Page 71 of Play Maker

I sighed. “Mom, you’re not even catholic.”

“So? You could use all the help you can get,mijo. You’ve been solely focused on football since you learned to catch a ball. If this girl gets you to follow your heart instead of your head, I’ll pray to any god who’ll listen.” She leaned away from the camera to yell down the hall. “John, get the sage and a lighter.”

I groaned. “Don’t bring Dad into this. Besides, isn’t burning sage for getting rid of negative energy or something?”

She faced me again with a sharp quirk of her eyebrow, implying that was exactly how she planned to use it.

“You’re not funny,” I muttered.

“Yes, I am. You didn’t inherit your humor from your father.”

From behind her somewhere, Dad yelled, “I heard that.”

I suspected this was how my friends felt dealing with me all the time. “Mom, do you have advice or not?”

She scoffed. “You don’t want my advice. You want permission to do the thing you’re already going to do. Go forth, my son.”

The alarm on my phone went off—the one I’d set way back when we’d been chosen as finalists. Time to leave for the Dallas auditorium.

“Shit, I have to go,” I muttered.

“You kiss your girl with that mouth?”

I grinned at her. “Do you really want to know what I do to her with my mouth?”

Mom crossed herself again and hung up on me.

She was right. I’d already set the plan in motion, and Blue’s direct order had been to take the night for myself. I intended to. Hopefully, my plan would work, but in the end, it came down to priorities. If I had to choose between the competition and Blue, she’d win every time.

* * *

With my mom’s blessing,I was heading to the hotel for Blue’s party. It didn’t take me long to get ready. I had to wear a suit to every game, so a fancy party was easy mode. Slacks, an open collared dress shirt, and a suit jacket. Done. Sexy without trying. Finding the hotel was a little harder.

I laughed as I pulled up at the valet and realized it was the same place she’d been the night she called me to pick her up. The party had a guest list, because of course it did, but Blue hadn’t bothered taking me off of it.

I took the oversight as a sign I was doing the right thing. If she really intended for me to stay away, wouldn’t she have made sure I couldn’t get in? She knew how stubborn I was. Mom had taught me in no uncertain terms to listen when a woman tells you what she wants, but I was willing to ignore the lesson in this case.

Blue had made her decision, and I had made mine.

The modern glass and chrome of the posh hotel lobby looked cold and impersonal, but the ballroom was a little better, leaning heavily to generic black and gold flourishes with splashes of vibrant pinkish-purple flowers. I’d bet my starting position Hope had picked the flowers and not-Archer had chosen everything else.

People milled around in cocktail wear, and I waltzed right in like I belonged there. Technically, I did. By this time next year, I’d be prepping for my rookie season in the NFL with a first-round bonus under my belt. Half the people here would be begging me to let them invest my money.

I’d come a long way from the bottom of the private school social ladder. Funny, I didn’t feel any different.

The crowd parted, and I caught sight of the woman of my dreams—literally—standing by the floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city. A simple black dress cinched at her waist and left her arms bare, but when she moved, bright colors peeked out from a split in the fabric. She’d curled her hair, letting the bulk of it fall freely past her shoulders, and the bracelet I’d given her glinted on her wrist.

Blue might be pissed, but when I spotted Shad eyeing her from a couple of groups away, I knew I’d made the right choice.

No regrets. Not a single one.

26

The ballroom was cold. Or maybe I was. Cold inside and out without Adam there. The maudlin sentiment pissed me off a little. I didn’t think I’d been stupid to send him away, but damn, I missed him.

I rubbed the goosebumps on my arms and headed for the giant windows in the hope some of the heat from outside would seep in. Dallas spread out before me in a glittering cityscape. The view from the penthouse ballroom was impressive, but I wasn’t interested in pretty sights.

We were both in town tonight. The thought circled in the back of my mind, teasing and taunting with the promise of ending my self-imposed solitude. All I had to do was sneak out and call an Uber. Alex had texted me the venue where they’d be.

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