I shout, “Did you secretly play football too?”
Annika runs back with a cheesy grin on her face. “Nope, I just hate to lose.”
She pushes her hands against my chest like a teammate would after making a big catch for a first down. It’s so fucking cute and now I’m the one cheesing at how Annika can be carefree and captivating.
“All right, run to the fifty-yard line this time. Turn to the right. This is make or break. Do you need to rest? A drink of water?”
“I’m good.”
She sprints down the field in her dress pants and her ass is perfect. I pump the ball twice against my hand and let it fly. I watch it glide through the air. It’s a tight spiral but not a bullet and I’m secretly hoping she catches it just so I can see her do another dance. Will she do the Super Bowl Shuffle or do the Dougie or make up something of her own?
Annika turns, jogging three steps as she concentrates on the ball. It hits her hands and bounces out but she dives and catches it before it hits the ground. If this were a real game,the refs would spend ten minutes reviewing the call but I’ll give it to her.
Her body rolls and she sticks the ball into the air. “Three for three,” she calls out as she stands up.
I run toward her and as soon as I get there, I pick her up and swing her around. Her jubilant giggle ignites something inside my chest. “Tell me how you did that if you’ve never caught a football before.”
With our chests pressed together and her arms around my neck, she says, “Because I trusted you to put it right where it goes.”
“Careful Doc—you’re making yourself my favorite target.”
Her grin fades into something else as she looks at my lips. The pull is huge, but this isn’t the place to kiss her again, where anyone in the Armadillo organization could see. I don’t want to ruin her reputation, so I set her down on her bare feet.
“Trust. You trust me. That’s good.” Real good. “All right, I need to get to the locker room.”
I watch her toes, painted red, squish into the turf as we walk back to the endzone and she picks up her heels.
“So are you coming to my away game?”
“I’m still deciding.”
I flash her a smile as I shake out my sweaty hair and jog through the tunnel with positive thoughts running through my mind.
And now, this away game feels like the most important game of the season.
THIRTEEN
ANNIKA
Polished marble and expensive mistakes. That’s the smell blanketing this hotel lobby.
I shift my weekender bag higher on my shoulder and walk up to the front desk, already tired from travel, from thinking and from coming here in the first place.
Away games aren’t included in my client fees or my routine. But Parker O’Ryan isn’t your run of the mill athlete—he descends from football royalty.
Not to mention his sister-in-law is the general manager of the team. No one wants him to get rid of his yips as much as the people he’s closest to. Sutton cleared every obstacle that I could have possibly objected to. All expenses paid and a plea from her family. Just turn in the receipts, and she’ll get me paid the following week. As of now, no one knows I’m here. I was literally on the tarmac before I was sure I was coming.
Now that I’m here, I need to have a breakthrough withParker because I can’t keep him as a patient with all the crazy and grossly inappropriate feelings I’m having.
“Hi,” I say, sliding my driver’s license across the counter. “Reservation under Morrow.”
The woman behind the desk strokes her keyboard, her smile polite and automatic. It seems a qualifying trait in the south. Then her smile falters, just enough that my stomach tightens.
“I’m so sorry,” she says, the way people sound before they drop a bomb on you. “It looks like we had an overbooking issue with one of our third-party platforms.”
Of course you have.
“What does that mean exactly?” I ask, keeping my voice even.