“Are you going to tell me what happened when I found you?” Taking his eyes off the road for a beat, he glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.
It wasn’t likely he would let the scene outside the coffee shop drop, but she wasn’t ready to open up. “You’re close with your family, I think that’s great.”
Lauren often wondered how different life would have turned out if she’d been born into a normal, loving family. Would she have been so easily seduced by Graham? And if so, would her family have loved and supported her? Those were questions she would never know the answers to.
“They’re a pain in my ass,” he complained as he kept his eyes on the road, letting her change the subject.
Lauren chuckled and rested her head on the headrest. “But you love them.” She stated the obvious. Often when Jack’s mother, Susan, visited the shop she’d beam with pride and love when speaking about her children. She talked of family dinners, birthdays, and any celebration where she could gather them all together. Love like that was the greatest gift to give a child.
“They’re okay,” he grumbled, but there was a smile on his face.
“What made you decide on a football career? Henderson’s Sports has been around for years, did your dad ever want you to follow that path instead of playing football?” Talking to Jack about his life was much better than thinking about her own.
“He would have liked it, but football was my passion. He knew I wouldn’t be happy doing anything else until I gave footy my best shot. I trained my ass off until I got selected to play for the Stars.”
She tilted her head toward him, studied his profile, and noticed, not for the first time, a small bump on the bridge of his nose. The only imperfection on his otherwise perfect face, but the small bump made him look even hotter.
“So you’ve been playing for the Stars your entire career? Did you ever want to play for another club?”
Checking his mirrors, he changed lanes and entered a quiet street. “Other clubs offered me ridiculous amounts of money to play for their teams, but I didn’t play for the paycheck. It was about the game. Having a ball in my hand and doing whatever I could to get it over the line. The thrill is amazing. The Stars gave me my break, and they were always good to me. I had no reason to leave.”
He was loyal and committed. Guilt niggled in her chest for always thinking the worst of him. The magazine articles Jade had shared with her never showed that side of him. At the thought of the articles Lauren remembered—because they weren’t easy to forget and were now saved on her phone—the photos Jade had sent of Jack modeling for a Calvin Klein ad.
“So did you give up footy for a modeling career?”
Swinging his head toward her, Jack frowned. She bit her twitching lip to stop from laughing. Those photos werenota laughing matter. She’d lost count of the number of times she’d viewed them. They were the kind of photos that invoked dreams of the erotic kind.
“You saw the magazine shoot?” he said, deadpan.
“Jade mentioned you were the league’s pretty boy, but I never thought you would give it up for modeling.”
He made a disgruntled noise.
“What’s the matter, Jack, are you not happy with how the photos turned out? Were your abs not chiseled enough, or your package didn’t look…big enough?”
This time when Jack threw her a disgusted glare she burst out laughing.
Pulling to a stop, he leaned his arm behind Lauren’s seat and pinned her with his sexy green eyes. “You tell me, Lauren. You’ve sat on my lap...did the photos give it justice?” Lauren blinked and swallowed hard, unable to speak.
When his gaze dropped to her lips, heat stormed down south and she squirmed in the seat.
Was he going to kiss her? Did she want him to? Her girly parts screamed yes.
Waiting for an answer, he gave her a knowing, sexy grin before finally turning away. He stuck his hand out the window and punched a code into a security pad. A large, silver roller door rattled as it lifted in front of them.
With the sexed-up connection broken, she blew out the breath she’d been holding. Examining her surroundings, she didn’t recognize the building they had stopped in front of. She leaned forward in her seat and looked out the windscreen and up toward the top of the building.
The sign above them readBrimland Point Football Stadium. Home of the Flaming Stars.
When the door opened fully, Jack drove slowly inside a dark, underground carpark.
Lauren peered into the dim, empty carpark and asked, “What are we doing here?”
“This is Friday night fun.” He unbuckled the seatbelt, reached in the backseat for a black sports bag with the Flaming Stars logo on it, and grinned.
Lauren knew little about football, but she knew, courtesy of Jade, that the season hadn’t started yet. Jade would have mentioned if there was a game on; she went to all the home games. “Is the footy on tonight?” she asked anyway.
“No.” He unzipped the bag and rummaged around inside like he was checking to ensure he had everything, then zipped it shut again.