Page 16 of Kicked in the Heart

Chapter Eight

Rocky

Three days after the wind shear had blown out the doors of the stadium, her mind was still reeling from that toe-curling kiss. The man was an asshole, but he sure knew what to do with his lips and tongue. She shook her head to try and dispel the memories of that kiss. Playing football should be her only focus, not a grizzle-haired guy with dark brown eyes that could see into her soul.

Watching out the window of the airport as they waited for their flight to board, wondered how many other women he’d kissed like that. Gah, this had to stop!

“Hey, Rocky, we’re boarding,” she heard Trey call out to her.

“Coming!” she yelled back as she grabbed the handle of her carryon.

After stowing her bag in the overhead bin, she settled into her seat as she pulled her ear pods out of her pocket. It was a three-hour flight so she’d planned to watch the movie she’d downloaded to pass the time.

“Great,” she heard Butch mutter as he double-checked his ticket. One of the other players who’d been vocal about their dismay at her being on the team snickered.

She frowned at him when he plopped down into his seat with a huge sigh. After that kiss at the stadium, she’d thought he’d quit being such a grouch around her. Nope, still the same ass, just a different day. It would be fine, she had her movie, surely, she could ignore him for three hours.

He pulled his cap down over his eyes and went to sleep, ignoring the flight attendants as they went through the pre-flight safety instructions. But that didn’t last long. As soon as they were at cruising altitude and the drink service started, he joked and laughed loudly with the other players, pointedly ignoring her as he talked about their win. No mention of her two field goals that helped. Ass.

After the flight attendant handed them their drinks, a soda for her and a scotch for him, she turned on her movie, intending to ignore him.

Five minutes later, she hit pause and glared at him. His constant fidgeting was driving her bonkers.

“Sheesh, you’re worse than a three-year-old,” she said as he uncrossed his legs for the umpteenth time. “Can’t you sit still?”

He turned to glare at her, his hand hitting her glass of soda and knocking it into her lap.

“Oops,” he said with a grin before turning back to talk to Trey across the aisle.

The small napkin wasn’t big enough to blot up all the soda. Hitting the call button, she glared at his back. Why was he such a… dick? He hadn’t even said sorry.

After she’d asked the flight attendant for some more napkins to help absorb the soda, he distracted the flight attendant by flirting with her. With a giggle she hurried to get him another drink and forgot about Rocky’s napkins. Figures.

She spent the rest of the flight pissed off, unable to concentrate on the movie. Hyper-aware of his every move, she turned to look out the window.

She thanked God when the flight finally landed in Indy. Now she could get away from him. It felt like it took forever for them to deplane. And then she was free of the confines of the plane. With only her carryon, she hurried out of the airport and to her car. Thankfully, there was no note under her wiper. Closing the door felt like she was closing out the world. Finally, some peace and quiet.

A rap on her window made her jump and let out a gasp, surprised to see Butch standing beside her car. She punched the button to lower her window. “What do you want?” she asked testily.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry for acting like such a dick on the plane.”

“Well, if the purpose of that was to piss me off, it worked wonderfully,” she said, her words dripping with sarcasm.

“About that…” he started and then stopped. “I didn’t want to admit that maybe I was wrong about you being on the team. Maybe.”

Surely her jaw was on the floor. He was admitting she was a good kicker? Had Hell frozen over and she missed it?

“Can you get out of the car? I feel silly bending over to talk to you.”

She supposed she could do that since he was apologizing to her. Swinging the door shut, she leaned against the fender.

She watched as he rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the ground.

“Well?” she said grouchily.

“Hang on,” he said.

She crossed her arms and tapped her foot. If this was a big waste of time she would… well, she didn’t know what she’d do.