Page 54 of Play Maker

I didn’t see how I could do it myself though. Mom usually helped me redo the dye, and the process took several hours. Without her, my arms might fall off before I finished. She didn’t have time to drive to Addison, and I wasn’t in the mood to battle with Rob over the use of his bathroom.

Adam found me frowning at my reflection and wrapped his arms around me from behind. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m thinking about letting my hair fade back to my natural color.”

He scoffed. “Hell no. We’re not doing that.”

My brows went up. “We?”

“Yeah, we. I’m not letting my girl have sad hair.”

“Lots of people have normal brown hair without being sad.”

Adam brushed a kiss against my temple. “Not you. Your rainbow makes you happy. If this is about not-Archer, fuck him.”

A smile peeked through at Adam’s enthusiastic dislike for a guy he’d never met, all for my sake. “I’d already decided to ignore Rob’s preferences.”

“What’s holding you back then?”

I sighed. “The amount of effort necessary. I could probably do it myself, but it’s considerably easier with two people.”

“Problem solved. I’ll help you.”

I turned to face him. “Don’t you have practice later today?”

He shrugged, keeping his arms locked around me. “Official practices haven’t started yet. I’m supposed to watch film from last season with Shaw and Noah, but I can do it on my own later. What do we need?”

As uncomfortable as I was with Adam skipping another football thing for me, I really wanted to feel like myself at the luncheon. “Okay. I’ll show you what to do.”

I tried to move away to grab the stuff I needed from my bathroom, but Adam didn’t let go. He lifted my chin until I met his eyes.

“Talk to me,” he ordered. “What else is going on in that beautiful head of yours?”

“I don’t have a date.” The worry erupted from me without warning. I hadn’t even been consciously thinking about the problem.

We hadn’t discussed the change in our relationship, but we hadn’t gone back to practicing my dating skills either. I was stuck in the between space where I couldn’t move forward despite my deadline creeping up on me.

“At this rate, I’ll end up stuck with Shad, who seems inordinately excited for an engagement luncheon.”

His brows drew together. “How do you know Shad’s excitement level?”

I shook my head and pulled back. This time, Adam let me go. “He keeps texting me.”

He followed on my heels to the bedroom. “He’swhat?”

“Texting me. Every couple of days, usually. Sometimes a week goes by and I think he’s gotten bored, but then he starts up again.”

“What kind of texts?”

I grabbed my phone, pulling up the chat to show him. “Here, look. They all seem innocent on the surface, but there’s a pattern of innuendo.”

Adam scrolled through, his mouth twisting down. “Did you ask him to stop?”

“Yes, but he ignored me.”

“You should block him—or I could tell him to fuck off for you.” Adam handed me my phone back, and I set it down on the dresser with a sigh.

“I’d rather just ignore him. When the messages come through, I don’t read them. Yes, they’re a constant reminder of his creepy fascination, but I feel like I should save them in case…” Now that I’d said the words out loud, anxiety twisted in my stomach. “What am I supposed to do? I have two days until the fancy lunch, and I’d rather not go than go with Shad.”

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