Page 31 of Play Maker

Or…

The idea dawned on me slowly. We had an empty room too. Sort of. Noah spent all his free time with Chloe, usually over at her place because he was a hermit on his best days. He’d let it slip he was getting Chloe a bigger bed, so I doubted he’d be back here all summer.

Blue would have to be okay with storing her stuff, or maybe sending it to not-Archer’s place with her mom. I could probably even convince Noah to let her stay here for free. Now all I had to do was convince myself to keep things friendly when I had twenty-four-hour access to a woman I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about.

“I think I have a plan,” I blurted out, but she didn’t respond.

I craned my head to peek at her face, and sure enough, Blue had fallen asleep against me. The show played on quietly while I lay there struggling to find the right course of action. As if she could sense my dilemma, Blue’s hand slipped under the hem of my shirt and rested against bare skin.

My entire focus narrowed to the flutter of her touch, the warmth of her breath wafting across my chest. If I stayed here with her, woke up with her curled up next to me, the line might blur too much to hold me back—if I could sleep at all.

I skimmed my fingers over her waist, the curve of her hip, then yanked them away. Touching women while they slept was a no-no, even if she’d crawled into my lap herself. I blew out a silent breath and slowly eased away.

If Blue woke up, I’d take her home as promised. If not, I’d spend the night on the couch. Wouldn’t be the first time I’d slept out there, though itwouldbe the first time I’d wake up alone.

11

The bed jostled a little as I scooted off it backward, but Blue didn’t wake up. She curled around my pillow in her sleep, burrowing in with a sigh. I tossed the edge of the blanket over her, then nearly tripped on her shoes. I hadn’t noticed her take them off when she came in, but of course, I’d noticed her tuck her sock-covered feet under my calves.

I shook my head and remembered at the last second to turn off the TV. None of my previous encounters had ended with me tucking a woman into bed andleaving. When Eva and I had been only friends, we’d slept in the same bed with no weirdness. She didn’t enjoy cuddling, and she’d kick in her sleep if anyone got too close.

Once we’d added sex to the mix, she mostly stopped staying over. I snorted as I gathered a throw pillow and one of the tiny blankets we somehow ended up collecting. It wouldn’t cover my crotch and my feet at the same time, but at least I could pretend to be decent.

In the dark living room, I gripped the hem of my shirt and hesitated. None of my roomies were home, and besides, they’d all seen me naked. Even RJ, though that was a horrible accident I promised never to bring up again.

Blue, though, hadn’t. She’d also never had a roommate. Never had to share her space with football players who often forgot to clean or go to the grocery store. I grinned. My plan would definitely be an eye-opening experience for her, and I kind of loved she couldn’t just move out if we annoyed her.

She’d have to learn to interact with people, just like she’d asked me to teach her. Hell yes. Professor Mac was in session.

I tugged off my shirt as I congratulated myself, but I left my shorts on. No point in giving Big Mac an introduction. I emptied my pockets next to me on the floor and spread out across the couch, stupidly glad we’d splurged on XXL furniture.

Before I could do more than close my eyes, my phone chimed with an incoming text. I sighed. Ignoring it wasn’t an option, but it was probably a party invite rather than an emergency. The urge to disappear from the world for a few hours hit me like Duke on his fourth Red Bull.

The phone went off again, and I grabbed it from the floor. Two messages from Alex, my music buddy.

Hey man. Check this out.

Then a link to what looked like a singing competition. It wasn’t the first time he’d sent me vocal stuff. Alex thought I was wasting my talents with football, but I had a good shot at the NFL and no one in the music business knew who I was. Even I didn’t have enough energy to focus on both at the same time.

I had to pick one—rake in money playing football, buy my parents a new place, set my sisters up for retirement, then see where my voice could take me.

Another message came through while I was dismissing the first two.Don’t sleep on this. If you talked to someone besides me, they’d tell you to get your ass in gear.

I scrubbed a hand down my face, surprised by how much the competition tempted me. Lyrics weren’t my strong suit—I preferred the raw emotion of the music—but Alex could take the notes I wrote and turn them into something beautiful for me to sing.

We’d been working the last year on an album, though he took it way more seriously than I did. No one else knew. Alex wanted to keep things under wraps until we had a final product, and I agreed with him. I didn’t need anyone thinking I was slacking off with my other responsibilities.

Of course, the secret didn’t stop Alex from pestering me to sing every chance I got. I knew the deal. Practice made perfect. Hell, I spent most of my time working on my football skills with the team or with the cheerleaders. Except I wasn’t this summer. With Eva gone, I only had the team responsibilities, and my schedule had opened up.

My lips twisted and I clicked on the link. A competition for singers/songwriters. Original work only. Open registration with a reasonable fee. We’d have to submit a sample which would go through several levels of judging, and the final group would perform at a live show.

I was about to close the tab until I saw the prize. Enough money to cover school costs for Alex and a one-on-one internship thing with producer Lacey Duvall. She was a visionary, and well known for developing up and coming artists. We’d just talked about her last week, actually. Alex was probably shitting himself at the opportunity.

Dammit. I couldn’t ruin this for him. The dates were tight with football camp and the start of the season, but not impossible since it was based in Dallas.

I switched back to his messages.I’ll think about it.

He sent back a series of increasingly weird emojis, ending with an alien. I didn’t even try to interpret them. When Alex got excited, his mind moved at lightspeed. It made him a little hard to follow, but the brilliance couldn’t be denied.

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