s right again does nothing to defuse my anger. “I never said I’d be good at this, OK?”
“Are you telling me you’re doing your best here? That you’re giving me your all?”
“No. But I don’t want to talk about what happened last year. Not yet. I know I have to and I will, but not now.”
Harper’s face is stony, lips pursed in a way that snags my eyes. Another bolt of electricity shoots through my body. I’m suddenly not sure if I want to close the gap between us or tell her to go to hell. Once again, Harper’s got my head spinning.
“When, then?” she asks. “Because you realize I have a job to do.”
“Yeah, but my job is making sure my team gets to the playoffs and then to the Super Bowl, not teaching you about football and telling you all my secrets. I get why you’re here and why we both need this, but can’t I have one night off? One night where I get five minutes to myself in my own home.”
“You’re pushing me away,” she replies.
“And you’re driving me crazy,” I growl.
She huffs, more frustration than anything. “I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here, Jake. But you’re right—we do both need this. My career is on the line too. So I have to keep pushing you whether you like it or not. This isn’t a game to me.”
“And you think it is to me?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know what I think anymore.” With that, she’s striding back to the ranch with my damn dog trotting at her side.
For a moment my gaze pulls to where her jeans hug her perfect ass, and that’s when it hits me. The way I lit up inside when I saw her on the sideline tonight. The heat that radiated through my body when she grabbed my arm just now.
Fuck!
Is this…?
It can’t be.
I think back to my teen years and the girls in my life, but as the star football player in high school and college, girls tended tocome to me. Is it possible that at the age of twenty-nine I’ve got my first crush? On Harper—who has the power to both make me laugh and infuriate me to hell all in the same five minutes?
Damn it, Sullivan.
FOURTEEN
HARPER
HARPER:Forget what I said. Jake’s a dick!
MIA:Trouble in paradise?
HARPER:He’s cocky and rude and I don’t care what Mama says, there is not a sweet bone in his body.
MIA:It’s still early and I’m not quite awake yet because I read that last part as “I want his boner in my body,” which is probably what you meant, right?
HARPER:Seriously?!! Go back to sleep!
Notes for feature: Jake Sullivan is a dick!
I’m still frustrated when I wake on Saturday morning. My concentration is shot. I’ve tried working on my novel. I’ve tried working on Jake’s feature. But I can’t write anything that doesn’t involve an expletive about Jake. How can he be so grumpy and yet in the middle of an argument take his sweatshirt off for me to wear because he can see I’m cold? I shoot a murderous look to the sweatshirt still sitting on the back of the chair. I meant toreturn it to Jake yesterday, but he spent most of his rest day in his room. I only saw him at dinner last night, and we barely said two words to each other. Plus, I kind of like it hanging there…
There’s also a nagging in my gut that beneath his grumpiness after the game on Thursday night, he had a point. Gordon’s comment served as a reminder that I’m here to get the truth, to do my job, not cheer Jake on when he wins a game. Maybe I did put my walls back up a notch. I don’t know if I’m annoyed that Jake noticed or annoyed I let it happen when I’m trying to prove to Jake I’m not the enemy. Either way, I’ve woken this morning feeling surprisingly shitty about it.
