Page 53 of The Way We Fight

“Just wanted to check on you.” He smiled, but it held an air of phoniness. Richard gave me more red flags than Levi ever did, but he held his closer to his chest. He said ominous things that meant nothing to me, but somehow gave me chills.

“All good. Game time.” I closed my door and walked past him, but he grabbed my arm by the bicep and stopped me.

“I expect you to be thankful you are here, Ms. Wright.”

I pulled my arm from his grasp and leaned back, finally seeing him for the cold man I knew he was. “Excuse me?”

“Coach Peyton has been nicer than I will be.”

With that, he walked off, strutting toward the field like he hadn’t just thrown me into a tailspin. What the hell did that even mean?

Did he know about Levi and me?

Was that what Levi had been doing with me?Being nice?

I needed to get to the bottom of it all, I just didn’t know how or where to start. At that moment, though, all I really needed to do was call a good game and do my job. As long as I did that, it didn’t matter what Mr. Elder’s warnings meant because I would be doing the job I was paid to do–correctly.

When I got back on the field, I physically shook my arms to loosen the tension that had built up. I kept my head down, checked in with the officiating crew one more time, then took my position as kick off was minutes away.

As I stood with my hands on my hips, I could feel the moment Levi made his way behind me. He wasn't right up on me, but he might as well have been because I felt like I could feel his breath on my neck. My body was imagining his warmth against my back, and I turned my head subtly side to side to get rid of the thought.

I thought he would leave me alone, stand back, and let the game start. But as we waited for the ball to be set on the field for kick off, he made his way to my side.

He had his arms crossed over his chest, his headset around his neck, and if anyone was watching–which they for sure were–we looked like we were just discussing the game. I wished we were discussing the game.

But the game seemed to be the last thing on his mind.

Chapter32

Levi

“You blocked me,” I said flatly.

I was annoyed, angry, and maybe even a little hurt. We had had such a good night before I left, and even though we weren’t supposed to be getting closer to each other, I felt like we had–and it felt good.

When I called her after the game last Sunday, I expected her to tease me about throwing the red flag with the same attitude she had thrown the yellow one at me. I thought maybe I could ask her about a call made by the acting line judge, and she could give me her take since I hadn't seen the film on it yet.

I was looking forward to smiling with her, teasing her, and even asking her what she was wearing just so I could imagine her rolling her eyes at me one more time. Was I in too deep? You better fucking believe it. But it was unstoppable, and after all the anger and stress I carried around, I didn't have it in me to fight with her anymore.

But then I realized she blocked my number.

The only good thing that came out of that was the fact that the hits I got in with Al were the strongest I had ever had. It ate at me all week and I let it out the best way I knew how. I was ready for my fight with Sisco the next day, he didn't stand a chance, but I still wanted to know if she was going to be there or not.

“I had to, Coach.”

We stood side by side, as if we were discussing the weather, and kept our eyes on the field. I had turned my headset off so no one could hear us and with all the lip readers out there, I lowered my head a little when I spoke to her.

“Why?”Fuck, I sounded like a kid.

“You know why. But thank you for beingniceabout it. Mr. Elder assured me you were the good cop.”

I lost my aloof appearance, whipping my head around and yelling, “What did you just say?”

“Not here, Coach,” she gritted out as she put her whistle in between her lips.

“Yes, here. Right the fuck now. Did he say something else to you?”

Dave crowded around me and asked me if everything was okay, and that was all it took to remind me I was on the field and had to coach. I backed away, letting Dave pull me to my side of the line as the kick-off signaled the start of the game.

---