Page 86 of Let You Love Me

I grin. “Clearly, I’ve raised a fibber.”

Teagan mock gasps. “You take that back. Not my Sweet Sophie.”

My heart squeezes, the breath stalling in my lungs as he asks, “Can I thank her myself?”

“Of course.”

I walk with him back to my car, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other while my mind wonders to last night, until the memory feels like a living, breathing thing between us.

When we reach my car, he swings open the back door to where Sophie sits and lowers into a crouch, the bracelet clutched in his hand. “Sweet Sophie, you sneaky little thing you. You told me this was your bracelet.”

Sophie giggles, her eyes red-rimmed from her earlier crying jag. “I tricked you because I wanted it to be a surprise. Now you’ll really win.”

Teagan nods, his expression solemn. “Thank you. I always wanted a good luck charm, but never thought I’d have one so pretty.”

He slips it over his large hand onto his wrist where it just barely fits, and Sophie nods her approval. “You can’t take it off. Ever. Not until football is over. Isn’t that what Pappy does with his hanky?” Sophie scrunches her nose, blinking up at me for confirmation.

I nod, my throat tight. “He carries it just about everywhere until the season is over.”

“See?” Sophie says, like he might argue. “You have to leave it on.”

Teagan covers the bracelet on his left wrist with his hand. “I won’t take it off. I promise. I may have to cover it with wrist tape, though, since wearing jewelry is frowned upon. Would that be okay, Sweet Sophie?”

Sophie sobers, her expression turning serious as if considering this, before nodding. “I think that’s okay.”

“Good.” Teagan’s lips quirk, and then he leans in and gives her a hug, made slightly awkward by her car seat. When he straightens, he turns to me, a hungry gleam in his eye as tucks his hands in the pockets of his suit pants. “Thank you,” he murmurs.

I swallow, trying for a smile, but my heart is racing so fast I can hardly manage it. All I can think about is nude Teagan from last night. All that smooth skin and hard muscle. How my legs felt wrapped around his waist, heart to heart in the moonlight. All the things I wanted to do . . .

Friends, Lane. You’re just friends.

I clear my throat and fake punch him in the arm. “Sure thing,buddy,” I say, and immediately want to die.

“Buddy, huh?” He grins and opens his mouth to say something else but is interrupted by the rumbling of an engine directly behind us.

I turn to see a flash of red, and my eyes widen. “It’s my father,” I blurt, turning back to him. “You better hurry if you want to avoid being grilled the whole way about why you were talking to me.”

He takes a step back, but not before holding my gaze a moment longer, regret swimming in his ocean-hewn depths. “Damn. I wish we had more time.”

A loan butterfly takes flight in my stomach, tamped down by the fist of dread in the form of my father. “Go,” I shoo himaway. “You’re already bound to have some explaining to do,” I say, glancing pointedly at the prying eyes on the bus, and he grimaces.

“Nosy bastards.”

Then he turns and jogs for the bus.

Chapter 21

TEAGAN

Iknow I’m introuble the moment I step on the bus and all eyes swing to me. Then again, I’ve been in trouble since the moment I met Lane Turner.

Fuck.

I ignore the blatant stares from my teammates, grateful not everyone is here yet, particularly Chance. He already has a problem with me talking to her, so I can’t imagine what he’d think of her flagging me down before a game.

I stroll toward my seat ignoring the obvious fact my teammates just witnessed me talking to the one girl Coach warned us all to stay away from. Tommy’s brows rise across from me, a look that saysI hope you know what the hell you’re doingbut I ignore it. Better to play dumb; it’s less culpable that way.

“You got some balls of steel, Nichols,” Greene says from behind as he claps me on the back.