Page 38 of The Perfect Pass
Laughter bubbled up her throat. “I think I’ve embarrassed you enough, as is. Now you want to challenge me to four over-the-shoulder passes?”
Embarrassed? Hardly. He was holding his own…mostly. “Scared?”
A smile danced on her lips. “Do I look frightened to you?”
Not at all. On the contrary, she looked completely, 1000 percent kissable. “I like your confidence, Calla.”
She pressed her lips together like she was trying her best not to smile, and there were a few titters from the crowd of onlookers. They hadn’t crossed any actual lines, though. This was simply a friendly game between two volunteers. Nothing more.
Keep telling yourself that.
His eyes darted to the vampire cutout and back to Calla. “If you’re so sure I can’t make an over-the-shoulder pass, how about we make things a little more interesting?”
Her gaze narrowed. “It sounds like you’re suggesting a wager.”
“Indeed I am, but the terms aren’t anything to be nervous about.” He tossed his ball up into the air and caught it with a grin. “If I make all four over-shoulder passes, you just have to say three little words.”
A blush crept across her heart-shaped face. “And what might those three little words be?”
He ticked them off with his fingers, one by one. “I. Love. Football.”
The boys on his team cheered, oblivious.
Calla snort-laughed and ticked off three words of her own. “In. Your. Dreams.”
“You must really think I can make all four passes, then,” Jackson said.
She glanced at the vampire cutout. It wasn’t even at shoulder level. “No possible way, not in a million years. No one could do that.”
“So do we have a bet?”
A few more of his players waved carnival tickets.
“Come on, Miss Dunne! Please? We really want to see Coach try a backward throw,” Tommy Riess called out.
It warmed Jackson’s heart to see the kid hanging out with some of other boys on the team, especially Stokes, Collier and Brown. He’d put Tommy in again toward the end of the two most recent games, but he hadn’t managed to score since the dramatic game-ending touchdown in the season opener. Jackson knew the younger boy wasn’t part of the popular group at school, but maybe his efforts at building more unity within the team were finally coming to fruition.
He flashed Tommy a thumbs-up and then turned toward Calla with a shrug. “You heard the kid.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Fine. But there’s no chance you’re making a single one of those throws, much less all four.”
“We’ll see about that.” He handed her a football. “Ladies first.”
Calla studied the vampire cutout for a beat, then turned around, took a deep breath and threw the ball over her shoulder. It bounced off the wood and went spiraling into the crowd.
Jackson intercepted it and handed it back to Calla. “Nice try. You’ve got three more throws.”
She fired them off in rapid succession, thrilling the onlookers when the last one actually made it.
“Yes!” Calla pumped her fist and did a little victory dance.
“Wow,” Jackson said. She’d obviously spent way more time tossing a football around than she wanted to admit. No one was that lucky.
“Your turn.” She grinned up at him, and if they hadn’t had an audience, Jackson would’ve wrapped his arm around her waist and swept her off her feet, red boots and all.
She handed him a ball, and when their fingertips accidentally touched, they both lingered just a little too long.
“Good luck,” Calla said, and the sudden breathiness in her tone turned his knees to water. “You’re going to need it.”
