Page 34 of Front Runner

I noticed the evasion, but Mac didn’t.

He whooped and pointed at her with the lip of his bottle. “That’s my girl.”

“Not your girl,” she muttered.

“Close enough. You’re one of us now, RJ. I’m getting another beer. Want one?”

A smile crept across her face. “No, thanks.”

Mac hopped up and disappeared into the camper, and she yawned. It wasn’t late, but game days were exhausting. Before I could suggest we head back, Noah surprised me by asking her a question.

“What’s your plan after you graduate?”

“I want to work with kids, especially young girls, who are interested in sports but don’t have the means to pursue being on a team. In Wisconsin, I used to work for a camp that set up a summer football league for low-income kids. That’s why I couldn’t be here for the summer practices.” Her voice softened, and my heart did a funny little flip at the thought of Riley surrounded by a bunch of hero-worshipping little girls.

Noah’s eyes sharpened. “No plans for the draft?”

She laughed dryly. “I know it’s a miracle I’m playing footballnow. No matter how good I am, a professional team won’t use one of their few draft picks on me. I like the idea of molding the next generation of female athletes, encouraging each of them to push a little farther past the barriers.”

He rubbed the dark stubble on his chin and nodded. We all knew she was right, but I still wanted to argue—she deserved the same opportunities as the rest of us.

Noah snorted, probably all he’d say on the topic, though I knew he agreed with me. “Will you go back to Wisconsin?”

Riley glanced my way. “No reason to go back.”

I knew why. I also knew she didn’t want to talk about it. Her long fingers rubbed the stone she’d picked up, turning it around and around in her hand, and I searched my mind for a topic to distract Noah. Once he had his hooks in, he was hard to deter.

Riley didn’t need me to rescue her though. A fact I kept forgetting.

She turned her smile on Noah. “Where did you live before TU?”

He blinked. “California. Bay area. TU offered me a scholarship, but I almost went to a UC school. My counselor insisted I’d be stupid to pass up the opportunity, so here I am.”

“Here we are,” she repeated quietly.

Mac returned with a second round and quickly changed the subject to Eva’s competition that week. We stayed another hour talking about everything except football, and though she was contributing, I didn’t think Riley paid much attention.

She mumbled the right responses, but her eyes were far away. I had to fight the urge to touch her—to break her distraction and make her focus on me just one more time before we had to go our separate ways.

Instead, I waited until Mac and Noah moved around the fire to start cleanup, then leaned into her space. “If you were done with Wisconsin, why SWU?”

She threw the pebble into the brush. “They let me play.”

13

“Fixing the car is more expensive than fixing your attitude,” I muttered to myself as I fought the urge to slam my door closed.

A lesson from my dad I hadn’t thought about in years. He’d been popping up in my thoughts a lot lately—since I moved to Texas to play for a D1 football program, which had always been his dream for me.

I took a deep breath that didn’t really help and stared up at the sky. Clouds mercifully blocked the heat of the sun, but I was still rage sweating. Thunder rolled in the distance, warning of the incoming storm Eva had mentioned before I left for my appointment with Professor Declann more than an hour ago.

The woman refused to join the digital age and required me to drive to her office for the meeting. I’d done as she’d asked, then sat quietly while she snidely listed all the ways I was wasting university resources.No special treatment in my class simply because you’re playing off your gender to gain attention.

The attitude was nothing new, but Parker, Mac, and the rest had lulled me into a false sense of belonging. Not everyone wanted to see me succeed. I let the car door click quietly shut and vented my anger by strangling the living fuck out of the paper she’d given me.

Suggestions for ways to improve my grade—except all she’d put on there was the stuff I’d gotten wrong. I was pretty sure the university required her to have a meeting like this where she attempted to help before letting her fail someone. It wasn’t a reassuring thought.

After that first D, I’d been doing better up until last week. Coincidentally, the week I’d refused to let Parker come over for our study naps. Also, the week we had our second test in the class.

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