Carter

Fucking hell.

I’d forgotten about meeting Elena. Why I forgot was because of the woman at my side. The woman who was suddenly looking everywhere else but at me. Dammit I wanted her eyes, so I could tell her the meeting with Elena was nothing. She’d pressured me into it in the first place, which was why I had North and Dustin come with me, so Elena would know it wasn’t a date.

There was no way in hell I would ever date Elena or someone like her ever again. She was just another reason I hadn’t moved back yet. I’d seen her at some games but was lucky there were enough people around to ignore her and I didn’t seem like an ass in doing it. It was too bad she worked at the same school Reagan did and I had no choice but to speak with her.

Only no one knew that. More importantly, Reagan wouldn’t know that. She probably thought I’d set up a date with Elena to maybe rekindle things with her.

Shit. I gagged at the thought of rekindling anything with a she-devil like Elena.

What was worse was when Dustin and North took Elena in and read her in seconds. They moved their attention to the food and the ladies.

“Carter, how about we find our own table?” Elena asked.

No! I wanted to scream it in her face, but of course, I didn’t.

When I’d noticed Reagan and Brooke, the real reason I’d come to the bar dropped from my mind. All I wanted to do was spend time with Reagan. Especially when I saw her drop under the table after she spotted me. I found it funny, and definitely cute. I wanted to mess with her more, to see where she’d take the scene. It was why I approached the table in the first place. As well as the fact that as soon as I saw her, my heart jumped like an excited little puppy.

I’d spent all afternoon unable to keep her off my mind… and I’m starting to sound like a damn stalker.

I had to cool it. Get to know all there was about Reagan Wild, and have her know me for the person I was now.

I didn’t think I was so bad.

“Carter?” Elena said with a snappish tone.

“How about you pull up a chair here?” I said. “This is North and Dustin.” My ball brothers—which suddenly sounded dirty; it wasn’t like we played with each other’s balls—shot me a dark look for bringing them into it. Still, they were gentlemen, in a way, and turned their attention to Elena. “Guys, this is an old…” Shit, I didn’t want to say girlfriend or even a friend, and she would soon not even be an acquaintance once she realized I wasn’t interested in starting anything with her since all she saw were dollar signs when looking at me. “… uh, an old pal from high school, Elena.”

I saw Elena’s cringe. The guys winced, and I heard Brooke snort out a laugh. Then I felt Reagan shift her leg quickly, and when Brooke cursed low, I knew Reagan had kicked her.

Yeah. That moment was awkward for all of us, especially Elena, and Reagan was nice enough to stop Brooke from laughing. Even though I was sure Reagan and Elena weren’t on friendly terms with each other.

“Carter, I’d really love to talk to you. Alone.” Elena smiled.

Christ. I couldn’t say no when I’d agreed to come here in the first place.

“Ah, sure.” I nodded. North shifted out of the seat. “I’ll be back,” I told the rest of the people at the table but kept my eyes on Reagan.

She bit her bottom lip but didn’t say anything.

Sighing, I moved out of the booth and North slid back in.

Into my spot.

Next to Reagan.

Would it be bad if I punched him?

“You guys coming?” I asked my team players like a scared little girl. I did not want to be alone with Elena. I was worried she’d try to, as Reagan had put it, Dora The Explorer me.

“We’re good,” Dustin replied with a smirk.

Dicks.

Elena took my hand. I caught Reagan noticing it, and I wanted to shrug Elena’s hold off, but she was already dragging me away. She stopped at a table across the room. I quickly took a seat so I could keep an eye on the table I wished I was still at.

Elena sighed before sitting. Had she been waiting for me to pull out her chair? It was something I usually did for women, but I’d forgot in my haste to grab the chair I wanted. North had just said something to Reagan to make her throw her head back and roar with laughter.

Cocksucker.

That laugh was supposed to be mine.

“Carter?” Elena snapped.

“Sorry?” I asked, glancing at her.

She sighed again. “I’m glad you agreed to meet me. I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed you since seeing you again. I had tried to see you at some of your games, but it must have been too noisy for you to hear me.”

What did I say to that?

“Yeah, it’s been good to see you too, and games are always crazy loud with the crowds.”

She nodded and giggled. “Do you remember how much we couldn’t keep our hands off each other back in school?”

I remembered she liked to cling to me like a leech wanting to suck me dry.

“Sure.” I nodded. The food and drinks had arrived at the other table. I was just about to open my mouth to tell Elena I had to get back over there when Dustin pointed my way. The prick was sending my items over to me.

I was stuck.

“—I mean can you believe it?”

Crap. What had she said?

“Sorry?”

