Brooklyn didn’t think too much about her conversation with Alex until the next day. Right in the middle of practice, one of the players came trotting over to where the ladies were. He ran to pick up a ball, but there was no way it came over to their part of the field by accident. It had to be some sort of trick.

This time, Hayden came over. At first, she thought he was coming to talk to Holly. When she looked over at Holly, she was watching his approach and straightened up, but then he ran right by her. Holly’s face fell into a scowl and she looked away. Hayden stopped right in front of Brooklyn.

“Hey, there,” he said. “Sorry to intrude. The ball got away from me.”

“Sure it did,” she said.

“Hey now, there’s no reason to be like that.”

He did have a charming smile, she’d give him that. And Holly always made it sound like he was the nicest guy on earth.

“Holly’s over there.” Brooklyn nodded in her direction. “But we’re in the middle of practice.”

“Unfortunately, Holly and I are over. She broke up with me. I came over to talk to you.”

“Oh, so, the ball didn’t just get away from you?”

“No, it did. But I thought it was a good excuse to come ask you something.”

“I am not going out with you.”

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Umm, no.” He gave a chuckle. “That’s not what I was going to ask.”

Her cheeks grew hot, but she glared at him and pretended he was lying. “Then what?”

“I have an event to go to. It’s the women’s rally dinner next weekend. I was going to take Holly, but then, like I said, she broke up with me. I’m supposed to be handing out an award, and I thought it would be nice to bring a lady who represented what the rally was all about. I wanted to ask you if you knew of anyone on your squad that might be interested in going with me. Not a date. Nothing romantic about it. I’m still not over Holly, to be honest, and I’m not ready to date again.”

She thought about it. Not a date. And he was even saying he still had feelings for someone else. This might be something she could do. She did want to attend the dinner and give her support to the organization. But she needed time to think about it.

“I’ll have to let you know,” she said.

“That’d be great.” He smiled again and ran off, back to his side of the field.

For the rest of the practice, she went back and forth. Should she go? Should she recommend someone else?

She’d decided not to recommend any of her ladies. What if it went badly? She’d feel responsible. And then there was Holly. If any of them went with him, it would upset her, even if she was the one to end things. She didn’t want to be in the position, or put anyone else in the position, of being Holly’s enemy for going out with her ex, even if it wasn’t a date. Holly got along with everyone well, and she’d never caused Brooklyn any problems. She was a good dancer and a strong member of the squad. She didn’t want to mess with that.

After practice, she ran over to Hayden before he ducked into the locker room. “I thought about what you asked,” she said.

“Oh, good.” He stopped and turned to her, that smile in place as always.

“I don’t think I can recommend anyone. Your break up with Holly is too recent, and I don’t want to upset her.”

His smile faded, and he clenched his jaw. “She broke up with me.”

“I know, but still. I know it’s not a date, but think about how it would look to Holly. Good luck finding someone.” She turned and ran back to her side of the field.

That was two of them now in two days that had approached her. A thought in the back of her mind nagged at her. What if there was another contest? Or what if they’d never really ended it? It seemed like too much to be a coincidence. An uneasiness crept into her stomach. She needed to figure out what was going on here—and stop it.