Page 54 of Our Secret Moments

Sometime between our kiss and now, she got her hair braided and I’m losing my ever-loving mind. Not only does her hair frame her face perfectly with those small braids, but she also has streaks of bronze in her black hair that are so tempting to pull and wrap around my fist.

“Connor,” she presses angrily, pulling me away from my thoughts as if I spoke them out loud. I flicker my gaze from her face to the corridor, stylishly playing it off.

“Catherine,” I muse, my tone light. “How are you this fine morning?”

“We’ve been walking in silence for five minutes and you’ve stared at me the whole time,” she says, adjusting her bag onher shoulder.Has it really been that long?She shakes her head lightly, turning to me. “Why are you being weird?”

I scoff. “You look likethat,and you expect me to be normal? And, not to mention, you had your tongue down my throat a mere three days ago. So, excuse me if I want to do more than just walk with you to this stupid interview.”

“Okay, I didn’t ask you to walk with me. You just turned up at my door and silently followed me here.” Now she makes me sound like a stalker. Great. This was my only chance I’d get with her before the team pounces on her again. She sighs heavily, biting the inside of her cheek. “And, I look like this every day.”

“That’s exactly the problem.”

“You’ve never said this before,” she challenges, stopping in front of me. Somehow we’ve managed to get to our sports classroom where the rest of the team are rowdy behind the door.

“Yeah, and it’s been fucking torture,” I murmur, rubbing my hand down my face.

“Well, I’m sorry, but you’ve got to deal,” she says easily, pushing her braids behind her shoulder. She holds her chin up high, but I don’t miss the way her eyes dip to my lips before they meet my eyes. “I’m meant to be a professional today.”

“It’s a shame,” I whisper, lowering my face so my mouth is hot against her cheek. I hear her take in a sharp inhale, and I press a soft kiss to the space behind her ear. “I want to be very,veryunprofessional with you, sweetheart.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she says, pushing me off her, “You can give me a step by step run down of that later. Butnow,I’ve got a job to do.”

Unfortunately for me, Catherine has a lot more self-control than I’ll ever have. Since she got the team to quieten down and she assumed her position at the front of the small classroom, she’s not looked at me since.

I honestly shouldn’t be complaining. If she even glanced at me, I’d end up tipping over the table, shredding the distance between us and taking that pretty face between my hands and pressing my lips to hers.

She’s been asking the team boring questions all morning and I amthisclose to dozing off. I should be paying more attention, seen as this is what it’s going to be like in the real world if I get drafted, but I can admit that I’m just a huge baby when I’m not getting the attention that I want.

Wes elbows me in the ribs. Hard. “What’s the matter with you, Connie boy? I thought you’d be eating up these questions.”

I shrug. “I’m fine. Sam’s taking the lead.”

We both glance over at Sam who talks excitedly as Cat asks him about his performance this season and how he was last year.

He cares about football as much as I do, he just shows it in other ways. Whilst I try to keep focused on the pitch and play the ‘dad’ of the group, keeping everyone in line, Sam likes to keep everyone motivated in other ways by partying and creating stupid chants that he texts to the cheerleaders. It’s a mystery to me how he has such a good performance when he’s out nearly every night with a new girl under his arm and a beer in the other hand.

“He’s going to make us sound like we’re a shit team,” Wes mumbles angrily. “If Cat doesn’t dial down his attitude in writing, my dad’s gonna freak.”

I turn to him, and I swear he’s sweating at the thought of it. Wes can act as tough as he wants, bantering with his dad, but I know deep down he just wants to make him proud.I don’t knowwhat the protocol is for Cat’s report and the newspaper, but I’m sure she’s not going to narc on us.

“We’re gonna be fine,” I assure him. When I see Sam take a breath, sitting further back in his seat, Cat’s gaze snags on me and I smile, using it as my chance to get involved. “Can you repeat your question, Miss Fables?”

She rolls her eyes at the formality in my voice and the guy’s snicker. “I was saying,” she bites out, trying her hardest not to laugh. “Did you always want to play football, or did you ever have other career ideas? Sam over here is saying that this was his one strike of rebellion as a teenager instead of following in his parents’ footsteps.”

Wes snorts. “Yeah, imagine Sam as adoctor? I’d rather try my luck healing my own injuries before ever going to him.”

“Yeah, yeah. Very funny,” Sam says, throwing a scrunched up sheet of paper at Wes, which ultimately ends up hitting me in the face. “You’re lucky your parents don’t care about what you do. You should have seen the look on my dad’s face when I told him I wasn’t going to med school.”

Wes laughs quietly at that. We’re both lucky in the parent department, so we’re extremely grateful to not having any pressure to play football or do anything else. My parent’s only priority is making sure that Nora and I are happy and healthy.

“So, that’s my question for you, Bailey,” Catherine begins, and my entire world focuses completely on her. On the way her mouth moves. The way her lips say my name. The way she grows slightly nervous when it’s only our eyes that are connecting. “Did you ever feel like you had any other options other than football? Did your parents ever make you feel like you had to do anything else – be like them, for example?”

I swallow, knowing exactly what my answer is going to be. It’s not a formal interview. I don’t have any real reason to be nervous, but the guys on the team look up to me for advice. Icarry the weight of the team on my back as the quarterback, so I can’t fuck anything up. I’m perfect Connor Bailey on and off the pitch.

“It’s always been football for me,” I say. My body relaxes when Cat smiles at me, a dimple popping out on her cheek. “Growing up, I never really had anything that I wanted to be. I don’t think I ever thought about it, like ever. I kinda thought that I’d be a kid forever, that I’d live with my parents, and I’d watch my sister and my parents grow older. But at some point in middle school, I started to have aspirations. I never had a job in my head, it was always this thing that was separate to me. I knew that I would want to take care of my parents financially, you know, give back to them and all that. Then when I met Russell Wilson and I stayed up every night watching the games, I knew that I wanted to be a part of the Broncos. It was that or nothing for me.”

The words rush out of me and I’m not sure I’m even making sense. I don’t know what reaction I was expecting from the team. That’s probably the most I’ve ever spoken to them in one sitting. It freaks me out as much as it relaxes me.

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