She rolled her eyes. “I said its uncanny how I have to deal with Reagan where I work. Do you remember her back in the day? Actually, you probably don’t. We were pretty busy with each other.”

“Here you go. A burger and a beer,” the waitress said, placing it down in front of me. She glanced to Elena. “Can I get you anything?”

Elena looked her over. “Some privacy.”

Again, I wished I could have changed the past where Elena was never in my life.

My jaw clenched. “Elena, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” She smiled, leaning into the table so her boobs were even more on show.

“Why did you want to meet up tonight?”

She winked. “To talk about old times. It would be better in a more private environment. Maybe another time we could make that happen?”

“I’m pretty busy with practice, games, and other stuff.”

“I’m sure you could make time for an old flame.” She licked her lips.

Why did I agree to meet with her? That’s right; I thought I had buffers to help me get through the time with her, but no, they were having fun talking and laughing and goddamn leaning into one another across the room.

“We could be friends, but I’m not looking for anything—” A foot was rubbing up the inside of my leg.

“Are you sure,” she practically purred.

Yes, she was still stunning. But I knew her. She was vindictive, mean and cunning, and that made her ugly as hell. There was no chance she was going to get anything from me. I hadn’t even given her my number when she’d asked for it.

“I’m sure. I think it’s best if we don’t move past what we already are.”

Her foot dropped. Her nose scrunched up, and she spat, “What are we, Carter?”

“Ah, friends?” There was zero certainty in my voice.

“Whatever. Can you at least give my number to your friends?”

Jesus. What a class act. Not.

“All right. But it doesn’t mean they’ll call you.”

“I think they will. I think they’ll see what you’ll be missing out on and want something from me instead.”

Thinning my lips, I held back my chuckle.

Before I could leave with pleasantries between us, she stood abruptly and made her way to the dance floor. There she met with some of her friends and started grinding her hips around, while flipping her hair, trying to gain the attention of my team mates. I had to laugh when I noticed they weren’t even looking her way. Then I stopped laughing when I realized they were busy talking to Brooke and Reagan. I had to get back over there before Reagan fell for one of them. I already didn’t like the way she’d eyed them when I’d made the introductions.

Picking my beer and burger basket up, I made my way back over. I was actually happy I’d taken Elena up on meeting her since it led me to see Reagan again.

“Hey,” I said, stopping at the side, and then gave North a pointed look.

He didn’t get it of course. “You’re back.” He grinned. “Didn’t take you long.” He shuffled closer to Reagan. “Sit down, man.”

Bastard.

I should have told them about Reagan before, but I didn’t know she was going to be there and I wanted to keep her to myself for a while.

“How’d it go?” Dustin asked as I sat next to North.

“Fine,” I muttered, and took a gulp of the cool beer.

“So,” Brooke started with a smirk, “you and Elena again, hey?”

“What do you mean again?” North asked.

Shit.

“I heard they used to date back in high school,” Brooke said.

“How’d you hear that? We didn’t even know it,” Dustin commented. “Then again, we never came here until we got transferred to the same team a couple of years ago.”

“Reagan went to the same school,” Brooke said.

“But we weren’t in the same crowd,” Reagan quickly supplied.

“You two knew each other before today?” North asked.

Reagan laughed. “No.” She shook her head. “We’ve never spoken to one another before today. I wasn’t a cool kid.”

I caught North bump into her shoulder with his own. Would it be bad if I dragged my friend by his hair away from her? He grinned at Reagan, and said, “I was never in the cool club either.”

Dustin snorted. “Me either.”

“Same.” Brooke grinned.

Hell, they were bonding, and I hated it. After grinding my teeth together, I took another long drink of my beer. Suddenly the burger, what little I’d eaten of it, wasn’t sitting well in my gut.

“I was a douche back then.” The words fell from my mouth.

Dustin mock gasped, his hand covering his chest. “You a douche? I could never believe it.”

Rolling my eyes, I chuckled. “Smartass. I can honestly say my douche ways are long gone.”

“Did you really date that?” Dustin asked. I looked to where he gestured with his head. We all shifted to see Elena dry humping a pole off to the side.

I winced. “Unfortunately.”

Reagan had been very quiet. I should have sat on the other side beside Dustin so I could catch her gaze more. Instead, I was stuck on the end.

I was close to becoming obsessed, and it wasn’t good. I hadn’t been like that with a woman ever. Shit, I’d probably scare her away. Maybe I should cool it. But what was I cooling? We hadn’t even shared more than a handful of words and besides, it was the first day back in each other’s lives.

