Page 48 of Fair Catch

“I’m sorry,” she says, but continues to giggle. “That’s a movie . . . about sex and romance.”

“Well, I’m pretty good at one of those things.” I waggle my eyebrows.

“Definitely,” she says without elaborating. Yep, I get it, my romance skills need a little work. I could easily use the “I’m a football player” excuse, but the truth is, I don’t romance well. It’s a learned art, which there are no teachers for. It’s not like us guys sit around in the locker room talking about how to romance our women. Shit, maybe I need to hang out with Noah more, or Julius. He had to woo the shit out of Autumn after he almost fucked that relationship up.

“Should I ask you to tell which one I’m good at?”

Kelsey blushes and the sight of her cheeks turning a beautiful shade of pink at my suggestiveness goes right to my groin. She must expect this reaction from me because her eyes dart toward my lap and then back to my face.

“Come sit on my lap,” I say, in a throaty tone that’s meant to be sexy.

Kelsey rises and saunters over to me. My hands reach out and rest on her hips, guiding her to me. As soon as she brushes against my growing hard-on, my eyes close and I groan. “Fuck, I want to be inside of you.”

“We shouldn’t.”

Because of work?

Because of the shit going on?

My hands move up her back and I pull her to me for a deep kiss. She needs to feel how sorry I am for everything. “I’m sorry,” I say again as my lips ghost over hers. “Tell me how to fix it.”

Kelsey pulls away and looks at me with unshed tears in her eyes. “I’m going to be fine. Everything caught me off guard.”

She’s going to be fine.

“What about us?”

“Is there an us?” she asks.

I start to nod before she even finishes her question. “I want there to be. God, Kels, I’m head over heels for you and sick to my stomach people think this type of treatment’s okay. It’s not, but I also don’t know how to fix it.” I leave out the part where I asked Maggie to tell her friends to chill out. “I don’t want some local news fodder to come between us.” Short of begging her to stay with me, I don’t know what else to do.

“I don’t either.”

I brush her hair off her shoulders. “Tell me what I can do.”

“This is new territory for me. I’ve never dated anyone famous before.”

I scoff so loudly, she startles. “I’m not famous, honey. I’m the center of a football team that just so happened to win the Super Bowl last year. Hell, until then, I don’t think anyone knew my name. They referred to me as the guy who passed Noah Westbury the ball.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit.”

I sigh and kiss her pouty lips. “I know, but still. I don’t feel famous. Maybe I’m used to it because I’ve lived the past few years with people always taking photos and videos of me. It’s something I’m used to. But I’m by no means a ‘celebrity.’”

“And it might be something I need to get used to, although I don’t want to,” she says. “I expect it when we’re together, but when we’re not, I don’t want these people following me wherever I go.”

“Understandable. I’ll tell them to stop.”

“You can do that?”

Shrugging, I look into her eyes. “I’m going to try. You’re someone I want to spend a lot of time with, and if it means pissing off the journalists in the area, so be it. Although”—I lean forward and stand with her—“make up sex is really, really fun.” Kelsey giggles into my shoulder as I take us into her room.

SEVENTEEN

KELSEY

We are going on to week four of the epic media meltdown. They’ve left me alone. They’ve left Alex alone. This is a relief. We are a couple, doing couple things when we’re together. Over the past month, Alex has shown me Portland, the way only a local could. He’s taken me to the Portland Saturday Market, which has quickly become my go-to place for shopping. As long as he’s in town, we go out to breakfast every Saturday morning. I think my favorite has been our Monday nights. He picks me up and cooks us dinner. Most of the time we eat outside, by the fireplace. Both of us are trying to prolong fall as long as possible.

I never asked him about the game he didn’t play in. The week after they came back from North Carolina was stressful for him. He didn’t need me, someone who barely understands the game of football, to ask him why he had to sit out. I remembered everything the commentators said that day and that was enough for me to know it was bad. I also didn’t bring it up because I feel like some of what happened to him is my fault. There wasn’t a need for me to be so hard on him when he did nothing wrong.

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