Page 2 of Roughing the Princess

“Before we started recording, Talon was telling me about his experience at the Tova Saber concert the other night. Care to tell us more, Talon?”

What the fuck?“She was performing in our stadium. So I just went to check it out.” I shrugged like it was no big deal. Like I hadn’t been excited about it as soon as I found out she was coming to Labyrinth Stadium. “It was a great concert.” What exactly was he expecting me to say? I wasn’t about to tell the whole world that I’d had a crush on Tova for years.

“It probably would have been better if Tova let you come backstage though. I heard you brought her a signed jersey with a little note written on it. But when you tried to get backstage, her security team stopped you. They said something about her wanting to hang out with literally any football player but you.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I’d murder Jasper later. This shit was actually funny. And we could always edit this out before we posted it later. “It was actually my phone number, but yeah. She was too busy to see me.”

“Busy? Or she just didn’t want to?”

I laughed again. “I doubt the security team even checked with her. We both know that she would have let me backstage if she knew I was there.”

“Would she have though?”

“Of course.” I wasn’t positive about that. She had technically turned me down. But it was a lot easier to think that it was her people that sent me away instead of her. “She can’t hang out with people before the show. She has to rest her throat or something.”

“Well, she could have hung out with you after,” Jasper said.

Touché.“Are we going to talk about football or not?”

“Yes, but one more thing. I bet it’s the beard, man.”

“What?” I scratched the side of my beard. What was wrong with my beard?

“I heard Tova Saber only likes mustaches.”

I laughed. “I definitely have never heard that.”

“Ask anyone. Shave it all but the stache and she’ll let you backstage next time. I guarantee it.”

I shook my head. “You’re just jealous because your beard is patchy as hell.”

“Excuse you?” He touched both sides of his face in horror. “Don’t make fun of the look you so clearly copied.”

“I definitely didn’t grow a beard because of you.”

He laughed. “Sure you didn’t. Just like you didn’t start playing football to be exactly like me. Oh wait… Little brothers, am I right?” He turned and made a face at the cameras.

I turned to the cameras too. “Anyway. Back to football.”

***

Jasper promised to edit out that whole segment. It would never see the light of day. Which was good. Because it was a little embarrassing that I put myself out there and got so badly shut down. I wasn’t used to rejection. I was used to getting what I fucking wanted. Besides, I couldn’t imagine what the tabloids would say if they got wind of my stupid little crush.

“I’m done,” Olivia said and pushed her plate forward.

My niece was adorable. But terrible when it came to eating her vegetables. She hadn’t eaten a single green bean off her plate.

I waited for Jasper to say something. But he’d been distracted all day. He’d barely said a word during our workout this afternoon. I was starting to worry that he was about to get traded or something. I knew he wouldn’t let that happen. But he was freaking me out. Especially this close to the start of preseason. He didn’t necessarily look upset though. Actually, he kind of looked happy about something.

Olivia started to get up from the table.

“Not so fast,” I said. “You didn’t eat your veggies. You gotta eat those.” Jasper was lucky to have me around. Or else his daughter would never eat any greens.

“No thank you,” Olivia said.

At least she was polite about it. “You know what happens when you don’t eat your veggies.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I can eat extra dessert?”

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