I’d just have to make sure I stayed in her life in some way. God, I wanted to thump my head against the table. I wanted to talk to her, ask her things, and find out if she had someone in her life. Then again, if she did, he would have been here, right? Because there was no way I would let her go to a bar without me. There were perverts around. Dicks who would invite themselves to her table and want to monopolize her time while gazing at her boobs and thinking how they were going to take her home.

Was that a cricket I heard chirping?

No. I wasn’t one of those dicks. I hadn’t even looked at her boobs… and now I’d thought about them I so wanted to look.

Christ.

My rambling thoughts were verging on pathetic.

All I knew was I wanted to see her whenever I could. I wanted to get to know her.

“Come,” I suddenly shouted, and before I could finish my sentence, North and Dustin were laughing their asses off. Brooke was giggling and so was Reagan with her hand over her mouth. A blush also coated her cheeks. Clearing my throat, I added, glancing at both women, “I meant come to our game Sunday?”

“I can’t. Nana duties.” Brooke shrugged.

“Reagan?” I asked, leaning around North a bit to catch her attention.

“Oh, I, ah, have to—”

“She’d love to,” Brooke said for her.

“Shit,” North bit out.

Brooke winced. “Sorry, my foot has a mind of its own and spasms on occasions.”

North snorted, while Dustin and I laughed. “Sure.” North nodded, smiling. And I knew what she had really been trying to do—kick Reagan into agreeing.

“Maybe next weekend? Do you play then?” Reagan asked.

We all stared at her. I still couldn’t believe she’d never seen a game.

“Yeah, we have a game every weekend since it’s the season.”

“Speaking of the game,” Dustin put in. “We should get going.”

He was right. None of us liked late nights before practice. The younger players called us old-timers for it, but we didn’t give two hoots. At least we weren’t green and on the verge of throwing up in our helmets while playing.

Funny thing was, we weren’t that old. Well, not in the head. It was my body from playing so long that was giving up on me and at the ripe age of thirty. I’d taken too many rough hits to my knee, and if I didn’t stop soon, I might not be able to repair it in the end.

Still, even though we liked to rest before early practice and games, I was reluctant to leave. “Do you ladies have a way home?” They’d had a few beers, so I was worried Reagan would drive, oh… and Brooke.

“I’m staying at Reagan’s tonight,” Brooke said.

“You are?” Reagan asked.

Brooke laughed. “Yes.”

“Since when?”

“Since we’re going to have a couple more drinks and I won’t be able to drive home, and you don’t live far from here.”

Interesting, she lived close by.

Although, walking could be dangerous as well.

“We’ll walk you home,” I stated, standing from the table. Dustin and North followed.

“We’re good and we’ll be staying,” Brooke said with a grin.

“It’s not safe out at night. I’d prefer to know you both got home safely.”

“We’ve done it a lot, and no one has bothered us before,” Reagan said.

I caught her gaze. “Still, I’d like to know you’re both safe at your place.” And away from the drunken idiots around this place. I’d already noticed a few eyeing the women off.

“We’re staying for a bit longer.” She narrowed her gaze.

I mimicked her hard stare. “Going,” I clipped.

“Staying,” she snapped. I wanted to shove North out of my way, reach forward, and plant my mouth on hers. I liked the fire shining in her eyes and flushing her cheeks.

“I need to make sure—” A hand landed on my chest. I glared down at it then up at my friend.

North smirked. “All righty, I think the ladies are capable of getting home. They want to stay, and it’s not us who should force them to leave.”

“Thank you.” Reagan grinned up at him.

I’d never wanted to punch my friend in the face so much.

He was right though, I hated that. Sighing, I reached up and rubbed the back of my neck. “We’ll talk before the game next weekend,” I told her, and caught her eyes flaring a bit before she bit her bottom lip and nodded.

After bills were paid, which the women tried to argue about, but I ignored them and paid for what they’d had so far, we said our goodbyes and I walked out the front with my friends.

“So…,” Dustin drew out, “how long have you had a thing for Reagan?”

North laughed. “It’s cute how you become a total fool in front of her.”

I grumbled under my breath. “Is it that obvious?”

“Yes.” Dustin grinned. “Well, to us, and I’m sure Brooke knows, but Reagan… I don’t think she has a clue.”

“Back in high school, I was a douche-canoe. Too concerned with what people thought of me. I’d admired Reagan from afar, but never did anything about it. I want things to change.”

“I’d take it slow, man. She seems skittish,” North said, and then climbed into his car. Dustin and I got in with him.

“I’ll do what I can to make her more relaxed around me.”

“Shit, never seen you like this for a woman. Usually, it’s a tag-and-bag scenario.”

“Reagan’s different,” I told them, because she was.

Reagan was important. A woman who deserved time, the chase, and the capture.

Hell, I was looking forward to the capture part.